Page 12/The Sun and News, Saturday, August 7, 2021
TKHS grad receives Right to Life leadership honor
The Caledonia/
Middleville Area Right to
Life Chapter has awarded its
Senior Leadership Award to
2021 Thornapple Kellogg
High School graduate Megan
Chinavare.
The award was given in
recognition of her work and
leading the Students for Life
chapter at TKHS and for
actively participating,
promoting, and supporting
pro-life initiatives within the
local community and across
the country.Chinavare also received a
$250 scholarship and words
of praise and recognition
from local RTL affiliate
president Pete Murray.
Murray noted that Chinavare
founded the Students for Life
chapter at TKHS herfreshman year and served as
its president all four years in
high school.
In her time as serving in
this chapter of Students for
Life, Chinavare has increased
membership by promoting
and speaking to other
students, speaking at Sanctity
of Human Life Sunday
events, taking part in the
March for Life events in
Washington, D.C, sitting on
the Caledonia/Middleville
Area Right to Life chapter,and many other events in the
area, state and country.
Her sister, Erin, will be
stepping into the role of
president of the TKHS
chapter this fall, as Chinavare
moves onto her freshman
year at Franciscan University
in Steubenville, Ohio.
“I want to make my
passion for the pro-life
movement a career,” Megan
Chinavere said.
Caledonia/Middleville
Area Right to Life is anaffiliate of the Michigan
Right to Life and supports,
educates and promotes the
respect of human life from
conception to natural death.
The group meets monthly to
do planning and promoting
of life. More information can
be found on the affiliate’s
website, calmidrtl.com; by
emailing Pete Murray at
[email protected]; or calling
616-813-4368.VOLUME 167, No. 31 Thursday, August 5, 2021 PRICE $1.1THE
HASTINGS
Devoted to the Interests of Barry County Since 1856Proposed law is
mining for trouble
See Editorial on Page 4First HHS sports
practices announced
See Story on Page 12Area sees ‘substantial’
rise in COVID cases
See Story on Page 11NEWS
BRIEFSSee NEWS BRIEFS, page 2See GARDEN, page 3Tom Petty tribute
band playingA Tom Petty tribute band highlights the
free Hastings Live concerts in the coming week.
Spectators are encouraged to bring blan-Most concerts are at Thornapple Plaza.
kets or lawn chairs. At 11 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 5, John Ball
Zoo staff will be at Thornapple Plaza. Learn about wildlife in a hands-on learn-
ing experience with zoo education staff. The animals present will depend on their
behavior and the weather. (If the tempera-ture is 90 degrees or above, this event will
be canceled.)Beginning at noon Aug. 6, Hastings
Community Music School will entertain in the Fridays at the Fountain concert on
the Barry County Courthouse lawn. The music school provides musical listening,
learning and performance opportunities to people of all ages and skill levels. The
students and teachers will show what they have been working on in the long months
since they’ve last performed.That evening, beginning at 7:30, the
Friday Night Features will offer a performance by The Insiders at Thornapple -
Plaza. After the death of Tom Petty in October 2017, front man Max Lockwood
organized The Insiders by pulling together some of his favorite musicians for a bene-
fit concert. After a sold-out show raised thousands for a domestic violence shelter,
The Insiders decided they “won’t back down.”
beginning at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. Country singer Jesse Cline will perform
11, at Thornapple Plaza. Growing up in a small Southwest Michigan town, he was
interested in music from a young age. He learned new methods of reading music,
studied cover songs, and sang along with them for friends and family. Today, Cline
enjoys writing songs, playing gigs, and doing everything he can to share his music
with the world.More information can be found at face-
book.com/mihastingslive.
Library’s 125th to
be celebrated
Saturday
tion will have an open-house format, with The library’s 125th anniversary celebra-
patrons and visitors encouraged to stop by anytime between 2 and 4 p.m. Saturday,
Aug. 7, at Thornapple Plaza.Stormy the Entertainer will bring his
“foaminator” and to fill the front of the plaza with a four-foot wall of allergy-free,
zero clean-up, environmentally friendly foam. Attendees are encouraged to wear
swim suits for the foam party.Guests can decorate paper slips in the
shape of book spines, which will be collected and put on a paper banner designed -
to look like a bookshelf. The banner will be hung above the Teen Room indefinite-
ly.Ice cream and cookies will be available
on the stage.The event is entirely free.
