Last week, I had the pleasure of interviewing James Young of country group The Eli Young Band, who returned to Grand Rapids on Thursday night as part of Kenny Chesney’s “No Shoes Nation” tour.

A week after massive flooding throughout Montcalm County, things are starting to get back to normal and roads are being reopened. “We are in pretty good shape,” said Mark Christensen, managing director of the Road Commission for Montcalm County. “It was a challenging week.”

Construction work and how a majority of projects are funded were popular topics during the Greater Greenville Transportation meeting Wednesday evening. The committee met at Courtland Township Hall during its quarterly meeting just in time to talk about the upcoming construction season.

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).

Here’s a photo gallery of local flood photos shared by readers of The Daily News.

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. [...]

Members of the Belding Area Schools Board of Education voted unanimously Monday to approve spending the remaining funds of a $38 million bond project that was approved by district voters in 2010. According to Belding High School Assistant Principal Leslie Mount, of the $1,412,313.02 that sits in the unallocated contingency fund, approximately $1,234,632,95 will be used for additional projects not previously included in the bond plan.

Free nitrate/nitrite water testing will be offered at the Montcalm Conservation District’s spring tree sale on Friday, April 26, at the Road Commission for Montcalm County in Stanton.

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.

Montcalm County Emergency Services is in the process of selling its old Rescue 21 vehicle. According to Emergency Services Deputy Director Eric Smith, two bids were received for the 1999 Ford F350.