This was a year of many firsts for graduating seniors at Belding High School. A new arena with an indoor track, auditorium, cafeteria and commons area, sports facilities — the list goes on and on. Through a year of constant transformation, where the very school they attended changed dramatically before their eyes, the 140 graduates experienced their final moment as members of the student body Thursday evening before walking out of the school one last time as official alumni.

Jake Jones just didn’t care. He didn’t care about grades, he never studied and, as he admits, he assumed he could get through high school without applying himself beyond walking through the front door of the building.

More than 64 years ago, veterans in the Belding area celebrated Memorial Day by marching through the streets of the city and holding a ceremony at the original Freedom Wall located on the corner of Bridge and Main streets. Now, years after that wall was decommissioned, leading to holding Memorial Day ceremonies in various locations including the Veterans Memorial Bridge and Riverside Cemetery, veteran and Belding resident Denny Craycraft is proud to see that once again, Belding has a central location in Veterans Park for the community to come together and honor its veterans.

More than 2,500 people crowded the halls of Belding High School for the 17th annual Belding Community Showcase on Tuesday night, where area community groups and businesses came together to show off what the area has to offer. According to event organizer Tiffany Jackson, 53 community groups and 37 businesses were at the event, handing out goodie bags and endless amounts of information about services they provide.

As Christina Funk strolled around the center room of the Belrockton Museum Saturday afternoon, 6-year-old Xander Rickert sat patiently in excitement as Funk carried an often misunderstood creature within her hands. Rickert, among 65 other visitors to the museum, knew what he was in store for him and was hoping for a very close look at the mysterious animal Funk was presenting to children and parents around the room.

On the edge of the city near a heavily wooded border of trees sits a garden where students, teachers and residents of Belding come together to share and enjoy in the experiences that come with growing fruits and vegetables and beautiful flowers and plants. That little garden, known as the Belding Community Garden, is now receiving statewide attention after taking top honors at the Michigan Municipal League (MML) 2013 Capital Conference in Lansing, winning the MML Region 3 Community Excellence Award (CEA).

BELDING — It’s been a year of adjustments at Belding High School with the construction of a new gymnasium, auditorium, band room and other various additions to the school. But as of last week, the final touches of interior construction were completed with the opening of the new spacious high school cafeteria and commons area. [...]

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.

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.