Archive for March, 2012

At its March 15, 2012 meeting, the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority board voted to approve changes to its management personnel handbook. Among myriad other changes, the amended document adds “sexual orientation” to the list of protected classes.

This brief was filed from the downtown Ann Arbor District Library at 343 S. Fifth Ave., where the AATA board holds its meetings. A more detailed report will follow: [link]

Matthew Altruda posted a video on YouTube showing a tornado as it passed by Hudson Mills Metropark in Dexter at about 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 15. [Source]

As part of its performance monitoring and external relations information packet for the March 15, 2012 meeting, the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority board was provided with an update on the performance of Route #4 between Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor. The frequency of service was increased on the route starting in February.

Compared to a corresponding four-week period in February 2011, ridership on Route #4 was 26% greater. That compared with a system‐wide ridership increase of 12% for the same period – an increase attributed primarily to very good weather. Chris White, AATA manager of service development, is still cautious about drawing conclusions from the initial data, writing in an email to The Chronicle, “It is very positive, but please note that … [Full Story]

A $50 million project to build a new facility for the University of Michigan School of Nursing was authorized unanimously by UM regents at their March 15, 2012 meeting. The school is currently located at 400 N. Ingalls, in a former hospital built in 1913. The new location will be nearby at the north end of Ingalls, near the Kingsley intersection. [.pdf of map showing location of the new nursing school]

The proposed 75,000-square-foot building will include instructional space, a clinical learning center, and simulated patient suites. The new building is intended to accommodate an additional 40 new faculty and staff members over the next five to ten years, according to a staff memo. The memo states that 125 … [Full Story]

Six honorary degrees were authorized by University of Michigan regents, to be awarded at UM’s spring 2012 commencement on Saturday, April 28 at Michigan Stadium. Regents gave their unanimous approval for the degrees at their March 15, 2012 meeting.

In alphabetical order, the degrees will be awarded to:  Jose Antonio Abreu, a Venezuelan pianist and music educator;  Sanjay Gupta, a neurosurgeon and CNN’s chief medical correspondent; investment banker J. Ira Harris, president of JI Harris & Associates; journalist and author Susan Orlean; Richard Sarns, biomedical entrepreneur and inventor; and author and illustrator Chris Van Allsburg.

This brief was filed from the Michigan Union’s Pendleton Room on UM’s Ann Arbor campus, where regents held their March meeting. A more detailed report will follow: [... [Full Story]

Two items involving a total of $20.5 million in renovations at the A. Alfred Taubman Health Care Center were approved unanimously by University of Michigan regents at their March 15, 2012 board meeting.

Regents authorized a $13 million project on the first and second floors of the center, which were vacated after the opening of clinics in the C. S. Mott Children’s and Von Voigtlander Women’s Hospitals earlier this year. The 35,000-square-feet of space will be used for a multidisciplinary transplant clinic, an outpatient non-cancer infusion center, and a same-day pre-op clinic. In addition, clinical services will be expanded for neurology, neurosurgery, otolaryngology, and radiology. The outpatient pharmacy also will be relocated and expanded into a shared retail space with MedEQUIP.

The architectural firm … [Full Story]

Creation of a new undergraduate degree in environmental engineering was authorized by the University of Michigan board of regents at its March 15, 2012 meeting. The degree, to be offered by the College of Engineering, will be available starting in the fall of 2012.

According to a staff memo, undergraduates who previously studied environmental engineering “were advised to earn a degree in civil engineering, given the structure of the job market for environmental engineers. However, the field has matured considerably and the employment options and employer criteria are more diverse today. The proposed degree will provide students interested in environmental engineering the opportunity to focus their coursework more deeply in the necessary natural sciences, such as chemistry and biology.”

This brief was filed from the Michigan … [Full Story]

University of Michigan regents authorized a $2 million increase in the budget for renovations at Yost Ice Arena, with the additional funds to cover more detailed historic window replacements and higher-than-expected costs for steel and new bleachers. The approval came at the regents’ March 15, 2012 meeting.

