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You could win free car at Expo
John Decker can’t wait to give away a free car. This year’s Rockford Chamber of Commerce Community Expo, scheduled for March 20 at Rockford High School from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. may be his chance.
JOHN CAN’T WIN—But you can. One lucky finalist will have the chance to win a 2010 Chevy Malibu just like this one at this year’s Community Expo on Saturday, March 20.
“There will be very, very good odds,” Decker said of the opportunity that one Expo visitor will walk away with a 2010 Chevy Malibu. Decker said he has been offering a free car for various golf outings for a hole in one and has never given a car away. The winner will be responsible only for the tax, license and insurance costs.
Those who walk away without a new car will not leave empty-handed. Four people will win $500 in cash and there will be other prizes throughout the day. Many of the nearly 200 exhibitors will have giveaways or prize drawings.
New this year is what visitors will take away in smarts. Throughout the day free educational workshops will be held. Visitors can sit in and learn about real estate investing, financial tips, estate planning, sources of toxins in the home, staying young your first 100 years, and more.
“It will all be really good information,” said Brenda Davis, executive director of the Rockford Chamber of Commerce.
In its sixth year, the Expo is again a sellout for exhibitors, and each year the attendance has increased. Last year just under 11,000 people attended the event. Local celebrities, mascots, live radio remotes, and non-stop entertainment by Rockford students are among attractions.
“We have a wonderful community. We are well-supported in all our events, not just Expo,” Davis said of the popularity of the annual event.
Starting at 10 a.m. and on the hour up to 2 p.m., two entries will be drawn as semifinalist for the free Malibu drawing. Visitors need not be present to be chosen as a semifinalist, but need to be on hand at 2:30 p.m. when the single finalist is chosen.
The lucky person will draw from 20 envelopes. Two of the 20 will be matching and indicate the car. If the person draws the right two, they will win the $25,000 vehicle.
“These are probably better odds than the golf outing hole-in-one odds,” Decker said. “I really want to give away a car.”
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Rockford dancers take top honors in Chicago
The competitive dancers at Rockford School of Dance (RSOD) have once again claimed top honors at the annual DanceAmerica regional competition in Chicago. Dancers from across the Midwest came to the Paramount Theatre in Aurora, Ill., to compete in the varied dance categories.
The Rockford School of Dance Junior team.
RSOD is thrilled with their success, as all their dance numbers have qualified for the July 2010 DanceAmerica nationals at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla.
The Primary team was awarded first-place trophies for both their tap and jazz performances to “Little Bitty Pretty One” and “3-6-9,” as well as an Overall High Score Line merit award for Primary/Junior “Little Bitty Pretty One.”
Members of the RSOD Primary team are Madelyn Butts, Carmen Goodson, Kelsey Howard, Whitney Howard, Arianna Hyink, Kalyn Jones, Kassidi Krzykwa, Madeline Konsdorf, Hannah Miller, Madeline Newman, Emily Page, Jillian Roney, Madison Schilling, Haley Smith, Sydney Stites, Annika Trierweiler and Isabel Wood.
The Rockford School of Dance Advanced team.
The Junior team received a first-place trophy for their tap dance, “Wall Street,” as well as an Overall High Score Large Group merit award for Primary/Junior and Best Precision award.
They also received a third-place trophy for their ballet performance of “Pokinoi” and a fourth-place trophy for their jazz dance “Make Me.”
Members of the RSOD Junior team are Abigail Anthony, Brianna Brugel, Lauren Dilly, Jacklyn Eding, Ilene Gould, Alexis Hall, Hali Maybank, Amanda Schultz, Ashley Serbenta and Paige Wolterstorff.
The Advanced team brought home two first-place trophies for their jazz performance of “My Same” and tap dance to “PYT,” which also earned an overall award for Best Precision Intermediate/Senior.
The RSOD Advanced team members are Ona Andrews, Ashley Day, Kendall DeVries, Anna Dood, Savanna Fisher, Kara Greenberg, Kenzie Hansen, Shannon Kelly, Hannah Maroe, David Maybank, Riley Thomas, Kaylin Walters and Hanna Watters.
The Junior and Advanced teams combined forces for a jazz production number to “Glee” and “Steppin’ Out” tap production performance. Both dances received second-place trophies.
Several RSOD competitors performed solos and duos. David Maybank’s “100 in a 55” received a first-place trophy and he also qualified for DanceAmerica’s prestigious Dancer of the Year program, as did Kaylin Walters, who also received a third-place trophy for her “Let’s Face the Music and Dance” performance.
Kara Greenberg’s “I Want to Go to Hollywood” received third place, Kenzie Hansen’s “Flashback” received fifth place, Shannon Kelley’s “On A Cloud,” Ashley Day’s “Declaration of Love” and Hannah Maroe’s “Almost Like Being In Love” all received merit awards.
