iminor@dailypress.net
ESCANABA Like the rest of the world, the coronavirus pandemic dominated the local news in 2020. As 2020 draws to a close, here’s a look at some of the major local news stories of the year.
January
1 Escanaba residents Georgios Sitaras and Jami Hentz welcomed OSF St. Francis Hospital and Medical Group’s first baby of the new year at 7:32 a.m. Nicoletta Elizabeth Sitaras weighed 7 pounds, 1.9 ounces and was 19 inches long. She was the couple’s first baby together.
10 Delta County Sheriff’s Department now has two K-9 units after Deputy Chad Newton and K-9 Officer Sage completed training. Newton and Sage, a female Dutch shepherd, are a certified K-9 unit after weeks of being trained by K-9 Master Trainer Marty Munger of Superior K-9 Training, based in Marquette.
iminor@dailypress.net
ESCANABA The Escanaba City Council approved a resolution Thursday in support of renaming the Escanaba River Bridge after the late Tom Casperson, who represented the Upper Peninsula in the state legislature for many years.
Casperson served in the Michigan House of Representatives for six years, starting in 2003. He was then elected to the Michigan Senate in 2010, serving until he was forced to leave the legislature in 2018 due to term limits. He died on Nov. 29 following a battle with lung cancer.
During Thursday’s meeting, Mayor Marc Tall read in part from a resolution to rename the U.S. 2 and 41 and M-35 bridge over the Escanaba River to honor the late legislator, who was instrumental in the reconstruction of the bridge. The bridge was completely reengineered and widened over a two year period, being completed in 2019.