Local News

Main Street between Smiths Creek Road and Burns Road in Kimball Township will be closed to traffic starting on July 9th as the existing bridge over Smiths Creek will be replaced with a three-sided arch culvert.  Work will also include new HMA pavement, new guardrail, and restoration. The closure of Main Street is expected to span over approximately 28 consecutive days. During the closure of Main Street, access will be allowed from Smiths Creek Road to local traffic for residents and businesses only up to the bridge.  A detour will be posted during the closure of Main Street which will be Smiths Creek Road and Burns Road. Local residents are encouraged to plan now for delays due to construction.

It will be hard to miss a fireworks display in and around the Blue Water Area this month.  Here’s a look at some local fireworks displays that are coming up soon. Algonac and Lexington will have fireworks on July 5th with Algonac’s starting at 10 pm and Lexington’s at dusk. 

On Saturday the 6th, Port Sanilac will have their show at Harbor Park kicking off at 9:30 PM.

Next weekend on July 13th at the Harbor in Harbor Beach, they will celebrate our country’s independence with a fireworks display. 

Desmond Landing in Port Huron will have their annual fireworks show on July 18th, and Marlette’s show is slated for July 20th with Yale a week after that on July 26th at Yale High School.

Be sure to be safe if you plan to set off your own fireworks. Remember, consumer-grade fireworks can be just as dangerous as professional ones, so always use the utmost care.

Four TEC students earned medals at the 2019 National SkillsUSA Conference held last week in Louisville, Kentucky. Ryan Alexander from Marysville High School and Carter Spoutz from Memphis High School placed 1st in the nation, winning the gold medal in the Mechatronics (Engineering & Robotics) team competition.

Scott Pitt, a student from Port Huron Northern, won the silver medal in CNC Milling, and Dustin Cooney from Port Huron High School, won bronze in the CNC Technician category. Five others also represented TEC and the state of Michigan at the national event competing in electrical construction wiring, information technology services, and audio production. The SkillsUSA National Championships are a showcase for the best career and technical students in the nation, and the national event occupies a space equivalent to 16 football fields. 

Cadet Timothy Patrick Donnellon II, son of Tim and Amy Donnellon of Emmett, MI, graduated from the U.S. Military Academy on Saturday, May 25. 

Donnellon graduated from Yale High School in 2015. While at West Point, he concentrated his studies in Space Science. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army within the Army Aviation branch and will report to Fort Rucker, Ala., for his first assignment. 

The mission of the U.S. Military Academy is to educate, train, and inspire the Corps of Cadets so that each graduate is a commissioned leader of character committed to the values of Duty, Honor, Country and prepared for a career of professional excellence and service to the Nation as an officer in the United States Army. 

The U.S. Military Academy at West Point is a four-year, co-educational, federal, liberal arts college located 50 miles north of New York City. It was founded in 1802 as America’s first college of engineering and continues today as the worlds’ premier leader-development institution, consistently ranked amount top colleges in the country. 

2LT Donnellon is a great example of talented and hardworking youth from the Blue Water Area who are becoming America’s next generation of leaders.

We all know 4th of July to be the All-American day to spend with family and friends barbecuing and watching fireworks while celebrating the great country we live in.  Here are some fun facts you might not know about this great holiday. According to Business Insider, only two people actually signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4: John Hancock and Charles Thomson, Secretary of Congress. Most of the others signed on August 2nd, and not everyone was on board with celebrating on July 4, the day Congress approved the Declaration. John Adams wanted to celebrate on July 2nd, the day Congress voted for independence.

While we’ve been celebrating July 4 for hundreds of years now, it wasn’t deemed a federal holiday until 1870, nearly 100 years after the nation was founded. Finally, while you’re cooking out, have you ever wondered how much Americans eat on the 4th of July? Well, Americans consume around 155 million hot dogs on the Fourth of July each year. They also spend $92 million on chips, $167.5 million on watermelon, and $341.4 million on beer. However you’re celebrating today, Happy Fourth of July!

The United States Flag requires attention and care whenever it is displayed. When that flag is 30 feet tall by 60 feet long and hung from the tower of the Mackinac Bridge, it’s even tougher.  The flag that will hang from the Mackinac Bridge again this year was purchased in 2016. The first time it was hung,  it required stopping traffic and roughly a dozen staff to unroll it as it was hoisted beneath the tower.  This Thursday, when the maintenance staff of the Mackinac Bridge Authority (MBA) unfurls the flag for Independence Day, most of the work is expected to be done with an ingenious new reel which was designed and built in-house.   

MBA Maintenance Supervisor Ned McLennan led the effort to hang the flag.  McLennan devised a way to store the flag similar to a roll-up window curtain and lower it using a remote control, which requires only one person to operate. With the use of the reel, bridge traffic won’t be required to stop. The device stores the flag and protects it from the elements when not in use. McLennan learned that rolling large flags for storage is acceptable by flag etiquette standards.  If you’re traveling to the U.P this holiday, be sure to look out for that flag on the Mackinac Bridge…it will be hard to miss.