Special
150th edition
Section 10
2002-2017
Special 150th Anniversary Edition • Thursday, October 26, 2017
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Ludington daily newS/SECTION 10
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www.ludingtondailynews.com
Covering the Iditarod — from Alaska In 1997, Ludington resident Al Hardman ran the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, a 1,000-mile adventure from Anchorage to Nome, for the first time. The Ludington Daily News covered the training and used the Internet and email, still in its infancy, using 28k dial-up modems, to catch up on his progress as he traversed the wild interior of the 49th state. Then Managing Editor Steve Begnoche initiated the coverage and newly hired photographer Andy Klevorn jumped into the fold. Klevorn was all in. So was the community. The newspaper’s work received such rave reviews, Klevorn nearly asked to go to Nome that year to cover Hardman’s finish, but the technology really didn’t exist to get the job done, so he waited. Klevorn kept up with Hardman, and technology, in the years that followed the 1997 Iditarod so that when Hardman announced he would train for the 2000 Iditarod, the Ludington Daily News was one of the more progressive digitally photographed newspapers for its size, getting rid of film and the darkroom and replacing the workflow to all digital.
Andy Klevorn | Daily News file photo
Klevorn transmitted copy and images from the interior of Alaska in 2000. He returned in 2002 and 2004, with a little lighter load.
Klevorn approached Begnoche and then publisher David Jackson with a plan to travel to Alaska for four weeks to cover the race. He found national sponsors for
Al Hardman makes his way across Alaska with his team.
clothing and gear to travel and survive for a month and made a deal with Iridium to borrow a satellite phone to transmit stories and photographs from the
most remote locations along the trail. Klevorn made arrangements to use schools along the route. The interior school districts had great internet service, so when there was a school near an Iditarod checkpoint, Klevorn would use that as a hub. In one village he and Hardman’s mushing pal and longtime friend Charlie Eshbach took school pictures for the students in Skwentna in trade for letting them stay at the teacher’s home. That 2000 Iditarod would be the first of three Luding-
Klevorn carried his mobile office, all 50 pounds of it, in a backpack.
ton Daily News trips to Alaska to cover the race. And the Daily News would be one of the first to cover the race with a digital camera and transmit from the field. In contrast, the Anchorage Daily News flew film back each day from the race that year, and went digital in the years that followed. Klevorn carried nearly 50 pounds of camera and computer gear alone to be sure he could get stories back to Ludington and even partnered with WKLA radio and called in to George Wil-
son’s radio show a couple of times each week. The Daily News also published a book that first year, so Klevorn carried a separate camera body with slide film for that project. In 2002 and 2004, Klevorn returned to Alaska, with less camera gear, covering several area mushers, including Ed Stielstra of Ludington. Area family members and friends became enthralled with the sport and some joined him on the Iditarod Trail.
Community Media Group takes the helm New ownership came to the Ludington Daily News, Oceana’s Herald-Journal, White Lake Beacon and their websites and niche products when Community Media Group purchased the assets of Shoreline Media, effective Jan. 1, 2012. Shoreline Media was created in 2000 by David Jackson and his family when it purchased Oceana’s HeraldJournal and the White Lake Beacon. The Jackson family has owned the Ludington Daily News since Dec. 31, 1986. Community Media Group publishes daily and weekly newspapers, digital web-
Open house Friday, Oct. 27, 2017 The Ludington Daily News will host an open house from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday at 202 N. Rath Ave. to celebrate the paper’s 150th anniversary. sites, shoppers, health and wellness magazines and other specialty publications in Kentucky, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, New York and Pennsylvania. Among the Michigan publications are The Iosco County News-Herald and the Oscoda Press. “We are pleased to join the staff and management teams at the publications
and websites of Shoreline Media in serving Ludington and Scottville and Mason County, Hart/Shelby and Oceana County, and the Whitehall/Montague/Rothbury areas,” Larry J. Perrotto, chairman and chief executive officer of Community Media Group, said when CMG took over. “We pledge to be strong advocates for the interests of the
region and we are committed to continuing the great tradition of high quality journalism so ably established by David Jackson and his family.” “They are newspaper people,” Jackson said of Community Media Group. “They love the news business and that’s important to me … I didn’t want some venture capital firm coming in here.” “In Community Media Group we are fortunate to have new ownership that truly understands the unique relationship that exists between the newspaper, its customers and the communities it serves,” said Jeff
Thank you for being our partner in business for many years. We’ve had an overwhelming response to the quality of ads that you have produced for us.
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Evans, then publisher of the Ludington Daily News. “A focus on providing local news and information will remain our mission as will our commitment to being an involved corporate citizen.” The Ludington Daily News traces its history back to 1867 to predecessor publications. Seven times in the past two decades, the Ludington Daily News has been honored by the Michigan Press Association as “newspaper of the year” in the small dailies circulation class in Michigan. Ray McGrew, vice presi-
dent of Community Media Group, lives in northern Oceana County and serves as publisher of the Ludington Daily News, Oceana’s Herald-Journal, White Lake Beacon, Iosco County News-Herald and Oscoda Press. The Ludington Daily News will host an open house from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday at 202 N. Rath Ave. to celebrate the paper’s 150th anniversary. “It’s an honor to be able to continue to lead local news coverage and a local newspaper into and beyond this milestone,” McGrew said.
