11-01-2018 Elections are Tuesday, November 6 City Commissioners facing challenges; Berrien County Co

ONE COMET SOARS TO THE TOP! Coloma Comet Emma Van-dermolen, running in the Regional Cross country race on Saturday fi-nished in the top 15 in a time of 21:57.02, is celebrated here with her fellow team mates. Her regional re-sults qualify her to run in the State Cross Country race next Saturday, to be held at the Michigan Inter-national Speedway in Brooklyn, MI. Best of luck Emma!

Elections are Tuesday, November 6 City Commissioners facing challenges; Berrien County Commissioner race;  School Board members unopposed

By Annette Christie Watervliet City Commission Watervliet City Commissioner incumbents Deah Muth, Larry Hehl, and Rick Kinzler are facing challengers this November. Michael Bumstead and Jennifer Helms hope to have a seat at the Commission table. Deah A. Muth, 43,

resides on Silver Terrace in the City of Watervliet. She is a graduate of Watervliet High School & Lake Michigan College. She has a son who attends Watervliet High School. Muth is employed by the Watervliet School District as a building secretary. She also has a background in finance and business ownership. She has been serving on the Watervliet City Commission since January 2012. She has chaired the Watervliet Home Town Christmas Celebration for the last four years and has been the Chairperson of the Parks and Recreation Committee. Muth was one of the forces that worked diligently to get the new skate park located at Hays Park. Muth is seeking re-election because she loves being involved and making a difference in the city where she was born and raised. “I love being the voice for the citizens and hope to continue with the growth. I would love to be involved in the development of the Paper Mill site,” Muth said.

Larry Hehl, 62, resides at 241 S. Main St., Apt. #2, in the City of Watervliet. He has three grown children. He has served the City of Watervliet as a Commissioner for two years following an appointment to fill a vacancy. He is seeking election for a four-year term. He has also served on the Planning Commission.

Hehl has studied psychology and history at Illinois State University and is working toward a master’s degree in secondary education. He has many years of work experience in management, finance, and business. He seeks to continue in his role as commissioner so that he can continue to work with City leaders and fellow commissioners to have fiscal responsibility. “My original interest was in seeing the Paper Mill site developed,” adding, “that will really put Watervliet on the map.”

Rick Kinzler,

71, is finishing his first term as a City Commissioner. A life-long resident of Berrien County, he and his wife reside at 296 Riverside Dr. in the City of Watervliet. He has two grown children. Kinzler is a graduate of Watervliet High School and worked as a trash hauler for 51 years before retiring. He hopes to be re-elected so that he can be a part of the future of Watervliet and wants to stay involved.

Michael Bumstead, 57, is hoping to serve in a public office for the first time as a Watervliet City Commissioner. He and his wife have three daughters.

He is a graduate of Buchanan High School and attended Great Lakes Christian College for two years. He has served our country for four years in the U.S. Navy where he was honorably discharged in 1995. He has also served as a volunteer fireman and EMT. He has worked at (what is now known as) Spectrum Health Lakeland for 23 years. Having lived in Watervliet for 16 years, Bumstead said he is running for office to serve his community. He wants to help the City of Watervliet to improve and prosper.

Jennifer Helms, 63, resides at 610 Twin Hills Drive. She recently retired from 43 years in the utility industry and has experience in finance, purchasing, contracts and administration. She has lived in Watervliet for 17 years, is a lifetime Michigander and has two children.

She has been interested in getting involved in city government for several years but had a job that required long hours and travel. With retirement, she now has the time to focus on the great city of Watervliet. Helms said she wants Watervliet to be a healthy, safe town. To her, this means monitoring and maintaining roads, safe water supply, and adequate police protection. In her career, she has led and been a part of many diverse work teams that had to come to hard decisions as well as decisions that met the needs of the company and has led change when it is for all involved.

Coloma City Commission Coloma City Clerk Martha Darling and Treasurer Kelly Clements face no opposition in this month’s election. City Commissioners Martha Hammond, Nathan Clements, and Linda Freitag are being challenged.

Marsha Hammond, 67, resides at 126 N. Church St. in the City of Coloma. She is retired and has been on the City Commission for 17 years. She is running for reelection because of her love for the City of Coloma and the work that she does with Public Works. “We have just started working on a Master Plan for the City and I want to see that through,” Hammond said. The city is also in the process of developing a 5-year Capital Improvement Plan. She added, “We have developed combined services with our neighboring communities, we need to continue to acknowledge their importance and honor those relationships.”

Nathan Clements, 33,

is employed by Whirlpool Corporation and is co-owner of Clements Property Solutions. He and his wife have one daughter and reside at 563 N. West St. He has been on the City Commission for three years.

Linda Freitag, 65, is a medical assistant for Berrien Regional Associates in Neurology. She has a son and two step-daughters. She and her husband reside at 353 W. Maple St. She has served the citizens of Coloma in this role for over 20 years.

Fred Reeves is challenging the incumbents. The 77-year-old resides at 164 Harriet St. with his wife. He has three children and two step-children. His work experience includes 25 years on the Berrien County Sheriff’s Department, sales, training, and consumer affairs.

