Prison and Thanks to the Road Commission

Because of previous commitments I had only a brief
time to devote to the Friday (May 29th) Iron River
Township Town Hall Meeting in support of retaining
the state prison. Thanks to Mark Polley and Ron Basso
who allowed me to collar them for a brief hallway
meeting that allowed me to present the outline of
a proposal I had to make to them about the prison.

I had previously never heard that there is sawmill
training operation at the prison till this prison
closing discussion brought the information into the
wider public sphere. I think it is a shame that a
state owned facility like that is only available
to prisoners when industrial training is invaluable
to people living in this region. So I have urged
Messrs. Polley and Basso to work quickly to field
a plan, perhaps in concert with Michigan Works, to
improve the utilization of the sawmill as a trade
school for the region in addition to training
prisoners. Improved utilization of the state owned
facility might be what it takes to keep the prison
open.

While I have your attention, I want to thank and
congratulate the members of the new Iron County
Road Commission (elected last November.) For the
first time in several years, after the spring
grading of Kallio Road, it was not only a super
good job but it also has the crown it is
supposed to have and doesn't have water retaining
berms at the road edges. I believe the situation
with our Iron County roads is looking up.

Bill Vajk