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An era of war, storms, going green, bringing art Mason County highlights, 2002-2017
I
n this final era, the news of the world was mostly about the War on Terror. More than 460 U.S. servicemembers would die in War In Iraq in 2003, including 1988 Hart High School graduate Todd Robbins. In 2005, the Manistee-based Bravo Company of the 126th Armored Regiment Michigan Army National Guard unit was deployed to Iraq. Hart High School graduate Brett Witteveen became the third Oceana County soldier to die in the War On Terror in 2007. That same year, Army Spc. Joseph Lancour of Ludington died during an ambush in Afghanistan. Mason County — like the rest of the U.S. — struggled economically in 2008. The area experienced hundreds of layoffs and foreclosures as the Big Three and other
industries struggled. Also in 2008, an overnight storm in June dropped almost a foot of rain on parts of Mason County, washing out dozens of roads, wiping out sewer mains and sending millions of gallons of raw sewage into Pere Marquette Lake and Lake Michigan. The storm caused more than $6 million in damage. Later that summer, Matt Hughes became the first person from Mason County to participate in the Olympics. Hughes was on the men’s quadruple sculls rowing team in Beijing. The state’s film tax credits helped attract filmmakers to the area in 2010, the same year that WSCC opened its newly renovated and expanded Arts and Sciences building, which included the Manierre Dawson Gallery.
Construction on the $230 million Lake Winds Energy Park in Summit and Riverton townships began in 2011. The Badger was forced to go green as well when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency gave Lake Michigan Carferry a deadline to stop dumping coal ash into Lake Michigan. The company responded by developing a system within the boat to store the coal ash until it could be removed and used in making cement. This was also an era for firsts and breaking records. In 2014, Susan Sniegowski became the first female judge in Mason and Lake counties. Also that year, a temperature of -4 degrees was recorded on Jan. 6, which broke a 102-year-old record. More than 141 inches of snow fell that winter. Ludington would shatter
two more world records — in 2016 for the longest ice cream dessert, and in 2017 for the number of sand angels made simultaneously. Also this year, the Mason County Historical Society opened the Port of Ludington Maritime Museum. The $5.2 million museum includes a pilot house exhibit that simulates taking a ship into port. Also opening this year was the all-in-one community service headquarters, the Lakeshore Resource Network, which was destroyed by fire in 2016. The new Lakeshore Resource Network includes Pennies from Heaven, Michigan Works! West Central, American Red Cross, True North Community Services, Habitat for Humanity of Mason County, Staircase Youth Services, and the Lakeshore Food Club.
Construction began on the Lakewinds Energy Park in 2011, stirring some controversy among local residents. The turbines are in Riverton and Summit townships.
Patti klevorn
Taking pride in her hometown By Brooke Kansier Daily News Staff Writer
F
or Patti Klevorn, it always comes back to her hometown. “I was interested in journalism, really, my whole life,” she said. “My parents always read newspapers and news magazines — it was just a part of our life.” A seasoned reporter who started at the Ludington Daily News in 1993, she was ready when thenmanaging editor Steve Begnoche stepped down from the role on April 15, 2016. The staff around her felt the same confidence. “Sometimes an organization has to search to fill an important leadership role. The Ludington Daily News only had to look to the next desk in the newsroom to fill the managing editor’s position,” Begnoche said. “Hav-
Jeff Kiessel | Daily News
From left are Ludington Daily News Publisher Ray McGrew, Managing Editor Patti Klevorn and former managing editor Steve Begnoche. The Daily News building behind them will host an open house event at 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday. ing been raised here, Patti knows the community well and understands what’s important to our readers. Perhaps most importantly,
Patti cares deeply about the community, about its people, about the newspaper and how all three interact. And she wants to get every
Steve Begnoche
A career of ‘being persnickety’ By PATTI KLEVORN Daily News managing editor
I
t will surprise no one who knows former Ludington Daily News Managing Editor Steve Begnoche that he began his foray into journalism by questioning the status quo. Begnoche came of age in the 1960s and ’70s, so it comes naturally for this once “longhair” who spent almost as much time suspended from his senior year in high school as is it to question what might be done differently. “Being persnickety” is how he referred to his days as a nontraditional student at Eastern Michigan University. As such, he went to the office of the school newspaper, the Eastern Echo, to tell the editorial staff what he thought of their entertainment coverage — not much. Editor Dennis Devine responded by offering Begnoche a position on the newspaper staff writing about the college campus’ arts and entertainment scene. “Well, join us,” Devine told Steve. That was in the late 1970s, and it launched Begnoche’s journalism career. Out of high school, Begnoche, the Garden City (west of Detroit) native, first went to work for Michigan Bell and General Motors and worked around Michigan stage lighting for bands. He chose college after “the lighting thing came to a head” when finances of the small company of high school friends fizzled. In college, Begnoche first had an interest in geology and geography, then began angling toward a career as a land-use planner, doing writing at the Echo on the side. But a year writing for the newspaper, then another as an editor, helped change his mind. An overabundance of literature courses led to a last minute switch of majors to English.
