Pat Cody looks a bit cold working on the drilling rig in the Pioneer High School field diagonally across from Michigan Stadium.

When Steve Bean filed a Stopped. Watched. item reporting a drilling rig putting holes in the Pioneer High School lawn, The Chronicle sprang into action. We figured we already knew what it was about: a project to improve the water quality of the Allen Creek watershed, which the Ann Arbor city council had approved at its Nov. 17 meeting. Just the same, the possibility of a giant drill in action is hard to resist.

Bean’s description was dead-on. When The Chronicle arrived on the scene, Pat Cody was leading a three-man crew drilling a total of eight holes to a depth of 40 feet. They were working on the fifth one. The point of these bores was to find out exactly what was down there in order to make decisions about optimal placement of the giant tanks that will eventually be buried underground at the site.

When The Chronicle made phone contact with Harry Sheehan, environmental manager with the Washtenaw County Drain Commissioner’s office, we reported to him that during the brief time we watched the drilling in action, it seemed like Cody’s team was coming up with sand, sand, sand. Sheehan said that was good news, because some previous test bores under the Pioneer parking lot had found clay, clay, clay.

Sheehan also gave us some additional detail on the Pioneer project, which he’d presented to the Ann Arbor Public Schools Board of Education at their regular meeting just two days prior on Dec. 3.

Why was sand good news? It has everything to do with what the tanks are for. Storm water that is currently carried via 42-inch and 54-inch underground pipes to Allen Creek (which is also an underground pipe, despite the nomenclature) will be diverted to holding tanks to be installed at the Pioneer location. And if the tanks can be located over a sand seam, the water diverted to the tanks for treatment can be allowed to infiltrate through the existing sand substrate – allowing nature’s own filters to do their work – with no additional engineering of the soil required.

Xs and red dots marked the spots where Cody and his team were drilling.

Treatment? What sort of treatment does the storm water need? The Huron River has too much phosphorus, and the project at Pioneer is part of an attempt to respond to a mandate from the state to reduce phosphorus loading in the Huron River by 50%. Part of the strategy is to remove phosphorus from the Allen Creek watershed, which feeds the Huron.

The phosphorus to be removed is in solid suspended form, and the amount of phosphorus correlates highly with the amount of total suspended solids (TSS). So the actual treatment process doesn’t target phosphorus per se, but rather all suspended solids. It’s a purely mechanical process that uses swirl concentrators, as opposed to a chemical reaction. When the water is spun, the suspended solids concentrate in the center of the swirl. When velocity is reduced to zero, additional settling out of solids occurs. All this solid matter will need to be sucked out periodically with a vacuum. The swirl concentrators will be located out of view, under the surface in a manhole.

Where the manholes and the tanks will be located has not yet been determined, but Sheehan presented two detailed options to the school board last Wednesday. Option 1 would put two tanks – one connected to the 42-inch pipe and the second connected to the 54-inch pipe – in the grassy field in the northeast corner of the Pioneer property, just southwest of Michigan Stadium. Option 2 would also include two tanks, one for each pipe, but would put the tank for the 54-inch pipe under the paved parking lot just to the south of the grassy field.

The sections of the bore that emerged while The Chronicle was watching were filled with sand, which was good news to Harry Sheehan.

Location is not the only difference between the two options. Because of the added cost involved in dealing with the unfavorable soil conditions under the parking lot, the 54-inch pipe on Option 2 would divert to a tank about half as big as on Option 1. Tank sizes for the 54-inch pipe on the two different options would be 196,000 cft on Option 1 versus 100,000 cft on Option 2. In terms of gallons, that’s around 1.4 million versus 0.7 million gallons.

Another difference between the two options is the possible construction schedule. On Option 1, the main constraint is the UM football season – the grassy area is used for RV parking and tailgating. So construction could begin after the last football game of the season in November 2009. For Option 2, construction on the parking area location could proceed only during summer months when school is not in session. Key dates coming up for the project:

• Jan. 20, 2009: Prepare draft plans and specifications in partnership with AAPS for review by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ)
• March 27, 2009: Continue to work with AAPS to revise plans for final approval by MDEQ
• June 22, 2009: Loan closing ($4.4 million)

Additional Documentation

Light blue area is the portion of the Allen Creek watershed drained through the Pioneer High School location. It represents around 10% of the total watershed area. Click on the image for a much higher resolution file.

