Alpena

Newcomer Todd Britton and incumbent Travis Konarzewski have been chosen as the Republican nominees for Alpena County Board of Commissioners seats, according to unofficial results from Tuesday’s primary election.

The Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly is expanding their statewide reach in the greater Alpena area. Senior citizens will also be able to receive at-home care through the PACE center.

Covering 11 counties in the region, the assessment is being conducted by Bowen National Research, a company that specializes in real estate research. The company has conducted nearly a hundred housing needs assessments across the country, with the average assessment lasting between four to six months.

It's cruise ship season, which mean means ships have begun docking off the coast of several Michigan communities and unloading passengers. Northeast Michigan has seen a rise in tourism and in economic development thanks to one of these cruise lines, Viking Cruises.

April through October of every year is "kitten season," and shelters in Michigan and seeing the effects as space fills up. Second Chance Animal Shelter in Alpena comments on how the flood of kittens is impacting them.

Great Lakes Great Responsibility, a cleanup group based in northeast Michigan with work extending throughout the Great Lakes basin, just surpassed collecting 333,000 pieces of trash. This is a third of their goal to collecting one million pieces of trash through the #GreatLakes1Million challenge.

Community members are helping researchers in northeast Michigan collect data on salamander populations.

The theatre's warehouse burned down in December and was torn down last week, marking the beginning of a path towards reconstruction of the space that housed the theatre's equipment.

The Michigan Economic Development Corporation has awarded a total of $3 million to organizations in the city to help renovate the Culligan Plaza and Sanctuary Cinema.

The Decorative Panels International factory that closed last month and laid off nearly 200 workers was recently toured by two potential buyers. The Alpena Area Chamber of Commerce Buyers said the buyers expressed concern that without the factory's long-time employees, the factory would not be able to reopen and run efficiently.