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Six different schools in the Forest Hills Public School District are under
some kind of construction this summer.
- Central High School
- Ada Elementary School
- Central Middle School
- Ada Vista School
- Collins Elementary School
- Community & Aquatic Center
- Central Woodlands 5/6
- Northern Trails 5/6
Every school site will receive different combinations of security cameras,
roof repair/ replacement, parking lot resurfacing, and energy
conservation/sustainability improvements (window replacement,
lighting and mechanical system upgrades).
See details at Forest Hills District News Site
Some photos of the Construction Sites:
Warning - if you like hard hats, you will be in 7th heaven!
Ada Elementary School
Ada Elementary School
Central Middle School
Central Middle School
Forest Hills Central High School
Forest Hills Central High School
School districts reflect the interest people have in their
community public education systems. Forest Hills Schools are
one of the best in our state in almost every category. New
school updates are one of the ways we try to keep you informed
on what is happening in the Forest Hills District.
Westbrook Realty Grand Rapids Real Estate
Copyright 2009 All rights reserved
Photos by Bonnie Westbrook
There are so many golf courses in Michigan, over 900 public courses,
ranking third in the nation in public golf courses and over 400 member
clubs to play. We are crazy about golf in Michigan.
With courses like Spring Lake Country Club, it is easy to see why.
Spring Lake Country Club is an old course, founded in 1911, and it is a
private, member owned facility. From the longest tees, it is 6525 yards.
“Going green” is taken seriously at Spring Lake CC. In May of 2005,
they received the honor of being named a Certified Audubon Cooperative
Sanctuary, only the 14th course in Michigan to be recognized. In 2007,
SLCC was named #1 for total number of bird species counted on the course
in the Great Lakes region and 3rd in the entire country for the Audubon
International North American Bird Watch Open, held in May each year.
Spring Lake CC is seriously into Junior Golf. Don’t be surprised to
see a few future PGA professionals hail from this course. Last year
they had 180 Junior PGA Golfers (aged 7-17) in their Annual Junior
Golf Tournament held in August.
We were invited to play this fabulous course last week by our friends,
Charles and Joann. We had a beautiful day to play golf and enjoy the
aesthetics of this picturesque golf course. Spring Lake CC is heavily
wooded, and indeed, we saw several oak trees with trunk girths of
15-20 feet or more.
75-80 degrees, sunny and a slight breeze off the Lake (Spring Lake is
open to Lake Michigan) is a perfect Michigan summer day. And we
couldn’t think of a better way to spend it. Because Spring Lake is
connected to Lake Michigan, it is a prime resort area and has many
elite homes on the lake.
We are sharing our photo montage of Spring Lake Country Club.
Grab a cart and ride along!
Spring Lake Country Club
18496 Fruitport Rd
Spring Lake Michigan 49456
616-842-4200
Westbrook Realty Grand Rapids Real Estate
Copyright 2009 All rights reserved
Photos by Bonnie Westbrook
Tuesday was the first day of the Ada Farm Market at a new place,
Thornapple Community Church on Thornapple River Drive in downtown Ada.
The Farm Market will run Tuesdays, 2-7 pm from now until the end of
September. We took a video so you could see the market for yourself.
We found all kinds of goodies, freshly roasted coffee, chickens and other
meat available from local farmers. Fresh strawberries, sweet cherries,
lettuce, Walla-Walla onions, radishes, and other great looking items.
Some of the farmers will sell you a share in their crops. You contribute
a set amount and they will deliver fresh produce to you every week all
summer!! We might look into that if our gardening days are getting too
difficult.
We came home with some freshly picked black raspberries and a
King Kong Coleus.
I will definitely be back next week for some of those Walla-Walla
onions and fresh eggs from free range chickens.
Westbrook Realty Grand Rapids Real Estate
Copyright 2009 All rights reserved
Okay, so it is a small thing. The average six pack is rumored to put
7 pounds of carbon in the atmosphere in production & shipping. An
excellent reason to drink your local brew. Grand Rapidians are
especially fortunate because we are home to Founders Brewing,
located at 235 Grandville Avenue.
On June 20th , the 2nd Annual Founders Fest will take place there.
The street will be cordoned off (between Williams and Bartlett)and
all the happy beer drinkers can help save the planet by drinking
Founders locally craft brewed beer and enjoying the outdoor beer &
music festival.
The Big Event will be from 3-11pm and cost is $15 for a ticket.
Regional entertainment will be provided by Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe,
Ultraviolet Hippopotamus, Four Finger Five, Chance Jones,
Total Blam Blams, Oracle, Back Forty, Red Frog and Mucca Pazza.
In case you have been hiding under a beer keg for the past 12 years,
Founders Brewing is rated the 7th Best Brewery IN THE WORLD.
Yeah, pretty great, huh? Serious beer aficionados from around the
world would love to be here for this festival.
Some of them will come. Will you ?
Grand Rapids Ada Real Estate ~ Westbrook Realty
Copyright 2009 All rights reserved
Forest Hills Michigan – Home to a Growing Public School District
We just received the Superintendant’s News Letter with all the Forest
Hills Public School news. Of course, there was talk of budget challenges
and difficult times. Even school districts that are well-funded, like Forest
Hills Public, are having budget issues because of state funding reductions.
Forest Hills is focused on student education, and is still reducing
administrative overhead. 76.7% of the school budget is spent on
classroom and instructional support.
2009 Forest Hills School News:
- 3 Teachers recognized on state & national levels for excellence
- Conserved 1.9 million in reduced energy costs
- ALL Forest Hills Schools receive Green Certificates
- Received David D Smith Award for Environmental Stewardship
- Growing enrollment while 80% of Michigan districts are declining
- 2007 Bond Issue allows investment in infrastructure
- 10,100+ students, 2nd in size in Kent County, 23rd largest in
Michigan, out of 552
- 2009 Student MEAP Scores Highest in Michigan
Grand Rapids Real Estate ~ Westbrook Realty
Copyright 2009 All rights reserved
What’s the Impact of Paying Bills Online? : TreeHugger has a great article
that shows exactly how much energy you can save and how it will affect
your local environment. Gone are the days when we can say, “ Oh,
my little contribution doesn’t matter in the overview of environmental
change. Each of us has an impact and we can each change our world
one bill-day at a time.
I went to the Payitgreen.org site and used their green calculator to
see how much I am saving by going online to pay my bills.
In one year, I will save 7# of paper, 65 gallons of water, 3.3 gallons
of gasoline, and 146# of greenhouse gases. WOW!! This amount of
greenhouse gases is equivalent to 144 miles not driven in my car, 2 trees
planted( and grown for 10 years), & 20 square feet of forest preserved
from deforestation.
I had no idea my little effort would make such a dent in our environment.
I’ve paid most of my bills online for quite a while. Won’t you join the
online gang and make your effort at greening our environment a little
bit better?
Grand Rapids Ada Real Estate ~ Westbrook Realty
Copyright 2009 All rights reserved
