by BETH ALTENA

Cougar or kitty cat? According to DNR Wildlife Specialist John Niewoonder, sightings in Rockford are likely those of housecats. This photo is an image from a Michigan alleged sighting in years past.

“There are lots of things in this world to be worried about, being attacked by a cougar is not one of them. You are much more likely to have a problem with a neighbor’s dog.” The statement was from DNR Wildlife Specialist John Niewoonder of the Plainwell office regarding a string of four recent cougar sightings in Rockford.

The latest sighting was called in by a local real estate agent who was showing a home off the Rogue River last week and saw a cat she estimated at 150 pounds walking along the riverbank near the new Rockford nature trail. The same person also talked recently with another Rockford resident who spotted a big cat near Lake Bella Vista a week ago and heard of another person who reported a sighting near Young Avenue and Bush Street east of Rockford.

All sightings may be related to a Squire article which showed a print of an alleged cougar in Blythefield at the Rogue River, found in the morning after one of this winter’s infrequent snowfalls.

According to Niewoonder, biologists with the natural resources in western states, where the cats are known to frequent, examined the picture of the print posted on the Squire’s website and determined it was a dog. According to his experts, mountain lion prints will never show a claw mark. “Their claws are retracted into the paw while walking, so prints usually turn out to belong to dogs. Cougars have very distinctive prints.”

He said he expected cougar sightings to follow. “I don’t know if it is a social thing or a cultural thing, but once you start talking about a cougar sighting, you get all kinds of sightings. I don’t know if it is just how people’s minds work or a phenomenon.”

Michigan has had confirmed mountain lions, Niewoonder stated, but those were in the Upper Penninsula. He also admitted that lions are known as a traveling animal that can go hundreds of miles, so it is possible a mountain lion passed this area. If it did, he said, no one would be likely to see it.

BEAR SIGHTING A DIFFERENT STORY—A sighting of a bear in Greenville on Sunday, May 13 was clearly confirmed, and much more likely to happen than a cougar sighting. Bears, unlike cougars, aren’t that shy about approaching human habitation and structures. This bear was also not a threat to humans and was likely trying its best to find its way out of Greenville. Who can blame him? If he was in Rockford, he’d probably want to stay. Just kidding, Greenville! It’s a fine town, if you aren’t a bear or cougar. Photo by CRAIG RUNNELL

“We had one captured in the western states—North Dakota or one of those—and was captured again in an eastern state, so it could move through Michigan. However, the vast majority of cougar sightings in this state are likely a large housecat or imagination,” said Niewoonder.

He said the animals’ mobile nature also testify against the chance one cat is hanging around Rockford to be spotted over a period of weeks or months. He also doubts a sudden burst of passing cougar activity across Michigan, which happens to be evident by sightings in Rockford and nowhere else.

“I don’t want to call anyone a liar or question what they thought they saw,” he said.

Niewoonder noted that mountain lions are very large animals; including their tail, they can be eight or nine feet long and up to three feet at the shoulder.

“We have a cardboard cutout and will take it to where people thought they saw a cougar. When we put it out as far as the cougar they saw was, there is nowhere the same size as what they saw.”

Niewoonder also said cougars are very wild animals who don’t like nearing human habitation. He doubted a cougar would cross a human foot bridge or approach a home. In addition, they are animals that prefer dusk and dawn for their activities and aren’t as likely to be seen in broad daylight or dead of night.

Niewoonder acknowledged a misconception that the MDNR has a tendency to deny a cougar presence in Michigan. “There are quite a few bobcats around and we have people who run them with dogs. I guarantee if cougars were out there those guys and their dogs would have come across them.”

He also stated that in states where there are cougars, cougar/car incident are not uncommon. “They are really bad at being around cars. Where you have cougars, you have dead cougars in the roads.”

“I don’t know what to tell them, but I don’t believe it,” Niewoonder said of people who think they have seen a cougar. “We have a lot of evidence that there are not cougars in Michigan. If even ten percent of sightings were legitimate, that would still be an awful lot of cougars in Michigan.”

He also said if cougars were here, we wouldn’t see them and noted that the big cats, like the big bobcats, aren’t very often sighted when they are an established population.

Bears, he noted, are different, and aren’t shy about approaching human homes or getting into trash cans looking for food. They, like cougars, are not normally a threat to humans. “That bear just was disoriented and trying to get away from people,” he stated.

EDITOR’S NOTE: I remember years ago working up at The Cedar Springs Post, my sister’s newspaper, typing stories one evening probably more than 15 years ago and hearing the scanner go off with a cougar sighting. The caller was clearly very distressed, begging the police to come immediately as she was in fear of her life, the life of neighborhood children and pets. It was a pretty exciting call to hear and I waited anxiously to see what the cougar’s fate would be. When officers arrived on the scene and checked back with dispatch, they sounded amused to report a quite fat housecat in the back yard as the source of the excitement.

by BETH ALTENA

This group of firefighters from around the community spent eight hours learning and practicing bus extrication. Rockford resident Kevin Sehlmeyer of Rescue Resources was among the trainers.

Within the last month, Courtland Township firefighters, Cannon Township firefighters and Cedar Springs firefighters all responded to what could be a devastating event: accidents involving school buses. Luckily there were no students on two Rockford school bus accidents this year, but with 870,000 students riding buses daily in the United States, it makes sense for firefighters to be as prepared as possible for the eventual call.

“Everyone’s got school buses in their area,” said instructor Kevin Sehlmeyer, of Rescue Resources LLC of Rockford, who provided the training along with two other instructors.

Twenty firefighters attended the daylong class at Courtland Fire Station, 7480 14 Mile Road, Rockford. They came from departments across West Michigan, including the cities of Reed City, Sturgis, Cedar Springs, Big Rapids, and the townships of Grattan, Oakfield, Courtland and Plainfield.

