The Sun and News

Your Hometown Newspaper Serving Middleville and Caledonia Areas

No. 17/April 24, 2021 Published by J-Ad Graphics, Inc. • 1351 N. M-43 Highway, Hastings, MI 49058 143rd year

Gaines Twp. planners approve hotel at M-6/Kalamazoo Ave. interchange

Greg Chandler

Staff Writer

A new hotel will soon be

built near the interchange of

M-6 and Kalamazoo Avenue.

The Gaines Township

Planning Commission

Thursday approved plans for

a four-story Staybridge

Suites hotel at 1439 and

1469 Eastport Drive in The

Crossings mixed-use devel-

opment just northwest of the

interchange. The new hotel

will be north of the

Celebration Cinema South

theater.

The planning commission

had approved similar plans

for the hotel in October 2019,

but the COVID-19 pandemic

put those plans on hold,

commission Chairwoman

Connie Giarmo said.

“The approval to do this

project expired without the

developer being able to get

the project moving,” Giarmo

said.

The planning commission

needed to approve a major

amendment to the planned

unit development for The

Crossings, to allow for the

hotel. The property had earli-

er been approved as over-

flow parking for Celebration

Cinema, but the property

was seldom used by movie-

goers, Community

Development Director Dan

Wells said.

The 26,650-square-foot

Staybridge Suites hotel will

have 124 rooms and a meet-

ing room that can hold 90

people for conferences. The

parking lot will have 155

spaces, three more than

required by the township,

Wells said.

“Nothing in the project

has changed from what we

had last time, other than Dan

brought up a couple of addi-

tional requests for us, to add

some lighting and a better

walking path, so we accom-

modated that,” said Dennis

Brovont, president of Pel

Construction, which will

build the hotel.

Commissioners agreed to

go along with a request from

the developer to allow two

90-square-foot wall signs on

the hotel, one facing

Kalamazoo Avenue and the

other facing M-6. The town-

ship ordinance generally

allows one wall sign with a

maximum of 100 square feet

in the general commercial

zoned district, but no objec-

tions were raised to allowing

two signs.

Commissioners also

agreed to a 52-foot-height

for the building. The town-

ship has a 35-foot height

limit in the general commer-

cial zoned district, Wells

said.

Other conditions commis-

sioners placed on the devel-

opment included realigning

the lane striping for the

southern driveway to

Eastport Drive to be perpen-

dicular to the centerline of

the street and that trees in the

parkway south of the proper-

ty be trimmed to a height of

10 feet to improve vision for

pedestrians and drivers.

No timetable has been set

for groundbreaking, but the

new hotel should be open in

2022, Brovont said.

IN THIS ISSUE...

• Retroactive raise, lump-sum approved
  for Caledonia village employees


• Caledonia Twp. seeks grant to
  expand Two Rivers Greenspace


• Charlie Pullen memorial service
  set for next Saturday


• School record two-mile helps Scots
  score conference victory

Caledonia schools project $2 million deficit for 2021-22 school year

Greg Chandler
Staff Writer
Caledonia Community
Schools are forecasting a
shortfall of a little more than
$2 million in the projected
budget for the 2021-
school year.
Finance Director Sara
DeVries gave her estimation
of the district’s finances for
the fiscal year, which starts
July 1, during Monday’s
school board meeting at
Duncan Lake Middle
School’s performing arts
center.
DeVries’ projection is
based in part on the district
regaining some of the 152
students it lost between the
fall 2019 and fall 2020
enrollment counts.
“We’re estimating about a
third of our students will
come back. That’s about 50
students,” she said.
After three consecutive
years of enrollment exceed-
ing 5,000 students,
Caledonia’s enrollment in
fall 2020 fell to 4,907.
In addition to the project-
ed enrollment increase,

DeVries is anticipating an

$82 per-pupil increase in the

state’s foundation grant for

each district, as proposed by

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in

her budget plan. Per-pupil

enrollment funding accounts

for about 70 percent of the

district’s revenues, she said.

The budget projection

does not include any staffing

reductions for next school

year, although cuts are possi-

ble in the 2022-23 school

year based on current fund-

ing projections, DeVries

said.

The Caledonia district is

projected to end the current

fiscal year with about a

$700,000 shortfall. However,

it’s been using a “super

blend” formula from the

state that factors in enroll-

ment figures from the 2019-

20 school year and the 2020-

21 school year in determin-

ing how much revenue it

receives.

“When we’re looking to

budget for next fiscal year,

right now, the super blend is

not in effect,” DeVries said.

Revenues for the current

fiscal year are $58.8 million,

and expenditures are expect-

ed to end the fiscal year at

$59.5 million, according to

DeVries’ presentation to the

board.

The district is projected to

receive about $1.8 million in

federal stimulus funding for

the next fiscal year, but there

are limits as to how that

money can be spent, DeVries

said.

“With those dollars, it is

very specific on what they

can be used on, and it’s all

related around the pandem-

ic,” DeVries said.

“They include our virtual

learning – the content, the

management system, the

teachers, the Chromebooks,

the hotspots – those things

that are involved in virtual

learning.”

