BESSEMER — An Ironwood man has avoided a jury trial by pleading guilty to a pair of felony charges.

Richard Vlach, 61, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to deliver meth and resisting/obstructing an officer. Two other drug charges were dropped as a result of a plea agreement.

The drug charge has a maximum penalty of up to 20-years in prison. Vlach was arrested in March after members of the Gogebic Iron Area Narcotics Team (GIANT) seized nine grams of crystal meth and numerous prescriptions from him.

Vlach will be sentenced in Gogebic County Circuit Court October 3.

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MARQUETTE — Two girls who were reported missing Thursday night have been found and returned home safe and sound.

The Gogebic County Sheriff’s Office received a report around 9:30 p.m. Thursday about the two missing girls. Charity Pera, 14, and Abigail Borlek, 11, went for an ATV ride and never returned home.

Family members went searching for the girls. They found the ATV and the helmets the girls were wearing, but there was no sign of the two juveniles.

At 4:25 a.m. Friday, the sheriff’s office reported the girls were located and returned to their families. Stay with ABC 10 News and ABC10UP.com for the latest information about this story.

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MARENISCO — The Gogebic County Sheriff’s Office was able to locate a Wisconsin man who became lost Tuesday afternoon in the Ottawa National Forest.

Police received a call around 5:20 p.m. about the 52-year-old Presque Isle man who was fishing and lost his way. Within an hour of starting their search, deputies located the missing man south of Forest Service Road with no injuries.

The Gogebic County Search and Rescue Team assisted the sheriff’s office with the search.

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BESSEMER — An Ironwood Township man charged with five felonies, including assault with intent to do great bodily harm, has been declared incompetent to stand trial.

According to Gogebic County prosecutor Nick Jacobs, Leonard Hellier, 47, will be transferred to a state psych hospital as soon as a bed opens. Hellier was arrested by police in May.

After threatening an officer with a machete, he was tased. Hellier was able to retreat into his residence.

He barricaded himself with many weapons. A SWAT Team eventually breached the home and arrested him.

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IRONWOOD TOWNSHIP — The Gogebic County Sheriff’s Office was dispatched Wednesday just before 7:30 a.m. to locate a 65 year-old female from Woodruff, Wisconsin.

At 8:00 a.m., deputies located the woman’s vehicle parked in the parking lot at Black River Harbor. They then requested the help of the Gogebic County Search and Rescue Team.

Shortly after 10:00 a.m., the missing female was found dead in the area of Rainbow Falls. She was transported to Aspirus Ironwood Hospital.

This investigation is ongoing. Stay with ABC 10 for updates on this developing story.

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WAKEFIELD, MI — Gogebic County had some cool events going on this St. Patrick’s Day, but one town had a little friendly competition this weekend.

Big Snow Resort hosted a competition that has been around since the 70’s. This competition is called the Famous Bikini Race. This event started out as a spectator sport, but over time it evolved and the community found it to be a great way to bring people together.

“You know it’s a chance for a free pass and why not try it. I think crowd appeal was a two day pass for 2 people so why not, it gets you out on the hill and supports a local business,” said Katie Bull.

This local business used to be separated between businesses known as Indianhead and Black Jack Mountain. But since they joined together to form Big Snow Resort it’s been gaining popularity even from people out of the state.

“Well I think it’s really great what Black Jack and Indianhead Big Snow Resorts has been doing as a whole as far as getting a lot of festivals up here, really promoting Central Wisconsin and Northern Illinois. The skiing up here is absolutely bar none, in my opinion to a lot of the other Midwest resorts. The snow, the terrain and let alone the prices to come up here are just unbeatable. To see the amount of people back here at Black Jack where we grew up skiing is just awesome to see you know the enthusiasm to be back up here which is great and why we are all excited to be here and we got the whole family,” said Baylen Rifleman.

No matter the weather these skiers are about one thing and one thing only, having a good time shredding some snowy slopes.

“Sometimes it’s terrible weather and sometimes we get blessed with days like today. It’s fantastic; you don’t even need to put clothes on like there is no coldness here at all. It’s fantastic,” said Janeen Rhyner.

This event is running every March with varying dates. You can find more information here.

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GOGEBIC COUNTY — On Monday at 4:40 A.M. a single vehicle accident with injuries was reported to the Gogebic County Sheriff’s Office.

The accident occurred on M-64 near Bingham Bay / Lake Gogebic. The vehicle traveling south on M-64 lost control, leaving the roadway and struck a tree. The collision caused the vehicle to catch on fire.

A bystander was able to assist the occupants in exiting the vehicle prior to it being consumed by the fire.

Joshua Robinson, age 28 from Core, West Virginia and Donna Kossman, age 29 from White Pine, Michigan were transported by ambulance to Aspirus Ironwood Hospital.

The extent of their injuries is not known at this time.

