Saturday, September 10, 2005

Downtowns with Potential

Several of the downtowns that I saw in St. Joseph County, MI have tremendous potential due to the efforts of some local entrepreneurs. Dave Allen, Executive Director of the local EDC told me, “Tom Meyer is a local philanthropist who was in the landfill business. He sold out several years ago to Waste Management and has reinvested in redoing downtowns in Three Rivers and Constantine. Another is Bruce Monroe who had a paper equipment business that he sold. He is now redoing the old theater in Three Rivers.”

We ate dinner in Mendon, MI (population 917) that has two outstanding restaurants. One of them, The Mendon Country Inn, is run by a South African who puts on international cooking classes. We ate at the Bistro Rio which sits on the St. Joseph River. Mendon is also one of those unique towns that have more people working in it than there are residents in the town.

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