The Hastings Banner — Thursday, March 21, 2024 — Page 3tee, which is tasked with sourcing, vetting
and recommending individuals to work in the
county.
A search for a new administrator will be
high priority for the committee. At the first
meeting, newly-appointed committee chair-
man David Hatfield and the additional three
commissioners on the committee – Dave
Jackson, Catherine Getty and Mike Callton
(vice chair) – sketched out a rough idea of
what the process will look like. The entire
process would take roughly four months.
While no hard dates were set, Hatfield
said that the county should, as soon as pos-
sible, put out a request for proposal to exec-
utive search consultants that would poten-
tially serve as the county’s partner during
the search for an administrator. Hatfield said
that, with the help of Brown, he has around
10 consultants the county could reach out to.
The county will work with the consultant
to review the current job description for the
administrator position and make any changes
needed. Once the job description is set, the
consultants will perform outreach. Whether
or not internal candidates might be interested
and available, the commissioners on the per-
sonnel committee want to cast a wide net in
their search.
“We owe it to ourselves and to our commu-
nity to make sure we do a thorough search
and find the best possible candidate to suc-
ceed Michael,” Hatfield said.
Another crucial part of the search, accord-
ing to the commissioners, is setting an appro-
priate salary. Departments across the county
are finding that higher salaries or bonuses
have been essential for attracting and retain-
ing talent and the commissioners expected no
different from the administrator search.
While Brown sends 30 years of experience
and institutional knowledge out the door, the
department still includes Deputy Administra-
tor Luella Dennison, who has been with the
department for over a decade herself.
“This county is really in good hands with
Luella,” Brown said. “You have a deputy who
has worked really hard over her career to
absorb and understand as much as she can
about the office to a point where I think you
all often go to her more than me.”
Last Thursday’s meeting of the Personnel
and Human Services Committee followed a
brief organizational meeting. The structure ofthe committee came into focus with Hatfield
and Callton as chairman and vice chair
respectively.
The committee will meet in the Board of
Commissioners chambers within the Barry
County Courthouse on the third Thursday of
each month at 9 a.m. Meetings are open to the
public and subscribe to the parameters of the
Open Meetings Act.
Recommendations made by the committee
will be moved directly to the Board of Com-
missioners agenda, bypassing the board’s
Committee of the Whole.
Recommendations that pass unanimously
will be added to the BOC’s consent agenda
while split decisions will be added to the
BOC’s items for consideration in case further
discussion is merited.
If the personnel committee wants to bring
in the remaining four commissioners into the
conversation, they can decide to send an issue
to the Committee of the Whole agenda.
In other business last Thursday, the Person-
nel and Human Services Committee made the
following recommendations to the Board of
Commissioners:- To re-appoint Vivian Conner (Oran-
geville Township) to serve the citizen at large
role on the Tax Allocation Board for a one-
year term.- To re-appoint Craig Jenkins (Hope Town-
ship) to serve on the Zoning Board of Appeals
for a three-year term that expires on March
31, 2027. - To approve a reclassification request with-
in the Adult Speciality Courts. The move would
re-classify two Adult Speciality Courts Admin-
istrative Assistant positions to Adult Speciality
Courts Operations Coordinator positions, com-
pensated with an additional $6,000 each. Holly
Wilkins is currently the only Administrative
Assistant in the department. - To approve a request that eliminates the
Administrative Assistant and Legal Secre-
tary roles at the Friend of the Court and
creates three Court Services Specialist I
positions, which would be compensated
with an additional $3,000 per year. Of the
three positions, two of them would be occu-
pied by current Administrative Assistant
Valerie Flikkema and Legal Secretary Kacey
Vandzandt. The other would be initially
vacant. - To re-appoint Robert Becker (Hastings)
and Lorraine Lindsey (Prairieville Township)
to serve on the Barry County Community
Mental Health Authority Board.
Goebel rated effective by
Hastings school board in
final evaluation
Hunter McLaren
Staff Writer
Hastings Area School System Superinten-
dent Matt Goebel received an “effective” rat-
ing from school board members, his last eval-
uation before stepping away from the role.
Board members conducted the annual
evaluation last month in a closed session,
discussing the results at their meeting Mon-
day. It will be the district’s final evaluation
of Goebel, who submitted a letter of resig-
nation to board members Feb. 15, marking
June 1 as his last day in the district. In com-
ments made to The Hastings Banner, Goebel
said he was retiring to spend more time with
his family.
Board member Valerie Slaughter thanked
Goebel for his service to the district.
“I know most of you are aware (Goebel)
has decided to tender his resignation, which
makes us sad,” Slaughter said. “But I would
like to thank him.”
Slaughter noted that Hastings seniors thisyear were kindergarteners when Goebel
joined the district 12 years ago in 2012. She
also thanked him for his work outside of his
role as the superintendent, noting his work
with Barry County United Way and other
community organizations.
“I would just like to thank him personally,”
she said. “He’s done a lot of community
work. He’s done a lot for the school system.”
The district is working with Peter Haines,
a Michigan Leadership Institute consultant
and Hastings graduate, to search for new
superintendent candidates. Slaughter said the
district has received applications for the posi-
tion, and the posting will be open until the
end of March.
“We do have applicants. The window’s
open until the end of March,” she said. “Once
we have those, we’re looking at dates in April
for interviews.”
