The grading on the Greenville, Rockford & Grand Rapids railroad is making good progress. From Rockford to Podunk, a point about six miles west of Greenville, the grading is mostly accomplished. • The track of the D.L.&L.M. is laid to Howard City, the junction with the Grand Rapids & Indiana railroad. Ballasting is yet unfinished and nothing but gravel trains yet on the road. It is thought regular trains will be running at least by Nov. 1st.
2021-10-27
Prisoner gets 3 years for assault on a prison employee
A prisoner with the Michigan Department of Corrections was sentenced to serve three years to seven and a half years for an assault on a prison employee.
Milton Walter Bell, 41, appeared before Ionia County Circuit Court Judge Ronald Schafer on Oct. 19 via Polycom from the Michigan Reformatory, where Bell was serving multiple sentences. He has since been moved to another facility, according to the MDOC website.
Wind energy voices
Michigan Conservative Energy Forum hosts local wind energy meetingA wind energy forum took place Monday evening at the Montcalm County Fairgrounds, coinciding with the inaugural American Clean Power Week this week.
Monday’s event was hosted by the Michigan Conservative Energy Forum (MICEF), a nonprofit which according to its literature “promotes common sense, market-based energy policies that foster competition, diversification and technological advancement. We work to reduce economic and political barriers to energy innovation through education, research, policy advocacy and collaborative partnerships, ensuring all customers have access to clean, affordable and reliable energy.”
Montcalm County increases crime victim advocate wage, hires pre-trial agent
Montcalm County approved two grant-funded requests Monday involving the Prosecutor’s Office and Community Corrections.
The Montcalm County Board of Commissioners voted 8-0 to approve a request from Prosecutor Andrea Krause to increase the wage of her office’s vacant crime victim advocate position (Commissioner Jeremy Miller of Greenville was absent from Monday’s meeting).
Utah woman sentenced to 27 years prison for causing death of trooper
The widow of a Michigan State Police trooper killed by a drunken driver called her husband her confidante, her other half and her best friend during Tuesday’s sentencing of the woman responsible for his death.
Thomasina Shani Jones, 30, of Montezuma Creek, Utah, was sentenced by Ionia County Circuit Court Judge Suzanne Kreeger to from 27 to 50 years for the second-degree murder of MSP Trooper Caleb Starr, which occurred when Jones crossed the center line traveling eastbound on Grand River Avenue near Nash Highway on July 10, 2020.
Ionia school board elects new president
The Ionia Public Schools Board of Education voted unanimously to appoint Ken Baker as its new president at a special meeting Monday night.
Board Secretary Margot Cook nominated Baker for the position, and board member Brian Siemen seconded the nomination. There were no other nominations.
Carson City inmate charged with murdering fellow prisoner
A man imprisoned for life plus 202 years for a brutal murder and sexual assault in 2013 is now accused of murdering a fellow prison inmate over a dispute regarding a TV set.
Duncan Eric Willis II, 35, allegedly killed Kenneth Arlell Gibson, 63, on April 23, according to Montcalm County court records.
Ionia woman absconds after sentencing
An Ionia woman who told the court she wouldn’t stay away from her fiancé as a term of her probation was sentenced to prison.
Now she has allegedly absconded.
