UPUP 

UPCOMING UPCOMING EVENTSUPUUPCOMINGupcoming events

NBABA NOTICE

The annual Election of Officers will take place on February 12th at Noon. The meeting is held at the Village Hall, 4018 Huron Street, North Branch M! 48461.

Three NBABA Board positions are available. The seats that are available are:

Treasurer-2 yr term Two!

Members at Large-2 yr terms

Please submit a written statement of interest to Betty Kennedy, NBABA Secretary by fax 810.688.4521, email c1erk@northbranchvillage.org, drop off at the village office or mail: North Branch Area Business Association, Attn: Betty Kennedy, PO Box 21, North Branch, MI 48461 by Fehruary 1,2013.

Remember to pay your dues, so you can vote!

Welcome to the

North Branch Area Business Association

Looking for shopping opportunities, restaurants or entertainment in Northern Lapeer County?  A place where a handshake is your word at rock-solid family-owned businesses and service to customers is a priority? Or how about an investment in a great community with a highly respected school district? You've found it right here.

Since our first official meeting in January, 2008, the NBABA has introduced hundreds of new visitors to the community through planned promotional events.  Click on the photo album tab, above, to view.Everyone has a fun time at our events and a chance to win prizes.

Offering fun times is great and giving back to the community is what the people up here are all about. The side dish, however, is that NBABA-sponsored events encourage and promote  the overall business climate in the Village of North Branch and North Branch Township. Association membership also provides networking and educational opportunities through its meetings and Speakers Bureau. 

A brief list of speakers who have shared their skills and topics include: low cost classes through Thumb Works; marketing business tips by the former Imlay City DDA director; an overview of the  bad check program by Lapeer County Prosecutor Byron Konschuh; Website marketing by Charlene Karppinen of Web21; theft and crime prevention by private investigator Joel Woods; emergency preparedness by Mary Stikeleather, county EM coordinator; and presentations by the executive directors of the Metamora and Lapeer Chambers of Commerce.

    
Local history

The business community of the area can date back even before 1855, when the village was organized. At that time 61 parties owned property in the area.

The first entrepreneurs may well have been brothers John and Richard Beach who founded a post office and trading company. Because the post office was the social center, the village was named Beachville (sometimes spelled Beechville) for a short time.  In a book celebrating the village’s Quasquicentennial in 1980, researcher Donna Gedke, wife of longtime Methodist pastor Roger Gedke, wrote that anticipation of mail on Fridays would bring settlers to the village post office/trading company, and the numerous native Chippewas also would also come to trade their furs.
Some interesting competitions and tests of skills are said to have taken place while waiting for the arrival of the mail carrier.

By 1857, the first steam and water mills were built, and a year later the first physician arrived and the first store was constructed. By 1860, a cooper shop, wagon shop and lumber business were started, and growth continued. The only manufacturing venture began in 1879 when the steam sawmill was purchased. New owner George Sicklesteel produced doors, blinds, sashes, circular hoops and all types of furniture.

Two fires, one in 1871 and the infamous fire of 1881, changed the face of the village as well as the area. The last inferno marked the change of the main business thoroughfare from north/south Jefferson Street to east/west Huron Street. Growth was extended eastward yet again after the P&N Railroad arrived at the east end of the village in 1882. 
The village was incorporated in 1881.

An updated Master Plan for both the village and township is expected to be officially adopted in 2009. Both plans for land use take into account the surrounding community and are specifically designed to combat sprawl. Township plans for an industrial park for example, are slated for the south side of Elm Creek Road, which adjoins the village’s existing industrial park on the north side of Elm Creek. Commercial development by the township is also geared toward the east side of Lake Pleasant Road, from M-90 south. This matches the recent commercial development in the village on the west side of Lake Pleasant.

 How we got started

The North Branch Area Business Association got its start after a group of elected officials and North Branch Village Planning Commissioners invited a small group of business people to meet in November 2007. The idea was to listen to the needs of the business community so it could be included in the Master Plan work sessions. The Master Plan had not been updated since the 1970s.

While some needs, such as changing the look of the downtown area to attract more shoppers, can be addressed in the latest Master Plan, adopted in August, 2009,  business leaders also talked about forming an association that would enable members to draw on each other for support in planning and implementing community-wide events and promotions.