Page 6/The Sun and News, Saturday, March 16, 2024Village Council OKs chip-seal
work on Main Street in Caledonia
Greg Chandler
Staff Writer
Repair work will take place
later this year on several
streets in the village of
Caledonia, most notably Main
Street.
The Village Council
Monday voted unanimously to
move ahead with plans forchip-sealing work on the full
length of Main Street, as well
as on Johnson Street from
Duncan Lake Avenue to Kinsey
Street and on School Street
between Johnson and Main.
The village is partnering with
the Kent County Road
Commission for the project.
Last year, the village hadspot-milling and asphalt
replacement work done on
Main in preparation for this
year’s project. Village officials
have met with the Road
Commission to get pricing
estimates, which range from
$60,000 to $82,000. A final
price tag will be determined
when the Road Commissiondecides whether to take on the
project or hires an outside con-
tractor to do the work.
The council authorized the
spending of up to $82,000 for
the chip-sealing work. No
time schedule for when the
work will take place has been
determined, Village Manager
Jeff Thornton said.CHS mock trial team to compete in state finals
Greg Chandler
Staff Writer
While some students com-
pete for state championships
in various athletic events, a
group of students from
Caledonia High School are
competing for a state champi-
onship of a different kind next
weekend.
CHS students who take part
in the school’s Mock Trial
program will be competing in
the state championship meet,
hosted by the Michigan Center
of Civic Education and the
State Bar of Michigan, next
Saturday at Veterans Memorial
Courthouse in Lansing. They
are the only team from Kent,
Barry and Ottawa counties
competing in the meet.
Students prepared for the
meet earlier this week by prac-
ticing their arguments before
U.S. District Judge RobertJonker, who served as chief
judge of the U.S. District
Court for the Western District
of Michigan from 2015 to
2022.
“Students take on the roles
of attorneys and witnesses
and compete against each
other in real courtrooms in
front of real judges and law-
yers,” said Jenny Jonkman, a
CHS social studies teacher
who advises the school’s
Mock Trial program.
“Students interpret legal doc-
uments, witness statements,
and take on roles and simulate
a trial in real life and real-
time. Participants adjust to
the strategies employed by
the opposing side. Mock trials
draw upon historical events,
trials of contemporary inter-
est, school or classroom situa-
tions, or hypothetical and
entertaining fact patterns to
inspire students to think criti-
cally and creatively about the
law.”
Caledonia High sent four
teams to compete in two
regional tournaments this year.
A total of 43 schools compet-
ed in the regional tournament
with 12 advancing to the state
championship. The team of
Alyssa Bursch, Emery Rewa,
Grace Bryant, Alexander
Hochwarth, Alexa Pearson,
Sebastian Rissley, Allison
Malone, Meghan Ruthven and
Maria Maunu competed in the
Oakland County regional and
qualified for state, marking the
first time Caledonia had ateam qualify for state since
2017, Jonkman said.
Mock Trial cases alternate
between civil and criminal
cases each year, Jonkman said.
“This year the case is civil
and is a negligence case. Last
year, the case was a first-de-
gree murder case,” Jonkman
said. “The students this year
have been focusing on negli-
gence. Students have been
learning about the burden of
proof in a civil case and how
to prove or disprove based on
preponderance of evidence
rather than beyond a reason-
able doubt. Students last year
learned about the elements
needed to prove a first-degree
murder and how that differed
from other degrees of murder
and they learned about the
burden of proof in a criminaltrial.”
Caledonia began Mock
Trial as an after school club in
2011, with local attorney
Elizabeth Yard of the firm
Tanis Shultz PLLC and
Jonkman coaching the pro-
gram. After a few years of
running the program as a club,
Jonkman and Yard discussed
the idea of developing a
Foundations of Law class, tak-
ing knowledge about court-
room trial law and applying it
to the annual case released by
the Michigan Center for Civic
Education.
Jonkman created a proposal
for a 12-week introductory
course and with the guidance
of Yard and other attorneys,
presented a 12-week elective
course proposal to the princi-
pal, curriculum director andthe Board of Education. The
elective course was approved
and has been an option for
students to take in high school.
