The Sun and News

Your Hometown Newspaper Serving Middleville and Caledonia Areas

No. 44/October 30, 2021 Published by J-Ad Graphics, Inc. • 1351 N. M-43 Highway, Hastings, MI 49058 143rd year

IN THIS ISSUE...IN THIS ISSUE...

• Middleville rejects proposed
  roundabout feasibility study


• CHS presents ‘Alice and the Rabbits
  of Wonderland,’ by Director Kate Lane


• TKHS students to stage
  Wilder’s classic play ‘Our Town’


• Top-ranked Blue Devils
  defeat TK boys in district


• CHS football closes out 8-
  regular season, on to playoffs

Greg Chandler

Staff writer

To get ready for the

upcoming swimming season,

Caledonia High School stu-

dents Connor Cammet and

Carson Herzog have to travel

to the Mary Free Bed YMCA

facility in Cascade Township

to use its pool for practice.

The two are members of a

team that combines students

from Caledonia with fellow

students from Grand Rapids

South Christian and Lowell

high schools. Last year, the

team had to practice at Byron

Center High School. A year

before that, they practiced at

Grand Rapids Community

College.

While Cammet and Herzog

will graduate from CHS

before the completion of a

new Caledonia Community

Schools community center,

which will include a compe-

tition swimming pool, they

are thrilled to see such a proj-

ect come to Caledonia.

“I think it’s awesome,”

said Cammet, a CHS junior.

“I think this is the type of

thing that every school dis-

trict needs. We’ve been the

only district of our size with-

out a pool in West Michigan

for a long while ... I think it

speaks a lot to the growth of

the community, as well as

how hard we fought to get a

pool.”

Cammet and Herzog

helped district officials and

representatives from the

YMCA of Greater Grand

Rapids turn over the first

shovels of dirt Wednesday

afternoon on the new

47,000-square-foot Cal

Community Center. The new

facility will be located at

9757 Kraft Ave. SE, immedi-

ately south of Holy Family

Catholic Church. The YMCA

On Wednesday, from left, Jazmine Barajas of the YMCA, Caledonia school

board member Julie Asper, Caledonia High School senior Carson Herzog,

Caledonia High School junior Connor Cammet, Scott Lewis of the YMCA and

Caledonia Superintendent Dr. Dedrick Martin, break ground on the Cal Community

Center project. (Photos by Greg Chandler)

Caledonia schools break

ground on new center

See COMMUNITY CENTER, page 2

Highpoint Community Bank commemorated its
135-year anniversary this week. During a celebration
Tuesday, HCB President and CEO Mark Kolanowski
emphasized the bank’s commitment to the communi-
ty. “Talk about deep roots? This is it,” he told
well-wishers. “Barry County is our home and it’s been

very good to us.” Shown, from left, are members of

the HCB staff: Ashley Van Alstine, assistant vice pres-

ident, retail banking; Timothy Tierney, senior vice

president, retail banking; and President and CEO

Mark Kolanowski and Gina Blough, an HCB retiree.

(Photo by Rebecca Pierce)

Highpoint Community Bank marks a 135-year milestone

James Gemmell
Contributing Writer
The Middleville Village
Planning Commission will
hold five public hearings
Wednesday, one for each ven-
dor who filed an application
to open a marijuana-based
business.
The hearings are for special
land-use permits at each site
and are part of the planning
commission’s regular month-
ly meeting, which will get
underway at 6 p.m. in council
chambers at the village hall,
100 E. Main St. The planning
commission will listen to the
applicants’ presentations and
receive public input at the
hearings.
Another meeting had been
scheduled for the following
night, Nov. 4, to make possi-
ble recommendations for
approval of the special land
use and site plan applications.
However, that meeting was
pushed back on Thursday
night after a five-hour-long
meeting of the planning com-
mission’s site plan committee.
The delay will allow commis-
sioners more time to review
the applications and for appli-
cants to provide more detail
about their plans, said Brian
Urquhart, the village’s assis-
tant manager and planning

and zoning administrator.

“It’s a growing pain of

administering this ordinance,”

Urquhart said in a phone

interview with the Sun and

News Friday.

Recently enacted village

ordinances allow special land

uses along the M-37 corridor.

“You also can have a grow

or processing facility in the

industrials area, which is the

north side of town,” Village

Manager Patricia Rayl said

recently.

The proposed locations for

the recreational marijuana

retailers are at 402 Thornton

St., 4611 N. M-37 Highway,

640 Arlington Court, 314

Arlington St., and 4695 N.

M-37. A recreational marijua-

na retail business is permitted

in the village’s C-2 highway

commercial district. A medi-

cal marijuana provisioning

center is permitted in the

commercial district as a spe-

cial land use.

All of the applications are

for businesses that would

open on M-37 or along the

highway’s commercial dis-

trict. One applicant has

applied to set up two busi-

nesses at the same address for

both a medical marijuana

license and a recreational

retail license. The other four

applicants are seeking recre-

ational licenses, only.

“That means we only have

two spots, and the possible

issuance of two to three

licenses. So, it’s quite an

extensive process,” Urquhart

told the village council at its

meeting Tuesday night.

“What we’re finding out is

there is quite a rush from the

applicants to get all the infor-

mation in and complete, and

that’s proven to be quite a

challenge.”

The applications came in

right at the filing deadline

Oct. 6.

Urquhart said after appli-

cants receive authorization

for the special land-use and

site-plan approval, they have

to fill out a marijuana busi-

ness license application and

submit it to the village clerk.

The clerk and the village

manager will then review the

applications and score them

based on a number of criteria.

“If there are competing

applications, the higher score

will win,” Urquhart said in an

interview after the Tuesday

meeting, adding that the high-

est possible score is 120

points. “If they have every-

thing ready, they could proba-

Greg Chandler
Staff Writer
A retired Thornapple
Kellogg High School teacher
pleaded guilty Monday to
charges he tried to hire a hit-
man to kill his wife, using
virtual currency as payment.
Nelson Paul Replogle, 59,
entered a guilty plea to one

count of murder for hire in

connection with a plot that

targeted his wife, Ann, a retired

Hastings Area School System

elementary teacher. Replogle

entered the plea before Judge

Leon Jordan in U.S. District

Court in Knoxville, Tenn.

Replogle is scheduled to be

sentenced Feb. 22, 2022, in

federal court in Knoxville. He

faces up to 10 years in prison,

Nelson Replogle

Former TK teacher pleads

guilty in murder-for-hire plot

Marijuana vendors

to make permit pitch

See REPLOGLE, page 4

See HEARINGS, page 2