37 minute read
Inside Track
Superintendent finds her way to top
GRPS graduation rates top Leadriane Roby’s list of priorities as she settles into leadership role.
Advertisement
Danielle Nelson
dnelson@grbj.com
While most Grand Rapids Public Schools students are enjoying a free-spirited summer, one GRPS high school student is spending part of her summer under the tutelage of Dr. Leadriane Roby, the district’s superintendent.
Just a little over a year into her tenure as the head of the city’s school district, Roby has opted to take part in Grand Rapids City Manager Mark Washington’s GRow1000 youth employment program, where she is providing an internship opportunity to a GRPS student so they can see and experience what it is like to be a school superintendent.
“I want a young person to see what executives do, what the work looks like because you don’t just (fall) into these positions,” she said. “I want them to understand that for most people you have a career path where you start out doing something and then you get some gradual, incremental promotions. I want them to understand that, because part of the internship experience is getting exposure to different levels of what a career is, but to also understand that for most people, we grow in our careers through promotions and education and this is what it looks like.”
The internship experience was not an opportunity that was afforded to her while she attended high school in Minnesota, but it is an opportunity Roby is willing to provide for her students.
A career in education was never a path she imagined she would pursue going into her freshman year at Hampton University in Virginia. Roby had the intention of becoming an attorney, a trial attorney to be precise. Her choice was heavily influenced by the television show “L.A. Law,” but that quickly changed when she started college.
“When I was watching the TV show ‘L.A. Law,’ I would say, ‘That is going to be me when I grow up.’ I am going to put people on trial and cross-examine them, but when I went to college, I took a prerequisite — I think it was a philosophy course where we were studying Socrates and Aristotle — and it was just not of any great interest to me,” she said. “I remember talking to my college counselor at the time saying, ‘Can I switch to a different class?’ and he said, ‘If you are switching to a different class, you know this is a prerequisite to get you ready for a career in law?’ And he asked me, ‘What else do you want to do?’ and I had to really think about it. I told him that I am most interested in working with kids. I like kids and I decided to switch to education.”
Roby had family members who were teachers. Her mother, who was a nurse, transitioned into the education field and became a nurse instructor at a local community college. Roby also got to observe her aunt who was a teacher and watch her gradually move up the ladder to become an assistant principal and later a principal.
Once Roby graduated, the St. Louis native spent seven years as a teacher in the Minneapolis Public Schools. She was a third-grade teacher for three years, a second-grade teacher for two years and the remaining years she was a fifth- and sixth-grade classroom teacher.
During that time, she also was working on her master’s degree in education administration at St. Mary’s University of Minnesota. Following her stint as a teacher, Roby became a professional development coordinator, leading the professional development of Minneapolis Public Schools’ teachers. She later became an assistant principal for a school in the district.
In 2001, Roby moved to Michigan to become the principal at Covert Middle/High School, which is about 65 miles south of Grand Rapids. She spent about five years at the middle/high school before becoming the principal of an elementary school in the Covert Public Schools for five years as she worked on her doctorate at Western Michigan University.
“As I was working on my doctorate, I needed a little bit more time,” she said. “High school principalship is an extremely grinding kind of role. It is dances and games and proms. There are always, always evening events, and I really wanted to work on my doctorate. I needed a little bit more flexibility, so I asked the superintendent at the time if she would consider moving me to the elementary level. Because as an elementary principal, you still have evening events like concerts and things like that, but it is nowhere near the high school principal life because almost every night you are doing something as a high school principal. And I was thinking, ‘I will never finish my degree.’ So, I moved to the elementary level and I was able to take classes at night and work on my doctorate.”
After completing her doctorate course, Roby decided to move back to Minnesota to be closer to her family. While in Minnesota, she returned to Minneapolis Public Schools and became principal of a pre-K-8 grade program. During her first year as principal, Roby completed her dissertation and earned her Ph.D.
She was later tapped by the superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools to become the assistant associate superintendent, while still maintaining her role as principal. With the new position, Roby had her building where she was responsible for about 1,000 students, 110 staff members and she supervised other building principals in the school district.