Among the skills students
develop from participating in
Mock Trial includes critical
thinking, problem-solving,
collaboration, creativity, and
public speaking, Jonkman
said.
At the state championships,
each team is guaranteed two
trials – one in which it will
argue the side of the plaintiff,
the other where it will argue
the side of the defense. The
scoring judges, consisting of
attorneys and judges, will
score each trial on legal merit
and creativity, and narrow the
field of teams to a final four
that will compete for the
championship, Jonkman said.- Wheel Alignments
- Auto Glass Installation
- Insurance Work Welcome
- Visa & MasterCard Accepted
Over 40 years experienceBruce’s Frame and Alignment
415 2nd • Middleville
795-
brucesframe.com
Full Service
Body Shop
QUESTIONS:
ASK US... Sisters Fabrics
218 E. State St., Hastings • 945-
OPEN: Monday-Friday 8 am-5:30 pm;
Saturday 9 am-3 pm
Pray for our Country >
QUESTIONS:
ASK US...
Sisters Fabrics
218 E. State St., Hastings • 945-
OPEN: Monday-Thursday 8 am-5:30 pm;
Friday 8 am-7 pm; Saturday 9 am-5:30 pmIt's time to
start
Grad Quilts**_- New Collections
- Hulst Cleaners Pickup Station
- Linus Project Drop Off_**
Township acquires land for Paul Henry Trail trailhead
Greg Chandler
Staff Writer
The Thornapple Township
board Monday approved the
purchase of 2.5 acres of vacant
property along the Thornapple
River to serve the Paul Henry
Thornapple Trail.
The board unanimously
approved a resolution to
acquire the land at 9450
Garbow Rd. from Patrick
and Hyesuk Guy for
$150,000.
“This would be a potential
trailhead (for the trail),”
Township Supervisor Eric
Schaefer said. “Also, it has
river access, and would be a
place for emergency services
to draft from if need be.”
“The property is adjacent to
the trail. It would be a place
for people to park if they want
to use the trail along the river,”
Township Trustee Kim Selleck
said.
The township has been
looking to fill in gaps to com-
plete the Paul Henry
Thornapple Trail for some
time. In January 2023, the
township acquired two par-
cels of land — one extending
south from Stimson Road,
north of Parmalee Road, to
Garbow, the other extending
about a half-mile north from
Crane Road, along the river’s
eastern edge at the border of
the village of Middleville.
Those purchases were made
possible in large part by
$153,000 in grant funding
through the Michigan
Department of Natural
Resources.
Those purchases left abouta half-mile gap between the
two acquired properties to
complete the 42-mile Paul
Henry Thornapple Trail,
between Grand Rapids in Kent
County and Vermontville in
Eaton County. The trail rough-
ly follows the original route of
the Grand River Valley
Railroad, which was built in
the late 1860s and operated
through 1983.
County Commissioner
Catherine Getty praised the
board for making the purchase
“for the foresight of the trust-
ees and your willingness to
take advantage of those oppor-
tunities when they come up
because they don’t come up
very often. It’s just something
to be celebrated and recog-
nized, because if you would
have let that pass, it may havebeen generations, or never,
that you would have gotten
another opportunity like that.
“With the trail work, you
just get what you can get when
you can get it. In the last cou-
ple of years, it’s been a huge
step forward in connecting the
trail. We still have a bit of a
piece to go, but we’ve had
good relationships with prop-
erty owners, and I really see
that it’s going to connect,”
Getty added.
The purchase of the Guy
property is subject to a 90-day
due diligence period, accord-
ing to the sale agreement doc-
ument.
“We have surveys and
inspections, that sort of thing
(that must be completed),”
Township Clerk Cindy
Ordway said.Thornapple Township Supervisor Eric Schaefer
explains the acquisition of property on Garbow Road
for a possible trailhead for the Paul Henry Thornapple
Trail on Monday night. (Photo by Greg Chandler)The Caledonia High School mock trial program will compete in the state cham-
pionship meet at Veterans Memorial Courthouse in Lansing. (Photo provided)