Editing Kentwood, Michigan (section)

==History==
The city was incorporated in 1967 from what remained of Paris Township to prevent further annexation of land from the adjacent cities of Grand Rapids and [[Wyoming, Michigan|Wyoming]]. The city is located Kent County, which was named after jurist [[James Kent (jurist)|James Kent]].
The City of Kentwood was incorporated on its third try to avoid losing land to the nearby City of Grand Rapids which had annexed several key properties before then. After considering several options, the City of Kentwood was given that name because the driving force behind incorporation, first Mayor Peter M. Lamberts, decided to name it after the largest public school system in the area, the Kentwood Public Schools. Other names under consideration were Plaster Creek, for the largest river/creek that flowed through the area, and Paris, as the city was incorporated from Paris Township, but there was another Paris, Michigan, an unincorporated community in the center of the state, and that name was nixed to avoid confusion.

The city's first mayor was Peter M. Lamberts, who served in that post for its first 12 years, from 1967 until 1979. Subsequent mayors have included Marvin Hoeflinger (1979–1981), Gerald DeRuiter (1981–1992), [[Bill Hardiman]] (1992–2002), Richard Root (2002–2012), Richard Clanton (2012–2013), and Stephen Kepley (2013–present).

===Kentwood Mine===
The Kentwood Mine, located at {{nowrap|{{coord|42.890|-85.579|type:landmark_region:US-MI|display=inline|name=Kentwood Mine}}}}, opened in 1971 and closed in 2000; it was a  [[gypsum]] mine operated by [[Georgia-Pacific]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://woodtv.triton.net/news/gypsummines/mineinventory.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303223124/http://woodtv.triton.net/news/gypsummines/mineinventory.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=March 3, 2016|title=Kent County Inventory of Underground Mines|publisher=Wood TV 8|access-date=February 4, 2011}}</ref>