The one-way section of South Main Street will soon be open for traffic.
By Jef Rietsma
Vicksburg’ downtown construction project is about 80 percent completed, Village Manager Jim Mallery estimated, with crews nearer to ending their work until spring. The balance of the work, mainly on Washington from Michigan to a sewage lift station and storm water outflow opposite Clark Park plus a water line on adjacent Mill Street, will be completed in 2022.
Mallery was virtually sure that the one-way block of South Main Street from Prairie to Washington and Washington from Main to Michigan would be open to traffic as the South County News is distributed to readers.
Mallery offered updates on project components. Asphalt plants are now closed, so the base layer of asphalt on Washington Street will remain as is until the project resumes, he said. “It’s just a base layer but that’s far better than leaving it gravel,” Mallery said. “I think it’s key to note that curbs are in on Washington, and we poured the two approach aprons into the large parking lot behind the Distant Whistle and hardware store.”
Mallery said one important task centers on signage in the heart of downtown. He said all appropriate signage will be up on Main Street between Prairie Street and Washington Street to indicate it is a southbound, one-way block. “Do Not Enter” signs facing northbound traffic on Main at Washington were erected last week. That intersection is now a four-way stop and the switch to one-way traffic was due to start Dec. 6.
He also mentioned a priority that may or may not get done before spring. “It’s our goal to have, at minimum, temporary striping for parking and specifically the handicapped parking spots on Washington,” Mallery said. “The contractor feels it can be done in December after a close look at the weather. Hopefully it all gets striped but it’s weather-dependent. At minimum, we should have temporary tape put down.”
Mallery said sidewalks have been power-washed and a street sweeper will make its rounds at some point this month so they are clean and tidy for the winter.
He provided an update on electrical work yet to be conducted downtown. “Starting the week of Dec. 6, the wiring will begin to be run for all the street lights,” he said. “As a side note, we have a contingency plan for (the Dec. 11) Christmas in the Village parade and events… we’re going to have five separate light banks so they’ll light up the intersections and light up the mid-blocks because I don’t think all of those street lights will be up, if any.”
Traffic signals, meanwhile, won’t be in place until January due to a supply-chain interruption, Mallery added.
He said the village is in a much better shape now than it was six months ago. He noted a few outstanding matters to be addressed in 2022.
“We still have some sewer/water and storm work between Michigan and the lift station on Washington Street,” he said “And in the area of Mill Street between Prairie and Washington, we’re going to hit that with a new water main and get all those people on an appropriate water supply.”
Also, sidewalks on Washington between Main and Michigan will get done, permanent striping will get put down and permanent crosswalks will be installed. The crosswalks will use the same tinted concrete as that used on Main Street.
Mallery said he is confident he will never see a construction project of this magnitude in Vicksburg in his lifetime.
The Vicksburg Village Council has approved pursuing a property purchase to expand the community’s industrial space.
At an early-November meeting, the council returned from a 38-minute closed session and voted to pursue purchase of a 10-acre parcel connected to a property already owned by the village. The letter of intent to purchase shows the price is $77,000. Village Manager Jim Mallery said the location is an area behind Vicksburg Auto Body, which is at 522 Spruce Street in the northeast quadrant of the village.
“It is staff’s belief that the data will show (the prospective land acquisition) provides an incredible opportunity for this village, both in growth and to align with our mission, to have the least impact – whether it be on taxes or utilities – to our residents,” Mallery said.
He said the prospective land purchase is consistent with the village’s master plan. Mallery said the opportunity is a big deal, explaining he fields calls from potential developers on a monthly basis, which confirms there is consistent interest in Vicksburg from the outside.
The council was expected to close the deal at its Dec. 6 meeting.
Mallery said the purchase would give the village the luxury of an additional industrial park.
“We’ll start to work different ideas. There’s nothing that’s going to happen in the next month or six months that I’m aware of, but for the price that was offered … I think it’s an incredible investment opportunity for the village,” Mallery said, noting the proposed purchase would be supported from the village’s general fund. “When you take everything into account, the direction of the village and what we’re accomplishing, this is an incredible opportunity that staff fully recommends.”
Mallery said the property will be surveyed to define its boundaries.
Council member Rick Holmes said the property acquisition and likely future development will help ease a financial burden that would otherwise fall on Vicksburg’s residents.
“Folks, we were only able to raise a third of the funds necessary for the critical infrastructure repair,” Holmes said. “So, here’s the reality. We needed to start turning cornfields over and put more houses in them because we need to build the base up in order to spread out the expense of updating the infrastructure, or we need to bring businesses in here.
“Either that or what we do is keep limping along and fill in potholes as we go along,” he added. “There’s got to be a balance here. We all have greater needs, including this community, so that’s why I applaud things like this because what we’re trying to do is … find meaningful ways we can increase our tax base, we can bring business and industry in, and then hopefully by doing that, we’re not changing what makes us special and unique.”
Council members said they understand the value of having industrial-zoned property ready for development. The motion to accept the purchase agreement was approved unanimously.
Vicksburg High School senior Owen Bishop joined an elite group of students worldwide: He nailed a perfect score on the Advanced Placement Research test.
His perfect score on the AP examination put him at a level achieved by fewer than 2 percent of his peers around the world.
The 17-year-old Bishop explained what it all meant and how the test was the culmination of a two-year process.
“AP Research is part of a two-year program called AP Capstone and in the first year, you do two small research projects that basically involve looking at other papers on a specific topic,” Bishop said. “In the second year, it’s a full-year thing where you pick a topic and you have your own method for it. You have to do your own data analysis and present to a review board … it’s pretty much a mini-thesis.”