LEADRIANE ROBY
Position: Superintendent of Grand Rapids Public Schools Birthplace: St. Louis, Missouri Residence: Grand Rapids Age: 54 Family: Husband Steven, daughter Tayler, and sons Julian and Cedric Community Involvement: Economic Club of Grand Rapids, Heart of West Michigan United Way Biggest Career Break: To be the superintendent of Grand Rapids Public Schools. “I take this job with a lot of humility. I am very humbled and very honored that I have been entrusted to lead this organization. I have always thought of myself as a leader from the beginning of my career by leading in my classroom, trying to mentor and model the young people that I am working with. At the building level, it was the same thing, by working with staff to mentor and model the expectations. But to lead an organization this size is a huge task, and I don’t take it lightly. I am appreciative of the board for having trust that I can do this work as a new superintendent.”
Leadriane Roby is taking on a student intern this summer as part of the city’s youth employment program. Photo by Danielle Nelson
“What I appreciated about that is I knew how to do the building-level leadership, but now I was doing district-level leadership and I was also in charge of a small cadre of schools,” she said. “I had five schools. I was working very closely with those principals who were newer to Minneapolis and since Minneapolis was home to me, even though I was new in the leadership role, it was still home for me. I was able to work with them to develop their strategic plan and show them how to work with staff and how to work on issues that sometimes can be sticky like issues between staff or students and staff. I would also work with them around their assessment data and how to report it out to the community. I did that for a year.”
In 2014, Roby became the assistant superintendent of Richfield Public Schools, a neighboring district to Minneapolis Public Schools. She primarily focused on teaching and learning, but she also was responsible for summer schools, preschools, community education, bond referendums, professional development for teachers and building principals in the district.
However, Roby said she and the superintendent had an understanding that she would only stay in the position for three to five years because she had her own aspirations of becoming a superintendent in a metropolitan district.
After six years, Roby began exploring open opportunities. She found out late that the now-former superintendent Teresa Weatherall Neal was retiring, and GRPS already was conducting a national search for its next superintendent.
Fortunately for Roby, the initial search was not successful and Dr. Ron Gorman, who was serving as the assistant superintendent under Neal, became the interim superintendent. Roby became aware of a second search that was being conducted and decided to apply.
She was selected as the superintendent in February, and three weeks later, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Roby didn’t assume her position until July 1. Between February and July, Roby was still the assistant superintendent for Richfield Public Schools, but she said she and Gorman were able to share ideas and establish plans to provide effective education for students during the heart of the pandemic.
Now with a year under her belt, Roby said she is looking to continue the upward trend in GRPS’ graduation rate that her predecessors began.
“GRPS for the first time this last year exceeded the state’s graduation rate,” she said. “I am extremely proud of that. We had 81% of students graduating on time, but the other side of that story is 19% of our kids are not graduating on time. We have to close that gap. I would love to see 100% of our kids graduate on time. That is my goal. We also want to prepare our kids not only to get across the stage but to prepare them during the 13 years that they have been with us to ensure that they have a plan for how to be successful moving forward.”
This summer’s student internship is just a start.
IN OUR COMMUNITIES EVERYONE THRIVES.
OUR MISSION
We partner with school communities, empowering and equipping them to fulfill their unique mission.
WWW.CHOICESCHOOLS.COM
Congratulations to
Michigan Software Labs Video game startup merges genres
The premise behind ‘Edge’ is to combine building activities with action and adventure.
Danielle Nelson
dnelson@grbj.com
Whether it is a classic arcade game or the more intricate Minecraft, video games always have been a staple everywhere from grocery stores to living rooms.
They captivate an individual’s attention through an alternative, animated reality that is full of action, emotions, competitiveness and brilliance.
Those are the characteristics that Anthony Forman, who is based in West Michigan, Rebecca Roman and their team that is made up of developers from around the world have decided to tap into by creating their startup, StarForged Studios, a video game company. They are developing their own video game, “Edge,” a three-dimensional game that merges two separate genres.