“You don’t often get a chance to do this kind of training,” said Courtland Fire Chief Micky Davis.

A former church school bus, donated by Louis Padnos Iron & Metal, was the simulated school bus on which firefighters practiced.

TIPPING THE BUS—This part of the training also educated the wrecker driver, as well. As the chains tightened to pull the bus over, the wrecker was pulled backward. After readjusting the stabilizers, the bus was successfully pulled over.

Training was as much what not to do as what to do. Hands-on, Sehlmeyer demonstrated techniques and then allowed each of the firefighters to have their own turn. From breaking and removing the glass in the windows to finding the best lines to cut through the body of the bus, training concentrated on getting first responders into the vehicle as fast and safely as possible.

“If we were doing this on the street the idea is to get us in and the kids out as soon as possible,” said Sehlmeyer. He pointed out some things not to do: leave hanging chunks of metal around the edges of the access holes, what he called “head dingers.”

“Even if we have our helmets on, a lot of rescue and EMS personnel don’t have helmets.”

The same is true for the tools not being used for a moment. Sehlmeyer advised his class to set them down behind the wheels or under the bus where they aren’t a tripping hazard for rescuers or patients. Ripping open a school bus is a different animal than a family vehicle. Sehlmeyer noted there is more layers of steel to be cut.

In bus crashes, the “jaws of life” are less effective in providing an access hole to victims as the hydraulic rescue tool tends to crumple and crush, leaving an opening that is less conducive to moving firefighters in and kids out.

“In a bus extrication, I prefer recipicating saws and air chisels over hydraulic rescue tools. When you use hydraulic rescue tools you can get a very crude, mushed up opening.”

Sehlmeyer showed firefighters the saw blades he prefers to use, and said through training demos like this, he has found a brand that works better and holds up longer than most other saw blades. Although, he said that during the one-day’s demonstration, firefighters would go through five or six during practice.

Buses vary greatly in design and construction, so first responders are not likely to know exactly what they will find under the body of the vehicle. Some seats have steel rods in them, others don’t. He said school buses do have regulations—ideally bus drivers are supposed to be able to push out the windshield with a certain amount of force and width of aisle and placing of the fuel tank are all under strict rules, but other options remain unregulated. He said he doesn’t see school bus seatbelt requirements coming anytime soon—definitely a factor in a crash.

“You want to go in, take out a window and put someone inside,” Sehlmeyer stated.

Having a firefighter in the bus is a great asset to the successful cutting of the access hole and evaluating for injuries. Interior obstacles—staying away from heater hoses and making sure a child isn’t on the other side of the panel—make a difference in deciding where to choose to cut.

“You don’t want to cut through screw heads. Whether you are using a saw, air chisel or hydraulic rescue tools, cutting less mass means faster access.”

For getting the window glass out, Sehlmeyer noted that duct tape on the glass is important, but not pretty. “It doesn’t have to be perfect. You aren’t wrapping a package.” He told the class to get the tape on, burnish it to get a good grip on the glass, and then make the break. “The goal is to get someone on the bus fast to start triage.”

Sehlmeyer explained a difficulty unique to larger vehicles and school buses is the height at which first responders have to operate saws, air chisels and hydraulic rescue tools.

“Nothing is easily done at a bus accident. It’s all over your head.”

He advised making use of available objects to help with raising firefighters to the work—at other bus extrication training students have used a picnic table from a park, other students have used cinder blocks and a panel to make a work platform in a junk yard.

Another unique feature of a bus accident is the narrow aisle through the seats. “You won’t be getting a stretcher or backboard through there,” said Sehlmeyer.

Students may be removed by sliding them across seat tops to an opening created by firefighters on a back board, and lowering them feet first is far preferable than head first, which adds to the distress and panic of the situation.

Chief Davis said another factor rescuers will have to take into account are parents. “How many kids nowadays have a cell phone? The first call they are going to make is to mom and dad to tell them they are in a crash.”

Another factor to take in is the noise the rescue operations make in sawing, breaking glass. Inside the bus the sound is amplified and literally deafening. Assistant Fire Chief Terry Welch said rescuers need to let frightened passengers know the noise is part of getting them help.

Sehlmeyer said his company offers all sorts of training from vehicle and school bus extrication to fire tactics. Through attending  training classes, he became interested in Genesis hydraulic rescue tools, a brand for which he is now the Michigan dealer. He said his company offers the training to help firefighters use the hydraulic tools to their best ability.

“That’s what’s different about my company. I don’t just sell a rescue tool and say ‘There you go.’ We train them how to use them effectively,” said Sehlmeyer.

Constant training, he stated, is important because technology—both in rescue tools and especially vehicle construction—is changing rapidly. Today’s rescue tools often are able to be changed quickly due to new couplers, a newer development that is a great asset when changing from one rescue tool to another is required. Cars, too, are being constructed today of Ultra High Strength Steel (UHSS), thus new vehicles are harder to cut. The cutting force of today’s newer cutters is necessary to respond in accidents involving 2010 and newer cars.

“There are fire departments in Kent County right now that can’t make some cuts into newer cars,” said Sehlmeyer.

Sehlmeyer said he took the plunge to become a representative for Genesis Rescue Tools about six years ago and is proud many fire departments now carry the line. He shared a fire department in the U.P. which covered a stretch of road famous for fatalities had no hydraulic rescue tools until 2008. The department had to rely on the assistance of  a fire department, located a clear hour away. That fire chief said he’d seen dozens of people die in cars because there were no tools to get them out.

Welch said time of day can also be a factor in a bus accident. He noted that for each child on a bus, two rescue professionals are required to extricate and treat them.

