ZEELAND, MI (WHTC-AM/FM) – During Monday night’s Zeeland City Council meeting, City Manager Tim Klunder briefed the governing panel on the latest developments surrounding the reconstruction of the Washington Avenue/Main Street junction at Zeeland’s Western Gateway.
In notes attached to the meeting agenda prior to the 7 PM session at Zeeland City Hall, Klunder wrote: “We held our bi-weekly progress meeting on August 13th … and the overall tone of the meeting was that the project is progressing nicely and they are on schedule. Work continues to focus on the underground utilities storm sewer work and water main work for the next week and a half. Access to Biggby has stabilized from the west on Chicago Drive. Access to other businesses has remained good from W. Main. Detour route traffic has also seemed to find their best routes as well, acknowledging that it does increase the amount of traffic on some of our other local streets. Comments from staff are that K&R (contractor) is doing a very nice job and communicating well with our various departments.”
There has been some concern, echoed earlier this month in an appearance on “WHTC Talk of the Town” by Mayor Kevin Klynstra, that the project could run past its scheduled November 15th deadline, as Reith-Reilly was currently involved in a work action staged by members of the Operating Engineers Local 324 due to the lack of a new collective bargaining agreement.
Also during Monday night’s meeting, the Zeeland Fire Rescue Department added two new members, as Marty VanderVelde was sworn in as a Firefighter/Emergency Medical Technician and Nick Longstreet was a Firefighter/Emergency Medical Responder. Chief Ross Tibbets said in his pre-meeting memo that both men successfully completed state and local testing.
