Inside this Issue: DPW Water Report Re-evaluation Zoning Enforcement New Fire Chief Mother/Daughter Book Club Book Discussion Group Fall Story Time Fall Festival

Veterans’ Memorial Park The City of Hudsonville is pleased to inform you of its plans to create a new Veterans’ Memorial Park. The Veterans’ Memorial Park is in the process of being relocated. An Adhoc Committee consisting of residents of Hudsonville has been diligently working on preparation for this park. This eye-catching tribute will be located at the corner of 32nd and Central Boulevard, adjacent to the City Hall. It will showcase statues from the five branches of the military. It will also feature an amphitheater able to seat 250 people. In addition, many trees indigenous to Michigan have been carefully selected to enhance this lovely park. We are excited about this project and hope that all will join with us in paying tribute to our many brave men and women who have served and continue to serve this great land of ours, preserving our interests and protecting our rights. We are now in the most important part of this process, the fundraising. There are several ways in which you can be a part of this exciting project and pass on our community’s legacy of faith and family to future generations. Your gift of $50 provides a 4” x 8” paver brick with your name on it. Your gift of $100 provides a 8” x 8” paver brick with your families nameon it. Your gift of $200 provides an evergreen tree. Your gift of $250 provides a deciduous tree. Your gift of $750 provides a park bench with your name on it. Larger gifts are also needed: $3500 will purchase the flag pole $4000 will provide one of the five military statues Your donation of $125 will place the name of a veteran on the Veterans’ Memorial Wall. (Those who have served or are currently serving in the Armed Services.) Gifts of labor and materials are also needed!! Purchase a Veterans’ Memorial T-shirt available at the City Hall and also from local merchants. ($10 adult, $7 children)

VETERANS MEMORIAL PARK PAVER BRICKS & DONATIONS Please fill out the form below and mail to: City of Hudsonville, 3275 Central Blvd., Hudsonville, MI 49426 Enclose your total Contributions; make your check out to the City of Hudsonville. Donor's Name: __________________________________ Address: _______________________________________ City/State: ______________________________________ Zip Code: ________________ Phone: ________________ Choose brick size or other item and the inscription that you want ot appear. The maximum is 14 characters per line, including spacing and punctuation. Use all capital letters. All inscriptions are subject to approval. INDIVIUAL 4" x 8" BRICK: $50 VETERANS MEMORIAL WALL OR PARK BENCH FAMILY OR GROUP 8" x 8" BRICK: $100 ADDITIONAL GIFT FOR THE MEMORIAL PARK: $125 for Memorial Wall $250 for deciduous tree $3500 for flag pole $200 for evergreen tree $750 for park bench $4000 for a statue

Department of Public Works

Public works projects establish the physical network upon which the country’s economy depends—its infrastructure. This network is not an end in itself. Its importance to the economy and to society, as a whole, derives from the services it offers: the opportunity to improve productivity or reduce costs. Although most easily thought of in a physical form—a bridge, a water treatment plant, a highway—infrastructure produces services: the movement of people and goods or the provision of adequate clean water. Thus, one can consider two measures of the efficacy of the existing system: the investment in physical resources and the services the investment provides.

Most public works infrastructure projects share several characteristics:

• High cost of investment
• Costs of long economic life, large operations, and maintenance
• Potential to dominate local markets
• Interaction with other infrastructure projects
  

Most infrastructure projects constitute a small part of a larger system—a national road network, a regional water supply system, etc. The required coordination means that some public involvement is needed even if projects receive private financing. Also, because of the high costs of market entry, many infrastructure projects have near monopoly power in their local market. Such projects require economic and safety regulations.
Other functions of the DPW Department are the maintenance of parks and grounds. The mowing of all of the areas in the Chicago Drive Median plus all of the other small areas that are maintained by the City of Hudsonville takes a whole week to mow in the summer months. This Department functions with a heavy load on a weekly basis. There are five employees in the DPW Department run by John Gorney, Supervisor, plus one part-time summer help. Congratulations to the department for a job well done!

2001 Water Quality Report

Neighborhood Re-evaluation

The neighborhood re-evaluation for the area bounded by 40th on the west, 36th Avenue on the east, Chicago Drive on the south, and Van Buren Street on the north is well under way. Jennifer Bultema, a summer intern, and Jan Sall, Assessor have been visiting individual properties on Grant, Lee, and Green Streets. The City would like to express our heartfelt thanks for the reception, consideration, and co-operation they have received. They will continue working in this area for the summer. Call Shannon Bales or Jan Sall at 669-0200 if you have any concerns regarding their work and/or if it would be more convenient for you to schedule an appointment for a visit.

Zoning Enforcement

It is in the summer months when zoning enforcement activity picks up. The main reason is that many residents do various improvements to their property without checking with the city offices about the requirements. When that happens, violations occur. It is the City’s intent to ensure everyone follows the laws to keep with the goal of keeping Hudsonville a safe, clean place to live.

Some pointers for avoiding violations include:

• Before installing a fence, pool, driveway, shed, or any other addition, please call the city to make sure what you are building meets the city codes. Most of these items need a permit and that will prevent any unnecessary code enforcement.
• Most signs also require a permit. Signs have location requirements, and are only allowed on the lot they are advertising for. This includes For Sale signs.
• Driveways are to be either concrete or asphalt.
• Motor homes, boats, trailers, and other large recreational equipment are not allowed to be stored for more than three days in any area between the house and the street.
• It is not permitted to sell a vehicle other than your own from your lot. A license and proper zoning are needed to sell someone else’s vehicle.
• Grass can be no more than 8” high, unless it is a vacant piece of property. Vacant property needs to be mowed by June 1, August 1, and October 1.

Please contact the Zoning Department at City Hall with any questions you may have regarding improvements to your property.

