Saturday, June 25, 2022
Since 1854 — News from Montcalm County and Ionia County, Michigan
For the last four seasons, Sara Bevington has been a stalwart pitcher for the Ionia Bulldogs softball team.
Sara was a runner-up for Daily News All-Area Pitcher of the Year as a sophomore and she was named to the Daily News All-Area Second Team for softball in her senior year after recording 13 shutouts in 17 starts in the circle for Ionia. To her peers and many around the Ionia community, she was a shoo-in to continue her college career playing softball.
Sara, however, had different plans.
With every pastry and dessert purchased during the Ionia Free Fair’s 34th annual Cake and Pie auction Monday, so too went home an experience not to be forgotten thanks to auctioneer Perry Gregory.
Gregory, 72, has spent decades donating his time to the fair and never misses the opportunity to participate in the auction, helping raise funds for the fair’s Home Economic Department.
Ionia and Montcalm counties have both agreed to settle a multi-district lawsuit against opioid manufacturers even though the settlement numbers remain unknown.
The Ionia County Board of Commissioners unanimously voted on July 13 to approve the Purdue Bankruptcy Plan after meeting in closed session to discuss the topic.
150 years ago
“New school houses” — A new school house has been erected a half mile east of L.D. Kuhn’s in Sidney. A new school house also has been built in the Brown district of Montcalm.
All four teams in the Gratiot County Baseball League (GCBL) split their doubleheaders on Sunday, leaving the St. Louis Spirits still in first place after five weeks of action.
As the Cato Township Planning Commission continues to work on amending its wind energy ordinance, a Gratiot County farming couple attended a July 14 meeting to share their experience.
Dan and Nancy Welke live in Merrill, Lafayette Township, where they say they have one turbine less than 1,600 feet from their home and another one about 2,600 feet away. They say they have been “battling” with DTE Energy and Gratiot County officials for the last year and a half regarding the negative effects of the turbines.
A familiar face in Montcalm County courtrooms and hallways for more than four decades is retiring.
Bruce Basom was appointed Friend of the Court and Circuit Court referee by Judge Charles Simon Jr. in January 1993. Basom’s final day on the job will be Aug. 1.
Hoping to hammer out a formal plan for the Crystal Community Center, the Crystal Township Board is looking to bring Kingscott back to be a part of that conversation.
The township board initially hired Kingscott — an architecture, interior design, engineering and planning firm with offices in Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Royal Oak and Chelsea — to help the community begin narrowing down options regarding the Community Center in March 2020.
The Carson City-Crystal Eagles varsity football team participated in their first-ever 7-on-7 tournament on program history on Saturday at Hope College.
The Central Montcalm Public School Board of Education conducted a 12-minute organizational meeting on Monday, followed by a 17-minute regular meeting.
The organizational meeting, routine for July, included setting the board meeting schedule for the next year. The board voted 5-0 (with Secretary Bill Collins and Treasurer Lisa Lund absent) to continue with the third Monday of the month with the exception of switching the Nov. 15 meeting to Nov. 22.