He continued working at the GM Willow Run complex full-time during much of his time at Eastern, because the automotive company paid for much of the tuition. All he had to do, as he recalled, was write a letter each semester explaining how the college courses were helping him at GM. He first worked in GM Assembly, then the massive Hydromatic plant, then, finally, in shipping and receiving at the GMC Truck Warehouse at Willow Run, often loading trucks. Begnoche appreciated the opportunity to solve that loading puzzle uniquely each time. “Every load was something different,” he said. It was 1980 and Begnoche was in his mid-20s when he set out as a freelance journalist. After a year, he wondered if he’d made the right decision. The business was difficult to break into, and arts publications didn’t always respond to queries, or pay well. He took a job at the Morenci Observer, a weekly newspaper in his wife Brenda’s hometown on the Michigan-Ohio border. The two had met during their college years as Brenda was earning her radiology tech degree from Washtenaw Community College. “Country girl meets city boy,” he said. “We’re still together all these years later.” They’ve been married 35 years and have three grown daughters — Michelle, Renee and Nicole — who are all married, working and with one Begnoche grandchild each. All three of the Begnoche girls were born in Morenci during the family’s nearly seven years in the southeast Michigan farming community. In retirement, Begnoche spends more time with the grandchildren in Grand Rapids, Flushing and Ludington. Having grown up in the city, Begnoche thought his college days in Ypsilanti connected him with smalltown living. Morenci, though, was real small-
town, he said, and his small family made a serious addition in the local population. Begnoche went on to work at the Hillsdale Daily News. It was former Hillsdale Daily News-turned-Ludington Daily News circulation manager Sue McAdam who helped connect Begnoche with the Ludington paper. When former Managing Editor Paul S. Peterson offered Begnoche the position, he accepted with the stipulation that Brenda, too, had to be able to find a job in Ludington. The hospital, then Memorial Medical Center, was hiring for the imaging department, and the move began. So, with three children and a van, they camped at Cartier Park on weekends while they looked for a place to live. “I remember writing that I’d traded soybean fields for forests,” he said of the move to Ludington. “It’s just a great place to live,” Begnoche said. “It was a great place to raise the kids. They are all products of Ludington schools, which offer a lot of opportunities. You have to have a desire and you can try just about whatever it is you want to try.” A big draw has always been the outdoors. Begnoche likes to spend his off-time hiking and crosscountry skiing Ludington State Park trails, kayaking on Hamlin Lake and otherwise enjoying the natural resources of the area. “We come from an area where the water resources aren’t so great and realized this is a pretty cool place,” he said. “We take it for granted now, too.” Begnoche started on the education beat and as a general assignment reporter, and has covered everything from fires to fish kills. One of the most memorable was the 1993 James Street fire, which claimed the lives of nine people, mostly children. “You learn a lot of things about a community,” he said about troubling times. “And you hope you did your part well.”
story right.” Klevorn earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism from Michigan State University and worked as a correspondent with the school’s Capital News Service, where she was able to test her writing skills firsthand for newspapers across the state. Before returning to Ludington, she worked as an intern at the Bay City Times, and, after graduating, for the Muskegon Chronicle. Her first day at the Ludington Daily News was May 10, 1993. While she received job offers from a number of other papers in other cities — including the same start date offer at the Grand Rapids Press — none of the communities compared to Ludington. “So I came home,” Klevorn said.
Klevorn’s early days at the paper were spent covering the police beat, business news and the Ludington City Council, but at a small-town paper, you tend to cover whatever comes your way. Her work has ranged from writing about the heartwrenching devastation of losing loved ones, the impact of toxic chemical contamination and the joys of motherhood. She has a stack of Associated Press and Michigan Press Association awards — literally a stack, behind her desk — including accolades for investigative, enterprise, breaking news and feature writing. But awards have never been the goal. “I love to tell people’s stories. And everyone has a story,” Klevorn said. “I care deeply about them. Some of my best friends are people I’ve met through the news-
paper.” Klevorn even met her husband, Andy, in Ludington, right at the Ludington Daily News. He was a staff photographer, then multimedia specialist CMG before he was hired away by Ludington Area Schools as the technology director. “He loves Ludington maybe even more than I do,” she said. “And it’s a great place to raise our daughter, Olivia.” Before taking the role last year, Klevorn acknowledged the challenge ahead. “It’s impossible to replace Steve, he just lived and breathed this paper. There isn’t anybody who’s ever cared more or worked harder than Steve Begnoche. And you just cannot replace that,” Klevorn said. “And I won’t try to replace him. I’ll try to continue his good work, with my own style.”
