Page 2 — Thursday, June 24, 2021 — The Hastings Banner
CANDIDATES, continued from page 1
residents to invest $40,000 into their houses.
Then, if the residents stayed in their houses
for 10 years, they didn’t have to pay a dime in
return.
Projects like these have prepared him, he
said, to adapt to the role of city manager in
Hastings.
“I’ve done things from brownfield
rehabilitation to housing recruitment to
downtown rehabilitation, so I’ve got a lot of
similar skills, done a lot of budgeting, put
teams together, worked with the elected
officials – obviously for many years,” Downey
said.
Downey is currently the village
administrator in Kronenwetter, Wis. He spent
two months as the city administrator in
Washington, Ill., eight years as the city
administrator in Rock Falls, Ill., and three
years as the city administrator of Elkhart,
Kan.
Bret Harmon
Harmon has seen a bit of the world. He
grew up in Oregon. He attended Brigham
Young University in Hawaii. He took a
mission trip to Kobe and Osaka, Japan. He
finished his Brigham Young degree in Provo,
Utah. And these days, he holds the post of
administrative services director for the city of
Sanger, Calif.Now, he hopes to add Hastings to his list.
“Hastings checks all the boxes,” Harmon
wrote in a message to The Hastings Banner.
“It is small enough for the city manager to
know all the staff, which is really important to
me, yet big enough to accomplish some great
things. I am excited about the city’s culture
and efforts to work together with the
community and other government
organizations.
“It has something else that makes it a place
where we want to put down deep roots: My
wife’s twin sister and her family live close to
Hastings.”
For the past four years, Harmon has worked
for two city governments, spending three
years as the director of finance and city clerk
and half a year as the city manager for the
City of Lindsay, Calif., before moving to
Sanger in January 2020.
Harmon has seen multiple sides of city
management. Before he served one
municipality, he worked with numerous cities
–– all at once. As a client services manager for
Avenu Insights & Analytics, he consulted
with more than 120 cities during his tenure,
including Beverly Hills, San Jose, Sacramento,
Santa Clara and San Diego.
“I worked closely with executive teams in
large and small cities on the West Coast,”
Harmon said. “That experience included
developing economic strategies, budget
planning, government affairs, service
optimization and business analytics for cities
of all sizes.”
Susan Montenegro
Two months into an internship with the city
of Owosso, Susan Montenegro said she knew
she wanted to spend her life in city govern-
ment. There was just something about the
hustle-and-bustle and the opportunity to have
a direct impact on her community that attract-
ed her to the job.
“I love being a part of the collaborative
process, recognizing you are a part of a team
that gets stuff done,” Montenegro wrote in a
message to The Banner. “City management is
the oversight of a great team and implementa-
tion of policies or direction from city council.
I am team-oriented and seek to empower
those I work with.
“Public interaction is also a large part of the
role. Educating and communicating with citi-
zens about projects, new policies, potential
development, or upcoming changes is an
important part of city management and I
thrive on that.”
Before entering city government,
Montenegro spent nine years as a pastor. That
role, she said, is not much different from that
of city manager. It required similar tasks, such
as working with boards, communicating with
people and budgeting funds.
“I think the people skills I learned as a pas-
tor are invaluable,” Montenegro said. “So
much of what we do as city managers revolves
around listening, working to understand
someone else’s perspective, and seeking solu-
tions to everyday issues.”
That experience made the transition to city
government just a little bit smoother. After 10
months on the job as an intern, Montenegro
was hired as Owosso assistant city manager/
director of community development. She
stayed in the role for almost five years before
becoming the city manager of Leslie, a posi-
tion she has held since June 2018.
Growing up in Stanwood, Montenegro said
she has spent her whole life in small towns
and she doesn’t want that to change.“Hastings has a beautiful downtown with
lots of art and cultural appeal,” she said.
“Being a part of a town that values and works
with its citizens would be amazing.”
