Jody Skiles, Lyndsey Foote, Erin Gehrman, and a trainer from Smart Mouth, Carla.
By Jef Rietsma
A state-funded program related to free breakfast and lunch at Michigan’s public schools has boosted the number of meals served daily at Vicksburg Community Schools.
Vicksburg Community Schools Food Service Director Sarah Dyer provided her annual report to board of education members during a Nov. 11 meeting. She said the Michigan Healthy Meals program contributed to an increase in breakfasts served from 24 percent of the district’s students in the 2022-23 academic year to 49 percent a year later, the first year of Michigan Healthy Meals.
Meanwhile, lunch participation went from 55 percent of the district’s students in 2022-23 to 78 percent in 2023-24.
“That means we’re having fewer student referrals, we hope, because when students have full bellies, then they’re not typically acting up,” she said.
Dyer, however, saved an even more impressive figure for later in her report. She said Vicksburg High School began serving Smart Mouth brand pizza last year and on a consistent basis starting in September.
Apparently, it’s a winner.
“We served just over 4,000 (individual-size) pizzas in September alone (and) we’re expecting to serve 36,000 Smart Mouth pizzas by the end of the school year,” she said. “We have one staff member who, that’s her total job, making pizza for her entire seven-hour shift.”
The district during the 2023-24 academic year approved the purchase of equipment necessary to prepare and bake the pizzas.
In addition to Smart Mouth pizza, Vicksburg High School students appear to have an affinity for the pasta bar. Dyer said 5,4000 pasta bar meals were served at the high school last year.
At Vicksburg Middle School, kitchen staff members make food homemade as much as possible. The menu includes teriyaki chicken with rice, and chicken alfredo with a breadstick. The school’s most popular lunch choice? Bosco Sticks. Dyer said 11,000 Bosco Sticks were served in 2023-24.
Popular choices at the elementary schools are grilled cheese sandwiches (3,850 served at the three schools combined last year) and walking taco (4,500). The elementary schools also have the option of a warm breakfast sandwich, typically featuring a croissant or biscuit.
Dyer said food service has enough in its budget to purchase new serving lines at all five schools in the district. She remains optimistic the new serving lines will be installed over Christmas break.
“The ones we have right now are from at least 50 years ago, so it’ll be a great upgrade,” Dyer said.
Dyer said Food Service, which has a staff of 19 people, is focusing on fresh fruits and vegetables over canned and dried – an option it has exercised almost exclusively the past two years.
Following the meeting, Superintendent Keevin O’Neill said Food Service under Dyer’s leadership brings great value to the district. The department’s commitment to quality and devotion to VCS students is appreciated, he noted.
“Food Service is a component of our district that I am really proud of,” he said. “It’s not always a glamorous job and so much of what they do is done behind the scenes. But we are very fortunate to have a solid team in Food Service. And I will admit, Big Mouth pizza is really good.”
In other news, O’Neill announced a community reception recognizing retiring board members Skip Knowles and Carol Lohman will take place 4 to 7 p.m. Dec. 11 at Indian Run Golf Club.
Knowles and Lohman joined the board in 1984. Their final board meeting after a 40-year commitment will be Dec. 9.
Vicksburg Rocket flag football saw a 33% increase in participation during the 2024 season. Kris Sanchez, Vicksburg flag football director, attributes the growth to more involvement by younger students and by reaching out to more girls. Vicksburg saw 160 students take part in the program: 69 kids in the grades 5/6 division, 51 in the 7/8 division and 40 in the 9 through 12 division.
Sanchez reports 22 girls in flag and anticipates growth. “In Ohio, they are working on getting girls’ flag as a high school sport and we want to be on the front line of that when it moves here to Michigan.” Currently, two of the head flag coaches are female.
Sanchez sees many benefits to participating in flag football.
“Because teams are so small, coaches can work with many kids 1 to 1 to help develop in the sport. Our emphasis is the importance of working as a team.”
Vicksburg’s flag football teams compete 5 on 5: the center snaps the ball, the quarterback hands it off, the players run their assignments, and everyone must do their job for the play to be successful.
“If you have enough successful plays,” said Sanchez, “you get touchdowns or ‘Tuddys’ and if you get enough tuddys, you win the game. It’s all about working one play at a time, one drive at a time and one game at a time.”
