Greetings Village of Hopkins!

Happy Holidays!  I hope that this letter finds you well and healthy and that each of you had a wonderful thanksgiving celebration.  Once again, we find ourselves in a great season of celebration and rejoicing as we approach the end of the year.  As a Council, we wish you a wonderful holiday celebration.  My family wishes you a very happy and merry Christmas and blessings as we begin a New Year.

As we move through this Holiday season, I wanted bring your attention to a couple of community events that are taking place this year!  We hope you can be a part of them and that they can add to the many holiday memories that you will make this year.

On Saturday, December 9, from 5:30 – 7:30 PM, we will be having our annual Tree-Lighting ceremony in the downtown park.  The park will be surrounded by smaller trees decorated by local businesses with several larger community trees on the stage.  There will be music, a bonfire, friends, neighbors, and hot cocoa too!  This year, Main Street Bakery is donating cookies and frosting for community cookie decorating and the new Township Hall will be open to the public to see as that project finishes up this month.  We invite and welcome everyone from the community, friends and family, to come out for a night of fun and fellowship!

On Monday, December 11, at 6:30 PM, Hopkins Community Church will be hosting the annual Hopkins Community Christmas Concert.  This is always a great event that features local musicians, children and adults!  HCC will seek to livestream the event as well, so you can check it out on their Facebook and Youtube pages if you can’t make it.

Several local businesses are also participating in collections for various agencies this time of year.  We encourage you to consider donating toys, coats, and many other things to local charities during this season of blessing, celebration, and giving.

As I write this, looking out my window, I see snowflakes beginning to fall heralding the coming (and inevitable) winter season.  I know my kids are really looking forward to playing in the snow and all of the fun that brings for our family.  Snow also brings a new set of chores as we trade mowing and raking for shoveling and blowing.  That said, I want to take a moment to remind you of a couple of things for this winter.

Overnight parking on the road is now prohibited until April 1.  This includes parking at the end of streets, in cul-de-sacs, and in public parking lots.  We have this ordinance to help our DPW crew as they plow the streets and parking lots for us.

Additionally, we ask that you also keep your sidewalks clear so that our sidewalk plow can come through.  It is a great blessing for our community to have the sidewalk plow and it is very difficult for them when the sidewalks are blocked by dumpsters, toys, or cars (parking on the sidewalk is always illegal).

We also want to remind you that as you remove snow from driveways, sidewalks, etc., please do not put that snow into the road.  This is both illegal and dangerous for our neighbors and for other drivers.  It is also bad form to put your snow in anyone’s yard but your own… especially without talking with them first.  Personally, I hope this is not an issue for any of us because we don’t have a lot of snow.  However, in reality, these are opportunities to be good neighbors and good community members, reinforcing what we already know to be true about Hopkins being a great place to live.

Finally, I wanted to offer a couple of quick updates on some work being down in the background:

The work to revise the current Village Charter from 1921 was completed on August 1.  We are waiting on a response from the State and, if approved, it will then be presented to the Village of Hopkins for a vote in one of the elections that will be held next year.  The Revision Draft is available on the Village Website; it is still a draft until it is passed in a vote.

The joint Master Plan and Parks & Recreation Plan with the Township is in its final phase of revision.  We will be hosting a “hearing” for the Parks & Rec Plan draft on January 8 following our regular meetings.  An additional hearing will be held for the Master Plan in the first quarter of next year as well.  Again, our goal is to set Hopkins up well for the future with plans that both move us forward and preserve the small-town feel, things that make Hopkins the incredible place to live that it is.

We also wanted to update you on the Floodplain designations that many of have asked about.  The Village of Hopkins has joined over 22,000 communities nationwide that are allowed to purchase federally backed flood insurance. This availability follows the community’s adoption and enforcement of ordinances to reduce flood losses and acceptance by the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).  The Village of Hopkins is now a participant in the NFIP effective on October 17, 2023.  Flood insurance is now available to local property owners and may be purchased from any insurance agent or broker licensed to do business in the State where the insurable property is located.

One other change that is taking place at the beginning of the year is in regards to the sewer bills.  The Village Council passed a resolution dealing with “delinquent” sewer bills, those that go unpaid quarter to quarter.  From now on, the late fee will be a percentage of the total bill due.  If a sewer bill goes unpaid for more than two quarters, there will be a $100 administrative fee that will be added in.  This is to stem the very large amount of unpaid sewer bills that we constantly have to manage.

Finally, the Village Council wishes to thank you for your support of the Millage Rollback.  We are thankful for your trust in us and look forward to being able to offer the Village the many great things that we have been doing into the future.

If you ever have any questions or concerns that you would like to bring our way, please feel free to reach out!  You can email me or Mike, our Clerk, at Clerk@villageofhopkins.org.  You can call the Village Office at (269) 793-7344 as well and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

We also invite you to the regular meetings of the Village Council.  They happen on the Second Monday of each month at 7:30 PM at the Village Hall located at 128 Franklin St. Hopkins, MI 49328.  It is possible that these meetings may need to be moved due to the construction.  If that happens, we will communicate that to you through a variety of means with as much advanced notice as possible.

As always, it is a privilege to serve you as the Village President, and for each of us to lead and serve on the Village Council.  We are grateful for the opportunity.

On behalf of the council, we wish you the best this fall as you enjoy the return to school, changing seasons, and the beauty that autumn brings here in Michigan.

Sincerely,

Jonathon VanderWall
Village of Hopkins President
President@villageofhopkins.org

www.villageofhopkins.org                                                   https://www.facebook.com/HopkinsVillageCouncil (269) 793-7344