Grant awarded to Conservation District

The St. Joseph County Conservation District received confirmation of its annual allocation for river clean-up projects.

Provided by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and the Great Lakes Commission, the $2,750 grant awarded to the Centreville-based organization will allow it to fund transportation and materials necessary during seven river and river bank clean-up events this summer.

The first is slated to take place June 1 on a stretch of the Prairie River in Lockport Township.

Property to go for sale

Mayor Tom Lowry and members of the Three Rivers City Commission have agreed to place a resolution for the sale of city-owned property on file for 30 days.

The property in question is a western portion of the former Essex Wire property on Fourth Street.

Union City-based Dove Ag Services is hoping to gain approval for a truck-loading facility and office building. Company officials said a total of nine storage tanks would hold a nitrogen-based fertilizer and plant-nutrition application. The proposed tanks would range in size from two million, to 30,000 to 5,000 gallons.

Unloading would occur primarily by rail, company officials said during Tuesday’s city commission meeting.

No agreement on the development will be in place between the city and Dove Ag Services until the 30-day period expires in early May.

County Board meeting

A number of St. Joseph County residents expressed concerns over a variety of subjects during Tuesday’s St. Joseph County Board of Commissioners meeting.

The focus of most comments revolved around potential plans to build a senior center in Sturgis and a proposal to market St. Joseph County as a retirement destination to retirees in the Chicago market.

Points were made by Florence Township resident Tim Carls, Rebecca Shank and Andrew Grant of Fabius Township, Lois Ware of Sturgis, Constantine’s Dan Lucas and Dennis Bohm of Nottawa Township, who said more candidates should have been interviewed before the job of county administrator was given to Pat Yoder.

Lowry to run again

Three Rivers Mayor Tom Lowry said he plans to seek a second two-year term to the city’s highest elected post. Following Tuesday’s city commission meeting, Lowry said he took out a petition earlier in the day to begin the process of appearing on the November ballot. He will need to secure a minimum number of signatures from registered voters before turning in his petition ahead of the May 14 deadline. Lowry, 56, has seven months remaining on the two-year term he captured after running unopposed in November 2011. He originally served as mayor from 1995 to 2007.

Concern over parking violations

Three Rivers Police Chief Tom Bringman will instruct officers to beef up enforcement of parking violations around Hoppin Elementary School when classes resume next week.

Concern about the issue was raised Tuesday by Three Rivers City Commissioner Daryl Griffith, who said illegally parked cars pose a risk to children who walk home from school or to waiting cars parked legally on streets around the perimeter of the school.

Griffith said he was dismayed by the number of parking violations he saw while recently observing the end-of-day dismissal procedure.

Commissioner Jared Hoffmaster, who has children attending Hoppin, echoed Griffith’s concerns.

First County Board meeting

Pat Yoder’s first St. Joseph County Board of Commissioners meeting Tuesday was a quick but uneventful experience.

Yoder, who took over as county administrator Monday, sat in on his first county commission meeting in 20 years, as he previously held the position from 1990 to 1994. The 63-year-old Yoder was hired for the job after Judy West-Wing retired in January.

Tuesday’s meeting was light on agenda items and concluded in less than 30 minutes.

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