Page 2/The Sun and News, Saturday, March 16, 2024
Village of Caledonia to hold open house
on proposed rental inspection program
Greg Chandler
Staff Writer
The village of
Caledonia will hold an
open house next month to
hear comments from resi-
dents about a proposal to
require landlords to reg-
ister their homes or apart-
ments with the village
and have them inspected
before they are allowed
to be occupied.
The open house has been
tentatively scheduled for
Monday, April 22 at 7 p.m.
at the Village Hall, 250 S.
Maple St. SE.
“I think we’re just figur-
ing out if this is the direc-
tion we want to go in,”
Village President Jennifer
Lindsey said.
The council earlier this
year directed Village
Manager Jeff Thornton to
pursue having an ordinance
drawn up that would regu-
late rentals and require their
inspection. Its action came
after a presentation by zon-
ing administrator Lance
Gates, who shared exam-
ples of a similar ordinance
now in place in the city of
Cedar Springs in northern
Kent County. Gates said in
his presentation that the pri-
mary reason for having a
rental inspection program is
to assure the safety of ten-
ants.But some landlords have
spoken out against the pro-
posal, seeing it as a case of
government intrusion and
overreach.
Thornton said the topic
of rentals has come up on
several occasions over the
last few years, most famous-
ly in 2020 during the height
of the COVID-19 pandem-
ic, when the council held an
outdoor meeting on the
steps of Village Hall to
allow for social distancing.
Some residents complained
at that meeting about noise
and trash connected to rent-
al properties in the village.
“We’ve got great land-lords, we have not-so-great
landlords,” Thornton said.
“The problem we have is
how can we be consistent
(in holding landlords
accountable for their prop-
erties).”
In his presentation earlier
this year, Gates said the
Cedar Springs rental inspec-
tion ordinance is based on
the International Property
Maintenance Code, a docu-
ment Caledonia adopted in- It sets forth require-
ments that a landlord must
meet in order to be able to
legally rent out a home or
apartment, addressing
everything from the size of
bedrooms to whether smoke
detectors are working.
Under the Cedar Springs
ordinance, a property that
passes inspection the first
time gets a five-year certifi-
cation of rental occupancy.
If a property fails inspec-
tion the first time, they are
required to fix the problem,
after which the property
receives a three-year certif-
icate of occupancy, Gates
said.
Potential speakers at the
open house may include
Gates, as well as Fire
Inspector Brad Bender of
the Caledonia Township
fire Department.Middleville council approves lift station repairs
Greg Chandler
Staff Writer
The Middleville Village
Council approved a pair of
repair projects at lift stations
that funnel sewage to the
village’s wastewater treat-
ment plan on Tuesday.
The council approved
spending up to $10,000 for
repairing the force main pip-ing at the village’s lift station
on Grand Rapids Street and
up to $8,500 more for repairs
to a pump at the Misty Ridge
lift station on the village’s
west side.
Department of Public
Works Director Alec
Belson told the council that
one of the pipes at the
Grand Rapids Street lift
station was found to be
leaking several weeks ago,
and the village got a con-
tractor in to take a look at
the problem. It was discov-
ered that the leak was com-
ing from a joint where two
pipes meet, and the section
of pipe that needed to be
replaced is underground,
Belson said.
Belson had not yet
received any quotes for the
Grand Rapids Street project
but said that it was important
for the village to get the
repair done as soon as possi-
ble.“It took me about a week
and a half to two weeks to
get the contractor out there
to originally look at it. Now,
it’s taken me about another
week and a half to get some
type of quote out of him,”
Belson said. “I want to give
them the green light as soon
as I possibly can because I
am down to one pump in
that lift station. One pump is
working fine and every-
thing’s working great, until
it (doesn’t).”
The Grand Rapids Street
lift station, which has been in
operation since 1998, ser-
vices the north end of Grand
Rapids Street, Crane Road
and the Bryanwood develop-
ment. The station pumps
about 100,000 gallons of
sewage a day to the waste-
water treatment plant, Belson
wrote in a memo to the
Village Council.
