Business

Physician News: • Hospital Physician Partners (HPP) has successfully begun physician staffing of our Emergency Department. Dr. Grover, Dr. Schumaker and Dr. Solanki will continue to work in our ED. Dr. Grover has accepted the position as the Medical Director effective March 1st. Other Important News: • Sturgis Hospital is one of only 323 hospitals in the World and 308 …

The Animal Rescue Fund of St. Joseph County has announced the date of its annual dinner-auction benefit. The agency’s 10th annual dinner begins at 5:30 p.m. April 28 in the cafeteria at Three Rivers High School. The auction portion of the event starts at 6:30 p.m. Outback Steakhouse of Kalamazoo is donating, preparing and serving the meal. Tickets are $10 …

Indiana Michigan Power Co. has announced that work on the upgrade of power poles and lines from Park Township to Sturgis Township is expected to get started by the end of next month. The Fort Wayne, Ind.-based company said the 14-mile improvement is in addition to an eight-mile line improvement between Schoolcraft and the Moorepark neighborhood. That project is slated …

State Rep. Matt Lori has announced a $168,000 grant to help St. Joseph County farmers better manage their yields while protecting the environment. The funds come from the Southwest Michigan Adapt Network, a new partnership involving the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Services and the Environmental Defense Fund. Lori said …

St. Joseph County’s Board of Commissioners voted this week to a variety of agriculture-related services offered by the Michigan State University Extension. Following action Tuesday, Dr. Dale Mutch, an agriculture and agribusiness institute extension educator from Michigan State University Extension Office, will join the county. Mutch is a senior extension educator of sustainable agriculture. Meanwhile, approval was given to hire …

Three Rivers Mayor Tom Lowry and commissioners on Tuesday approved a special-exception-use permit for Menards. As a result, the Wisconsin-based home-improvement center is clear to break ground on its 215,000-square-foot store on the south side of Broadway Road, just west of U.S. 131. City officials said Menards representatives indicated they would like to break ground as soon as possible in …

The fate of where the Weenie Kings push-cart hot dog stand will set up for business in 2012 remains unresolved. Three Rivers Mayor Tom Lowry and commissioners on Tuesday discussed the situation after being told by Weenie Kings proprietor Mike King that the Three Rivers Public Library Board has approved a policy that prohibits commerce from taking place in the …

It appears Mike King, owner of the Weenie Kings hot dog stand in Three Rivers, will have to find a new location to conduct business when his seasonal operation opens later this month. King said he received last week a certified letter from members of the Three Rivers Library Board, who indicated that in January, they passed a resolution prohibiting …

The Sturgis Journal announced it is no longer printing its newspaper in Sturgis, as the job has been passed on to a sister company in Allegan. Saturday’s edition of the six-day-a-week newspaper was the final copy produced on the 38-year-old presses at the Journal’s John Street office. Fourteen jobs were lost as a result of the move, which was orchestrated …

A full-service grocery store in business for more than 30 years in Sturgis announced Wednesday it is closing by the end of the month. Officials from Miller’s Super-Valu said competition from Wal-Mart and other stores and markets in town is too significant to overcome. Mike Doust, general manager of LaGrange, Ind.-based Miller’s, said the Sturgis location simply couldn’t generate enough …