Local News Archives

Senior Services of Van Buren County will end service in Paw Paw tomorrow. Paw Paw Township will start its own service. Township treasurer Lisa Zinkil tells WWMT-TV that Senior Services of Van Buren County wanted to ask for a one mill tax rate for eight years for funding and says that’s “a lot to ask for taxpayers when times are very tougher now.” Clerk Rebecca Payne adds they feel Senior Services “would like to see us fail,” but executive director Diana Rigozzi disputes that. Rigozzi says that is not true and says they have given the township anything they’ve asked for. Voters in the township approved a half-mill tax rate for two years for the new senior services program. It will start January 1 and bring in $134,000 a year.... [Read Full Story]

Voters in South Haven Township will have an opportunity in November to override the township ordinance that bans cannabis retail businesses from operating. Andrew Newell turned in 126 valid signatures to the township clerk’s office, more than the 79 needed. The township would be able to allow three adult-use cannabis businesses and gives the township the option of either a moratorium after that or allowing more on a case-by-case basis. No grow facilities, processors, or transportation facilities for the cannabis would be allowed. If approved, it will take effect February 1, 2023. The city of South Haven along with Geneva and Casco Townships all ban recreational cannabis sales and only New Age Laboratories in the city of South Haven is allowed to do testing.... [Read Full Story]

Still thinking about going camping this holiday weekend? The head of parks and recreation for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Ron Olson, says you can still find something, but some campgrounds are pretty full and always popular.... [Read Full Story]

Tourism is big all along the Lake Michigan shoreline, and the South Haven Van Buren County Convention and Visitors Bureau is launching a campaign highlighting the impact on the economy. In 2019, the most recent year they have figures for, $118.3 million dollars were brought to the community from visitors. CVB executive director Jen Sistrunk tells us people are coming to the area from everywhere.... [Read Full Story]

Market Van Buren is working with Van Buren County as it seeks to increase the availability of broadband internet for residents. Market Van Buren’s Zack Morris tells us the county hired DCS Technology to do a parcel by parcel survey of the entire county to determine precisely where there is broadband and where there isn’t. That led to some surprises.... [Read Full Story]

South Haven Area Emergency Services will have a pancake breakfast for people on Sunday from 7:30 to 11:30 a.m. It will be at the SHAES headquarters at 90 Blue Star Highway in South Haven. Adults can eat for $10, kids 4 to 14 will cost $5 to feed, and kids younger than 4 will eat for free. The breakfast is both sit down or drive-thru. Pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage links and drinks are available. SHAES will use the proceeds to purchase a new pediatric EMS training advanced life support mannequin.... [Read Full Story]

A Bangor auto repair shop has been ordered to stop performing service on vehicles because it has an expired repair facility registration and mechanic certification. The Michigan Department of State has served a cease and desist order on Lenard’s Automotive at 622 West Monroe Street. The shop is owned by Lenard Salinas and a MDOS regulation agent performed an inspection in June and found it performing maintenance, diagnosis, and repair service on a vehicle with those certifications being expired. The mechanic certification expired on January 21, 2009 and the facility registration expired March 17, 2013 and both are still expired. A second MDOS regulation agent visited August 18 and found them still doing work without the state certifications. Anyone who has a complaint against the business is encouraged to call the Office of Investigative Services automotive complaint line at 517-335-1410.... [Read Full Story]

New restrooms will be built next to Dyckman Park and the Huron Street Pavilion starting this fall in South Haven. The Downtown Development Authority had planned to start the construction earlier in the year, but ran into supply chain issues and didn’t want to interrupt the Farm Market or visitor activities. The work will likely start in September and will replace the two unisex bathrooms next to the park. They will be built at the back part of the South Haven Convention and Visitors Bureau building on Phoenix Street. GMB Architecture and Engineering designed the facilities and put a $350,000 estimate on the project in November 2021, but DDA director Sue Brock says that price will likely be higher due to inflation. Bids will be sought by the end of the month for the construction work, and the city will have port-a-potties during the work.... [Read Full Story]

Van Buren County Sheriff’s deputies have arrested a 24-year-old Florida man on several charges after he tried to outrun police on a motorcycle. A deputy tried to pull him over in the 15-thousand block of 52½ Street in Columbia Township around 2:30 a.m. today, and he took off going 50 to 60 miles-an-hour. He was not familiar with the roads and went down a dead-end part of 52½ Street and crashed in the gravel toward the street’s end. Officers found a Smith and Wesson revolver in the bike that was reported stolen in Illinois. The man is charged with fleeing and eluding, possession of a stolen firearm, felon in possession of a firearm, CCW violation, driving on a suspended license, driving without insurance, and driving an unregistered vehicle.... [Read Full Story]

