Comments for River Country Journal

Comment on Constantine Village Council approves sewer rate increase, but further action needed to make it official by scott chiddister

scott chiddister — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 06:49:21 +0000

Grrrrrrrrrrrr……..It’s unfortunate that this research and discovery didn’t happen earlier since it was well known “what” was coming…it was the “how much” that was being debated. And one would have thought how to get this done procedure-wise was a path well travelled. The village after all incurred approx 5 rate increases in consecutive years about 11 years ago amounting to an 82% rate increase to fund a $7 million overhaul to the TR wastewater plant. OK, did we forget how we did it those 5 times or did we not do those rate increases properly?

Now this belated discovery in the proper protocol the village takes it on the chin for another $30k for another month…and boy we are gonna need every dollar to help us get additional cost saves (i.e.: for some items we are gonna have to spend some upfront to get us to some of the annual savings). However, it does need to be done correctly.

OK,some of you are gonna figure out that a 55% increase from TR and the village passing on only 20%….the math doesn’t seem to quite track right? Well, sorta. In part, what it really means the village is still taking on some of the burden for a finite period of time. If the committee and the Council effectively executes some of the cost containment initiatives under consideration in the next 6-12 months we won’t need to close the gap (or as much of the gap) for that other 35%. But if the village still ends up bleeding money more than projected from these projected studies….don’t be surprised if another rate increase comes sooner rather than later.

Suffice to say…..some of us have our work cut out for us…it just gets harder if we don’t have sufficient funds left to execute these cost containment initiatives from such belated discoveries.

Comment on Village Inn captures top prize in 3rd annual Chili Throwdown in Constantine by angiebirdsall

angiebirdsall — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 04:20:55 +0000

The gentleman who won the Shipshewana Chili Cook Off (Mr. Gage) was a nice guy! He noticed I wasn’t eating any chili. He said, “Here.. take this ticket. Some guy walked up to me and said he found out the chili had onions and left it.” lol I appreciated it (but I don’t eat meat) but I still thanked him. Grant and Wade Wolf came in at the tail end of this and when Grant heard the Village Inn won he said “Sweet… I just ate breakfast there (adding.. and it was goood!”) I wrote down more quotes but I couldn’t fit them all in…. (This is for the people who read RCJ and wonder why I didn’t put what they said in..) smile
Someone pointed out the Harvey Hotel didn’t enter (but were in this last year.) I thought Pat Touse had a good suggestion. She said “Why not give everyone four smaller cups number 1-4?” but then Cindy Kline said “It’d be difficult.. it’s an all-you-can eat.” The first year they did this the eateries had roasting pans full of chili (which they sent home w/the owners of the Antique Emporium.. they had much, much left over and Brian and Trina must have been eating chili for weeks.. lol) This year the merchants put chili in crockpots and they ran out. I guess a good tip IS get there early next year!

Comment on Village Inn Restaurant re-opens by Amber Hummel

Amber Hummel — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 13:58:23 +0000

I dated Justin =D!!

Comment on All aboard! MDOT puts 110 mph special Amtrak train video on YouTube by unbefrickenlieveable

unbefrickenlieveable — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 20:39:27 +0000

I think they should accommodate bikes on trains about the same as they treat carry on bags on planes….if I gotta pay $25 for every bag seemingly bigger than a deck of cards to get on a plane…there should be a fee for bikes. I’m sure once the money part is reconciled you’d be surprised how the solutions will flow after that. If anyone thinks any travel provider is going to take up square footage of traincar space that could be used for paying passengers with items such as bikes without some sort of compensation…well good luck with that.

I’m sure they can come up with something for a nominal fee….I mean if they could come up with a way to accommodate multiple modes of transportation over 100 yrs ago when they’d transport horses on separate cars on passenger trains too, I’m sure they can come up with strategy for bikes.

Comment on All aboard! MDOT puts 110 mph special Amtrak train video on YouTube by League of Michigan Bicyclists

League of Michigan Bicyclists — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 14:41:01 +0000

This is fantastic! Hats off to the MDOT & Amtrak for working through all the kinks to make this happen – it’s been a long time coming.