“If we are taking forty kids to the hospital, that is a lot of EMTs and rescue,” he stated. “Northern Kent County is really great at mutual aid. We all come to each other’s aid. If this was an accident with thirty or forty kids, a lot of resources would go into it. This has been great training.”

by BETH ALTENA

Sandy and Bill Jobse Jr. sit on the porch of their home at 20 Fremont Street in downtown Rockford. The two took TLC to a new degree to bring back beauty and charm to the home. Their first Halloween in the house they couldn’t hand out candy because they thought children would fall through the rotted porch floorboards.

When Bill Jr. and Sandy Jobse wanted to relocate closer to their work places, they knew they wanted to be in downtown Rockford. “We always came down here during the festivals and festivities. It’s like a perfect little bubble town, always decorated and beautiful,” Sandy said. They were looking for a home, and had previously owned two other houses that had needed a little work. This time it was going to be different.

When asked why they didn’t run screaming when they first walked through the house at 20 Fremont, Sandy said they did. “We did run screaming. But then we came back.”

The home had been that of an elderly man who had apparently become unable to keep the house up. On top of neglect and age, the home had been sitting empty for two years on the market. The other people who had made offers had stated that they planned to tear the building down and build new.

Before

After

There were holes in the walls inside and out, and stains in the ancient carpet. The garage was unusable because beams had been propped in to keep the roof from coming down. The ceiling stucco was peeling down in big strips. There was a cistern for water in the basement, an ancient water-holding structure from before indoor plumbing. The upstairs was completely closed off and apparently hadn’t been used in years. On the porch the rails were rotted out and the floor was caving in. There was no landscaping, just dirt and rocks.

Before

They first saw the home after they’d

After

come to town for dinner. After the initial walk-through, they wanted nothing to do with the house. But for both of them, something about the house connected.

“I like old things and appreciate the history of old houses,” Bill stated.

Before

After

He said they returned to the home and looked it over with a new attitude. The son of the owner of White Creek Lumber, who inherited his dad’s interest in woodworking and craftsmanship, Bill is more able than many to do the repairs the home needed.

Sandy noted both of their previous two homes had needed some repairs. “They were nothing like this, though. Not even close,” she stated.

They decided to take on the house and see what they could do to the home, which they believe dates back to the 1860s, when Rockford was little more than a pioneer lumber town. They even found their plot on the original plot map when the streets of the town were first planned and platted.

In April 2009, when they called the City to come turn on the water of their new abode, water literally began shooting out through the walls in the bathroom. The City promptly turned the water back off until repairs could be made.

A long job, three years later, the home is charming, warm, welcoming and craftily decked out, with storage space behind sliding secondhand glass paned doors, and a bookshelf inset where a deep wall used to hold heating ducts. The original floors are gleaming hand-sanded wood, the kitchen is sunny with plenty of natural light, and the garage is safe for two cars to park inside. The cistern had to be filled in to make the Michigan basement safe.

“On our anniversary when we would have been on vacation, we were sanding the floor,” said Sandy. She said it was miserable, hot work and the windows were still sealed because they had not yet been repaired after years of being painted shut.

Most telling are the ways the Jobses have saved what they could of the historic beauty of the home. History is literally everywhere in the tidy home.

“The trim isn’t original to the house, but I made it like that because that’s how it was originally,” Bill noted of the molding on the doorways and along the tops of the ceiling.

Actual antique grates grace the wall bases and the pair searched estate sales, salvage yards and sales to find the fittings for the home. Sandy said the two were walking their dog, Jasmine, one night and went past the trash of a house being remodeled. Bill saw an old grate in the garbage.

“I felt funny, but Bill didn’t. I kept walking but he didn’t mind taking it. It was pretty dark anyway,” Sandy laughed.

Today a beautiful thorny rose bush covers a trellis to enter the front yard, trained through spindles over the last three years to grow over the arch. The front yard is charming with flowers and beautiful natural features. In the back the yard is roomy and comfortable, with a new deck for outside entertaining or relaxing.

“Sandy did all of this. There was nothing here but rocks and dirt,” Bill praised his wife’s efforts and horticultural success.

She was modest. “Everything takes off in the third year,” she said of the lush landscaping.

The two used and saved what they could. Decorative pillars in the back yard were the former front porch posts.

“Almost everything we purchased for the remodel of the house was made in the United States,” Sandy stated.

“Not all of this is actually antique, but we wanted to retain the character of 100 years ago,” Bill said.

The blend of antique and authentic with clean, cozy comfort and up-to-date comfort is seamless. An heavy wood desk handmade by Bill Sr. for his son looks as though it could have been crafted a century ago, but features a space for the power cord for the couple’s laptop. The beautiful dining room table is likewise ageless, a wedding gift handmade by Bill Sr. for the couple. The front porch features two Adirondack chairs—colorful and comfortable and fit the happy mood of this saved home. Bill Jr. and Bill Sr. made them together.

“The house just called out to us,” Bill described. “We felt like it wanted us to save it, so we saved it.”

The couple have been doing research to find more of the history of their house. If you have any information or pictures, please contact them at sjwj915@gmail.com. They appreciate all the neighbors putting up with their remodels and all the friendly encouragement and comments.

by BETH ALTENA

The Plainfield Parks and Recreation Citizens Advisory Board is pictured along with Plainfield Township Parks and Recreation Director John Short (center). The board members are Sally Wesorick, Tom Wiarda, David Briggs and Chuck Weldon, who is also a township trustee. They meet four times a year and most recently at the township's parks and recreation offices on Plainfield Avenue Tuesday, May 1.

“The purchase is done; we own it; it’s open to the public now,” Plainfield Township Parks and Recreation Director John Short made this statement about the Grand Isle Golf property on West River Drive.

The 62 acres were part of property that was formerly a golf course. It is now a natural haven owned by the township and available to the public for the enjoyment of the natural beauty including wetlands, wildlife and the Grand River waterfront.

The purchase of the acreage is one of many milestones the township is seeing come to pass—the results of years of behind-the-scenes efforts.

“It’s taken 16 years to get to this place,” Short said.

