By Sue Moore
Art Stroll Wows People
The Vicksburg Art Stroll was a great success with many people coming from out of town to visit the 18 shops along Main and Prairie Streets that participated. They showed terrific art and plenty of good music. The event was especially enhanced because the first craft brewery to come to town, Distant Whistle, was open for the very first time. Kudos to organizers Syd Bastos, Lisa Beam and Leigh Fryling from the Cultural Arts Center for a fine show.
June Morley is at Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital
The much loved and venerated June Morley had a stroke several weeks ago. It was an aneurism at the top of her brain so it’s a pretty serious illness for a lady of 94 who just went dancing a few weeks ago. She was everybody’s music teacher, who passed through the portals of Vicksburg schools for 40 or more years. She still plays a mean piano while rehabilitating at Mary Free Bed in Grand Rapids. The staff has brought in a piano for her to practice on and it turns out she is entertaining the many others who are in the hospital, uplifting all of their spirits.
Ed Knapp Returns to Wrestling
Another Vicksburg teacher and coach, Ed Knapp, is returning to coach the wrestling team this winter, according to Mike Roy, Vicksburg’s athletic director. Knapp had many championship wrestlers and teams during his tenure in the 1970s and 80s. It’s great to have him back as he is a tremendous motivator in most any sport, though he made his mark primarily in wrestling. His work with the softball team, along with head Coach Paul Gephart, took the girls to the state finals this spring.
Proof That One Vote Does Count
The race for Schoolcraft Township clerk turned out to be a close one. Incumbent Virginia Mongrieg received 407 votes and challenger Deb Vliek received 406. Vliek has asked for a recount which will take place the first week of September, according to Tim Snow, Kalamazoo County Clerk/Register. There were two tie votes in the primary in Texas Township, where the winners were chosen by the luck of a draw.
Trail Grant Held Over for Possible Funding Next Year
Kathleen Hoyle found out that the trail grant she applied for with the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) was turned down for this year, just before the Downtown Development Authority’s (DDA) annual meeting in August. The officials at MDOT have encouraged Hoyle to re-submit the grant again in 2017. They tell her they like the plans but want to come to Vicksburg for a site evaluation in September. In the meantime, the DDA is looking at all options. It might be possible to build a small portion of the trail with the money raised thus far, but then more dollars would be needed for matching if the grant is actually awarded for 2018.
Mark Louis Wins Pallet Contest
A year or so ago, this newspaper featured Mark Louis and the barn he largely constructed out of wood pallets. He entered the little red barn, which he called coop de ville, or chicken coop, in Kalamazoo Goodwill’s Pallet Palooza and won the top overall prize and the top functional prize. It meant he took home $750 in prize money, only to turn around two days later to total his Jeep on the way home from work. He hit a tree that laid across the road during one of the many recent rainstorms. It was close enough to his house on 27th street that he could walk home. When he and his wife Sheri drove back to get the Jeep, there were people out in the nearby cornfield looking for someone who might have been thrown out of the vehicle, not knowing he could walk home unscathed.