Gogebic County Deputies were assisted on scene by Lake Gogebic Fire, Marenisco Township Fire Department, Marensico Police Department and Marenisco and Beacon Ambulance personnel.

This investigation is on going.

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GOGEBIC COUNTY — The Michigan Department of Corrections announced today that Ojibway Correctional Facility in Gogebic County will close in December as the prisoner population continues to decline statewide, allowing for a second facility to be safely closed in 2018.

MDOC leadership traveled to the facility today to notify staff. The facility has 203 employees.

“The department values the dedication of the hard working staff at Ojibway Correctional Facility, and the support surrounding communities have provided over the years,” MDOC Director Heidi Washington said. “We recognize this is a challenging time for staff and we will continue to support them through this process.”  

The department will begin working immediately with the employees, their union leadership, and the Office of State Employer on bumping chains and transfer options for employees.

The department will attempt to absorb as many staff as possible into vacancies the MDOC currently has throughout the system, including the approximately 700 corrections officer vacancies.

The MDOC has also committed to working with the Department of Talent and Economic Development and Michigan Works! Agencies across the state to leverage their ability to assist any displaced employees.

The department’s Offender Success model, which emphasizes education and vocational training for prisoners, parolees and probationers to ensure their success in the community, has led to the state’s prison population declining by more than 10 percent in the last three years. In 2017, the state’s prison population dropped below 40,000 for the first time in more than 20 years, and in 2018 the state’s recidivism rate declined to its lowest-recorded level at 28.1 percent.

“We are committed to using taxpayer resources wisely as we further our mission to make Michigan a safer place to live by ensuring returning citizens have the education and skills they need to lead productive lives,” Washington said.

The 2019 fiscal year state budget included a more than $19 million reduction in spending for the MDOC through an additional prison closure.

It will be the second prison to close in the 2018 calendar year, due to declines in the prisoner population, and it is the third closure since the department launched its Offender Success model. West Shoreline Correctional Facility in Muskegon closed in March saving an estimated $18.8 million for the 2019 fiscal year. The department closed Pugsley Correctional Facility in 2016.

Since 2005, the department has closed and consolidated 27 facilities and camps, which has resulted in more than $400 million in budget reductions.

Ojibway Correctional Facility, which was built in 1971 as an MDOC camp and converted to a prison in 2000, has the capacity to house 1,162 secure level I prisoners.

It is expected to close its doors on December 1, 2018.

There was no single determining factor that led to the closure of the facility. The department weighs a variety of issues when making a decision including bed space vacancy, location, security level and programming availability.

Facility Facts

Location: Gogebic County

Opened in: 1971 as a camp and converted to a prison in 2000.

Prisoner beds: 1,162

Total employees: 203

Corrections officers: 116

Anticipated closure date: December 1, 2018

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MARINESCO — Former Representative and current U.P. senate candidate Ed McBroom released information today about his demand of answers from the Michigan Department of Corrections in regard to the closure of the Ojibway Correctional Facility in Marinesco. Last week the MDOC stunned the small community in rural Gogebic County with the announcement of the closure of the prison. The 2019 fiscal year budget required a prison to close but many felt Ojibway had too many positives to be the one chosen. It is also a critical source of employment in an area of long economic hardship, which led to it taking on the prison decades ago when few other communities were willing.

McBroom wants the department to specifically answer questions regarding what, if any, analysis was done by MDOC on the closure’s impact to the local community. “The impacts must be researched beyond just the 200 plus employees,” McBroom said. “This will affect our schools, local services, construction, and even other employers who lose key personal when the corrections officers move their families, which is sadly about their only option considering jobs presently available in this region.” He also believes the MDOC is required to do this by state law. “The budget passed has language in it from my time in the House, requiring the department to do a comprehensive analysis of these impacts and take them into consideration when making a closure. Was this done? When was it done? And, what did that analysis reveal, as it’s hard to imagine if it were done, how this closing can be justified as the economic consequences are in a word, ‘devastating’ and simply are far more significant to this region than any other area would suffer in the state through such a closure. We need to know, and I am filing a request that all of that analysis be shared with us immediately.” McBroom is referencing Sec. 944 of the budget which says, in part, “…the department shall fully consider the potential economic impact of the prison closure on the community…”

While a representative in the Michigan House, McBroom worked with John Kivela and Tom Casperson on legislation to force the State to consider the net impact of privatization of State services on local economies. “I see this the same way,” he said. “When a decision saves tax payer dollars from one bucket but costs more out of another it is not good policy. A responsible state weighs out all of the impact, and the Department should have done so here and considered the profound adverse economic impact to the Western UP.”

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LANSING — State agencies are working hand-in-hand with local leaders in the Gogebic County area to identify solutions to the economic challenges that lie ahead as a result of the forthcoming closure of the Ojibway Correctional Facility.