Sanchez also sees the flag program as a platform for young athletes to interact with one another and help each other develop. “We often see older kids helping and mentoring the younger ones on a team, encouraging one another and lifting each other up.” He also sees flag football as helping with confidence through discipline and skill development. It “builds leadership through motivating others and making strategic decisions throughout the game.”
There are no residency or school restrictions for flag football. Spring leagues are starting in May and information about signups is available at https://www.vicksburgrocketfootball.com.
Vicksburg municipal officials last month completed a critical, long-term goal centering on ordinance amendments and zoning updates.
McKenna Associates’ Kyle Mucha, serving as the village’s zoning administrator, walked council members through a number of the changes. Following the Nov. 4 meeting, Village Manager Jim Mallery explained the significance.
“A big part of this was getting the ordinances to reflect the reality of R-2 zoning,” he said.
Mallery speculated that some of Vicksburg’s original ordinances were adopted about a century ago and likely copied from other communities out of convenience.
He said the task of updating the various ordinances was a two-year process that also included a long and thorough review by the village’s Planning Commission.
“Arguably, I could say these changes were made to make life better for village residents … it’s saving them money so they don’t have to pay $750 for a variance, for example,” Mallery said. “The most significant change out of all this, in my opinion, was reducing the setbacks on lots in residential (zoned R-2) areas.”
Mucha covered several ordinance changes that were subsequently approved by council members. Highlights include:
Food trucks. “We’ve talked about the applicability of this ordinance, definitions, regulations of where mobile vendors would be permitted, business hours and days, storage of equipment, traffic, signage, waste, lights, noise, parking, alcohol sales and so forth,” he said. “This does not apply to village-sponsored events. This would be applied to private-property events.”
The village’s zoning ordinance itself. “A lot of our provisions in here are to help regulate and clean up some inconsistencies, some gray areas, such as our schedule of regulations, reducing restrictions for the R-2 District, amending our site-plan-review process by offering clarity of when a site plan is required and when it can be done administratively,” he said.
It also involves adding modifications to non-conforming uses and modifications to special land uses. Specifically, special land-use matters would need approval by the Planning Commission only and not by the Village Council, Mucha noted.
Setbacks. “We’re also recommending some modifications to existing ordinances for setbacks from lakes, ponds, streams and rivers, reducing that from 100 feet to 50 feet,” Mucha said. “As some of us are aware, we ran into concerns with some development in past years on the ponds because of these setback requirements, making some parcels almost unbuildable because of the regulation.”
Off-street parking. “This will simplify and clarify where off-street parking is required and when it’s required,” he said.
Service and drainage. “This was a recommendation from the village engineer, from inconsistencies or unclarities that he was seeing,” Mucha added.
Parking-use table. “This amendment would hopefully help streamline when the number of parking spaces that are required for different types of uses,” he said. “In general, the intent of all these changes is to help streamline and make our ordinances more efficient moving forward, and also reduce potential barriers to development within the village.”
Council President Tim Frisbie said he appreciates the time and commitment the village’s Planning Commission put into combing through all the ordinance updates, acknowledging it was an arduous task.
Meanwhile, Mucha offered a positive opinion of modifications to the village’s R-2 standards.
“They will reduce minimum lot areas to 5,500 square feet, minimum width to 60 feet, maximum lot coverage to 40 percent and the minimum setback of front yard 20 feet from property line, sides to 10 feet and rear to 20,” he said. “We noted there are a significant number of parcels in the R-2 District that don’t meet our current standards, so this will help correct a lot of the non-conformities in the R-2 District. Not all of them, but it will make a significant improvement on our non-conformities.”
Council member Chad Kissinger noted the amendments will make it easier for residents to perform home improvements.
Mucha then focused on zoning amendments. He said one clear example of why updates should be considered is the Shell gas station. It sits on property zoned residential, for example. In addition, he said the village has a four-plex residential unit on property originally zoned industrial.
“By rezoning these (26) properties, all the uses currently in place can stay,” he said. “They would be considered legal, non-conforming if they ran afoul of anything. We’re not proposing to change any of the uses, we’re seeking just to modify our zoning maps to better align with the existing uses on these sites.”
All changes will take effect by the end of the year.
