Zeeland Record
The closing of an iconic Zeeland manufacturer, plans by one of the city’s largest employers to modernize its facility and the groundbreaking of a company’s new headquarters on the city’s east side highlighted the top stories covered by the Zeeland Record in 2025.
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Farewell, Howard Miller
The days are dwindling for Howard Miller Company, the family-owned business known for its handcrafted clocks and high-end home furnishings.
Founded 100 years ago by Howard C. Miller, the son of office furniture manufacturing legend Herman Miller, the company announced in July that it would end production at its manufacturing plants in Zeeland (860 E. Main Ave.) and Traverse City, as well as two plants in North Carolina, in the fourth quarter of 2025. The company is selling off the last remaining items in its inventory before closing its doors for good.
Company president and chief executive officer Howard J. “Buzz” Miller said in a prepared statement when the closing was announced that tariffs on parts for clocks being shipped into the United States from overseas were a contributing factor in the company’s decision to cease operations. Miller said the tariffs were part of what he called “a convergence of market influences beyond our control.”
“Our business has been directly impacted by tariffs that have increased the cost of essential components unavailable domestically and driven specialty suppliers out of business, making it unsustainable for us to continue our operations,” Buzz Miller said.
The Howard Miller name will carry on in the Zeeland community through the Howard Miller Library and Community Center, as well as through the Howard Miller Foundation. The foundation, which was founded in 1976, supports organizations involved with arts and culture, education, health, mental health, human services, and Christianity, according to the Candid foundation directory (fconline. foundationcenter.org).
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Mead Johnson Modernization Proposal
As Howard Miller is winding down its operations, a major employer just a few hundred feet to the west is proposing the largest project in its 102-year history. Reckitt/Mead Johnson Nutrition earlier this year proposed an $836 million modernization project that company officials say is necessary for the infant formula manufacturer to continue its operations in Zeeland.
“Our assets are aging. We will not be able to use those assets forever,” Art Pike, a site director for Mead Johnson, said at a presentation to the city’s Planning Commission in early June. “We have to build new assets, because requirements change, regulatory requirements change. We have internal standards that we have to meet as well.”
Mead Johnson began buying up properties, both residential and industrial, near the plant in late 2024, as part of its campaign to get the project approved by the city. Over a span of seven months, the company spent more than $19 million acquiring nine parcels, including residential properties along Main Avenue.
Among the most significant purchases made by Mead Johnson included the purchase of a home at 633 E. Main Ave. that was the last home on the north side of Main, west of the plant, which the company purchased for $1.5 million; the acquisition of the Bethel Christian Reformed Church property at 515 E. Main for $3.3 million, and the purchase of the property at 605 E. Main now occupied by Cityside Townhouses, eight residential units that had been built only 10 years ago, for $2.95 million.
Mead Johnson came before the city’s Planning Commission, and later the City Council, asking that the residential and public facilities-zoned properties be rezoned for industrial use. The request drew significant opposition from residents who live near the plant. Ericka Humbert, who lives on Main across from Bethel CRC, objected to the loss of the Cityside Townhouses, saying Zeeland already has limited affordable housing options.
“One of the parcels in question is a nearly brand-new flexible townhome that would be leaving eight renting families displaced in a city with little to no comparable alternates in terms of price or space,” Humbert said at the June hearing, referring to Cityside Townhouses.
City planning consultant Paul LeBlanc recommended approval of the rezoning, saying the request was “consistent with the 2011 master plan which identifies this location and this block as having conflicting and incompatible land uses due to the residential uses in the midst of a predominant industrial area.”
The council approved rezoning the parcels at 605 and 633 E. Main to industrial on July 21, then approved rezoning the properties at 515, 549 and 553 E. Main to industrial on Oct. 20. The next phase in the process is expected to be a presentation of a site plan for the Mead Johnson project to the city’s Planning Commission.
“We have not received an updated timeline from the company on when a site plan may be submitted for review,” Community Development Director Tim Maday wrote in an email to the Zeeland Record last week. “We also have not been informed whether they intend to pursue a preliminary review or proceed directly to a full site plan.”
JR Automation Breaks Ground on World Headquarters
JR Automation broke ground Sept. 17 on a $72.8 million global headquarters at the eastern edge of the Zeeland city limits at 800 E. Riley St.
