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"Locally Owned & Operated Since 1958"

Christine Mallory, Editor

Friday, January 1, 2021

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For those of you who didn't lis-ten to great aunts, uncles andgrandparents hold singing partiesaround the family's one piano,“The Gas Man Cometh” was anold timey song about the travailsof the laborer.

Greg Marquardt, otherwiseknown as “The Gas Man”, hasserved the community of SilverBay for 36 years as just that, agas man, and now he is retiring.

Starting back in 1985 for Inter-City Gas, Marquardt says hecame in without much experi-ence, but received a lot of train-ing over the years. Later, thecompany was sold and heworked for Northern MinnesotaUtilities. A later change madehim the employee of Aquila outof Kansas City, Missouri. Finally,he is ending his career under theemploy of Minnesota Energy Re-sources, owned by We Energies.

And, even though the compa-nies changed in name, Marquardtdid all the tasks related to gasservice for the town, from read-ing meters, to hooking up ser-vice. Over the years he added ap-pliance repair skills, and becamea familiar face to many house-holds as he often rescued themfrom broken appliance crises.

“It's the kind of job where youare very well needed, I've prob-ably been in every house in Sil-ver Bay and everybody knew me

The Gas Man Cometh No More: Greg Marquardt RetiresBy Kitty Mayo

and felt com-fortable”, saidMarquardt.

Born andraised in Sil-ver Bay,Marquardtsays that henever wouldhave guessedin the begin-ning that hewould be withthe one jobfor 36 years.He eventuallyadded volun-teerfirefighter tohis resume,and onememorableincident hadhim acting indual roles.

“The gas transmission linecoming up to Silver Bay rupturedin February, maybe it was 2004.It was 20 below zero and thepipeline broke and ignited. It waslike daylight at midnight,” saidMarquardt.

Not sure to this day whatcaused the pipeline to breach,maybe ground movement com-bined with a defect in the pipe,Marquardt says that because ofthe high pressure the pipe wasunder that when it blew therewere rocks falling all the way to

Highway 61, even though the ac-tual site of the accident was wellinland.

Working to get the immediatedanger under control, fortunatelyno one was hurt in the incident,Marquardt was immediately con-cerned about what shutting theline down would mean to his cus-tomers in Silver Bay during thedepth of a cold winter.

“I was afraid they were goingto shut down the town, just think

of everybody without heat,” saidMarquardt.

An ingenious workaround wasdevised: tankers filled up withnatural gas at the London Cross-ing connection, then hauled theirloads into town and gas was in-jected into the Silver Bay systemto keep nearly 1,000 customerssupplied and warm.

Planning to spend time withfamily and head south for partsof the winters, Marquardt hasplenty of personal projects linedup for his retirement, includinghouse remodeling, hunting andfishing.

“I really appreciate getting toknow a lot of old timers in townand newcomers, and my custom-ers will be sadly missed, but we'llstill see each other,” saidMarquardt.

Marquardt's last day on the jobwill be January 8th, no replace-ment for his position has yet beenannounced.

Marquardt wants the commu-nity to know that when it is onceagain safe to do so, a retirementcelebration will be announced.

“We're going to have a retire-ment party hopefully this sum-mer, and I hope to see all the cus-tomers and friends that I madethen,” said Marquardt.

Local Restaurants Continue to AdaptBy Kitty Mayo

Restaurants of the north shorehave had to put flexibility at thetop of the menu during the pan-demic, suffering through closingtheir doors to indoor dining in-termittently, and hustling likenever before during the warmtourist season.

Mike Arriola, owner of theLemon Wolf Cafe in Beaver Bay,says that without being able tooffer indoor dining he hasstruggled.

“This place is known for sitdown meals, it's been hard hav-ing to adjust the menu to takeout,” said Arriola.

Arriola and his brother tookover the Lemon Wolf in March2019 expecting the usual ups anddowns that all restaurant ownershave to adapt to. However, therewas no way to prepare for theunknown of a pandemic. Tomake matters more complicated,at the end of 2019 his brothersuffered a debilitating stroke.

“I had to do everything myselfwhile he recovered, then the pan-demic hit,” said Arriola.

Despite adding outside diningto his 50 percent capacity indoorsfor the summer and doing betterbusiness than expected, Arriolasays that he has lost a great dealof income. Unable to sell alcoholwith takeout, needing to invest inmore takeout packaging, and themonths that indoor dining has notbeen an option have all cut intohis already tight margins.

While Arriola says he does un-derstand the virus is very serious,he is nonetheless struggling withthe heavy hit restaurants and barshave taken with the precautionsnecessary to limit transmission.Still, he remains grateful for theresponse from local diners, usinghis warm Texas accent to goodeffect in expressing his apprecia-tion.

“Y'all guys have been good tome as best you can, I'm very

thankful the Beaver Bay and Sil-ver Bay communities have hadmy back,” said Arriola.

Waiting to find out if recentstate legislation will help himout, Arriola is adding a deliveryservice to the Lemon Wolf's op-tions in the hopes it will get moreorders coming in.

The Blue Water Cafe in GrandMarais is experiencing a some-what expected slow down be-cause of the season, and did closefor four weeks until December26th. Open once again for take-out, owner Dan Riddle says thatthe cafe usually closes for acouple weeks in December.

Riddle, who has owned the cafesince 2005, but been involvedwith its operation for the last 18years, says that he is down to justfour staff out of his usual 12 forthis time of year, an indication ofhow much less business he is ex-periencing.

One of just a few restaurantsopen in Grand Marais, the BlueWater Cafe had already madetakeout only adaptations duringthe protocols implemented in thespring, and has pared down theirmenu to more popular items forthe season.

Without indoor dining duringthis time, Riddle says business isnot looking good. “It's fringingon bad, people are staying homeand having their cup of coffeethere,” said Riddle.

Riddle hopes that legislativerelief is in the offing, and has hissights set on 2021 bringing betternews for the ability to safely havediners in the cafe. Meanwhile,he's putting an invitation out tovisit Grand Marais and ordertakeout from the Blue Water.

At Louise's Place in Two Har-bors the cafe setting has trans-formed to a takeout-plus-pantryprovisions as they have flexed tomeet fluctuating expectations.

Continued, see Restaurants, Page 2

After 36 years, Greg Marquardt retires.

Submitted photo