The Sun and News

Your Hometown Newspaper Serving Middleville and Caledonia Areas

No. 42/October 16, 2021 Published by J-Ad Graphics, Inc. • 1351 N. M-43 Highway, Hastings, MI 49058 143rd year

James Gemmell

Contributing Writer

Nearly 18 months after it

first announced the project,

BDR Custom Homes has

cleared the final govern-

ment hurdle for construct-

ing the River Birch

Apartments on the Gaines

Township side of 60th

Street.

The 348-unit apart-

ment-home development

will be built immediately

west of the Fieldstone

Apartments, and across the

street from the Bailey’s

Grove development on the

Kentwood side of 60th

Street. The township board

gave its blessing Monday

night with a 6-1 vote in

favor of the final Planned

Unit Development plan and

rezoning. Township Trustee

Dan Fryling voiced the

board’s only vote in opposi-

tion during the public hear-

ing.

Grand Rapids-based

BDR will build the River

Birch development on a

combined parcel at 3500

and 3540 60th St. SE. The

township planning commis-

sion recently approved the

site plan. And on Monday,

the township board

approved a request to

rezone the property from a

residential designation to a

planned unit development,

in order to provide more

flexibility in how the build-

ings can be clustered on the

site. The location is just to

the north of M-6. The PUD

approval required an ordi-

nance amendment. BDR

intends to build 30 two-and

three-story apartment

homes on the site.

Groundbreaking on the

River Birch project is tenta-

tively planned for next year.

The project entails a blend

of two- and three-story

buildings surrounded by

trees and wetlands. All

buildings within the first

385 feet of 60th Street will

be limited in height to two

stories, and there will be an

aesthetically-landscaped

berm to buffer road noise.

The development will

Greg Chandler

Staff Writer

The Thornapple Township

board Monday approved a

salary increase for Supervisor

Eric Schaefer for his work in

saving the township money

for information technology

and other line items.

On a 5-1 vote, the board

approved a $6,577 salary

increase, not tied to

Schaefer’s statutory duties as

supervisor, boosting his total

pay to $45,000. Schaefer

abstained from the vote.

The raise was recommend-

ed by the board’s Finance

Committee.

“He’s just gone above and

beyond what has previously

been done by the supervi-

sor,” Trustee Sandy Rairigh

said. “He’s saving us so

much money as far as IT.

This relatively small increase

would be more than offset by

the savings.”

Schaefer played a lead-

ing role in last month’s

decision by the board to

switch IT providers, from

Aunalytics to Shoreline

Technology Solutions, a

move that will save the

township nearly $2,500 per

month.

The township will pay

Shoreline a monthly ser-

vices fee of $1,745, plus

additional software and

management costs. It had

been paying Aunalytics

$4,226 a month.

Trustee Ross DeMaagd

opposed the increase.

“I think that he’s a tremen-

dous asset to this township

and to this office here,”

DeMaagd said. “I like him. I

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

• Yankee Springs OKs

$1.2M hall expansion

• TK selects new school

board officers

• Kentwood firm expands

in Gaines, gets tax exemption

• Caledonia boys are fastest

Michigan squad at Portage Invite

• Scots suffer first defeat

at undefeated Rockford

James Gemmell
Contributing Writer
Gaines Charter Township
residents will see an increase
in their winter tax bill when it
arrives in the mail in December.
The township board voted
5-2 on Monday night to
approve an adjustable spe-
cial-assessment levy to cover
the township’s mounting
costs for public safety. That
includes police, fire, and
ambulance services.
The dedicated levy will
begin at 0.6 mills, generating
$600,000 in fiscal year 2022,
to defray the cost of replac-
ing some of the township’s
outdated fire equipment.
The board met in the South
Christian High School audito-
rium because it expected a
large crowd for the second of
two required public hearings
on the special assessment.
About 70 people attended the
hearing, which was fewer
than the overflow crowd of at
least 100 people who packed
into the smaller township hall
board room in August for the
first public hearing. Township
Supervisor Rob DeWard said
it was the first time in his 25
years on the board that one of
its meetings was not held at
the township hall. He also
said the idea of a special
assessment for public safety
first came up in 2008.
“We probably waited too
long to do this,” Township
Treasurer Laurie Lemke said.
The township board origi-
nally proposed an annual 1.5-
mill special levy but, follow-
ing a bevy of complaints at
the August hearing, revised
the assessment to make it
adjustable year by year.
The original proposal would

have cost the owner of a house

with a taxable value of $90,

about $135 per year. But

Lemke said the revised levy

will cost the “average” home-

owner between $60 and $

per year, depending on each

property’s taxable value.

The township board has

said it expects the levy to

increase to between 0.85 and

1.1 mills by December 2022,

and it could rise as high as

1.5 mills in the future, if pub-

lic safety expenses continue

to escalate.

But, because the township

government will continue to

contribute about $2 million

per year from its general fund

toward public safety, Seyferth

said, “the chances of hitting

that 1.5-mill cap are pretty

low.”

The money from the adjust-

able assessment levy will fill

the gap between the town-

ship’s $2 million annual con-

tribution and what the actual

public-safety costs turn out to

be from year to year.

Voting in favor of the

township-wide special

assessment district were

DeWard, Lemke, Clerk

Michael Brew, and township

trustees Tim Haagsma and

Bob Terpstra. Voting against

it were trustees Kathy

VanderStel and Dan Fryling.

About a dozen citizens

spoke out against the special

assessment at the public hear-

ing, including Township

Planning Commissioner Brad

Waayenberg, who commented

as a citizen. “I’ve just got to

say it seems like the wrong

vehicle for raising this kind of

money. Normal property taxes

Gaines OKs levy

Special assessment

on winter tax bill

An exterior rendering of what some of the River Birch Apartments in Gaines Township will look like. (Image

provided)

Apartments clear final hurdle

Thornapple supervisor gets pay hike

See APARTMENTS, page 2

See TAX LEVY, page 2

Greg Chandler
Staff Writer
The operations director of
the Barry County Road
Commission has been
appointed to fill an opening
on the Thornapple Kellogg
Board of Education.
Jake Welch was appointed
to the school board Tuesday
night, after the board inter-
viewed seven candidates at
Thornapple Kellogg Middle
School. Welch replaces for-
mer school board president
Kristen Cove, who resigned
last month after six years in
office, and he will serve until
the November 2022 election.

“I want to help this com-

munity. I love this communi-

ty,” said Welch, who has

lived in the district for eight

years. “I work here, on pur-

pose. I think having people

that love this community and

have a desire to help on your

board ... is why we’re all

here.”

“It was a difficult decision

[to apply]. I don’t need a ton

more controversy on my

plate. It surrounds all of us.

But I feel very strongly that

if people that are com-

mon-sensical and people that

do reason well don’t step up

and help when help is

required ... it leaves it to

chance of what else are you

going to get?”

During his interview,

Welch said one of the biggest

challenges facing TK is the

vitriol that has swept the

Middleville community over

the past few months, most

notably over whether the

wearing of masks should be

mandated or a matter of

parental choice.

“Our society [is] moving

in a direction where it’s OK

to quickly hit ‘send’ [on an

email or social media mes-

sage], and be someone that

can hide behind a monitor

and say things and bolster

themselves in a way that neg-

Jake Welch

Welch appointed to fill TK school board opening

See WELCH , page 3

See PAY HIKE, page 5