MEMORIAL DAY, WATER RATES, AND HIDING VILLAGE BUSINESS
Memorial Day is a time to honor the men and women who gave their lives in service to our country. The day of honor began after the civil war when communities across the country started decorating the graves of soldiers who had died in the conflict. It was originally called Decoration Day.
For those of us old enough to remember, poppies became associated with Decoration Day due to the poem “In Flanders Fields” written by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae. The poem described poppies growing among soldiers’ graves. The use of poppies as a symbol of remembrance for fallen soldiers was adopted by the American Legion in 1920. It was common to wear an artificial poppy as a show of honoring the dead.
Over the succeeding decades the remembrance expanded to honor all American service members who died in military service. In 1971, Congress officially recognized it as a federal holiday held each year on the last Monday in May.
Water Rates in the Village are going up June 1, 2026. They will increase to $4.40/1000 gallons with a service charge of $28. Four members of the Council, Bill Lewis, Carolyn Kelly, Ben Moore, and Nicholas Ludwig passed this increase despite the Village already having $250,000 of “water money” set aside in a money market account.
The two Council members who opposed the increase were Janet Sutherland and Joline Chaney. Trustee Denise Pyle was once again absent from her duties.
Bill Lewis has once again demonstrated his lack of good sense, transparency and openness, candor, and equal treatment of Village property owners. Referring here to three code enforcement debtors discussed on this website and in the Crescent and sparingly at Council meetings over the last year.
The April bill for attorney’s fees from Craig Rolfe, Esq., acquired at the May 19, 2026, Council meeting showed that he had spent time on the matter of a Village lien on the property at 115 Watson St. This lien was the result of a court ordered code enforcement cleanup for blight recorded with the Clerk in Kalamazoo on or about September 7, 2021.
This property is known in the Village as the “Moore property”. It was owned by George and Lisa Moore whose children, Trustee Ben Moore, George Moore, and Samantha Sineath, now claim ownership of the property. The senior George Moore died about five years ago.
At the May 19, 2026, Council meeting where Lewis and Rolfe’s actions were revealed publicly, Lewis did not discuss them. Trustee Ben Moore’s body language and facial expressions clearly indicated that he wanted it discussed. But Ben Moore did not discuss it. Bill Lewis prohibits Council members from speaking during what he calls “citizen time”. “Citizen time” is that three minutes when residents can ask questions and make comment but cannot expect an answer or a response from anyone on the Council. So, Ben Moore lost his right to speak as a citizen under Lewis’ made-up rule which Lewis breaks when it serves to make him look better or not so bad as an actual discussion would reveal.
Craig Rolfe’s bill showed that he received a letter or letters from Trustee Ben Moore and his siblings and that Rolfe responded at Lewis’ direction. There was little detail beyond that. Those letters were not shared by Lewis with the Council members, nor did he produce copies of them at the Council meeting.
What are purported to be copies of those letters are set out below. If they are true and correct copies, they appear amateurish. The formatting, grammatical errors, and run-on sentences jump out as unprofessional more like what a struggling student might turn out in a typing class or a business letter-writing course. And the tone of the letters isn’t any better.
At first blush it appears that Bill Lewis is attempting to collect the amount of a lawful debt to the Village with interest, fees, and costs. Quite a marked difference though between this and his treatment of the Bates code enforcement debt. Lewis spent lots of our tax money avoiding collection of the Bates debt. Lewis ultimately approved a resolution that let Bates off the hook when there was no reason to do so other than their relationship.
In contrast Bill Lewis now appears to be willing to throw Trustee Ben Moore, George Moore, and Samantha Sineath out onto the street by foreclosing on the Village’s relatively small lien. While some in the community would welcome this, no one should find acceptable the differing treatment that Lewis is giving this debt as opposed to the Bates debt.
Watch here for further details about this matter as it is investigated and the story develops.
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