Dick Mohr - New Fire Chief

As of July 1, 2002 Dick Mohr has been named the new Fire Chief for the City of Hudsonville. Dick Mohr has been with the City’s Fire Department since 1974. His new Officers are Steve Essenburg, Deputy Fire Chief, Larry Schipper, Fire Captain, and Kurt Kunnen, Fire Lieutenant.
The Fire Department currently has four officers and 24 paid on call firefighters.
Fire was one of our early ancestors’ most important technological advances. To sustain our resources we depend on fire and its accomplishments. However, fire threatens us with destruction. Today the cost of fire, including the losses it causes, the cost of insurance against those losses, and the cost of fire prevention and suppression, is many billions of dollars annually.
In the United States, insurance companies established the first fire departments to reduce their losses. Today almost every community has a fire department or a fire authority. Small towns usually have paid on call departments. Large cities have very extensive, highly specialized fire departments.
While the fire department may come to mind first, for fire prevention, other departments also play a role. The water department, building inspection, police, and city planners provide important services, essential to fire prevention.
Firefighting requires a good supply of water. A third of the insurance ratings base a community’s rating on aspects of the water supply. In small communities, with no fire hydrants, the fire department must pump from streams, ponds, or other natural water sources. If the fire department cannot pump water, it must carry the water in tank trucks. Unfortunately, lack of water destroys many buildings in such communities. In cities, many buildings, especially those that many people occupy, must have automatic sprinkler systems for fire suppression.
Fire fighting is a twenty-four-hour job. Our dedicated, paid on call firefighters work their normal jobs and yet are on call 24 hours a day seven days a week. Most of the firefighters are trained as First Responders or EMT’s and respond to all medical calls. We even have a team that is responsible every weekend for fire and medical calls.
The pumpers and our new ladder truck provide the primary support for firefighters. However, today firefighters have access to many assisting devices, such as aerial ladders, rescue squad trucks, floodlight trucks, water towers, etc.
Five firefighters should operate each pumper. Six firefighters should operate an aerial ladder. However, budget limitations force many fire departments to operate with low levels of firefighters. The City of Hudsonville only has problems during the day time shift because many of our firefighters work outside of the city and are not able to respond in a timely manner. Most of the larger cities have alarm systems consisting of alarm boxes located in public places. In recent years the widespread availability of telephones has reduced the reliance on the box systems. The introduction of two-way radios has greatly improved the department communications.
Today, fire fighting occupies a small part of a fire department’s job. Firefighters spend a lot of time training for fires and understanding all of the laws associated with a position of a firefighter. Stringent regulations are in place to see that firefighters observe the safest methods available for saving of lives and property. Firefighters spend a lot of time inspecting buildings and enforcing the fire prevention laws and regulations. However, firefighters usually deliver medical aid at accident scenes (such as heart attacks, car accidents, accidents at schools and in parks, etc.)
Advancements in materials combined with stricter building and fire prevention codes, have decreased the risk of fire. Today, many fire departments spend as much as 85% of their time on the medical aide. Thus, many firefighters are also emergency medical technicians (EMT) or paramedics. Thanks for a job well done by all of our fire team!

Mother/Daughter Book Club

The Mother/Daughter book club is for mothers and their daughters (5th - 8th grade). The Club generally meets the first Thursday of the month from 7:00 - 8:00 p.m. in the children’s program room of the Gary Byker Library. A book discussion is followed by a game and refreshments. Books are handed out each meeting for the following month and extras are at the front desk.
The first meeting will be Thursday, October 3rd and the book is The House of Dies Drear by Virginia Hamilton. (Books will be available at the front desk by September 9th.) At this meeting they will vote on the books to be read for the rest of the year. If you have any book suggestions please let us know.
There will be a ten dollar fee to join the club. Library cardholders who live within the city limits of Hudsonville may join for free.
We hope to see you at our first meeting.

Adult Book Discussion Group

Come and join us on Thursday, September 19 at 7:30 p.m. to discuss the first book Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Sijie Dai.
“This is a funny, touching, sly and altogether delightful novel… ironic and wistful....Though salted with wit and slapstick humor, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is basically a romance, a novel about the power of art to enlarge our imaginations, no matter what the circumstances . . .” --Michael Dirda, The Washington Post Book World
Reserve this book by calling the library at 669-1255. At this meeting the rest of the books for the year will be chosen. Suggestions can be emailed to hudmh@llcoop.net.

Fall Story Time

The Three Little Pigs, Cinderella,
Jack and the Beanstalk,
and more!

FALL STORY TIME sign-up will begin Monday,
September 9th. There is a ten dollar fee per child payable at the time of sign-up. Residents who live within the city limits of Hudsonville may sign-up for free. The session runs for six weeks
beginning Monday, September 30th. Story times for “independent” 3 - 6 year olds are offered either Monday or Friday mornings from 11:15 - 12:00 noon or Tuesday afternoons from 1:00 - 1:45 p.m. The last ten minutes of story time will include a craft and parents are encouraged to come in and help their children.
A WEE WIGGLER PROGRAM
(ABC's and 1,2,3’s) for toddlers 18 months to 3 years old accompanied by one adult lap per child is offered Monday, Wednesday or Friday mornings from 10:15 to 11:00 a.m. There is a ten dollar fee per child payable at the time of sign-up. Residents who live within the city limits of Hudsonville may attend free. The first twenty minutes includes stories, songs and fingerplays. Next, the parents help their children make a small craft. Then it is snack time for the children (please bring a sipper cup) and a time for parents to get to know each other.
If you have any questions please call Ellie Mazor, the Children’s Librarian, at 669-1255, ext. 4.

Hudsonville Fall Festival

Hudsonville Fall Festival Race Route