Page 10 — Thursday, June 17, 2021 — The Hastings Banner
Jensen just misses
top ten at D2 Finals
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
Hastings senior Will Jensen was one of five
golfers tied with a score of 148 in 11th place
at the Division Lower Peninsula Boys’ Golf
Finals over the weekend at Bedford Valley
Golf Club.
Jensen fired a 74 each day of the 36-hole
tournament, missing out on a spot in the top
ten by one stroke.
“It was a fun tournament and I was very
pleased with how Will played,” Hastings head
coach Kristen Laubaugh said. “The level of
play at the tournament was impressive. Will
has worked extremely hard to refine his game
and play at a high level. He put himself in
good position all weekend to score low.”
Jensen hit 16 of the 18 greens in regulation
during day two, Saturday. He finished strong,
shooting one-under-par across the final ten
holes of his varsity career, including a birdie
on the par-4, number two.
He opened up the tournament with a birdie
on the 508-yard, par-5, number four, and hit
scored a birdie on three of his first six holes
Friday.
Bloomfield Hills Brother Rice won the
team state championship in Division 2, shoot-
ing a score of 290 each day to finish at u580.
Flint Powers Catholic was a distant second
with an overall score of 608, firing a 298 on
day one and a 310 on day two.
Williamston was third with a two-day total
of 611, ahead of East Grand Rapids 617,
Chelsea 620, Orchard Lake St. Mary’s u621,
Grand Rapids Christian 626, Spring Lake
627, Gull Lake 632 and Byron Center 633 in
the top ten.
Notre Dame Prep senior Brockton English
was the individual state champion. He shot a
five-under-67 each day to finish with a total
score of 134. Brother Rice sophomore
Lorenzo Pinili was second at 139, shooting a
71 and a 68.
Brother Rice also had senior Colin
O’Rourke fifth with scores of 74-70-144,
junior Matt Baer seventh at 68-77-145 and
senior Patrick O’Leary with a 77-75-152.
Brother Rice senior Max Brown scored a77-81-158.
Spring Lake’s Evan McDermott and
Whitehall’s Steven Cullen tied for third, each
scoring a 143. O’Rourke tied Powers’ Robert
Burns for fifth at 144. Baer from Brother Rice
and Colin Beckett from Northview tied for
seventh at 145. The Williamston duo of Wyatt
Vogel and Sam Harvey tied for ninth with
147’s.
Jensen had the fourth best score among all
the individual state qualifiers, behind English,
Cullen and Beckett. Marshall junior Harrison
Chapman was tied at 148 with Jensen, shoot-
ing a 75-73-148. Also tied with 148s were
Byron Center’s Jack Marzolino, Williamston’s
Caleb Bond and Detroit Country Day team-
mates Scott Hanna and Peter Hofley.P POLICE BEATOLICE BEAT
Drunken mother rolls Jeep with child inside
Barry County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a rollover crash on Cedar Creek Road near
Shultz Road at 5 p.m. June 9. A Jeep was on its side in the ditch. The driver, a 27-year-old
Delton woman, and her 4-year-old son, had no visible injuries from the crash. The woman
said she drank seven shots of vodka at her father’s house in Nashville before driving that
afternoon. She told the officer she went too fast around the corner and crashed. She and
her son were taken to the hospital, and information has been forwarded to the Barry
County prosecutor’s office.Couple tricked out of $19,000 online
A 46-year-old Hickory Corners woman called police on June 5 to report she and her
husband had been scammed out of $19,000 while attempting to purchase a tractor online.