Project Gogebic, led by the Talent and Economic Development Department of Michigan, will bring together state agencies to provide technical assistance to help local leaders leverage state and federal resources to their fullest extent to address the economic challenges head-on. Additionally, Project Gogebic will focus state resources on developing short- and long-term economic development strategies to create a sustainable economy for the community.

As part of Project Gogebic, a diverse group of local leaders has formed a steering committee to advise and collaborate with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation on the development of an economic strategy to provide the community with a roadmap to move the region’s economy forward now and well into the future. The MEDC has committed to fund the study as part of the state’s effort to help area leaders identify opportunities for success.

“The prison has been a key economic driver in the Gogebic area for more than 40 years, and its closure will undoubtedly be a challenge for employees and their families, as well as the greater Gogebic area,” Snyder said. “Our job now is to assist local leaders in helping families, but also ensure the community has the tools and resources needed to respond to the economic challenges ahead and position itself for a brighter future. And the formation of this steering committee is a great first step in that process.”

The larger, Project Gogebic multi-agency task force will include representatives from agencies including MEDC, the Talent Investment Agency, Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Michigan Department of Education, Department of Talent and Economic Development and more.

State teams have already started to meet with local leaders on next steps. And the Talent Investment Agency’s rapid response team visited the correctional facility to provide affected workers with the opportunity to help identify new and existing opportunities, options and resources for continued employment, training for new careers or connecting to available jobs in the area.

“Our first meeting with local and regional leaders was an opportunity to hear directly from the community about the challenges and opportunities for how we might move forward in building a diversified economy in the region.” MEDC CEO Jeff Mason said. “This steering committee is a partnership with businesses as well as community leaders and government officials who know best the people and potential of this region.”

“Not only will this plan identify opportunities that exist for short- and long-term economic development efforts but it will provide local leaders with a comprehensive strategy that helps create a more dynamic economy for existing businesses and entrepreneurs alike,” Mason added.

“In a small-town community, losing a major employer creates economic waves that impact families, businesses and the region,” Western U.P. Planning and Development Region Executive Director Jerry Wuorenmaa said. “It’s important that we move forward and ensure this does not become our community’s legacy. We have an obligation to set our community up for future success and this collaboration with the state will help us do just that. We appreciate and fully embrace this opportunity to work together – our families, businesses and region depend on the work ahead.”

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GOGEBIC COUNTY — The images were reviewed and verified by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources’ cougar team.

Since 2008, the DNR has confirmed 38 cougar reports, with all but one of those occurring in the Upper Peninsula. These reports include multiple sightings of the same cougar, not 38 individual animals. So far, there remains no conclusive evidence of a Michigan breeding population of mountain lions. Cougars are an endangered species in Michigan protected by law.

“This latest confirmed report illustrates just how rare cougars are in the Upper Peninsula,” said Brian Roell, a DNR wildlife biologist in Marquette. “This is the first time we’ve ever caught a cougar on more than three million game camera images we’ve collected in our studies since 2009.”

DNR researchers use game cameras in their Quantifying Upper Peninsula Deer Movements and Abundance, predator–prey and bear studies. The deer movement study alone uses 50 game cameras in the western U.P., including the one in Ironwood Township that caught the images of the cougar at 7:15 p.m. on Oct. 1.

The three daylight photos on the game camera show the mountain lion walking past, from right to left. Biologists noted there was no tracking collar on the cougar. No identification of whether the animal was a male or female was possible. Michigan cougar confirmations have been derived from trail camera video, photographs, tracks, scat, or in the case of two male cats poached, carcasses.

Previous genetic testing on tissue samples from those two cougars poached in the U.P. showed the two animals likely came from a population found generally in South Dakota, Wyoming and northwest Nebraska.

“This genetic research lines up with what we’ve presumed previously, that cougars found in the Upper Peninsula are males dispersing from this population east of the Rocky Mountains,” said Kevin Swanson, a DNR wildlife management specialist with the department’s Bear and Wolf Program. “These males dispersed from the main population are looking to establish new territories.”

Researchers investigated the potential population of origin for the two cougars using a database that includes samples from cougar populations in South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, Oregon and Florida.

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, cougars were once the most widely distributed land animal in the Western Hemisphere but have been eliminated from about two–thirds of their historic range.

At one time, cougars lived in every eastern state in a variety of habitats, including coastal marshes, mountains and forests. They were native to Michigan, but were trapped and hunted from the state around the turn of the 20th century.

To learn more about cougars in Michigan, visit michigan.gov/cougars.

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IRONWOOD, Mich – A road in Gogebic County will be closed starting next week.

The Gogebic County Road Commission announced that lake road in Ironwood Township will be closed beginning 7 am on June 22 to 3 pm on June 24.

The purpose of the closure is to remove and replace multiple culverts.

Any questions can be directed to the Gogebic County Road Commission at 906–667–0233.

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