I would like to share some thoughts with you regarding our downtown community in need. For those who are not aware, I am the owner of a building in downtown Greenville. In addition, I served on the Downtown Development Authority (DDA) board prior to the addition of the western development area to the original downtown DDA area. During those prior years the DDA was successfully focused on downtown issues.

The Belding Redskins enter the MHSAA team district tournament confident, but will also face a tough road to a title.
The Redskins will meet O-K Blue rival host Comstock Park in its first match on Thursday. The winner will face the winner of GR Catholic Central and GR West Catholic in the district final.

Can the Greenville Yellow Jackets wrestling team win a seventh straight district title?
The Yellow Jackets have been preparing for a challenge tonight with a possible matchup of state ranked teams. Greenville — ranked No. 5 in Division 2 by michigangrappler.com — is expecting to see the No. 9 rated Sparta Spartans in the district final.

In mid-December, an English teacher at Greenville High School received a letter that gave her a humble and excited feeling. The letter was from State Superintendent Mike Flanagan, notifying Elizabeth Nelson that she was nominated for Michigan Teacher of the Year. Nelson said it took her a few times of reading the letter to realize that it was not just junk mail. 
“I was really excited,” she said.

A report for the Jan. 9 Vestaburg Community School Board of Education meeting.

Greenville Middle School art teacher September Buys has not only been honored with numerous awards, but she has also been selected to serve on the visual arts writing team for the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards (NCCAS). When Buys, who has been a teacher at Greenville Public Schools since 2001, learned she was selected to serve on the writing team, she was “star-struck” when she saw the list of art educators she would be serving with. She said the people on the list are people who wrote curriculum books and research documents she used to shape her teaching practice.

The Danish Festival Board of Directors has chosen “The Snow Queen” as the theme of this year’s 48th annual Danish Festival. “The Snow Queen” was written by Hans Christian Andersen and first published in 1845. The story centers on the struggle between good and evil as experienced by a little boy and girl, Kai and Gerda. The story is one of Andersen’s longest, told in a series of seven stories, and is considered by many as one of his best.

Read The Daily News Funeral Notices for Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2012

Montabella’s girls basketball team “outplayed” Central Montcalm, according to Green Hornets coach Marty James. The result was a 53-27 win by the Mustangs over Central in a nonconference game Monday night.

It wasn’t deer season. Rather it was a crisp January morning as I stepped out the cabin door and started walking up one of the local deer trails toward one of my favorite hunting spots.
An evening snowfall had made the trail a little difficult to maintain, as the snow clung to the overhead brush and trees, while occasionally falling to the ground around me as I moved slowly through the woods.