Option 1: underground storage tanks are rectangles with purple labels. Image links to a large .pdf file with high resolution.

Option 2: underground storage tanks are rectangles with purple labels. Image links to a large .pdf file with high resolution.

Carsten Hohnke and Mike Anglin, both of Ward 5, framed by the chairs of Christopher Taylor and Leigh Greden, both of Ward 3.

Outside the Larcom Building around 6 p.m., Ann Arbor Police Lt. Michael Logghe was using a “slim Jim” to try to gain entry to a citizen’s car. The woman had locked herself out of her vehicle with the engine running.

She was there to pay a $15 parking ticket. She was hoping to avoid a call to the tow truck. Logghe had not achieved success by the time The Chronicle headed inside for the reception for new members of council.

Later, inside Larcom, the newly constituted city council with four new members began its year of work by approving the transfer of a liquor license to Quickie Burger, three drainage projects to be implemented to reduce phosphorus load along Allen Creek, plus a contract with Dawn Farms to provide in-patient and out-patient drug abuse counseling and rehabilitation services to the 15th Judicial District Court.

Quickie Burger

A well-attended reception for new councilmembers preceded the meeting Monday, and The Chronicle spent part of that time chatting with Bob Snyder, president of the South University Neighborhood Association. As that reception blended into folks settling in for the meeting, Snyder offered his view of the agenda item concerning Quickie Burger’s liquor license. “Quickie Burger with a liquor license is like a Montessori School with a liquor license,” he laughed.

Councilmember Stephen Rapundalo reiterated the sentiments he expressed at the Nov. 6 council meeting, indicating that he would not support the transfer of the license to Quickie Burger, citing suitability and fit at its 800 S. State St. location. Specifically, he noted that while there are three party stores with licenses, no restaurant-type establishments had them. Rapundalo said that his concern – which he reported was shared by a number of other restaurateurs in the area – stemmed from the implications of the liquor license for policing that area, which he characterized as “in the heart of student country,” with residential areas immediately across the street, not just in the general vicinity.

Dan Dever, legal counsel for Quickie Burger.

Councilmember Margie Teall led off several supporting comments by saying that she’d “gone back and forth on this, but I think will be supporting it.” She said that part of town could use some vibrancy and attention and that she wanted to see some more activity in this little area.

Councilmember Mike Anglin couched his support in terms of supporting a business decision on the part of the owners. “It’s a large decision on their part, a major move that a business in our community is making,” he said. He said that we needed to be very careful that we don’t drive businesses out and that we needed to treat them with a welcoming approach. Anglin pointed out that licenses would be subject to annual review under the liquor committee’s revitalized commitment to bringing Ann Arbor’s process in compliance with state requirements, and that if there were any complaints they could be dealt with in that review process.

Councilmember Leigh Greden said he supported the analysis of Anglin and Teall. He said he wanted to confirm for the public that alcohol sales stop at 2 a.m. with only food served from 2-4 a.m. Greden requested and received confirmation from Quickie Burger’s counsel, Dan Dever, that staff at Quickie Burger would continue to be thoroughly trained to enforce service times as well as the age requirement.

For councilmember Carsten Hohnke, what convinced him to support the license transfer was that police and fire services departments at the city had approved the application, there were no objections from city staff, and he didn’t see any objective criteria on the basis of which he could object.

Councilmember Tony Derezinski echoed the same sentiments as Hohnke.

Councilmember Marcia Higgins sought clarification about the location of the outdoor service component of the Quickie Burger application. As discussion with Quickie Burger’s legal counsel and its owner, Kerope Arman, revealed that the outside service area was along Hill Street – contrasting with the language of the resolution, which talked about State Street – Higgins asked that the language be amended. After the clarifying amendment was passed, discussion continued.

