Vanderbilt and Wolverine Schools
Announce Top Students
Vanderbilt Area School is proud to announce its top two students of the graduating class of 2009. Katelynn
Hornshaw has been recognized as the class Valedictorian and Sara Dymond is recognized as Salutatorian of her class.
Katelynn is the daughter of Kevin and Debbi Badgley of Vanderbilt. Throughout high school Katelynn received the following honors: 9 and 10
News “Best of the Class”, Herald Times Athlete of the Week and National Honor Society Outstanding Senior. In addition to achieving high academic marks, Katelynn was an active member in the National Honor Society, Student Council and sports teams. Her achievements in sports include: All Conference in volleyball, basketball and softball and All Area in volleyball, basketball and softball. Her senior year Katelynn was chosen as Prom Queen and captain of her team in basketball. Katelynn’s teachers and coaches say they will miss her dedication and hard work both in and out of the classroom. After high school, Katelynn plans on attending Ferris State University and majoring in Pre-Pharmacy.
Sara is the daughter of Sandy Dymond of Vanderbilt. Sara has received awards for her hard work in math, reading, English, science, health, gym, social studies and computers. In addition to her high school classes, Sara is also enrolled in college courses through the dual enrollment
program. Sara has also been an active member of her class, Student Council and National Honor Society. She earned her Varsity letter for three years of cheerleading. Throughout high school Sara has logged over 400 hours of community service helping organizations like the Otsego
County Fair and Special Olympics. Sara’s teachers say they will miss her positive attitude and desire to help everyone around her. Sara’s plans after high school include going to college to study cardiac health.
Vanderbilt Area School is proud to announce its top two students of the graduating class of 2009. Katelynn
Hornshaw has been recognized as the class Valedictorian and Sara Dymond is recognized as Salutatorian of her class.
Katelynn is the daughter of Kevin and Debbi Badgley of Vanderbilt. Throughout high school Katelynn received the following honors: 9 and 10
News “Best of the Class”, Herald Times Athlete of the Week and National Honor Society Outstanding Senior. In addition to achieving high academic marks, Katelynn was an active member in the National Honor Society, Student Council and sports teams. Her achievements in sports include: All Conference in volleyball, basketball and softball and All Area in volleyball, basketball and softball. Her senior year Katelynn was chosen as Prom Queen and captain of her team in basketball. Katelynn’s teachers and coaches say they will miss her dedication and hard work both in and out of the classroom. After high school, Katelynn plans on attending Ferris State University and majoring in Pre-Pharmacy.
Sara is the daughter of Sandy Dymond of Vanderbilt. Sara has received awards for her hard work in math, reading, English, science, health, gym, social studies and computers. In addition to her high school classes, Sara is also enrolled in college courses through the dual enrollment
program. Sara has also been an active member of her class, Student Council and National Honor Society. She earned her Varsity letter for three years of cheerleading. Throughout high school Sara has logged over 400 hours of community service helping organizations like the Otsego
County Fair and Special Olympics. Sara’s teachers say they will miss her positive attitude and desire to help everyone around her. Sara’s plans after high school include going to college to study cardiac health.
Wolverine High School proudly announces Timothy Ward and Luke Operhall as the leaders of the graduating class of 2009. Timothy L. Ward is recognized as the class Valedictorian and Luke M. Operhall is recognized as the class Salutatorian.
Timothy Lee Ward, son of Walter Ward II and Pamela Roberts, currently holds a 3.807 GPA. Timothy has two younger sisters, Tonya and Hannah. He is a one year member of the National Honor Society. Mr. Ward’s list of accomplishments during his high school years in sports include one year of Varsity Golf, two years Varsity Cross Country, two years Varsity Basketball and one year JV Basketball. Tim has received the honor of Academic All-Conference and Academic All-State for Cross Country and Basketball for two years and he has been nominated for Student Athlete of the week twice during his high school career.
Timothy will attend Michigan Technological University in the fall to study Engineering.
Luke Michael Operhall, son of Michael and Margaret Operhall, currently holds a 3.759 GPA. Luke has four sisters; Christian, Robin, Rebecca and his twin, Sarah. Mr. Operhall’s list of accomplishments includes being a two-year member of the National Honors Society and attaining perfect attendance one year. Luke’s sports participation includes four years on the Cross Country Team, four years Varsity Basketball, three years baseball and one year golf. He has also been recognized as an Academic All-Conference performer in Basketball and Cross Country and received All-State honors for Cross Country.
Luke will also attend Michigan Technological University in the fall to study Engineering.
Our congratulations and best wishes go out to both of these very high achieving young men.