The woman said they thought they found the tractor on Ebay, but Ebay later said they had
no record of the listing or the transaction. She talked to the seller over Ebay, and sent
$19,000 through her husband’s business account. But the seller said the money had to
come through a personal account and sent it back. After the woman sent the money
through a personal account, she never heard back from the seller. The address listed by the
seller turned out to be a shopping mall in Kansas. The case is inactive with no further
information.Apartment scam takes $1,
A 24-year-old Wayland woman called police June 11 to report she had been defrauded
of $1,640. She found an available apartment in Grand Rapids on Facebook marketplace
and contacted the landlord. She paid $1,640 in application fees, deposit and rent. But when
she arrived at the apartment with all of her possessions to move in, the landlord she had
talked to wasn’t there. She called the man, but he hung up on her. The woman talked to a
neighbor, who told her the apartment was owned by a company. When the woman contact-
ed that company, they told her the apartment was already being rented by someone else.
They said they did not know the man with whom she had spoken. The case is inactive.Gas station employee walks away with $
A manager of the Express Stop C Store in Prairieville Township called police to report
that an employee had stolen $767 and failed to return to work on June 11. The suspect, a
46-year-old woman, was seen on surveillance tape collecting multiple deposits to take to
the bank. The woman went to the bank, but failed to deposit one of the envelopes contain-
ing $767. She didn’t show up at work the next day, and has not been answering her phone.
Police thus far have been unable to reach the woman. The case remains under investiga-
tion.Alcohol involved in crash into guardrail
Police responded to a single-vehicle crash on Hine Road near Lakefront Drive in Hope
Township at 6:31 p.m. June 11. The driver, a 67-year-old Delton woman, admitted to
drinking, and had an open bottle of wine in between her feet. She had driven off the road,
into a ditch, over a flowerbed and then back on the road before crashing into a guardrail.
While it did not appear that she had damaged the guardrail, the front bumper of her truck
got stuck on it. She tried to drive away, but the acceleration only buried the vehicle’s back
tires in the dirt road in her attempt to leave the scene. She had a 0.253 blood alcohol con-
tent and was arrested.162408
RUTLAND CHARTER TOWNSHIPBARRY COUNTY, MICHIGAN
NOTICE OF ORDINANCE SUBMITTAL
TO: THE RESIDENTS AND PROPERTY OWNERS OF THE CHARTER
TOWNSHIP OF RUTLAND, BARRY COUNTY, MICHIGAN, AND ANY OTHER
INTERESTED PERSONS:PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that proposed Ordinance #2021-177 appended here-
to was introduced for first reading by the Rutland Charter Township Board at its June 9,
2021 meeting.This proposed ordinance will be considered for adoption by the Township
Board at its next regular meeting on July 14, 2021 commencing at 7:00 p.m. at the
Charter Township Hall.Rutland Charter Township will provide necessary reasonable auxiliary aids
and services, such as signers for the hearing impaired and audio tapes of printed
materials being considered at the meeting, to individuals with disabilities at the meet-
ing/hearing upon seven (7) days’ notice to Rutland Charter Township. Individuals with
disabilities requiring auxiliary aids or services should contact the Township.RUTLAND CHARTER TOWNSHIP
BARRY COUNTY, MICHIGAN
ORDINANCE # 2021-177 (proposed)
ADOPTED:
EFFECTIVE:An Ordinance to amend the Zoning Map of Rutland Charter Township as
incorporated into Chapter 220 (Zoning) of the Rutland Charter Township Code by the
rezoning of property in land Section 5 of the Township from the “CR” Country
Residential zoning classification to the “MDR” Medium Density Residential zoning clas-
sification; and to repeal all Ordinances or parts of Ordinances in conflict herewith.RUTLAND CHARTER TOWNSHIP
BARRY COUNTY, MICHIGAN
ORDAINS:
SECTION I
REZONING OF PROPERTY IN LAND SECTION 5The Zoning Map of Rutland Charter Township as incorporated into Chapter
