The Sun and News, Saturday, March 11, 2023/ Page 3Mike Lytle resigns from
Middleville Village Council
James Gemmell
Contributing Writer
Longtime Middleville
Village Council trustee Mike
Lytle has resigned due to
health issues.
The announcement was
made at Tuesday’s
Committee of the Whole
meeting. Lytle was not there
and did not participate via
remote video link.
“He is going to be turning
in a hard copy tomorrow, but
he asked me to announce it
today,” Village President
Mike Cramer said after the
meeting.
He added, “I tried to con-
vince him to stick it out. We
did make amendments to our
rules and procedures so that
you could participate remote-
ly.”
Lytle, around age 82, has
said before he has breathing
difficulty at times. He has
about two years left on his
term in office.
“Somebody will probably
submit a letter of interest ...
and then we’ll take it from
there and see who wants todo it,” Cramer said.
“I’m assuming we’ll end
up publishing a vacancy,
basically soliciting applica-
tions for the board,” President
Pro-Tempore Johnny
DeMaagd said.
Village Manager Craig
Stolsonburg provided a writ-
ten statement:
“I am sad to see Mike step
down from the council, espe-
cially since it was due to
health concerns that he wasunable to complete his term.
Mike was first appointed in
March of 1998, but was an
honorable servant of
Middleville long before then,
having retired from Bradford
White. Mike loves his com-
munity more than anything
and always looked for the
best in people when voting
on issues. I wish nothing but
the best for Mr. Lytle and
hope his health is able to
recover.”and the village’s wastewater
treatment plant.
The TAPRC began
researching the feasibility of
building the new park and
ballfield complex in early- The existing 12-acre
Crane Road Ballfield
Complex, 7000 W. Crane
Road, was built on the site of
a former landfill and is not
considered suitable for major
improvements. No irrigation,
bathrooms or buildings can
be built on it.
So, the TAPRC began
looking at publicly-owned
land off Sheridan Street,
north of the Mount Hope
Cemetery, for a new recre-
ation site.
Grand Rapids-based engi-
neering firm Williams &
Works drew up a park design
for the property in 2021.
Two preliminary concept
plans for Sheridan Park
were prepared and posted
online in a survey format.
The public was able to vote
on facilities that it liked and
did not like.
The original estimate was
that the overall cost for
Sheridan Park would be
about $6.8 million. But in a
post-meeting interview,
Getty pointed out that con-
struction costs have risen
substantially since then due
to inflation.
“But it’s a conceptual
plan, not an engineered plan.
So, we can scale back on
some things. We can re-work,
depending on what the prior-
ities of the community are,”
she said.
More than a year’s worth
of surveys and public input
were funneled into the con-
ceptual plan, with the goal
being to raise funds to make
it a reality
Getty said she hopes that
progress can be made in
moving forward with the
Sheridan Park project.
“I’m optimistic now that
we have the leadership team
in place here. And we know
that there is a tremendous
need in the community and
desire to do it. So, hopefully
we can get something going,
even if it’s just a first phase,”
Getty said.
The TAPRC and village
leaders may examine poten-
tial state grant opportunities
to fund the park project. The
village had formed an ad-hoc
committee to discuss parks,
but with significant turnover
on the village council, and
transitions in leadership
positions and staffing since
last April, nothing firm has
been decided yet.
“I think that will play into
it. How the village wants to
prioritize their efforts and
what they put where. But I
do think that we’ll all work
together and be cooperative,”
Getty said.
Village Manager Craig
Stolsonburg said in an inter-view after the village council
meeting that staff will recon-
vene the parks committee to
consider doing something
with the Sheridan Park proj-
ect.
“We’ll try to look at that
again now that we’ve got
some of the past-due items
taken care of,” he said.
“As we kind of get into the
spring and summer, I’m
hopeful that the committee
will come together again,”
Getty said. “And then, we’ll
work with TAPRC and,
hopefully, identify some
grants and make some prog-
ress.”
She added that 400 stu-
dent-athletes play youth
baseball and softball on only
a handful of fields in the
area.
“And they’re driving from
Yankee Springs to Freeport
to play. And we’re playing
on a field that’s not even in
our district, on a church field- we need something,” Getty
said.
A TAPRC Endowment
Fund was created in partner-
ship with the Thornapple
Area Enrichment Foundation,
an affiliate of the Barry
Community Foundation. It
will benefit the future of
parks and recreation in the
area. The website link to
make donations is: barrycf.
org/funds/thornapple-ar-
ea-parks-and-recre-
ation-commission-fund.
TAPRC , continued from page 1
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Middleville planners OK
storage business expansion
Greg Chandler
Staff Writer
The Middleville Planning
Commission Tuesday gave a
local storage company the
go-ahead to expand.
In separate but unanimous
votes, commissioners
approved a special land use
and site plan for Riverside
Storage to add storage units
to its business at 472
Arlington St.
Riverside plans to add five
new units, ranging in size
from 2,400 to 4,500 square
feet, to the four units it
already has, owner Jon
Raymond said.
“(We plan on) starting
with two buildings to begin
with, and then as they fill up,
then we would add the addi-
tional three buildings to
that,” Raymond said.
The first storage units at
Riverside were built in 2017,
after the village approved a
special land use for construc-
tion of those units in
December the previous year.
Raymond had at one time
considered building condo-
miniums where the new stor-
age units will be built, but
eventually decided against
the idea.
“We spent a fair amount of
money on due diligence, and
found it really wasn’t the
best location for them. Based
on the sewer being where it’s
located, a little bit higher
than the elevation was down
there, and a couple of other
issues, we felt this (addition
of storage units) was proba-
bly the best use for the prop-
erty,” Raymond said.
The site on which
Riverside sits has a total area
of 10 acres between Arlington
Street and the ThornappleRiver, but the bulk of that
land is not conducive to
building and will be left in a
natural state, Raymond said.
“I’ve always stated to the
village that if the possibility
ever comes that you want to
add a future trail through that
site, which they have talked
about, we would be
open-minded to have it in
there, with an access off what
would be the south side of
the property,” Raymond said.
The village last fall
rezoned a portion of the
property that had been con-
sidered for the condominium
development from multi-
ple-family residential to
highway commercial, bring-
ing the entire parcel under a
single zoning classification.
Self-storage facilities are
an allowed special use under
the highway commercial
zoning classification.Riverside Storage in Middleville plans to add five
new units to its existing facility. (Courtesy photo)Jon Raymond of
Riverside Storage outlines
the expansion of his busi-
ness to the Middleville
Planning Commission on
Tuesday night. (Photo by
Greg Chandler)