The Grand River front park property was purchased with a DNR Grant Trust Fund, which is generated by oil and gas revenue from drilling on state property. The system was set in place 35 years ago and amended in 1982 after the state began appropriating the funds back into the general operating budget. It was put on the ballot that year and voters approved legislation strictly earmarking the money for park and recreation projects around the state.

The township has spent the last five years getting a grant approved by the state house and senate after the DNR committee recommended the project be funded. According to Short, the grant had to be rewritten three times over the past five years as the appraised value of the property and other factors changed.

The final purchase price of about $10,000 per acre was funded by the DNR grant with the township contributing 35 percent.

The park currently has a completed paved driveway for visitors, a dirt parking area and lots of opportunities to view nature and wildlife. Short said there are beaver lodges, wood ducks, and at least four families of foxes (some of the cubs were pictured in the Squire last spring—perhaps readers will send in more). There are hawks, and Short saw an eagle on the property over a 45-minute time span recently.

Another milestone event is the multiple sports activities that will soon be available through four different projects underway off Ten Mile Road on 100 acres of township property. The public can clearly see—and actually can’t fail to miss seeing if driving on Ten Mile west of Rockford—the first work on an Olympic-style archery complex. The excavation for the structure is taking place concurrently with the repaving and widening of Ten Mile Road. Dirt excavated from the archery site is being used to fill in as much as seven feet in a former dip in the road.

Kent County Department of Transportation Director of Engineering Wayne Harroll said the low section of Ten Mile where black ice often accumulated in winter made for treacherous driving conditions. Evening out the road with the fill raises Ten Mile’s elevation and should eliminate the problem or at least greatly alleviate it.

Development on Ten Mile, in addition to the archery complex, will also include a state-of-the-art softball/baseball complex designed to attract travel teams. It will likely draw hundreds of players, coaches, families and fans to the tournaments, which should generate a huge increase in business to the surrounding communities.

The archery project is funded in part through a $500,000 DNR grant solicited by Plainfield Township. Other funds come from the Easton Company, which manufactures, among other things, archery equipment.

Part of the ball complex will include the area’s first Miracle League ball field, one of only three in the state of Michigan and the only one on this side of the state. Plainfield Township will contribute to this project by asking the DNR for the grant to fund the majority of the cost of the field.

Currently the group of grants recommended by the DNR has been approved by the state House of Representatives, but was altered when under consideration by the Senate—a first move of its kind in the history of the earmarked Parks and Recreation grant system (see sidebar for more information).

In the grant, the township asked for $296,900 of the estimated $424,100 cost of building the Miracle Field. The additional $127,200 will be raised through other means, likely donations and sponsorships.

The fourth area of development is a mountain bike course that will share the 100-acre property with the archery complex and ball field complex. A track is already in place, developed by the Michigan Mountain Bike Association, which also has a course in Rockford’s Luton Park on Kies Rd. They will develop a mogul course for non-motorized vehicles. Both the archery complex and the mountain bike courses will be available for public use when they aren’t being used for their respective organization’s activities. In addition, the ball complex will be available for other uses by application when not being used for tournaments.

Finally, popular Versluis Park on Northland Drive will soon be open for use for the season. This park was renovated in 1999 in a design created by Short and won awards as a handicap accessible park design. Season passes for the park will go on sale the first day of the season, Sunday, May 27. According to Short, fishing has been excellent already this year with anglers taking 26- and 27-inch fish from the pure waters of Versluis Lake.

At Versluis Park this summer is another new recreational opportunity that should also have a positive impact on the economy. A national Ironman Triathlon is scheduled, the first in the state of Michigan. As many as an estimated 500 competitors from across the nation will converge here to compete in the swimming, running and biking event. Participants will swim two laps of Versluis Lake, totaling 2.4 miles, change gear, bike 112 miles along a course that will include Cannonsburg Road and Belding Road, return to the park and change gear again and run a 26.2-mile marathon. The entire three-sport event equals 140.6 miles total and takes about 18 hours.

Finally, a recent new opportunity that happened in 2011 but is an impressive example of cooperation between different governmental entities is the installation of Kent County Sheriff’s Department’s Mounted Division, which was offered a home on property in Rockford and Plainfield Township.

The Mounted Division, which had been homeless for years, with no central location for the law enforcement equines, was offered permanent use of an undeveloped park on Kroes Rd., near Rockford High School. Unrelated to Plainfield Parks and Recreation, it will still be a future recreation and observation opportunity, as Kent County plans to allow therapeutic horseback riding at the facility, an overlook area for the public to view training and riding, and make the facility available for horse-related competitions, which could well draw more visitors from across the state.

“There is a lot of growing and new opportunities happening in the township right now,” Short said. “It is the result of years of work and it is exciting to see it all coming together now.”

Kathy Jo Resseguie

Every year the Arthritis Foundation chooses an honoree to represent them in the annual area Arthritis Walk. This year the foundation chose Kathy Jo Resseguie, who is one of Rockford High School’s long-time cheer coaches and has a daily struggle with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). Resseguie will be entering her 19th year coaching cheer at the high school and her 14th year since being diagnosed with RA.

“I am very honored and never imagined being asked; there are so many people affected by arthritis in the area. Through the walk I have been able to help raise awareness and help raise funds for the Arthritis Foundation so they may continue research efforts and continue to provide the many services they offer to people with arthritis, especially the children. One of my greatest fears and worries in life everyday is that someday my own daughters will have to endure this disease. I pray that with donations and research that fear will never come true.”

Through the last 14 years, Resseguie has gone through numerous medications, trials and errors but finally is happy to have some control of her RA with medication. She still has hope for remission, but continues to stay positive knowing that RA has taught her a lot in life and knows that her positive attitude will serve as an example and inspiration for others.

