By Robert Tomlinson
News Director
This story originally appeared in the Oct. 10 edition of the Three Rivers Commercial-News.
THREE RIVERS — Three Rivers Mayor Tom Lowry has seen “a little bit of everything” in his 26 non-consecutive years as mayor of Three Rivers, and so far, he says being mayor has been a “positive thing” in his life.
“I can honestly say that rarely has the commission always been in agreement, especially on controversial or hot issues or what’s a personal issue or something. But we’re forced to, because we have an odd number, we’re forced to come to a decision, and I enjoy that process that somebody has to give,” Lowry said. “I’ve enjoyed working with all different kinds of people. I’ve been yelled at a few times, but not too often. And I think it’s a good process for people to experience.”
That love of public service is the main reason why Lowry, the owner of Lowry’s Books and More in Three Rivers and Sturgis, says he’s running for his 14th two-year term as mayor of Three Rivers in the Nov. 4 mayoral election. When asked to assess how well he thinks the city is being run, he said over all it’s been “good,” but said there is room for improvement in some areas.
“Overall, we’ve had a balanced budget, we’re fiscally conservative, we don’t waste money, and actually, we’re on a very lean machine,” Lowry said. “The ’08 recession was very hard on the city, like everywhere in the nation. And we have had very few jobs back. It would be nice to offer more services, but we have the number of employees that we can afford right now.”
One of those areas he believes there needs to be improvement in is communication with residents. He says staff “tries to get as much as possible on the [city] website,” but thinks there could be more that could be done.
“I think we could be quicker and have a better – if you go to page one, you would find it quicker. And I think we could always be better at that. We don’t hide anything. Everything ultimately ends up out there, but sometimes it seems to take too long sometimes,” Lowry said.
Responding to claims made by his opponent, Angel Johnston, that people are “afraid” to speak at public meetings, Lowry said he believes some people feel that, but for different reasons than Johnston, and claimed that the city has “never disrespected anybody.”
“There are a lot of shy people or people who are very uncomfortable in front of a microphone. But, we have never disrespected anybody. We have a five-minute rule, which we enforce, and there have been some people who know how to push that window or push people’s buttons. Sometimes I’ve had to enforce rules. I don’t believe anybody should be afraid of speaking at the mic,” Lowry said.
“When you come to the microphone at a city commission meeting, you can speak, but we don’t respond. So, it will be taken, the city manager will take all the notes and then try to find a resolution. But we’re not there to solve an issue at a microphone; we’re there to listen. But we have our agenda to complete that evening, and a lot of people don’t understand that at all. So, they feel like they’ve been blown off and that’s not what we’re doing. It’s just there’s a format.”
When it came to public safety, Lowry said while the police and fire departments could have more staffing, he said public safety didn’t need to be “greatly improved” as much as other things.
“We sold off the oldest cars a few months ago. We had three very old cars that we were using just to have extras to always have something available. But we got rid of three of them and we’re buying a new one in its place. And so, we’ll shrink the fleet slightly. The police are very happy with the number of vehicles they have,” Lowry said. “Could we have more staffing? Yes. We do all the required trainings. We have all the required equipment. I don’t know how I would actually improve it.”
When it came to the salaries of police and fire, Lowry said there are surrounding departments that pay more, and said that while the city’s “below larger cities” in terms of what they can offer, “we pay as much as we can.” When asked if there is an issue with retainment of officers and firefighters in the city, he said, “No more than anyone else.”
“Even when times were at the absolute best that we could do more, there’s always been people who leave because they can get more,” Lowry said. “If they can get $5 or $10 more an hour in Portage or Kalamazoo and they don’t mind moving or commuting, there will always be attrition that way. But overall, I think we did pretty well.”
The city’s lead pipe issue is one of the big things Lowry said would be a focus if re-elected. He reiterated that the problem is not with the water itself, but with the pipes and the lines that connect to the water main. He noted the things the city has done to address the lead issue, including replacing lead water lines whenever there is a major street reconstruction, which he said is a small way the city has addressed the issue, and the introduction of a polyorthophosphate blend that helps reduce lead leeching in the pipes. However, he said the increasing costs of replacing lead lines are a challenge, and wishes that more money from the state and federal government could be available.
“If the lateral needs to be replaced, it used to be, just two years ago, $8,000 to $10,000 [per line]. Because everybody understands in Michigan that this is going to be required for some houses, if not a lot, it’s now $12,000 minimum to do that same job. And it’s partly because you have to rip up half the street to make that connection to the main,” Lowry said. “If we have 100 of them, that’s $1 million. If we have more than 100 houses that need a lateral replaced, then it’s into the many millions. We don’t have that kind of money sitting around and we can’t tax enough to generate it. And that’s really unfair on the water systems.”