In addition, the stimulus

funds can be used for mental

health support and staffing,

nurses and building health

paraprofessionals, profes-

sional development, extend-

ed learning services such as

summer school and credit

recovery, funding a dean to

check on school truancy

issues, improvement to the

ventilation system in build-

ings and the purchase of per-

sonal protection equipment,

DeVries said.

“We are still being cau-

tiously optimistic. This is the

best information we have

today,” DeVries said. “Will

they do something with the

super blend? Possibly,

because this is impacting dis-

tricts across the state ...

We’ll continue to monitor

these things and make adjust-

ments as needed.”

In other business Monday,

the school board approved:

• The purchase of 1,000 11
  EE G8 Chromebooks, along
  with a Google Management
  license for the laptops, at a
  cost not to exceed $241,650.


• Awarding the contract for
  a new district server and
  storage area network to
  Sentinel Technologies, which
  submitted a bid of $131,623.
  -Awarding a contract for
  low-voltage cabling and a
  new public address system at
  Caledonia Elementary to
  Town & Country Electric,
  which submitted a bid of
  $66,115.
  -The purchase of a new
  video scoreboard for the
  Scotland Yard soccer and
  lacrosse field from
  Daktronics for $62,490. The
  district hopes to offset some
  of the cost of the scoreboard
  by selling advertising,
  according to a memo from
  Athletic Director Fred

Townsend.

-Awarding contracts for

paving projects in the district

this summer, to Superior

Asphalt for $1.97 million

and Structure TEC for

$174,568. Projects include

paving and restoration work

at the north parking lot at

Caledonia High School, the

parking lots at Emmons Lake

Elementary School and the

bus drop-off area at

Caledonia Elementary

School.

-The purchase of a 77-pas-

senger ThomasBuilt school

bus from Hoekstra Sales, of

Grand Rapids, for $95,676.

The bus had been scheduled

for purchase last year but

was put on hold because of

financial uncertainty tied to

the pandemic.

-The purchase of a 2022

Chevrolet maintenance and

plow truck from Todd

Wenzel Chevrolet, of

Hudsonville, for $41,279.

The new truck will allow the

district to phase out a 2008

model truck from the mainte-

nance fleet.

Caledonia, Gaines growth outpaces

county, equalization report shows

Greg Chandler

Staff Writer

Economic growth along

the M-6 corridor continues to

spark an increase in property

values in Caledonia and

Gaines townships that is out-

pacing the rest of Kent

County.

According to the county’s

equalization report for 2021,

which was approved

Thursday by the Kent County

Board of Commissioners,

state equalized values in

Caledonia Township rose

8.36 percent from a year ago,

putting the township over the

$1 billion mark in total prop-

erty value.

That increase was the sec-

ond-highest among the 21

townships in Kent County

and fourth-highest of any

municipality in the county,

trailing only the city of

Wyoming (9.87 percent), the

city of Lowell (9.12 percent)

and Spencer Township (8.

percent).

Meanwhile, Gaines

Township saw a 7.48 percent

rise in state equalized values,

putting the township at more

than $1.26 billion in total

property value.

By comparison, Kent

County as a whole saw a

6.85 percent SEV increase

for the year, translating into

nearly $2.2 billion in addi-

tional property value, boost-

ing the county’s total value to

nearly $34.1 trillion. It was

the 10th consecutive year of

increased property values in

the county after five straight

yearly declines during the

recession of the late 2000s

and early 2010s.

Caledonia Township’s

growth included an 11.

percent in the value of com-

mercial properties, the only

county municipality to see a

double-digit increase in that

sector, according to the

report.

“The trends that are hap-

pening in Caledonia are the

ones that are happening

across that entire [M-6] cor-

ridor,” County Equalization

Director Matt Woolford said

in a telephone interview

shortly after Thursday’s

county board meeting.

“Obviously, we’ve been in

a pandemic, so within the

commercial class, we’re see-

ing a tale of two kinds of

trends. One is those commer-

cial-related things that are

close to highways, that are in

support of distribution, cer-

tain restaurants with high

drive-in capacity, specialized

retail – some of those things

have been doing quite well.

Some of the other areas that

are more directly related to

the pandemic – hospitality,

for example, overall retail –

it seems we lost a lot of foot

traffic. Those properties have

not been utilized as much.”

Commercial activity in

Gaines Township wasn’t

quite as robust as its neigh-

bor to the east, but still came

in with a 5.2 percent SEV

increase in that sector. In the

residential sector, Caledonia

saw a 6.07 percent increase

in property values, while

Gaines checked in at 5.

percent, according to the

report.

Residential property value

increases are seen as helping

drive growth in other sectors,

Woolford said.

“West Michigan and the

Grand Rapids metropolitan

area are a growing region,

and as the residential proper-

ties are appreciating, more

people are coming into the

area, companies and the

industrial sector continue to

do well, the commercial class

is going to grow along with

the rest of those growth

trends,” he said.

Residential makes up 77.

percent of Caledonia

Township’s total SEV – more

than $784 billion in property

value. In Gaines Township,

residential comprises 72.

percent of the township’s

total SEV, adding up to more

“We are still being cautiously optimistic. This is the best

information we have today. Will they do something with

the super blend? Possibly, because this is impacting

districts across the state ... We’ll continue to monitor

these things and make adjustments as needed.”

Sara DeVries, Caledonia Community Schools

Finance Director

See GROWTH, page 3