Page 12 — Thursday, July 1, 2021 — The Hastings BannerYarger dives to spot in USA Junior Nationals
Brett Bremer
Sports Editor
The Hastings Community Diving Club was
formed about a year before Aubrey Yarger
was born.
At the age of 11, she is the first diver in the
12-year history of the club to earn a spot in the
USA Diving Junior Nationals. The 2021 USA
Diving Junior National Championships will
take place July 29-Aug. 4 at the Natatorium
on the campus of Indiana University Purdue
University Indianapolis (IUPUI). More than
500 junior divers including Yarger, ages 18
and under, will get the chance to dive where
USA Diving just hosted the Olympic Trials in
early June.
Yarger was eighth in her division at the
USA Diving Zone C Championships June
24-27 at the University of Tennessee’s Allan
Jones Aquatic Center in Knoxville, Tenn. She
opened the competition in the Junior Olympic
12-13 Girls 1-meter division by putting up a
score of 29.70 points with an inward dive in
the pike position [401B], the fourth best score
of anyone in her division in round one.
“Aubrey had a solid meet,” HCDC head
coach Todd Bates said. “We changed her
dives around a little and she was consistent
and executed her dives well. Aubrey placed
eighth in her event with plenty of room for
error. I knew she was going to make top 10
after her first dive which scored almost 30
points. Each dive just kept getting better and
her scores reflected that.”
She also tallied a score of 28.50 on her for-
ward 1 somersault 1 twist in the free position
[5122D]. She closed the competition with her
two most difficult dives, a forward 2 somer-
sault dive in the tuck position [104C] and a
back 1 ½ somersault dive in the tuck position
[203C]. During the eight-dive program,
Yarger put together a score of 202.40 points.
RipFest team diver Olivia Astrologes won
the 12-13 Girls 1-meter competition with a
total score of 273.73 points, beating fellow
Hoosier Elle Hollingsworth from the Indiana
International School of Diving by about ten
points for the top spot.
“Aubrey has her own goals and I have goals
for Aubrey, and she’s definitely exceedingthem,” Bates said. “We’ve only been back in
the pool since February and only twice a
week. I am beyond excited for her. Aubrey has
her sights set high and she’s working on
achieving those goals, so it was great that she
got to meet and warm-up her dives alongside
Tyler Downs who just made the Olympic
Team on 3-meter.”
Yarger has also qualified for the AAU
Summer Nationals, which will be held July
16-25 at The Aquatic Center at Mylan Park in
Morgantown, W. Va..
HCDC also had Mayari Coriano-Lahiff and
Abigail Dumond competing a few days earlier
in the Junior Olympic 14-15 Girls 1-meter
competition. Coriano-Lahiff placed 16th and
Dumond 20th in a group of 28 divers.
“They did an exceptional job and though
they didn’t quite make it to USA Diving
Nationals, they have both pre-qualified for
AAU Diving Summer Nationals in West
Virginia,” Bates said.
Coriano-Lahiff was just ten points shy of
qualifying for the USA Diving Nationals
along with YargerHastings Community Diving Club competitor Aubrey Yarger (left) stands alongside
Tyler Downs at the USA Diving Zone C Championships at the University of Tennessee’s
Allan Jones Aquatic Center in Knoxville, Tenn. Yarger qualified for the USA Diving
Junior Nationals at the event, and got to warm-up alongside the 17-year-old, 3-meter
board competitor Downs who earned a spot on Team USA for the upcoming Tokyo
Olympics at the Olympic Trials last month.Hastings Community Diving Club divers Abigail Dumond, Mayari Coriano-Lahiff and
coach Todd Bates stop for a photo in at the USA Diving Zone C Championships at the
University of Tennessee’s Allan Jones Aquatic Center in Knoxville, Tenn. Dumond and
Coriano-Lahiff both finished in the top 20 in their division at the championships.Cloverdale drain project starting soon
A 36-inch pipe sits on the southwest corner of M-43 and Guernsey Lake Road near Delton awaiting the start of the $2.2 million
Cloverdale Drain project. Barry County Drain Commissioner Jim Dull said he intends to start the work next week. Originally, Dull
had expected to complete this project in June, but the pandemic delayed deliveries. For now, he said, “We’re stockpiling materials
as they’re getting in.” (Photo by Scott Harmsen)City one step closer to adoption
of principal shopping district
Benjamin Simon
Staff Writer
The Hastings Downtown Development
Authority formally approved the principal
shopping district to the city council, paving
the way for the DDA to act as the board of the
district.
If accepted by the city council, the DDA
would serve as the de facto board, meaning it
would not have to establish a separate board
to oversee the principal shopping district.
For the past few weeks, the city has been
considering the addition of a principal
shopping district to its master plan. The literal
name of the district is less important than
what it would allow them to accomplish:
special assessments.
A special assessment, Gregg Guetschow,
interim city manager, said, is “a charge that’s
levied against the private property owners for
some public service that’s being provided.”
Special assessments can only be levied after
multiple hearings and upon the specific people
and businesses that would benefit from the
project.
