Entries by editor

Northern Latitudes keeps hands clean, spirits high

Businesses throughout Leelanau County had to adapt on the fly when the Coronavirus arrived and commerce shut down in March. Northern Latitudes Distillery in Lake Leelanau not only retooled their business and retail space, owners Mandy and Mark Moseler prioritized making hand sanitizer—a biproduct of the distillery’s spirits—and supplied it free of charge to essential workers and those on the frontlines in the battle against COVID-19, including first responders, schools, home health care nurses, homeless shelters, medical care facilities, churches and food pantries. We talked to the Moselers about this crazy year, and how they got through it.

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Leelanau Gives Back: Benefit by The Homestead supports Leelanau Christian Neighbors

Join The Homestead resort in Glen Arbor in a drive to collect clothing and supplies (for all ages), non-perishable food items, cash and checks that will be donated to Leelanau Christian Neighbors. The Homestead will match any cash donations up to $5,000.

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Sleeping Bear sets annual visitation record, with month left to go

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore has set a new yearly visitation record. Through the month of November, the National Park has recorded 1,697,940 visitors, besting the previous record of 1,683,553 in 2016. And that doesn’t even include the current month of December.

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Bergman, O’Malley back lawsuit to overturn Biden election victory

Michigan State Representative Jack O’Malley is one of 12 legislators who signed onto a legal brief supporting a lawsuit by the Texas attorney general that seeks to overturn President-Elect Joe Biden’s presidential victory on November 3. Biden won Michigan by a resounding 154,000 votes, nearly 3 percentage points. That’s more than 10 times Trump’s margin of victory over Hillary Clinton in Michigan in 2016. Biden won the national race over Trump by more than 7 million votes. Biden also carried Leelanau County by 878 votes. More than 1,000 Leelanau citizens who voted for Republicans down-ballot appear to have favored Biden over Trump for president.

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Cherry Republic’s “31 Days of Giving” campaign supports local nonprofits

Cherry Republic is holding its eighth annual “31 Days of Giving” campaign through the month of December. Each day, the Glen Arbor company will announce grants to nonprofit organizations throughout Michigan. Over the years, the gifts have benefited everyone from children and families to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

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“If she hadn’t been in the car, she would be alive today” — COVID-19 claims 30-year-old Native American

A few days before she died of the Coronavirus on November 23, Maryan Rochel Petoskey sat up in her bed on the COVID-19 ward at Munson Medical Center in Traverse City and looked in both directions. Through a clear greyish tarp that separated her from others, Maryan told her sister Donna that she could see rows and rows of beds on either side. A member of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians who lived on the Peshawbestown reservation, Maryan Rochel Petoskey was 30 years young. She was the third victim of COVID-19 in Leelanau County, and the first person under age 60 to die of the pandemic.

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Glen Arbor’s modern-day cowboy, staunch National Park opponent Rich Quick dies

A modern-day cowboy whose life story is tightly interwoven with that of modern-day Glen Arbor—and one of the most vocal and passionate opponents of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore—Rich Quick has died. He was 92 years old, and spent most of his final seven years at Maple Valley Nursing Home, where he suffered from dementia. His step-grandson, Joshua Humphrey, confirmed the news on Facebook yesterday, writing that Quick “is now with his sweetie Bonnie Quick in heaven. He loved Glen Arbor and this area more than anybody I have ever known or known of. He had an undying respect for this land and for those around him.”

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Leaving (Saying Goodbye)

Linda Dewey’s painting “Saying Goodbye” is a collaboration with Anne-Marie Oomen’s poem, “Leaving (Saying Goodbye)”

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The Grove condominiums to replace Wildflowers in downtown Glen Arbor

Donna Burgan’s iconic store Wildflowers closed in late September after 41 years in business. “The Grove” condominiums will take Wildflowers’ place on M-22 just south of the Glen Arbor township park and Northwoods Hardware. The price per unit will start at approximately $450,000.

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A Game Without Rules: Harbor House and VI Grill manage the pandemic

“The game is next week, but you don’t know the rules,” Richard Roberts reflected on running his Leelanau County businesses through the COVID-19 pandemic. Roberts owns The Harbor House in Leland, co-owns the county’s oldest, continually operated restaurant, the Village Inn in Suttons Bay—most commonly known as the VI Grill, runs real estate through Harbor House Properties LLC, and owns SAM Equities LLC in Lake Leelanau, a former restaurant currently available for rent.

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