“Although some days are worse than others, I have always tried to maintain a positive attitude around my athletes. I have always taken seriously the role model that I am to them on the field and more importantly off the field. I always felt in my heart that one day I may be a source of inspiration to them as they may encounter their own life obstacles. Unfortunately, in the past year and a half, two of my former cheerleaders have been diagnosed with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis. I can only pray that a cure is found and they can stay positive through their journeys like I have tried.”

Resseguie has participated in the Arthritis Walk since it came to Grand Rapids seven years ago. This year’s walk was held at the John Ball Park Zoo on Saturday, May 5.

If you couldn’t make it out to the walk but would still like to help, donations can be made online at www.arthritis.org or www.letsmovetogether.org, follow the links to Resseguie’s personal page, or to Resseguie herself. Pegasus Sports of Rockford has also helped create “Cheer for a Cure” team t-shirts, which are available for $10 each (sizes 2T through adult) with all proceeds going toward her fundraising.

Resseguie will also be at Rockford High School on Wednesday, May 16 from 3:15 to 5 p.m. for an open gym fundraiser for all middle school and high school girls interested in cheerleading tumbling. Cost is $10, which will all go to her fundraising.

To read Resseguie’s full story as the honoree, please visit www.letsmovetogether.org and follow the links to the Arthritis Walk in Grand Rapids where you can find Resseguie’s personal and team “Cheer for a Cure” fundraising pages.

U.S. servicemen and Rockford firefighters led the first lap of last year's Relay for Life event.

Relay For Life of Rockford will be celebrating their 10-year anniversary next weekend, from 3 p.m. Friday, May 18, to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 19, with this year’s theme being “Color a Cure.”

We can’t believe that it has been 10 years since that small group of new, inexperienced committee members set up the track at North Rockford Middle School, hoping someone would show up for the first annual Relay For Life of Rockford, 2003. Not only were we concerned that many wouldn’t come to this largely unknown event, but we also didn’t know how many teams would participate or whether we could raise much money for the American Cancer Society (ACS). None of us got much sleep that Thursday night; we pulled out our camping gear, packed our bags and laid out our most comfortable shoes for the next 40 hours of the “unknown.”

At that time, most first-year Relays had a couple hundred people attend, approximately 10 teams participate, and usually raised around $15,000. We should have known better. This is Rockford, where we often supersede expectations. This quaint, small town blew away the national competition and amazed the ACS with its record-breaking crowds, 40 teams and over $140,000 raised—all in our first attempt at a Relay. You know what the signs say upon entering our city limits: “Welcome to Rockford. Discover the Charm.” Maybe the signs should read, “Welcome to Rockford. Discover the Energy!” or maybe, “Hold On To Your Hats!” Seriously, this community never ceases to amaze and inspire me.

In 2011, we had over 80 teams participate (16 teams have been with us since our first year), welcomed over 10,000 people in just 24 hours, honored over 300 survivors, and with 2011’s $340,000, we have raised over $2.8 million for the ACS. Our top team, Terminatin’ Cancer, raised almost $24,000. We had a 10-year-old raise over $1,000 on his own. Not bad results, especially during this tough economic period.

Rockford’s statistics are impressive, yet we are not done. As long as people continue to hear the words, “You have cancer,” we must continue our fight and strive to meet our own, self-imposed, Rockford goals. If we meet our goal for 2012, it will put us at over 3.2 million. So what can you do to help us keep the Rockford momentum? We’d like to:

•            celebrate more survivors. Survivor Ceremony is from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday.

•            sell more luminaries at $10 each. Honor those you know who have battled cancer by lighting a personalized luminaria during the ceremony at 9 p.m. on Friday.

•            find more sponsors. Ask your employers, churches, civic groups, favorite retailers, friends or that family member with the generous heart to donate money in honor of a survivor, in memory of someone, or just because it’s a good thing to do. Every dollar makes a difference.

•            get more people to the event. Your purchases on the track go to the ACS. There is something for everyone:  food, games, auctions, activities and contests. Come hungry, with the entire family, and bring your wallets!

•            have more walkers on the track. Get some exercise, meet new people and pledge dollars to the ACS by walking, running or strolling the track for an hour.

•            have more people join a team. Check with your school or any group with whom you are associated. Or just pick a team that you admire or want to support. Odds are, you already know someone who is on a team that is looking for more participants. Rockford Public Schools, City of Rockford, Wolverine World Wide or Independent Bank—there are over 80 teams to pick from.

•            learn your cancer colors. Most know that pink is the color which represents breast cancer. Did you know that blue is prostate cancer and brown is colorectal cancer? The more you learn about cancer, its symptoms and ways to decrease your chances of developing cancer, the healthier our community will become.

Head down to North Rockford Middle School between 3 p.m. Friday, May 18, and 3 p.m. Saturday, May 19, and see what all the fuss is about. Help us celebrate survivors, improve the health of our community through advocacy, and raise money to find a cure. For more information, go to www.relayforlife.org/rockfordmi or contact Hannah Smoker, ACS representative, at (616) 337-7474.

by BETH ALTENA 

Representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency and Michigan Department of Environmental Quality answer questions posed by the public on Tuesday, April 24. The meeting was held to update the community on the progress of testing underway at the former Wolverine Worldwide tannery property in downtown Rockford.

About a hundred residents, including city officials and Wolverine Worldwide representatives, attended a public meeting held jointly by the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) on Tuesday, April 24 at the Rockford Freshman Center.

A presentation by a team of four representatives of the environmental agencies detailed the background of their investigation, where the testing stands to date, what possible future outcomes of the process may be, and answered questions well after the 9 p.m. expected close of the meeting. Comments from the public regarding the situation were about evenly mixed among those supporting Wolverine in their actions in removing the former tannery and those who appeared skeptical of the company’s actions or worried about contamination.