“There are two really popular gaming genres of adventure and building, but each one of them has something missing sometimes,” said Roman, creative director for StarForged Studios. “In a game like Minecraft, it is just about building for the most part. When you go into Minecraft, you just basically decide things that you want to do and you just do them, like, ‘I am going to build a treehouse.’ But the game doesn’t tell you to build a treehouse, you just decide that is what you feel like doing and once you do it, the game doesn’t tell you to do anything else. It doesn’t encourage anything further, so it is just what you can come up with. That leaves people feeling weird and they log off. There is just a lack of closure.”
She said adventure games can present the same sort of problem.
“In adventure games, it can feel like there is just this one-size-fitsall experience because everybody, in a lot of adventure games, goes through the exact same story. There are not a lot of choices to make. It is just you going through the same experience as the person that is sitting next to you. We wanted to combine those in a meaningful way so that building has this kind of extrinsic motivation, there is a reason to build more and continue expanding your adventure. You have something creative and unique to you.”
With that in mind, Roman describes Edge as a world that was split up into floating islands with fantasy races of people who also got split up and are hiding from each other. They also are trying to build a town that was once the hub of the entire world, but they are now isolated. They go out to try to find people to bring back to their town — people who are traveling and don’t have a home. Once they are together, they gather at the center of the town and they find blueprints and decide to build buildings. Along with building, they can create new food recipes, new weapons and things that did not previously exist.
“It is about as strong as we are alone, we are stronger together,” she said. “That community aspect. But the hook is that unlike any other game, we combine these two ideas that whenever you build something it actually helps you and your adventure.”
StarForged Studios became incorporated in 2019 while it was in the pre-production stage.
“It was probably a little too early for us to be incorporated, but it lit a fire under us because we could say we had a company, we had something to attach ourselves to and it made us work harder,” Roman said.
Forman and Roman first pitched their idea for Edge at the Burgess New Venture Challenge at the Burgess Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
“We had a very basic prototype of a game,” said Forman, technical director for StarForged Studios. “It captured the rudimentary element of the game, but it wasn’t the art style we wanted because art is probably the most expensive part of any game. You have to spend a lot of money on art to make it feel like an actual video game. We wanted a painted landscape and it cost a lot of money to just go through different styles and different edits. We didn’t have any of the art. We had a mannequin-looking person walking through the town with a sword that looked like a baseball bat at the time so the character could attack.”
Roman said the team had to get creative.
“A lot of the things that we got were either free online or things that you could buy,” Roman said. “There is an asset store for the game engine we use. It is used by people who are either just making games for fun or smaller studios like us, and they can buy little pieces that are licensed to them like an animation for a character or a model of a tree. It is really helpful at times, but it is really a skill to put all those things together and create a game that feels like it is not just a bunch of pieces fitting together but instead make it feel like it was made by a team.”
She said the process was painstaking.
“Especially for this game, we weren’t really good at that at the time. It looked bad, but honestly, I think it shined because we were really nervous about pitching it in real time and having to maybe play through the game while we were pitching our idea. But (because of the pandemic) we got to make this really nicely edited video where we got to pitch our idea virtually while the game footage was being shown.”
They were awarded funding from the venture challenge, and Roman and Forman later enrolled in MSU Foundation’s Conquer Accelerator’s 10-week program during the pandemic, where they began to realize the intricacies of establishing a startup.
Roman said when they initially went into the Conquer Accelerator, they overestimated how much money they would make and underestimated how much the production would cost.
“Small games can cost up to $500,000 to produce and then larger games can cost a million (dollars),” she said. “Our game is probably going to cost between $3 million and $5 million, and I estimated that we could do it for $800,000. Once we got accepted into Conquer, we had a lot of work to do. We completely redid our pitch and were not super optimistic about things. We started to get real, and we had to come up with a timeline for everything. Now, we have a really solid budget and timeline for this. We just need to get full funding to be able to bring on new team members and not just work from grant to grant.”
Roman said they are in the “pre-alpha” stage of development where all the features in the final game are not completed as yet, but the art style is built, and the basic system is complete, including the ability for the character to prepare meals.