The new headquarters, which is slated to be completed in early 2027, will consist of a 210,000-square-foot manufacturing plant and a two-story headquarters building with about 40,000 square feet on each level that will be built on a 45.5-acre site. The new Zeeland headquarters will be home to 350 employees and is expected to create another 150 new jobs.
“We currently operate in about nine facilities in West Michigan, and being able to bring those teams together is going to be incredibly impactful and beneficial, to improve collaboration with our teams, and also make a better work environment for our teams as well,” JR Automation chief executive officer Dave DeGraaf said at the September groundbreaking ceremony.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation worked with local economic development organization Lakeshore Advantage in helping secure the project for Zeeland. JR Automation had considered South Carolina as a potential headquarters location.
“This project will retain and create good-paying jobs, strengthen our advanced manufacturing sector, and reinforce Michigan’s position as a hub for cutting-edge technology,” Whitmer said in a press release when the project was announced Sept. 4.
JR Automation was founded by Ken Assink as a tool-and-die business out of a pole barn at his home on Tyler Street in Olive Township in 1980. Assink used the initials of his daughters’ first names – Jill and Rita – to name the company.
Assink’s widow, Jean, and daughters Rita Bos and Jill Karsten helped turn over the first shovelfuls of dirt on the project.
“I think he’d be blown away (to see this),” Bos said of her father, who died in June 2020. “Even if he could be here for five minutes and just see this – it was his vision, it was all of his ideas.”
Solar Project Proposed in Zeeland Township
A German-based company with U.S. headquarters in Texas proposed a $300 million solar project in Zeeland Township and neighboring Jamestown Township in the fall.
RWE is proposing to built the 200-megawatt Silver Maple project in the eastern half of the township and the western half of Jamestown.
The company’s proposal came as the township Planning Commission wrestled with trying to develop an ordinance that would put stricter standards on development of a solar facility than the state has, but not too strict that RWE could bypass the township entirely and seek approval of the project through the Michigan Public Service Commission.
The state Legislature in November 2023 passed and Whitmer signed into law legislation creating a statewide clean energy standard and giving utilities the option to bypass local municipalities and apply directly to the MPSC for approval of large-scale solar projects. Since then, local communities have been developing their own ordinances in an effort to retain some form of local control over such projects.
The proposed project has generated a firestorm of opposition from residents who say the project will harm the township’s agricultural community and rural character. More than 200 people packed a Dec. 9 Planning Commission meeting to speak out against the project.
“I am angry that the foreign corporations believe they can walk into small American towns and buy up our future like it’s a clearance sale, and I’m extremely disappointed that some landowners were willing to hand over generations of farmland to people who couldn’t find Zeeland on a map seven years ago,” said Cadence DeVree, who lives in the city of Zeeland, but owns property in the township.
“Let me be perfectly clear when I say this: we are not powerless, we are not voiceless, and we are not for sale.”
The Planning Commission has directed attorney David Eberle to work with township staff in creating what’s been dubbed a “workable incompatible ordinance” that is stricter than state law, but yet would allow a project to proceed. Commissioners have asked Eberle to create an ordinance that will not only address future solar projects, but also wind and battery storage projects as well.
No formal application for the Silver Maple project has been filed with the township. RWE would like to break ground on the project in late 2026, and have Silver Maple in operation by late 2028, project manager Joe Brochu said.
City Legalizes Sunday Alcohol Sales
The City Council on Nov. 17 legalized the sale of alcohol on Sundays, ending months of discussion on the topic.
The council voted 5-1 to permit the sale of alcohol between 12 noon Sunday and 2 a.m. Monday, or during a special event within that time period that has been approved by the council. The ordinance amendment covers both on-premises and off-premises liquor license holders.
While the city has allowed the sale of alcohol since 2006, the city ordinance up until then had banned Sunday sales. City officials early this year reached out to liquor license holders to see if they had any interest in being allowed to sell alcohol on Sunday. One downtown restaurant – the Gritzmaker – expressed interest, saying it would bolster their business.
“They felt that would be a good economic driver for their business, to be able to host groups of people during football games and other special events,” City Marketing Director Abby deRoo said.
While there was some opposition expressed in the community – there wasn’t a huge groundswell of objection. North Street Christian Reformed Church’s council spoke out publicly against legalizing Sunday sales.
