Where police and public
support should intersect
See Editorial on Page 4
LHS goalie fifth of five
seniors to score in win
See Story on Page 9
Township officials silent
on tabulator seizure
See Story on Page 3
VOLUME 168, No. 20 Thursday, May 19, 2022 PRICE $1.
THE
HASTINGS
Devoted to the Interests of Barry County Since 1856
Township, Thornapple Manor
continue taxing spat
Benjamin Simon
Staff Writer
The decision to tax – or not to tax –
Thornapple Manor’s new assisted living
facility now rests with the state tax tribunal.
After the Hastings Charter Township
Board of Review declined tax-exempt sta-
tus to Thornapple Manor, the skilled nurs-
ing facility appealed the decision to the
state tax tribunal.
The skilled nursing facility has submit-
ted its defense and the township will
respond within the next few weeks. They
will then bring the argument in front of the
tax tribunal.
“Basically, at this point, decided to let
nature take its course legally through the
tax tribunal,” Hastings Charter Township
Supervisor Jim Brown said at the town-
ship’s monthly meeting May 10.
Thornapple Manor is currently on sched-
ule to complete its new facility, Harvest
Pointe, by August, Administrator Don
Haney said. The $14 million project will
bring 50 units to the skilled nursing facility.
Thornapple Manor is considered a
non-profit, government entity.
But Brown said, since Harvest Pointe
competes with private providers that are
taxed, it should pay taxes as well. “I think
it’s only fair,” he said.
The disagreement over Harvest Pointe
surfaced when the township put the incom-ing facility on its tax roll in early 2022.
Since then, a tug-of-war ensued between the
two sides.
After the county commissioners’ meet-
ing last week, various stakeholders held a
meeting, including Hastings Charter Town-
ship Supervisor Jim Brown, Thornapple
Manor Administrator Don Haney, Director
of Human Resources and Haney’s succes-
sor Rebecca DeHaan and Barry County
Administrator Michael Brown.
At the meeting, Jim Brown discussed
the possibility of a payment in lieu of
taxes, or PILOT, requesting that Thornap-
ple Manor provide the township with a
voluntary sum of money.
Haney said the Thornapple Manor will
not provide a PILOT. He argued that pay-
ment or taxation would force Thornapple
Manor to raise the rent charged its resi-
dents.
“At the end of the day, if we were to pay
property tax or pay a PLIOT, the impact of
that is, we have to balance our books,”
Haney said. “And so it’s going to cost the
folks that we’re serving.”
As Thornapple Manor builds its new
facility, Brown questions who will pay for
the miscellaneous costs that come with
supporting the building.Graduating Hastings High School seniors jump in front of Star Elementary School on May 13, the day they call “Decision Day.” That's the traditional day for seniors to return to their elementary schools holding signs
with their names and post-secondary plans. For more D-Day coverage, turn to Page 3. (Photo provided by the Hastings Area School System)
Wild chase, police standoff
ends in guilty verdicts
Rebecca Pierce
Editor
Timothy Riddle wanted police to kill him
because he couldn’t kill himself.
Testimony during the three-day bench trial
last week before Barry County Judge Michael
Schipper described how the 48-year-old con-
victed felon, distraught after breaking up with
his girlfriend, stole a couple of shotguns and
ran from police.
In a high-speed chase Aug. 4, 2021, at
speeds exceeding 110 mph, Riddle raced
north on M-43 from Hastings to Woodland
where he barricaded himself in a gas station.
Seven hours later, he surrendered to police.
Prosecutor Julie Nakfoor Pratt charged
Riddle with 24 criminal counts. He ended up
with convictions on 20 counts and a convic-
tion on a lesser included offense in another
count.
In handing down the verdict Thursday,
Schipper reviewed the incidents as they had
transpired that day, describing Riddle dodg-
ing bullets as he ran into the gas station and
behavior akin to the wild West – all it
required to complete the scene were horses
and handguns.
Remarkably, the judge pointed out, no one
was hurt.
Yet some innocent people were terrified
and thought they were going to die, Schipper
emphasized.
During the trial, the county’s Chief Public
Defender Kerri Selleck, argued that Riddle,
who has been incarcerated since the age of
15, wanted to die rather than return to prison.
Since August, he has been held in jail on
a $500,000 bond and he’s now facing a
charge that he attempted to escape from the
jail last fall. He’s scheduled for trial on that
charge in June.
Riddle wept as he heard some of the testi-
mony last week and he was admonished for
speaking to one of the witnesses, a gas station
employee, when he said, “I’m sorry” to her as
she left the courtroom.
Nakfoor Pratt hammered that point in her
closing arguments: Apologies won’t erase
Riddle’s actions, she said. The incident left
scars on people who just happened to be in
the gas station that day.
To address the anxiety some witnesses
experienced just being in the same room
with Riddle, the defendant’s table was
switched with the prosecutor’s table to place
him as far from the witnesses as possible in
the courtroom.
In a recording from that night that was
entered into evidence, Riddle told police,“I don’t want anyone to get hurt. I just want
to die.”
Police negotiators spent hours trying to
convince him to surrender. Finally, they
brought in an armored vehicle equipped with
a ram to break down locked doors and beganCasino breaks ground on $300M ‘entertainment destination’
Greg Chandler
Staff Writer
Gun Lake Casino is expected to break
ground today on a $300 million expansion
that will include construction of a new
15-story, 252-room hotel and a
32,000-square-foot glass “Aquadome.”
An 11 a.m. ceremony was set for today at
the casino in Wayland Township, operated
by the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band
of Pottawatomi Indians, called the Gun
Lake Tribe.
It’s the fifth phase of development for the
casino, spokesman Zach Harig said in a
media advisory.
The advisory bills the expansion as some-
thing “that will transform the property into the
entertainment destination of the Midwest.”
Architecture renderings of what the hotel
and pool will look like will be on display at
the ceremony. More information about the
development and its estimated economic
impact on the region is expected to be
shared at the groundbreaking.
The casino announced the expansion,
which will add about 250,000 square feet to
the entertainment complex, in April 2021.
In addition to the hotel, the project includes
construction of the Aquadome, a
32,000-square-foot glass-domed pool that
will have hot tubs and private cabanas.
Additional restaurants and a full-service
spa also are part of the project.
The new expansion will follow the
recent $100 million, 72,000-square-foot
addition of slot machines, gaming tables,
dining areas and entertainment space at the
casino.
“We are proud of the continued growth of
Gun Lake Casino which is directly connect-
ed to the outstanding effort of our team
members,” Tribal Chairman Bob Peters
said after last year’s announcement. “The
Tribe remains steadfastly committed to
reinvest in our collective future – for the
benefit of tribal citizens, team members and
the local community.
“This will provide even more employ-
ment opportunities and enhance Gun Lake
Casino’s position as a tourism driver for
western Michigan.”
The expansion begins as work on the $
million interchange replacement project at
US-131 and M-179 is nearing completion.
The single-point urban interchange,
which will allow opposing left-turn move-
ments, is expected to be finished this
November. The Gun Lake Tribe contribut-
ed $22 million toward the cost of that
project.It's time to take off!
This artwork shows what the 15-story hotel and other attractions under an “Aquadome” will look like when it's finished just west
of the current casino.See TOWNSHIP, page 2
Timothy Riddle was convicted after a
three-day bench trial in Barry County
court last Thursday. Here, he listens as
one of the gas station employees told
how she was afraid she would die that
day. (Photo by Scott Harmsen)To view
Barry County Judge Michael Schipper
hands down the verdict at the conclusion
of the Timothy Riddle trial:
https://vimeo.com/
See WILD CHASE, page 2