VOLUME 169, No. 20 Thursday, May 18, 2023 PRICE $1.
T HE
H AST INGS
Devoted to the Interests of Barry County Since 1856
Thornapple Arts Council hopes to highlight
county’s arts, culture with new music festival
Jayson Bussa
Editor
Each year, the Thornapple Arts Council
teams up with the city of Hastings to put on
an entire summer of live music and events.
The Hastings Live series features concerts
on Wednesday nights and Friday afternoons
and evenings and children’s programming
every Thursday morning.
Still, the organization found time to hatch
one more ambitious event this season.
“My summers are getting really boring, so
why not do another thing?” joked Megan
Lavell, executive director of the Thornapple
Arts Council (TAC).
Summers might be busy enough for Lavell
and her crew, but this year they are launching
something unlike anything they have done
before with their newly-announced The Fair
Ground Festival, an all-afternoon music festi-
val featuring six female-fronted bands at the
grounds of the Barry Expo Center where the
Barry County Fair takes place every year.
Slated for Aug. 27, The Fair Ground Festi-
val will feature bands Joseph, Grand Rapids
local favorites The Crane Wives, Ruthie Fos-
ter, Kyshona, Patty Pershayla and the May-
haps and Traverse City-based The Acciden-
tals, a fan favorite of the Hastings Live con-
cert series.
The script for this event deviates signifi-
cantly from the Hastings Live performances
that the TAC helps to coordinate inside city
limits. The Fair Ground Festival is a ticketed
event; general admission will cost $50.
Lavell said that TAC hopes to attract a
regional audience.
“I applaud the board for doing this – they
definitely took a leap of faith in doing this
because it’s so far out of the scope of what
we’ve done in the past,” Lavell said. “This
year, we would just love to cover our
expenses with our ticket sales (and make it a
yearly event).”
Lavell said that her organization’s relation-
ship with The Accidentals was a catalyst for
planning this large-scale event. Lavell leaned
on Amber Buist, manager for The Acciden-
tals, to gain access to booking agents for
these other well-known touring acts. The
lineup is strong enough that Lavell is hopeful
that fans from all corners of the state can
make the trip over to Barry County.
“It’s a female-led festival. That’s not to say
there aren’t men on stage, but they’re all
female-led,” Lavell said. “What we’re trying
to do is multi-faceted – we’re supporting
women in music, and we’re trying to stimu-
late the local economy and kind of put Barry
County on the map culturally the way that the
Barry-Roubaix (gravel bike race) put it on the
map for our backroads. We want to create that
sense of cultural place here.”Local fifth graders
look to the future
See story on page 4
DK girls clinch SAC Central
Championship
See story on page 9
Meet the Thornapple Mermaid
See story on page 4
YMCA of Barry County’s deal to purchase
county-owned building, land nearing finish line
Jayson Bussa
Editor
The county has found a buyer for a large
swath of secluded property that has gone
unused for over a year.
The property is located at 2350 Iroquois
Trail in Rutland Township and is home to a
7,500-square-foot, single-story office build-
ing that previously served as a day program
center for Barry County Mental Health Ser-
vices. The facility has six offices, a full kitch-
en and six functional classrooms or gathering
spaces. The building and property have sat
vacant for over a year until, in March of this
year, the county board announced that the
YMCA of Barry County, which owns an
adjacent parcel and operates nearby Camp
Algonquin was interested in buying. The
YMCA currently owns 45 acres of property- 35 acres on the north side of Iroquois Trail
and 10 acres on the lake side, including an
island. This acquisition would add to that
footprint.
The initial interest by the YMCA sparked
negotiations with the county and, on Tuesday
morning, the county’s Committee of the Whole
recommended that the Board of Commission-
ers approve the final sale of the property.
As negotiations were ongoing, Jon Sporer,
executive director of the YMCA of Barry
County, said that his organization was inter-
ested in using the building and property to
expand day camp and daycare services for the
local community, both of which are booked at
capacity and have a waiting list.
