Members of the Carson City-Crystal High School Marching Band are hugging each other a little tighter after safely escaping a bus fire 1,200 miles from home Sunday evening. Currently visiting Orlando, Florida for the band’s three-day trip to Walt Disney World and Universal Studios, Band Director Chad Parameter told the Daily News that all 53 people on the trip were able to safely evacuate the bus that transported the students from Michigan to Florida after it caught fire following the band’s visit to Disney’s Magic Kingdom.
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“Not one person was hurt”
FREE No one injured after bus carrying Carson City-Crystal High School Marching Band catches fire in FloridaDenied partnerships with surrounding counties, Ionia County goes it alone on recycling
The Ionia County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday approved the creation of an 11-member Materials Management Planning Committee to replace the existing Solid Waste Planning Committee after a request from Conservation District Manager Melissa Eldridge.
The new committee’s membership is “pretty spelled out” by state law, Eldridge said, and must include township officials, city managers, waste haulers and citizens.
JUST IN: Sen. Peters announces $2.1 million in funding for Ionia Community Library relocation
FREEU.S. Senator Gary Peters (MI), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced on Friday that the Senate has passed a bipartisan package of six bills to partially fund the government through Fiscal Year 2024, including $2.1 million in funding for the renovation of the former Mercantile Bank in downtown Ionia to be the new home of the Ionia Community Library.
MCC evaluating potential addition of $10 million housing complex for Sidney campus
A proposed $10 million, three-story, 84-unit student housing complex could be making its way to Montcalm Community College, providing a new element not currently found at the college: on-campus living.
During Tuesday’s MCC Board meeting, the board welcomed a presentation from Mathison I Mathison Architects of Grand Rapids, which has spent more than a year’s time working with the college and Progressive AE | Architectural Design and Engineering to draft a concept and site plan for a student housing building for the college’s Sidney campus.
Local wildfires rampant amid low-humidity weather conditions
Fire chiefs are reminding people to call their local fire departments for permission to burn and to use extreme caution during low-humidity weather, as local fire departments responded to at least 12 wildfires from Tuesday through Thursday.
Ionia County begins 18-year process of distributing federal opioid settlement funds
Starting in April, organizations or groups in Ionia County dealing with opioid addiction can begin applying for grant money from a $18.5 billion court settlement, after the Board of Commissioners approved a request for proposal on Tuesday.
Over the next 18 years, Michigan will receive about $1.5 billion from a federal court settlement, with $833.8 million going to the state and counties, townships and cities splitting about $725 million.