FIRST COUNTY COMMISSIONERS MEETING OF 2019 HELD IN HISTORIC COURTHOUSE IN BERRIEN SPRINGS

By DEBRA HAIGHT
BCR Correspondent

BERRIEN SPRINGS – Berrien County Commissioners came to Berrien Springs last week for their first evening meeting of 2019. Commissioners held their weekly meeting at the Historic 1839 Courthouse and heard both a report from History Center Executive Director Kathy Cyr and a timely history lesson from former County Commissioner Dick Bartz.

Last week’s meeting was the county board’s first evening session of the year. Six more evening meetings, once each month, will be held at locations around the county this year in an effort to reach out to more county residents.

The meeting itself was fairly short with only a handful of resolutions on the agenda. Commissioners approved having a network security assessment done of the Friend of the Court and Prosecuting Attorney Office and applying for a Risk Avoidance Program grant to install back up cameras in road department vehicles.

Commissioners also approved a resolution in support of efforts to expand high speed internet access to county residents and a one year contract with prevention specialist Kerri Teachout to continue medication and opioid education for older adults.

Cyr reported on the History Center’s current and future activities while County Administrator Bill Wolf spoke about the capital improvements already done and on the schedule to be done later this year. The History Center was designated as a county park five years ago.

Cyr, who is retiring at the end of July, said the center has hosted tours, presented outreach programs around the county and will be a part of the upcoming Fourth of July celebration in Berrien Springs. She said the center’s annual meeting will be April 23 when Bob Myers will be honored with the History Award and a new World War I exhibit opens for 10 weeks.

The April 23 meeting will be preceded by a day of strategic planning for

History Center staff and board members. She noted that the strategic planning session will allow the board to prepare for new leadership after her retirement.

She said that while the county only approved a six-month agreement with the History Center last December, she fully expects the county and History Center to continue to have an ongoing relationship well into the future. The county previously approved operating agreements with the History Center in 2014 and 2017.

Wolf said a number of projects have been completed over the last five years including cleaning out the Register of Deeds building and repairing the roof, walls and ceiling of the 1839 Courthouse. $236,000 worth of new windows were purchased last week and will be installed this summer, followed by a repainting project, he said.

Bartz gave current county commissioners a brief history lesson, reminding them that they were meeting at the historic courthouse nearly 125 years to the day when Berrien County residents voted to move the county seat from Berrien Springs to St. Joseph.

Bartz brought up the county seat vote anniversary during public comments. “This week is the 125th anniversary of St. Joseph stealing the county seat from us,” he said. “There was a big vote on April 2, 1894 with over 10,000 people casting ballots. It was a huge split in the county.”

Bartz reported the history behind the 1894 vote, a history that began in the 1870s when people started agitating to remove the county seat to a town that had rail service. He noted that a number of attempts to move the county seat failed including one in the 1880s to move it to Niles failed before the 1894 vote.

He said the vote was a close one, with 5,610 people voting yes and 5,368 voting no-mainly those living in Berrien Springs and points south. “Berrien Springs contested it to the Michigan Supreme Court and lost,” he said. “To say this was controversial was an understatement.”

While Bartz’s comments were met with applause from the primarily Berrien Springs audience members, current commissioners didn’t have many comments except to point out here and there that their individual districts didn’t go along with the St. Joseph county seat move.

County Board Chairman Mac Elliott didn’t say so during the meeting, but said afterwards that he hasn’t given up on his interest in moving some county operations back to the Berrien Springs area. He’s long been an advocate of building a new law and courts building in the Berrien Springs area, for example.

“We’re still looking at it, there’s good infrastructure here,” he said. “We’re still exploring what can be done. There’s even a possibility of a land swap with Andrews University with some land we have. It’s definitely not been forgotten.”