Latest news with #Cheeseman
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
Allegan County: Damage from storms is $2.2 million
ALLEGAN, Mich. (WOOD) — Allegan County's emergency management agency says its preliminary assessment has estimated some $2.2 million in damage caused by the severe storm that spawned two tornadoes in the county last week. NWS confirms 2 tornadoes in Allegan County on Thursday The county's Emergency Operations Center put together the preliminary assessment to submit to the office of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who may decide whether to issue a state emergency or disaster declaration. If issued, a state or federal disaster declaration would open up access to resources for recovery. The county already declared a local state of emergency. The EOC says it found $440,000 in direct expenses and damage to local government property that fall under Michigan State Police administrative rules for possible reimbursement. Allegan County community reacts to state of emergency The National Weather Service has confirmed two EF1 tornadoes touched down in Allegan County on the night of May 15. One was in the Martin area and the other was near the Sandy Pines campground. As of Wednesday, the EOC said it was not aware of any federal financial assistance for businesses or residents with property damage. It advised people to contact their insurance company. Additional resources may be available by calling 211 or through the American Red Cross, which is reachable at (733.27677). The tornado that marched through Martin sent trees crashing down, damaged some homes and knocked out power for days. 'Trees across the road,' street commissioner Rick Martin said. 'You couldn't go in or out of Martin at 11 p.m., 12 p.m.' He estimated cleanup costs at $250,000 — but said it will end up being less than that because neighbors, people who grew up there, friends and family have stepped up. Neighbor David Cheeseman said he saw it firsthand. 'In the middle of the night, neighbors were out helping clean things up,' Cheeseman said. 'The whole town's been that way. I've always liked it here, but now I love it.' Cheeseman planted a tree before he even closed on his Martin home 20 years ago. It has grown taller and taller as the years have passed and as he built a life there. Now, that special tree will soon come down after it was rocked by the tornado. 'It was 30 feet tall until Thursday night,' he said. Cheeseman said the governor declaring a disaster and offering access to more resources for recovery could be helpful. 'There are people that are going to need help for sure,' he said. While the street commissioner also said the extra help would be beneficial, he again praised his community. 'Any help that comes along, we're not going to turn it down by any means,' he said. 'But the community here has cleaned it up. You talk to anybody, it's family. It's just the way it is.' Crews are trying to finish cleanup before Monday's annual Memorial Day parade through Martin, which includes veterans, the high school band and tractors. It's a priority for the village to keep the parade on. 'It's a goal of the (department of public works), the village of Martin to have this to make sure life goes on,' the street commissioner said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Future appears bleak for Snowden Elementary School due to multiple factors
AURORA, N.C. (WNCT) — At a Beaufort County Schools Board of Education meeting Tuesday night, the board voted to tentatively begin the process of closing Snowden Elementary. While there is no guarantee the school will be shut down, the future of the school appears grim. Beaufort County Schools Superintendent Dr. Matthew Cheeseman said there are three main factors that led to his decision to bring this to the board. They said the school is impacting the district in a negative way financially, the enrollment numbers are dropping and the possibility of a better education elsewhere in the district exists. Over the past decade, the board has seen signs of academic improvement at Snowden, Dr. Cheeseman said a familiar problem may have become too much to handle. 'Actually, I consider the quality of education, whether we can actually staff a school with certified and licensed public school educators and administrators and that has been a historical issue, at Snowden,' Dr. Cheeseman said. He said the location and the enrollment play a large part in the lack of consistency as it pertains to teachers and he's worried about the impacts that could have on students. 'The issue is how do you have consistency among the educators in the building? You know, you can't go long without a math teacher or an officer, an English teacher, and not expect students to have achievement gaps,' he said. In his proposal, Dr. Cheeseman said the students at Snowden would attend Chocowinity Primary School and Chocowinity Middle School in the fall of 2026. He elaborated on what a closure would mean for the staff. 'We would look at the available positions that we have open in the district and who is licensed and certified and qualified to slide into those positions. Some of it will come down to contract law,' Dr. Cheeseman said. Dr. Cheeseman said they plan to have public input and information sessions. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
CBS News
06-03-2025
- Science
- CBS News
Mysteries of the Deep: An independent researcher's effort to uncover Lake Tahoe's unknowns
LAKE TAHOE — One independent researcher is working to uncover the secrets hidden at the bottom of Lake Tahoe. Instead of a submarine, he's using a custom-built rover. The mysteries of the deep stem from a garage 50 miles away in Pollock Pines. NATS – "The big thing behind this camera is that we can upgrade it in the future." Chase Petley wears a lot of hats — engineer, explorer and visionary, to name a few. Today, he's focused on one mission: preparing this rover for its first dive. The goal is to find out what's at the bottom of Lake Tahoe. "You can't wait for someone to give you the answers to the questions," he said. About 15 years ago, when those questions had no answers, he set out to find them. Why? He did it out of pure curiosity. What began as a simple hobby soon became a passion. From dropping a wooden box with a camera inside to now building this rover, Petley's come a long way since asking that first question. Now he has pictures and videos from the bottom of the lake with new discoveries. "We were told there wasn't going to be much life at the bottom of Lake Tahoe, but it's hard to actually go down there and get a camera shot without something alive in the video — shrimp, fish, large fish," he said. Lake Tahoe is about 1,600 feet, but Petley said that a massive crevasse between two fault lines suggests the lake could be much deeper. Also, there's a mystery behind a giant rock that is in the middle of the lake – and is about 400 feet high – but is too deep for anyone to know about. Petley said the discoveries below are endless, but his journey wouldn't get widespread support without exposure. "My part in this whole journey is the media, so I'm documenting everything he does," said documentary filmmaker Michael Cheeseman of Erwin Street Entertainment. Cheeseman is far from his Los Angeles studio but this story is worth the trip. Once he heard about Petley's story, he wanted to help share it. "As soon as we started filming, we were like now we can really start seeing what he's doing and evolve that story," Cheeseman said. Now they are a team, one building the rover and the other making sure the world sees what it finds. Their Instagram page, Mysteries of the Deep, has reeled in more than 55,000 followers. It's clear they're not the only ones interested. "You can't wait for someone else to give you the answers to the questions so hopefully we can inspire that in other people," Petley said. That is a sentiment he said is equally important as the discoveries they find. "I think it's important that we get people out there exploring and showing us the little bit of our planet that hasn't been explored yet," he said.