The project’s original $14 million budget had been approved by regents at their June 2011 meeting, with a schematic design authorized in October 2011. In January 2012, regents authorized issuing bids and awarding construction contracts within the $14 million budget. At that time Tim Slottow, the university’s chief financial officer, had indicated this request for an increased budget was in the offing, dependent on securing more donations for the project.

The project includes replacing seating on the … [Full Story]

At its March 15, 2012 meeting, the University of Michigan board of regents authorized 10 items that required disclosure under the state’s Conflict of Interest statute. The law requires that regents vote on potential conflict-of-interest disclosures related to university staff, faculty or students.

The items often involve technology licensing agreements, research agreements or leases. This month, companies involved are Avicenna Medical Systems Inc., Peacock Holdings, 3D Biomatrix LLC, Atterocor Inc., Brio Device LLC, Evigia Systems Inc., HistoSonics LLC, Michigan Aerospace Corp., Mozaic Solutions LLC, and Situmbra Inc.

This brief was filed from the Michigan Union’s Pendleton Room on UM’s Ann Arbor campus, where regents held their March meeting. A more detailed report will follow: [link]

Reflecting an upgrade to facilities, the University of Michigan board of regents authorized changing the name of Crisler Arena to Crisler Center. The unanimous vote came at the board’s March 15, 2012 meeting.

According to a staff memo, the arena has become more of an all-purpose facility since it was built in 1967. It now includes the adjacent William Davidson player development center with practice courts for men’s and women’s basketball teams, locker rooms and offices and other specialized spaces. The player development center had been renamed in honor of Davidson at the regents’ Feb. 16, 2012 meeting, following a $7.5 million donation from the William Davidson Foundation to the University of Michigan athletics department.

This brief was filed from the … [Full Story]

Ann Arbor master plan revisions committee meeting (March 8, 2012): At the request of planning commissioner Kirk Westphal, a committee charged with reviewing changes to the city’s master plan is looking at a recommendation related to land near the Huron River.

Members of the Ann Arbor planning commission, from left: Eleanore Adenekan, Kirk Westphal and Diane Giannola. At the right is Wendy Rampson, head of the city's planning staff. Commissioners were attending the March 8, 2012 meeting of the master plan revisions committee. (Photos by the writer.)

The Huron River and Impoundment Management Plan, known as HRIMP, was completed in 2009. But in large part because of controversy related to Argo Dam – centered on whether or not the dam should be removed – none of the 30 other recommendations were implemented.

Only one of the HRIMP recommendations relates to land use, and is therefore in the purview of the planning commission. That recommendation calls for limited commercial development – such as a restaurant or other publicly-used entity – in the Broadway bridge/Argo area.

Much of the discussion at the March 8 committee meeting centered on the property now owned by MichCon, a subsidiary of DTE Energy, located north of Broadway Street, between the Huron River and the railroad tracks that run past the Amtrak station. A state-supervised cleanup effort is underway at that site, but its future use – including the possibility that it could be acquired by the city and turned into a park – is unclear.

Remediation of the MichCon site was also a topic at the March 12, 2012 Ann Arbor city council work session, where the property’s potential future use was discussed. That presentation also included an update on a whitewater river feature that DTE Energy is paying for. The whitewater section to be built in the Huron River was originally part of the same project as the city’s Argo Dam bypass reconstruction. The bypass, which has been recently named the Argo Cascades, is nearly complete.

This article includes a summary of the council working session related to the MichCon cleanup, as well as a report on the master plan revisions committee meeting. Based on discussions at that committee meeting, it seems likely that a proposal will be forwarded to the full planning commission to add the HRIMP recommendation to the city’s master plan. Any changes to the master plan would also require city council approval. [Full Story]

Ann Arbor Public Schools Board of Education regular meeting (March 7, 2012): Trustees of the Ann Arbor Public Schools (AAPS) school board fast-tracked the approval of another 170 schools-of-choice slots in the district, allowing students from within Washtenaw County to transfer to AAPS for the remainder of their K-12 education.

AAPS trustee Simone Lightfoot at the March 7 meeting. She was not alone in expressing her dissatisfaction with the transportation services being provided by Washtenaw Intermediate School District. (Photo by the writer.)

