Local News

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.  

A 23-year-old Mt. Clemens man is in custody following a stabbing in Americana Estates Mobile Home Park in Casco Township last night. According to St. Clair County Sheriff Tim Donnellon, deputies were called to an address on Bart Drive shortly before 11:00 to investigate a stabbing that had just occurred.  When they arrived, they found the victim, who was bleeding profusely, outside a residence on Bart Drive. Deputies were told an unknown assailant had run up to the victim and stabbed him multiple times.  The suspect then ran from the area.

The victim, a 20-year-old man from Casco Township, was transported by Richmond-Lenox EMS to an area hospital, where he was last reported in stable condition.

Deputies interviewed witnesses to the attack and eventually were able to find out the name of the suspect.  Further investigation led deputies to another residence in the park, where they were able to locate and apprehend the suspect, who is currently on parole.

The suspect was transported to the St. Clair County Intervention and Detention Center, where he is expected to face charges including felonious assault and obstructing police.  He is also being held on a parole violation and a misdemeanor warrant out of Macomb County.

Blue Water Area Transit introduced a new historic trolley on Tuesday, July 2nd, in celebration of the 35th season of historic trolley tours in downtown Port Huron. The new 2019 aqua blue trolley is the fifth to enter the fleet since 1984, and the new ride features a low floorboard, which is ADA compliant to accommodate all of its passengers.

Passengers pay a ten-cent fare, which is the amount patrons paid in 1866 for the area’s first local transit service. The trolley tour swings by museums, churches, beaches, the Fort Gratiot Lighthouse, and other historic landmarks. It travels through the heart of Port Huron and along the riverfront for a panoramic view of the Blue Water Bridges and the Thomas Edison statue and train depot. Trolley tours run through the summer Monday through Saturday, beginning at noon to 5 pm on each hour until September 7. Autumn tours are on Saturdays and will continue from September 9 until October 12. For more information or to see the trolley routes, visit the Blue Water Area Transit website at bwbus.com