The board’s next meeting is scheduled for
7 p.m. on April 15 in the Hastings Middle
School commons.Personnel committee recommends
new county planning commissioners,
two from Nashville
Jayson Bussa
Editor
On March 1, Barry County Planning and
Zoning took over the zoning responsibilities
for the Village of Nashville, yet, none of the
planning commissioners are from that area.
That appears to be changing.
Last week, in the first meeting of the coun-
ty board’s newly-created Personnel and
Human Services Committee, the four com-
missioners on the committee recommended
two Nashville residents be appointed to the
planning commission.
The committee recommended a total of
three applicants to fill two full terms and a
partial term that was recently vacated by a
planning commissioner who resigned.
The full-term vacancies are left by Joyce
Snow and Jack Miner, both of whom did not
seek re-appointment.
After a round of interviews, Nashville’s
Lloyd Elliston and Thomas Taylor, in addi-
tion to William Mattson of Hastings, were
recommended for the roles out of a total of
five applicants.
Taylor and Mattson were recommended to
serve full terms, which end on April 20, 2027,
while Elliston is being tapped for the partial
term, which ends on April 30, 2026.
All three interviewed in person while for-
mer County Commissioner Vivian Conner
submitted an application but was not able to
attend the interview. Snow initially submitted
an application for appointment but withdrew
it before her interview.
The Barry County Board of Commission-
ers will have the final say in the matter next
week.
The Village of Nashville relinquished its
planning and zoning powers to the county,
taking effect on March 1. Elliston and Taylor
both bring experience, both as residents of
Nashville but also working in zoning there.
Elliston, who worked at General Motors
for 30 years, has served with the Nashville
Planning Commission and as the village’sZoning Board of Appeals president. Simi-
larly, Taylor has experience serving on the
Nashville Planning Commission and as
Nashville Zoning Administrator. Both long-
time residents of Nashville stated that they
applied for the position in order to represent
the people of Nashville on the planning
commission.
Currently, four of the seven members of
the planning commission live in Delton, with
another living near that area. This prompted
the four commissioners on the personnel
committee to discuss the geographical make-
up of this and other boards.
“Basically, (now) we have Delton and
Nashville covered with not a lot in between
there. Are we ok with having that representa-
tion?” said Commissioner Dave Jackson, one
of the four members of the personnel com-
mittee. “I like both Nashville candidates
because they have experience, which helps
them get up to speed and get going quicker
with (Planning and Zoning Director) Jim
(McManus) and some of the projects going
on. Just something to think about. We’re
almost a little lopsided.”
“Those are also some of the most densely
populated of our county zoning areas –
Delton and now in Nashville,” Commissioner
Catherine Getty pointed out. The Barry
County Planning and Zoning is currently the
planning authority for 11 townships and two
villages.
“Would it be ideal to have a broader geo-
graphical representation? Maybe that’s some-
thing we take into account when we have new
openings,” Getty added.
Mike Callton, who serves as vice chair of
the personnel committee, and is also from
Nashville, said that focusing on the geo-
graphical makeup of board members for any
board can make for a slippery slope.
“I think it’s bunk,” he said. “Ok, so you
can nit-pick zoning...then you go to other
boards and there might be a lot of Hastings
people on some of those. Then you start get-
ting into this discussion and looking at each
board through a microscope because they
don’t exactly pan out to perfect geographical
locations in the county. Unless we start
breaking up these districts like our commis-
sioner districts and we set that as a criteria,
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AROUNDADMINISTRATOR, continued from page 1 ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
“I’ve learned a lot from the peo-
ple that have been working here
for years and years and are so
proud to be a part of this organiza-
tion and this company,” he said. “It
is a company that has had many
changes throughout the last 100
years that it has been in operation.”
Even local Bliss history buffs
might learn a thing or two from the
exhibit. Taking center stage in the
lobby is the Bliss Surrey, one of
the company’s more peculiar and
less well-known productions. Built
in 1958, the Surrey was an auto-
mobile once produced at Bliss
Canton in Ohio.
The car is parked in front of a
portrait of the Brooklyn Bridge – a
nod to the company’s origins as the
E.W. Bliss Company in Brooklyn,
N.Y. Long before purchasing the
Consolidate Press Company in
Hastings, where BCN currently
resides, the company lent tools,
materials and manpower to build
the bridge.
Valdes called special attention
to employees Kolleen Brown and
Ken Windes, who he said were
instrumental in designing and
workshopping the project. Several
months of design and construction
work went into the project, built by
Akuba Builders and Contracting,
with custom signs by Praise Sign
Company.
Valdes said BCN still services
around 200,000 of its presses today,
used by manufacturers throughout
the world. Valdes said the number
of items on display in the lobby
currently is only a small part ofwhat the company has, with plans
to rotate new items and displays
into the space every few months.
“It’s something simple because
we’re simple people here, but
we’re very proud of being part of
this company, this organization
and to take it into the future,” Val-
des said.Various odds and ends of Bliss-branded artifacts are on display,
including tools, handbooks, office supplies and more.BLISS, continued from page 1 –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Hastings Superintendent Matt Goebel received an effective rating from board mem-
bers. Goebel is stepping away from his role at the end of the school year on June 1.
(Photo by Hunter McLaren)Lloyd Elliston of Nashville fields questions from the county’s Personnel and
Human Services Committee last Thursday. Elliston was recommended as one of
three candidates to be appointed to the Barry County Planning Commission. (Photo
by Jayson Bussa)