Bishop, who has been taking AP-level classes since his freshman year, spent his junior year working on the task. He explained the research topic he explored.
“I was seeing if there was a significant difference between the funding received at Michigan intermediate school districts that had the greatest increase in graduation rates and those that had the greatest decrease in graduation rates,” he said. He noted that the topic was chosen after spending several weeks earlier in the school year exploring potential topics. “My teacher, (Amanda) Szczesny, was really helpful in guiding us toward a topic.”
Fortunately for Bishop, securing data he needed to follow through on his research was readily available. He said the state of Michigan and its Department of Education provided significant amounts of information and statistics on a county-by-county basis. The state funding numbers, he said, were actually easy to get.
“The issue, however, was graduation rates. They don’t really track graduation rates of the whole ISD, they do it for each of the districts within the ISD,” he said. “So, it took a while but what I had to do was sum up all the students and all the students who graduated, then do the division. That took an entire weekend.”
Several steps that required an extensive amount of data analysis followed. He studied data from a 10-year period, 2009 through 2018, and, in the midst of his research, found it most helpful to switch from studying raw graduation rate numbers to average change over the period of a decade.
Once his work was finished, Bishop presented to a panel of school officials. It was the culmination of a two-week process during which the focus was perfecting the verbal presentation and accompanying slide show.
His conclusion?
“Essentially, what I found was there wasn’t a significantly different amount of funding going to the most or least successful,” he said, noting his definition of “most” and “least” were the top five and bottom five counties and their respective ISDs.
Bishop said there are two levels of scoring on the AP exam. The first is based on the presentation, on which he received a perfect score, and the second from a panel of out-of-state, AP-sanctioned graders. Bishop said he found out, via email, about his perfect score from the AP panel a few months ago.
Bishop said he recognizes the magnitude of his accomplishment and conceded he was more worried about the presentation process more than any other aspect.
“I mean, I knew I had pretty solid data, so I felt good about that,” he said. “But I didn’t expect my paper to do that well.”
VHS Principal Adam Brush said there’s no doubt Bishop falls into an elite group. Brush said the district offers 18 AP-level courses, which is considered a lot for a district of Vicksburg’s size. He said learning of Bishop’s odds-defying accomplishment was not a surprise.
“To find out he received a perfect score, actually, was not a surprise… I know Owen well enough to say that,” Brush said. “But what did surprise me was finding out he is one of just 375 people in the whole world who had a perfect score, that was just amazing to me. That’s insane. I had never heard of that before.”
Brush said Bishop has already passed 11 of the district’s 18 AP-level exams. Bishop is currently enrolled in five AP-level classes.
Bishop plans to attend either Purdue University or Michigan Tech University. He said he intends to study aerospace engineering. He is currently dual-enrolled at Kalamazoo Valley Community College. At VHS, meanwhile, he is in the robotics club and is a band member. He also oversees a local Dungeons and Dragons group.
Vicksburg High School theater cast and crew of the recent production of “Clue (The High School Edition)” pose on the steps of the Historic Village gazebo.
Vicksburg High School’s Theater Club in November put on a lifesize murder mystery game themed around its upcoming performance of “Clue (The High School edition)” based on the board game and 1985 film of the same name. The event at the Vicksburg Historic Village was a clever promotion as well as a fundraiser to support the school’s theater program.
Cast members and backstage workers, 18 in all, were led by Director Melissa Sparks. The students used the buildings and grounds of the Historic Village as a backdrop in presenting the real-life Clue game to the public. The whodunnit included costumed students playing the parts of Clue characters Scarlet, Plum, White, Green, Peacock and Mustard, providing clues to the audience to help them solve the murder in Boddy Manor.
The event was organized by the members of Vicksburg’s chapter of the International Thespian Society, an international honors organization for high school students in theater. The students were chosen based on their work both on and backstage. “The fundraiser was predominantly organized by the students,” Sparks said, “and I want to make sure they get the recognition they deserve.”
Part of the mission of the Vicksburg Performing Arts Center is to engage the entire community in new and exciting ways through an array of inspiring programs, and members of the Society were thrilled to partner on this project. It was a wonderful way to make use of the Historic Village and continue sharing this gem with the community. All of the buildings were open to the public during the event with volunteers greeting and answering questions.
Living into the mission of Jesus by supporting their church and community was something that Del and Myrna Forsythe, members of the Vicksburg United Methodist Church, did selflessly and graciously.
A generous donation from their estate was given to the church to support the community and embody the church’s mission: transforming the world. This is where the idea of Knitting in November was born. Myrna was an avid crafter and crocheter so trying to tie her passion into supporting the community was a natural idea that was inspired during a church council meeting.
The church council had several goals for this project, the first being to provide hats, scarves, and mittens to South County Community Services. The second was to bring people with the talents and skills together to knit and crochet those hats, mittens, and scarves and share in the giving. Finally, it was important to the council to support local merchants by purchasing door prizes to use in a raffle.
With the pandemic and the downtown construction happening this year, the council wanted to be able to give back to the businesses as well. On November 6th and 13th, knitters and crocheters came together to work their magic to accomplish the task. During that time, we were also fortunate enough to have knitters drop off hats and scarves that they had worked on all year long. In the end over 300 items were created to be donated and sold to support continuing this next year. Those participating loved it so much that there are plans for this to be a monthly event throughout the year.
