A post on the Texas Freedom Network Insider notes that Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center in Ann Arbor, will be interviewed on Tuesday, May 12 on an Internet talk show hosted by David Barton, head of the Christian-right advocacy group WallBuilders. The show’s title is “AIG Promoting Islam?” [Source]
Commissioners each received a Red Cross personal safety kit at Wednesday's meeting.
Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners (May 6, 2009): At Wednesday’s meeting, commissioners got an update on how the county is responding to the swine flu threat, plus a bonus: Every commissioner was presented with a Red Cross personal safety kit. The implicit message was that the county is prepared for emergencies, be it virulent viruses or something else entirely. Dick Fleece, interim director of the county’s public health department, assured commissioners that funding for the kits came from the feds, not the county’s general fund budget.
Commissioners also discussed a federal grant aimed at helping track purchases of pseudoephedrine. [Full Story]
A five-year-old child who's been exposed to the Leslie Science and Nature Center will be able to identify the type of bird, and explain its sleeping habits – though perhaps not recognize that this one is made of plastic.
Ann Arbor City Council Meeting, Part I (May 4, 2009): Despite assurances from Mayor John Hieftje that he’d be surprised if Mack pool and Leslie Science Center weren’t funded, city council heard from several advocates of those facilities Monday night, along with supporters of Project Grow and the senior center.
Audible through the expressions of support for programs facing cuts was also a call for the council to focus attention on bigger ticket items. One of those bigger ticket items was a mediator-mandated agreement with the Ann Arbor Police Officers Association union, which council was constrained by state law to approve – an agreement that will cost the city about $650,000 more than it had anticipated. Another was approval of the early retirement option for police officers as a part of the employees retirement system, which the city is offering instead of mandatory layoffs.
Still another big ticket item surfaced in the form of the approval of an application for funding of the East Stadium bridge reconstruction – though it’s likely to be paid by federal tax dollars. The bridge fit into the general theme of transportation at the meeting, which showed up in the form of an agenda item authorizing a study for a north-south intra-city connector (which was postponed), as well as a lengthy discussion on the Ann Arbor transportation plan update, which was ultimately adopted, despite some sentiment for postponing it. [These items are reported in detail in Part II of our meeting coverage here.]
In other business, council approved two agreements with the public schools for operation of recreation facilities, gave initial approval to a revamped liquor licensing code for the city, and approved an amendment to the partnership agreement between the city and the Leslie Science and Nature Center. [This last accounts for the last word in the headline.] [Full Story]
Ann Arbor City Council Meeting, Part II (May 4, 2009): This article continues coverage begun here. [Full Story]
Writing in the Chicago Tribune, Christopher Borrelli proposes Ann Arbor as a designation for a food trip, if you can’t afford to go to San Francisco. “Here, the dream is reality, the makings of a va-HomerSimpson-cation, an entire trip around the eating of excessive amounts of corned beef, Guinness-based gelato, burgers coated in pimento cheese, and waffles made with grits. To be fair to the locals, there is another major cultural force here: the University of Michigan, its iconic blues and yellows splashed across awnings and the backs of every freshman hustling down State Street, its campus and graystone architecture (and new contemporary art museum, resembling an air conditioner) dominating the hub of downtown. Well, whoop-de-do.” [Source]
“For Sale” sign ON TOP of 120 W. Washington (4 stories up, Grizzly Peak, facing West). You have to stand a block away and use binoculars to read the sign which also lists Realtor and agent.
The King family set up a memorial to Ken King at their Frog Holler Farm stand in the Ann Arbor Farmers Market on Saturday.
“I’ve always had this idea, sort of a picture in my mind, of a lot of people working physically together, towards a common goal. Not only like working together and being simple, like peasants, having simple needs and not complicated by so many interpersonal things going on. Just people working side by side and as they’re working it becomes an art – they’re singing, see. They’re singing and it’s a rhythm…We’re doing the farming part and kind of doing the music thing and maybe somehow those will work more together and really living life more artistically and having our daily activities more appealing and beautiful and more nourishing than now.” – Ken King, 1989
Twenty years ago Ken King shared this simple idea about community and life. He achieved that vision, and more. Through his practical practice of his ideals, hard work, loving family, and extensive community, he lived and thrived on Frog Holler Farm in Brooklyn Michigan. Locally, Ken is perhaps best known from the Ann Arbor Farmers Market, where the Frog Holler produce has been a staple.