Congratulations Ludington Daily News
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Ludington daily newS/SECTION 10
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Ludington City Council votes to not renew the contract of City Manager Jim Miller, who had held the position for 14 years Sheriff Larry Stewart announces he will eliminate road patrols between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. in order to staff more people at the jail
West Shore Ice Arena opens; 36,000-square-foot facility built through fundraising efforts offers skating yearround
2002
200 SS Badger celebrates 50 years of service
Mason County loses more than 250 industrial jobs, tops state’s list of counties with highest unemployment
2003
Three Manistee brothers — Jonathan, age 20, Andy, 14, and Steven, 10, Sievert — die in a house fire; Josh Sievert and two other brothers survive the fire
More than 70 percent of registered voters in Mason County — national average was 60 percent — turn out Nov. 2 to elect a new sheriff and county commissioners, re-elect Pres. George W. Bush
2004
More than 460 U.S. servicemembers die in War In Iraq, including 1988 Hart High School graduate Todd Robbins
Long-simmering situation involving Mason County jail staffing, road patrols, sheriff’s operations and the county board of commissioners erupts
Manisteebased Bravo Company/ Michigan Army National Guard unit deployed to Iraq Mason County changes ambulance providers from government run to private
2005
Seven people murdered throughout the year in Mason, Manistee and Oceana counties Lake Express begins carferry, passenger service between Muskegon and Milwaukee
House of Flavors refrigeration system ammonia leak causes evacuation of several city blocks
Hart High School graduate Brett Witteveen and LHS grad Army Spc. Joseph Lancour killed in War on Terror
Murder, suicide at Piney Ridge Road home
\Village of Fountain celebrates 125th anniversary
2007
2006
Michigan Youth Correctional Facility in Baldwin closes
Money, scrap metal, bottles, yard sale items donated to keep Free Soil Community School afloat for year
Las Vegas man charged in death of LHS grad
Pentwater’s Historic Nickerson Inn, 92-year-old landmark, destroyed by fire
Ludington Skate Plaza opens at Stearns Park beach
Ludingt Area Ce for the A opens in former U Method Church
June 12-13 storm drops almost a foot of rain, roads wash out, sewage flows into PM Lake
2008
O.J. DeJonge Junior High student brings loaded gun to school in backpack
Ludingt Dow Ca Chloride operatio to Occid Corpora for mor $210 m
2009
Matt Hughes of Ludington competes in men’s quadruple sculls rowing, Beijing summer Olympics
The Great Recession, layoffs, foreclosures, struggling auto industry
100-squ mile win farm in Michiga propose
Austin McCarthy, 10, wins Sports Illustrated’s SportsKid of the Year
Did you know?
Did you know?
In This
Did you know?
In This
Era
Era
In This Did you know? Some interesting Era laws were passed in 2015. Lousiana, for one, enacted a law allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to register to vote.
New York put into place a ban on photography with big cats after selfies with tigers got out of hand at zoos, circuses and carnivals. The State of Nevada gave its schools the power to deny driver’s licenses to students who skip class.
On Jan. 15, 2009, U.S. Airways Flight 1549 lost power in both engines only minutes after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport. Thinking fast, the pilot was able to land the aircraft in the Hudson River, and miraculously, the plane went down with no casualties. The pilot, Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger, was heralded a hero.
In This
Era
2003 — U.S. and coalition forces began attacking Iraq to, in the words of President George W. Bush, “disarm Iraq, to free its people and defend the world from grave danger.” Bush pushed for the war because he believed Iraq Dictator Saddam Hussein had or was in the process of building weapons of mass destruction. 2005 — Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast Aug. 29 with winds of 100 to 140 mph across a 400-mile-wide front. Levee breaches led to massive flooding and displaced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Also in 2005, Witchita, Kansas police apprehended the BTK serial killer, Dennis Rader, 31 years after his first murder. 2009 — President Barack Obama took the oath of office as the 44th president on Jan. 20. Also in 2009, U.S. Airways Flight 1549 lost power in its engines shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport. The pilot was able to bring the plane down in the Hudson River, saving all 155 passengers and crew members without a single casualty. That same month, January 2009, the worst point of the recession takes hold, with nearly 800,000 jobs lost. The unemployment rate rose to a staggering 7.8 percent. 2017 — President Donald Trump took the oath of office as the 45th president on Jan. 20.
In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina deva the Gulf Coast, killing at least 1,800 from Louisiana to Alabama, and up th sissippi. Floodwaters measured as high feet, and, still the costliest hurricane history, Katrina left $108 billion in dam On Jan. 9, 2005, the Graniteville train disaster kills nine people and injures 250 others in Graniteville, South Carolina. Later that year, a massive train crash in Glendale, California, killed 11 people and injured 200 more.
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02-2017
ton alcium e ons sells dental ation re than million
A boat is disqualified from future Ludington Offshore Classic for its handling of fish Medical waste thought to be from Milwaukee washes up on shore WSCC opens newly renovated Arts and Sciences building, Manierre Dawson Gallery
ton enter Arts n United dist
2010
uarend Lake an ed
astated people he Mish as 31 in U.S. mages.