220 (Zoning) of the Rutland Charter Township Code is hereby amended to rezone from
the “CR” Country Residential zoning classification to the “MDR” Medium Density
Residential zoning classification the following described property in land Section 5:DESCRIPTION OF PARCEL (parcel no. 08-13-005-007-00)RUTLAND TWP NW 1 / 4 SE 1 / 4 SEC 5-3-9 EX COM AT E 1 / 4
POST SEC 5 T3N R9W TH N 89 DEG 18’ 36” W 1308.96 FT FOR
POB TH N 89 DEG 18’ B36” W 530 FT TH S 00 DEG 51’ 07” E 445
FT TH S 89 DEG 18’ 36” E 530 FT TH N 00 DEG 51’ 07” W 445 FT
TO POB ALSO EX W 330 FT OF NW 1 / 4 SE 114 RUTLAND
TOWNSHIP, BARRY COUNTY, MICHIGAN.SECTION II
REPEAL OF CONFLICTING ORDINANCES/EFFECTIVE DATEAll ordinances or parts of ordinances in conflict with this Ordinance are hereby
repealed. This Ordinance shall take effect eight (8) days after publication or on such
later date as may be required by law.Robin Hawthorne, Clerk
Rutland Charter TownshipHastings senior Will Jensen hits a putt
at Bedford Valley Golf Club during the
weekend’s Division 2 Lower Peninsula
Boys’ Golf Championship. Jensen finished
in a tie for 11th-place at the 36-hole, two-
day tournament.TK parents, students demand end to COVID mandates
Greg Chandler
Staff Writer
Chloe Lomakoski took to the microphone
just in front of the stage at Thornapple
Kellogg High School’s performing arts center
Monday night and shared her story about the
challenges she encountered attending school
in the midst of a pandemic.
Chloe, who just completed the sixth grade
at Thornapple Kellogg Middle School, already
knew she had asthma. But when the COVID-
19 pandemic hit last year, she found she had
another condition that made it hard for her to
breathe while wearing a mask.
Chloe was diagnosed as having vocal cord
dysfunction, where her vocal cords close
instead of open while inhaling. Because of the
VCD diagnosis, Chloe was exempted from
the requirement nearly all her classmates had
to follow to wear a mask.
“When I walked into the middle school to
start sixth grade, I was the only person in the
entire school without a mask,” Chloe told the
TK Board of Education Monday night. “It
was already hard enough going into sixth
grade and to deal with all the new changes
and the unknowns of what middle school
would be like.
“But to make matters even worse, it made
me feel isolated from everyone else. Even
though I was the shortest one in my class, the
teachers would still put me in the back of the
classroom or at the end of the row because I
didn’t wear a mask. Teachers would question
me about wearing a mask and why I was not
wearing one.”
Chloe went on to say she had to undergo
COVID-19 testing every week in order to be
able to play sports.
“It was very traumatizing and scary for
me,” she said.
Chloe’s mother, Moni, shared a story of an
incident toward the end of the school year
involving her daughter.
“A substitute teacher yelled at her in front
of the entire class, telling her to put a mask
on, saying they had no idea why she wasn’t
wearing a mask, and demanded that they tell
her the reason why in front of all those stu-
dents,” Lomakoski said.
At times, the stress got to be too much for
Chloe.
“She would come home crying and upset
numerous times after fellow students yelled at
her in the hallways, demanding that she put
on a mask, telling her she looked weird, and
constantly asking her what’s wrong with her,”
her mother said.
Chloe and Moni Lomakoski were among
more than two dozen parents and students
who spoke out against mask mandates and
other COVID-19 measures at the meeting.
Many of the parents who attended are part of
a group called “Stand Up TK,” which is part
of a growing movement of parent groups
around the state who are urging local school
boards to eliminate mask mandates and
oppose vaccination requirements.
Another parent group, “Stand Up Cal,”
made a similar demand to the Caledonia
Community Schools Board of Education last
month, and is expected to make another
demand when that board meets next week.
The constant thread through the more than
hour-long public comment period in
Middleville was to let parents have the finalsay on whether their children should wear
masks or be vaccinated, not the school dis-
trict.
