The Sun and News, Saturday, September 17, 2022/ Page 3Thornapple Twp. boosts pay for election workers
Greg Chandler
Staff Writer
Election chairs and inspec-
tors in Thornapple Township
are getting a significant pay
boost for their work on elec-
tion day.
The township’s board on
Monday unanimously
approved raising the pay for
each of the four election pre-
cinct chairs from $12 to $
per hour and boosted pay for
each of the 16 election inspec-
tors from $11 to $15 per hour.
Township Clerk Cindy
Wilshire pushed for the
increase, saying that
Thornapple was well below
other townships in Barry
County in how they pay elec-
tion workers.
“We are way below the
averages around this area,”
Wilshire said. “For being one
of the biggest townships (in
Barry County), we are near
the bottom. I would just like
to see them get paid more for
what they’re worth.”
In a memo to the board,
Wilshire wrote that “elec-
tions are becoming increas-
ingly hostile and the state is
requiring more training of
the election inspectors.”
By comparison, Irving
Township pays its election
chairs and inspectors $20 per
hour. Caledonia Township pays
chairs $18 per hour and inspec-
tors $15 per hour. Yankee
Springs Township pays chairs
$16.80 per hour and inspectors
$14.40 per hour, according to
information Wilshire collected.Rhonda Van Polen, who
has been an election inspec-
tor in several townships,
spoke in favor of the pay
increase.
“This is no longer a fun,
volunteer opportunity any-
more,” said Van Polen, who is
also Middleville’s deputy
clerk. “People are rude, insen-
sitive and uneducated in how
the process works. Election
inspectors need to be kind, yet
authoritative, (and) be trained
not only in the process but also
in how to handle people.
“We work long days with
minimal breaks. Some of us,
like me, take unpaid time off
from our full-time jobs to work
the election, and I make way
more money at my full-time
job than I do at the election.”The move is expected to
add about $1,320 to thetownship’s expenses for the
November election, based ona 15-hour work day, Wilshire
said.Mississippi and Florida track
Artman down. He was later
extradited to Michigan to
face charges and is lodged in
the Kent County Jail.
Investigators collaborated
with Identifinders
International LLC to crack
the cold case. The company
uses advanced DNA tech-
nology and Forensic Genetic
Genealogy. Becker said the
modern FGG technology
helped identify Artman after
genetic evidence found at
the crime scene narrowed
down the search to four sib-
lings. He was the only one
who had lived in Michigan
at the time of the murder in
1996.
“We can’t really get into
the nitty-gritty details of
what exactly led us down
this road and exactly what
changed,” Becker said in a
news conference after the
arrest. Hammack’s two sis-
ters attended the news con-
ference. One of them, Tina
DeYoung, had never seen
Artman before he was arrest-
ed but after viewing the
mugshot said “he looks like a
monster.”
Investigators also suspect
Artman in the murder of a
California woman whose
body was found in Maryland
in 2006. Police said she and
Artman had both been in the
Ontario, Calif. area prior to
that crime.
Becker said the Kent
County Sheriff’s Office has
at least 10 cold cases it is still
working on, and the Grand
Rapids Police Department
has about 85.
The Oct. 7 preliminaryhearing will determine if
there is enough evidence
against Artman to send the
case to trial.HEARING, continued from page 1
The booking photo of
Garry Artman, charged in
the 1996 murder of
Sharon Hammack. Her
body was found along
76th Street in Caledonia
Township. (Source:
Forrest County Sheriff’s
Office)Caledonia village agrees to pay for Pleasant Street tree removal
Greg Chandler
Staff Writer
A 60-foot-high silver
maple tree that is along the
public right-of-way in front of
a home on Pleasant Street in
Caledonia will be cut down at
the village’s expense.
On a 5-0 vote Monday, the
village council voted to have
the tree, located in front of
the home owned by Mark
and Dana Boyce at 325
Pleasant St., cut down and
the stump ground down.
On a second vote, also
5-0, the council voted to hire
Woodland Tree Service,
based in Rockford, to cut
down the Pleasant Street tree
and one at 405 Main St., at a
total cost of $11,825, with
the funding to come from the
village’s general fund bal-
ance. The Main Street resi-
dence is owned by council
Trustee Jean Soest.
The vote came after the
council reviewed a legal
opinion that said the village
could remove the tree,
defined as a “street tree,” if it
is causing a hazard to public
infrastructure.
“The Tree Board may
remove any tree which is
‘injurious to sewer lines,
water lines, electric power or
gas lines, or the public
improvements,’” Village
President Jennifer Lindsey
said, quoting the opinion of
attorney James Scales and
based on a section of the vil-
lage ordinance.
Lindsey further read from
a second legal opinion that
allowed for the village to
cover the cost of removing
the tree.
Village Manager Jeff
Thornton recommended
removing the tree in front of
the Boyce residence, as well
as an elm tree from the Soest
residence, because they are
damaging the infrastructure.
“The tree on Pleasant
Street obviously has affected
the sidewalk at some time ...
but it’s also affected our curb
and our gutter and our street,”
Thornton said.
The Boyces and their
neighbors at 335 Pleasant
St., Jeff and Jessica Niles,
had been lobbying the vil-
lage for the past year to have
the tree cut down because
they saw it as a nuisance,
even though the village
arborist considered the treeto be healthy.
“It’s just a major concern
of safety for our family,”
Mark Boyce told council
members during public com-
ment prior to discussion on
the tree removal request.
At an Aug. 8 council
meeting, Jeff Niles com-
plained that roots from
underneath the tree in front
of the Boyce’s house were
causing the concrete in his
driveway, just a few feet
away, to heave.
In a June report to the coun-
cil, arborist Lucas Drews of
Woodland Tree Service wrote
that there was “some decay
present” in the lower bowl
area of the tree and some “tip
decline” in the branches over
the road and sidewalk. He
considered the tree “a moder-
ate risk” for failure and that
there were “many other trees
within the village that pose a
greater threat.”
In his legal opinion, Scales
wrote that the village had no
obligation to remove street
trees that were damaging
adjacent properties.
“Those trees are owned by
the adjacent property owner,
who may trim or removethose trees at their own
expense, using a properly
licensed arborist, and obtain-
ing any permits required for
work within the right of
way,” Scales wrote.
The council deadlocked at
2-2 during the Aug. 8 meet-
ing, with three members
absent, on removing the
Boyce’s tree at a cost of
$7,825.
In a subsequent report to
Thornton on Aug. 29, arbor-
ist Steve Tafelsky of West
Michigan Tree Service rec-
ommended the tree’s remov-
al due to visual concerns and
damage to the infrastructure.
The report cited “heaving
driveway, sidewalks, curbs,
(affecting) drains and even
the road all in multiple
spots.”
Tafelsky also recommend-
ed the removal of the tree at
the Soest residence because
of its size and proximity
“within inches” of driveways
and sidewalks, causing heav-
ing to both.
“This tree has been caus-
ing yearly issues with the
infrastructure surrounding
it,” he wrote in his report.
The village opted to payfor the tree removal out of
general fund reserves instead
of the tree budget, which has
$15,000 set aside for plant-
ing new trees and maintain-ing existing ones along vil-
lage streets.
Council trustees Karen
Hahn and Cheryl Miller were
absent from the meeting.This silver maple tree in front of the Mark and
Dana Boyce residence at 325 Pleasant St. will be cut
down at the village of Caledonia’s expense after it
was determined the tree was damaging village infra-
structure. (photo by Greg Chandler)