Construction begins on the $230 million Lake Winds Energy Park in Summit and Riverton townships Lake Michigan Carferry faces deadline to stop discharging coal ash into Lake Michigan LHS football team reaches playoffs for just third time in program history
2011
Several films shot in area thanks to state’s film tax credits
LHS wins school’s first equestrian state
Johnny and wife Maisie Urban, owners of Johnny’s of Custer, die within days of each other;”Big George” Wilson dies at age 81
2012
4-month-old baby Kate (Katherine “Kate” ShelbieElizabeth) goes missing, father charged
Hamlin Township celebrates 150th anniversary
Ludington Police Sgt. David Maltbie shot while responding to a domestic dispute
Michigan State Police Trooper Paul Butterfield shot and killed on Custer Road John Henderson ends reign as Ludington mayor after 12 years on the job
2013
2001 LHS grad Army National Guard Spc. Eric Lund suffers serious injuries in Afghanistan
Ludington Library celebrates expansion, opening of Keith Wilson Children’s Center
Susan Sniegowski sworn in as first female judge in Mason and Lake counties
COVE builds state-of-theart domestic violence/ sexual assault shelter
Applebee’s burns; is rebuilt, reopens with outdoor seating area, larger staff
Pallet Recycle burns, eight fire departments and at least 100 firefighters use 200,000 gallons of water
2014
2015 Ludington City Council approves rental inspections
Scottville mayor resigns after a string of incidents
Low temperature of -4 degrees on Jan. 6 breaks a 102-year-old record; snow total for season hits 141.7 inches; snow pile on Buttersville peninsula measured at 17 feet tall
SS Badger designated National Historic Landmark Guinness World Record — 1,387 — for number of simultaneous sand angels
2017
2016 Bonser’s of Custer closes after 61 years in business
Celebrate
ORICAL EST HIST ON’S NEW CTION LUDINGT ATTRA
House of Flavors breaks Guinness World Record for longest ice cream dessert at 2,970 feet MCC boys baseball team reaches state semifinals
New Veterans Mall dedicated
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Port of Ludington Maritime Museum opens
In This
Era
The longtime, well-loved local Lyric Theater in downtown Ludington closed its doors on Sept. 6, 2007. This Phil Jackson cartoon marked the end of that era. The Daily News published cartoons by former Ludington resident Phil Jackson almost daily for decades. AP FILE PHOTO
In January 2016, President Obama announced a federal state of emergency in Flint. The Flint Water Crisis began in 2014 when the city switched its source for drinking water to the Flint River. Due to insufficient treatment, thousands of residents were exposed to high levels of lead in the drinking water. After a pair of scientific studies proved lead contamination was present in the water supply, Flint residents were instructed to use only bottled or filtered water for drinking, cooking, cleaning and bathing. As of early 2017, the water quality had returned to acceptable levels. The city is still replacing its lead pipes, which will be completed no sooner than 2020.
Then-president Barack Obama delivers his 2012 State of the Union Address after being reelected for the role. In 2016, he was succeeded by President Donald Trump.
Memories of the Lyric
By MELISSA KEEFeR special to the Daily News
T
he Lyric Cinema 4 was a place for entertainment. The theater’s history begins in 1884, when it opened as the Ludington Opera House. Early days of the Lyric included silent films, plays and even a vaudeville theater in 1907. After a few successful decades, the Opera House became a movie theater in 1910. At the time, the building included two other storefronts — Cable Piano Co. and the Lyric Cigar Store. Frank W. Hawley rebuilt and reopened the theater on Oct. 28, 1925. After the rebuild, the Lyric was taken over in 1927 by Butterfield Theaters. The theater was still partly owned by Hawley. Shows in the Lyric were mostly live plays and silent films until the first talking film showed on May 19, 1929. Through the years, variety shows by the Rotary Club, the Miss Ludington Pageant, a show featuring Frankenstein and more, were among the mix of offerings. Local Tommy Roy worked in the theater as a youth in the 1950s. “I used to have to babysit the kids in the theater,” Roy said. “I got pretty sick of cowboy movies every day.”
‘(The Lyric) has been an institution in this town for a very long time.’ Christine Warne Roy said he remembers when the line for the theater used to stretch along James Street all the way up to Ludington Avenue and wrap around the corner, sometimes past where Fort Daul used to be. “I remember there was this show called ‘Asylum of Horrors’ out of Toledo that came to the Lyric and the Frankenstein monster was sick, so I ended up being the guy who played Frankenstein,” Roy said. “I wore this big headpiece mask and there weren’t any lines. I just came out of the settings. People used to hit me in the stomach.” Butterfield kept the theater until it was purchased and remodeled by GKC Theaters in 1990. Paul S. Peterson, former Ludington Daily News managing editor, has his own fond memories of the Lyric. “The longtime manager of the Lyric, Bill Green, strictly enforced no talking, no throwing things at the screen and never put your feet on the seat in front of you,” Peterson said. “Any
of these infractions could and often did mean expulsion. Green tossed me out once and I felt like a criminal.” In his youth, tickets were 12 cents for children and 25 cents for adults. Peterson recalls the Lyric’s classy reputation and for having the best popcorn in town, which the Lyric employees boasted about until the last night the theater was open. Peterson recalls the walls being lit dimly and the lights remaining on throughout the movie. A balcony was in the last three rows of the theater and he remembered a mezzanine with a few rows of seats. “There was a candy machine near the lobby and for a nickel you could get a box of small Tootsie Rolls, JuJu Fruits, Boston Baked Beans, licorice and an assortment of other candy,” Peterson said. People didn’t worry about parking, and used to walk eight or 10 blocks to get to the movies. “I remember seeing ‘Gone With the Wind’ (in my opinion the best film ever made), ‘Casablanca’ and my first war movie, ‘Mrs. Miniver,’” Peterson said. “At that time the Sunday movies ran continuously from 1 p.m. until the last show at 9:30.” It was common, he added, for people to come in
halfway through a show, staying until the next playing to catch what they’d missed. “It was a great place until it stopped looking like a movie theater,” Peterson said. “They tore off the marquee and tiling that was used on the front of the building, making the place look like a box that totally lacked character.” The Lyric Cinema 4 closed its doors on Sept. 6, 2007, leaving those who used to enjoy the entertainment and who worked there with only memories. “I think this is very sad,” said Christine Warne in 2007, a 25-year patron of the Lyric. “(The Lyric) has been an institution in this town for a very long time. I wish we can find a good use for it.” Former employee Janet VanEtts also had fond memories. “My first job when I was 14 was at the Lyric, for 35 cents an hour. I was an usher back in 1952,” she said. “I remember the only tip I got was the night ‘Gone With the Wind’ showed and we had a full house.” “My fondest memory was when I was 12 years old and me and my neighbors Sherry and Cindi used to walk down to the matinee on Saturday,” said local Sharon Sullivan. “We used to look forward to it all week.”