Meanwhile, at the Misty
Ridge lift station, repairs areneeded to a pump that was
installed in 2010. That pump
was installed to address con-
stant clogging issues with the
original pumps that had
plagued the lift station since
it opened in 1999. A second
pump was upgraded in 2020.
“What happens occasion-
ally is you have a seal that
fails and allows liquid to get
... into the bearings and the
shaft. Once the liquid gets in
there for a little bit, it tends
to take out the seals,” Belson
said.
The bearings and the
upper and lower seals will
need to be replaced as part of
the project. The motor in the
pump was not affected by the
leak, Belson said.
Belson told the council he
had a quote for slightly less
than $7,500 to repair the
pump, compared to a $16,
cost for purchasing and
installing a new one.
The Misty Ridge lift sta-
tion serves the entire Misty
Ridge subdivision, the south-
ern part of Broadway Street
and the Thornapple Kellogg
Schools Early Childhood
Center. It pumps about
35,000 gallons of sewage a
day, Belson wrote in a memo
to the council.
Both projects will be paid
for out of the village’s sewer
fund, Village Manager Craig
Stolsonburg said.“All these were unlocked
vehicles and vehicles
with keys (inside),” he
said.
Ware said that this is
the third time in his two
years in charge of the
Middleville unit that his
department has faced
cases of people entering
cars and stealing them.
“I don’t think we’ve
ever had four (cars) at
once stolen, I don’t we’ve
ever had this many houses
affected,” he said.
“Typically they hit one
neighborhood, they’re in
and out. This is by far the
worst I’ve seen.”
One Misty Ridge resi-
dent, David Sklarin,
called for an increased
police presence in the vil-
lage in the wake of the
crimes.
“As Middleville has
grown, the police pres-
ence has not grown pro-
portionally with it. I’m
here asking for your help
on behalf of our neighbor-
hood and the other Allen
Edwin (Homes neighbor-
hoods) because we’re
right off M-37. They come
in, they come out. We
need more police, we need
more patrols,” Sklarin
said.
The Village Council in
May 2022 approved an
amended contract with
the sheriff’s office that
called for the addition of
another deputy to the two
deputies and sergeant
that served the village at
that time. A new deputy
joined the department
earlier this year, Village
Manager Craig
Stolsonburg said.
The agreement also
calls for at least 18 hours
of coverage in the village
five days a week and at
least eight hours the two
remaining days of the
week, with the schedule tobe determined by the
appropriate sheriff’s
department lieutenant and
the sergeant for the
Middleville unit.
It was the first update to
the village’s contractual
arrangement with the
sheriff’s department since
1999, when the initial
contract between the two
entities was approved.
Village President Mike
Cramer said the village
needs to review the con-
tract and is hopeful anoth-
er deputy can be added to
the Middleville unit in the
future.
“Even though we’re in
a relatively safe communi-
ty, take those precau-
tions,” Cramer said. “Take
the keys inside, hide your
valuables, lock your cars.
Do the best you can.”
On a related note
Tuesday, the council
approved the purchase of
a new 2024 Chevrolet
Tahoe patrol vehicle for
the sheriff’s office
Middleville unit and out-
fitting the vehicle at a cost
not to exceed $80,000.
The village had budgeted
$60,000 for a new vehicle
but rising costs made the
increased investment nec-
essary.
“This is to give us three
working patrol vehicles,”
Ware said. “The old (Ford)
Explorer that I currently
drive, the 2015, will still
be owned by the village. It
will become that spare/
reserve vehicle.”
The only equipment
that would be salvageable
from the Explorer is the
radar unit, Ware said.
The village’s capital
improvement plan calls
for the purchase of a new
patrol vehicle every two
years and rotating older
vehicles out of service
every six years,
Stolsonburg said.CRIME, continued from page 1
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