The current city charter only allows for
special assessments in the case of
improvements. It does not allow for specialassessments related to maintenance. In the
near future, the city hopes to use special
assessments for parking lot maintenance,
Guetschow said, but it also provides them
with other abilities down the line, such as
marketing, marketing studies and more.
“It’s really a way to kind of bring the
business owners along collectively to do
something that they would want to do and
figure out a way to pay for it and to fairly
distribute the costs,” Guetschow said. “That’s
what we’re really talking about here. It’s the
financing tool that’s the really important part
of this.”
The city is still in the early stages of
establishing a principal shopping district. The
implementation would be in three stages,
Guetschow said. “Designate the area,
designate the body that’s going to function as
overseeing the district and then begin the
process of running the special assessment for
parking,” he said.
The first stage, approving the boundaries of
the principal shopping district in the master
plan, is expected to take place during the July
12 city council meeting. The hope, Guetschow
said, is that the entire process will be finalized
within the next few months.PFAS detected in
Prairieville,Yankee Springs
Taylor Owens
Staff Writer
Health officials have confirmed PFAS in
the water near the former Kavco landfill near
Doster and Day roads in southwestern
Prairieville Township.
PFAS, an umbrella term for a number of
per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are man-
made chemicals that have been used in manu-
facturing and industry settings and do not
break down. If PFAS gets into drinking water,
it can build up in the human body and lead to
a broad range of health conditions.
The Michigan Department of Environment,
Great Lakes and Energy detected the chemi-
cals at the former landfill during a test in May,but PFAS has not been found in any drinking
water.
“This area is served by municipal water
because of other known contamination from
the old landfill,” Barry-Eaton District Health
Department Environmental Health Specialist
Carol Balkon said. “The next steps are to
sample the closest residential wells that are
not connected to the municipal water supply
for that area.”
The health department will work with the
Michigan Department of Health and Human
Services to form a plan for next steps after the
testing has been completed.
A positive PFAS test also has been reported
in Yankee Springs Township’s section 19, justnorth of Gun Lake.
Like Prairieville, the area also was known
to have contaminants due to a former landfill,
and the area is on municipal water.
Yankee Springs Township ordered engi-
neering firm Fleis & VandenBrink to test
three abandoned wells in the area in 2019. At
least one sample tested positive for PFAS,
Gun Lake Water and Sewer Authority Director
Larry Knowles said.
It was likely the first time anyone had ever
tested the region specifically for PFAS,
Knowles said, but he wasn’t surprised that
there had been a positive test.
When the Yankee Springs Water Advisory
Board was re-established this year, it reached
out to EGLE to report the finding and ask for
testing to be performed at residential wells
outside the area supplied by municipal water,
to make sure the PFAS hasn’t reached there.
“We’re just trying to stay ahead of it, if we
can,” Knowles said.
There is not currently a timeline as to when
EGLE may check the wells, since they need
to work it into their budget, Knowles added.
Balkon said the Yankee Springs location
will not yet be listed as a PFAS site, since
EGLE has not confirmed the findings. Since
PFAS results are measured in the parts per
trillion, it’s possible the results can be con-
taminated by the person sampling the water,
Balkon added.
“We are assuming that PFAS is actually in
the water, but there are too many unknowns
right now to list this as a site and make any
determination of a source,” Balkon said.
Two previous sites in Barry County are
listed as known PFAS sites by the State of
Michigan.
The CES landfill in Hastings had samples
exceed the 8 parts per trillion limit of PFOA
in tests conducted last year, with the highest
result coming in at 43 ppt.
The area around Viking Corp. had a test
result of 335,090 ppt in 2019, and additional
wells have been installed to monitor that loca-
tion.Algonquin Lake fireworks set for Saturday
The skies around Hastings will be
illuminated Saturday evening, July 3, when
the Algonquin Lake Community Association
launches fireworks.
The pyrotechnics are expected to begin at
about 10:15 p.m. (the rain date is Monday,
July 5).
Boaters are advised to stay away from
Snake Island. The fireworks can be seen from
many areas around the lake.
Community Baptist Church, 502 E. GrandSt., Hastings, will host a free event from
10:45 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, July 4. Pastor
Ken Hale will share a message, followed by
patriotic music provided by Jackie and Ken
Hamilton, the husband-and-wife team who
comprise Blended Hearts.
The day’s meal will include hot-dogs,
hamburgers, ribs and more.
The village of Lake Odessa will celebrate
the holiday with a boat parade on Jordan
Lake. This year’s parade theme is rock bands.The top three vote-getters will win gift
certificates from Buddy’s on the Beach.
The lakeside restaurant and bowling
center is sponsoring the event.
Lineup will begin Sunday at 7 p.m. at the
public beach dock. Participants should call
616-374-4881 to register.
Historic Charlton Park will not have its
Fourth of July celebration this year, but the
Antique Gas and Steam Engine Show will
return July 9-11.1351 N M-43 - Hwy., Hastings, MI 49058
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