LANSING, MI The Michigan Senate has approved two bills sponsored by Senator Ed McBroom.
The first would allow the state to sell the former Ojibway Correctional Facility in Gogebic County. The prison was shut down in December of 2018. McBroom says once the state sells the property a private company can repurpose the site and reemploy area residents.
The other bill would rename the bridge on US-2 that crosses the Escanaba River the Senator Tom Casperson Memorial Bridge. McBroom says it would offer a lasting tribute to the Escanaba-area lawmaker who passed away in November.
The bill would also rename a portion of M-35 in Forsyth Township the Ben Lauren and Don Riling Memorial Highway. Lauren was a township firefighter who died while fighting a structure fire in March. Riling was a professional firefighter with the Air Force and volunteer with the Forsyth Township Fire Department. He died while fighting a house fire in 1988.
Dec 21, 2020
LANSING The state Senate finalized a bill sponsored by Sen. Ed McBroom that would rename the bridge on U.S. 2 that crosses the Escanaba River as the Senator Tom Casperson Memorial Bridge.
“Tom Casperson meant so much to so many people in the U.P. His passion for people and our way of life was amazing. His legislative accomplishments are literally unparalleled by any U.P. legislator and likely never will be surpassed,” said McBroom, R-Waucedah Township. “This memorial bridge offers a lasting tribute to him for all to see. It is special to him in many ways: Wells Township and Escanaba, his home communities; the route to the paper mill he drove for 30 years; a river he helped restore from a dangerous, 120+ year-old bridge; and a new bridge for which he helped secure the construction.”