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Tuesday, March 17, 2020 Volume 160, Number 54 sturgisjournal.com @sturgisnewsroom facebook.com/SturgisJournal $1.25

COV I D - 1 9

March
SPECIAL

2 LARGE
City hall, Glen Oaks closed
$1999 2 TOPPING
PIZZA’S
By Dennis Volkert
[email protected]
Inside board and commission meet-
ings are canceled until April 5,
Residents having business
with city departments such
More COVID-19 coverage: as are city-organized events, as community development,
The list of changes due to Governor bans dining out, classes or leisure activities. engineering, assessing, the
COVID-19 grew Monday, as extends jobless benefits. Region, Information about specific clerk-treasurer’s office or util-
the city of Sturgis and Glen A3. cancellations or postpone- ity customer service are asked
STURGIS, MI • 651-8500
7 DAYS A WEEK 10AM-10PM Oaks Community College ments will be available on to contact those departments
NEW LOCATION announced closures. the websites and Facebook via phone or email.
116 N. CENTERVILLE RD All city of Sturgis facilities, to teach classes through an pages of the city of Sturgis, Residents may find contact
BEHIND RITE AID
cottageinn.com including city hall, are closed online format, the decision Doyle Community Center,and information for city depart-
to the public, along with to close campus was based on Sturges-Young Center for the ments at sturgismi.gov/
Doyle Community Center and the current status of the virus Arts, as well as the Sturgis247 contactus. Requests for service

Dometic Sturges-Young Center for the

Arts. Closures will remain in
and the risk to employees and
their families. Employees will
Community Calendar.
City departments will
or questions may be submitted
via the city’s ActionLine online

plant in effect until April 5.

Glen Oaks has closed its
work from home to continue
to provide support services to
remain in operation during
this period of closure, but
request system, available at
egovlink.com/sturgis/action.

LaGrange
Shimmel Road campus until students and faculty. some city services requiring For those who need to make
further notice. Although In addition to the closures in contact with the public are
instructors will continue Sturgis, all non-essential city suspended during this time. See CLOSED, A2
to close
Estimated 200

Mild winter means cost-

workers to lose jobs

By Elena Meadows
Journal Correspondent

The Dometic Global

plant in LaGrange, Ind.,
will close March 31.
savings for road commission
About 200 workers from
Michigan and Indiana are
affected.
Domestic manufactures
awnings for recreational
vehicles.
The company
announced the closure
Jan. 22. According to
Local #871 vice president
Jane Johnson, at this point
workers have no sever-
ance package on the table.
At a March 4 meeting
between union officials
and the company, there
was no one present for
the company who could
authorize an agreement.
The meeting has been
rescheduled for March 24.
“At this time, our fear
is that this multi-million
dollar company, who is
moving this location to
Mexico for higher profit
margin, will walk away
leaving us all high and
dry,” Johnson said.
Many of the workers
have given 20 to 40 years
to the job, she said.
Members of UAW Local
#871 planned a silent
protest today with signs
in employees’ vehicles
parked in the lot.
A company representa-
tive could not be reached St. Joseph County Road Commission, like many across the state, did not use as much sand-salt mix on its roads this winter compared to most
for comment as of press years, due to mild weather. [JEF RIETSMA/JOURNAL]
time. However, in an
article from the News- By Jef Rietsma 10 to 20 percent less sand/salt we won’t have to buy quite as policy where we put material
Sun, he said the line is Journal Correspondent mixture compared to this point much salt.” on until the road is totally
being moved to an exist- in previous years,” he said. Lindsey said he would label thawed,” he added. “People
ing facility in Monterey, John Lindsey, manager “Interestingly, we’re going 2019-20 as a “light winter,” don’t seem to understand that,
Mexico, where Dometic at St. Joseph County Road over our salt order (for winter and he’d be hard pressed to but we leave that to Mother
currently produces air Commission said the winter 2020-21) right now and it’s find anyone who could fairly Nature.”
conditioning units. of 2019-20 will go down in always a tricky deal, because argue to the contrary. He went He did note, however, that
The company has history as quiet and relatively we buy it through the MDOT on to explain the agency’s high-volume roads such
experienced an industry mild. program and it’s a market of standard protocol. as Silver Street in Mendon
downturn and is executing As a result, the Centreville- supply and demand.” “What people maybe don’t Township, for example, typi-
a global manufacturing based agency might end up Obviously, Lindsey con- know is during the deeper cally will receive a layer of
with a small amount of savings, tinued, if road commissions snowfalls, we just go plow mix along the middle of the
See DOMETIC, A2 thanks to less road-salt it used statewide have excess salt on it … we don’t put down a lot roadway.
over the past five months. hand, demand will be lower of material other than on the Having said that, Lindsey
Lindsey said he’ll have firm than usual and its cost will be hills, curves and intersec- explained when the area
numbers by the end of the reflected accordingly. tions,” Lindsey said. “People receives a small amount of
month. “You’d have to go pretty far seem to think we’re always snow, the department will use
“Based on what I know about north to get to a county where trying to make the roads bare, the same volume of material
winter to this point, and this is they’ve had a winter similar but really our job is to make the as it would after a blizzard.
just an estimate off the top of to what they usually have,” roads passable.
my head, I’d say we’ve used he added. “But around here, “We do not have a bare-road See ROADS, A3

Classified .................. A9 Opinion ..................... A4 TODAY WEDN ES DAY T H U RS DAY

Comics ..................... A10 Sports ........................A8 Partly sunny Rain Cloudy, rain
Flavor .......................A12 Weather ....................A11 49° / 29° 48° / 43° 63° / 50°

S K E E T

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