Goodrich- Eleanor and Robert Barker recognize hard times. The village residents were born and raised during the Great Depression. Robert Barker’s mother died when he was a toddler and he was sent to live with an aunt. The current economy is bad they say, but they’ve been through worse, and for six decades, they’ve been […]
Ortonville- Sewers have been talked about for years here, decades even. Septic systems have failed for village residents and business owners, and still, there are no sewers. Cost is the major obstacle and with the current economy, money would seem to be an issue now more than ever. However, the discussion on bringing sewers to […]
Brandon Twp.- The local cable station needs a new home. OTV, the local cable access station (Channel 99), is looking for a new location to house its studio and broadcasting equipment. The OTV studio has been located at Brandon High School since the 1980s, in an arrangement with the district where the high school provides […]
Ortonville- The cost to the village to replace an ailing bridge could be at least $150,000, and possibly more, despite a grant that will cover 95 percent of construction costs. Leanne Panduren of Rowe Professional Services Company presented information and a timeline on the Ball Street Bridge Project to the village council during their Jan. […]
Brandon Twp.- The school district here is in the same boat as districts everywhere in Michigan right now’waiting to hear what the funding will be from the state this year. Steve Lenar, the new acting executive director of fiscal affairs for the Brandon Schools, will deal with pressing financial issues both here and in the […]
Jan Pasteiner kneels down next to a black tarp covered structure about six feet long and three feet high under a towering pine tree in Flint on a recent Friday morning. What the tarp covers is impossible to tell to a casual observer, but the Ortonville resident knows. ‘Alan? This is Jan. Are you in […]
Brandon Twp.- Kevin Loughlin is a fan of Pop-Tarts. He now has approximately 1,000 of them in boxes in his basement to prove it. The breakfast pastries were delivered Jan. 28 to Loughlin’s doorstep in the township after he entered a contest on Facebook to win them in November. ‘I was bored one day, probably […]
Ortonville- Snow covered the roads this week as a massive storm slammed much of the country, but the village found a clear path to Main Street. Following a year-end evaluation Jan. 18, the village was reaccredited as a Main Street community. The evaluation measures the village’s progress in the economic development and historic preservation program. […]
Brandon Twp.- Tom Laviolette had to clear his driveway of snow this week, like hundreds of other residents in the township, and millions of Americans, after a massive storm moved across the country. However, he also had an extra task due to the storm’shoveling the snow off solar panels attached to his roof. Even with […]
On a late summer evening in 1950, at a club called Knickerbockers in Flint, George Yancho asked Mary Christoph to dance. The song was the Blue Skirt Waltz, and she happened to be wearing a blue dress. They danced most of the rest of that night, and many nights after. He worked nights and she […]