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Ludington Daily News Dec. 15, 2003 T
he Monday, Dec. 15, 2003 edition of the Ludington Daily News featured a front page story on the capture of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
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‘We got him’
Concealed weapon law change proposed
‘The tyrant is a prisoner’
By BRIAN MULHERIN Daily News Staff Writer
• Saddam accorded POW protections • Documents in his briefcase lead to other regime officials By LARRY MARGASAK Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Saddam Hussein will have protections accorded to prisoners of war as U.S. officials try to press him for information on the insurgency against coalition forces, top defense officials say. Saddam’s capture is already reported reaping dividends for the U.S. military. The first transcript of Saddam’s initial interrogation and a briefcase of documents he had with him helped lead to the capture of several top regime figures, one commander told the Associated Press Monday. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Sunday it was too early to know whether Saddam would take a hardened approach with interrogators or would cooperate, but he described Iraq’s former leader as one who projected a tough-guy image but was captured cowering in a hole in the ground. “At this point I wouldn’t characterize it ... either way, cooperative or uncooperative,” Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, said Monday. “In my interfaces with him he has been talkative. He’ll respond readily to questions that are asked of him in terms of just normal administrative requirements,” Sanchez told The Early Show on CBS. “That’s how I would term his cooperation with us at this point.” The former dictator — one of the world’s most-wanted fugitives — was captured by Special Forces during a massive raid on a farmhouse near Saddam’s hometown of Tikrit, according to Capt. Desmond Bailey. Troops from the 4th Infantry Division guarded the area while Special Forces found Saddam and pulled him out of the narrow hole. “We have him,” they radioed to division commanders nearby, Bailey said. The tip off came from an individual arrested in Baghdad Friday and brought to Tikrit on Saturday morning for an interrogation that made clear Saddam was in the area, according to Col. James Hickey, who led the raid. Soldiers were seconds away from throwing a hand grenade into the hole when Saddam surrendered, Hickey said. Saddam was hiding in a plastic foamcovered underground hide-out near one of his former palaces in his hometown of Tikrit late Saturday. He was disheveled and wearing a thick beard, and though he was armed with a pistol, the man who waged and lost two wars against the United States and its allies did not resist or fire a shot. “Ladies and gentlemen, we got him,” U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer told a news conference. “The tyrant is a prisoner.” See CAPTURED, page A2
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AP photo/US MILITARY VIA APTN
Captured former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein speaks in Baghdad Sunday in this image from television. Top U.S. administrator in Iraq L. Paul Bremer confirmed the capture of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in a dirt hole under a farmhouse near his hometown of Tikrit, eight months after the fall of Baghdad.
Daily News/ANDY KLEVORN
SADDAM CAUGHT — A patron at Ludington’s American Legion Post watches President George Bush announce the capture of Saddam Hussein Sunday.
‘I knew how happy the troops over there must have felt’ Residents express relief over capture of Saddam Hussein By PATTI KLEVORN and SARAH JENSEN of the Daily News Staff Army National Guard Specialist Michelle Hemmer of Ludington was driving Sunday morning when she learned the news of Saddam’s capture. “I said, ‘Yes,’” she told the Ludington Daily News this morning of her initial reaction. “Yes, finally. Maybe now we can see some improvement.” Hemmer was deployed to the Middle East for six months, a stint which ended July 30. She spent part of that time in al Kut, Iraq, southeast of Baghdad. “I actually felt thrilled, then thought, ‘What a weird thing to feel so excited about,’” she said of her thoughts about
INSIDE: • After near misses, ‘Ace in the Hole’ found — Page A6 • World markets react — Page A6 Saddam being captured. “But I knew how happy the troops over there must have felt. I thought it would be really interesting to be there and see their reaction.” Those who oppose the war in Iraq expressed similar excitement over Saddam’s capture. “Of course I’m delighted that they found him,” said Ludington’s Judith Dila, a Mason County Peace Coalition member. “It’s exciting that they actually found him because it wasn’t clear if he was dead or not. Now they can have some closure and come forward to help the coalition forces to establish a government in Iraq. Maybe the Iraqi people won’t be so afraid of retaliation from Saddam’s henchmen.”