Rapundalo addressed specific points made by his colleagues. “I don’t want my view to be misconstrued as trying to stifle local businesses,” he said, in response to Anglin’s comments. In response to Teall’s comments, he questioned the notion that the area needs more activity, saying that having ridden “party patrol” with the AAPD, he’d observed that it was extremely popular. In response to Hohnke and Derezinski, Rapundalo stressed that what the fire and police department had signed off on is simply that there are no violations on record. He assured his colleagues that there are concerns on the police force about having a liquor license there, but it’s not something they can legally state. He concluded by reiterating that suitability and fit are criteria by which a decision can be made.

Councilmember Sandi Smith weighed in with her support for the license transfer, saying that Quickie Burger serves food from 2-4 a.m. now catering to a post-bar crowd. She said that having a liquor license on site gives more control and more incentive to curb any rowdiness.

When the vote was taken, Rapundalo was joined in voting no by councilmembers Marcia Higgins and Christopher Taylor, who said after the meeting that he had based his vote on the same suitability and fit criteria as Rapundalo.

After the approval, owner Kerope Arman said he was happy with the support from council, and described the role the license would play in a Quickie Burger family dining experience: with a meal, a mom can enjoy a glass of wine, a dad can enjoy a beer, and kids can enjoy one of the recently introduced milkshakes. He described the enterprise as the brainchild of his son, Varujan, in much the same way as he did for David Erik Nelson, writing for “Current” back in September.

Drain Projects

At councilmember Sabra Briere’s request, Molly Wade, water quality manager with the city of Ann Arbor, gave some background on the three drainage projects, all designed to comply with a directive from the state to reduce phosphorus loading in the Huron River by 50% and to reduce E coli levels to those safe for bodily contact. The three projects on the agenda are a part of the 2007 Allen Creek Initiative, which is an effort to achieve the reductions in phosphorus loading. Mayor of the city of Ann Arbor, John Hieftje, elicited from Wade the consequences for not achieving the reductions, which range from state-mandated specific remedies to fines of up to $25,000 a day.

The sites for the three projects are at Pioneer High School ($4,211,242.00), the city of Ann Arbor farmers market in Kerrytown ($572,018.00), and a section along Stadium Boulevard ($702,335.00).

The Pioneer site is on the northwest corner of the school property, which gets used for parking on UM football Saturdays. The project will entail installation of giant underground storage tanks for storm water detention. The location is ideal, said Craig Hupy, manager of the systems planning unit at the city, because it sits downstream from a large portion (10%) of the watershed.

Councilmember Hohnke asked how the 93 pounds of phosphorus that the Pioneer project was expected to remove from the Allen Creek watershed would translate as progress towards the goal of 50% reduction. Hupy said that the 93 pounds was consistent with the 10% of the watershed that the area represented.

Hohnke also asked Hupy and Wade to address the concerns raised by a speaker during public commentary at the start of the meeting. The speaker was Glenn Thompson, who asked council to vote against the farmers market drain project. Thompson pointed out that if the Allen Creek storm water (which is currently contained in an underground pipe) was so polluted that this provided a rationale for why it can’t be day-lighted, it would, therefore, also not be appropriate for a market setting. He likened the envisioned water-based, educational sculpture that has been discussed for the farmers market to a fountain with contaminated water in the produce section of a grocery store. The vision for the water-based art was also something Thompson found to date poorly articulated, characterizing it as a “magic marker sketch.” Based on the small percentage of the watershed to be treated at the farmers market and the project’s cost, Thompson calculated the cost to treat the entire watershed at $2 billion dollars.

In response to Hohnke’s query, Hupy and Wade acknowledged that the main benefit of the farmers market drain project was in the potential for educational benefit: it drew people from outside who could be exposed to the educational message. Hupy said that he felt that the upfront cost to put the appropriate signage in place would pay off in the ongoing education message.

After the meeting, Wade clarified that the water to be used in the water-based sculpture at the farmers market would not be pumped up from the underground Allen Creek, but would be drawn from underground detention tanks filled from rainfall on the farmers market site.

Councilmember Smith asked if modeling of the drains would result in any relief from the phenomenon of manhole covers blown off by miniature geysers during heavy rains. Hupy said it was unlikely that residents would notice an immediate visual impact, but that the the impact would be positive.

Councilmember Anglin pointed out that modeling means measuring and monitoring flow rates and he encouraged moving forward on installing gauges in the drains.

