By DEBRA HAIGHT
BCR Correspondent
BUCHANAN, MI – Buchanan City Commissioners ended the 2025 year on an upbeat note at their last meeting of the year on Dec. 8 with updates on current and future projects.
The new ALR Educational Health Services facility will open in the former Stark Elementary School in January, while a new event center will open in April in the former Clark Equipment office building.
Dr. Ayanna Redding told commissioners that she will be opening her new Star Academy in early January. A ribbon cutting is scheduled for Friday, Jan. 2 at 3 p.m. with classes set to start the following Monday, Jan. 5. “We’re excited to show everyone what we’ve done,” she said.
Redding first came to the commission in the summer with her plans to buy and renovate the vacant school building on the city’s southeast side. Since then, crews have been renovating the building to house the new academy. She plans to offer a variety of courses at the Buchanan location including nursing, phlebotomy and medical assisting.
ALR Educational Health Services already has a location in downtown Niles which will remain open even as classes at the Buchanan building ramp up.
Commissioners thanked Redding for her efforts. “I’m really happy for you,” Commissioner Dan Vigansky said. “Welcome to Buchanan. I’m excited, this is something that’s near and dear to my heart.”
Mayor Mark Weedon agreed. “The community is absolutely blessed to have you,” he said. “This is just the beginning, you’re an absolute dream.”
The second piece of good news came from Building 324 owner Randy Hendrixson. Hendrixson owns the former Clark Equipment office building and said in September that he plans to open a new event center.
Hendrixson told commissioners that the construction project has just started to create the event center on the south side of the building nearest Front Street. He said the goal is to have the construction on the first phase of the project done by the end of March and the space open in April.
He put the price tag on the first phase at $1.5 million and said that the event center will draw 60,000 people to Buchanan every year. The event center capacity will be 475 people. The second phase of the project will come later in 2026 and involve more parking.
Commissioners earlier this fall recommended state approval of a new liquor license for the event center. On Dec. 8, they approved another item related to the project as they voted to lease Hendrixson the city-owned parking lot near Building 324 and behind Lehman’s Farmhouse restaurant for $1 a year.
Also at the Dec. 8 meeting, commissioners heard an update on the work being done by the Buchanan Tree Friends. People don’t usually think about trees when it comes to having a healthy, vibrant community but they should, Tree Friends members said.
Buchanan Tree Friends President Brian Murphy and arborist Lee Mueller presented their urban forestry plan to the commission, as well as a little of the organization’s history and goals for the future. Commissioners ended up approving the urban forestry plan later in the meeting.
Murphy noted that the city has been a Tree City, USA community since the 1990s and tha the Tree Friends organization was formed in 2917. Since then, the Tree Friends have conducted a tree inventory of the city, received a state grant in 2023 and conducted a number of tree planting activities in the city.
He reported that 300 trees have been planted in Buchanan since 2017 with help from the city and community volunteers. The Buchanan Tree Friends is now an official board recognized by the city, he added.
The 2023 state grant was from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources as part of urban forestry initiatives funded by the Inflation Reduction Act. The city received a total of $16,750 which paid for tree planting, tree removals, training, and planning.
Mueller reported that the urban tree canopy assessment that has been done in Buchanan shows that the city has a 36 percent tree canopy. “We like to see the tree canopy in balance with the buildings and impervious surfaces,” he said. “For Buchanan, the buildings and impervious surfaces percentage is 26 percent, that’s great.”
He noted that it is unusual to find a small community like Buchanan having an urban forestry program. He outlined a number of benefits trees provide, from environmental to social to economic.
Murphy outlined the organization’s “Vision for 2030” which includes having a well-stocked, diverse and well-maintained urban forest with an emphasis on native trees, continuing the Tree City USA certification, maintaining the 36 percent tree canopy coverage and engage in a ten-year tree canopy assessment.
The urban forestry plan’s goals center around three points: advocacy, conservation, and education, he said. In addition to accepting the plan, he asked the city commission to direct the city manager and staff to work on the plan and promised to provide an annual report to the commission.
In other action, commissioners voted to add four new members to the Downtown Development Authority and approved a new adult retail marijuana permit for a new owner of an existing facility.
The commission voted to bring back the DDA earlier this year and appointed eight people to that board. Since then, three members have resigned and the remaining members conducted interviews to replace them last week.
Those appointed Dec. 8 were Haley Jones, Libby Hein, Michelle Fletcher, and Tracy Mast. Jones owns the Chunk’s ice cream shop, Hein owns Red Bud Insurance, Fletcher owns B & W Pour Decisions, and Mast is a branch manager for United Federal Credit Union. Jones and Hein received one year terms, Fletcher a three year term and Mast a four year term.
City Clerk Kalla Langston-Weiss said seven people applied for the DDA vacancies and DDA members decided to recommend four people for appointment instead of three because they couldn’t decide between the top four candidates.
With the adult use retail marijuana permit, the commission approved the permit for Mint Seven, LLC for the Pinnacle Emporium facility at 221 E. Front St. Pinnacle has sold all of its sites in Michigan. Mint Seven owner Fadi Kenaya told commissioners that his company has six sites in Michigan including one in New Buffalo and also operates in four other states.
The city commission canceled its Dec. 22 meeting due to the Christmas holiday and will next meet on Jan. 12, 2026. The commission also approved the 2026 calendar of meetings for all city boards.