Cassopolis residents will remember 2013 as the year of development, both within the village and the county.

The two biggest announcements came early in 2013, but ground wasn’t broken until August.

Postle Extrusion officially broke ground on its $12.5 million expansion Aug. 5 when Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder toured the facility and turned some dirt.

Postle Aluminum, the parent company located in Elkhart, Ind., was aided in the expansion by a $400,000 Community Development Block Grant from the Michigan Strategic Fund.

Postle Extrusion employs 125 people and the expansion is expected to add 40 jobs.

 

New Cassopolis Family Clinic

It took a bit longer than expected to break ground on the new facility located near the Cass District Library, but U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich. was on hand when the dirt was finally turned on Aug. 20.

The $6.4 million facility will increase patient capacity by 50 percent and add 13 more jobs.

The new clinic employs more than 50 people. The new facility on Don Horne Park Drive, will replace the current facility, which was built in 1960.

The new Cassopolis Family Clinic is expected to open in October.

 

Ranger Wellness Center

The new clinic wasn’t the only health care facility built in Cassopolis in 2013.

The Cassopolis Family Clinic also created a school-based health center at Ross Beatty Jr./Sr. High School.

The facility, which is expected to open in February, will provide health care, dental care and mental health care.

Thanks to a $340,925 grant awarded in December of 2012, the Cassopolis Family Clinic was able to realize its “dream.”

 

Other top stories of 2013:

• The Cassopolis Board of Education approved the creation of an Agri-Science program for the district. The program, which works hand-in-hand with Cassopolis’ already popular and successful FFA program, is housed at Red Brick School, which had been closed for more than a year.

• Speaking of the FFA, Cassopolis sent its Parliamentary Procedures and Greenhand teams to the FFA National Convention in Louisville, Ky., in October.

• The Robo Rangers, Cassopolis’ second-year robotics team, advanced to the state finals in 2013. At the local competition in St. Joseph, Cassopolis brought home the Engineering Inspiration Award.

• The war on weeds in Stone Lake continued this year. Concerned citizens and the Village of Cassopolis spent much of the summer months trying to get as much information as possible about how to clean up the weeds.

• For the first time, the U.S. Department of Interior Bureau of Land Management held a wild horse and burro adoption in Cass County. Forty wild horses and burros were available for adoption at McKinleys Harmony Acres. The adoption was a success.

• Chain Lake Baptist Church and the Cassopolis United Methodist Church both celebrated their 175th anniversaries in 2013.

• The fourth annual Underground Railroad Days in Vandalia continue to grow with more than 1,000 vistors passing through the doors of the historic Bonine House.