Since 1854 — News from Montcalm County and Ionia County, Michigan

By The Daily News Staff | on April 23, 2022

When we review the actions by the Greenville Public Schools board and superintendents with the past two bond proposals, 2011 and 2017, we are disappointed with their lack of honesty. 

The mantra for the 2011 bond proposal was no more buses on Blackburn Street yet every school day there are buses traveling on the street all day long. After school and on weekends, buses from other school districts use Blackburn Street to drop off athletes at the middle school or athletic fields. Another mantra was that for every tree that was cut down, 2-3 would be planted in its place. We counted 34 trees across from us that were cut down and when we asked the superintendent when new trees would be planted he said that there was no money left yet it was reported at the board meeting that there was $44,000 left and Clark Construction wanted that money.

During that construction, every morning we were awakened at 5:45 a.m. to our house shaking. When this was reported to the superintendent and Marty Schultz of Clark Construction we were told they didn’t believe our house was shaking. When asked to come, see it, hear it and feel it for themselves they refused saying “they weren’t experts.” They knew that construction trucks were being forced to use Blackburn Street instead of the construction road because of a temporary fence with illegal electrical wire, blocking the area creating an extremely dangerous situation for students. Two summers ago when we told board members about the damage to our house because of this construction, one of them told us to put a “For Sale” sign in our yard. 

The second bond proposal, November 2017, had the track resurfacing purposely excluded in hopes of the proposal passing which it did, but the track was resurfaced in 2020 using separate funds. 

The mantra for this $45,230,000 bond proposal is all of these additions and lower taxes too, but we doubt that it will hold true. History tells us that once it is passed, promises are soon forgotten. 

As with the past bond proposals, we have suggested a new bus plan. Since it hasn’t been included in the bond proposal, we will again vote no on May 3.

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