Dave Novak, community involvement coordinator of the Superfund Division of the EPA, began the evening’s presentation, introducing the other representatives. “We are looking for conclusions based on good science, not speculation,” he stated. “We have a great deal of information in a relatively short period of time. We are letting good science lead us on our journey.” He then gave the floor to Naria Nunez of the EPA.

Nunez said the EPA was contacted by a citizens’ petition June 21, 2011 describing concerns over releases during the demolition of the former tannery at 123 N. Main Street, Rockford. She said the petition indicated the demolition was of community concern and included photographs of discolored water running off the property and questions about the past use of chromium at the property.

The EPA decided to investigate the site, and began testing in October of last year. Nunez said preliminary testing results found some contamination with potential of offsite contact. The investigation is still underway and is in the preliminary stages. At any time the EPA could decide no further response is necessary; could call for removal of contaminates or could refer the investigation to another government program.

The EPA could also continue to investigate and at the end of the process could rank the site based on a system called a Hazardous Ranking System. This is an evaluation of the property based on evaluations of groundwater, surface water, air, ground, or any one or several of these criteria, depending on what is appropriate. The four criteria are rated based on their potential impact on human health and environmental health.

The next speaker was PC Lall, PE of the EPA Region Five Emergency Response and Removal branch. In his earlier introduction by Novak, Novak was quick to point out that Lall’s presence at the meeting did not mean there was an emergency at the site. “There is no emergency here,” he’d stated.

Lall described the three types of sites: classic, time critical and non-time critical. He said the first stage of any response is site assessment. Site assessment includes looking for sources and looking for what is happening to cause the contamination to migrate. He said examples of this could be contaminates releasing to the air during evaporation. He said in the former tannery site, 14 soil samples were taken; five from the Rogue River bank and nine on the former tannery property. On the tannery property, samples were taken from the east portion of the tannery site, the former pit area, and where the wastewater treatment tank was located.

Lall said of the five samples on the riverbank, all contained contaminates. Of the nine samples on the property, eight showed contamination. “We do not have an emergency,” Lall stated. “We do have contamination and we are still evaluating.”

Next speaking was Joseph Walczak, senior environmental specialist for the MDEQ. Walczak said all site assessment of environmental issues for the EPA in the state of Michigan are handled through his office. He noted that by law the EPA has one year to respond from the start of an investigation, and by June 21, 2012 a report will be available to the public.

Walczak said the MDEQ collected samples of soil from the property in six locations as well as a sample upriver and one downriver from the former tannery.  The samples showed detectable levels of many chemicals, including arsenic, cadmium, chromium and others. “We have detections above the detection levels of a bunch of different things,” he stated. “It’s actually somewhat good news that these aren’t that high—not what we’ve seen at other chromium tanneries.”

“They are above detectable levels, but nothing that makes us say we’ve got a huge problem here,” Walczak stated. He also noted that the higher levels were all from the deepest samples, indicating that the impact is of historical nature, not current or an ongoing issue.

Lall jumped into the discussion prompted by a question from an audience member about releases into the air and responded, “No air releases are taking place at this time. He also stated that there was no lead found in the samples and all the samples were subsurface samples, not surface samples.

“Given the fact that it was a tannery that used chromium and we found chromium on the site, I would assume that was the background,” he stated. “It’s a prime piece of property and we want to have it cleaned up and ready for redevelopment.”

After the close of the formal presentation, the panel asked for questions. Georgia Donovan, president of the local Izaak Walton League chapter asked about the likelihood of contaminants pooling at the basin of water at the Rockford dam. Wolczak took her question and said his downstream samples were taken for that very question. He said he sampled both sides of the dam and found contaminates that were very deep, indicating a historic nature, not recent contamination.            “We definitely need to investigate further. That’s what these numbers are saying,” Wolczak stated.

Jason Ropp, attorney with Blakeslee Ropp PLC, commented that Wolverine seemed to be working well with the EPA and MDEQ and wanted to know if that fact has a bearing on the overall outcome of the process.

“That does get taken into account,” said Wolczak. “If the site doesn’t get a score, we can rule no further action needs to be taken. If it does score, it could also go to another remedial program.”

When asked about the timeline of the investigation, Wolczak noted that in a high profile situation, extra care is taken to make sure all the t’s get crossed and i’s get dotted, making the investigation longer than it might otherwise have been.

Bob Winegar, local Lion, said we don’t live in a perfect world and some contaminates could come from up river. He described that his family used to spray lead dust on the potato patch to kill the potato worms.

Wolczak also reminded residents that the Rogue River has been sampled in 2008 and will be sampled every five years as a matter of course. “Those samples will give us a good background.”

City Manager Michael Young also spoke, reminding residents that the City monitored the demolition with professional consultants, who twice shut down operations during the process. “Our consultants have not found this site a threat to human health or the environment,” he said. “We believe we have a very cooperative industry. We have three layers of government involved in this process. I would like to let Wolverine work with the DEQ to take care of the property. It is a critical property of economic and recreational importance.” He said he appreciated the EPA’s recognition that there is a triple bottom line at work in this case: environmental, economic and social importance.

Tom Cronkright, resident and property owner, stood to say he lives right on the Rogue River. “If the collective community thought this was a danger, we would have split the heavens to stop it, and we didn’t.” He said he was actually pleasantly surprised by the information from the testing to date. “We have faith and trust in the people involved at the local level and at the state level.” His comments drew applause from the audience.

Dave Rasmussen, member of the Rockford Planning Commission, asked for a “guestimate” of the best case versus worst case compared to many other sites in the state that “need you worse than we do.”

“Do we see this as bad as other tannery sites? No,” Wolczak responded. “Do we see this as the nastiest? No. Is it the cleanest site I’ve ever seen? No.”

Regarding Wolverine’s responsiveness to the investigation Wolczak reiterated, “I believe they are committed. That will definitely play into our decision.”