Under Michigan’s schools-of-choice legislation, local school districts can enroll these nonresident students without having to obtain approval from the district in which students reside.

So schools-of-choice students bring their state per-pupil allocation with them to AAPS. If all 170 seats are filled, the district will gain approximately $1.19 million in additional revenue.

The March 7 board meeting included discussions of the district’s transportation options, staffing process, and fund balance as trustees brace for budget recommendations to be brought to them by AAPS administration by the end of March.

Trustees expressed dissatisfaction with its transportation services, which it receives from the Washtenaw Intermediate School District as part of a consortium of other districts. [Full Story]

The Detroit Free Press reports that Gov. Rick Snyder signed legislation Tuesday morning that prohibits graduate student research assistants (GSRAs) from unionizing. An effort was underway at the University of Michigan to organize GSRAs. The Michigan Employment Relations Commission (MERC) had been scheduled to meet later in the day to discuss the issue. [Source]

Ann Arbor planning commission meeting (March 6, 2012): Site plans for two food chains – a Tim Hortons at State and Ellsworth, and Noodles & Co. on West Stadium Boulevard, south of Liberty – were recommended for approval at the most recent planning commission meeting.

A car pulls into West Stadium Boulevard from a driveway next to the former Sze-Chuan West restaurant. The Ann Arbor planning commission recommended approval of a proposal to tear down the structure and build a Noodles & Co. restaurant there. (Photos by the writer.)

Much of the discussion about the Tim Hortons site focused on a proposed roundabout at that intersection. Though the coffee and donut shop will likely be built by late summer – about a year before the roundabout is expected to be in place – a spokesman for the company said they’ll be designing the site with the roundabout in mind.

Commissioners also recommended approval of a new AAA branch on South Main, across from Michigan Stadium. The plan calls for rezoning a portion of the site to accommodate more parking than the current office zoning would allow – a total of 35 spaces. That’s a reduction from the amount of parking currently on the site, which was approved in the mid-1970s, but it no longer conforms with existing zoning.

Commissioners Bonnie Bona, Erica Briggs and Kirk Westphal expressed concerns about rezoning an area along Main Street for parking. They also wondered whether 35 spaces were necessary, especially when there are alternative parking options – at a park-and-ride at Pioneer High, and in the nearby neighborhood. Briggs noted that it ran counter to the city’s efforts to encourage alternative transportation. Those three commissioners voted against the rezoning, but the resolution passed on a 6-3 vote. It will still require city council approval.

Also at the March 6 meeting, commissioners postponed action on a request from owners of the Shell service station at the northeast corner of Ann Arbor-Saline and West Eisenhower Parkway. Owners of the station hope to build additions onto the existing 1,000-square-foot convenience store, but planning staff recommended postponement in order to gather additional information and analysis about the plan. [Full Story]

At a March 12, 2012 work session, the Ann Arbor city council received a presentation on the city’s park maintenance and capital improvements millage, a six-year tax that expires this year. The recommendation presented to the council is to ask voters this November to renew the 1.1 mill tax for another six years. The rationale for renewing, instead of increasing or decreasing it, was based on the assessment that the funding is sufficient, but also that it is well used to maintain infrastructure in the parks.

Although last year one councilmember had expressed interest in possibly funding all parks expenses from the millage, the council as a whole did not subsequently express much interest in that scenario, which would have required roughly … [Full Story]

At a work session held March 12, 2012, the Ann Arbor city council heard a proposal from fire chief Chuck Hubbard that would essentially redistribute existing staffing and resource levels across three fire stations instead of five. Hubbard contends that the proposal will significantly improve response times for most of the geographic area of the city.

Most councilmembers seemed generally receptive to Hubbard’s proposal, but were cautious and in a few cases skeptical. The proposal does not require city council approval. At a press briefing earlier in the day, Hubbard indicated that the new station model could be implemented in July 2012.

The proposal relies on maintaining the current total staffing level of 82 firefighters. That represents a departure from the two-year … [Full Story]