By JOHN RAFFEL, The Clare Sentinel

     LAKE – Martin’s Family Fun Ranch is in its second season and Mike Martin is excited over the business’ potential.
     It’s located at 11403 Clareola Ave. in Lake.
     The facility is owned by Mike and his wife Elise Martin.
     “We started out taking in animals from people,” Martin [...]

     CLARE – The Saline-based Renosol Corporation has moved its PVC plastisol compound operation from the Clare Industrial Park to its Bay City plant.
     Gary Maki, who was plant manager at the operation here, is now operations manager for the process in Bay City.
     Maki is president pro tem of the Farwell Village Council.
     The [...]

TOM KOCH: “Let’s talk about needing land for industry in Michigan that has a high unemployment rate and factories closing. We are going after an industry that is shrinking in a state that is shrinking. This is not a good way to spend public money. I disagree with using tax money for private development.”
CLARE – [...]

  NEXT WEEK: Look for a story by reporter Rosemary Horvath about Farwell’s industrial park.

   CLARE – The Clare City Planning Commission worked with a consultant last year to develop a future land use map for the Urban Cooperation Area that incorporates a new industrial park, City Manager Ken Hibl said during an interview.
     This “potential [...]

     CLARE – Chairman of the Clare Industrial Development Corporation may not know the costs to extend water and sewer lines and build a water tower on the city’s north end to service a second industrial park when city commissioners meet Feb. 15.
     An IDC presentation is tentatively listed on the agenda.
Chairman Jim Allen, formerly a [...]

     HARRISON – A former employee at the Farwell plant of Melling Products Corporation may have a jury decide if the company’s reorganization cost him a management position or his age.
     Attorneys for the company and for plaintiff David Leonard of Alma had scheduled a mediation hearing today. If nothing is resolved, the case will [...]

HARRISON – Hopeful startup businesses filing “Michigan Doing Business As” name registrations in the Clare County clerk’s office will be asked to return surveys as part of a $99,500 feasibility study funded by the U.S. Department of Rural Development.
“We’re just starting to send surveys out,” said Lawrence Molnar of the University of Michigan who oversees [...]

CLARE – While the exact impact of the economy on real estate in Clare County may not be determined, area Realtors are in agreement that there has been a definite change in the market.
“There’s been a significant change,” said Wayne Terpening, broker and owner of ReMax Brookside.
“The market is definitely down, but it is still [...]

SHERIDAN TOWNSHIP – Clare County’s cooler weather and open space brought Cletus and Rosanna Yoder here from Delaware to open a retail plant business and build a home at 6047 E. Surrey Road, just east of Cornwell Road and two miles east of Jay’s Sporting Goods.
Cletus learned the plant business working with his father who [...]

CLARE – When Dierdre Folkert and Amy Dalton sought a name for their McEwan Street downtown business, they put together something of a math equation: Purpose plus focus plus address.
Aromatic cups of java and an open space to linger where conversation is enjoyed is the essence of Coffee Talk 505.
 Coffee beans are Fair Trade organic [...]