Sarah Moyer-Cale
Moyer-Cale answered the phone on the
drive home from Hastings this week. She had
spent the day walking through downtown,
eating lunch at Seasonal Grille and watching
“ The Conjuring ” at the Hastings 4 movie the-
ater.
It was her first time in the city and the trip
centered around “getting a feel” for Hastings,
she said.
“I think Hastings is such a great communi-
ty,” Moyer-Cale said. “I really like just the
downtown closeness feeling that everything
has ... nothing seems too far away. There’s
definitely community strengths there.”
Moyer-Cole has spent the last four years as
the village manager/zoning administrator/
DDA executive director of Paw Paw. “I am a
very collaborative person,” she said. “I really
like working with others to make change hap-
pen. And that’s kind of my favorite part about
the city management job is just the diversity
of experiences that you get to have in the
position, meeting different people. It’s never
the same thing every day.”
During her time in Paw Paw, Moyer-Cale
has taken pride in her ability to facilitate col-
laborative projects. She worked for about 2 ½
years developing a $4.18 million streetscape
project. But it wasn’t just input from co-work-
ers that helped finalize the project –– it was
the input they collected from the people of
Paw Paw.
“I think that the resulting plan that we came
up with isn’t just what the engineer would
have come up with or what I would have
come up with, but is really reflective of what
the community wants,” she said, noting she
hopes to do the same in Hastings.
Before serving as the village manager of
Paw Paw, Moyer-Cale spent more than a yearas the village manager/zoning administrator
for the Village of Almont in the Thumb, and
planning assistant for the Southeast Michigan
Council of Governments.
Tim Wolff
Wolff said he has spent 17 years as the
village manager of Lake Isabella and was not
looking to leave – until the city manager
position in Hastings opened up and he couldn’t
look away.
“[Hastings has] a ton of potential ahead of
them,” Wolff said. “They’re just so perfectly
situated locationally; they seem to want to
embrace things that would really build a
strong sense of community that they already
have; and those types of things excite me.”
Working for a village with 2,063 residents,
Wolff said he learned the importance of
creating relationships as a city manager,
noting that he knows about half of the people
in his town on a first-name basis.
“At the core of this job, I think, is people
skills more than anything else,” he said.
Wolff added that the average tenure for a
city manager is around six or seven years, but
he has been there for nearly two decades.
“I think that speaks to the fact that I have
the skills and the personality to connect with
people and not alienate people,” he said.
His biggest challenge in Hastings, Wolff
said, would be something different: housing.
It’s a problem Wolff has seen firsthand,
checking the current real estate market.
“I look through what would be something
that would inhibit future growth in the
community. It’s tough to find housing
anymore, but it appears really tough to find
housing in that market,” he said of Hastings.
Before serving as the village manager for
Lake Isabella, Wolff worked as a consultant
for Crystal Lake Incorporation Committee
and served as a village council member in
Breckenridge.DDA considers adding principal
shopping district to city’s master plan
Benjamin Simon
Staff Writer
The Hastings Downtown Development
Authority board discussed the possibility of
adding a principal shopping district to the
city’s master plan at Thursday’s meeting.
The DDA board was unable to take action
on the idea because no quorum was present.
But a special meeting is scheduled for 8 a.m.
today to consider the idea when more board
members are present.
Adding a shopping district to the master
plan had first been raised during the June 7
city planning commission meeting. This
inclusion would give the city powers it
wouldn’t otherwise have –– specifically the
ability to apply special assessments, which
could place an added tax on property owners
in a specific area to help fund projects within
those boundaries.
In the case of Hastings’ potential principal
shopping district, that could include “ongoing
operations, maintenance, work plans,
marketing,” Community Development
Director Dan King said.
Initially, city officials hadn’t known that
this would be possible.
“Our municipal code speaks to special
assessment districts for capital improvements,”
King said. “Our code does not speak to
special assessments for ongoing maintenance
or operation. So, I don’t know how to word
this without sounding silly, but the city does
not technically have the ability to access
special assessments for ongoing parking.”
King suggested a solution to that problem:
Public Act 120 of 1961, which does allow for
the possibility of a special assessment –– as
long as a principal shopping district exists.
