News

The St. Joseph County Road Commission has advised residents not to shovel or plow snow into the road. Agency officials caution residents to avoid the “second shovel” of having the ends of driveways shut with snow after a plow passes. Officials say the best way to avoid having to shovel a second time is to clear an area to the …

John Castle, Southern Michigan Bank & Trust Chairman and CEO recently announced the promotions of officers Eric Anglin and Matt Moses. Anglin was promoted to Senior Vice President, Retail Banking Services/Chief Deposit Officer. He earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Tiffin University, and joined the bank in 2010. He advanced to the position of First Vice President, where he …

Sheriff Richard J. Behnke advises that stuck vehicles blocking plows and current road conditions in Cass County are making travel unsafe.    Cass County area is experiencing near-blizzard conditions.  Frequent whiteouts, resulting in slide offs and stuck vehicles are causing dangerous road conditions for traveling emergency crews and road commission plows, in addition to record low wind chills and temperatures adding to life …

Sturgis Hospital has fired Rob LaBarge, its president and CEO. Little information is available about the situation other than the action took place during the hospital board’s monthly meeting Monday. Longtime hospital administrator John Mayer will replace LaBarge in an interim capacity until a permanent replacement can be found. LaBarge has been under scrutiny after the hospital announced in late …

Chris Gerbers has been selected as principal at Sturgis Middle School. Gerbers has served 16 years as an administrator, teacher and coach for the past 16 years in Indiana. He had been a school administrator the past 11 years and comes to Sturgis from Hamilton, Ind., where he served as junior and senior high school principal the past three years. Gerbers …

A project at Glen Oaks Community College has turned into an award-winning undertaking. College president David Devier said Jones and Henry Engineers, Frederick Construction, and Glen Oaks Community College received the “Public Works Project of the Year — Environmental” award by the American Public Works Association, Southwestern Michigan Branch. Supplying and treating water for the new Devier Student Suites became …

The City of Sturgis has opened a warming station at Sturges-Young Auditorium (201 N. Nottawa) today until 8:00 p.m. The warming station will also be open on Wednesday, January 30th and Thursday, January 31st from 9:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. For those in need of a warm place to stay overnight, Keystone Place in Centreville will have space available. Keystone …

The city of Sturgis is continuing its city-wide snow emergency, which went into effect Sunday. Due to the high snowfall level, any vehicle parked on a city street will be towed. By ordinance, parking is prohibited on all city streets during such a declaration. Any vehicle parked in violation is subject to a citation with a fine of $50 and …

The annual “Point-In-Time Count” will take place statewide Wednesday. Locally, the event will include service agencies and community partners in St. Joseph County collecting information about homeless individuals they encounter during business hours. In addition, the St Joseph County Housing Task Force is preparing to count people who are homeless or unsheltered on the streets and in shelters countywide from …