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ESCANABA -- We are starting to turn the page on the grips of our cooler weather to the anticipation for many of the spring, summer and fall outdoor activities. I have noticed the spotlight on many of our news items from Delta County. I was actually contacted by three news agencies from downstate regarding the situation at the Billerud Escanaba Paper Mill. It was with great pride to describe the roll the mill has played over the last 100 plus years in our local economy. It was truly refreshing to see the comment from Billerud President & CEO Christoph Michalski "Our top priority now and always is protecting the health and safety of our employees and contractors who work at our Escanaba Mill." Like every tough situation we have dealt with over the years, the community pulls together to do anything they can to help. Best wishes to all of the employees and their families at the mill. Thanks to everyone that is lending their expertise to make sure the employees are safe as they perform their work tasks.
Esky Clean Up will take place the week of May 8-13. A community celebration will take place on May 13. The clean up event was moved up on the calendar to ensure we can have our city look as wonderful as possible prior to many of our visitors starting to come to the area. You or your group can sign up for the event on Esky Clean Up's Facebook page. The first ship from American Queen Voyages will dock in Escanaba around May 15. We will have a chance to really show off the area. Later in the summer will be the Northern Lights Music Festival on July 21-22 at the U.P. State Fairgrounds. The event will be headlined by Keith Urban on Saturday. The event will surely attract many visitors to the area.
One of the goals as we attract visitors to the area is to make sure they like it here as much as we do. We hope they will come again and spend more time so they can explore more of the history, beauty and fun events in Delta County. We are also looking how we can keep many of our young people in the area vs. losing them to other states. I am very anxious to see the final outcome from TIP Strategies. InvestUP applied for a grant to have a U.P. wide Labor study. The goal is to understand why people like living and working here, as well as why they may have left the area. TIP Strategies will present their recommendations and data collection on May 11. The data will be able to sorted by county, so we will be able to understand differences by county. Attracting qualified staff to the U.P. and Delta County is a top priority for us.
Some of our strengths in Delta County is the education system and health care. I recently got to see first-hand the great treatment from the OSF Health System and rehab team since my knee surgery. We are very blessed to have such dedicated professionals. Some of our top initiatives will be to build more housing, create more childcare capacity and share the many attributes our area provides. If we can be successful completing some of the planned projects in Delta County, I feel it will be a place of choice to visit, live, work or start a business.
We have been blessed by many longtime citizens and their impact on many of us at different points in our life. We recently lost an iconic member of our area family with the passing of Bill Beveridge. Bill spent 36 years serving Escanaba citizens as a member of the Public Safety Department. I had the privilege of knowing Bill for almost 60 years as his son Mark was one of my best friends. Bill was always a big fan of area youth sports and I was always able to hear his support while on any field or court. He was extremely proud of his children, many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He was always very kind to his son's whole group of friends. Rest in peace, Bill!
Best wishes.
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Ed Legault is the director of the Delta County Economic Development Alliance