In other Village Council news, Jessica Cox was welcomed to the seven-member council during its Nov. 18 meeting. Cox, and incumbents Ryan Wagner and Gail Reisterer were the top three vote getters out of a five-person trustee race in the Nov. 5 election. Meanwhile, Frisbie was uncontested in his bid for village president. He, too, was sworn in for another four-year term.
At Thrall Lake in Vicksburg you’ll find an expansive property with an airstrip off Studebaker Lane at W Avenue. Last month it was host to a unique weekend event for aviation and paramotor enthusiasts and local pilots.
Manny Chauhan organized the event with Alexis Quintana and partners from Leading Edge PPG, an aviation training school with services in Three Rivers and Schoolcraft.
“I was just hooked on the experience once I flew and I saw what it could do for the community, getting veterans in the air or coming together as pilots,” Chauhan said of organizing this inaugural event, a fundraiser for Vicksburg’s VFW Post 5189.
Quintana’s company specializes in local paramotor aviation training at all skill levels. Paramotor flying is considered a quick, less expensive power aviation option and route to get yourself flying over treetops for those with the guts and the interest in flying.
Drivers heading down W Avenue east of the Village of Vicksburg and as far west as the farthest corners of Schoolcraft have spotted these types of contraptions motoring and buzzing with seated pilots, seeming to cut through the air. They may remind some of an early DaVinci drawing or a giant fan as a backpack on a person steering a parachute thru the sky.
“Next year we’d like to make it even bigger and try and (sync up) with the Old Car Festival event crowd,” Chauhan said. Plans have already begun for the 2025 event next August. Updates will be posted at Vicksburgflyin.com
Vicksburg residents Kevin Toll and his son Randy flew in in their yellow Cub and were looking forward to spending the day sharing with other local pilots, veterans and flying enthusiasts while talking all things flying.
Jess Hanstein worked the registration table and pinned tiny straight pins into a map at the check-in table to indicate where pilots had flown in from as they collected their T-shirts, commemorative event stickers and raffle tickets. Besides a full camp-out area for overnight participants, an air show, food trucks, inflatables, live music and a variety of raffle prizes were available when folks weren’t touring each other’s planes or taking paramotor flights.
The event was also open to the general public to enjoy and experience in a festival-style atmosphere. Participation was $5 an entry and merchandise was also sold at the event.
Vicksburg resident and veteran, Walter Dorey, sat at the gate of the event, directing people as they pulled in their campers, cars and planes.
He said it was a great day in the sunshine and the support of the VFW is appreciated.
Event organizer Manny Chauhan said $5,000 was raised for the VFW to support its post and programming.
A “Come As You Art” group discussion at left and poet Marcel “Fable” Price reading from his new collection on the right. Photos by Leeanne Seaver.
By Leeanne Seaver
“Come As You Art” is a new speakers series that “showcases the craft of one of us while inspiring the creativity in all of us.” Around 30 people were in attendance for the first event that launched October 1 at the Prairie Ronde Artist Gallery, 101 South Prairie Street in Vicksburg. Sponsored by the Prairie Ronde Artist Residency (PRAR) in partnership with Vicksburg Cultural Arts, this series isn’t your typical open mic affair. “The headliner could be a novelist reading her unpublished poetry or a legislator bringing his garage band with the audience as back-up vocalists—you get the idea,” explained PRAR Director John Kern.
First in the line-up were two local writers, Nancy Hibiske-Reed and Ross Landers, who read their winning entries in the 2024 Tournament of Writers. Next, former Grand Rapids Poet Laureate Marcel “Fable” Price took the podium as emcee of the inaugural event with a brief reading from his newest poetry collection, “New American Monarch”. Fable then introduced the featured speaker, award-winning poet Richard Katrovas, a WMU professor and founder of the Prague Summer Writing Program. Katrovas, described by The New York Times as “tough, gritty, full of wonder,” read from his book “Off the Road: My Weird Childhood on American Highways”, then engaged the audience in discussion of “origin stories.”
Deborah Harsha was in that audience and admitted, “I didn’t really know what to expect” but the informal exchange drew her in. “This idea that everyone should write his or her own ‘origin story’ is an important way of looking back at your youth,” Harsha said. Teacher Christine Laaksonen agreed. “I was feeling antsy after a busy day and wasn’t completely sold on sitting quietly for the author’s reading, but when he started telling his origin story, the imagery and honesty of his words held me spellbound,” she said. “I love the idea of exploring your origin story and could see applications for the teaching profession.”
