MML Review Magazine Spring 2026

CEA WINNER NEGAUNEE

Read about an architect’s journey across the country, and why he chose Negaunee as his home.

“ It's contagious. One property owner steps up, and the next follows. ” With a popular new downtown comes a packed events calendar. Heffron rattles off the list of festivities, including the recent addition of Fall Fest (“We were extremely shocked how well attended it was”); the first inaugural Witches Night Out (“a fun play on a ladies’ night out”); the New Year's Eve Meatball Drop, hosted by Strega Nonna, in which a 30-pound meatball is dropped into a massive cauldron of tomato sauce (“it's made on-site, cooked, lowered on a contraption approved by the Health Department, it makes a little flippy-flip into the pot, and then they break it up into little pieces and people eat it”); and, in February, the three-day Heikki Lunta Winter Festival, which includes a skiing and snowboarding contest held downtown in partnership with the Meijer State Winter Games. “People remember this town being hopping,” says Heffron. “Like all downtowns back in the day, in the 1970s and 1960s. Before all the big mega-stores and everything moved in. And then, the community started dwindling. And now, it’s having a resurgence because we’re reinvesting in our community—in the downtown.” Current-day Negaunee is an attractive place, in the literal sense—you’re drawn to it. Grabbing lunch at Midtown Bakery, sit ting at Campfire Coffee Roasters, or enjoying time with friends at Upper Peninsula Brewing Company, one feels magnetically pulled to this place. You can imagine yourself living there—on a recent visit, League staff were checking Zillow listings. Lang agrees. “Negaunee has turned into one of those little towns that you go into and say, ‘Oh, I had no idea this was here. This is really cool.’”

The Finalists The League saw some amazing placemaking throughout our state this past year. You can read about all 14 submissions for the 2025 Community Excellence Awards on our People & Place Blog:

In the Heart of Hart, Public Art The HArt Project, the informal name of the City of Hart’s resident-led “Community Spirit Initiative,” includes over two dozen works of public art: a war memorial on an island in Russell Creek, with a flagpole and solar lights; Migration of the Hart, a 40-foot mural paying homage to the region’s migrant workers and Hispanic immigrant families; and a 24-foot-tall Tin Man sculpture downtown. “The thought is by keeping it informal, it can retain that fun and that inclusiveness,” says former City Manager Rob Splane. “There’s space for anyone.” Milford’s Central Park Gets a Glow-Up Central Park, the 12 acres of green space on the banks of the Huron River, had become a bit unkempt. As luck would have it, in 2023, the Village of Milford found itself with a budget for the necessary makeover. The Village restored landscaping and the great lawn, addressed drainage and stormwater issues, redesigned walking paths and driveways to maximize river views, planted wildflowers, and added a pavilion and a boardwalk. “Everyone that goes in there, they’re just blown away at how beautiful it is,” says Village Manager Christian Wuerth. Roscommon Puts a Bird on It The Village of Roscommon lies right in the middle of the breeding range of the Kirtland’s warbler, a little songbird that was taken off the endangered species list in 2019 thanks to a concerted regional conservation effort. In 2025, Roscommon was certified by the Audubon Society as Michigan’s first Bird City. To celebrate the new designation, the Village unveiled a crowdfunded 15-foot-tall Kirtland’s warbler sculpture, designed by New York wildlife artist James Seaman, to a record crowd at the annual Kirtland’s Warbler Festival.

Emily Pinsuwan is a content writer for the League. You may contact Emily at 734-669-6320 or epinsuwan@mml.org.

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