Ona Andrews and Hannah Watters’ “Black & Gold” duo performance received a first-place award, and Ashley Serbenta and Paige Wolterstorff’s “Let It Go” earned a second-place trophy.
Rockford School of Dance also earned the Spirit Award, representing great sportsmanship throughout the weekend.
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Belmont plan puts residents in ‘road rage’
Tim Rau tells the Plainfield Township Board of trustees of his opposition to widening Belmont Road to three lanes. The Kent County Road Commission finalized the project plans earlier this year.
A small but vocal group of residents are disputing whether a decision to upgrade parts of Belmont Road was properly handled. They hope to stop the Kent County Road Commission project.
On Friday, February 26, about 20 people met at Plainfield Township Hall to speak with Senator Mark Jansen, who was holding office hours there.
The group, led by Belmont resident Tim Rau, also confronted the Plainfield Township Board on Monday, March 1 to state their complaints.
The Kent County Road Commission (KCRC) received a federal grant to help cover the costs of road improvements on Belmont Road from Jupiter to Post drive, a 1.1 mile stretch.
According to Jon Rice, managing director of the KCRC, that stretch of road will be widened into a narrow three-lane road, enclosed storm drains, curbs and gutters will be put in and some sidewalks will be added.
Financing on the $1.4 million project will be covered with an 80-20 split, with the federal grant paying for 80 percent, KCRC paying $300,000 and Plainfield Township contributing $200,000.
Opponents of the project insist they were not involved in the planning of the work, believe the addition of the third lane will increase traffic speed and endanger the students at the two elementary schools and one day care center located within the improvement boundaries. They also believe property values will decrease for residents on the road.
The owner of Consolidated Controls, just north of Plainfield Township Hall, said the widening would be a hardship for his business and likely make him unable to park in front of his business.
“This is a rural area. Are we trying to put an expressway in there? If anything, narrow the road and push traffic to Jupiter,” he stated. He stated that a residence north of him has a porch already practically on the road and the Belmont Grocery is also very close as it is.
Robert Homan, Plainfield Township manager, told the audience that in some form, the project has been in the works for decades and at one point a four-lane road was planned.
Those opposing the plan believe the process did not sufficiently allow public input as required.
Rau said he believes planners of the project were unlawful in excluding public input. He said an informational meeting held in the dead of winter fell on the worst snow day of the year and was not rescheduled. “It’s morally wrong,” he stated.
After some respectful and more scornful questioning by residents, several board members expressed concern at the level of opposition to the project.
Supervisor George Meek said that in both a public hearing and the informational meeting few residents showed up. “Because of lack of participation, we assumed there was no opposition, but that’s not the case,” he said.
Previously the board had unanimously voted to contribute $200,000 toward the project, with the exception of Jack Hagedorn, who had been absent.
“I use the White Pine Trail and am already nervous about crossing it with two lanes,” said Trustee Rebecca Borek. She also recalled the township’s former farm market with the parking across the road and said that was difficult to cross there as well.
Hagedorn said there was a lot of opposition and misunderstanding over the project. “Personally I feel we might want to step back from the project,” he said.
Clerk Scott Harvey said he voted for the expansion. “Three months after the vote we were running out of money and I wish I could change my vote,” he stated.
Rice who said construction is tentatively slated to start in June, said currently 8,500 cars per day go through the section of road. “When we do a design, we do it for a 20-year projection,” he said, noting that it is expected in 20 years that 11,000 vehicles daily will use the street.
The road has long needed improvements, but there was no funding, a point Meek had made during the meeting.
Rice said the third lane would improve traffic flow, especially with the number of turns in the area. “Third lanes have worked extremely well. They provide safe left-hand turns, taking away conflict points of cars waiting for the vehicle in front of them to make a left-hand turn and passing on the shoulder.”
Drainage has also long been an issue for that section of road, very flat with a tendency for puddles to develop on rainy or snow melt days. The issue has “been there forever” and the curbs and storm drains would alleviate the problem.
KCRC staff was on hand during the informational meeting when heavy snow was blamed on poor public turnout. Rice said he, the five-member Board of County Road Commission, and four KCRC staff members attended the meeting. It had been published in a legal announcement in the Grand Rapids Press, on two roadside signs and letters were sent to every home in the proposed expansion stretch of road. Eight members of the public showed up.
Rice said that informational meeting was not required, but was in addition to the public hearing, which is required. At that meeting, held at the township hall on January 12, 2010, five residents showed up.
Public input from the informational meeting was incorporated into the current plan, Rice said. At the first meeting, residents expressed concerns about the third land and the width of the road, so the final plan is a narrow third-lane road.