“As a church located downtown … and within the social district, will we be confronted with the folks who have drinks in hand while we enter and exit worship services? I certainly hope not,” church council member Bill Lyzenga said at an October public hearing.
The council also passed an amendment allowing alcohol to be possessed and consumed in a city park that is part of the social district if the alcohol is purchased from a social district license holder and if all of the district’s guidelines are followed. Vande Luyster Square and Elm Street Park are within the social district boundaries. However, the city will not allow alcohol in the social district on Sundays.
Changing of the Guard At City Hall
Three new members joined the City Council in November, and the mayor’s office gained a new occupant as well.
Rick Van Dorp ran unopposed in November to become the city’s 21st mayor, succeeding Kevin Klynstra, who did not seek re-election after 14 years in the mayor’s office. Van Dorp had served on City Council for 21 years before being elected to the city’s highest office. He was sworn into office Dec. 1.
“I just want to make sure we’re continuing to carry on the good governance that we’ve had for the last 30-some-odd years, and probably before that even,” Van Dorp said in a November interview with the Zeeland Record. “We’ve had great mayors and councils and a great team at City Hall and throughout the whole city. We seem to be moving forward in the right direction, in my mind, and I want to make sure that continues as we go forward.”
Joining the City Council were Amy Langeland, Rebecca Perkins and Andrew Bult, all of whom ran for the council for the first time.
Langeland, a librarian, longtime member of the city’s Cemetery & Parks Commission and former president of the Zeeland Historical Society, was the top vote-getter in the November election with 759 votes. Perkins, a real estate agent and planning commissioner, finished second with 707 votes, while Bult, a physical therapist and business owner, placed third with 659.
Klynstra, whose tenure as mayor was the second-longest in the city’s history behind his predecessor, Les Hoogland, was honored at a ceremony in October during Pumpkinfest.
“Serving the people of Zeeland has been the honor of a lifetime,” Klynstra said in an interview prior to the Pumpkinfest celebration. “Together, we have strengthened our community, celebrated our traditions, and built for the future. I am deeply grateful for the trust and support of this wonderful city.”
Jim Broersma, who served on City Council for 24 years, chose not to run for re-election this year, while Glenn Kass, a 16-year council veteran, was defeated in his re-election bid.
There were other changes in the city this year. City employees mourned the passing of Pam Holmes, who had served as city clerk since 2018. Holmes died Oct. 3 of cancer at the age of 60. She had gone on medical leave several months earlier to battle her cancer.
Kristi DeVerney, a longtime deputy clerk in Grand Haven Township and a friend of Holmes, was named city clerk in October.
In addition, Board of Public Works General Manager Andrew Boatright announced in the fall his intention to retire effect September 2026. Boatright has been the utility’s general manager for the past six years. A selection team was appointed by the BPW board to interview possible successors from within the city and BPW.
Historical Society Founder Passes Away
Dorothy Voss, who was one of the founding members of the Zeeland Historical Society and played a leading role in the development of the Dekker Huis Museum, died July 25 at the age of 95.
Voss’s passing came a little more than a month after she appeared at a City Council meeting where the historical society was honored for 50 years of service to the Zeeland Community.
“It’s been a labor of love, because we dearly love this community,” Voss said at that council meeting. “We’ve been blessed all these years with getting funds, just when we needed them.”
Voss also was involved in numerous community and church organizations around Zeeland, including serving as executive director of the Chamber of Commerce for five years.
“Dorothy Voss was one of Zeeland’s most determined and vivacious champions,” current Zeeland Historical Society Director Katelyn VerMerris wrote in an email to the Zeeland Record. “As a founding member of the Zeeland Historical Society, she shaped our mission with vision, wit, and a deep love for this community. There would not be a Zeeland Historical Society and Dekker Huis Museum without Dorothy.”
(From left) Rita Bos, Jean Assink and Jill Karsten dig their shovels into the dirt during the Sept. 17 groundbreaking for the JR Automation global headquarters at 800 E. Riley St. Bos and Karsten are the daughters of company founder Ken Assink and Jean Assink. Ken Assink named the company using the first letters of his daughters’ names when he started the firm out of a pole barn in Olive Township in 1980.
File photo
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