Atlas Township to consider impound fees

Atlas Twp.-The township board will consider charging an impound fee for vehicles towed from the township during law enforcement traffic stops. ‘Currently, it takes deputies three to four hours to drive a suspect downtown, plus waiting for the tow truck to pick up the vehicle,? said Paul Amman, township supervisor. ‘The cost of having deputies […]

Area home sales continue to slide

Brandon Twp.- Area home sales followed the national trend and continued to drop sharply according to a report released last week. The eighth straight downwardly revised forecast from the National Association of Realtors, a trade group for real estate agents, predicted last week that U.S. existing home sales would be 10.8 percent below last year […]

Homecoming pranks turns costly for community

Goodrich- Area police arrested five students last weekend in connection with vandalizing the high school early Friday morning. On Oct. 4, at about 11:45 p.m., Genesee County Sheriff Deputy Matthew McKay, posted at the high school, reported an alarm inside the school had sounded. At approximately 12:30 a.m., a second alarm went off and Deputy […]

Building in Brandon: local supervises school project

Brandon Twp.-As a civil engineer and project superintendent, Shawn Champion has completed some rather complex buildings. His most recent accomplishment, a $40 million ‘clean-room? addition at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, designed to research and produce microchips along with providing nano-technology? was a three-year project that would challenge any civil engineer. However, for Champion, […]

‘It’s the real thing,’Coca-Cola helps with school sign

By a 7-0 vote on Monday night, the Brandon School Board OK’d a gift from Coca-Cola of $14,000 to help purchase the school sign located at the entrance of the Brandon High School along M-15. Gary Kelley, Brandon Schools interim assistant superintendent, said the sign cost $47,250 and was installed this past summer. Other funding […]

Brandon School Board OKs ‘Clean audit?, bond spending

The Brandon School Board OK’d an audit from the Flint-based auditing firm of Lewis & Knopf, CPAs, P.C. for the 2006-2007 fiscal year, at the Monday night meeting. The district earned the auditing firm’s best rating, achieving a ‘Clean? audit, indicating there were no exceptions or disclaimers. In a second phase of the audit, the […]

War ends in the South Pacific

Ortonville-A piece of yellowed tape bearing the name of a Japanese soldier is still attached to the sheath of the polished dress sword. The illegible faded letters of the former enemy are unknown to village resident and Army World War II veteran Dane Guisbert’yet the memories of the late summer of 1945 when the weapon […]

Area school enrollment sags after state count

Both the Brandon and Goodrich school districts reported fewer students according to enrollment numbers following the Michigan government’s state-wide head count Wednesday. Student enrollment in the Goodrich School District fell by 14 students to 2,171, and the Brandon School District tumbled by 84 students to 3,068, compared to last year. Higher or lower enrollment means […]

Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church at 170 years

Groveland Twp.- In the winter of 1837, Rev. Smith, a Methodist pastor, traveled through the wooded, rolling township countryside’gathering for services in the homes of a few settlers to the region. Church records include the pioneer names of Cogshall and Ogden’about seven families comprised the first church class, later named by the Ogdens for Mt. […]

M-15 traffic growth sparking commercial development

Brandon Twp.- Ron Padgett has found a sign. After installing a 12-foot-digital full color sign on the east side of M-15, Padgett, the owner of the Ortonville Smokehouse, 915 S. Ortonville Road, is beginning to see some return on his investment. ‘It’s a little too early to say, but I’d say the sign has brought […]