Councilmember Rapundalo sought clarification about the financing of the projects, which will be paid for initially out of the parks millage fund and reimbursed from the storm water fund. “What won’t we be able to do?” asked Rapundalo. Hupy assured him that the short term for reimbursement (30-60 days) would not have a negative impact.

In light of the increased construction activity near the farmers market for other reasons (Fifth Avenue, for example) in the coming year, councilmember Briere asked if there was coordination with the DDA. Hupy said that the DDA had been at the table through the entire process.

Hieftje elicited from Hupy the fact that there are partners on the projects in the form of the township, the road commission, and state highway department and the Ann Arbor Public Schools.

All three projects were approved unanimously.

Sobriety Court Grant Program

The contract with Dawn Farm to provide in-patient and out-patient drug abuse counseling and rehabilitations service to the 15th District Court totals $101,050. Councilmember Briere opened discussion by noting that the contract does not meet the conditions of the city’s living wage ordinance (which requires entities to pay their employees $10.33 an hour with health care, or else $10.96 without health care). But she asked that her colleagues consider the non-monetary room-and-board compensation as part of the equation. “I hope that we can bend the rules just a little bit on this one,” she said.

Councilmember Higgins noted that council had repeatedly adjusted the amounts with and without health care.

Higgins cast the lone vote against the contract. In her subsequent communications to council, she said that when we decide to bend our ordinances, we should think about changing the ordinance: “We should have an open policy discussion instead of bending ordinances.” Higgins noted that the issue of the living wage had come up in the last year in connection with summer festival grants.

Appointments

A council rules committee was appointed, which will consist of Derezinski, Higgins, and Briere.

Other council appointments included: Derezinski to planning commission; Hohnke to greenbelt advisory commission; Teall and Hohnke to the environmental commission.

Richard Beedon was appointed to fill Mike Reid’s unexpired term through June 30, 2009 on the Local Development Finance Authority (LDFA). Reid resigned over a disagreement concerning the amount and timetable that Ann Arbor SPARK, an economic development agency funded in part by the LDFA, would be required to reimburse monies it had claimed but was not entitled to.

Public Commentary

In addition to Glenn Thompson, whose commentary is summarized above, two other members of the public spoke.

Jim Northrup of Ann Arbor Hydraulics with a Stirling engine and a roll of lenticular lens material

Tom Partridge: Partridge called for access to jobs for Michigan residents, universal health care, universal affordable public transportation, and access to affordable lifetime public-supported education, not just in public schools, but in institutions of higher education. He asked council to pass a resolution calling on Michigan’s congressional delegation to address these things, which he said Michigan sorely needs.

Jim Northrup: Northrup, of Ann Arbor Hydraulics, brought a role of lenticular lens material, and a Stirling engine as eye candy for “show and tell.” But what he was before council to request was access to the city’s recycling stream for fresnel lenses from televisons. He wants to use the giant magnifying lenses for research. City administrator Roger Fraser asked Northrup to leave his contact information.

Update on Keys

The vehicle was gone by the time the meeting ended. Either Logghe or a tow truck operator achieved success.

Present: John Hieftje, Sandi Smith, Sabra Briere, Tony Derezinski, Stephen Rapundalo, Leigh Greden, Christopher Taylor, Margie Teall, Marcia Higgins, Carsten Hohnke, Mike Anglin. Absent: none.

Next meeting: Monday, Dec. 1 at 7 p.m. in council chambers, 2nd floor of the Guy C. Larcom, Jr. Municipal Building, 100 N. Fifth Ave.

View of West Park looking east from the 7th Street side.

On the way to the meeting, The Chronicle stopped to take in a current West Park use: football practice for a four-school coalition of area Catholic schools (St. Francis, St. Thomas, Spiritus Sanctus, and Huron Valley), which together field one varsity and one JV squad, which play in Detroit’s Catholic Youth Organization league.

The varsity team has compiled a record of 4-0 so far this fall, with the JV even at 2-2. They will play for the district championship this coming Sunday, Sept. 28 at Gabriel Richard field – 12:30 p.m. game start for the JV, with the varsity contest slated to begin at 2:30 p.m. Details about the scrimmage were supplied to The Chronicle by Gina Walsh, whose sons Kevin and Jack help quarterback the varsity and JV teams, respectively, and whose son Charlie patrols the sidelines as the water boy. Football practices in West Park with this four-school coalition are the result of an effort that Doug Busch helped lead (of the grocery store Busch’s) to provide an opportunity parents felt was missing.