Corwith Township
Hosts Annual
Clean-Up Day
by Tom Serino Here’s your chance to get rid of all that junk you accumulated over the Winter, and quite possibly, the last couple years. Corwith Township is hosting its annual clean-up day on Saturday, May 2, 2009 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
This opportunity is for Corwith Township residents only, but that does include residents of the Village of Vanderbilt as I distinctly remember being taxed by the township for property in the Village.
Anyway, residents must haul everything to the Waste Transfer site on Yuill Road and that includes everything including metal, batteries, appliances and even household trash. Marilyn Cole, Manager of the Waste Transfer Site asks that residents separate the items, so that they can be easily handled, once inside the gates.
Cole adds that appliances, including refrigerators will also be accepted. And the township will remove the freon at no cost to residents.
Residents should also know that tires are accepted at no charge at the Site on any Saturday, and compost is also collected at no charge on regular Saturday Dump days. As such,Cole asks that residents refrain from getting rid of tires and compost on Clean-up Day, so as to make the entire operation go faster for everyone.
Here’s your chance to work with others in the community for a better - cleaner Vanderbilt and Corwith Township! See you there!
In other news, the township accepted the resignation of Joy Brasseur, Hall Administrator for the Corwith Township Hall, and will be accepting letters of interest for that position. The position involves, but is not limited to meeting with renters, handling hall booking, overseeing maintenance and scheduling repairs. A full job description may be obtained at the Township office. Letters of application must be submitted no later than Sunday, May 3, 2009 to Corwith Township, PO Box 100, Vanderbilt, MI 49795.
State Encourages
Light Bulb Switch
A member of the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) recently encouraged Michigan electric customers to reduce their electric bills by switching to energy efficient lighting products that can result in big savings. Thanks in part to a grant from the MPSC, compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs) are available for as little as 99 cents per bulb statewide at participating stores, Commissioner Monica Martinez recently pointed out. Sen. Thomas has sponsored a resolution that would encourage the State of Michigan to switch from standard light bulbs to CFLs.
If every household in Michigan switches only one light bulb to an energy efficient model, Michigan would save more than $60 million in energy costs annually and prevent more than 800 million pounds of greenhouse gas emissions a year.
Publishers Note:
by Tom Serino
HEY! We make mistakes! While it is not our policy to make mistakes in every edition of OUR HOME TOWN News, that has been our practice ...
If you find a mistake, please feel free to point it out to us.
Got
something to sell??
Want
Ads are Free
in
OUR
HOME TOWN News
Call:
(989) 983-2233 or e-mail us!
|
|
Spaghetti Benefit Dinner Scheduled for Cancer Patient
A spaghetti Benefit Dinner is being put on by family and friends of Beth Lambert. She has been recently diagnosed with cervical cancer as well as cancer in her lymph nodes.
The benefit dinner is to help defray the costs of travel to and from cancer treatment.
The dinner will be held Saturday, April 25th at the Otsego County Firehall on Wisconsin Street in Gaylord, from 5 to 8 p.m. Suggested cost is $5.00 per person.
There will be raffles and a 50/50 drawing
Gas Savings Tips for the Thrifty
by Tom Serino
At $2.39 per gallon of gas prices are a relief, but there are some ways to save gas that are well worth consideration. According to energy tips at Yahoo, MSN-Money you can get up to 50 m.p.g. if you drive your car with a goal to save gas.
Some of the tips found at Yahoo, and MSN-Money include:
1. Jack rabbit starts burn gas. When leaving a stop sign or green light, press lightly on the gas.. you will still move forward, albeit slower, but the you might be surprised at how little it takes to get the car up to the speed limit in town.
2. Racing up to red lights
While driving you see a red light up ahead. Take your foot off the gas. If you’re still doing 45 m.p.h. when you reach the light, you’ll be burning up your disc brakes to stop. It’s a lot cheaper to let your car coast to the stop while braking gently. As an added benefit, your brake pads will last longer, too.
These two tips alone can improve your fuel economy around town by as much as 35 percent, according to tests conducted by automotive information on the Web site Edmunds.com.
3. Highway driving. On a recent trip to Grand Rapids, I drove my Honda CRV, a small S.U.V at or below 62 m.p.h on the expressway, and on M-55 and other places where it was 55 m.p.h. I drove only 52 mph. You would be surprised at how many cars passed me. And as they passed me, they dragged my S.U.V.. I actually attained 34.9 miles per gallon on that trip.
According to the Yahoo site, in tests by Consumer Reports, driving at 75 miles per hour instead of 65 miles per hour reduced fuel economy by between 3 and 5 miles per gallon, depending on the vehicle.