Once they receive adequate funding, she said it will take StarForged about three years to get its product on the market.
Hospitality industry at a turning point
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7
sports tournaments.”
One business that has struggled during the pandemic is the live music and events venue Seven Steps Up in Ottawa County’s Spring Lake.
“We had to decline private events during the shutdown as they were always asking, ‘How many guests can we have six months from now for our event?’” said owner Gary Hanks. “There was no way to answer a question like that.
“Sixteen months with no income and still trying to pay bills is/was very painful. We had to refund thousands and thousands of dollars in ticket refunds for shows that got canceled/postponed. A few weeks ago, we received Shuttered Venue Operators Grant emergency funds. Otherwise, we would have had to permanently shut down. Many venues in the country haven’t survived.”
As Hanks and his business slowly recover from the pandemic, he said it has made him reconsider how he does business.
“We really want to concentrate on being a live music venue and not a wedding/private event venue,” he said. “We invested in a large modular outdoor stage and trailer and started a company called Seven Steps Up Stage Rental. We’ve been able to rent it out eight times in the last two months. So far, though, we haven’t used it ourselves.”
Hanks said he hopes to “squeeze in a few short-notice, pop-up outdoor shows” this year.
Michigan has most potential for o shore power generation
Report says o shore wind could provide double the electricity residents used in 2019.
Taylor Haelterman
Capital News Service
LANSING — Coastal wind is a strong, consistent power source, and Michigan’s more than 3,000 miles of coast could provide double the electricity residents used from all sources in 2019.
That’s according to a recent report using data from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory that evaluated the energy potential of o shore winds across the United States. The report was produced by the Environment America Research & Policy Center and Frontier Group organizations that provide information on and work to improve the environment.
The wind o the shores of the Great Lakes could provide electricity for Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Wisconsin, the report said. New York was excluded from the Great Lakes region because its o shore energy potential comes from the Atlantic Ocean.
Of these states, Michigan has the most potential.
O shore wind could generate three-quarters of the state’s predicted electricity use for 2050 with full electrifi cation, according to the report.
Full electrifi cation means switching the state to electric power entirely — from buildings to transportation to industry, said report co-author Hannah Read.
The next-closest Great Lakes state in 2050 coastal power generation potential is Wisconsin at 27%, according to the report.
This potential is technical potential, which means it’s the total energy generation possible from wind in that area. That doesn’t mean all that energy would necessarily be harvested, said Read, who is the Environment America Research & Policy Center’s Go Big on O shore Wind program associate.
“We say technical potential specifi cally because it’s just that — it’s potential,” she said. “We’re not necessarily saying that we should develop all this o shore wind. We’re just saying this is what is there, and this is what we could be using.
“We also recognize that with technology improving and becoming even more e cient and powerful, the technical potential could increase in future years.”
Turbines that look like giant, three-pronged windmills that can stand on the lakebed or be fl oating and anchored to it would generate the power.
The benefi t of o shore wind is that it’s strong and consistent, making it a reliable option that can generate more power than wind over land, the report said.
And there’s the benefi t that it’s renewable energy.
“Instead of relying on dirty fossil fuels, you’re transitioning to use clean renewable energy that can power a much cleaner and healthier future for everybody,” Read said.
But there are hurdles. Depending on the lake, there can be limited usable areas, winter ice fl oes that could damage fl oating turbines and confl icting uses, she said.
Beyond technological barriers, two of the largest barriers are community and political acceptance of o shore wind projects because the Great Lakes are important to Michigan residents, said Dan Scripps, the chair of the Public Service Commission.
It’s important to discuss o shore wind development before projects are proposed because current laws for wind project permits might be insu cient, and o shore wind farms won’t be a good fi t everywhere, Scripps said.
“There’s no silver bullet. There’s
CONTINUED ON PAGE 25 The benefi t of o shore wind is that it’s strong and consistent, making it a reliable option that can generate more power than wind over land. Courtesy iStock
S:7.4585"
We make it our business to help you with yours.
