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The St. Joseph County Board of Commissioners last week made its annual appropriation to the county’s Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. Commissioners budgeted more than $257,000 to the Centreville-based agency. County administrator Pat Yoder said the agency this year will be allocated an additional $90,000 to rectify a previous accounting error. As a result, $86, 817 will be transferred …

Members of St. Joseph County’s AFSCME general unit will continue to have the option to work four, 10-hour days. County commissioners last week approved the concept after it was offered for the balance of the year in 2014 starting in May. County administrator Pat Yoder said based on his observations and feedback, the opportunity worked well. The option is available …

Members of St. Joseph County’s Board of Commissioners have agreed to keep their twice-a-month meetings at 5 p.m. the first and third Tuesdays of the month. Meanwhile, the five-member commission also decided this week to continue staging its executive committee meetings at 8 a.m. the Wednesday before a commission meeting. Matters discussed during the executive committee sessions are typically in-depth …

Police have lifted an evacuation order for a three-mile area around a stretch of I-94 in Kalamazoo County that is closed in both directions due to two pileups involving as many as 150 vehicles with at least one death reported. According to initial reports, as many as 50 semis are involved in the pileups including one that was hauling 40,000 …

Nearly 20 people in Michigan have now died from complications associated with the flu. Health officials say five people have died in Oakland and Washtenaw Counties. There have been nine recent deaths in Kent County and at least four people have died in Kalamazoo County of influenza-associated illnesses. None of the deaths were children. The Michigan Department of Community Health says influenza A …

A number of employment agreements were approved this week by the St. Joseph County Board of Commissioners. Cathleen Carpenter, Dawn Gest, Alex Milliman, Heather Teadt and Nancy Gamble will serve as Juvenile Day Treatment monitors for $14 an hour through May 30. In a separate personnel matter, Kimberly Jent was hired as COA home-care aide at a rate of $10.70 …

Glen Oaks Community College’s athletic program has announced a special event taking place between women’s and men’s basketball games later this month. Athletic director Steve Proefrock said the kick off to Glen Oaks’ 50-year anniversary will take place Jan. 31 between games against Kalamazoo Valley Community College. Proefrock said the program will feature the raising of a banner for the …

A nationally known pageant contestant returned to her roots Wednesday. Mekayla Diehl, a 2007 White Pigeon High School alumna, was the guest speaker at the White Pigeon Rotary Club meeting. Diehl, an Elkhart resident, represented Indiana in last June’s Miss USA Pageant. She placed in the top 20. With high school students from the White Pigeon Rotary’s Interact Club present, …

Investigators are trying to find the cause of a fire in a Three Rivers mobile home that killed two young boys on Wednesday. Antonisha Winters lost her four and two-year-old sons in the blaze on the west side of the city. Firefighters found the bodies of the boys in a badly-burned bedroom shortly after arriving on the scene. The children …

Three Rivers Health is the latest hospital to implement precautions in light of a spike in reports of the flu. The temporary measure is now in place and calls for a number of safeguards, including a requirement that visitors must be 12 years of age or older. In addition, emergency-room visitors are limited to two per patient and OB patients …