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Jeff High - Jewelry Innovator and Great Guy

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It has taken me a couple weeks to process the death of Jeff High, one of the most brilliant people that I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. I cannot claim to have been best buds with Jeff, but I can and will claim that he had a profound influence on my jewelry career in many ways. On top of that, he was easy to talk to and an inspiration. In November of 1999, I met Jeff when I attended a 3-4 day training session at the original home of his company, GemVision, when it was located in Davenport, Iowa. Jeff started the company in 1990. I went with two other people from my first job in jewelry to learn all about Computer Aided Design (CAD), back when CAD/CAM jewelry production was something new and exciting. Holy smokes did we learn about jewelry manufacturing from Jeff and his team in Davenport. My instructor was Steve Brethauer, more about Steve in a moment. I earned my GIA Diamonds Graduate papers in 1998, so it was perfect that Jeff and his crew provided the next GIANT step in my g
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FROM Moving Forward With More Main Street Housing

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This is a rendering of one of the units facing Main Street. It will be raised to allow it to be built in the Flood Plain.  Flat River Outreach Ministries (FROM) is a a steady feature in my Brag About Lowell file. Over 20 years ago the now retired local pastor, Roger LaWarre, had a heck of an idea. His vision was for the local churches to band together and created an organization to help local people - with the co-operation of almost every church in the area. BOOM - Flat River Outreach Ministries was born. FROM tackles real world challenges faced by people every day - food insecurities, housing, transportation, and others - including annual help with tax returns. Once upon a time, I found myself in a financial mess and found help from some agencies that were not the government. I had recently moved to the Lansing area, was working two part time jobs and ends were not meeting. I got help from one organization that filled my fuel oil tank and relied on help from a food bank for a couple o
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Dave and Rhonda Delnick Do Everything Together.....Even Retire

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Originally published in the Lowell Ledger:  Thursday May 23 rd was a banner day for Rhonda and David Delnick. The long time Lowell residents have been married to each other for forty years and they decided to have some fun and retire from their respective vocations on the same day. (FWIW, the solar system tossed in a little bonus with a full moon that day as well.) The Delnicks at the start of it all. Rhonda is known as “Miss Rhonda” to the hundreds of preschoolers she has prepped for their education over the years. Her career started with the Sparta Head Start preschool and then in 1999 she was hired to help Kathy Cole grow what was called Tots on Track for the Lowell Area Schools. That morphed into a preschool program for four year old at Curiosity Corner (CCPS) where she began with her first class of 12 students. She stayed at Curiosity Corner, managing classes with 48 students every year, until 2016 when she started a preschool of her own: Farmtime Preschool. “ For 10 years in a
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Raising The Water & Sewer Rates is Okay By Me

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In Support of Increasing Water and Sewer Rates There has been quite a bit of buzz surrounding the looming increases in our water and sewer rates. As someone who lives in Lowell and owns a business on Main Street and thereby has three water and sewer bills every month, I can understand why people bristle at the thought of paying more for these services. As someone who just finished five years on the City Council, I can understand the need to raise the rates in order to help fund some very long overdue renovation to our infrastructure.   Julie and I made it through the total renovation on Monroe Street last year. The street was completely dug up between Main Street and the cemetery so that water and sewer pipes could be replaced in addition to repaving the road. It is important to remember that the reason Monroe was done before Washington had to do with a massive amount of rainwater/groundwater coming into the system via cracked and broken pipes which resulted in our water treatment pla
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Anna Doyle is Making Her Mark In The Big Apple

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  It should come as no surprise to anyone who watched and listened to Anna Doyle sing and act during her four years at LHS to learn that she is continuing her education in the Big Apple. Anna is the daughter of Stephen and Michelle Doyle and she graduated in 2022. What might be a surprise for those who enjoyed her singing and acting in Freaky Friday, Sister Act, and finally as Dorothy in Mary Poppins is that Anna is a student at the Fashion Institute of America (FIT). She is spending her time preparing for a career in fashion as a Technical Designer. Anna must be on the proper track because she just received a Critic Award and one of her creations was featured front and center in a recent show at FIT. The project was mandatory for all 300 students in Anna’s class. “In our fourth semester at FIT, the Fashion Design students are all given a theme and parameters with which we must design our capstone garment; this year it was Denim Divine,” Doyle stated. “This task is huge considering we
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Mad About Grocery Prices - Put The Blame Where It Belongs

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  Grocery Store Prices – Who is Responsible Lots of people have been talking about the cost of groceries and the impact it has had on the household budgets for most of us regular folks. It has been popular to place the blame on one or more politicians. I am going to join that chorus and in my humble opinion the blame lies squarely on the members of both major political parties. Especially those serving in the houses of Congress that take Corporate money in large amounts. I am not alone in this belief. I have the indirect support of the Federal Trade Commission to back me up. The FTC was founded in 1914 with this as its mission: “ The Federal Trade Commission is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. “The FTC does on a national basis what the Attorneys General do on a state by state basis in that they watch out for companies who seek to take unfair advantage of c
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Congress MIGHT Do Something to Help Small Media Outlets AND Small Businesses

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 Originally Published in the Lowell Ledger 10.4.23 HR. 4756 - A Bill To Provide Tax Incentives That Support Local Media In July of this year Republican Representative Claudia Tenney (NY 22) introduced a bill to provide tax incentives that will support local newspapers with a great one-two punch. The bill was co-sponsored by Democrat Suzan DelBene (WA 1). HR 4756 goes by the name Community News and Small Business Support Act. Since that time the bill is gaining some traction with support from eight more Representatives, four from each party. The bill is designed to support all kinds of local media including local papers, digital media outlets, radio stations and even TV stations. For the purpose of this article, we will only be considering the importance and impact of small town newspapers. HR 4756 would be a great help to small media outlets and small business at the same time. Before we look into the great possibilities of HR 4756, it is imperative to examine the current situation w
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