A Chance To Step In

A few days ago, we reported on the two open seats on the Cedar Springs City Council. There’s also an open seat on the Planning Commission.

On paper, it reads like normal city business. Resignations were accepted. Applications are now open. Interviews will soon be scheduled, and the calendar moves forward.

Sitting in that council meeting, though, it felt a little more personal than procedural. Council members took a moment to thank Brayden Marvel and Alice Rudy for their service before voting to accept their resignations. You could see in the council member’s expressions the moment they realized that two people who deeply cared about their community would no longer be there on the second Thursday of each month. There was an understanding in that room. A realization that when someone steps away, there is more left behind than an empty chair.

These roles matter. Not so much in a dramatic way, and not in a way that always draws a crowd, as evidenced by the empty chairs at the meeting. No, these roles matter in the consistent work of shaping what Cedar Springs looks like a year from now and ten years from then.

The planning commission reviews development and long-term growth. The council sets policy. Those decisions show up in everything we see in our town; in the little neighborhoods held there within, in our main street businesses, in the way our downtown continues to evolve. They affect daily life more than most people realize.

It’s easy to watch local government from a distance. Meetings are livestreamed and agendas are publicly posted online. Many people watch it from a distance. Many don’t even do that. Commentary often appears on social media by those who don’t watch local government, even from a distance. They speak as if criticism is virtue and treat cynicism as though it were wisdom.

Participating, however, is different.

It means reading through packets that are not always exciting. It means listening to residents who may disagree with one another. It means weighing tradeoffs and making a decision that will not please everyone in the room.

After covering city hall for a while, one thing has become clear to me. The people serving are not there because it is convenient. They are there because at some point they decided they cared enough to list their name on the roster.

Now there are open seats.

The application deadline is April 27. Interviews are to be scheduled for May 7 at the new City Hall on Muskegon Street. The process is straightforward and the commitment is real.

If you have ever wondered how decisions are actually made in this town, this is one of those moments when you can move from wondering to being a part of it.

The truth is someone will fill those seats. To that effect, I will share a very brief statement from a speech I wrote in 2025 titled, “Citizenship Fulfilled”

“If decent people withdraw from responsibility, then responsibility will not remain unclaimed. It will be seized by the careless, by the self-serving, by the fanatical, by those who enjoy power for its own sake. This is not a matter of politics. It is a matter of character.”

It might be someone who has lived here for decades. It might be someone newer to town. It might be someone who has been quietly paying attention for years and finally feels ready. In any case, the seats will be filled.

However it unfolds, this is what local citizenship looks like in real time. We’re going from theoretical idea to a chair at a table, a packet to review, and a vote that carries weight.

Until then, there remains a chance to step in.