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During public comment, resident Austin Kane urged commissioners to begin livestreaming their meetings again. This prompted Mayor Angel Johnston to ask City Manager Joe Bippus for an update on the commission’s June 16 direction for Bippus to explore city-run livestreams. “We’re probably developing an RFP (request for proposal) that we’ll send out,” Bippus said, in part. Johnston then asked Bippus when the system would be ready, Bippus said he did not know.

Dad’s Place, a longtime breakfast diner in Three Rivers, closed Tuesday, August 18, after announcing its closure on Facebook earlier that day.  “Due to the rising costs, lack of help, and just being damn tired, we are sorry to inform you all that today is the last day our doors are going to be open for business,” the restaurant wrote in a Facebook post.

The moratorium comes amid growing data center development nationally and closer to home. The city’s agenda report cites an increase in proposed data centers and battery energy storage systems in Kalamazoo County and elsewhere in Southwest Michigan.  Locally, debate has centered on Harbor Farmz, a Kalamazoo-based cannabis company that is selling its facility at 2839 Full Circle Drive and marketing the property for potential redevelopment as a data center. Company representatives at Monday’s meeting urged commissioners not to adopt the moratorium.

Commissioners will be asked to consider an initial-term investment  of $27,626 in CivicPlus Municipal Websites Central related services to replace the city’s website and improve its ability to “provide accessible, secure, and user-friendly information to residents, businesses, and visitors,” according to the agenda packet.  The packet does not state when the new website would launch or whether the existing site would experience downtime during the transition. The program would also allow amended sections of the municipal code to link back to the meeting where legislation was adopted, giving staff and residents “instant access to the agenda, minutes, audio, video, and vote tallies,” when applicable.  The city has not publicly provided an update on its plans to explore livestreaming options, and the website change does not itself indicate that meetings will be livestreamed. Commissioners directed City Manager Joe Bippus to explore city-run meeting livestreams during their June 16 meeting but have received no public update from Bippus since.

The Sturgis City Commission met Wednesday, August 12, approving the use of $3 million to pay down hospital-related bonds, increases to annual utility rates, the city’s 2026-27 budget, and up to $800,000 in bonds for the Doyle Community Center roof project.

We hear it all the time: just give it time. In the fifth episode of the Good Grief. Podcast, Watershed Voice’s Aundrea Sayrie unpacks what happens when we stop waiting for the pain to disappear and start intentionally tending to the places that still hurt.