Although the boys ranged from 5th through 8th grade, the coaching staff were giving them a full dose of instruction in football technique. “Square up your butt!” was the last lesson taught before The Chronicle headed up the hill to Miller Manor for the West Park meeting.

As Kuras summarized the discussion from the first public meeting on West Park improvements – held in July – the tension became clear between the need to manage natural features (like water) and the desire to feature amenities that support various activities (from baseball to bandshells). Water management consultant Don Tilton spoke of segregating recreational activity areas from the kinds of bioswales, wetlands, and other non-structural storm water management options that were available. Tilton stressed that they were not approaching the challenge of drying out the soggy areas intended for recreation with the idea of just adding more pipe. There’s already plenty of pipe under West Park, some of it a conduit for Allen Creek, which in a different epoch flowed along the surface.

Instead of more pipe, the kind of ideas currently contemplated by Tilton are reflected on the drawings by what one resident called “a pearl necklace of blue going through there.” That is, a swale that might sometimes be filled with flowing water. It emerged in the discussion that Prof. Chris Ellis of the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources and Environment currently has some graduate students working on the design of wetlands for West Park that would have a filtering function for storm water – an opportunity for city-university cooperation.

Robert Wagner, Executive Director of Lurie Terrace, explains to Amy Kuras, city of Ann Arbor park planner, a vision for a return of shuffleboard to West Park.

Among the amenities that residents seemed to support was the idea of seat walls terraced into the hill facing the bandshell. Another idea that does not seem to require choosing one amenity over another was proposed by Robert Wagner, Executive Director of Lurie Terrace (a nearby senior housing complex): refurbish the existing shuffleboard court adjacent to the tennis courts. Wagner went to the easel to point out exactly where the court was located, and said he’d be willing to invest in new shuffleboard equipment for his residents. He described a future where the shuffleboard courts of West Park might tap into the competitive spirit between Miller Manor and Lurie Terrace.

Yet another idea that on its face would not require sacrificing some other amenity came from Mike Levine: an edible West Park. Levine wasn’t talking about a Project Grow garden plot. He meant plantings of pear trees, apricot trees, and various berry bushes that residents could pick and eat as they walked the trails through the park. He alluded to apricot trees in downtown Ann Arbor that already provide nice fruit … to residents who know where they are. The Chronicle is hoping for some tree-map tutoring from Mike.

The possibility of a Project Grow garden did come up, and Executive Director Melissa Kesterson outlined what the criteria were for garden plot site selection: (i) residents have to want them there, (ii) it must be flat, (iii) a water source must be available, and (iv) sunshine must be abundant. Baseball players in the audience perceived a choice between preservation of the West Park baseball field and a Project Grow garden plot, with one baseball supporter suggesting that Ann Arborites could already grow whatever extra vegetables they wanted in the strip of land between the sidewalk and the street. In one sketch, the baseball diamond had been replaced with a soccer field – a sport described by that same baseball supporter as “un-American.” “Any game where you can’t use your hands to touch the ball is just stupid!” he said, apparently only half kidding.

Just west of the tennis courts in West Park lies this shuffleboard court in need of a resurfacing.

His fellow baseball supporter, Jay Jahnke, who manages the upper and lower division Ann Arbor A’s, pointed out that there are 22 teams that play baseball at the field, and that “it’s the best place to play baseball in lower Michigan,” due to the sight lines and the backdrop, not to mention having a storied history of baseball played there. So Jahnke was somewhat underwhelmed by Kuras’ assurance that if the baseball diamond disappeared from West Park, it would be replaced at a different location.

Towards the end of the meeting, one resident brought the discussion back from baseball around to the question of what the long-term provisions are for water management in the West Park master plan. What happens if the non-structural strategies for segregating wet and dry areas don’t succeed? Part of the answer has to do with what happens farther upstream from West Park, but there was nothing definitive to say. Which is why there will be at least one additional public meeting on West Park improvements. As one resident had phrased the challenge earlier in the meeting, “Mother Nature always bats last.”