According to that law, the creation of a
principal shopping district would allow the
city to “acquire, own, maintain, demolish,
develop, improve, or operate properties, off-
street parking lots or structures.”During the meeting, interim City Manager
Gregg Guetschow emphasized that there’s no
harm in adding a principal shopping district,
even if the city doesn’t end up using its
advantages, calling it a “very flexible tool.”
“Whatever your decision is today, you
could change your mind later on down the
road,” Guetschow said. “The master plan is
something that we want to have a five-year
life to. So, there’s no harm in saying, ‘This is
our principal shopping area’ and then later on,
‘We have that designation available should
we want to move forward with operating
under the principal shopping districts act.’ ”
Part of the addition also would include
aligning the principal shopping district
boundaries with the DDA boundaries. This
would eliminate “bureaucracy,” King said,
and permit the DDA to double as the board of
the principal shopping district.
“What we want to see is that the DDA
weighs in and makes recommendations to city
council, that the city council adopt a formal
resolution and establish the principal shopping
district and then, based on prior conversations,
we would then use that as the basis for
starting the special assessment process,”Guetschow said.
During the public comments portion of the
meeting, interim Police Chief Dale Boulter
updated DDA members on a software system
that had been ordered for parking enforcement.
Despite a year or more of time, Boulter said
the software is still in development because
the company is “trying to find people qualified
enough to continue to write software.”
Boulter also discussed the police
department’s trouble overseeing public
parking. With the three-hour parking limits,
they can’t make enough rounds throughout
the day to strictly enforce parking. Despite
offering 196 citations since Jan. 1, Boulter
said, motorists have stayed in the same spot
for long periods of time, causing limited
parking availability at times in the parking
spots closest to downtown.
Mayor David Tossava offered his own
opinion on the topic during the meeting.
“I still think our biggest problem is
employees parking in those lots,” Tossava
said, “and I think, if we get the employees to
park somewhere else, that would kind of cool
the frustration of the merchants because their
customers have a place to park.”summer concert series, however, are just get-
ting started.
Playing at the Plaza will host Kalamazoo
Exotic Animals and Reptiles at 11 am,
Thursday, July 1, at Thornapple Plaza.
At noon, Friday, July 2, Ellie Youngs will
perform for Fridays at the Fountain on the
Barry County Courthouse lawn. Hastings’
own singer/songwriter, Youngs will bring the
soulful music she also plays at venues in
Hastings, Wayland and Grand Rapids.
That evening, Denise Davis and the Motor
City Sensations will be the Friday Night
Features group, with music beginning at 7:p.m. at Thornapple Plaza. Davis has per-
formed at entertainment venues in Metro
Detroit, earning award nominations from The
Detroit Music Awards Foundation and The
Detroit Black Music Awards.
Thornapple Plaza is on the east end of
downtown near the intersection of State and
Boltwood/Apple streets.
All concerts are free, and attendees are
encouraged to bring their own blankets or
lawn chairs.
For more information, visit facebook.com/
mihastingslive.NEWS BRIEFS, continued from page 1
Delton board shaves $1 million from
cost of new elementary building
Jean Gallup
Contributing Writer
In an update Monday on the progress in
planning a new north elementary building
financed by a successful $24 million bond
issue in 2019, Delton Kellogg Superintendent
Kyle Corlett said the building was $1.
million over budget because of the price of
building materials.
Corlett said he and other staff members
spent hours combing through the figures
looking for ways to save money.
The public understood the need for a new
building, and that they would have to start
from scratch, but they made it very clear they
wanted to keep the historical look it had when
built in 1936, he told the board of education at
its monthly meeting.
School officials managed to pare $1 million
from the cost by design changes and other
alterations.
“The building will still have its original
feeling and intent,” he said. “We’ll be able to
do it. We’re using some general fund money.
I’m still excited.”
Summer school this year will feature
transportation for some 60 elementary and
middle school students on recommendations
from teachers. Lunch will be served.
