By' lBeeer
ST. JOSEPH - Berrien
County's Economic De lop­
m n t Commi . on ill have a
n dditional member starting
this year, than to th c unty
rd of Commi loners. The
bo rd pproved upping the eco­
omic de elopment commi sion
m mbership from nine to 10
t a pecial meeting Thrusday,
reh 7.
embers f this commi 'on
ill a ist the economic develop-
ment of the county through
programs like block grant and
tax b tement. Members ill
rve three year terms tagger­
ed 0 that four, then three,
and then three more member
come up for reappointment
each January 1.
The commission will have
repre ntativ for all ven
county Chambers of Commerce,
the atervliet Busine ia­
tion and two citizen members
at large.
By 0 Leuty
BE 0 HARBOR - yor
ilce Coo e ould like to see
referendum on city income
tax on the ballot in the city'
next election. Cooke' com­
ments came during the arch 11
city commi 'on meeting.
Cooke said that he would
like to e what the citizens
of Benton Harbor think bout a
city income tax. He'd that
there are al ay oth r op­
tions", but dded that he ants
the vote in case the city run out
of other option and need to
enact city income tax quickly.
Commissioner Char Yar-
brough said that 'if the Presi­
dent h hi way, with all tho
budget cuts th n, obviously,
we're going to have to turn to
city income tax - throughout
. the t te of 'chigan - alot of
'em. obody has the nerve to
be the first one to try it - that'
the problem."
City nager Elli Mitchell
wa in disagreement with Cooke.
"You're going to tell me that
die City of Benton Harbor is
going to go for an income ta
and the rest of the jurisdictions
don't?" Mitchell questioned
the commission, "Its going to be
hard to sell."
Commissioner Ralph Cren­
w said that .the city income
t might U riously hurt" Ben-
ton Harbor.
APr OVE 17% RAISE
In other ction, the com­
mission voted 7-0, with Mayor-
Cooke and Commissioner
. chael Govato ab taining, to
grant a 17 percent pay incre
to City ssor Franc' Raw-
linson. The commission had
met in closed . on 17 minutes
before announcing it's ction.
Raw limon 's new annual salary
is $32,900, retroactive to July 1,
1984.
ARCH 13 -19, 1 IS THE CITIZEN
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T board al 0 pproved a
two year contract for bailiffs
at the district courts throughout
the county. Sam Gr vitt district
court admini trator, id the
bailiffs contract was modeled
after the one approved for the
county sheriffs deputies. "Their
duties are similar . . . in that
they do carry eapon, th y do
have arre t power and they do
handle prisoner " Gravitt said.
The bailiff' contract i ret­
ro ctive to the first of the
me
Rawlinson live in Coloma.
. Go atos defended his vote by
ying he didn't agree with the
"timing" of the many raise
that the city commi 'on has
granted in recent week.
"The citys going to be faced,
in the 'Very near future, with
cutbacks," said Govatos, 'We
are borrowing $475,000 - we're
applying for a loan, with interest
- of that, $125000 represents
raise . . . If we could just wait
and hold off until we see what's
coming to the city, then we
won't have to eat crow."
Cooke said that Ra linson is
doing a ''fairly decent job",
but he could not be in favor of a
17 percent raise, retroactive to
1984, at this time.
City Man ger Elli Mitchell
. d that he made the decision
to bring recommendations of
salary incre s to the com­
mi 'on, "so, I feel, that I am
Continued on p 8
BHHS Class '75 to hold Reunio
Benton Harbor High
School class of 197 5 will
hold it 100year reunion,
ugu 10 at the Lake
ichigan College Commun­
ity Center.
The committee in charge
of the event re unable to
locate the following c1
mate:
arin Evan Harriett e-
vills, icha I R. Cross,
thryn Schram Rand 11 E.
Price Rebecc E. Ro Patti
. Pel, Flor . Court-
ney, Earl Fowler, Johnny S.
Yo , linda L. Owens, De­
lore 'illiams, David T.
de, Doy G. Smith, Pam­
ela D. cFarland, Irene R.
Peter , Richard Durbin, Rita
F. Davis, Yvonne Digg , Vic­
ki L. hisenant, Charles
H. Patterson, ancy E.
Jewell, Anita L. Co nne ,
Alexander P. Williams and
Gary R. Stewart.
Others include, Doris J.
Woods, Branda F.
Wood, Marina L. Shoe­
maker, Will L. ore, Jear­
line Robertson Ottis Tur­
ner Jr., Minnie L. Wallace
Damra A. Satterfield. Debra
H. Hall, Anna Scott. Vicki
A. Snyder, Char ne Williams,
Darrell R. Smith, Dreida K.
Souels, Rudy ore, Leatrice
Young, James L. olford
ark E. Wright and linda
C. Patter
Kir W. Richardson, Rebe c
A. Wycoff, Samuel L. it­
Iiams, Dionna William, al­
ter L. Smith, Gail
olford, Karen R. Ru t,
Edward W. Pepple, Fred S.
Gilmore 1II, Emma J. Wil-
ams, Cindy E. orris,
ich el C. Dancer, Gary M.
Harmon, J ereatha Thomas,
Abbie G. Triplett,' Elaine
T ylor and flo rd R. Reese.
Anyone knowing how to
contact any of the class­
mates' ed to call 927-
1527 bet een 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
and for Jerry William
or write to Cla • Reunions,
P,O. Box 607, Benton Har­
bor, 1.4 022,
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more or I , (a) like to
mething that ould help
the city, and (b) they ould be
illing to move to someplace
e to e that happen.
th t's the under tandin that I
got from the conversation.