“I do not feel it’s the school’s responsibility
to tell me what is best for my kid. That’s my
job,” said Steve Hildabrand, a father of six
who had a son graduate from TKHS last
month. “I’m going to ask you to please stop
making decisions for parents. Leave it out
there for us to make those decisions, whether
it’s vaccinations, masks, whatever it may be.
It’s time to let the parents make the decisions
for their own kids.”
Keara Hilton, one of the organizers of
Stand Up TK, shared results of a Freedom of
Information Act request she submitted to the
district. She said the district had 134 reported
cases of COVID-19 among students and
teachers during the past school year. She said
those positive cases led to 1,186 quarantine
orders, where students who’d had close con-
tact to a positive COVID-19 case would have
to quarantine for two weeks. She said the
information supplied by the district revealed
only six of those quarantine cases developed
COVID-19 themselves.
“Six! That is 0.5 percent of students becom-
ing ill as a result of supposedly being in close
contact with someone who tested positive,”
Hilton said. “Students missed weeks of school- many were quarantined more than once –
and suffered depression, anxiety and stress in
having to continuously adjust to changes in
their educational platform – all for a 0.5 per-
cent risk of becoming ill.”
Hilton appealed to the school board and
Superintendent Dan Remenap to speak to the
county board and to the Barry-Eaton District
Health Department to advocate for students.
“Be leaders. Our children are counting on
you, and now is not the time to be complacent
or passive,” she said.
Some parents said they were ready to
remove their children from the district and
either homeschool them or send their children
to a private school.
In an email Wednesday afternoon, Remenap
said he would advocate in-person instruction
with no mask mandate when classes resume
in the fall.
“It is my intention to hold in-person instruc-
tion, five days a week, without any masking
requirements in the fall,” Remenap wrote in
the email. “This would only change by a
change in law or lawful order. We want our
families to be able to choose what they prefer
in the fall.”
TK school board member Sarah Alden
acknowledged the parental concerns Monday.
“We’ve heard a lot, not just tonight, but
throughout the year from our community,”
she said.
Alden offered a board resolution acknowl-
edging students, parents, teachers and staff for
all they went through this past year, and call-
ing for the board to follow “applicable”
guidelines, rules and regulations regarding
COVID-19, “while advocating at the same
time for decisions to be made locally, where
possible,” she said.
“Each student and family is different. Each
student and family has their own values, their
own beliefs. We, as a board and as a district,
acknowledge that and recognize that. We
understand that to be extremely important,”
Alden said. “Our guiding principle here is that
we do what’s best for kids ... pandemic or no
pandemic, we continue to be that way.”
After an amendment by board member
David Smith, the board approved the resolu-
tion unanimously.
Remenap said he hopes the district is “at
the back end” of the pandemic, and drew
applause from some parents toward the end of
the meeting about advocating for students and
families.
“I want to make it perfectly clear that I will
continue to advocate for the families of TK
schools to have choices,” Remenap said. “I
also want to say that it’s important for all of
us to recognize that every challenge is an
opportunity. Our kids are watching us right
now, in how we cooperate, in how we talk,
and how we disagree. This is an outstanding
opportunity for us, as adults, to model cooper-
ative dissent and model things we haven’t
seen on the TV for the last year.”Keara Hilton, one of the organizers of
Stand Up TK, addresses the board
Monday night on quarantine measures
that were enacted after students and
teachers tested positive for COVID-19.Thornapple Kellogg Schools parent
Moni Lomakoski speaks to the district’s
school board Monday night, talking about
the impact mask mandates have had on
her two daughters.Wiers captures
District 19
Division D
Equestrian title
Mylee Wiers, the lone member of the
Lakewood Middle School Equestrian
team this spring, with one of her horses at
the District 19 Middle School Equestrian
Championship at the Barry County Expo
Center May 15. Wiers took the Division D
Championship, for small teams, at the
district competition. Wiers competed in
nine different events. Lakewood coach
Erin Ingram said Wiers’ best event was
her hunt season jumping, which is kind of
her speciality. “She rides a lot and she
works hard for what she gets,” coach
Ingram said.