WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Collegian Week in Review: January 29th, 2026

Episode Date: February 6, 2026

This week on the Collegian Week in Review, hosts Catherine Maxwell and Alessia Sandala first talk to co-host Tayte Christensen about recent improvements to the Blake Center. Then, they talk to Gemma Flores about opposition to city road repair plans. Finally, they talk to Thomas McKenna about a proposed solar farm in Fayette Township.

You're listening to the Collegian Weekend Review on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. Here are your hosts, Catherine Maxwell, Alessia Sandella, and Tate Christensen. Welcome to Collegian Week in Review, where we give you an inside look into Michigan's oldest college newspaper. We're your hosts, Tate Christensen, Catherine Maxwell, and Alessia Sandela. Today we're talking to Tate Christensen about the Blake Center, Gemma Flores on opposition to city road repair plans and Thomas McKenna about a proposed solar farm in Fayette Township. Before we get to our interviews, here are a couple campus updates.

First, the college is repairing the student union after last week's flood damage. The school is replacing drywall, baseboards, ceiling tiles, and carpet in three rooms, according to the administration. Last week, extremely cold temperatures caused a pipe to burst, filling AJ's cafe, the formal lounge, and the hallways near the bookstore with a couple inches of water. During construction, contractors had removed insulation in order to perform their work, and they'd ordered supplemental heaters to keep the pipes from freezing. The heaters did not arrive on time, so the pipes froze when the temperature dropped. Cold air coming down from the tower shaft caused a two-inch fire suppression,

pipe in the ceiling above the Reese room to freeze and break. Construction crews turned off the water to stop the union from flooding further, and the college immediately brought in a professional cleaning company to remove any unseen moisture. Contractors have since replaced the insulation and repaired the pipes. They've also put supplemental heaters and increased the heat in the building to account for colder weather. But the dining hall was opened by lunchtime the following day. Crews are still working to dry out the union and repair the damage. Radio Free Hillsdale's The Collegian Weekend Review continues.

Today we're talking to co-host Tate Christensen about the Blake Center's art collection. Tate, the Blake Center just got a bunch of American art. Where did it come from and what are they doing with it? Yeah, the Blake Center out in Connecticut got, a fairly large collection of American portraits and sculptures. It was from a collector by the name of Shane Newell, who lives out in Connecticut and has become a good friend of the college over recent years. So he and the college worked together and the college obtained the collection via a purchase and gift annuity arrangement with Newell. And now the art, it was displayed originally

in the Blake Center for the last few years, but now it's permanently added to the Blake Center's collection. You said it includes portraits and sculptures. Are there any notable figures in that collection? Yes. Well, all of the paintings and sculptures are all of founding fathers of just a variety of founding fathers. Maybe the most notable piece in that collection is a George Henry story portrait of Abraham Lincoln. A story was an artist who worked in the 1800s and in 1861. He was in his early 20s. he was invited to follow the president along and just sketch his daily life. And so he became accustomed with Lincoln's habits and how he sat and how he talked and just kind of became very familiar with Lincoln, became a good friend of Lincoln's.

But then later in the early 1900s, when Story came back to visit D.C., he noticed, oh, there's a lack of Lincoln portraits around here and just a lack of Lincoln in this city. So he made it his life's mission to paint Lincoln as much as possible. And so he did. And now the college owns one of the most famous portraits of Lincoln ever, an original copy of it too. And what's notable about this copy is that it hangs in museums in D.C. and in New York City. And now the college has it in Connecticut. And it's the only copy of this painting in a personal collection.

Who are some of the other founding fathers included in the collection? There are several other portraits of. founding fathers, including Paul Revere, Ben Franklin, and George Washington. And there's also more local founding fathers to Connecticut, like Jonathan Trumbull and Joseph Warren. Did Newell say why he wanted to leave the collection to Hillsdale? He was happy that the college was going to be able to keep it all in one place. And he was just very thankful to see his collection that he'd worked hard on collecting over the years just to be displayed in a very beautiful place that is the Blake Center. And the Blake Center, by the way,

is a replica of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. And Alan Crippin, the executive director and chaplain over at the Blake Center, said he feels that this collection just belongs in the Blake Center and that it really just adds volume to this place and makes it maybe even something that Thomas Jefferson would have approved of. Did Crippin say anything else about what it means for the Blake Center to have this collection permanently? Crippen is hopeful that this collection will not only beautify the Blake Center, but that it will make an impact

on the visitors who go there and that it will help them understand what the Blake Center is trying to do, which is orient people towards faith and freedom, and they have several events throughout the year that aim people toward that. So he is hoping that this collection will

help bolster that mission and draw people to the college and maybe even bring them out to the main campus for visits. This collection is obviously American art. Is the Blake Center doing anything else to celebrate America this year? Yes, they are. They just launched their America at 250 lecture series last week with a lecture from Dr. Matthew Spalding from the D.C. campus. And his lecture was on the Declaration of Independence.