Lowry made mention of the grants the city has applied for and gotten for lead pipe replacements, and talked about the city’s free testing initiative, which has only had a “little over 100” houses take advantage of it. He said there is “very little” in terms of grants out there, and most have had to do with testing, but not actual replacement, saying you “can’t wish a grant into existence.”
“One was we randomly tested 100 houses in the city, found that it was like 10 or 12 percent that had lead issues or lead pipes. And then we got a second grant that was $600,000 and we were able to test I don’t know, 300 or 500 houses. The percentage went up. There may be 30 percent of all private residences in the city that have a lead issue. So, we don’t know where it falls in between,” Lowry said.
“We have not found a source to help us actually fund any of this. So right now, we’re taking out the taxes at the rate that we levy,” Lowry continued. “There have been some grants. Some cities in Michigan have gotten grants, but it’s so little compared to the total out there. It only addresses the lateral. It doesn’t address the piping in your houses. And that’s going to be a bigger expense.”
As for affordable housing, Lowry said the city is addressing it by looking at its zoning ordinance to try to make changes to allow for more housing to be built. As far as housing that’s currently being built, Lowry mentioned the projects done by Allen Edwin Homes and the Affordable Housing Initiative, saying that for Allen Edwin, they have “always performed and done everything they said they would.” However, with Allen Edwin, he was a little tepid about their reliance on rental housing instead of housing that people can own.
“This affordable housing, addressing the missing middle, but it’s rentals, it’s not ownership and I’ve heard that they make far more profit on the rentals than ownership. Going forward, I would hope they wouldn’t do 100 percent rental. I would hope that they would build again for private ownership or owner occupied,” Lowry said. “We could say we wouldn’t approve on the rentals if it was 100 percent rental, we could say we wouldn’t approve it. And that’s a political decision. I would say, let’s see what they offer first next time.”
Lowry is not without controversy in the last couple of years as mayor. He has been in a private land transfer dispute with Lockport Township and Park Township over a property he personally owns on Buckhorn Road, which he wants to annex into the city as a private citizen to build a housing development that would give proceeds to the Three Rivers Promise scholarship program. That dispute went to the State Boundary Commission earlier this year, where they ruled in favor of the townships; Lowry filed an appeal lawsuit against the Boundary Commission, which is scheduled to have its first hearing in St. Joseph County 45th Circuit Court in December.
Lowry said he doesn’t believe that would be a distraction to the work that needs to be done in the city, saying that it is the “private me” that is embarking on the project.
“I would love to be able to give a significant amount of money to the Three Rivers Promise. I want to get us to the point of disbursement,” Lowry said. “I’d love to put 100 buildable lots on that property, not 20 because 20 wouldn’t cover all the costs to build that out. I’d need 100 houses on that property which would be city density, then all the costs would be covered, all the infrastructure, the road, curbs, all the legal law, everything, and I would start making significant contributions to the Promise.”
Lowry also came under fire briefly online in the last month for comments he posted on social media about the death of right-wing podcaster and activist Charlie Kirk. One of the posts that garnered attention from local conservatives was a post he shared from another page that said, “I don’t support what happened to Charlie. Charlie supported what happened to Charlie,” which referenced comments Kirk had made in 2023 that, “It’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the second amendment to protect our other God-given rights.”
Lowry said, in hindsight, he “maybe” shouldn’t have posted about it, and while he hoped it won’t, he admitted his posts could be “a factor” in the re-election campaign, and revealed that he did have to call police about one of the threats he received from making the post. In all, he did not back down from what he posted.
“Was I callous? Maybe with hindsight I shouldn’t have posted it that way. I didn’t think people would object to his quote. I only did one quote. I could have done a hundred other ones, I could have quoted many things. I chose one of his statements. And bottom line is, there was some blowback. I was threatened. I had to call the police about one threat. A lot of things were said about me. A lot of things were directed at me,” Lowry said. “But I would say that if you believe in somebody like Charlie Kirk, be honest with yourself and accept everything that he said. And if that’s who you are, that’s fine. I’ll respect it.”
In all, Lowry said the main reason why he should be re-elected as mayor is because of his experience and dedication to public service.
“I can bring a level of experience that I think is very helpful. I still believe in public service. Whether I’m mayor or not, as mayor, I can give back the skill set that I have. But even if I wasn’t mayor, I will still give back to this community with every penny I can because it’s home,” Lowry said. “I will always give back. But I believe that I have a skill set that is good for this city. God knows I have the best intentions for this. My goal is always to be the best for the common good.”
Robert Tomlinson can be reached at 279-7488 or robert@wilcoxnewspapers.com.