A 24-year-old man from Mexico has been killed in a car crash in Van Buren County. The sheriff’s office says he was found dead Saturday evening just before 5:30 in the 58-thousand block of 55th Street in Lawrence Township. Speed appears to have been a factor, but there were no other people or vehicles involved. His Honda Odyssey was on its side against a tree.... [Read Full Story]

This Saturday and Sunday will be a free ORV weekend at Michigan state parks.... [Read Full Story]

A 37-year-old Paw Paw-area man is in the Van Buren County Jail on several charges after leading sheriff’s deputies on a chase early Wednesday morning. A deputy tried to pull Christopher Miller over for suspicion of drunk driving on Red Arrow Highway near County Road 652 in Antwerp Township just after 2 a.m. Miller took off and reached speeds of around 75 miles-an-hour before stopping on 30th Street near 40th Avenue. He then ran into the woods. A Van Buren County K9 tracked him down. Miller admitted to deputies that he had been drinking before getting in the vehicle. He was jailed for multiple warrants along with fleeing and eluding, operating while intoxicated, and having open intoxicants in the vehicle.... [Read Full Story]

A Mishawaka woman suffered only a minor neck injury early Sunday morning when her Toyota Prius was hit by a semi truck on I-94 westbound near the County Road 657 overpass in Antwerp Township. The Van Buren County Sheriff’s Office says deputies were amazed that she wasn’t badly hurt. Her car had lost power due to a mechanical failure and she came to a stop in the middle of the highway a few minutes after midnight. The truck swerved to try to avoid the car and lost control, hitting a support structure of the bridge. It stopped about 400 yards away and the Michigan Department of Transportation says it did just minor cosmetic damage to the bridge. The Prius had a little bit of contact damage on the entire driver’s side, but nothing major. The semi had a refrigerated trailer full of watermelons.... [Read Full Story]

The Neighborhoods Need Neighbors organization in South Haven has not succeeded at getting their ballot petition on the November ballot. The law firm Dickinson Wright told the city clerk it had five issues that would result in it being successfully challenged in court. NNN founder Walt Plechaty says they will return.... [Read Full Story]

The Van Buren County Road Commission board has an opening. The candidate picked will serve through December 31, 2024. Anyone interested needs to send an email to admin@vanburencountymi.gov or submit a Committee Appointment Application to the County Administration Office, 219 E. Paw Paw Street, Suite 201, Paw Paw, MI 49079. The county adds that not all candidates will be interviewed. Any questions on the responsibilities of a board member should be directed to the Road Commission board secretary, Jill Brien, at 269-674-8011 extension 236 or through email at jillbrien@vbcrc.org. You can also visit www.vbcrc.org/commissionervacancy for more information. All of the contact information is also available on our website.... [Read Full Story]

Semi truck driver Easton Norby-Vardac of Virginia will be in prison for up to five years for a crash in April that hurt a Michigan State Police trooper in Van Buren County. He pleaded no contest to reckless driving causing serious impairment and not using care when passing a stationary emergency vehicle. Norby-Vardac hit the vehicle of trooper Cole Knaup on Interstate 94 near Lawrence, trapping Knaup inside. MSP released the footage of the crash from the dash cam. The department used the crash for it’s “Move Over” campaign to get drivers to change lanes and slow down when approaching a police car, ambulance, fire truck, tow truck, and more.... [Read Full Story]

The National Blueberry Festival is back in South Haven from Thursday through Sunday. It is the first full festival since 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Board of Directors chairwoman Kim Wise says the parade will return for the first time since then, too.... [Read Full Story]

Two people have drowned in Lake Michigan in South Haven. South Haven Area Emergency Services Chief Brandon Hinz says a 22-year-old man from Novi and a 22-year-old woman from Columbus died at the hospital after both were pulled unresponsive from the lake at South Beach yesterday afternoon.... [Read Full Story]

Governor Gretchen Whitmer and the governors of Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin will install electric vehicle chargers around Lake Michigan. Whitmer says the Lake Michigan EV Circuit Tour will have a network of chargers spanning eleven-hundred miles of drivable shoreline. She says the announcement shows the country that the Midwest “is the place to be for clean energy and small business growth.”... [Read Full Story]

