Construction & Development

Walled Lake City Council honors the late Casey J. Ambrose

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Amazing, humbling and exciting are the three words Casey J. Ambrose’s son and Walled Lake City Councilmen, Casey R. Ambrose used to describe his feelings after the council decided on naming the campus after his late father. 

“That’s the same way it felt when I was asked to join the council,” said Ambrose. “It was just super humbling to know what this property could be and how far it’s already come.”

Members of the Walled Lake City Council felt that it was only right for the city’s public safety campus, which is located at 1499 E. West Maple Road to be named after the man who helped rejuvenate it: The late Casey J. Ambrose. After Mayor Linda S. Ackley proposed the resolution to name the city’s public safety campus the Casey J. Ambrose Public Safety Campus at Tuesday’s city council meeting, it did not take long for the council to unanimously agree to pass the resolution. Following a prior councils’ decision to purchase the property that is now known as the public safety campus years ago, the city learned the land had contamination issues and could not develop anything on the property with that contamination not taken care of. 

Spearheading this issue was Casey J. Ambrose. 

Ambrose, along with the city council at the time and current City Manager Dennis Whitt instilled plans to clean the property and get money for it through forfeiture funds that has put the city in a position to redevelop the piece of land. 

Ackley, who has served on Walled Lake City Council since 1979, and was elected as mayor in November 2013, has had a firsthand experience of how much the late Ambrose impacted the city and community of Walled Lake. “When Casey backed a project, believed in a project, you knew it,” said Ackley.

Government

Fenton City Council discusses mobile vendor ordinance

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Citizens and officials gathered on June 12 to discuss and work to approve or deny the ordinance that discusses food truck licensing and regulation in the city. Regulation is speculated for whether or not food trucks and vendors should be required to be licensed to operate in the city or for special occasions. The ordinance, which is labeled as No. 714 mobile vendor ordinance, and states it will “secure public health safety and general welfare of the residents and property owners of the City of Fenton…by regulating Mobile Vendors within the City and to repeal all ordinances or parts thereof in conflict within.” 

The process, if approved, will have the steps of verifying the relevant code pertaining to the operating mobile vendor, determining if a certification is required, if required then payment of fees and application and then adhering to vending requirements and finally verifying the zoning compliance. 

City council members have not come to a conclusion. 

Fenton city attorney Chris Patterson said in a city council meeting: “We’re going to create an application form and I think the application form will also help and then have to set a checkbox that will say, ‘are you doing this?’ If not, you don’t need to do this and ‘are you doing this?’, proceed to complete this section. They’re designed to sort of make this licensing system work easier because we are asking individuals to potentially, in a certain scenario, complete a license.” 

Patterson advised the city council on the overall process of the food truck ordinance and the process on how to achieve its licensing and approval to operate in the city of Fenton. 

“Consistent as a peddler and a solicitor’s license, they also have to coordinate with the property owner to get a special event zoning permit,” said Patterson. 

Food truck ordinances come into place because of various reasons. 

“We did have complaints about the generators and the trash,” Fenton Mayor Sue Osborn said at the meeting.

Business & Economy

City of Muskegon approves sustainable MDOT road work

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MUSKEGON, Mich. – After some deliberation regarding the financial and practical aspects of sustainable road work, the Muskegon City Commission approved the Michigan Department of Transportation’s (MDOT) proposal that would fix Sherman Road using recycled rubber. 

During the meeting, Rebecca St. Clair, a city commissioner, said she was concerned about the quality of the project and if the city would be charged twice for rebuilding if the project failed. 

“I love the idea of reusing tires in a new way that isn’t environmentally unfriendly,” St. Clair said. “I understand that this is sort of a pilot test situation.

Greater Lansing Community News
City Council Chambers in Mason sit empty before a general meeting.

Mason debates merits of officers in schools

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Mason City officials discussed whether a school resource officer should be placed in public schools in the District at its March 20 meeting. The meeting opened with one public comment in regard to the motion passed forth in regard to the installation of a resource officer into Mason Public Schools. The community member approached the stand and discussed their experience with an in-school officer. The experience featured a positive experience with one officer who she found beneficial and a negative experience. Following public comment, council member Rita L. Vogel introduced research on the data on resource officers but said she had not received much information on the specifics in the hiring of said officer.

Eaton County

Order in the court! Judge describes way to her career path

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Recently,  Eaton County District court Judge Julie O’Neill sat for a Q&A to discuss her journey of becoming a District court Judge. 

Judge O’Neil expounded upon her inspiration for wanting to become a judge and how it was not the path she expected herself to go down. 

Judge O’Neil also spoke about her personal experiences growing up on a farm and also shared how she balances her emotions in the courtroom. 

Spartan Newsroom reporter Anthony Brinsonn III spoke more with Judge O’Neil

Anthony Brinson III: What inspired you to pursue the judicial system and become a judge? Was it always something you wanted to do?  

Judge O’Neil: “Well, that’s a big question. I graduated from Michigan State with a Bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice with a specialty in Juvenile delinquency and after that I worked as a youth specialist for four years.” 

“So… I started going to Law School at nights, on the weekends and around this time I also had my first two children  and then when I graduated from law school I was a practicing attorney for about 14 years.” 

“I practiced throughout the state of Michigan and the last seven years of my practice I was on the Federal Public defender panel, so I was doing work in the federal courts, going to Grand Rapids as well. So, I had pretty good practice on a state and federal level.” 

Anthony Brinson III: What was your reaction  to finding out the Judge before you (Judge “Hoffman”) was stepping down after what she said was 24 or 25 years? 

Judge O’Neil: “When that news came out, myself and a whole bunch of other attorneys were like, ‘what? Oh my gosh, what does this mean?’ He announced his retirement kind of last minute and I couldn’t have imagined him not being in that seat.”

“After that, we all started talking about who was going to run for the position and what was going to happen.