Thursday, October 22, 2015
Pirate girls, Panther boys reign at Oceana County Meet
Oceana’s
Herald-Journal
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Oceana County's weekly news source since 1869
Page B1
Strong winds help fuel fire that destroys Juniper Beach cottage Page 3a
The future of apple picking taking shape at Rennhack Orchards
Oceana EDC job fair Saturday in Hart
Numerous job opportunities will be presented during the Oceana County Economic Development Corporation job fair this Saturday, Oct. 24. The job fair will run from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Hart Community Center, 407 State St., in Hart. Employers participating in the Oceana County Job Fair
Three sections 48 pages
include, Arbre Farms, Burnett Foods, Chassix, Country Dairy, GHSP, Hawken Energy, Double JJ Resort, Louis Gelder & Son, Manpower, Northern Staffing, Oceana Foods, Valley City Metals, Valley View Pork, HGA Support Services, Hope Network and Michigan Works!
JOB FAIR SATURDAY continued on 3a
Beef, beer taken in Shelby break-in
Beef, bacon, bratwurst and beer were taken during a breakin at the Cherry Hill Market in Shelby early Saturday, Oct. 17. Oceana County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Craig Mast said a deputy performing a routine property check discovered the breakin at 424 N. State St. at 5:56 a.m. Mast said the doors to the butcher shop/meat area were forced open as were the main entry doors. Large amounts of ground beef, bratwurst, bacon, cigarettes and cases of Budlight beer were taken, Mast said. The incident remains under investigation. Anyone with any information regarding the break-in is asked to contact the sheriff’s office at 231-873-2121.
Sand dunes named ‘Most Instagrammed Location’ in Michigan
Andrew Skinner • Oceana’s Herald-Journal
Apple picking crew members, above and lower right, utilize an integrated apple harvest system to assist picking apples from the tops of trees in a Rennhack Orchards LLC orchard along 72nd Avenue in Hart Tuesday, Oct. 13. Bottom left, Dave Rennhack looks on as the apple harvester makes its way through the orchard.
Apple harvester eases labor shortage crunch By Anne Pawli OHJ
contributing Writer
Dave Rennhack’s apple orchards aren’t your grandpa’s orchards. He’s slowly but surely replacing the towering, leafy apple trees of his traditional orchards, which averaged 200-300 trees an acre, to high density orchards of 900 to 1,200 shorter, minimally branched and trellised trees grown a scant four feet apart. Rennhack Orchards LLC began making the changes to satisfy the demands of consumers as sweeter, plumper and juicier apples were developed. He continued adapting his orchards to meet the demands of processors, and more recently, to meet the challenge of the dwindling migrant labor force. It’s an expensive venture for Matttschafer • Instagram
farmers to move to high density orchards, a gamble that can run growers $12,000 to $15,000 an acre. Over the years, however, the high density system can generate twice the profits as low density orchards. “With a hot new variety or strain, you want to get into the marketplace with new apples sooner. If you guess right, it’s good. If you get it wrong, it’s an expensive mistake,” Rennhack admitted. Trees in traditional orchards enjoy a 30- 40-year lifespan. In a changing market where varieties fall in and out of favor on average every 15 years though, high density, compact orchards hit peak production quicker. The increased productivity of decline across the nation. It is a problem high density orchards is a mixed blessing predicted to worsen in the years to come. Rennhack began searching for a soluat harvest time as the number of pickers tion to that problem and he found it at a conference in New York, in the spring of 2013. There he saw a presentation of an
APPLE HARVESTER
Mattschafer posted the above picture on Instagram Saturday, Oct. 17 with the message “Off to silver lake for one last ride. #silverlakesanddunes #slsd #dunebuggy #sandrail #wheelie #bestplaceonearth.”
“We knew
#silverlakesanddunes racks up more than 12,300 photos and videos on Instagram
According to researchers at the a worldwide bus and coach travel company Busbud, the online mobile photo/ video-sharing and social networking service Instagram is abuzz with photos and video of the Silver Lake Sand Dunes. Busbud recently release its finds of the “Most Insta-
mechanization was coming. As labor got harder to find and (industry) standards got higher, we knew we’d have to move to mechanization,”
grammed Locations” in the United States by state. Taking top honors in Michigan was the Silver Lake Sand Dunes with 12,361 photos or videos containing the hashtag #silverlakesanddunes. “Many travelers are passionate about documenting
— Dave Rennhack Rennhack Orchards LLC
MOST INSTAGRAMMED continued on 7a
Hart Main Street receives 2015 National Main Street Accreditation and Master level status
Hart Main Street once again has been designated as an accredited National Main Street Program for meeting the commercial district revitalization performance standards set by the National Main Street Center, a subsidiary of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Each year, the National Main Street Center and its partners announce the list of accredited Main Street programs in recognition of their exemplary commitment to historic preservation and community revitalization through the Main Street Four Point Approach. National Main Street Program Coordinator, Norma Ramirez de Meiss; and State Program Coordinator, Laura Krizov met with the Hart Main Street Program Manager, the Hart Main Street Board of Directors and Committee Chairs. They reviewed the past year’s accomplishments, and once again deemed the efforts of the Hart Main Street Program volun-
O U R M I S S ION To be the primary source of information for our communities
www.oceanaheraldjournal.com
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“After 5 years as a
Main Street Program, I truly believe that downtown Hart has begun to come into its own,”
— Ingrid Pearson Hart Main Street Manager
teers worthy of annual accreditation. “We congratulate this year’s nationally accredited Main Street programs for their outstanding accomplishment in meeting the National Main Street Center’s 10 Standards of Performance,” says Patrice Frey, President & CEO of the National Main Street Center. “As the National Main Street Center celebrates its 35th
Anniversary, it is also important to celebrate the achievements of the local Main Street programs across the country, some of whom have been around since the beginning. These local programs work hard every day to make their communities
HART MAIN STREET ACCREDITATION
INDEX Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8a Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . 9-11b Court, Cops, Gov’t . . . . . . . 5b Obituaries . . . . . . . . . . . . 10a Outdoor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6b
School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4b Social . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9a Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B1-3 Stuff to do . . . . . . . . . . . 11a Viewpoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4a
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Hesperia student numbers drop; others relatively steady
With the exception of Hesperia, area school districts were close to or above the number of students they had last year during the annual fall student count day earlier this month. The preliminary count shows Hesperia has 1,001.5 students enrolled this fall which is down approximately 87 students over this time last year and down just over 55 students from last spring’s count. Walkerville was at 290 students which is three less than this time last year. Pentwater has 269 students this fall compared to 270 a year ago while Shelby was down 21 students over a year ago at 1,348. Hart was up 51 to 1,341 students over last year’s 1,290.