“We narrowed it by two feet on each side to allow more parkway,” he said. He also said no property owners lost property as all expansion is in right-of-way of the road.
Trees will be removed as part of the project, Rice said. He stated that in any project that addressed the drainage issue, trees would have to come down, regardless of widening the road.
It’s going to be a huge improvement,” Rice said and believes it is greatly to taxpayers’ advantage to have the road improved without costing local taxpayer dollars. Plainfield Township’s $200,000 portion comes from block grants and is not coming out of general funds, according to Supervisor Meek.
The County still needs to obtain permits from property owners in order to complete grades along some of the yards and driveways. Rice said this is to smooth the height difference between roadway and yards and avoid issues of standing water at property lines. He said several homeowners have yet to provide the county with the permission to perform that work.
“People have been very agreeable,” he said of obtaining most permits.
At the close of Monday’s board meeting, most Plainfield trustees seemed interested in arranging another meeting between the Plainfield board, the KCRC and the public. Tim Rau said he was happy with this result. “It seemed like some emotion was getting through,” he said.
In addition to the Belmont expansion, the KCRC has two other projects listed for 2010. On West River Drive from Jupiter Avenue to East of Verta Drive will be reconstruction and the addition of a center left turn lane for an overall five-lane section. It will include concrete curb and gutter, storm sewer, sidewalk ramps, concrete and HMA pavement. Two-way traffic (one-lane in each direction) will be maintained during construction.
On Northland Drive from M-57 to 15 Mile Road will be reconstruction and widening to a three-lane all season section. It will include concrete curb and gutter, storm sewer, ditches and HMA pavement. Through traffic will be detoured.
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WWW sewer lines permanetly sealed with concrete
Wolverine World Wide’s sewer line was filled in on Wednesday, Feb. 24. Below, the public line, parallel, continues to flow. A bulkhead blocked cement flow at the end of the Wolverine line.
On Wednesday, February 24, a caravan of Grand Rapids Gravel cement trucks rolled through Rockford. The trucks tag-teamed one after another pouring cement into the dedicated Wolverine World Wide industrial sewer lines under the City.
According to City Manager Michael Young, the pipes date back to the 1950s and run parallel to a public sewer pipes. Future Wolverine property construction will tap into the public pipes.
Young said Wolverine covered the cost of filling the lines, which leaked 50,000 gallons of ground water from cracks on an average day into the waste water system going to the PARCC side treatment plant. On rainy days the groundwater input was as high as 100,000 gallons, a percentage of the 600,000 gallon total flow.
John Dykema from Grand Rapids Gravel Company said the trucks each carried eight yards of cement and the project required about 30 truck loads. On Monday, March 1, spring weight restrictions went into effect to minimize pot hole damage. One driver said that the cement hardens, even in underground pipes. The company used bagged cement to shore up the Ada dam, and the cement hardened even underwater in that instance.
Young said there won’t be much savings from treatment costs by eliminating the ground water. “Every little bit helps,” he said.
If the property were to be again used for manufacturing, it is likely new lines would have had to be run anyway, because of the condition of these. “It’s historic, that’s corking it off,” Young said of the closed tannery.
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Cannon Twp. chosen for state wetlands program
Cannon Township has been chosen to be part of the Wetlands Local Assistance Pilot Program through the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment (MDNRE). The goal of the pilot program is to increase the efficiency of the wetland permitting process through local and state resources in order to protect the wetlands of the state.
The township is one of only three entities chosen by the state to participate in the pilot program. The other two entities chosen are Michigan Association of Conservation Districts on behalf of Calhoun, Delta and Muskegon County Conservation Districts and the Thumb Land Conservancy of St. Clair County.
Cannon Township Watershed Administrative Assistant Kim Sapkowski applied for the program in December 2009. She was notified of the township’s acceptance into the program on February 23, 2010.
“Cannon Township has been a state leader in watershed conservation,” said Sapkowski. “Participating in this pilot project will allow the township to partner with the state of Michigan to not only streamline the wetland permitting process, but to educate our citizens about wetlands and the importance of protecting them. It is our goal to show other communities that local wetlands protection can be done.”
The township’s Wetlands Ordinance protects wetlands in Cannon Township that are less than five acres. This is important, because the MDNRE only regulates wetlands that are more than five acres in size and/or are adjacent to a body of water.
“Wetlands control flooding, filter storm water run-off, recharge groundwater [drinking water], and provide habitat for Michigan’s native plants and animals,” commented Sapkowski. “Wetlands are one of the most complex ecosystems in the world; most of a wetland’s function and ecosystem goes unseen by humans, but is nonetheless very important.”
MDRNE’s Amy Lounds is preparing the final outline of the program, which will run until October 1, 2012.
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