Corlett said he is hopeful masks won’t be
required at summer school, as well as during
the regular school year this fall, but the
district will follow the direction of the Barry-
Eaton District Health Department. He noted
that the local health department waits for
direction from state officials.
In other business, Barry Township
Supervisor Barry Bower asked if the school
board would sell to the township the 42 acres
the district owns behind the library on M-
Highway. The purpose would be for a park on
one part of the property and affordable
housing for the rest.
School board Trustee Rodney Dye said the
property would need to be rezoned for a park
and housing and a second survey taken to
better define the outlines of the plan.
The district is willing to sell; it has the
property listed with Drew Chapel with no
price set. Corlett advised Bower that the next
step would be for him to make a proposal to
the school board and they will respond. He
said he would follow up with Barry County
Planning Director Jim McManus on the
rezoning question.
In the monthly coronavirus report, Corlett
said he received good news from a health
department report that was just 12 hours old.
“Barry County’s positivity rate is 1.
[percent], which is great,” he said. “It’s gone
down 62 days in a row.”
This summer, the Barry County United
Way and health department are launching an
effort for more vaccinations, he said.
Toward the end of the school year, the
district tested its student athletes every week
for COVID-19.
“For the last three or four weeks, we
haven’t had a positive COVID test,” he said.
In personnel changes, middle school
teacher Monica Reed resigned, and high
school teacher Lisa Strang retired.
Kindergarten teacher Emily Fracassa and
middle school parapro Sarah Snyder were
hired, along with additional summer
schoolteachers and paraprofessionals Jillian
Geier, Sharon Holroyd, Amy Lorenz, Candy
Valentine and Kerri Todd.
Other action items approved included a
Michigan High School Athletic Association
membership resolution, membership in the
Michigan Association of School Boards, six
NEOLA policies inadvertently left out from
earlier approval, the final amendment to –
and adoption of – the food service budget, and
the termination of Carmen DeCamp.
Corlett said he is still working on a plan for
a retreat for school board members.
The last action by the board was to
unanimously approve Corlett’s request to
discontinue Zoom board meetings because
“we’re not very good at it.”Citizens committee files campaign
paperwork with county clerk
Benjamin Simon
Staff Writer
The Hastings Citizens for the Future
Committee filed June 16 with the Barry
County Clerk’s office to become an
organizational committee.
That filing allows the committee to raise up
to $1,000 in its informational campaign about
the bond request that appears on the Aug. 3
ballot. The Hastings Area School System is
asking the voters to approve 6.8 mills for new
equipment, building upgrades, security, air
quality and maintenance projects, among
many other improvements districtwide.
The citizens’ committee’s “purpose is to
serve as an oversight and communication
committee for the Hastings Area School
System.” They have been working to provide
information to the public about the election.
Becky Deal, Jenny Haywood and Sam Randall
are serving as the co-chairpersons of the
committee.
At a June 8 meeting in the Hastings High
School Performing Arts Center, the group
shared an 8-minute video about the bond
proposal and handed out brochures with
election information. The brochure explainswhat the bond would cover, how Hastings’
millage rate compares to surrounding schools,
how much the bond would cost an average
taxpayer, and more. The district also produced
a video about its kindergarten program in an
effort to increase enrollment.
“We have produced informational materials
for the public to communicate the impact the
potential bond could have for the future of
Hastings students,” Superintendent Matt
Goebel wrote in a message to The Banner.
During the June 8 meeting, members of the
citizens’ committee emphasized that they
want to encourage people to participate in the
election and cast their ballots –– regardless of
how they vote. They said they hope to provide
general information about the bond request so
people are well-informed when they vote.
“Previous bonds, there’s been a lot of
inaccurate information spread around on
social media and stuff, which is always a big
hindrance when you’re trying to pass a bond
when you have a bunch of bad info out there,”
Deal said after the June 8 citizens’ committee
meeting. “... It’s all right there in that trifold
and on the website so people can look at it any
time.”Gun Lake group OKs three-year
invasive weed control project
James Gemmell
Contributing Writer
The Gun Lake Improvement Board figures
the invasive weeds that were causing problems
on one of Southwest Michigan’s largest lakes
a few years ago are under better control now.