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The figures are used by most school districts to develop annual budgets as the state provides funding based on the number of students enrolled. Pentwater is an out-of-formula district, and its budget is based on its non-homestead tax revenue and not student count. A Hesperia official believes that its district decline was due to a large graduating class this past spring and a small kindergarten enrollment this fall. A state change in the age a child has to be to enroll into kindergarten also could have played a factor. Shelby Superintendent Dan Bauer said the preliminary
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STUDENT COUNTS continued on 3a
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• October 22, 2015 • Oceana’s Herald-Journal
Andrew Skinner • Oceana’s Herald-Journal
Apples, above, are put in bulk boxes after picking. Laborers, right and bottom, pick Jonagold apples with the assistance of a motorized apple harvester platform in the Hart orchard of Rennhack Orchards LLC. Bottom top, Jeremiah Palmer of Rennhack Orchards LLC backs up a piece of machinery that loads up five large bins of apples placed in the orchard by the harvester.
Apple harvester integrated apple harvest system designed by a New York state apple farmer with a vision. After watching the presentation, Rennhack had a vision of his own; a harvesting machine which would ease the crunch of a critical labor shortage. “I thought ‘That’s what I’ve been waiting for. That’s the one,’” Rennhack recalled. “We knew mechanization was coming. As labor got harder to find and (industry) standards got higher, we knew we’d have to move to mechanization.” Last year, Rennhack and his partners, wife, Joann; and daughter and son-in-law, Zekara and Jeremiah Palmer; invested in the machine developed by Huron Fruit Systems specifically to aid farmers of high density orchards. The picking platform uses a self-propelled, motorized system with a highefficiency engine that can run eight hours on less than 2.5 gallons of gas. Last week, during one of the final days of the autumn harvest, the machine was earning its keep. The day was cold and blustery. Temperatures had plunged 20 degrees overnight, and rain fell off and on throughout the morning, leaving the grass damp and slick. Six laborers hand-harvested and skillfully separated the softball-sized, picture-perfect apples from branches drooping under the weight of the prodigious fruit, some picking from the ground, others from one of four raised platforms on the new machine. The highest platform enables workers to quickly and easily harvest trees up to 12-feet tall. When their bags are filled, the workers simply turn and empty the apples into one of five wood bins that ride along like a train through the center of the harvest system, or step onto any of the seven different levels alongside the bins and gently roll the gloriously red fruit into the box. When the five bins are filled to capacity, an innovative transfer system has the capacity to slide out the full bins and replace them seamlessly with five empty bins in about two minutes time, without ever interrupting the harvest. The laborers talked and joked quietly, keeping pace as the picking platform rolled along at the excruciatingly slow speed of 10 feet per minute.
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Missing from the scene were the towering, cumbersome ladders growers and pickers have traditionally relied on at harvest time. That was an important selling point for Rennhack. “It’s nice on this rainy day that they’re not on a slippery ladder,” he noted. “We hope this machine will allow older harvesters to work longer. It’s easier on the knees and less stress on the body.” That advantage will be critical as fruit growers across the nation struggle with a declining labor force. Younger workers claim they don’t notice much of a difference. “Not as much as if they were in their 40s or 50s,” he said with a wry smile. The farm is using the raised platform to harvest 20 acres of apples this year but eventually, Rennhack Orchards LLC will expand that to 60 or 70 acres. They can expect to realize a 10 to 20 percent increase in productivity because of the platform, which is also used for trimming, pruning, wire stringing, tree training and other orchard maintenance tasks. At a selling price of more than $60,000, the picking platform on the Hart farm is the first, and possibly only one, in Michigan, according to Rennhack. “Now our workers don’t have to haul a 30 pound bag up a ladder to pick a couple more apples,” he said. “They can just stand on the platform, fill their bags, empty them and keep going.” Son-in-law and partner Jeremiah Palmer said workers are adjusting to the new-fangled machine. “The first year the workers were not sold on it,” he said. “Now they’re getting used to it, and the more they use it the more they like it.”
GREAT MICHIGAN READ AUTHOR, EMILY ST. JOHN MANDEL
THE MARVELOUS WONDERETTES
Center Stage Theater Emily St. John Mandel is the author of four novels, most recently Station Eleven, which was a finalist for a National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award, and won the 2015 Arthur C. Clarke Award.
Ludington Area Center for The Arts
Nov. 4, 2015 7:30 PM
Tickets: westshore.edu or 231-843-5507
This smash off-Broadway hit takes you to the 1958 Springfield High School prom to meet the Wonderettes, four girls with hopes and dreams as big as their crinoline skirts!
Oct. 22-24, 2015, 7:30 PM Oct. 25, 2:00 PM
Tickets: westshore.edu or 231-843-5507