The Lamont

Civic Association

PO Box 1 - Lamont, MI 49430

Board:

President: Ron Meyer / Former President: Betty Kingma /

Treasurer: Donna Kramer / Secretary: Betty Busman

About the association

Mission Statement:

To promote the quality of life in the community by sustaining and promoting the living conditions in the village of Lamont. Activities include decorating the boulevard with Christmas lights, cleaning and maintaining the boulevard and organizing various community social meetings.

The association was formed in 1958. The objective then was:

To sustain and improve living conditions in the Village of Lamont
To protect the natural beauty of the village and promote future projects to maintain and improve its streets and parks
To cooperate with Church and School groups.
To promote safety programs pertaining to traffic and pedestrian safety, fire prevention, etc.
To arrange and maintain decorations at Christmas time
The Association maintains this philosophy yet today. The Lamont Civic Association has recently been filed as a non-profit charitable organization, and as such all donations made to the Associations will be tax deductible.

The Association puts up the Christmas lights and luminaries in the boulevard every winter, maintains the boulevard, puts up flags lining the boulevard in the summer. We also try to sponsor various community socials.

UPCOMING EVENTS

SPRING FESTIVAL

Saturday, May 19, 2012

The Lamont Civic Association is planning another Spring Festival. Plans are still being made, but we’re hoping for another great day of celebrating our beautiful community. We’re hoping to begin the day with another 5K Run. Classis Car Show will line the boulevard. (Contact Jim Storteboom, 677-5502, to enter your car or truck.) There will be river cruises on the Grand Lady. Come early that day to be sure to get a ticket for a beautiful and peaceful ride on the Grand River. We’re working on having a Craft Sale. We hope to provide a delicious chicken BBQ dinner—or pig roast (11AM-2PM). More activities may be added. Keep checking this website for updates.

Not only will the day be a lot of fun, it’s a great way to support your local Civic Association and its projects that serve the Lamont community. If you have any questions, feel free to give me a call: Ron Meyer, President, 677-1323 or 558-4320.

NEWS

OLD LAMONT SCHOOL...

In December, 2010, the building, along with three acres of property, was purchased (for $10) from the Coopersville Area Public Schools. More than fifty years ago—when the Lamont School consolidated with the Coopersville Public Schools, there was a “gentlemen’s agreement” that the property and building would revert to Lamont—if CPS ever discontinued using them for educational purposes. Since 2006 when CPS vacated the building, the Lamont Civic Association has been requesting the transfer of the property so that a community park could be created on that site. After obtaining its “tax-exempt” status in 2010, the Civic Association was successful in obtaining this wonderful property.

Prior to this transaction, the Civic Association obtained the promise of a generous gift—called “Seed Money”—for the initial development of the park. In addition, a couple of grants—from the Coopersville Area Foundation—were applied for, and received: one for picnic tables and another for the initial phase of playground equipment.

As spring approached, the Civic Association began dismantling items in the old school that could be reused by local residents. An auction was conducted on April 30 in which approximately $1500 was raised for future park development. Items included used building materials—doors, windows, shelving, lights, ceiling tiles, bathroom fixtures, antique coat hooks, a furnace, stove, hot water heater, AC units, the handicap ramp, maple flooring and many smaller items.

After the auction, a couple of areas of asbestos were professionally abated. This was a costly necessity—given environmental quality regulations.

Also, the cupola has been removed for the purpose of renovation. Lifetime resident Betty Busman and her two sisters have pledged to underwrite the cost of this renovation—with a view toward it becoming a memorial in the new park to their parents.

The Bata Corporation of Grand Rapids donated a park bench to the Civic Association—made entirely out of recycled plastic—which will be place under the humongous maple tree at the edge of the woods.

Meanwhile, Bill Stehouwer has been voluntarily mowing the grass to keep our newly acquired property—and future park—looking good.

Demolition of the old Lamont School finally happened in the month of November. It took an entire week: one day to remove the “super-structure,” two days to remove the basement and cement foundation, and another two days to haul nearly 400 yards of sand to fill the hole and grade the area. This is a major step forward in the creation of a community park.

The Civic Association is already working with a landscape designer to create a “Master Plan” for the park—including a pavilion for picnic tables, a memorial to the old school, a hiking path through the trees, a possible volleyball court, and playground. Gifts toward this community project would be appreciated—and are tax-deductible.

NEXT BOARD MEETING...

The Civic Association’s next Board Meeting will be Monday, February 13, 6:30pm, at the Lamont Christian Reformed Church.

for a printed newletter...

page 1-2 (pdf) ... click here

Lamont History

Founded in 1835

One of Michigan’s prettiest villages began almost by accident when, in 1833, two brothers, Henry and Zine Steele, headed by boat from Grand Rapids to Grand Haven, stopped to rest at a welcoming bend on the Grand River. They never completed their journey. Their picturesque stopping place, rolling hills, fertile fields, large stands of trees, and home to the Ottawa and Pottawanimi tribes, was what they were looking for. Friends and family back home in New York State soon joined them and by 1835, Steele’s Landing—later named Lamont—had become a well-populated, thriving community.

At first accessible only by boats on the Grand River or horseback along the old Grand River Trail, by 1855 the village had become a regular steamboat and stagecoach stop, with two hotels, three general stores, hardware, furniture, and shoe stores, a tannery, a blacksmith shop, a grist mill, and a button factory.

Although its glory days are history, the little town on the hill above the bend in the river has lost none of the attributes that brought those pioneers to settle here. Quiet, pretty as ever, Lamont on the Grand remains one of Michigan’s most charming villages.