Now we just need to ensure that multi-modal travel is a possibility by following the recently adopted Michigan State Rail Plan which clearly states that bicycles need to be accommodated on board passenger trains. It should be convenient for travelers to make connections from one mode of transportation to another to easily and safely link trips. One great example is the potential for train travelers to travel from community to community and then bicycle to their final destinations.

Makes sense right? It does to 1700 people and growing!

Please sign/share the petition:”Amtrak – Allow bicycles on Michigan passenger trains petition”

http://www.change.org/petitions/amtrak-superintendent-passenger-services-central-division-allow-bicycles-on-michigan-passenger-trains

Comment on Adrian College president visits White Pigeon, talks with students about being successful by Barb Niblock

Barb Niblock — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 14:34:10 +0000

Having two children graduate from WPHS and Adrian College, it was a privelege and an honor to see Dr. Docking at White Pigeon High School! Our White Pigeon Interact Club is to be commended for all their hard work and dedication to making our community, our world a better place. Listening to Dr. Docking’s words on being successful confirms that our students in White Pigeon are on the right path to achieving their goals. Thank you Dan Cropsey for bringing such an accomplished figure to our school to meet with our students!

Comment on Caswell and Lori offer ‘Legislative Update’ during Chamber-sponsored breakfast in Three Rivers by unbefrickenlieveable

unbefrickenlieveable — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 02:37:10 +0000

Yes silent observer….and on top of that alot of the so called balancing by our wasn’t really balancing….it was cutting funding on things like state revenue sharing to starve our local and county municipalities of much needed funds to give us back our fair share of money we send to Lansing. That’s not balancing…that’s reallocation of the burden to locals who had nothing to do with the decisions that put the state in that mess.

Comment on Caswell and Lori offer ‘Legislative Update’ during Chamber-sponsored breakfast in Three Rivers by Bruce Snook

Bruce Snook — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 22:37:41 +0000

Both lawmakers did share some thoughts about Governor Rick Snyder’s budget proposal. I anticipate putting together a separate story reporting on those comments. In the meantime, you can hear exactly what they had to say in their presentations by accessing the audio from the ‘Legislative Update’ breakfast. The link appears at the end of the story above.

Two earlier budget stories, published Thursday (2-9-12) in the River Country Journal, may prove helpful as well:

Governor Snyder unveils proposed FY 2013 budget http://www.rivercountryjournal.info/2012/02/09/governor-snyder-unveils-proposed-fy-2013-budget/

Rep. Lori issues statement on Gov. Snyder’s budget plan http://www.rivercountryjournal.info/2012/02/09/rep-lori-issues-statement-on-gov-snyders-budget-plan/

Bruce Snook
River Country Journal

Comment on Meyer Ventures purchases former Village Market and strip mall property on Enterprise Drive by judy priddy

judy priddy — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 21:54:14 +0000

Sure hope another grocery store goes in where village market was. We shopped there all the time. We moved into t.r. in 2000. Since then the Secretary of State moved out, village market moved out, etc. Seems like we need stores moving in and not out to keep folks remaining in this area. Hope something turns around soon. Thank you.

Comment on Caswell and Lori offer ‘Legislative Update’ during Chamber-sponsored breakfast in Three Rivers by SilentTRobserver

SilentTRobserver — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 21:40:31 +0000

I wonder if the two elected state officials commented about the Governor’s 2013 budget? His proposed budget is $48.2 BILLION and is the highest Governor’s budget in Michigan history! And this is after our state population has dropped by nearly one million people over the past decade?

How do they justify this expenditure after robbing schools and retirees last year with all the tax cuts, increased fees, and reductions in funding?

HOW can we be spending over $4 billion more in this budget that Governor Granholm in her last budget which the Republicans disparaged as profligate spending! More to the point, where is all the outrage from the Tea Party people, AND the media!

Our politicians disgust me!