The Lakeview Wildcats and Tri County Vikings girls basketball teams spent a majority of the night at the free throw line on Tuesday. The two teams combined for 47 fouls, 58 free throws and plenty of turnovers in Lakeview’s 40-28 nonconference victory over the Vikings at Cook Gymnasium.

Belding’s boys basketball team was leading late in the fourth quarter, smelling their first win of the season. But Carson City-Crystal’s Maxxton Jolls had his own ideas.
The Eagle senior made two straight three-point shots – the second with 13 seconds left – to beat the Redskins 47-46 Tuesday night.

Because people usually generate more garbage during the holiday season than the rest of the year, Montcalm County officials want people to think before they throw items away. More often than not a particular item can be recycled, donated, reused or repurposed, said Jacob Rytlewski, Montcalm County’s resource recovery coordinator.

City Manager George Bosanic has appointed Sgt. Gary Valentine as the interim director of the Greenville Department of Public Safety. Valentine’s new position started Tuesday following the retirement of former Director Michael Stuck.

Two Central Montcalm High School students were expelled for the remainder of the school year following a school board vote Monday night. The board met in separate closed sessions, per parental request, to discuss disciplinary action for the male student and female student.

Health Care Plus is not losing money as Montcalm County officials previously thought. Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Director David Feldpausch previously told the Board of Commissioners he was predicting Health Care Plus would lose $5,000 or more this year due to a combination of more claims and greater claim amounts. The plan was thought to have been losing money since 2008 and commissioners were in the process of seeking legal advice.

Central Montcalm Public School Superintendent Jake Helms has decided it is time to retire … again. Helms told school board members at their Monday night meeting that it is time to begin a replacement search process, either by hiring an outside firm or organizing a search themselves.

An uncertain future continues to loom for the Montcalm Technical Rescue Team (MTRT). The MTRT was created in 1996 to perform confined space rescues in Montcalm County. Duties expanded in 2001 to include high angle rescue, trench rescue, search and rescue, collapse rescue, water rescue, assisting the sheriff’s Dive Team, terrorism response and assisting in weather emergencies.

Read The Daily News Funeral Notices for Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011

The fourth quarter was a series of runs for both the Forest Hills Eastern Hawks and Greenville Yellow Jackets girls basketball teams. It was the Hawks run that was enough for the victory. The Yellow Jackets led 25-22 with nearly two minutes remaining in the third quarter. A 14-0 run over the next six plus minutes propelled the Hawks to a 37-35 victory in the opening round of the Cornerstone University Holiday Tournament on Monday night.