A ite location tudy con­
ducted by Abonmarch Con-
ltant, Inc. Benton Harbor
narrowed potential site for the
proj e t from 1 then to five
and, finally, to three. The fmal
thre it idered; other
than the 00 block of E. ain,
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were 204-210 W. ain, which
contains the bu tation and
Broo Architectural, and the
southwest corner of West Main
and Water Sts.
According to Brown, Dial­
A-Ride' present facility wa
"looked t". But, he dded,
that the arket St. complex
is inadeq ate becau it is too
small and is not energy efficient.
The final ite for the project
w lected becau it met
veral requirements. The 12
requirement were: po itiv
do ntown impact availability,
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con truction impact, historical
considerations, siz�, configura­
tion, treet improvements neces-
ry, zoning, public utilities,
flood plain, nd u , and
service area. According to the
Abonmarche tudy the 300 E.
Main bloc scored 33 on a
preliminary ite evaluation and
34 on a secondary site evalua­
tion (out of a possible 48),
based on the 12 criteria.
The ab nmarche study tated
that the new ite, bordered by
E. ain Fifth, Fourth and
Highland, had number of
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year with pay increa avera­
ging 500 per officer, per year
ccording to Gravitt. "It's a
good contr ct and both ides
are happy with it,' Gravitt
added.
The board approved a re­
que t from Charles Schrenk,
acting director for th county
Economic Development Com­
mi ion, to pursu a S600,OOO
Small Cities Block Grant, with
the purpo of loaning it to five
Stanley Knight Corporation em­
ployees.
The five h ve cured 3.7
million in loans from Old Kent
Bank, and will come up with
enough to purch their com­
pany for 5 million from Tyler
Refrigerator of iles, hich i
divesting itself of Stanley Knight
this year. Tyler is in tum owned
by American Standard.
Stanley Knight tarted out
in 1911 making soda fountains.
In the late 60's, Dwyer Pro­
ducts bought it and moved it
to ew Troy, south of Bridge­
man. They now make cup­
board, counter, and refrig­
eration equipment for com­
panie like Kroger and Domin­
o' Pizza.
Stanley Knight employ 117
currently, the majority of whom
live in the Lake/Chickaming
township area, with some living
in St. Jo ph, Benton Twp.
Coloma, and Indi
Schrenk id financial
must be put to th r
there are ot r bidd rs
for th company. He id th
five employee hope to have
everything together by April I,
but he think ay 1 i a more
reali tic d e.
Commi ion Fred Baird (D­
B.H. m dare olution reque t­
ing th Per nnel and Human
Service committe draft a re .. o­
lution for the next board meet­
ing, a ing President Reagan n t
to cut revenue sharin from th
federal bud et. opies ould
then be nt to Repre ntativ
ar Siljander (R-4th Di t.
and ichigan n tor .
Board Chairman Edgar Ke -
terke objected, syaing "every­
bosy says et' get rid of the
deficit but don't take any thin
away from us. Let's get nsible.
It's poor bu ine practice for
the federal government to bor­
row money to giv to state
and local governments. tt
Commissioner ney Clar
said she felt there were other
federal programs that could and
hould b cut instead. Clark
said federal revenue sharing i
the program lea t inhibited by
pork b rreling and bureacratic
waste.
nton mov
to ard char I;'
tat
By ich.1 er
BENTO 1WP - It appear
• that Benton Twp. is heading to­
wards charter tatu. Supervisor
Larry ielsen said at the Tue -
day, March 6, regualr meeting
that he feels confidant it is only
matter of time. The board
held a public hearing Tuesday
to cull public opinion on
hether Benton Twp should
charter.
The board also signed a new
contract with it public works
employees, and retained the
services of two legal firms to
handle the township 's various
legal needs.
Supervisor ielsen id Ben­
ton i seeking charter township
status as a means of strengthen­
ing its tax base, and preventin
annexation by other incorpora­
ted municipalities. The Headlee
amendment provides that, if
the voters pprove a charter
township, the township board
will have the authority to levy
up to five mills in taxe .
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advantages. The study tated
that the site offered ' good
vehicular access to, around and
on" the ite. It also said that
,the development would offer
a positive downto n impact
and "complements nearby
valued structure :'
The plan calls for 639,
648 of the projects' $799,
648 cost to be fmanced from
Urban Ma Transit Transpor­
tation Administrati n fund,
with the remaining 160,000
to be financed by the state
Department of Transport tion.
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ielsen also said the town­
ship will not hire a superinten­
dant, as provided for in charter
law. The township would replace
annual meeting with public
hearings on operating budgets
and would change its fi cal
ye r to match the calendar
year. The board will vote March
19 on whether to proceed ith
chartering.
The township's ven public
work employee unanimously
approved a new four-year con­
tract ith the. township. The
contr c run from March 15 of
this year to March 15, 1989. The
employees will receive pay in­
crea s totalling Ie than five
percent e ch year.
The bo rd voted to retain
the rvices of Bleich, Burch
and Dettman, Benton Twp.,
to handle all the township gen­
eral and labor legal matters.
The board will retain the finn
of Globensky, Gleiss, Henderson
and Bittner, St. Joseph, for all
township tax matters.
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Member of the TC T A
Site Location Study Commit­
tee were Brown' William lilly,
Director of Community Ser­
vice , City of Benton H rbor:
Dr. J mes Redmond, Benton
Township/Southwestern ichi­
gan Commi ion Repre ntative:
Janice cAltine, Vice Chair­
person/Secretary, TCA T A
Board; Carol anstrom, South­
we tern ichigan Commi ion'
George Harri ichi an Depart­
m nt of Transportation; and
Fran Yurkas, Berri n unty
Bo rd 0 Realtor .
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