A parade in Lakeview was held on Friday afternoon to commemorate the dramatic increase in ACT scores at the school over the course of the past few years.

Lakeside Park is about to receive $200,000 worth of improvements thanks to a private donation and a contribution from the Lakeview Downtown Development Authority. Lakeside Park, located on the banks of the Tamarack Lake, will see a host of proposed improvements, including a new fishing and boat pier, parking enhancements and a professional amphitheater to host the annual Music in the Park series. There will also be upgrades to park lighting and walkways so that the entire park will be handicap accessible, including the new pier.

Imagine a school that operates almost entirely without tuition or tax dollars, one that is self sufficient. That’s a scenario likely to remain imaginary, unfortunately, but Dave Albert’s Lakeview High School shop class comes close.

Things are definitely looking up for students and staff at Lakeview High School, both in the academic and extra-curricular areas. At Monday evening’s school board meeting, board members got a chance to hear firsthand from some of the students who — for the fifth year in a row — brought home the CSAA League Championship. The forensic program, under the leadership of Chris Bayne and Carolyn Gleason, consistently shines in competitions.

Road crews in Montcalm County have been working diligently last night and again early this morning, plowing and salting roads in attempt to open them up after heavy snow landed overnight throughout the area.

Make all the jokes you want about girls and their alleged ineptitude when it comes to power tools — all evidence to the contrary was on display Wednesday evening at Lakeview High School. That’s where students in Dave Albert’s all-female “powder puff” shop class have spent the past several weeks putting together 20 toy motorcycles, which were then awarded to a select group of area children. The motorcycles, crafted from white pine and mahogany, were among the most carefully built and decorated toys Albert has seen during his time at Lakeview High School. The girls, Albert said, tended to be a bit more meticulous than their male counterparts.

Since the dawn of time, man has dreamed of flight. From the wax wings of Icarus to the first fleeting leap of faith that briefly separated Wilbur Wright from the fields of Kitty Hawk, men have yearned for the sky and the stars beyond it.

The 34th annual Trufant Jubilee will take place this weekend in honor of a longtime Montcalm County commissioner. “This year our Jubilee is dedicated to Carl Paepke,” said festival organizer Virginia Christensen. Paepke of Pierson died April 18 at the age of 86. He was the District 5 commissioner for Montcalm County.

The milky-white whorls of October mist holding court over the early-morning waters of Tamarack Lake are a thing of beauty and an endless fascination for those lucky enough to live there. Deep in the low-lying fog, images of mythical beasts, unicorns, maybe, are easily conjured into existence and the imagination runs free, untethered from the dull pragmatism of real life. For the geese who call the lake home during the summer months, the fog also signals the time to move on has come. The south beckons with its siren song and the long flight to warmer climes waits close at hand. It is from this annual autumnal ritual that local author Dallas Lincoln drew inspiration for his most recent children’s book, “Gladys, the Tamarack Goose (That was Left Behind).”

When Bob Huttinga began his career in the medical field back in 1976, his practice was fairly traditional. As a certified physician assistant working in Lakeview, Bob examined patients, dispensed prescriptions and performed all the duties common to a typical medical practice. It wasn’t until years later, when he began to experience stress related to his work in the occupational health field that Bob first began to consider the advantages of alternative medicine. A relaxation class and study of the Silva Method of Mind Development of Stress Control gave him the tools to eliminate his stress-related health issues.