May 4, 2021
Courtesy Photos Alpena Community College’s Student Leadership Commission put together a denim clothesline exhibit as part of Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Students and staff were encouraged to sign or decorate jeans as a way of standing up to sexual violence and showing their support for survivors.
ACC and Hope Shores Alliance hosted a virtual vigil on Facebook Live on Wednesday, April 28th. This event featured live music, interviews with community members, a moment of silence, sharing of resources, a candle lighting ceremony, and learning more about how we can all work together to stop sexual assault.
ACC President Dr. Don MacMaster is pictured taking part in interviews with HSA staff Paige Allia and Rachel Berzack.
ALPENA Alpena Community College officials announced on Monday a drive-through commencement ceremony will be held for graduates this spring. The graduation ce
jriddle@thealpenanews.com
News Photo by Julie Riddle
Alpena County Emergency Services Coordinator Mark Hall walks through the Emergency Operations Center at the Alpena County Central Dispatch building in March.
ALPENA There were too many people to list, they said.
The people who led Alpena County’s charge in the war against the coronavirus spoke fervently, stories tumbling and blending as they described the systematic whirlwind that was the past 12 months.
Name after name slipped from their lips, list upon list of local residents who played a role in silently, selflessly, keeping Apena safe when the community was faced with a crisis unlike anything any of them had ever seen.
sschulwitz@thealpenanews.com
Local officials participated in a town hall video conference with Michigan Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist on Thursday.
Among the local business, education and government officials participating in the meeting were Alpena Mayor Matt Waligora, Presque Isle farm owner Molly Stepanski, Alpena Community College President Dr. Don MacMaster, Laurie Sauer, director of the Area Agency on Aging, and Alpena Area Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Adam Poll.
The meeting provided Gilchrist an opportunity to share some of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s proposed budget priorities for the 2021-22 fiscal year.
The proposed budget is for $67.1 billion. A new budget must be passed before Oct. 1, or the state government is forced to shut down.
9 & 10 News
February 22, 2021
On Monday, Republican and Democratic state legislators met with northern Michigan community colleges to talk about the ongoing success of the Michigan Reconnect program.
“Business grows when its workforce is strong,” says Nikki Devitt, president of the Petoskey Regional Chamber of Commerce.
Michigan Reconnect is a state-wide program that provides free tuition at Michigan community colleges for eligible students 25 or older.
The Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity (LEO) says since the program started on February 2
nd, they’ve received more than 40,000 applications.
“In northern Michigan and the upper peninsula, a total of 395,000 residents would be eligible for this scholarship,” says Susan Corbin, acting director of LEO.