Having Saddam in custody will help the troops psychologically, Hemmer said. “What a nice morale booster.” “The job of going over there and overthrowing the government and freeing the Iraqi people would not be complete without the capture of the former leader,” she added. Hemmer keeps in contact with some of the military personnel she served with in the region through letters and e-mail. She said that the level of violence has appeared to increase since she returned home, causing her to worry about her friends still there. “I’ve felt that it seems to be more dangerous now, that there’s an elevated level of concern for them,” she said. The question everyone wants to know the answer to is “Will the capture of Saddam help stem the violence?” See REACTION, page A2
In 2001, a new law took effect that changed Michigan’s concealed weapons law in a fundamental way. Citizens could now apply for and receive a concealed pistol license unless the authorities could prove they were unfit to have one. Previously, applicants had to show that they had legitimate need for a concealed weapons permit in order to receive one. Many law enforcement officials expressed concerns that the change would lead to more violent crime. So far there has been no discernible correlation between the increase in concealed pistol licenses and an increase in violent crime. Last week, State Senator Michelle McManus,R-Lake Leelanau, introduced a bill that would again change how concealed pistol licenses are processed. Senate Bill 891 would remove the county gun boards, consisting of the county prosecutor, county sheriff and commander of the nearest state police post, from the equation and put the responsibility for processing concealed pistol licenses with the Secretary of State. “Transferring this responsibility to the state level will reduce costs for Michigan counties and streamline the process for applicants,” McManus said in a press release. “This is important for permit seekers as well as state and local governments.” Currently, applicants can pick up an application packet at the county clerk’s office or a law enforcement office, but must be fingerprinted at a police department or sheriff’s office. They also must obtain a passport photo from a third source before the entire package is sent to the state police in Lansing for a background check. Under the new bill, fingerprinting at a local law enforcement agency and a background check would still be required, but everything else, from the application at a local branch to the review process in Lansing would go through the Secretary of State. Concealed weapons licensing board members from area counties had mixed thoughts on the new bill. “In principle, we don’t object to it,” said Manistee County Prosecutor Ford Stone. But Stone added that county gun boards may consider information other than that in the criminal history and permit application. Gun board members may be aware of information known to local law enforcement that might make a person unsuitable for a concealed pistol license. He said that while the proposed bill allows the Secretary of State to check with police agencies in the municipality in which the applicant resides, there is no sharing of information among law enforcement agencies. The sharing of information that a gun board makes possible is a valuable tool in evaluating applications. Mason County Sheriff Larry Stewart said he believed the state was trying to standardize the process across the state, but he said he didn’t believe people in Mason County wanted to be treated the same as people from more populated areas. “If I wanted to be treated like I live in Detroit, I would live there,” Stewart said. See CCW, page A3
Ludington schools to amend budget By KEVIN BRACISZESKI Daily News Staff Writer Ludington’s school board will tonight consider amending this year’s budget to reflect a state cut of $230,000 in funding to the district. The board will also learn about plans to repair and improve the district’s school buildings and it could take action to approve a construction schedule for the projects. The budget amendments follow state action to cut K-12 funding in Michigan by $92 per pupil this school year. Ludington Superintendent Mike Oakes said that will cost the district about $230,000, and he believes the district’s budget can absorb that cut this year without cutting any programs. He noted that the board is already spending about $1 million less than it did last year, and that it would be difficult to cut any more money from the budget without cutting programs. Meanwhile, plans are being developed for school building improvement projects and the board will learn tonight about progress being made on those plans. Voters approved a $10.3 million bond to pay for improvements to the high school/junior high complex and
also approved a separate request for a 10-year, .5-mill sinking fund tax to pay for improvements to elementary school buildings. The board has hired an architectural firm and a construction management firm to oversee the work on those projects, and representatives of those firms are scheduled to present information about the projects during tonight’s school board meeting. The board is then scheduled to consider approving the planning and preparation work done so far and allow the firms to begin preparations for letting the projects out for bid. The board is also scheduled to consider plans to spend $287,000 of the bond money on technology hardware for the buildings. Oakes has said he expects work to remove asbestos from the complex will begin during Christmas break, and that work to replace the boilers and heating system will begin after the heating season ends. In other business tonight, the board is scheduled to: • consider approving a new number of credits required for graduation, based on the change from the semester system to the trimester system this year. The plan under consideration would increase the requirements gradually each year until it is fully imple-
mented with the Class of 2007, the first class to complete its whole high school career under the trimester system. • consider accepting the retirement of orchestra and elementary music teacher Mary Miller. Oakes said Miller intends to retire at the end of the school year, so the board will have time to look for a replacement. Oakes also noted that the orchestra had a small enrollment, but did attract Schools of Choice students from other school districts. kevinb@ludingtondailynews.com 845-5181, ext. 309
Pentwater bond election vote continues through 8 p.m. Results tonight online PENTWATER — Pentwater School District voters go to the polls today to decide the fate of a bond proposal, up to 1.9 mills for 25 years, for school building improvements. The school is open for voting until 8 tonight. Visit the Daily News online at www.ludingtondailynews.com for results tonight.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2017