NFLI wraps up with
sun and shadowsThe final activities for the nine-week
No Family Left Indoors summer series will focus on sun and shadows.
Hastings is the place to pick up a col-Pierce Cedar Creek Institute south of
or-changing bead kit, at the south entrance to the visitor center. Participants can take
the kits home, make a bracelet from the special beads and then head outdoors to
explore the power of the sun.The institute also has kits to show how
shadows move and change shape overLegacy Garden honors great ones who gave
Greg ChandlerStaff Writer
Foundation is the Legacy Garden that honors A new feature at the Barry Community
the contributions of past community leaders.“The foundation of any great organization
is rooted in the people who serve,” reads a plaque in the garden, which was dedicated in
an evening ceremony July 29. “They become the nurturing force which fuels the growth.”
sculpture, shaped in the form of tree branches The garden’s centerpiece is a metal
inside a circle, created by Richard Alan Morgan, a Wauseon, Ohio-based sculptor.
The sculpture was part of the 2020 Midwest Sculpture Initiative, which provides sculptures
for Hastings’ annual outdoor art display, BCF president and chief executive officer Bonnie
Gettys said.“[Gettys] saw this sculpture and thought
this really should have a home at Barry Community Foundation,” BCF board
chairwoman Diane Gaertner said. “So, with a lot of help and a lot of input from other
people, she made that happen.”During the dedication ceremony, Morgan
welded two metal leaves to the sculpture’s branches, honoring original BCF board
members Don Drummond and Richard Shuster.
honor those that have passed before us, that “The tree will grow, as we add leaves to
have served the foundation in many ways,” said Gettys, who has led the organization
since its inception in 1995.Drummond, who was vice president and
general manager at Flexfab, was a leading force and chairman of the Barry County The sculpture with metal pieces twisted to look like tree branches is the centerpiece of the Legacy Garden. Additional metal
leaves will be welded to the branches in recognition of community leaders for their contributions to the Barry Community Foundation. (Photo by Scott Harmsen)Hastings school bond request denied
Benjamin SimonStaff Writer
Tuesday when the Hastings Area School Seventy-nine votes made the difference
System bond proposal was defeated.According to results released by the Barry
County Clerk’s Office Wednesday, 1,610 people voted for the proposal and 1,693 voted
against it for a total of 3,303 votes cast. Voter turnout was high for an off-year election,
local clerks said. The process went smoothly, county Clerk
Pam Palmer reported. The Barry County Board of Canvassers convened Wednesday
morning at the courthouse and certified the results before noon.
it would have generated $21.9 million in If the district’s request had been approved,
school funding for building maintenance and infrastructure upgrades. The overall tax ratewould have decreased from 6.9 mills to 6.8 mills.
rate will drop to 6 mills.Now, without the bond, the district millage
the costs of district-wide maintenance needs, The funds were being requested to cover
such as replacing a two-decades-old high school roof, locker rooms from 1970,
bathrooms, installing a new keying system, adding an air purification system, removingasbestos, replacing buses and more. Superintendent Matt Goebel said he did not
expect the request to fail.“I was actually pretty surprised that it was
shot down or it was not passed,” he said. “... I just felt like it was a great deal for our
taxpayers and to reduce the tax rate and to provide a lot of basic needs in regards to roofs
and windows and locker rooms and bathrooms. I thought that the community would support iteven more so. And I thought that it would pass.”
he’s not sure about next steps, adding that The morning after the election, Goebel said
school officials intend to “re-evaluate our needs, and then prioritize what needs to be
done relatively soon.” He did point out that the district must
address some of those needs as soon as possible, specifically mentioning the roof, air
quality, windows and restrooms.But board member Mike Nickels noted
that, without the funding from a bond, these maintenance upgrades may be challenging to
achieve. “There is no way to get it done without
going to the public for funds,” Nickels said. “I“There is no way to get it done without going to the public for funds. I mean, one way or the other, whether that’s through a bond
or through a millage, the money has to come from somewhere.It doesn’t grow on trees, and the state doesn’t give it to us.”
