EDITOR’S NOTE : Lead Reporter Audra Gamble wrote this Hello, Grand Rapids column that ran on Sept. 6.

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – For many Michiganders, the unofficial end of summer has passed now that Labor Day is in our rearview mirrors. While several reporters in our newsroom are clinging on to the last dregs of summer, I am itching for autumn.

Give me an armful of freshly picked Michigan apples, let me decorate my porch with a jack-o’-lantern, and I’m a happy camper.

One of my favorite things about fall is that everything feels ripe with opportunity. Even as a kid, I couldn’t wait to shop for new school supplies.

I needed to have the perfect pencil case, asking my mom to take me from store to store to find just the right one. Somehow, my mom found the patience to drive all over town to help me feel ready to start a new school year (thanks, Mom!). Even though I’ve been out of college for almost a decade, it still brings me joy to see all the excitement a new school year brings. So many adventures await!

With all the news this week from our Grand Rapids Press reporters about big changes in the business community, it feels like that autumnal season of change is upon us.

MLive’s Melissa Frick told us Sept. 3 about a new battery components assembly plant coming to the city of Wyoming, a $105 million investment in the Grand Rapids suburb that is expected to bring 170 jobs to the area.

The plant will be run by a German automotive company on Buchannan Street SW, part of a site previously home to a GM stamping plant that closed in 2009. Deputy City Manager Patrick Waterman told Melissa the jobs will be “high-quality, high-tech jobs” to the area, something city officials are excited to see.

In other big business news, reporter Brian McVicar tells us some more details about the changes the new owner of Rivertown Crossings mall in Grandville would like to see . The sale of the mall was announced this month, but its buyer, Josh Poag, said that he hopes to repair some maintenance issues at the mall while transforming portions of the mall’s large parking lots.

Poag said that vision could include additional retail buildings, a hotel or even multi-family housing. Poag hopes to repair the carousel at Rivertown Crossings within the next couple of months, then wants to work to make the mall a destination for West Michigan shoppers.

“We’re now at the starting line to start working on that vision,” Poag told MLive.

I like the idea of being at the starting line of something big as we transition seasons. Maybe that starting line is walking into a new classroom, backpack full of just the right school supplies. Or the starting line could be beginning a new book or hobby, or even branching out to try cooking a new type of cuisine for your family.

This fall, I’m looking forward to my new pottery class I started Sept. 2, where my creativity and ceramic skills will be tested in new ways. According to the syllabus, we’ll learn to make lamps and vases, which sounds daunting right now. But in this season of change, I’m excited to start working on that vision and I hope we all can find ourselves lucky enough to be at the starting line of a new adventure.

That’s what caught our eye in the Grand Rapids area this week. Take a look at those headlines, and others, below.

About Hello, Grand Rapids: Each week, we deliver the big headlines straight to your inbox. Sign up for the newsletter here . Audra Gamble is the lead news reporter for MLive Media Group/The Grand Rapids Press and Muskegon Chronicle. She covers local government and politics, along with other stories about the West Michigan community.