Rick D. Postma, 39, lived a life with clear expectations and a calm approach to emergencies.
He died at home Friday after an accidental fall, while carrying groceries to the basement.

His family and friends are struggling to absorb the utterly unexpected reality.

“You know God has a plan, but even as a Christian you wonder, 'Why, God? Why did it have to be him when he was such a good person?'” said Jacquie Masterson, who lived next door to Postma on Zeeland's Central Avenue.

After a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Port-au-Prince, Phil and Amber Snyder waited for word from friends who live in Haiti’s capital.

By Wednesday afternoon, the Zeeland couple still had no confirmation that any of those friends survived.

“We can’t get through — you don’t even get a phone to ring when you dial a number to Port-au-Prince,” Amber Snyder said. “We are very, very concerned because when we hear about the hundreds of thousands of people who have potentially died, we know we’ve potentially lost very dear friends.”

Officials are estimating more than 100,000 people in Port-au-Prince may be dead, while another 9 million throughout Haiti will need emergency aid after Tuesday’s disaster.

People began lining up at the Doubletree Hotel at about 7:30 this morning, an hour and a half before Gentex Corp. began hosting its job fair.

Residents of Zeeland who store utility trailers in front of their houses may soon be looking for new parking spots.

At the request of the Zeeland Planning Commission, the Zeeland City Council on Monday considered an addition to an existing ordinance that would make it illegal for city residents to store utility trailers in front yard setbacks, including driveways, for more than 48 hours.

The ordinance change was put on hold, however, when, after some pointed discussion, the council was deadlocked 3-3 on the issue. Mayor Les Hoogland, Mayor Pro-Tem Sally Gruppen and council member Rick VanDorp approved the change, while council members Jim Broersma, Glenn Kass and Al Dannenberg opposed the addendum. Council member Kevin Klynstra was absent.

In more than two decades in the pool and spa industry, Jay Wyllys has helped put in thousands of swimming pools and hot tubs.

None were as meaningful as his latest project.

Wyllys, the manager of Zager’s Pool and Spa in Holland, played a key role in Tim’s Tub project, in which he helped procure and install an aquatic fitness system for Tim Bosch, a Zeeland teenager born with a rare genetic defect called osteogenesis imperfecta, otherwise known as brittle bone disease.

Over the weekend, after Wyllys had adjusted the chemicals and the temperature, Tim, a 14-year-old eighth-grader at Zeeland Christian School, was able to use his 19-feet by 7-feet, 2,400 gallon spa for the first time.

Three students were involved in a collision between a pickup truck and a car in a service drive near Zeeland West High School after school dismissed on Monday, March 1.
 

The public is invited to attend Zeeland Public School’s “Crayons to Careers” campaign Tuesday, March 16, from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the Howard Miller Community Center.

Being a door-to-door saleswoman builds confidence and assertiveness. Especially when the saleswoman is a young girl.

That’s what Girl Scout troop leader and mother Julie Ingrassia believes, and it’s why her sixth-grade daughter Abriana has been selling Girl Scout cookies for several years. She hopes it has the same effect for the other girls, mostly Harbor Lights Middle School students, in her troop.

“It gives them empowerment because they’re actually going door to door and learning to speak to people, putting themselves in the public arena,” she said. “Some of them aren’t really comfortable asking people to buy cookies, but it teaches them you have to sometimes ask to get things accomplished.”

Some were close friends, and others were mere acquaintances. A few were virtual strangers who knew little more about one another than names and church affiliations.
But five Reformed Church in America ministers from the Zeeland area came together in January to break new ground, and perhaps break down a few barriers.

Dollar General is hoping its second venture in the Zeeland area goes better than its first.
The dollar store giant based in Goodletsville, Tenn., has opened a new store in the former D&W building on Main Avenue, not quite three years after closing another store on the east side of Zeeland.
The former store, which was open from 2003 to 2007 on Homestead Drive near McDonald’s and 7-Eleven, was ill-fated in part due to its poor location.

Aaron Baker thinks he finally got it right on the third try.
The Zeeland East High School junior and member of the Zeeland U.S. FIRST Robotics team has been trying for three years to produce an animated commercial worthy of being recognized beyond the school walls.

The annual Walk for Warmth totals are in, and this winter’s event in Zeeland raised $19,000, $4,000 less than the 2009 mark.

In 46 years of growing ODL, Inc. into a major Zeeland-based building products firm, Larry Mulder proved to be an excellent businessman.

He’s not a half bad story-teller, either.

Mulder on Monday entertained a packed Doubletree Hotel ballroom with the stories behind development of the corporate culture at ODL of “SSR” — solid, soft and risky. 

A $20.3 million bond issue for Zeeland Public Schools will be in front of voters in the May 4 election.

The Zeeland Board of Education unanimously approved the proposal  Monday.

If passed, the bond will finance a new elementary school, expanded cafeterias at both of the high schools and improvements to the Early Childhood Center, New Groningen Elementary School and Cityside Middle School, as well as  purchase technology, security and seven school buses.

Forecasters say a winter storm headed toward West Michigan will snarl traffic during the morning commute and dump up to eight inches of snow on the region.

The Zeeland City Council sent a loud and clear message to the city’s Board of Public Works Monday evening without uttering a word.

The BPW asked the city council to approve a significant salary increase for the vacant BPW general manager post, an increase board Chair Ken Hoesch said was needed to attract high caliber candidates.

Fifty boxes of clothing are being delivered to Haiti due to the efforts of the student council at Creekside Middle School.

Those expecting a repeat performance of December’s contentious meeting between Zeeland city officials and residents of the Huizenga Avenue area were pleasantly surprised by the civility of Thursday’s second get together.

Summary: Calvin College President Gaylen Byker will jump into the “Sem Pond” on Calvin’s campus on Friday, Feb. 12, 2010.