Mike Nickels, Hastings school board memberSee REQUEST, page 3U.S. Rep. Meijer, governor’s
aide address labor shortage
Hastings
manufacturers’ forum
addresses local
employers’ concerns
Taylor OwensStaff Writer
the Barry County Manufacturers Forum The labor shortage was top-of-mind during
Wednesday morning.Both U.S. Representative Peter Meijer,
R-Third District, and Melissa Fish, a representative from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s -
office, said the $300 federal supplement to unemployment benefits is keeping many peo-
ple from going back to work.“I have been acutely aware of the $
federal unemployment insurance supplement,” Meijer said. “We have seen some -
demonstrable impact in some states whose governors said. ‘We don’t want to be partici-
pants in this program.’ And I wrote a letter to Gov. Whitmer saying, ‘Please take us out of
this program,’ ” he added.Meijer and Fish also said they do not
expect the federal government to extend the supplement past the Sept. 6 expiration date.tite to expand that $300 federal employment “Right now, I do not see much of an appe-
supplemental past its September cutoff date,” Meijer said. “I think a lot of governors are
glad that it won’t be extended.”Meijer also said billions in unemployment
money could have been given out to fraudulent applicants. -
cases that the state attorney general’s office is Fish said she is notified regularly of fraud
prosecuting.The Whitmer administration also believes a
lack of child care is a significant reason for the state’s labor shortage, Fish noted, and the
governor has proposed $1.4 billion in investments to ease that issue. -
that need to be made in the child care space,” “We know that there are huge investments
Fish said. “Because those are some of our lowest-paid workers that are doing some of
our most important jobs – taking care of kids.”
cal education programs, she added. About The state also is working on career techni-
75,000 people have applied to a state CTE program, and the administration is consider-
ing using American Rescue Plan Act money
See FORUM page 2Election fraud claims lack
credibility, congressman says
Taylor OwensStaff Writer
purpose of a Tuesday meeting between Barry Allegations of election fraud were the
County Prosecutor Julie Nakfoor Pratt and Sheriff Dar Leaf.
news media that the sheriff “has communiNakfoor Pratt confirmed in a release to all -
cated with our office that he is looking into allegations of election fraud.
police reports or requests for charges. If “As of this time, we do not have any
additional documentation is provided to us, we will review it as we do in all of our
cases.”The sheriff, communicating by text to the
Bannerof a missing person is taking precedence in on Wednesday, said the investigation
his department right now. Police are trying to find Rachel Lynn
Hazen, 41, of Castleton Township, was last seen was last seen driving a sliver 2005 Ford
Escape with no license plate. She left her son’s house around 2 p.m. July 21, and was
seen by a neighbor at her residence in the Thornapple Lake Estates later that day.
11:05 a.m. July 26, to report that she was A close friend of Hazen’s called police atmissing. Anyone with information about Hazen’s
location are being asked to call the sheriff’s office at 269-948-4801 or Barry County
Central Dispatch at 269-948-4800.The deputy who is handling the missing
person case is the officer who was assigned to the election probe, the sheriff wrote.
had nothing to report to the public about the Last week, Leaf told The Banner that he
election probe.The complainant who triggered the probe
is Julie Jones, a former sergeant with the sheriff’s department, who confirmed that she
filed her complaint based her allegations on a court document from a lawsuit filed in
April in Antrim County. That lawsuit was dismissed in May.
who represents Barry County, was in U.S Rep. Peter Meijer, R-Third District,
Hastings for a manufacturers’ forum Wednesday morning. In an interview with
The Hastings Bannerdiscussed allegations of voter fraud that have after the forum, he
proliferated across the state and nation. He stressed that he has not seen any evidence of
See CLAIMS, page 10STAY INFORMED...
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THRecent Thornapple Kellogg High School graduate Megan Chinavere receives a
certificate recognizing her with the Caledonia/Middleville Area Right to Life’s Senior
Leadership Award from chapter president Pete Murray. Chinavere plans to continue
her education this fall at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio. (Photo provided)