Bridgman swimmers prep for conference

BRIDGMAN - Members of the Bridgman High School swimming team take a moment to acknowledge the camera-man at a Friday, Feb. 17 practice at the Bridgman High School Aquatics Center. The team is preparing for the SWAC Conference meet this weekend at Western Michigan University after finishing the 2010-11 regular season with a 7-2 overall record and a 3-2 mark in conference. 

Bees' head coach Kevin Anderson told the Harbor Country News that he has hopes of the 2500 free relay and the 250 free events continuing on to the MHSAA State Tournament. 

Bizarre week

The week of Feb. 14 to Feb. 20 of 2011 proved to be one of the oddest weeks I've ever experienced. 

It got off on a sad note, as I attended the wake of a college friend that died suddenly a few weeks ago while hiking near the waterfalls of Nakhon, Thailand. Angelo Bonadonna was a traveler like myself, but someone who experienced different events and cultures on a worldwide basis. He and I worked together on the radio station at Saint Xavier University and he was the one who gave me a second chance at hosting a show when he invited me on his sports show in 2006. His carefree attitude and genuine passion for life made him a favorite with everyone he encountered. No one who met him felt that he was anything less than their friend. I feel terrible that the world lost such a kind, fun-loving individual and even worse for his family. But the spirit of Angelo lives on in everyone's lives. He was a special person that epitomized living life to the fullest. He will be missed. 

With that in mind, I had to move on with life, returning to the world of sports in Southwest Michigan for a Tuesday night basketball game between Grace Christian and River Valley. The odd part of that day was that the Mustangs won, their first victory of the year. 

After a relatively normal Wednesday, things got odd again Thursday when I covered the New Buffalo-Countryside Academy girls basketball game. The CD that had the National Anthem on it did not work, so the Lady Bison sang the song themselves, and they knew all the words unlike Super Bowl singer Christina Aguilera. 

The final score of that game was also an odd one, 65-4. The Bison routed a Countryside team that clearly was not on the same level as even a junior varsity team in the Red Arrow Conference. But the sympathy for the Cougars was evident as every time they did manage to score a point, the New Buffalo crowd would give them a standing ovation. It was much louder when they scored than when the host Bison made a basket. 

Friday provided an experience I'll never forget. I had an interview with a fifth grade teacher at New Buffalo Elementary on her students' assignment to write a letter to the editor. Little did I know I was coming in to be the guest speaker of the class for the day and would be calling on the students to hear their opinions on some of the topics the letters covered. 

They were the best behaved set of fifth graders I've ever seen and were real excited to have a newspaper reporter in the classroom. They all had many questions for me and my job which made me think how cool of a job I really have being able to experience something different every day. I finally understand what compels someone to want to be a teacher. To have an impact on a young person's life is as rewarding of a feeling there is. 

But it was Friday night's event that really got me questioning how weird this week was. At another game for the one-win River Valley men's basketball team, I witnessed Trevor Harlan of the Mustangs dunk in the final points of the third quarter during a loss to Lake Michigan Catholic. I've never seen a high school player dunk in person, and the last team I would guess to have done that would be River Valley. Not Brother Rice, not Maroa-Forsyth, not Bridgman, but River Valley? Go figure. 

Saturday went by, but Sunday topped the cake. At the last minute I decided to visit a church for Sunday mass and had decided upon St. Francis de Sales on the east side of Chicago. When I got there I found out that not only was I a half an hour early, but the mass would be held in Spanish. I didn't understand hardly any of it, but it was a fitting way to end a bizarre week. 

Glavin purchase put on hold

HARBERT - The Glavin Property, located in between Chikaming Township Hall and the River Valley Senior Center in Chikaming Township, will remain under the same ownsership, at least for now.

A special meeting scheduled between the Chikaming Township Board and the Park Board regarding the township's possible acquisition of the Glavin Property, was scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 27, but cancelled two days earlier. Park Board secretary/treasurer Brad Williamson cited a pair of circumstances for the meeting's cancellation.

"It was a combination of the seller's asking price and the new Michigan Natural Resource Trust fund acquisition grant law that requires us to provide 40 percent matching funds for a grant," Williamson said. "We could have handles either one alone, but the decision was to put it on hold."

The park board will continue to work on developing Harbert Park with or without the grant, but Williamson said the board is hopeful someone in the township would purchase the property and donate the land to the township.

"The current price is $280,000," he said. "For some of these people that's not a lot of money and there is precedent for people buying and donating property to the park."

He added that the precedent was a number of local buyers bought and donated a portion of the Chikaming Park and Preserve near Warren Woods Road.

Photo: Chikaming Park Board member Dan Buckenmeyer laces up the skates before the grand opening of the Harbert Park rink on Friday, Jan. 28.

Preparing for the big one

From all accounts, Chicago and Northwest Indiana/Southwest Michigan is hours away from the biggest snow storm since at least 1999, and possibly worse than the one that crippled the city in 1967.

Meteorologists are predicting somewhere in between 18 and 24 inches of snow. In 1967, I believe the city of Chicago had 23 inches accumulated, so if we do get two feet this year it will be a recorded record.

Never before have I experiences such a storm as a driver, as he 19 inches we had in 1999 came before I was old enough to get my license. Because of that, I am hoping this does not live up to the hype. Snow is fine until you have to drive in it. I don't mind the constant shoveling, but when you have no choice but to drive to the places you need to be, it can be dangerous.

But no matter how bad it gets, I hope everyone knows not to go super fast on the road. We need to be in this together and try not to kill anyone.

I am all for historical occurrances and breaking the record, but in this case, at the end of the year - I just hope we can still talk about 1967 as the worst winter storm in Midwest history and not the 2011.