Business

A hit-and-run incident involving a parked vehicle is being investigated by the St. Joseph County Sheriff’s Department. A department-issued media release indicated a Chrysler van was struck between 8 and 10 a.m. Friday in the Kendall Electric parking lot.

            A 2000 Dodge 3500 dual-wheel pickup truck was stolen earlier this month from a residence in the 12000 block of Riverside Drive, in White Pigeon Township.             The St. Joseph County Sheriff’s Department reports the vehicle had four flat tires and had remained in place at least five years. The vehicle is inoperable and has a 100-gallon fuel tank, …

Two White Pigeon residents were treated for injuries they suffered after the motorcycle they were riding was hit by a deer about 5 p.m. Thursday. The St. Joseph County Sheriff’s Department said the 46-year-old driver, Scott Crone was south on Covered Bridge Road when the deer ran into his motorcycle near South River Road. The man and his 47-year-old passenger, Joni Crone were …

Cass County Sheriff Joseph Underwood Jr. reports said deputies handled a double-fatal traffic crash on Chapel Hill Street, just east of Baldwin Prarie Road at 9:14 p.m. Tuesday in Porter Township. Ross Gambill, 19 from Osceola, Ind., said that he and two friends were traveling east on Chapel Hill Street at a high rate of speed when the driver lost …

Michigan retailers are optimistic about the upcoming holidays, with 3 out of 4 retailers expecting sales to increase. According to the Michigan Retailers Association’s (MRA) Michigan Retail Index, 43-percent of the state’s retailers expect holiday sales to rise by more than 5-percent over last year, while 32-percent expect smaller increases.  MRA President and CEO Jim Hallan says Michigan retailers are …

Midland-based Dow Chemical says 2,400 employees will be laid off with 20 plants closed world wide due to continued economic slowdowns.  Roughly half of those layoffs will be in North America including workers at an Automotive Systems Diesel Particulate Filters plant in Midland that will be closed. No time table on the plant closures was immediately available.  Dow says the …

Three-quarters of a $400,000 donation presented last week to the city of Three Rivers has been designated to a newly created capital-improvement fund. During Tuesday’s city commission meeting, Mayor Tom Lowry and commissioners agreed to place $300,000 into the capital-improvement fund the city created as a result of the financial windfall. Though a specific use for the money has not …

Members of the Three Rivers City Commission later this year are expected to award a contract for the job of redesigning the downtown mural mall. Steven Bishop, representing Grand Rapids-based Fleis and VanDenBrink Engineering presented drawings of the proposed project to Mayor Tom Lowry and commissioners at Tuesday’s meeting. Funding for the nearly $1 million project came from a $750,000 …

Sturgis Police over the weekend arrested a suspect for driving into a pair of parked cars and running from officers. Neither the gender, age, nor community of residence of the person arrested was stated in a department media release. According to police, an incident in the 400 block of Sturgis Street was reported around 8:30 p.m. Saturday, when two cars …

Alcohol may have been a factor in a single-car crash last week in Burr Oak Township, according to the St. Joseph County Sheriff’s Department. Investigators said 28-year-old Sturgis resident Lisa Anderson drove her 2004 Impala off the roadway near the intersection of Witt Lake and Robinson roads and the vehicle struck a tree. The incident occurred shortly before 11 p.m. …