City Commission

More than 23,000 St. Joseph County residents participated in this week’s general election. The figure means about 54 percent of the county’s registered voters participated in Tuesday’s vote. County Clerk Pattie Bender said the overall number of voters was down from more than 25,000 in 2008. Park Township led St. Joseph County Tuesday with the highest number of residents voting, …

Three Rivers City Clerk Lindsay Howes said the city commission will stage an organizational meeting Monday. At that time, two newly elected commissioners – Alison Haigh and Diane Haley-Clay – will be sworn in. Commissioners Daryl Griffith and Carolyn McNary, who ran unopposed, also will be sworn in during the ceremony. The new-look commission stages its first regularly scheduled meeting …

There will be two new faces on the Three Rivers City Commission later this month. District 3 candidate Diane Haley-Clay defeated incumbent Larry Matson in Tuesday’s general election. Matson was appointed to the board in May to replace Ken Baker. Meanwhile, incumbent Elbert Foster, an eight-year commission member, was unable to fend off Alison Haigh as commissioner of District 2. …

A few incumbents on local, township, village and school boards were defeated in Tuesday’s general election. In Colon, challenger Tom Tenney soundly defeated incumbent village president Tom Whitford. Also, Colon Board of Education member and incumbent Eric Wagner was the odd person out in a three-person race for two seats. Incumbent Eric Bower will return and be joined by newcomer …

James Baker, director of the Three Rivers Clean Water Plant, said Department of Public Services officials responded earlier this month to an incident of a backed-up sewer in the 200 block of Water Street. Baker stated in a media release the situation was handled in accordance to the city’s Sanitary Sewer Back-Up Policy, as detailed in Michigan Public Act 222. …

The City of Sturgis Department of Public Services is reminding its residents fall leaf pickup begins Monday. Crews will follow the same route as they do with brush pick up, starting north of Chicago Road and west of North Nottawa Street, working their way across the north side of town and then through the south side. Leaf pick up will …

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 …

Now that it has completed residential brush removal, the Three Rivers Department of Public Services will begin fall leaf pickup today. DPS officials are reminding the public that any household that include items other than leafs will potentially damage equipment and likely result in a code-enforcement citation. Leaves may be placed in the street along the curb but not in …

The city of Three Rivers and Three Rivers Community Schools both landed a handsome windfall Tuesday from St. Joseph County’s largest employer. During a ceremonial check presentation at Three Rivers-based American Axle & Manufacturing, Mayor Tom Lowry was given $400,000 from American Axle officials. The city will retain $300,000 of the amount, while the $100,000 balance was earmarked for the …