Stiggs Brewing to serve up beer, food starting in January

From the Petoskey News-Review: As he prepares to open Stiggs Brewing Co., Mike Castiglione sees a couple of reasons why its downtown Boyne City setting should be favorable for business. Castiglione expects a soft opening for the brewery at 112 S. Park St. during the first week of January and plans a grand opening on Jan. 27. “Boyne City is a vibrant small town,” Castiglione said. “It’s really growing.” And, with Stiggs joining other beer-focused establishments downtown — including two taprooms that have opened during the past year — “I think if you’re a beer connoisseur, you’ll come to Boyne City to try them all.” The bar at Stiggs will feature more than 30 taps. About seven of the brewery’s own beer selections will be available at launch. Full story.

Which of these deserving nominees will win awards at Annual Meeting on Jan. 19th?

Find out who wins the awards for leadership, entrepreneurship, volunteerism and more - at the Chamber's Annual Meeting on January 19th. The readers of the Boyne Chamber/Main Street newsletter picked the winners. More than 350 people responded to an online survey and voted for the best of Boyne in December. As one respondent commented: "Wow, what great and difficult choices. There are several deserving choices in every single category. It's the people who make the Boyne City area so successful and great. No wonder Boyne rocks!"
Here are the terrific nominees in six categories:
> Sally Roselli Business Leadership Award
  Michelle Cortright of Harbor House Publishers
  Elizabeth Looze of Challenge Mountain
  Jane McKenzie of Northern Homes Community Development Corporation
  Pat O'Brien of Pat O'Brien and Associates Real Estate
> Entrepreneur of the Year
  Chuck, Joel, and Jeff Smith from Northern Michigan Sports Medicine
  Rich Bergmann of Boyne City Taproom
  Shelley Bush of Up North Imagewear
  Jim Smolak and Matt Cozzens of 7 Monks Taproom
> Young Entrepreneur of the Year
  Michael Cortright of North Country Cycle Sport
  Sara Manchester of Create Community Arts Studio
  Mike Dunlop of Boyne City Taproom
  Donnie Towns of Friggy's SOBO Pub
> Heritage Award
  Jeff Wellman & Gary Deters of RE/MAX Resort Properties
  Mark Kowalske of Coldwell Banker Schmidt Associates
  Michelle Cortright of Harbor House Publishers
  Mike Cain of the City of Boyne City
> Community Pride Award
  Challenge Mountain
  Mushroom Festival Committee
  Eta Nu
  Northern Homes Community Development Corporation
  Boyne Valley Lions Club
> Volunteer of the Year
  Susan Conklin of Good Neighbors Food Pantry
  Mike Sheean of the Top Of Michigan Trails Council
  Scott MacKenzie of Boyne City Kiwanis
  Jackie Wollenberg of Boyne Arts Collective
  Cindy Janssens of Boyne Appétit!

> Here are the winners, announced Jan. 19th at the Chamber's Annual Meeting.

Last River Draw sculpture installed in the Boyne River

After years of planning and months of construction, a new sculpture celebrating Boyne City's historic roots was installed on the banks of the Boyne River in the heart of the downtown on Wednesday. The permanent sculpture entitled "The Last River Draw" was created to celebrate Boyne City's lumbering heritage. This life-size sculpture represents a "River Rat" using his pike pole to help move the logs down the river. The sculpture depicts the interaction of the person, log and water. While the sculpture is anchored on land, it is partially out in and floating on the river for a very realistic representation. Local artists Martha Sulfridge and Wally Barkley along with local artisan and builder Andy Poineau are the three key people behind transforming the vision and models of the sculpture into the fully developed reality. The project has been sponsored by the Boyne City Main Street program and its Design Committee. It was funded primarily thru donations from members of the public in a crowdfunding campaign and a $25,000 matching grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. A formal dedication will be help at a later date.

Pictures by Walter Barkley showing the installation, step by step.

City receives $2.7 million in grants for Open Space and Boyne Valley Trail

Boyne City Mayor Tom Neidhamer speaks to the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund Board, which approved two major grants for the city.  

The City of Boyne City was awarded a $2.4-million grant Wednesday, Dec. 7th, to help purchase the Lake Street Open Space property, and another $300,000 to help build the first phase of the Boyne Valley Trailway, a non-motorized biking and hiking path from the Boyne City Airport to Boyne Falls.

Before sunrise, at around 5:30 a.m. Wednesday morning, December 7th, six members of the Boyne community left to appear before the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund (MNRTF) Board at their annual grant award deciding meeting in Lansing. Traveling to Lansing were Boyne City Mayor Tom Neidhamer, Commissioner Hugh Conklin, City Manager Michael Cain, Boyne City School Board President Ken Schrader, Boyne Area Chamber of Commerce Board President and Boyne Mountain Food and Beverage Manager Michael Doumanian and Chamber Executive Director Ashley Cousens. Also attending were State Senator Wayne Schmidt and Little Traverse Conservancy Executive Director Tom Bailey, who joined Mayor Neidhamer in expressing their support of a grant to help purchase the Lake Charlevoix Open Space property at 475 North Lake Street.

After presentations to the MNRTF Board, it approved a motion making additional income they had received thru the year available to help fund both property acquisition and site development grants. In doing so the board was able to fund all active property acquisition requests statewide and many more site development projects. The MNRTF, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2016, is primarily funded by gas and oil lease revenue generated on State of Michigan lands. Two projects applied for by Boyne City were funded. Funding for the MNRTF Board’s recommended projects next goes before the State legislature for final approval. Much additional local work such as providing appraisals and developing more detailed plans for the trails will be taking place well into 2017 in the months ahead.

In addition to those sizable awards, Boyne City received a check for $35,218 for improvements funded by the mParks recreation program at Waterworks and Avalanche Parks. Some of those improvements, such as a new trail linking the two properties have been fully completed while others will be finalized in the spring.

On Monday of this week Boyne City was notified that it received a $47,500 grant from the Great Lakes Fishery Trust to help Catt Development develop a new proposed public fishing pier at the west end of the Water Street walkway. The pier is expected to be constructed in 2017.

In addition the City of Boyne City appears to be in line for an additional $4,000 tree planting grant from DTE Energy. Paperwork has been submitted and is awaiting final approval.

In a little over two weeks just over up to $2.8 million in grant funds have been received, awarded or pledged to the City of Boyne City. These five grants have taken months and in some cases years to get to these points and while much work remains to bring them to final completion the efforts to date will bring long term benefits to residents and visitors to the region for years to come.

News-Review story with Boyne Valley Trail details and map.

Trails Council map of all regional trails below: