Hadley Twp. – It’s been almost 40 years since Bill Schiffel, then a 27-year-old reporter for The Grand Rapids Press newspaper, first met then Michigan Congressman Gerald Ford. The chance encounter with Ford on a warm summer day in 1967 seemed insignificant at the time. Schiffel, now 67 and a township resident, says the meeting […]
Brandon Twp.-Early next year some district classrooms will begin to take on a new look. The school board OK’d $299,000 for 206 Walk- and-Talk Interactive Whiteboards by Polyvision, a Steelcase Company, at the Dec. 13 meeting. The purchase is part of the $73 million district bond extension approved by voters in August. School officials say […]
Brandon Twp.- A 10-foot-by-100 foot strip of land along Oakwood Road just north of a proposed entrance to a new Brandon Elementary School may stall the project, after the property owner balked at selling the property to the district. The strip of land is needed, say school officials to construct an acceleration lane for traffic […]
Brandon Twp.- Engineers say sharp curves in Oakwood Road, multiple residential driveways and a gravel road entrance, all near a proposed elementary school, present no significant traffic safety issues for the new facility. The report, released last week by Hubbell, Roth & Clark, consulting engineers of Bloomfield Hills was requested after the Brandon School Board […]
Groveland Twp.- In 1956, the Dow Jones industrial average closed above 500 for the first time, ‘My Fair Lady? opened on Broadway and Elvis Presley entered the music charts with his hit, ‘Heartbreak Hotel.? That same year a small township resort between Detroit and Flint first opened a few small hills along Dixie Highway near […]
Ortonville-Alferd A. Bernor had a full life. A war veteran, firefighter, police officer, father and husband–resident Bernor will be remembered for a long list of community duties, associations and as a father of five. Bernor, 84, died Dec. 5, 2006. ‘I remember when dad was a cop in Ortonville and went to my school dances […]
Like many Americans, Goodrich native Jeanette Pierson first heard the shocking news of Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941 in a radio report. ‘It was unreal about the attack on Pearl Harbor,? said Pierson, who was 21-years-old at the time. ‘It was all so unexpected and such a surprise. My second cousin, Fred Zimmerman who lived near […]
Brandon Twp.-About a week after township officials inked a $1.995 million deal for 66.1 acres of property just south of Brandon High School, the Brandon School Board OK’d the purchase of 16.03 of those acres for a future parking lot and buffer from the future township development. The purchase, at a cost of $410,500, will […]
Former Groveland Township resident Richard Adriaens says he misses family, pumpkins, and the orange leaves during the autumn months in Michigan. Still, the former Royal Oak police officer says the decision to head west was the right one. Budget cuts forced him to take an early retirement from the police department, but as he pursued […]
Ortonville- James Lumber is not going away. That’s the message from Doug Graham, grandson of company founder John R. James and one of the family owners, following an announcement last week of a plan that includes closing five of their six area locations. The closing includes the Ortonville location. ‘Our business has gone full-circle we’re […]