TIGERS: Pull off blockbuster trade
with Marlins for All-Star players
WEDNESDAY
Page 1B
50 cents/$1.00 Weekend
December 5, 2007
Shipwreck
found off
Manistee
CITY COUNCIL
Water,
waste, and
voting
140-foot long schooner ‘Jessie Scarth beautifully preserved,’
underwater explorer announces find through News Advocate
The sinking of
the ‘Jessie Scarth’
Page 2A
More underwater
photographs
Page 7A
By DAVID L. BARBER
Managing Editor
For hours, Matthew Higgins
skimmed the rolling surface of Lake
Michigan, in search of an all-but-forgotten, 19th Century sunken ship.
He followed a carefully mapped-out
course — a predetermined grid that he
crisscrossed to and fro like a checkerboard road map — all the time hoping
his side-scan sonar would locate the
140-foot, three-masted schooner.
If the “Jessie Scarth” was out-ofsight, out-of-mind to maritime history,
it was not to the 46-year-old college
professor, and shipwreck explorer.
Finally, after days of exhaustive
searching, his effort paid off. Today,
Higgins officially announced he has
found the “Jessie Scarth,” which he has TOP: Matthew L. Higgins in his boat, during a summer search for shipwrecks in the Manistee
documented on videotape and film.
area. ABOVE: The wreck of the “Jessie Scarth” that Higgins discovered in the summer of 2005,
While he will share his findings just off the Manistee coastline.
with other shipwreck explorers early
next year, he chose to announce his
can remember that summer day in 2005, when his find a virgin shipwreck. I was sitting there, looking
discovery through the News Advocate, because he side-scan sonar reacted to the massive silhoulette into my sonar, looking at something that had been
found the shipwreck in “Manistee waters.”
on the lake’s bottom.
there for 130 years and that no one else had ever
“This is the first shipwreck I have found that
“I’d done a lot of research in libraries about seen. Oh, I was excited.”
I’m openly ‘announcing,’” Higgins said. “I’ve been (the ‘Jessie Scarth’),” Higgins said. “I researched
In quick time, Higgins donned his diving
down on a number of wrecks, but this is the first it on the Internet. I read historic accounts that equipment, and slipped beneath the surface of the
one I am going to ‘formally’ announce.
appeared in newspapers.
great, greenish-blue lake.
“I have not disturbed the site. I haven’t done
“I’d been out on the lake for several days. I
“While it looked like some of the decking had
any digging down into the sand. I haven’t been waited for good, calm weather. It’s very difficult caved in, the structure was basically intact,” he
able to find any of the personal artifacts of the out there on the lake. There are no road maps to said. “I could clearly see the bow, the jib boom,
crew. I haven’t disturbed it any way — I haven’t tell you exactly where things are. I’d laid out a big the center board — basically, all the hull lines are
moved anything.
grid and searched several square miles.”
intact.
“All those artifacts still should be down there,
Hours became days. Days became weeks.
“All the ship’s hardware is still there — the
in the heart of the ship,” he said.
Then, just that quick, the “blip” on his sonar ship’s wheel, all the block and tackle, the big
Though it has taken Higgins just over two screen told him he had found what he had been winch that was used to raise and lower the big
years to “document” his findings so he could searching for.
make his public announcement, he said he still
See SHIPWRECK Page 7A
“I was excited,” Higgins said. “I was excited to
2008 F150
Staff Writer
1
MANISTEE FORD-MERCURY
US-31 South
723-9975
By JODIE FLETCHER
Staff Writer
MANISTEE — Today in Lansing,
decisions will be made for Manistee. At 9
a.m., Mayor Cyndy Fuller and Community
Development Director Jon Rose will attend a
meeting of the Michigan National Resources
Trust Fund, where it will be decided whether
or not Manistee will receive the $2.1 million
trust for acquisition of the Man Made Lake
property. Since the mayor was already in
Lansing preparing for this important meeting, Mayor Pro Tem Robert Hornkohl conducted the city council meeting on Tuesday
night, where reports were heard from the
Harbor Commission, Allied Waste and the
city clerk’s office.
Before the reports were heard, the council unanimously voted in favor of allowing
Dental Clinics North to purchase Lot 5 of
Manistee Industrial Park for $13,200. This
purchase will allow the clinic to expand its
practice, which serves low income, Medicaid,
and non-insured patients. The current location on River Street has been in operation for
the past six years and — in that time — has
outgrown the clinic and has no room to grow.
Through the purchase of Lot 5, they will be
able to increase their staff from five full-time
employees to nine full-time employees and
see more patients. This move will alleviate
the current waiting period for appointments
and allow them to better serve the community.