4. Tailgaiting
People tailgate, thinking they can stay inside the vacuum zone, to be dragged by the car in front of them, as in Item 3 above. Actually, tailgaiting is dangerous and wastes gas. Every time the driver ahead taps his brakes, you need to slow down considerably, and faster. The biggest problem is that you can’t see what is happening in front of the other driver when you’re that close to him. Take a lay back attitude, put a couple of car lengths between you and the other driver. You’ll be able to drive more smoothly and use less fuel. A good rule of thumb is to allow two seconds of space between your car and the one ahead. You can figure that out by counting off two seconds after the car in front of you passes an obvious landmark like an overpass.
5. Saving gas at stop lights
With modern fuel-injection engines, it takes very little extra gas to restart a car once it’s warmed up. So, if you are stopped for more than 14 seconds, according to MSN - Money, shut it off. At a long line of cars, at a traffic light in downtown Gaylord - by the way, if you travel at the correct speed, you will be stopped by at least one of the lights since they aren’t synchronized yet... Maybe in another 20 years. In the meantime, once you are in a long line waiting for a left turn, or at one of those fast-food restaurants, shut off the engine. Idling burns about a half-mile worth of gas every minute, according to the California Energy Commission. By the way, you will get more exercise going into Burger King for your meal. Letter to the Editor
By Phil Williams
This past week I received a schedule of fees from my propane gas company (at bottom). As I read through it, I could not believe that in a time when gas prices are skyrocketing that they would have the nerve to add additional fees or better yet to send me a notice at Christmas.
And heaven forbid—You run out of gas——Because you are low income and don’t have regular refills—It will cost you $150.00 if you call after 4:30 or before 8 am or $250.00 if it is on the week end. Then add $85.00 for the leak check fee (because you ran out of the gas that you can’t afford anyway) then another $100.00 if you can’t afford the 200 gal minimum! So now for running out of gas on a Holiday weekend you will need $435.00 to make the call to get any gas…Gas fee not added in yet.
The more I read the angrier I got. But after some reflection I realized that this is just a great marketing plan and I began to think of ways that I could also benefit.. Here are some of the concepts I came up with:
Driveway usage, every time they deliver… $100.00.
If unable to back in with one try additional $50.00 per attempt.
Per minute fee for using our property $5.00 per minute or $100.00 whichever is greater.
$100.00 fee for arriving before 9am and disturbing my morning coffee.
$100.00 a month advertising fee for having their company name on the tank in MY yard.
Obviously the days when Customer Service mattered are gone. When a Company was just darn happy to have you as a Customer… Now it is about the money. Needless to say, I will be shopping for a friendlier Gas Company, one that wants my business, not my Soul. Maybe you should too. But first I will have to save up the $100.00 fee for the tank removal!
Phil Williams
My Vacation
By Tom Serino
Well, here I am back from my vacation to Japan. The first trip back there in 18 years. It was a fun trip, with lots of things to do, great food to eat, and lots of my wife’s family to meet and spend some time.
The trip was eventful with a lot of new experiences. Things have advanced greatly in the past 20 years. For example, the new trains are faster, very roomy, with very nice bathrooms. I say that since on the last leg of my journey there, after landing in Sapporo, I took the express train to Wakkanai, about a 5 hour trip. I had to use the bathroom and there is one conveniently located every second car, so that passengers don’t have to travel too far to get to one. The doors open easily at the push of a button. They also close easily, but you have to remember to push the button. As I left the bathroom, I touched the door to enter the passenger car and the door opened, but then I noticed that the bathroom door was still open, so I stepped with one foot and pushed the button, so the door closed. That left me with my legs spread wide apart, as well as my arms, so that when the train shifted around a fast corner my body went crashing into the wall, giving me my first view of stars during daylight hours and a black eye. At age 58, it was painful, but I can take it. I went and sat down.
The next day, my son and I ventured to Rebun. Rebun island is the most northern island of Japan and south of Sakhalin, Russia. The weather there is bitterly cold in winter time. However, it does contain many beautiful scenery for one to see. It is also called the Island of Flowers because there is a great variety of flowers over the island in summer time.
Anyway, there are two courses, an 8 hour trek and a 3 hour trek. My son agreed to the 3 hour trek with his Dad. The 3 hours meant 3 hours up, and it took us about 2 hours to come down the mountain, and another hour to walk back to the main town Kafuka, to eat and then catch the ferry back to Wakkanai. I suggested taking the bus, but Kenichi thought it was a great weather for a walk, which it was. It would have only cost us a dollar each for the bus ride to the ferry. And I figured it would be a buck well-spent. But we walked. It took my legs 3 days to recover. At my age it takes longer, I guess.
Lastly, the trip to the main family farm, owned by brother in law Haruo Watanabe. It is a dairy farm with 84 cows, and since we stayed there, I felt compelled to help, along with my wife Fumiko and son Kenichi, in the barn.
