Ilene Paepke – Boho

Cindy Paepke – Dobson

Sonya Paepke

Sean Troost

Baby Jayden Lynn Troost

Dear Citizens of Cedar Springs,

I have been looking though the council minutes all the way back to 2009, and what I have seen is disturbing. Time and again, citizens showed up and voiced their objections to proposed changes in ordinances, and despite that, the council went ahead with no documented public support and changed them. People were being ticketed for parking on their own property. It is my understanding that if I wish to put up a tent in my backyard, I must first secure a permit. Why does the council feel that they have the right to dictate to us what we may or may not do on property that we pay taxes on? Cars parked in public lots have been vandalized. Citizens have told me that when they have spoken out in a way that the city did not like, code enforcement showed up at their door. To say that if they have done nothing wrong, they have nothing to fear is untrue. My next door neighbor parked 23 ft from the side walk and 60 ft from the center of the street. The car was in front of her own garage, and was ticketed. She had to fight it all the way to the doors of court, despite talking to city hall.

Another matter I would like to call to the attention of the public is the city’s purchase of 95 N. Main. *In council member Fahl’s own words: “It’s a mess.” “The city can’t make money off of it.” “We paid like $19,000 for the entire property, it’s actually 3 lots and a building, and the reason we paid that is because that’s what the IRS…was owed on the back taxes. So we picked it up because it was actually a really good deal, at the time.”  She also explains the city can only sell the property for the original purchase price, plus any upkeep. I wonder who was this a good deal for? If the city legally is not allowed to make money off of it, why did we enter the real estate business? According to the council minutes from 3/08/12, “City Manager Christine Burns stated that the buyer for 95 N. Main St. had rescinded his offer and had presented another offer due to the discovery of asbestos contamination during a property inspection. The buyer now only wanted to purchase the two vacant parcels associated with the property.” The council voted to not allow this sale, but rather demolish the building and sell the property as a whole. According to council member Fahl, “There is a fuel tank that’s underneath that building…and that was one of the city’s requests that whoever buys that building remove the fuel tank due to … possible contamination.” She continues that removing just the asbestos from the building was estimated to “cost us close to $80,000.” She states that if the building did not have so many issues “somebody could have made good money off of it.” So, if I understand, the city legally cannot make a profit, and we now own an asbestos contaminated building sitting on top of a fuel tank that could potentially be a source of contamination? We bought it because it was a good deal?

Christine Fahl, Bob Truesdale, and Patty Troost are all on the November ballot for City council. Christine Fahl was the only one of them on the council in 2009 when we bought this poisonous building. I don’t know about the rest of Cedar Springs, but Christine Fahl will not get my vote.

Molly Nixon

City of Cedar Springs

*The quotes from Mayor Pro Tem Christine Fahl were from a private meeting in Ms. Nixon’s home, which Ms. Nixon videotaped, without Ms. Fahl’s knowledge.

Pictured is sophomore Jared Vodry, senior Austin Wamser, Coach Scott Troost, and junior Cody Oehme.

Will move on to state competition

The Cedar Springs Red Hawk Varsity Wrestlers endured a hard weekend wrestling last weekend at the regional competition. Cedar Springs had three boys qualify for the regional competition that was held in Mount Pleasant on Saturday Feb. 18, and all three were able to advance to the state competition that will be held at the Palace of Auburn Hills on March 3 and 4.

Senior Austin Wamser, ranked 5th in the state, claimed a second place finish in the 152 pound weight class, losing to Travis Curley from St. Johns, who is currently ranked Number 2 in the state. Wamser went head to head with Curley, without getting pinned but lost by points in the end.

Junior Cody Oehme grabbed a 4th place finish in the 125 pound weight class, losing only to the #6 division 2 state ranked wrestler Alec Ward, from Greenville, and honorable mention wrestler Luke Klein, from Sparta.

Sophomore Jared Vodry wrestled his way back to grab a 4th place finish in the 135 pound weight class, after losing to the #1 state ranked wrestler Brant Schafer, from St. Johns. Vodry then won his next match and moved on to take on state honorable mention wrestler Cameron Bender, also of St. Johns.

“The boys did a heck of a job,” Said Coach Scott Troost. “I knew Austin and Cody were going to make it through, but Jared was more of a long shot considering he had to wrestle a wrestler that had beat him twice the week before, but he pulled it off and beat that same wrestler, and that’s when I knew all 3 were going to advance to the state finals.” Troost continued, “I am very proud of them, just going to state is a huge accomplishment, all having very tough kids to beat to get there.  But the hard work isn’t finished yet. We have a week and a half to have them ready for state.”

Good luck to our regional finishers and we wish them well as they travel to Auburn Hills for the state competition on March 3 and 4. We are very proud of our wrestler Hawks.