And board members want to keep it that way.
So, at their June 19 meeting, board members
voted unanimously to approve a three-year
improvement project for controlling aquatic
nuisance plants. Many of the plants are
invasive species.
The meeting took place at the Gun Lake
Chapel, in Wayland Township. One board
member was absent from the public “hearing
of practicability.”
The improvement project will cover the
years 2022 through 2024. It is a renewal of an
ongoing program administered by the Gun
Lake Improvement Board’s weed-control
contractor, Clarke Aquatic Services. The
treatment is done by chemical injection from
a boat.
Under the Natural Resources and
Environmental Protection Act of 1994, the
Gun Lake Improvement Board was created in
- It is authorized by the state to raise
money by taxes or special assessment to
improve inland lakes. The special-assessment
district covers the portions of Allegan and
Barry counties that are on the lake, including
parts of Yankee Springs, Orangeville, Martin
and Wayland townships. Property owners
share in the cost of water quality and weed
control; 1,789 property units are on the
special-assessment roll.
In an interview after the meeting, Board
Chair Vivian Conner said they’ve had success
the past three years with the aquatic weed-
management program.
“We haven’t had to use manual harvesting
in the channels [to address algae blooms],”
she said.
“The starry stonewort is under better
control now. It was a problem four years ago.
It ate up our budget.”
Starry stonewort – a bushy algae native to
Europe – sometimes can bring boats on the
water to a standstill.
The annual cost for the treatment program,
which also entails water-quality control and
watershed management, is $190,000. Over
the three years of the contract, that adds up to
$570,000. It would cost the average waterfront
property owner $106.26 annually, compared
to the current $105.82 fee under the contract
that will expire later this year. In other words,
owners of a waterfront lot on Gun Lake will
see a 44-cent annual increase in their winter
tax bill, which is due in February 2022.
Not everyone thinks treating invasive
species with aquatic herbicides or other
chemicals is the best way to handle the weed
situation. Middleville resident and retired
chemist Bill Bryker told the board that using
aquatic herbicides is “the easy button. It’s
easy, quick and you’ve been doing it the past
20 years. But bio-remediation has not been
considered.”
Bryker said laminar flow aeration – a
bubble-producing process that increases
oxygen absorption and nutrients in the water- was used successfully a few years ago on
Indian Lake west of Dowagiac. He said muck
levels there were reduced by two feet, the fish
population increased significantly, and the
Eurasian milfoil weeds were eliminated.
Stephanie Carol Stolsonburg of Middleville
also said she opposes the chemical treatment
on the lake.
“The fish, the turtles and whatever else on
the water that you treated ... are they going to
come out three-headed next time?” she asked.
The Gun Lake Protective Association
monitors lake activity. One of its members,
Deb Masselink, also sits on the improvement
board as an at-large member. She stressed the
importance of keeping the weeds under
control.
“There are places all around the lake where
the invasive species are so thick that people
can’t get their boats out,” she said.
Peter Filpansick is an aquatic sales specialist
for Clarke Aquatic Services. He noted the
company’s June water surveys found plentiful
algae and a little bit of invasive milfoil in
some of Gun Lake’s channels and canals.
Other areas contained a combination of starry
stonewort - which is being treated with copper
algaecides – and milfoil, which is being
treated with the herbicide Flumiox, mixed
with contact chemicals.
“There’s a lot of boat traffic in these
[channel] areas. They’re tight. We aren’t
confident in the systemic herbicides [applied
to the vegetative part of plants] for the milfoil
in these areas yet,” Filpansick said.
However, he did recommend that a large
section with Eurasian milfoil in the northeast
portion of the lake – as well as several smaller
pockets elsewhere – be treated with systemic
herbicide.
The Gun Lake Improvement Board’s next
meeting will be 6 p.m. July 22 in the
Orangeville Township Hall, 7350 Lindsey
Road, in Plainwell.