My wife and son had been there off an on during their two month stay in Japan, and I was only there 4 days, and it was nice to help out and learn about the dairy farm business. Helping out meant twice a day, once at 6 a.m. and later at 5 p.m. cleaning out the barn, the stalls with the cows in them, and then feeding them hay.
I became good friends with the cows, as they became intimate with me, licking every part of me as I tried to clean manure from under their feet and inside the stalls. One cow especially gave me a rough time. I struggled three days, thats six times, with this one cow who seemed to like me a lot. On the third day, she pushed me so hard I lost my footing and I don’t know what I hit, but found myself holding on to a post in the stall, so I wouldn’t be on the floor, and the cow was right up against me. I was dazed and suffered a large scratch and bruise to the top of my forehead. I did manage to stay off the floor, and also learned how to use the other cow in the stall to keep the seemingly agressive cow away from myself.
On the last day, I dreaded going into that one stall, but I figured I had to meet my fear head on, so I did, keeping the tamer cow between myself and the agressive cow. About a minute or two before I completed cleaning the task, and after what seemed a lot of maneuvering of the two cows, my wife came over and cautioned me, saying, “You need to watch out for that one cow, she’s in heat.”
At my age, I’m still learning.
On the Other Side
of the Street...
by John Crinnion
On This & That
BIASED REPORTING: When Obama admitted to smoking pot while in college, the media ignored it. It was not an issue and it was a long time ago. It was not an issue as he ran for President. When Sarah Palin’s husband was found to have a drunk driving arrest over twenty years ago, as a twenty-year-old, that became a reason to question her ability to be Vice-President.
Presidential candidate Edwards was rumored to have had an affair while his wife was recovering from cancer treatments. That was so small of an issue they held back on the news for months; until a scandal sheet broke the news and then that was not the issue, until he lied about it. Sarah Palin’s teenage daughter has become pregnant prior to marriage. She did not lie about it, she did not cheat on a spouse, and she plans to have the baby, not abortion. She plans to marry the father and both will accept their responsibility. The liberal media questions if that should be enough to prevent the nomination of Palin. The media knew about Edwards and kept quiet about it so it would not interfere with his campaign.
I am not sure if Palin has a problem with the media because a) she is a woman, b) she is a conservative, c) because she is a threat to their candidate Obama, or d) all of the above.
ABOUT THE DEMONSTRATORS OUTSIDE BOTH CONVENTIONS: Could not help, as I watched all the vandalism and the attacks on the police, how many of those are on welfare and will get financial help from Obama’s change, if he gets in office. Perhaps he should tax them more and give it to the rich. I understand there is an economic theory that if you tax something you get less of it.
THERE WAS A CRITICISM OF PALIN THAT SHE WANTED CREATIONISM TAUGHT IN HER COMMUNITY’S SCHOOL: What those liberals who are complaining is that a majority of the Republican base would agree. It would not surprise me if some independents agree with that thinking also. Palin explained she did not want creationism taught, she wanted it allowed in discussions. I will bet that those who are complaining would not object if someone wanted Islam taught in schools.
IT SEEMS TO BE PASSED OVER: Sarah Palin was unemployed when she took the incumbent Governor on in the primary and beat him.
CALIFORNIA HAS EFFECTIVELY STOPPED HOME SCHOOLING: The unions have got a court that ruled home schooling can only be done by a certified teacher. When you consider the wonderful record home schoolers have in national and international academic contests, it is not because of results or accomplishments; it can only be because the teachers unions are concerned about the results of home schooling. Consider if Obama does as he wishes and spends more on the failing schools and follows CA in outlawing home schooling (will outlawing vouchers be far behind?) it will eliminate choice in schools and all students will be indoctrinated - Oops! Taught by union teachers who will promote Darwinism and remove morals from discussion in the schools as too religious.
The CA issue is the camel’s nose under the education tent. Now you know why unions are the major supporters of the Democratic Party.
Blacks must reconcile their kids to an inadequate education because we all know that money has never been the answer to improving education. Social Security Calculator Is Bush's Social Security Plan right for you? Click on above link to find out!
Although the Web edition contains most stories that the print edition contains,not all stories are guaranteed to appear online. For the most complete news coverage, we invite you to subscribe to the print edition of the paper.
You read this news FIRST in OUR HOME TOWN NEWS!
Want
Ads are Free
in
OUR
HOME TOWN News
Call: (989) 983-2233
Everything Michigan!!
“Blessed are they who expect nothing, for they shall not be disappointed.”
-Carl Sandburg
Computer Broke??
Let us fix it!! We have a posted price list for repairs which can't be beat Call: (989) 983-2233 or e-mail us at ourhometown@hotmail.com
|