Next up for “Come As You Art” will be a 6 to 8 p.m. event on February 1, 2025, at the 101 South Prairie gallery. The featured speaker is Andrew Francisco, a documentary filmmaker and photographer. Francisco will share clips from “26 Years”, a documentary currently in production in which he focuses on local views of climate change in Vicksburg and Schoolcraft Township. These are “oral historical accounts of possible futures, or ‘future histories.’ ‘26 Years’ is not a work of activism,” Francisco emphasizes. “I’m not trying to determine the truth or untruth of any perspective, but rather to explore what people in one part of America—a part relatively untouched by natural disasters—think about climate change. It will also create an important artistic record of a critical moment in human history.”
For John Kern and the creative think-tank behind “Come As You Art” that includes Syd Bastos, Deborah Harsha, Mike Phillips, and Leeanne Seaver, conversations prompted by Katrovas’s origin stories and Francisco’s ethnographic inquiry will find an audience in South Kalamazoo County and beyond. Bastos, acting director of Vicksburg Cultural Arts, thinks “’Come As You Art’ brings a fresh, unconventional program to the mix.” Kern adds, “Our Prairie Ronde residents and related events increasingly draw people who want to experience arts and culture in their own community. We’re really proud of what we’ve done and we’re ready to expand on that.”
The $10 ticket price included light hors d’oeurves, charcuterie, and “Prague Summer,” the event’s signature cocktail. A portion of proceeds will benefit Vicksburg Cultural Arts. For more information on future “Come As You Art” events, watch for social media posts at the Prairie Ronde Artist Residency – vicksburgmill.com.
Double L owner Clarence LaCombe and some fishing sportswear. Photos by Alex Lee.
One of the very Michigan things about businesses in our state is their willingness to be innovative, expansive, and needs/opportunity-ready. It’s not unusual in our rural areas to find a restaurant that also sells live bait, medical supplies, hunting licenses and sells a neighbor’s dock displayed in front of the building. These are the places that always remind me of my summers on the lake in Northern Michigan. A recent visit to Double L Bait and Marine, 10588 Sprinkle Road in Vicksburg, delighted me with that very spirit.
The business is on two large parcels with storage buildings on the north parcel and the marina and bait shop on the south parcel. Visiting just a few days before the Labor Day weekend, the business was getting ready for the hectic winterizing and storage required by boaters for the long Michigan winter. Owner Clarence LaCombe says, “The busiest time for the marina is winterizing and storage in the fall and the readying and delivery back to the lakes in the spring.
“The bait shop stays busy year around, and if we have ice on the lakes, sales are better in the winter than in the summer.” The service department stays busy year around as well. Shrink-wrapping and winterizing dominate the fall months, repairs and remodels and upgrades keep the staff busy in the winter, and the spring starts the addictive boating season with all the repairs needed to keep the watercraft moving and floating.
LaCombe had a trucking business on the property prior, but in 2002 he started Double L Bait and Tackle. In 2006 he expanded to selling boats and changing the name to the current Double L Bait and Marine. Lacombe says, “If you sell‘em you have to be able to fix’em,” and the service department was added next. Winter storage is available indoors and out, but indoor storage fills more quickly.
The bait and tackle section is well stocked with lures, live bait, poles and reels. You can purchase your fishing license there and get important information about fishing regulations and requirements in the state. There’s also an assortment of boat parts and accessories to include some used parts like props and the motors themselves. Firewood is available; so are cold drinks. Their “Free Worms Yesterday,” sweatshirts and tees, a local favorite, are available in different sizes and colors along with a good selection of other items including hats. Their boat sales include new and used, and brokerage sales. Pre-orders for live Christmas trees are also taken and LaCombe heads north to cut the trees to deliver them fresh cut to his holiday customers.
LaCombe is truly a bit of a character. Currently his 1974 ski boat is on display in the marina showroom. He says it’s not for sale, but a hypothetical offer of $50,000 brought a very quick, “I’ll help you get it out,” response. He also showed me a custom-painted three-wheel motorcycle with a trunk that he uses when he retrieves parts for customer’s repairs. Double L currently serves as the dealer for new Yamaha motors and LaCombe hints at a new boat line coming on board in the future. Learn more at https://www.doublelbaitandmarine.com or follow it on Facebook.