Confi dence comes with every card.®
At Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, we understand fi nding the right health care coverage for your employees can be no simple task. Which is why we make it easier on them — and you. We do it by giving them the personal attention your employees deserve and the help they need to make smart choices when it comes to enrollment and fi nding the right health care. Our robust data helps provide actionable insights to maximize benefi t value for your employees while minimizing costs for you. It all adds up to smarter, better health care. See what Blue Cross can do for your business.
Learn more at bcbsm.com/employers
We are proud to be one of West Michigan’s Best and Brightest Companies to Work For ®.
Congratulations to all of the Best and Brightest winners. We are honored to partner with you in making West Michigan a positive place to live and work.
Thanks to our amazing team for making us one of West Michigan’s Best and Brightest Companies to Work For! The Property becomes haven for paintings, ‘pARTies’
Lowell resident Cynthia Hagedorn used pandemic to create unique gatherings.
Danielle Nelson
dnelson@grbj.com
Cynthia Hagedorn has many titles, and she is using all of them to share her passion for painting with others on The Property, her Lowell residence.
Hagedorn is an artist, producer, educator and entrepreneur, but she has merged all those to focus on being an artist.
Last year during the pandemic, she took advantage of the outdoors and established tents on the lawn of The Property to create Lawn pARTies, which are artist-themed parties for birthdays, bridal showers and more.
Hagedorn said she has more than 40 themed artists like French painter Claude Monet and American painter Jackson Pollock that guests can choose from for their Lawn pARTies. If guests choose a Monet-themed Lawn pARTy, for example, the table settings will feature a French style for plates, cutlery, water and wine goblets, and linens.
“The emergence of the experience makes you feel that you are in Monet’s backyard,” she said. “Everything is in French style. Even some of the things on the table are things that you would see in his paintings. You’ll have an opportunity to do three or four art projects, and they are all open-ended. Everyone has their supplies. The experience is a couple of hours, and you just learn about the artists and hang out with your friends.”
In addition to hosting Lawn pARTies, Hagedorn works on different programs including Care on Canvas and Leadership on Canvas, both of which are done in her home art studio. She also hosts brunch pARTies inside her home.
The Care on Canvas program is a partnership between Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital, Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital and Make-A-Wish Foundation where Hagedorn paints with kids who are fighting cancer. They go to her art studio year-round and there is one exhibition per year where the children share their artwork with a marketplace that sells necklaces, perfumes, bath bombs and more.
The Leadership on Canvas
Grand Rapids Mayor Rosalynn Bliss participated in the Leadership on Canvas program. Courtesy Cynthia Hagedorn
program is about West Michigan leaders painting with Hagedorn. Some of the participants have included Grand Rapids City Manager Mark Washington, Spectrum Health President and CEO Tina Freese Decker, Mary Free Bed CEO Kent Riddle and Mike Verhulst, vice president of Rockford Construction and board chair of the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce. Those artworks have been displayed at ArtPrize.
Riddle and Verhulst both have participated in the Leadership on Canvas program and have attended a Lawn pARTy. While the programs have been beneficial to the community, they also have been enlightening to the leaders personally.
“Painting with Cynthia in her studio is ‘an experience,’” Riddle said. “The studio is completely adorned in Cynthia’s art, and it is in a very comforting and lovely forest setting, which is both contemplative and peaceful.”
Verhulst said the experience was eye-opening for him.
“Cynthia introduced me to the power of art through painting,” Verhulst stated. “Only having art classes in elementary school, I did enjoy the time as being fun and a way to express my thoughts in a youthful way. Now that I am older, I am able to do something with art that is spontaneous, has purpose, inner thought and organic in nature.
Verhulst said he sat down with Hagedorn shared his life story with her, a conversation that he said impacted him deeply.
“The creativity that I possess is a simplified version of my personal make-up. If you strip away all material things, everyday distractions and the things that really do not matter, you find the things you’re grateful for and all the positive (and negative) things that molded you into the person you are,” he said. “I was able to do that and didn’t know I was capable of doing so. That is the power creative art and something we all possess. Whether in a group setting or as an individual, you can sit back, have a glass of wine, reflect and decide what goes onto that blank canvas. Whatever you’re feeling or want to express, is the image you’ll capture.”