And they'll have 12 total lectures this year from various Hillsdale faculty and other faculty from different universities across the country. about different elements of the American founding and even a couple lectures on the arts and music in the founding era. How did the college end up getting this replica of Monticello in the first place? In 2019, its donors Presley and Helen Blake donated the property, which includes 100 acres of land and several other outbuildings, to the college. And in 2020, the college opened it up as the Blake Center for, faith and freedom. And they've hosted a lot of lecture series and hosted many, many guests there over the years. And how long has Crippin overseen it? Crippin started as the executive director and chaplain of the Blake Center last year. So this

has been his first full year in this role. But it sounds like it's been a busy year. And he's excited for what the Blake Center is going to be doing this year and in years to come. Tate, thanks for your reporting. Thanks for having me. You're listening to the Collegian Week in Review. I'm Alessia, and today we're talking to Assistant City News editor Gemma Flores about Hillsdale residents' plans to reject new road repair plans. Gemma, what is a special assessment district, first of all? A special assessment district is when the city requests $5,000 from residents in a given district

to repair roads that have fallen in disrepair. And what streets have the city proposed redoing through special assessment districts? There are a number of streets they proposed for the 2026 construction year, which totaled to a little less than two miles. The streets that have kind of been pushing back against this are Oak Street and South Street. What did one of the South Street residents that you talked to have to say about special assessment districts? Yeah, I mean, she is a real problem with it. for one thing, she pointed out that residents in those districts haven't really been given adequate notice of the upcoming possible district, or special assessment district, rather. The only reason that she knows about it is because she's been following along with city council.

And as an Oak Street resident, Jill Hardway pointed out, there's just not a lot of time in the day for the average wholesale resident to sit and watch a two to three hour long city council meeting. And it's even harder to actually get to the meeting to voice your opinion and really talk to your representatives to say that you don't want this, which is why they're really pushing forward with getting a petition sign so that they can request that the council reject this SAD. So the special assessment districts usually cost up to $5,000. But in reality, how much do they actually cost? Well, if the resident happens to have $5,000 lying around that they're willing to give to the city, It'll cost $5,000, but a lot of residents, that just isn't an option. So the city proposes a payment plan, which ends up costing between $1,200 to $1,500 extra in interest, which goes directly to the city.

So if you opt for going with a payment plan, as many residents do, you're looking at a special assessment district costing about $6,200 to $6,500. Does the city council have any plans to lower this cost or to adjust it to take the burden off of residents? There's been a lot of debate on the council about that. A lot of residents have thrown out the number of 2,800. Where that number came from is kind of unclear at this point. But a lot of council members say that if we were to lower the cap for SADs to $2,800 or something in that ballpark, residents probably wouldn't organize. to reject the SAD and road work could go ahead as scheduled.

However, city staff has said that if we were to push this, to lower the cap, that would delay construction by a pretty substantial amount. So it doesn't seem like the cap will be lowered anytime soon. If the residents end up rejecting a special assessment district, what does the city do after that? What happens is the residents need 51% of the residents in that district to sign the petition to reject the SAD. Now, they can then bring that petition to council. And if council has a super majority of seven votes, then council can override the rejection and the SAD goes ahead as planned. But if the council does not get seven votes, the SAD is just kind of dead in the water.

That's what happened with Barry Street last year. Does the city continue and decide on another special assessment district after that? The timeline of that is kind of unclear. All we know right now is that these are the proposed districts for 2026 year. And city staff may have a few others in their back pocket that will take the funding, but that's just kind of up in the air right now. When will the city council hold a public hearing for the special assessment districts? Yeah.

So council will hold the public hearing for. for these special assessment districts and the other one proposed for 2026 on February 16th. Jima, you talked about residents organizing to oppose these SADs. Are they confident that they'll be able to get enough signatures to stop them? Or what's the status on that? Yeah, they're pretty confident. One of the organizers I spoke to, Jill Hardway, said that everyone that she has talked to so far has been in very strong agreement to sign the petition.

they're not really worried about meeting the deadline. And when is that deadline? Monday. Thanks for coming on, Gemma. Yeah, thanks for having me. This is the Collegian Week in Review. Today we have Thomas McKenna, editor-in-chief of the Collegian, on to talk about a proposed solar farm in Fayette Township.

Thomas, what is the Hartwood Solar 2 project and what has been going on with the Fayette Township Board? Sure. So the Hartwood 2 Solar Project, is an initiative by this Chicago-based company called Ranger Power. Ranger Power has already built one solar farm up in Fayette Township, which is just surrounding Jonesville, the next town over from Hillsdale, going north. Residents up there are upset.

Many of them have been speaking at Fayette Township meetings about this new proposed solar farm. So the one that's already been built, Hartwood One, was approved back in 2022, and they're working on construction of it right now. This new one is bigger and it's over toward residents who don't want to see it because they think it ruins the view. They think it'll disrupt the wildlife there. They think that it will be an industrial project on agricultural land. So I've been talking to some of these residents as well as representatives from the solar company about why this project is good for Fayette Township, why the residents don't want it, see to hear their perspective.

