CLICK TO HEAR COMMENTS FROM TARA LASSE-MCKINNEY, MARQUETTE DDA
The Phil Niemisto statue, located in the Phil Niemisto Pocket Park on the 100 block of West Washington Street, will be removed for the winter for repairs by artist Earl Senchuk.
“It’s been out for a few years and it’s gotten a bit weathered,” Tara Laase-McKinney with the Marquette Downtown Development Authority told RRN News. “The artist has agreed to remove Phil and do some repairs over the winter to keep him looking in tip-top shape. “There has been a little vandalism to him. In teh past year or so, people have taken his hat. So that’s going to be permanently affixed. And there will be some weatherization done as well.”
She says Niemisto, who passed away last year, was beloved in the Marquette community.
“He was definitely an icon in downtown Marquette,” Lasse-McKinney said. “He was just a wonderful, wonderful man. He would go out and wash windows for people. He always had a smile on his face. So as a way to remember him, we have this statue.”
The Marquette Downtown Development Authority says the statue will be replaced in the spring of 2020.