Wolczak said the MDEQ and EPA are waiting to review any spill history information from Wolverine to see if there are other spots that should be tested. “Work could be done on the site right now. What levels of cleanup is recommended would depend on future use.”

Dr. Michael Shibler, superintendent of Rockford schools, voiced the last comment of the evening. “We have a very special community here in Rockford,” he said. “We want a healthy environment and we also want a healthy economic environment.”

Lisa Freiberger, vice president of Grand Rapids Community College (GRCC), stands with her informational packet in Rockford City Hall. Freiberger presented information about a much-needed bond millage to be voted on Tuesday, May 8. All of Kent County residents may vote on this issue, which will provide GRCC with money to renovate two dated buildings, allow improvements in the early education/preschool program, renovate other existing buildings, update classroom technology and other campus-wide improvements. The bond would cost a homeowner of a $150,000 residence $2.19 per month or $26.25 per year.

Renovations to buildings, classroom technology at stake

One in three college-bound students in Kent County first attend Grand Rapids Community College (GRCC), and the average savings per student is $22,000 in two years. Lisa Freiberger, vice president of GRCC, spoke before Rockford City Council on Monday, April 9, explaining the extreme need to approve a bond proposal which will be before Kent County voters Tuesday, May 8.

Freiberger said her presentation was very specific to Rockford, where she and her family all reside. She pointed out, however, that GRCC is an open access college and accepts students from all over Kent County but also from other counties. She pointed out that the proposal is not for operating costs but is for badly needed renovations and classroom technology upgrades.

“We want to preserve what we have for the next 100 years,” she stated.

The millage will fund three main projects for the college. Freiberger said the main building for the school was built in 1922 as the Davis Technical High School. She described it as a very old, very tired building. It will cost $30 million to bring the school up to today’s standards.

The music building is also old and in need of renovation. That structure was built as a middle school gymnasium and still has the gymnasium wood floor. It isn’t acoustically sound and was built in 1930. Renovation to that building will cost an estimated $6 million.

The college’s preschool program has operated for 20 years out of the basement of a nearby church. Freiberger referred to it as “a phenomenal program in a not ideal space.” She said the college is also in need of renovations or improvements to other of its buildings and said there is a very specific list of projects available to voters who want to look it over.

Another important need in the ability to offer high quality education is an update of classroom technology at a cost of $22 million. “We are certainly not looking for brand-new state-of-the-art, but we do need to be up to speed,” she stated.

The total bond millage is $98.6 million, which would cost a homeowner of a $150,000 residence $26.25 yearly or just over $2 per month.

“We are doing our best to make a very reasonable request,” Freiberger stated. She noted that by choosing to renovate existing buildings rather than build new, the college is saving more than $36 million.

Choosing to speak regarding Rockford students, Freiberger said in the fall of last year, 634 Rockford students attended GRCC. Their average age was 23. “We service students from high school all the way through adult education,” she said.

GRCC currently offers 30 different classes at Rockford High School and has a very successful and long-standing relationship with Rockford.

“We also offer workforce training and have a long list of Rockford businesses who take advantage of this opportunity, and include, in 2010 and 2011, Byrne Electrical Specialists, Cannon Family Dentistry, DeYoung Concrete, Glass Design, Parition Systems Inc., and Wolverine Worldwide,” Freiberger stated.

She added, “We are very focused on sustainability and very focused on renovations, not building new.”

Answering questions posed to her by council, Freiberger said the school is considering expanding the classes offered at Rockford High School, and pointed out that there are already a wide variety of classes being offered in the evening. She remarked that the college was recently able to purchase a parking lot, which added 500 new parking spaces available to students. She also reaffirmed that anyone who is a resident within the boundaries of the Kent Intermediate School District can vote on the bond proposal, which includes all of the Rockford school districts. In addition, the KISD extends into parts of Newaygo County in the north down to as far as parts of Allegan County to the south.

For more information on the GRCC bond proposal slated for vote on Tuesday, May 8, go online to grccyes.org.

by BETH ALTENA

photo by MICHILLE PREMER

A fire that may have started with a garage refrigerator destroyed a home and killed the family dog, according to Courtland Township Fire Chief Mickey Davis. A 911 call at 4:32 p.m. Friday, April 27 brought firefighters to a home at 9110 Whitall Avenue.

“The garage was pretty much down and the fire had gone to the attic of the home,” said Davis.

He said there were several teenage boys in the home at the time the fire started and one had attempted to put the blaze out with a water hose. “He was pretty scratched up and was treated by Rockford Ambulance at the scene.”

Photo by MICHELLE PREMER

The fire in the garage was fueled by the fact that the garage door was slightly open, creating a wind tunnel effect that increased the ferocity of the flames.

“The house is still standing but it’s probably a total loss,” Davis said. “As far as content, some of the downstairs maybe salvageable but if it was upstairs it was toasted.”

Davis said he doesn’t know what might have caused the refrigerator to catch fire, speculating that it could have been a problem with the plug or a mouse could have  chewed on a wire.

“If people have older refrigerators or freezers, they probably shouldn’t, because they use so much juice,” said Davis, “but I’ve never seen one cause a fire before. This is a first for me.”

by BETH ALTENA

Jamie Davies (front left) trains firefighters on the control panel of a Rockford fire truck. He will be the lieutenant leading the Department of Public Services firefighters.

The writing was on the wall when Rockford was forced to lay off one of the city’s full-time firefighters two years ago. When police Lieutenant Scott Mazur retired a year ago, his position was not filled. With revenues to the city in a continual decline in recent years due to reduced state revenue sharing, declining property values and a flat new construction economy, and other financial concerns, unusual measures were called for.

“This is a significant change—a different service model to provide more efficient services and savings,” said former Rockford Chief of Police Dave Jones, who now has a new enhanced role and title as Chief of the Department of Public Safety, overseeing both law enforcement and firefighters.