Panel details local, statewide sustainability efforts
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3
its commitment to achieve 100% carbon neutrality in its scope one and scope two facility emissions by 2040.
“That’s a really ambitious goal for us, and today, we don’t know exactly how we’ll achieve it, but we’re working on that process,” Chartier said.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, scope one covers direct emissions from owned or controlled sources; scope two covers indirect emissions from the generation of purchased electricity, steam, heating and cooling consumed by the organization; and scope three includes all other indirect emissions that occur in the company’s value chain. Chartier said it will take Spectrum longer to reduce its scope three emissions because it involves working with its supplier base to measure and increase progress.
Kent County
Baas said Kent County is continuing to make progress on its Sustainable Business Park project, which has a goal of diverting 90% of the county’s waste from landfills by 2030 through a park full of businesses that can process the waste and reuse it.
As the Business Journal reported in May, the evaluation committee is down to two finalists after putting out an RFP for an anchor tenant for the park — Madrid-based Urbaser (which was recently acquired by Beverly Hills, California-based Platinum Equity) and Philadelphia-based Continuus Materials.
Both companies would offer mixed-waste sorting and processing, converting organic and inorganic materials into new products. Continuus Materials proposes to establish a manufacturing plant that makes roofing boards from thin-film plastics and, along with its partner, Energia, to co-locate a biodigester on-site that would generate renewable natural gas from compost and fertilizer.
Similarly, Urbaser has proposed to make renewable natural gas in a plastic-to-oil processing facility and large-scale enclosed composting operation.
The DPW’s evaluation committee has been making site visits to the two companies’ U.S. facilities and is working to answer within the next month the question of how much these solutions would cost compared to landfilling.
Baas said now is the time to ask ourselves if the region is ready to embrace a technology alternative to landfilling trash, and if so, are we willing to support the project. If so, Baas said the economic development impact could be comparable to the likes of Medical Mile, as the project would bring in hundreds of millions of dollars of economic investment and output, technologies and researchers that the region didn’t have before, doing innovative processes that are currently only happening in Europe and on the West Coast.
“As we’ve taken this journey over the last five years, this is what I’ve discovered: I’ve discovered that this is a process of economic development, it’s a process of business attraction, of employment, of land use, intergovernmental cooperation, public-private partnerships, investment, natural resource conservation, and above all, it’s about sustainability,” Baas said.
He said the RFP evaluation committee for the Sustainable Business Park will be making a recommendation to the Board of Public Works about which finalist it thinks would be the best to move forward with in September or October.
Michigan Legislature
Brinks came to speak to the forum on the work the state legislature is doing that relates to sustainability. She serves on the Michigan Legislature’s Health Policy Committee
Video company comes from humble beginnings
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5
Panaggio said Voyage’s mantra is “attempt the impossible.” In the case of a small project, like the one for Impact Burundi, it seemed impossible to make a compelling video on a shoestring budget, but the organization’s mission meant enough for Voyage to make an effort.
The video for Impact Burundi won Voyage an award because the team was able to film the whole segment and obtain international footage during COVID-19.
“What meant more to me than the award was when Kate and I were getting feedback that that nonprofit is doubling the amount of donations they were anticipating,” Jansen said. “Specifically, it’s noting the video is giving them the return they wanted. That is the ultimate affirmation for me because it means it’s working the way we want it to.”
Voyage Pictures also earned an award earlier this year for a 15-minute TV pilot about the history of the Berlin Wall intended for an international audience. The challenge was Voyage had to put it all together in 30 days.
“That’s wild,” Jansen said. “Most people would say that’s impossible … that won us one of our awards because it was a compelling piece of content produced at a high level and was produced really fast.”
