The Glen Arbor Sun won seven awards in four different categories from the Michigan Press Association’s 2023 Better Newspaper Contest among local news media for stories published between August 1, 2022, and July 31, 2023. The Sun won two awards in Best Opinion, three awards in Business/Agriculture News, and one award each in Feature Story and Spot News. Winners included Abby Chatfield, Katie Dunn, Alexandra Dailey, Jacob Wheeler and Julie Zapoli.
Want to work in beautiful Leelanau County this summer? This is your chance. The Glen Lake Chamber of Commerce has posted an Area Jobs board which matches local retail and food businesses with employees who want to get paid to spend their summer in this pleasant peninsula. Those employers include: Coastal, the Cyclery and Crystal River Outfitters, Laker Shakes, Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate, Cottonseed Apparel, Broomstack Kitchen & Taphouse, M22 Glen Arbor, Anderson’s Market, the Glen Lake Association, Riverside Canoe, Cherry Republic, La Becasse, Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear, LeBear, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Bay Wear, Inn & Trail, Indigo Bluffs, Blu, Art’s, Good Harbor Grill, Leelanau Coffee Roasters, Western Avenue Grill, and The Homestead. Click here for more.
The Old Indian Trail and surrounding area in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is closed due to invasive hemlock woolly adelgid, the Park reported in a March 1 press release. Surveys this January and February found a large infestation on the southern boundary of the National Lakeshore, along and around the area of the Old Indian Trail. This infestation has prompted an area closure to slow the spread and allow for treatment. Plans are in development to reopen the trail by the fall of 2024.
Significantly more Leelanau County residents voted on the Republican than on the Democratic side of the ballot in yesterday’s Michigan presidential primary election — the opposite of the results from the 2020 primary election. Voter turnout yesterday in Leelanau was 35 percent of eligible voters, compared to 39 percent in 2020. That being said, Biden won more votes (2,803) than Trump (2,567) yesterday, which could prove instructive once the campaign eventually becomes a two-way race. It’s unclear how many votes for Haley yesterday were Democratic-leaning voters who switched ballots in order to vote against Trump.
While she might favor a beret, Martha Ryan actually wears many hats: Chef, restaurateur, cooking instructor, tour guide. They’re all based around Martha’s Leelanau Table, her popular Suttons Bay restaurant. Many of her regular customers accompany Martha on tours of Europe. “People like to travel with me,” she says, noting that while the trips are not billed as culinary tours, they invariably include stays in hotels with and stops at various restaurants, cafes and the like.
Steady and tight. Perhaps those are the bywords to describe the real estate market in 2023 in Leelanau County. Overall, the market continued to slow down from the pace of 2020 and 2021. While residential real estate sales in Leelanau County for 2023 bested those of 2022, those totals lag behind the number of homes sold at the height of the pandemic. There were 377 sales for a total volume of $273,320,611 in 2023. That topped the previous year’s 358 for $268,182,620, though the average sale price dropped slightly, at $724,988 last year from $749,113 for 2022. Those numbers tell a different story than those of the peak years of 2020, 2021 and 2022.
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is excited to share that the park’s Interpretation and Education division now has an inflatable planetarium dome to enable immersive experiences related to the night sky, the Great Lakes ecosystem, and more! The dome was recently purchased as part of a grant from the National Park Foundation. A vertically mounted laser projector with a fisheye lens enables detailed 360-degree images and video to be projected on the inside, while a fan provides constant air pressure to keep the dome inflated.
Last week, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced the winner of the 2024 State of the State art contest as Vivian Kern of Bay City Central High School. Kern’s artwork will be displayed in the 2024 State of the State program, which the governor will deliver on Wednesday night, Jan. 24, at 7 p.m. Kern will receive a gift box from Cherry Republic.
Peninsula Housing announced this weekend that the affordable housing nonprofit is excited to welcome John and Kelly Kehl as new homeowners of an affordable home in the village of Northport. The Leelanau natives are grateful for the community of support that made this possible, and Kelly stated in a press release, “We were the first applicants to reach the finish line through this program, and I can’t wait to show others it’s possible to buy a home in northern Michigan!” The Kehls purchased their home on Ransom Street for $220,000, according to Peninsula Housing founder and board president Larry Mawby.
Following the blizzard earlier this weekend, the Friends of Sleeping Bear, who manage the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail, report fresh snow last night and today. Nice, cool temperatures make for fluffy snow and the groomer is leaving a perfect corduroy and classic tracks. Read more for details.