Following Tuesday’s primaries, Republican state Senator Aric Nesbitt will head into November’s general election facing Democrat Kim Jorgensen Gane after defeating two challengers. Nesbitt says he’s “honored for the opportunity to work side-by-side with Tudor Dixon and Republican candidates up-and-down the ticket to earn big wins in November. Meanwhile farther to the south in the 17th District, Jonathan Lindsey of Bronson beat state Senator Kim LaSata in the Republican primary. Lindsey will face Democrat Scott Rex in November. The 17th District covers the southern half of Berrien County and extends east through Cass, St. Joseph, and Branch counties, also including part of Hillsdale, Jackson and Calhoun counties.... [Read Full Story]

Two people have died in the crash of an Aerospace 600 plane about a mile from the South Haven Regional Airport in South Haven Township. Police were called around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday by the Federal Aviation Administration in Chicago as it had not had any contact with the plane since early Tuesday morning when it was leaving. A 70-year-old Lawton man, who was the owner of the plane, and a 70-year-old Wayland man who was the flight instructor have both been found dead. The National Transportation Safety Board is now investigating. The plane went down in a wooded area near 12th Avenue and 72nd Street just after takeoff.... [Read Full Story]

Voters in Van Buren County had several ballot proposals to consider Tuesday. Countywide, they approved the public safety millage, the ambulance millage, and the Senior Services millage in several townships. Looking at a handful of township proposals, Columbia Township approved a police millage renewal and a road millage renewal but said no to a Headlee override millage increase, Hamilton Township approved a road millage, and South Haven Township approved a police millage and road millage. There were no contested primaries for county commissioner.... [Read Full Story]

Police are investigating a small plane crash in South Haven Township about a mile from the South Haven Regional Airport. Police were called around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday by the Federal Aviation Administration in Chicago as it had not had any contact with the plane since early Tuesday morning when it was leaving. South Haven Police, Michigan State Police, the Van Buren and Allegan county sheriff’s offices, FAA, and U.S. Air Force are investigating. Our newsroom is told there were lives lost in the crash, but don’t yet know how many. The plane went down in a wooded area near 12th Avenue and 72nd Street.... [Read Full Story]

The End of Watch Ride to Remember will be in Paw Paw on Wednesday at 8 a.m. to honor Van Buren County Deputy Sheriff James Lear. Sheriff Daniel Abbott says the motorcycle group will be in the parking lot to the south of the main sheriff’s department office at 205 South Kalamazoo Street. The group is on a ride of nearly 21,000 miles in 79 days to honor what they call an “unprecedented 600 fallen officers killed in the line of duty in 2021.” Their journey began on June 1. Last year, they rode over 22,300 miles to honor 339 officers killed in the line of duty in 2020 and it was the longest continuous ride in the United States, and the longest memorial ride. The event name is from an officer’s End of Watch, a ceremony in which a police dispatcher issues a final call to a fallen officer over the radio, followed by silence. All officers in that department hear the call, and observe the silence, remembering their fallen brother or sister.... [Read Full Story]

A new ordinance is a step closer to being in place in South Haven to give people protection against discrimination for housing, public accommodation, and employment. The ordinance offers that protection to people based on their gender identity and sexual orientation, making it locally illegal to fire someone or deny them housing on that basis. Councilmember Joe Reeser says dozens of communities have already passed it.... [Read Full Story]

A new ordinance is now in place in South Haven to give people protection against discrimination for housing, public accommodation, and employment. The ordinance offers that protection to people based on their gender identity and sexual orientation, making it locally illegal to fire someone or deny them housing on that basis. Councilmember Joe Reeser says dozens of communities have already passed it.... [Read Full Story]

A water main break has the center two lanes east and westbound in the 1000 block of Phoenix Street closed in South Haven. The city’s Water Sewer Authority says it will be one lane in each direction until repairs are made. No estimated time has been given for the repairs. The city is urging people to use caution as the work continues.... [Read Full Story]

The Allegan County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a Thursday morning crash in Otsego that killed 76-year-old Thomas Tamandl of South Haven. Tamandl was heading south on 21st Street when he lost control of his vehicle on a curve and rolled over into a creek. He was pulled from the vehicle by two deputies and two Otsego firefighters, but died at a hospital. The crash happened around 9:30 a.m.... [Read Full Story]

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources has been awarded a $5 million grant to resurface 17 miles of the Kal Haven Trail. DNR trails specialist Jill Sell tells WSJM News the funds come through the state’s Building Michigan Together Plan.... [Read Full Story]