“I’m also really proud of that because I wrote it and I directed it,” Panaggio said. “It was very script heavy. There were editors at all these huge news organizations reviewing the scripts, and they were brutal … the revision we had to go through in that short time frame and then to have the host of the program give me feedback on how strong it was; it just meant so much to have people enjoy it, and then to get an award was really cool.” as well as the Energy and Technology Committee, and she said it’s easy to see how the two intersect.
“What we do for sustainability and environmental quality has a massive impact on public health (and) on individuals’ health, and the decisions that we make in just about every area of government have an impact that needs to be considered on those two areas,” she said.
She said the infrastructure investments in President Joe Biden’s American Jobs Plan are a start but will not be enough; commitments are needed from businesses, state and local governments, and philanthropy to innovate and create investments that are sustainable.
Brinks said state government actions have included recent investments to remediate and prevent PFAS from getting into drinking water by modernizing water treatment plants in cities such as Grand Rapids and replacing lead pipes, plus extending city water to areas that were contaminated by PFAS.
Currently, there’s also a package of bills under review in the Senate Regulatory Committee that, if passed, would rewrite solid waste laws to help change the way we manage garbage.
Reading from the summary of the legislation, Brinks said, “This bill package would level the playing field for businesses that give value to what we once thought of as waste. Material composting sites, material recovery facilities, recycling centers, and new and emerging technologies would be legally recognized, giving guidance for operations and resources. The package would also guide the creation of a strong county materials management plan for each county and create a stronger post-closure plan for landfills and protect taxpayers from paying for contaminated site remediation. If passed, this upcoming bill package, five years in the making, could revolutionize how we dispose of materials. It could triple recycling rates, keep our environment clean and create a more resilient materials management market and workforce.”
Finally, she referenced a bottle bill rewrite in the works (Senate Bill 167 and House Bill 4331) that would expand Michigan’s 10-cent deposit to all noncarbonated beverage containers except milk cartons and would provide millions of dollars in funding to address abandoned contaminated sites.
More information about the West Michigan Sustainable Business Forum is at wmsbf.org.
Lease | Rental | Maintenance | Safety | Used Trucks
EXCITED TO BE AMONG THE BEST & BRIGHTEST DEDICATED TO OUR EMPLOYEES DRIVEN BY OUR CUSTOMERS SINCE 1865
EXPERIENCE THE
DIFFERENCE!
Your Full-Service Logistics Solutions Provider
CALL: 616-396-5200 VISIT: WESTMICHIGANTRANSPORT.COM QUOTE: INFO@WESTMICHIGANTRANSPORT.COM
Adviser: approach family loans with care
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
investors because there are no set qualifications or repayment schedules for borrowing from family members. Usually, a family loan is considered when the borrower is in need but does not qualify for credit from traditional lenders or when interest rates on traditional loans are higher than the borrower can afford.
That’s not to say a family loan is interest-free. The Internal Revenue Service publishes each month its applicable federal rate (AFR), which is the minimum interest rate a lender can charge a borrower for loans over $10,000. The rates vary by term length, with shorter-term loan rates being lowest. If the lender charges lower interest than the AFR, the lender will have to pay taxes on forgone interest.
“Family loans really should be well thought out, and (people should) consider whether or not these loans might interfere with family relationships.” Regina Jaegar
Tempting as it may be to conduct a family loan based on a handshake agreement or with a simple contract, Jaegar said it’s important to document the transaction, so all parties are aware of interest rates, payment structure and what happens if the borrower defaults on the loan.
“We always recommend that you seek legal counsel for the drafting of the (promissory) note or the drafting of the lending documents to make sure it meets with all of the requirements that the IRS says that a loan needs to meet in order for it to be considered a loan,” she said. Jaegar said while there are advantages to a family loan — usually for the borrower — the downsides often outweigh Jaegar the advantages for the lender and can include family conflict, borrowers becoming too dependent on parents or grandparents and treating them as the bank, and more.
“Another disadvantage is, unintentionally, your estate planning goals not being carried out the way that you intend them to be because the loans are not adequately documented. That’s probably the issue that I’ve seen most frequently in my experience,” she said. “When family members make these loans — Mom and Dad or Grandma and Grandpa do — five years into the loan or two years into the loan, they become a little lax in reporting payments, and then when the lender passes, the personal representative or the trustee is trying to piece together how much is outstanding on the loan.”