Moving into the Manistee Industrial
Park will exempt Dental Clinics North from
paying property taxes. They will instead be
required to pay the amount they would otherwise pay in taxes to the city in the form of
a service fee.
Dave Bachman, in his role as harbormaster, reported on the activities of the Harbor
Commission, which serves as an advisory
board for matters concerning the marina
and boat launch. They meet once a month,
and, as Bachman explained, “Our most noteworthy contribution really comes from being
the liaison between the fisherman, the boater
and the city.”
He went on to say, “In addition to that our
commission gets first crack at suggestions for
capital improvements.” In the works for this
year is construction of a city kiosk for boaters
Prominent Manistee businessman,
Don Bielski, passes away at age 84
By DANIEL WRZESINSKI
#
Council hears
reports from three
cooperating agencies
MANISTEE — Last Friday,
the City of Manistee, and perhaps
the entire State of Michigan, lost
one of its most important and
prominent business leaders.
Donald C. Bielski was
renowned as an intelligent and
astute businessman, and a loving
family man throughout this community, and beyond.
At the age of 84, the former
Manistee citizen and father of
Larry Bielski and Laura Horvat,
died peacefully on Friday, Nov.
30 at Dixie Medical Center in St.
George, Utah.
Bielski was born in Saginaw
in 1923, son of the late Walter
and Theresa (Konieczka) Bielski.
After much success as a businessman and real estate broker in his
hometown of Saginaw, he moved
up to Manistee in 1977 with his
wife Rita, to be with family.
“My dad was a visionary,”
said his daughter, Laura Horvat.
“He moved here from Saginaw
after becoming successful in the
bowling business. He owned and
operated three bowling alleys in
the Saginaw area,
Licensed Realtors
one of which was
by then-Governor
the fifth largest in
Blanchard.
the world.”
“Don was an
In
addition
incredibly intellito many business
gent and fair man
ventures outside of
who knew when
Manistee County,
to buy and when
Bielski also helped
to sell,” said Buck
this community
Flarity, who knew
grow to unprecDon since his arrivedented heights;
al in Manistee. The
the likes of which
two met over busiDon Bielski
have not been seen
ness matters, but
in a single Manistee
eventually became
individual since.
close friends. “He always had the
Upon arriving in Manistee in sense of a businessman. He was
the late 70’s, Bielski purchased always looking. And he was a
Manistee Lanes (now known as fair man. I felt very sorry that
Striketown) bowling alley. In the he passed away. He was an asset
years that followed, he also had to Manistee and to Manistee
a leading hand in the develop- County. I thought a lot of Don.”
ment of several area businesses
“I enjoyed his company,”
that included Cobi Pines (now said Judge James Batzer, who
known as Manistee National) described Bielski as a good family
Golf Course, Home Furniture, man, and a tough businessman.
and Days Inn.
“He was a self-made busiIn addition to his business nessman,” said Batzer. “I mean,
ventures, Don was also a mem- he truly was self-made. But
ber of the Elks Club, Knights of inside, Don had a heart of gold.
Columbus and American Legion. And he was kind, and generous.
Bielski was also appointed As shrewd a businessman as he
to State of Michigan board of was, he was kind and generous
Manistee, Mich.
•
(231) 723-3592 •
to anyone who needed help. He
helped a lot of people, very quietly.”
But Don also helped Manistee
as a whole, in any way he could.
He helped the community to
grow and flourish in ways that it
might not have, otherwise.
“He helped create the golf
course, he helped build the furniture store, he put up hotels. He
was very successful,” said Batzer.
“Don could survey a landscape
and he had an eye for a good
business opportunity. And when
he saw one he would seize it,
build on it, and grow it.”
“He was an influential person
in the growth of Manistee,” says
Bielski’s daughter, “He wasn’t
afraid to take chances and he
had the fortitude to see Manistee
grow. He saw things that others didn’t see. He believed in
Manistee and he believed in the
people here.”
Funeral services for Don
Bielski will take place this
Saturday at 1 p.m. at Guardian
Angels Church in Manistee.
A complete obituary will be
published this Thursday in the
Manistee News Advocate.
See CITY Page 6A
Deaths
No additonal
deaths reported
Lottery
Classic Lotto 47 jackpot:
$12.7M
See Page 3A
Index
Local/State. . . . . . . . . . . . 3A
Opinion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4A
Business. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5A
Sports Roundup. . . . . . . . . 2B
Coffee Break. . . . . . . . . . . 4B
MarketPlace. . . . . . . . . . . 5B
www.pioneergroup.com