The Fayette Township Board and its Planning Commission have to approve the solar project before it happens. So the solar company is set to contract with private landowners, mostly farmers, for leasing their land, down there and Fayette Township. The residents are speaking up at these Township Board meetings. The Township Board held an emergency meeting last week to accept some resignation. from folks who were on the board when this whole thing broke about a month ago, and now they want to get off. So why did the clerks resign from the board? That's unclear. My understanding is that the clerk is a position on the township board, and so it seems that for whatever reason, after this whole thing broke, the previous clerk

didn't want to be a part of it to serve on the board amidst this whole controversy. They are searching for a new clerk now. The Township Board needs to find a new clerk within 45 days, according to regulations from the county and from the state. The key point here is that the Planning Commission for Fayette Township needs to approve this project before it happens. What that means is that that seven-member board is going to need to find a majority in order to push this project through.

Two members on that board have recouped. themselves from proceedings related to the project because they have personal stakes in the project. One of those members, Dale Baker, owns property, owns most of the property that's going to be used for the project. So he has a pretty large financial stake in the project. His son serves as the township supervisor. He also has a stake in it then, so he's also accused himself from proceedings. And so has one other board member on the Planning Commission. So that leaves you with five. One of those Township Board, Planning Commission members, is in Texas for now. So now you've got four.

That fourth seat, which was vacant until last week, has been filled by a Hillsdale grad named Jared Jordan. So now the question is, is the Planning Commission going to approve this project? Other than the environment, what concerns do residents have about the solar farm? So besides environmental concerns, the residents are mainly concerned with the residents. view being disrupted. Right now, when you drive past this plot of land where the solar panels are set to be, it really is a beautiful view. It's just like these rolling fields down in near Jonesville. But if the solar panels are there, a lot of these residents are saying this view that they counted on when they moved here, this landscape that they've had for the

20 years that they've lived here is going to be gone. And that goes for residents too who don't live right next to the proposed solar project, that goes for residents who just drive by it on their way to work or on their way to church. When it comes to environmental concerns, one of the main concerns is related to water source. So there's a main water source, just this little river or creek, this area of water flows down towards the city of Hillsdale. And residents are concerned that if the substation and the transformer that would be in the field with the solar panel, if those facilities are damaged, then it could lead to oil and other chemicals running off into the water source. And that water source is one that the City of Hillsdale uses. And so the City of Hillsdale

Board of Public Utilities was set to conduct an investigation into that. They ended that recently because they said they don't have the resources to adequately assess whether their water source could be disrupted. So there are a lot of moving parts here, a lot of different concerns. But I think the main concern overall is that landscape concern. Just a feeling among the folks here that they don't want this field they've known as like an agricultural farmland area to turn in what they see as an industrial project. And in your story, you said that the power company could appeal to the state for intervention. What would that look like? Right. That's the next piece of this. So right now, the solar company is trying to seek approval for a special land use

permit from the local township board and its planning commission. If those local authorities decide to halt the project and not approve the plan, the solar company can then go to the state. This is because of a law that was passed just a couple of years ago by Democrats and signed by Governor Gretchen Whitmer, which allows the State Commission, the Michigan Public Service, the Michigan Public Service Commission to override local authorities when it comes to solar panel. projects. Now, there is a way for the local authority to try to minimize the chance of that happening. And that would be for them to pass what's called a Creo, C-R-E-O, a compatible renewable energy ordinance that basically allows them to set their own rules for how they will zone a renewable

energy project. So if they can set their own rules, ones that would be prohibitive to this kind of project moving in without it being done on very specific terms. they can prevent the state from then moving in and just overriding local opposition. That's yet to be seen. Some members of the township board told me that they're thinking about a creo, but nobody told me that they are actually going to get one. It's worth noting that the state representative in the Michigan House, Jennifer Warts, she's a Republican who represents parts of branch and Hillsdale counties.

She said at the meeting and she told me that she wants the township to seek a creo because that would allow them to prevent the state from coming in. and just vetoing local opposition and putting these solar panels in without residents wanting them. What would the board's next move be? The board's next move would be to try to create a creo. And that would require them to contract a law firm. Representative Worts was suggesting a particular one at the meeting last week. So the next step would be for them to try to take steps to keep the state from intervening.

It's unclear if they'll take those steps, but the planning commission, according to their share, who I spoke with yesterday. The Planning Commission is set to have a meeting next week or two weekends from now, the second weekend of February. And I think that's when we'll find out whether this solar fight is going to end with just the company moving in and building the solar panels, or if it's going to be a longer dragged out fight. When I spoke to the representative from the solar company yesterday, Brady Friss, he's a development manager with Ranger Power. He told me that the company does not intend to seek state intervention, that they would prefer to do this through the local authorities. But he said he couldn't tell me that with 100% certainty, the state option

is off the table. And so it seems to many of these residents that the solar company is kind of putting an or else statement next to their proposal. They say, pass this through your local zoning board or else we're going to go to the state and ask for them to override your opposition. Great. Thanks for coming on, Thomas. Thanks for having me. You've been listening to Collegian Weekend Review on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. I'm Tate Christensen. I'm Alessia Sandella. And I'm Catherine Maxwell. You can find the Collegian Weekend Review online at cwIr.transister.fm. You can find more news at Hillsdalecollegian.com or on our Instagram at Hillsdale Collegion.

listening to Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM.