On Friday, Oct. 20, new Sugar Loaf resort owner Jeff Katofsky told the Glen Arbor Sun that he hopes to build a 4-star, year-round resort at Sugar Loaf but wasn’t yet sure about whether it would include downhill skiing.
At one time, it was lovely and serene. “We begin in a peaceful place in the woods among the tall timber and wildflowers of Leelanau County,” wrote author Leonard G. Overmyer in his 1999 book Forest Haven Soldiers: The Civil War Veterans of Glen Lake & Surrounding Leelanau. “A site, by Forest Haven Road and M-22, where lies the old Glen Arbor Township Cemetery. It was used primarily in the 1800s and beginning of the 1900s for the early pioneers of the area. This quiet location holds the final resting-place of several Civil War soldiers.”
The current administration’s threats to repeal protections for immigrants brought to the United States as children, and who have few memories of their native countries, could hurt people like Gloria, who grew up in Leelanau County since age 11.
Will Sleeping Bear Dunes break last year’s record for annual visitors to our National Park? 1,683,553 people visited Sleeping Bear in 2016, smashing the previous record of 1,535,633 set in 2015. The visitation tally in 2017 is more than 26,000 people ahead of last year’s pace, following a strong April and September, and a monster July.
Work began late this summer to implement the Glen Arbor Park improvement plan which was presented to the township earlier this year and approved by voters Aug. 8. The plan includes removal of many oak trees—some of which have already been taken out—and the two signature pine trees which frame either end of the tennis courts.
Jeff Katofsky, who purchased Sugar Loaf resort last November, will return to Leelanau County on Friday, Oct. 20, and meet with the public at 11 a.m. at the Leelanau County Government Center where he will field questions about the path forward for the long-shuttered ski resort.
Many a nature lover was introduced as a child to the outdoors by a parent or teacher. The outdoors can be just the back yard, but the crucial thing is awakening what Rachael Carson called in her wise and lovely essay of that title A Sense of Wonder. Pheasant hunting with his father first kindled it in local naturalist Rick Halbert. As a teacher and volunteer, he’s spent his life connecting people and nature. A botanist, he knows, loves, and fosters the native plants of our region.
Meet Jorene Williams, Dejie-ann Smith, and Joycelyn Mclean, college students from Jamaica who are summering near the Sleeping Bear Dunes while they work the checkout registers at Anderson’s Market and Compass Rose Bakery.
Immigration has been in the political crosshairs since the new administration took office in January. In late June I interviewed Leelanau County Sheriff Mike Borkovich about his views on immigration (both legal and illegal), migrant farmworkers in the county, and how he viewed his department’s enforcement role.
PoWeR! Book Bags launched in March 2016, and since then it has worked with pantries in Grand Traverse and Leelanau counties to give out book bags to children. As of early August, the nonprofit had given out more than 21,000 books and 4,000 book bags.