She added that lenders need to consider the consequences to their estate if they make a family loan.
“I don’t think enough thought is given all the time to whether or not this makes sense at both ends of the transaction, because the lender, if they’re lending a grandchild $300,000 to purchase a home or whatever that amount might be, that’s $300,000 that’s being removed from the lender’s investment portfolio, so it’s missing potentially a higher rate of interest that could be earned on that $300,000 or overall net rate of return that could be used,” Jaegar said. “So, the lender is potentially giving up something. And if they’re relying on … that performance in the portfolio and that $300,000 for cashflow or to meet their living needs, that could be an issue. It needs to make sense at both ends of the transaction, not just for the borrower, but also for the lender because the lender is giving up something.”
Borrowers also should understand that family loans will not help them build credit, since they aren’t on the books with a banking institution.
Jaegar said she always recommends that family members considering making a loan to a relative should ask them to pursue traditional financing first and only make the loan if they don’t qualify. Even then, she said, the potential lender should weigh all factors, including family dynamics, trustworthiness of the borrower and whether the lender can afford to potentially recategorize the loan as a gift — or be prepared to pursue legal action — in the event of the borrower defaulting.
“The biggest thing is considering the family dynamic and the repercussions of these arrangements on the family,” she said. “It all sounds great when you’re talking about it — oh, I can get a very inexpensive loan from Mom and Dad and they can fund it — but when you really dig into it, you’ve got all these considerations that should be really well thought out.”
71-year-old launches bakery business
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
the love’ by making a difference.”
Touchette so far is working to make that happen by donating a portion of the cake sales to Community of Hearts, a mental health advocacy and training nonprofit founded by her friend, Kent County Commissioner Monica Sparks. Her plan is to eventually help one charity every fiscal quarter, and she currently is in the process of setting up a foundation to handle the charitable side of the business.
Touchette’s passion for helping others was evident in her last job before she retired, as chapter development specialist for the Michigan-based Woman’s Life Insurance Society. She was a recruiter for the organization and drew more than 2,000 women into the fold over a 10-year period. When members of the fraternal not-for-profit join, a portion of their dues are given back into the community. Touchette said the social aspect of her job required her to be gone every night, which she doesn’t miss, but it also gave her a platform in the community and a starting place when it came time to launch her own business.
Prior to her time at Woman’s Life, she was a Mary Kay rep for many years, and before that, she owned a beauty salon. When COVID-19 hit, just after she retired from recruiting, Touchette had lots of time to think about her next move.
“I was twiddling my thumbs and thinking, ‘Now what am I going to do?’ I had always wanted to do something about the coffee cakes, because it’s a family recipe, you know, and everybody always loved them. I made them at Christmastime all the time for people, and they kept saying, ‘You need to get those in the store.’”
When Christmas rolled around again last year, Touchette got a business coach — Jennifer Kok, who founded, ran and sold Cookies by Design and Cupcakes by Design earlier in her career — and with Kok’s help and advice, she decided to give it a go. It was more successful than she could have imagined, and now just seven months later, she is excited at the possibility of moving into the incubator space.
While her coffee cakes are based on her mother’s recipe, Touchette said she gave them an extra “yummy and gooey” oomph by adding more butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and nuts to the batter. Each cake has the same base recipe but with different fillings and different ways of rolling and forming the dough.
Recognizing the cakes can be quite rich, Touchette offers sample tastings at stores and sells them in smaller sizes for $9.99. The standard 10-by-10-inch cake sells for $19.99.
Touchette said once she gets into a commercial kitchen, she will be able to scale up and handle larger orders. She aspires to break into the corporate segment, as well as e-commerce, in addition to her brick-and-mortar sales.
“It’s just been a true blessing all the way,” Touchette said. “I’ve been dreaming about this for a long time. … This is just our beginning, and I can’t wait to see where it’s going to be a year from now.”