Jones said Rockford City Manager Michael Young and he came up with a bold new plan to maintain services to the citizens of Rockford in a more efficient way. It called for months of training of all Rockford police officers and also all Department of Public Services employees to become certified medical responders and firefighters. No one else in the state of Michigan has a model like this.

“It is a whole new structure,” said Jones.

Chief of the Department of Public Safety Dave Jones points out part of the unique fire suppression system at the Rockford Towers.

Since April 7, all medical calls for assistance have been answered by law enforcement officers, who have undergone the months of training needed to qualify for their new role. Their patrol vehicles have all been outfitted to also serve as first responder medical units.

At the conclusion of this plan, Chief Reus will be the fire marshal, one firefighter will be crossed trained as a police officer and assigned to the enforcement division, and one position will be eliminated sometime next year. This will restructure the fire service division to have only paid on-call firefighters with no full-time city employees assigned to just the fire service. With the new plan, all enforcement division and public services division employees will be considered full-time firefighters.

Savings to the city come from on-duty law enforcement responding to medical and fire calls during the night rather than paid on-call firefighters. In addition, training can take place during the workday rather than in overtime hours in the evening.

The model includes a complete restructuring of section leaders, with Young overseeing the entire operation, Jones in charge of law enforcement and fire, two police sergeants will be promoted to lieutenant; Jamie Davies, currently director of public works will become Lieutenant Davies; and long-term firefighter on-call Dan Vincent will become a lieutenant leading the paid on-call firefighters.

Rockford long-serving former Fire Chief Dave Reus now serves as the city’s fire marshal. With his former firefighters now under Jones’ leadership, Reus will be able to concentrate on updating and improving firefighting plans for the buildings in Rockford. Reus is tasked with updating detailed information on the city’s buildings, and updating the plans regularly. Available on computers in law enforcement vehicles and fire trucks, those responding to the scene will know exactly what to expect and do as they reach the fire.

“Chief Reus has a multitude of knowledge and resources that will be part of this new model,” Jones said.

On Wednesday and Thursday, April 18-19, the new firefighting staff of 22 individuals was able to practice on one building with an unusual fire suppressant system in place. The Towers, the city’s only high-rise apartment complex, has a structure unlike any other in the town. The building has a fire safety element built in called a dry standpipe that helps firefighters move water to where they need it and maintain proper pressure.

“That’s one of the things I learned in the training,” noted Jones. He said he had seen the red hose connection on the wall near the east door of the Towers a hundred times without realizing its import. “I always thought water came out of it, but that’s where water goes in,” he said. “It’s an innie, not an outie.”

By running hose from the Ten Mile hydrant through a fire truck, to the opening of the dry standpipe, firefighters outside on the fire truck use the sophisticated controls to maintain the exact number of pressure to the water the firefighters inside need to control the hose and fight the fire.

“That’s not like holding the garden hose in your back yard,” Jones described. “It’s like fighting a python. Too little pressure and you can’t get the water where you need it, too much and you can’t hang onto the hose.”

In the case of the Thursday practice, DPW Director Jamie Davies used his control panel on the fire truck to give firefighters inside approximately 100 pounds of pressure. On the fourth floor, firefighter Phil Vincent noted that each floor in elevation reduces the water’s pressure by about ten pounds. Since his fire training, Davies knows he has to give the water leaving the truck about 150 pounds of pressure to give Vincent his 100 pounds of pressure four floors up.

Jones said the training was extensive and city crews made personal and professional sacrifices during this time of change. “We had to continue services while they were out of their jobs for the training and they had to be away from their families and walk away from their personal lives for this time.”

He said during the training no one was able to take any time off because everyone not in training was needed to serve in their absence.

“We are all making sacrifices to continue to provide the same services while facing shortfalls in revenue,” Jones stated. “We are all doing different tasks that we didn’t plan on. We are driven by the fact that we want to stay on pace with the services we offer to our residents.”

Jones had recently joked at a City Council meeting, “I never expected to see me—a crusty old copper—to be climbing ladders and slinging hoses.”

This highly unusual model didn’t happen without considerable planning and study. Jones said he had been analyzing statistical information about safety in Rockford over the past seven years and believed a structure like this could be the best way to maintain services.

“This was budget-driven,” said Jones. “There are 3,000 fewer police in the state of Michigan than there were in 2001. Cities are not able to replace them.”

Jones said the restructuring was meticulously planned before going to the considerable and ongoing effort to change the job duties of three departments. “We did a lot of planning. We did this based on a long-term study. You don’t take the first step until you know it is the right step.”

Jones said the City will likely continue to face economic struggles, and if the Personal Property Tax is eliminated, the City will lose an additional $60,000 a year. “That’s a lot of operating costs.”

Young said the elimination of the Personal Property Tax is about $300,000 to us a year, although the state says it may replace 81 percent of the lost revenue which would leave Rockford $60,000 short each year.

“The state wants to create a fund to replace the 81 percent with expiring tax credits but the expiring tax credits don’t add up to 81 percent of the replacement revenue [state of Michigan math],” said Young. “The fund that the state would create would need to be appropriated each year, so if I were a betting man I would say the state will raid that fund like they have raided every other fund earmarked to support local units.” Which is all the more reason to continue to find new ways to operate as efficiently as possible.

At this year’s Relay for Life, the first lap will represent the new Public Safety Department of the City of Rockford. For the last nine years, the Rockford Fire Department has proudly led the first lap around the track at North Rockford Middle School before the 24-hour fundraiser for the American Cancer Society commences. This year, see firefighters in their gear, but joined by Rockford Police and Department of Public Works all walking together as one safety unit serving the citizens of Rockford.

“Behind the scenes we worked very hard for this to happen,” said Jones. “It’s not very often we ask for recognition because doing our jobs is what we signed up to do. This is something really special, something really unique and really creative. We are going to keep our heads high and do our best for the City of Rockford.”