“This building, property and opportunity
for program growth fits our organization’s
strategic plan as well as our camp’s master
plan,” Sporer reiterated in a statement to The
Banner.
“We are thankful for the process the county
has provided to ensure the timeline and com-
munity needs are met and we appreciate (the
public’s) support of our vision,” Sporer added.
Sporer said that the YMCA hopes to be
fully operational at that location by the fall
already.Barry County Christian adding another campus
through partnership with Woodland area church
Jayson Bussa
Editor
As the product of a newly-established part-
nership, Barry County Christian School will
continue to expand throughout the county,
adding a new campus alongside the two the
school already maintains.
Earlier this week, administrators at BCCS
announced that they have partnered with Kil-
patrick United Brethren Church, which is
located between Woodland and Nashville and
has been established for over 150 years.
Together, the two entities will launch a BCCS
satellite campus that will operate independent-
ly of the existing campuses in Hastings and
Middleville but share a common mission.
Barry County Christian’s footprint now
stretches east to west through the county. It
creates a unique model that can’t be readily
found elsewhere in the state. While many
private and public schools are designed withmultiple elementary schools that feed into
one high school, all three BCCS campuses
are, or will eventually become, K-12 schools
of their own.
“We’re plowing new ground,” said Bran-
don Strong, executive director of the Barry
County Christian School Education Associa-
tion.
“It’s never really been our goal to central-
ize kids to one campus. We don’t really care
about that. It’s more so to have three schools
that can operate fairly independently but in
collaboration with one another with the com-
mon vision. To be honest with you, I don’t
know right now in Michigan of any schools
that operate what will be three K-12 private
schools – it’s certainly not being done in a
rural area like ours.”Gun Lake board
approves new
treatment as
concerns
continue over
past copper
treatments
Greg Chandler
Staff Writer
The Gun Lake Improvement Board
(GLIB) has approved a new round of
treatments for the lake that will not
involve the use of copper-based herbi-
cides.
At its May 11 meeting, the board
approved the treatment of 48.75 acres
of the lake, primarily in the channels,
with several different herbicides, cost-
ing more than $34,000. Most notably,
as part of that approval, the board
approved the use of peroxygen algaeci-
des instead of chelated copper, costing
over $6,000 higher than the copper
option, to treat invasive algae in the
channels in the south and northwest
portions of the lake.
The treatments could take place as
soon as today, according to Pete Fil-
pansick of SOLitude Lake Manage-
ment, previously known as Clarke
Aquatic Services, the consultant to the
lake board.
Some lake residents have been criti-
cal of GLIB and SOLitude for the use
of copper sulfate herbicide to control
invasive plants, saying it has affected
water quality and fishing on the lake.
Resident Bill Bryker, who has tested
the water near his house, submitted a
letter, read by fellow resident Ann
Nolan, where he criticized what he
termed “excessive, indiscriminate
application of toxic copper sulfate,
over and over again, in the channels at
Gun Lake.”
Under a new directive from the state,
copper sulfate cannot be used on any
lakes during the months of May and
June.See CHRISTIAN, page 3
See GUN LAKE, page 3
Portland, Oregon-based band Joseph, seen here performing at a previous show, will be one of the six musical acts to appear at
the upcoming Fair Ground Festival at the Barry Expo Center. (Photos provided)See ARTS COUNCIL, page 2
The YMCA of Barry County is poised to purchase this facility and property, located
at 2350 Iroquois Trail. The organization will use it to expand day camp and daycare
services, among other purposes. (File photo by Jayson Bussa)See YMCA, page 2
Brandon Strong, executive director of the Barry County Christian School Education
Association (left), and Rocky Spear, lead pastor at Kilpatrick United Brethren Church
(right), are seen here making a video announcement unveiling a new partnership that
will bring a BCCS campus to the Woodland area. (Photo provided)