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| Ludington daily newS/SECTION 10 www.ludingtondailynews.com
Harold ‘Fuzz’ Lovewell
A true passion for printing By Steve Begnoche Special to the Daily News
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41-year career in the Ludington Daily News “shop” went by faster for Harold “Fuzz” Lovewell than it might have for some. The long-time production manager retired from the newspaper in 2002. “I took printing in high school. I really liked it. That’s why I went into it. That’s why I liked my job. They say If you like your job it goes faster,” said the Ludington resident. Lovewell grew up in Grand Rapids. He studied printing at Ferris State and worked in a shop in Shelby printing the Oceana Herald, a former Pentwater newspaper and a shopper, before he was hired by the Daily News. “I wanted to stay around this area,” he said. He found the small town lifestyle more to his liking than the bigger city feel of his hometown. “When I started, I was in the back room. I marked up all the ads,” Lovewell said. The sales staff would lay out an ad on a piece of paper, Lovewell would mark up the proper type size for each line and send it off to the typesetters. “Peg Winey was the foreman of the back room. It was all done by hand, by Linotype. We had Ludlow for headlines,” Lovewell said. The Ludlow Typograph, which was a hot metal typesetting machine like the Linotype, allowed for larger sizes of type — as much as four times as large as what the Linotype machines used for producing the lines of the text of stories. Lead was melted for both processes. “All the lead was cut by hand,” Lovewell remembered. The shop had a darkroom for preparing ads. They used
Harold Lovewell worked in the Ludington Daily News pressroom for 41 years, retiring in 2002. poured lead, put the elements of the paper together from both editorial and advertising, and printed what was generally a one-section, eight-page paper. “It’s all we knew,” Lovewell said of that earlier, more labor-intensive process. “It took you a lot longer to put a little eight-page paper together that way. “Everything had to be set, everything had to be proofed,” he said. Back then, the paper produced issues six afternoons a week. “We got the seventh Saturday off,” Lovewell said of how scheduling in the shop went. “It always rained.” On the bright side, he said the shop staff could leave each day after their work was done, meaning some days were shorter than a standard, eight-hour workday. Lovewell became production manager in 1972, when the paper switched to offset printing on Goss Community Presses. There were new skills to learn and a new way of production. The lead, Linotypes and Ludlow machine-era at the paper was now history. “It was a lot cleaner. You didn’t get so dirty,” Lovewell said. Some basic duties remained, but the manner of doing them changed.
Here, Lovewell, left, works with Peg Winey and Clarence “Clancy” Schaefer.
‘It came out in one big sheet. We cut it up, waxed it, and put it together.’ Harold “Fuzz” Lovewell “The ads still had to be put together. I did the same thing. I marked up ads, and someone typed it,” Lovewell said. Large type for story or ad headlines still had to be set separately. “It came out in one big sheet. We cut it up, waxed it, and put it together,” he said of the process to make an ad or a page. Instead of producing chases of lead type to put on the press, paper pages were created, placed on a large, page camera and “put to negative,” which used to “burn a plate” — a thin, flexible sheet of metal bearing the page image that is placed on the drums of the press. Instead of working with
Staffers are, from left, June Rozelle, Clarence “Clancy” Shaefer, Julie (Clark) Eilers, Chris Mapes, Jerry Funk, Gene Brady, Jim Funk, Harold “Fuzz” Lovewell and, seated, Linda Ray.
hot lead, the composition room was a place of scissors, razor blades, Exacto knives, a paper cutter, line gauges and large, newspapersized sheets of ruled paper. Each paper element was put through a machine that applied hot wax to the unprinted side of the paper to hold the element in place. Because it was wax and not glued or taped, an element could be easily and repeatedly lifted, repositioned or removed without damage. The elements also sometimes stuck to clothes, shoes or anything else they were pressed onto, intentionally or otherwise. The paper layout page was sectioned into vertical columns and horizontal lines in light blue that were invisible to the negative camera but guided the person putting the elements in place. “The first thing we ever printed on the new offset press was the high school senior section,” Lovewell said. “We shouldn’t have done it … it was all pictures. That was a little scary. It turned out OK.”
Properly reproducing photos is often the most technically challenging part of offset printing. Adding color photos only added to the challenge in ensuing years. Color photos involved four separate impressions on four separate press units filled with a specific ink color — magenta (red), cyan (blue), yellow and black. To make it more challenging, the newsprint was one continuous long sheet of paper that was pulled from a 700-pound or more roll through each needed press units at rapid speeds. Each color needed to be impressed on the correct spot on the page that was speeding through the press, or the image would be blurry. Even adding spot color — whether pure magenta, cyan or yellow, or a mix of two or more of those inks to produce other colors — had its challenges. “Color was a big thing,” Lovewell said. “I remember we sent away for separations.” Technology continued to change. The early word pro-
cessors that worked their way into the newspaper industry didn’t have much memory and sometimes required the typesetter to also type a series of letters as a command. He recalled with pride a move he suggested to take the newspaper from six columns to five columns. He got the OK, and with the help of Chris Mapes, who’s now deceased, laid out the new structure. “That was kind of a big thing,” Lovewell said. In the latter 20th Century and continuing into the early years of the 21st Century, page dimensions shrunk as the continuous effort to reduce newsprint costs, which can be as volatile (and painful) as oil prices, led to other such changes. “I had a lot of good help,” Lovewell said. “That was the big thing. I got along with the girls typing. Gene Brady was a heckuva pressman. I had a lot of good personnel.” In retirement, he said, “it’s all family,” referring to his family that’s united by blood lines, not ink stains.
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