Looking Back at 2024: What ELi Covered this Year

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In just a few hours, it will be time to change out the calendars as 2024 comes to a close.

To celebrate the end of the year, we’re taking a look at what happened in East Lansing in 2024.

The city’s new leadership found its footing.

While he technically started near the end of 2023, City Manager Robert Belleman spent his first full year at the helm in 2024.

As city manager, Belleman leads the city staff, carrying out priorities set by City Council. In 2024, one of Belleman’s top priorities was filling key staff vacancies.

City Manager Robert Belleman at the April 23 budget work session. (Dylan Lees for ELi)

This year new figures were hired into the city, including East Lansing Public Library Director Kevin King and Prime Time Seniors Director Alesha Williams. Additionally, some important positions were filled by longtime city employees like Annette Irwin, who was promoted to planning, building and development department director after working for the city for more than 20 years.

We also got to see how the new City Council worked together, as Mark Meadows, Erik Altmann and Kerry Ebersole Singh were elected to join George Brookover and Dana Watson on council in late 2023.

The body made many important decisions throughout the year, like voting to release an investigation into city leaders, form a Charter Review Committee, haggle with developers and much more.

Curious what has been happening in the city? We’ve got you covered. ELi reporters attend each council meeting to chronicle important developments in the city. Catch up with what has been happening in the city by checking out our past coverage of city government here.

2024 was the year of elections.

The past year was jam packed with elections, as East Lansing voters were summoned to the polls four separate times throughout the year.

At ELi, we prioritized not only letting our readers know the results of elections, but making sure they knew what was on the ballot well before Election Day.

To get readers ready for the May special election, we broke down what the $23.5 million school bond that voters were deciding on would pay for, and what approval would mean for residents’ taxes.

More recently, we helped readers get to know candidates for local offices, and about recent changes to voting laws in Michigan.

The line outside of City Hall just before 6 p.m. on Election Day. The location served as an Election Day Vote Center, where residents could register to vote and cast a ballot. (Lucas Day for ELi)

We also covered the City Charter amendment that voters eventually approved by reporting on opposing views held on the amendment and teaming up with the League of Women Voters of the Lansing Area to hold a forum on the amendment.

The city continues to grapple with its flooding problem.

The past year brought two more large storms that devastated residents whose homes flooded once again.

Street flooding during a large July 9 rain storm. (Courtesy of Marc Bennett)

The city continued to search for solutions to the problem, as there have been several incidents of widespread flooding in East Lansing over the last few years. In reaction to the flooding, city officials worked with residents to gather more information about the scope of the problem, and what can be done to combat flooding.

The city hopes its Wet Weather Resiliency Plan, a comprehensive strategy to combat flooding that looks at the city’s infrastructure, projections of future storm sizes and more, will provide a model. But the plan is likely still more than a year away from being completed.

In the meantime, council discussed faster solutions. At one time, the body even considered putting a moratorium on developments while the city reviews its stormwater mitigation standards. While council voted against the moratorium, the city has created a Green Code Study Committee to see if the city’s standards can be adjusted to reduce flooding.

There were union negotiations, safety improvements and new faces in East Lansing Public Schools.

Things stayed busy in East Lansing Public Schools.

P erceived favoritism shown to an ELPS administrator’s son hired into the district was called into question during sometimes tense deliberations between ELPS and the union representing the school district’s administrative assistants. Eventually, ELPS and the union were able to reach a new contract after months of deliberations.

Attendees at the March 11 East Lansing Board of Education meeting. Many speakers at the meeting wore shirts in support of the union the district’s administrative assistants are a part of. (Dylan Lees for ELi)

The school also continues to develop its safety plan after a series of scary incidents in the district in late 2022 and early 2023. Voters approved a $23.5 million bond in May that allowed the district to construct new secure entrances to buildings and start construction of an administrative building that school officials say makes the district safer.

There were also new figures in the district, as Glencairn Elementary School welcomed new Principal Justyne Richardson and the district hired Precios Armstrong as its new director of special education. We also learned more about the hardworking people who keep the schools functioning, like Director of Facilities and Operations Billy Hastings.

Through our regular coverage of Board of Education meetings, we have kept up with the district’s plans to tackle longstanding challenges, such as student mental health and relationship building. Outside of school meetings, we reported on statewide problems that East Lansing is also experiencing, like the lack of diversity among teachers.

We got to know each other a little better.

Over the course of 2024, we became more familiar with the people who make East Lansing the community we love.

Our coverage ranged from new difference makers, like the environmental group cleaning up local waters, to longtime staples of the community such as resident Irv Nichols, who celebrated his 100th birthday in 2024.

Irv Nichols has lived in East Lansing since 1957, and recently celebrated his 100th birthday. (Mark Pontoni for ELi)

We celebrated a local nonprofit organization’s millionth dollar donated, recognized East Lansing businesses and volunteers for tackling food insecurity and met an ELHS graduate with incredible tales to tell from his ventures in baseball and music.

It was an honor to share the histories of the 10 East Lansing service members killed in the Vietnam War, and learn about former East Lansing employee Ron Springer’s military museum.

With so many people and groups working to make East Lansing a special community, we look forward to getting to know our neighbors even better in 2025.