Last November, just two weeks before resigning from Belding City Council, Jon Bunce gave an emotional statement at the end of a meeting declaring, “I will fight on to have the clock tower saved.” Five months later, and the Belding clock tower is quickly becoming one of the last remaining structures to remain on the 4-acre site at the corner of Main and Bridge streets. The tower will inevitably come down, there is no stopping that, but Bunce says now that he is no longer on the city council, he will dedicate time and effort to forming an official committee with the interest of collecting money and rebuilding the clock tower at a future date.

When Linda Ruble walked out of her front door Sunday morning, she was struck with horror when all she could see was smoke coming from her neighbor’s home across the street.

A Belding woman who has been accused of committing arson in 2010 was back in court Tuesday in an attempt to prove she is indigent and cannot pay for court expenses and her court-appointed attorney. After testimony from attorneys and two recesses, 8th Judicial Circuit Court Judge David Hoort ruled that Cynthia Stewart-Matzen is not indigent and does not qualify for a court-appointed attorney.

Easter festivities were in full swing this past holiday weekend, especially at local egg hunts such as the annual “Easter Eggstravaganza” event at the Belding Covered Village Mall.

Opening a new business is seldom easy in tough economic times, but a recently opened auction house in Orleans Township is aiming to make a profit while also doing what it can to give back to local schools. The owners of A-squared Theatre and Auction Hall, an indoor heated auction and special events venue at 7500 N. State Road (M-66) just 1.5 miles north of M-44, have set a goal to give 3 percent of total purchases made at their auctions to any local school at the buyers’ request.

An afternoon chemical fire at JICE Pharmaceuticals in Belding was extinguished Thursday afternoon with no hazardous threat poised to the community.

With a few plucks of some strings and and a lot of time and effort, students at Belding Middle School are picking up a musical skill that many of them hope can lead to greater things. On Wednesday afternoon, evidence of “greater things” arrived in the form of a one-hour clinic by professional guitarist Joel Mabus, who wowed more than 50 seventh-graders who have either taken or are currently enrolled in guitar class at the school.

The conversation threatened to spiral out of control during the question-and-answer period of a contentious seminar on hydraulic fracturing Monday evening at Rockford High School. More than 100 area residents turned out to hear from author Maryann Lesert, who extensively studied the topic while doing research for an upcoming novel.

For more than 35 years, Metron of Belding has been a fixture of the community, with the senior facility operating as the largest employer in Belding as it continues to find new ways to reach out to the people it serves. The largest of six Metron senior facilities in Michigan, with a maximum capacity of 128 residents and a secure unit, Metron of Belding provides short-term acute services and post-acute care to help patients resume healthy, happy and productive lifestyles.

As Lowell resident Ted Bentley bundles up in his winter jacket, slips on his gloves and straps on his camping backpack, the avid cyclist knows exactly what he wants when he heads out for an evening journey. Guided by the moon and the stars, Bentley travels through deeply wooded areas, trudging through the snow on his bike with thick 4-inch tires, leaving behind a single bike trail as he plows through the fresh snow ahead of him.