Splash pad was best and most positive story here in 2016

 

ACHTUNG: This is not a “fair and balanced” story. It is analysis by the editor.

The now dearly departed year of 2016 was rife with negative developments, but the top local story over the last 12 months, as chosen by me, the friendly dictator, was perky and positive.

Beating out all comers was the arrival of the splash pad at the city park in Wayland. Its impact was so positive it resulted in two streets, Church and Cherry, getting repaved and angle parking slots added. It was so positive it brought families downtown.

The city and a grant from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources paid for the splash pad and upgrades for children’s playground equipment, tennis and basketball courts and eventually replanting of trees that were lost in the construction.

However, most of the other top stories of 2016 featured controversy, hard feelings and sometimes even tragedy.

Submitted for readers’ approval:

• An almost year-long series of meetings spelling out the Wayland Union school district’s plans to ask voters to approve a $54 million bond in May 2017. The request was to be divided into two parts, one for a new elementary and selling the 75-year-old Pine Street building, and the other for a new pool and improvements to tennis courts and the football field.

The negative part was persistent grumbling from residents not interested in paying.

• The air park controversy in Leighton Township, in which Supervisor Steve Deer and developer Clark Galloway have been partners in a proposed project to build an air strip near 144^th and Kalamazoo Avenues. The neighbors haven’t been pleased, and they have shown up at meetings regularly to protest what they say will be noise and safety hazards..
• The elections, in which Steve Johnson of Wayland, an unemployed 25-year-old with virtually no political experience won the Republican primary with just 30% of the vote and then the general election with 59%. He succeeds Ken Yonker 72^nd District, who after being term limited will be drain commissioner for Kent County.

Mary Whiteford in the 80^th District, had to win three elections, a special; general in March over Democrat David Gernant, a GOP primary over challenger Abigail Nobel, and then the Nov. 8 general in a cakewalk.

Closer to home, there were upsets, as Debbie Sewers upended Brian Boot in the GOP primary for Dorr Township Clerk and Republican Kevin Travis bested Democrat incumbent Pam Brown for supervisor in Watson Township.

Supervisors Mark Evans in Hopkins and Jeff Miling in Dorr survived challenges.

• Dorr Township officials breathed a sigh of relief in August when the half-mill fire equipment millage request was passed after several failures at the polls, and particularly with the narrow victory of a proposed three-mill levy for township roads. The verdict was satisfying to local activist Carolyn Sandel, who tirelessly chaired a special committee and laid out the plans and the campaign.

Dorr Township also adopted an ordinance to permit residents to keep up to 10 chickens, which stirred controversy, but all came out well in the end.

• The business landscape, as always, underwent charges. Wayland was rocked by the surprise closings of Cars 2Go on West Superior Street and Wayland Motor Sales on North Main. There were others that went belly up, such as Giuseppe’s Pizza in a fire and Cindi’s Boutique. But the tiny strip mall behind Burger King welcomed two new tenants and a Biggby’s coffee franchise came in next to the laundramat on West Superior. A Dollar General opened in Martin and announced plans to come to Dorr. Hilliards Corner Lounge closed on 135^th Avenue and 18^th Street, but later reopened. Waco’s, which had been in business on North Main for 41 years, closed after being sold. And Smith Lumber was reported sold in October.

Meanwhile, the Jayda Gale distillery appeared to be in somewhat of a holding pattern on South Main and Pine Street and the veterans’ thrift store moved from a portion of the old Harding’s building to a site on West Superior.

In other school-related business, Martin was able to get voters’ approval for a $17.5 million bond project for improvements and it began to take the progressive step of installing solar panels on the roofs of its school buildings. Also improving the appearance of the little community was the remodeled JC Wheeler Library and its new sign.

Hopkins voters approved a sinking fund request for the school district in May.

In other school matters, Finance Director Bill Melching retired at Wayland after steering the district into calmer financial waters, but being rejected in his plans to farm out business services to the Johannesburg-Lewiston district. Pay Velie, who used to live here before going to Massachussetts, returned to succeed Melching.

• Gracing the landscape with new or remodeled structures were the new Leighton Township Hall adjacent to the District Library, the remodeled Wayland Christian Reformed Church within the city and what promises to be improved appearance of the once-dilapidated former Moline Elementary School, which is being reworked into a business and home.
• Special academic awards and honors always seem to handed out in this area. The Hopkins FFA Demonstration Team under advisor Jessica Couch, won the state championship. The Hopkins school district put together its first-ever Athletic Hall of Fame, honored the first 10 recipients and had a special banquet for the occasion. The Wayland schools’ summer free meals program, run by Melching and food service director Sarah Parr Hawkins, won special praise for its second year of providing educational programs and nutrition to nearly 9,000 kids under 18 over the summer.
• Though there were no specific plaques handed out, many in the community heralded three very young people who were battling, and apparently winning against serious diseases. Lilly VandenBosh continues to fight aplastic anemia, Dawson Babiak is doing the same with leukemia and Kinsley Zondervan has come through delicate heart surgery.

However, the down side was shown with the tragic death of 21-year-old Kayde VanZalen, who was awaiting a second liver transplant, and Randy Winchester, husband of a Hopkins teacher. Both died despite community fund-raisers.

One older former local man’s death, that of Walt Gillett, coach of the Wayland High School 1955 basketball team, also had to be noted, along with former public officials Arlene Oetman, Darlene Harper, Erwin Doublestein, and Wayland’s most famous barber, Joe Booker.

• The year started with Martin Township unanimously rejecting a marijuana exchange business on 124^th Avenue, but a new state law that permits dispensaries has prompted proposals for such facilities, particularly in Watson Township.
• Gun Lake Tribe Chairman D.K. Sprague retired and since has had two successors chosen. The casino is chugging along and it even has increased its revenue sharing payments since it opened its doors in 2011.

PHOTOS: The new splash pad at the Wayland City Park.

The high school pool’s state of disrepair helped generate need for a bond proposal for Wayland schools.

Mark Owinga and Kate Scheltema were fresquent Leight Township Board meetings guests, protesting the proposed air park.

Principal Tom Cutler presents a high school diploma to foreign exchange student Olya Schenky of the Ukraine, perhaps Wayland High School’s first-ever Muslim student.

Citizen activist Carolyn Sandel explains the three-mill request for roads in Dorr Township.

Wayland fire trucks outside the Giuseppe’s Pizza fire.

State Rep. Steve Johnson   State Rep. Mary Whiteford

The state champion Hopkins FFA Demonstration team and advisor Jessica Couch.

In one of the saddest stories, this Otsego woman was arrested in a Watson Township burglary spree and appears to be a victim at the same time.

Scott Sprague, new chairman of the Gun Lake Tribe.