Student leaders to advise city on courthouse annex development

Home City News Student leaders to advise city on courthouse annex development

Hillsdale’s courthouse annex will soon be redeveloped, and the city wants Hillsdale College students’ input about what to do with it.

The annex is slated for redevelopment by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation through the Redevelopment Ready Community program, and Hillsdale zoning administrator Alan Beeker hopes students will provide input at a meeting at the Hillsdale Public Library on Sept. 29 at 6 p.m.

Beeker applied to the MEDC on Hillsdale’s behalf to receive funding through the RRC. Hillsdale is currently in the middle of a certification process that will “help Hillsdale become more attractive to developers and investors” by providing information on what new business would do best in the area, Beeker said.

After Hillsdale passed the initial phase of qualification, Beeker reached out to director of the Student Activities Board, Anthony Manno, to obtain student input for the redevelopment project.

“I wanted to see if I could get a contingent of college students to come and give us input and feedback as to what they like or don’t like about the idea,” Beeker said, “because we want to be able to draw the college students downtown to patronize the businesses.”

Manno put Beeker in contact with the leadership honorary Omicron Delta Kappa.

“Beeker wanted a group of young professionals to give feedback and I thought of ODK,” Manno said. “It would be a great way for them to get more involved with the student body.”

Senior Eric Walker, president of ODK, will garner student input and present their ideas at the community meeting.

“ODK set the goal of bringing the information they need to that meeting,” Walker said. “We’re thinking of running a student survey to provide the answers and the information from more than 10 people, and to get the feel from everyone on campus to see what they would want.”

ODK looks forward to the opportunity to do more on campus and in the town, Walker said.

“At the end of last semester, when the mantle was being passed from the last circle to ours, Dr. Bart and the other seniors said, ‘Hey, we’ve really been trying to work on an initiative to bring town and gown together,’” Walker said.