Reeves describes himself as a political junkie. He said he loves the City of Coloma and that there are good people here. He said he has some ideas that may help the town.

Hartford City Incumbents Ron Burleson, Frank Dockter, and John Miller are unopposed for four-year terms.

Hagar Township Clerk Sarah Rodriquez has worked as the clerk since May 2017 after being appointed to fill the vacancy. This is her first time serving in a public office. She and her husband live at 2787 Coloma Rd.

Berrien County Commission Berrien County Commissioner Dave Vollrath, Republican, faces Democrat Patricia Camarena-Rose Barbary for the District 1 Berrien County Commission seat. District 1 represents Coloma City, Coloma Township, Hagar Township, and the portion of Watervliet Township north of I-94.

David Vollrath became a Berrien County Commissioner after winning the general election in 2016. Vollrath graduated from Coloma High School and lived most of his life in the Tri-City area. He and his wife have celebrated over 30 years of marriage. They currently live in Coloma Charter Township where they have resided for 19 years. They have two grown sons. Vollrath is retired from APL Logistics in Coloma where he worked as a purchasing agent and inventory specialist for just short of 20 years. He has served on the Coloma Board of Education for 18 years and has held various leadership positions throughout the years. His community membership includes being the past Exalted Ruler of the St. Joe, Benton Harbor Elks Lodge 541 and a member for 33 years. He has volunteered as a manager and coach for little league baseball, rocket football and coached the youth basketball programs. He has served as President of Coloma/Hagar Baseball Softball Association, and also several years as baseball director. He served on the first active board for the Coloma Rocket Football Association. He and his wife are members of Coloma United Methodist Church, where he has also been an active volunteer. As a commissioner, Vollrath is appointed to the Personnel and Human Services Committee and was previously on the Finance Committee. He also serves on the Area Agency on Aging, Disaster Planning Committee, Land Bank Authority, Southwest Michigan Alliance Region Three, Local Emergency Planning Commission, and the County Public Safety Communication Center Operations Committee. He was recently selected to serve on two state level committees as well.

Patricia Camarena-Rose Barbary resides at 2631 Park Road in Coloma with her husband. She has one son and one step-daughter.

Barbary has a BA in English Journalism from Valparaiso University, and a MA and Mph from Simmons College in Literature and Philosophy of Language respectively. Her work experience includes marketing, team leader, business ownership and training. She retired from IBM in 2016. Barbary is a member of the Chamber of Commerce Coloma and Watervliet since 2008, a Hartford Chamber of Commerce member since 2016, a member of the Coloma HS Theatre Boosters and the Watervliet HS Football Team Boosters. As a member of the student exchange program she is hosting students from Brazil and Mexico for four years. Barbary said she wants to represent the people of District 1 using her 15 years of experience working as team leader with teams on budgets and allocations and problem solving for IBM, in a global capacity. She noted that she is fluent in Spanish and will seek to represent the entire diverse community. As a parent in this community and familiarity with schools and her son’s peers, she feels that she can fully represent the needs of the entire community regardless of the age gaps that exist among us. Barbary states that she has already begun to attend local meetings in Watervliet Township, Hagar Township, Coloma Township and Coloma City to hear about issues with roads, parks, infrastructure, water and more. She looks forward to being able to offer her thoughts on directions Berrien County can take to work toward solutions. Jon Hinkelman defeated Bill Hodge in the primary and is unopposed in the general election. Commissioner Jon Hinkelman, District 2 Commissioner does not face any opposition. District 2 represents Watervliet City, the portion of Watervliet Township south of I-94, Bainbridge Township, Berrien Township, Pipestone Township, and the Village of Eau Claire.

Van Buren County Commission Mike Chappell defeated the incumbent in the primary election and is unopposed for the District 4 Van Buren County Commission seat. He is a resident of Hartford. He and his wife have three children. Chappell graduated from Hartford High School and the University of Northwestern Ohio. He is currently attending Kalamazoo Valley Community College. He is a retired administrator of Hartford Public Schools, a captain of the Hartford Fire Department and is a United States Air Force Veteran. He is the Vice President of the Van Buren County Firefighters Association and the Hartford Lions Club. He is a member of the Hartford American Legion. Chappell believes that education doesn’t stop after high school. “We need to prepare not only our high school students, but also our adults for the jobs that are now available,” Chappell said.

He would like to encourage and help small business startups to protect and grow jobs.

He would like to see drug resistance promoted beyond the high schools. “We need to keep people from starting drugs and help people recover from addiction and start new lives,” Chappell said.

Chappell has personally worked on fire prevention programs in the schools and is working on drug resistance programs.  “We need to keep our community safe,” Chappell said.

School Board Candidates Unopposed

Erik Laws and Amanda Morlock-Fisher are unopposed for two six-year school board seats in the Watervliet School District. John Oliphant is unopposed for a partial, two-year term.

Heidi Ishmael, Douglas LeClear, and Nicol Cottier-Hickman are unopposed for three four-year terms on the Coloma School Board.

Michael Banic and Lisa Johnson are unopposed for two six-year terms on the Hartford School Board.