Ken died Thursday, May 7. His was a life well-lived. [Full Story]
"Gateless Gate" by Paul D. Zenian at Washtenaw Community College.
As a student at Washtenaw Community College, I occasionally wondered about the story behind the large metal shapes leaning into each other near the school’s main entrance. Day after day, I took in the sculpture’s dominating presence as I passed it on the way to WCC’s Student Center. Standing 22 feet high, it’s hard to miss. In their book “Public Art in Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County,” Martha Keller and Michael Curtis describe it as looking like “two irregular dominoes.”
To me, it just seemed like two giant rectangles propped up against one another, their meaning an abstract mystery I never bothered to solve.
Paul D. Zenian created the “dominoes” — titled the “Gateless Gate” — for the campus over two decades ago. According to Keller and Curtis, Zenian taught at WCC for 25 years before his retirement in 1994. The piece’s inscription explains that he intended for it to symbolize the “door to education” WCC offers. [Full Story]
Car with the plate “ONDASHR.” On the shore?
Amazing number of large trailers picking up old electronic devices at PiHi parking lot today! Cars streaming in/out, well organized event.
Mike Garfield, director of the Ecology Center in Ann Arbor, speaking at the nonprofit's annual meeting on Thursday in the Michigan Union.
Green was the operative word at Thursday night’s annual meeting of the Ecology Center, where around 100 people heard about initiatives that this Ann Arbor nonprofit is leading to build a greener world, and about the challenges in reaching that goal.
They heard about a multimillion-dollar grant recently awarded to Recycle Ann Arbor, with The Ecology Center as a partner, to install green energy technologies at schools and colleges statewide.
They heard from board chair Roger Kerson, director of public relations for the United Auto Workers union, who assured the audience that the center doesn’t spend a lot of money – as in, not a lot of green – on lavish salaries. (This comment drew laughs from the staff.)
And finally, John Warner – who founded and leads the world’s first green chemistry institute – gave a speech that was part tutorial, part pep talk about the benefits of that approach to product design. [Full Story]
saw homeless dave on his bike hauling … stuff
Pickup truck slows to match speed with my bicycle. Driver is Mr. B. the piano player, who reports that pedaling a piano across Michigan is “on” for this year. Details to follow. [Old interview with background.]
Writing in a column for the Washington Post, Ann Arbor resident Katherine Salant describes how she finally put up some pictures on the walls of her New York apartment, where she and her husband are staying for the year: “Even though we had not displayed them in our house in Michigan, they evoked a startling variety of memories, some going back more than 40 years: a painting I made as a teenager that looks like a David Hockney landscape, junk piles I photographed in Singapore to the amusement of the locals, art exhibitions we had attended with family and friends, art projects our daughter made when she was a teenager, and, most recently, our Ann Arbor neighbor’s garage sale where … [Full Story]
Gray Honda Odyssey with license plate “BUN RUN”
Robin Agnew
[Editor's note: Robin Agnew and her husband Jamie own Aunt Agatha's mystery bookstore in Ann Arbor. She also helps run the annual Kerrytown BookFest.]
“The Last Child” by John Hart (Minotaur Books, $24.95)
Recently one of the VPs at St. Martin’s, Matthew Baldacci, asked if he could swing by the store with author John Hart. I had enjoyed Hart’s first book, “King of Lies,” and enthusiastically agreed – just as enthusiastically, Mathew offered to FedEx me copies of Hart’s new book, “The Last Child.” The book arrived on a Wednesday afternoon for a Thursday visit – I trundled into the store to pick it up, hoping I might get at last halfway through before Hart stopped in – and I couldn’t put it down. I was finished with the book Thursday morning, eager to have a chance to discuss it with the author. [Full Story]
In a recent report of a meeting of the DDA board, we mis-reported the date of the upcoming board retreat at the Michigan Theater. It will be held on May 20 on the stage of the Michigan Theater, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. We note the error here, have added it to our events list, and have corrected the mistake in the [original story]. In that same story we have also corrected the mis-identification of Joan Lowenstein as Jennifer Hall.
Economic development leaders, city county and state government leaders, small business people, all together to celebrate the ribbon-cutting opening of SPARK East in Ypsilanti.
Students’ parents navigate tiny herds of defrosting mini fridges, carrying dorm detritus in the final move-out wave.
2:30 p.m. On M-14 Dude on motorcycle. Crate attached to back of cycle. Dog strapped into crate. Never saw that before.
The Detroit News reports that the Michigan State Police’s Ypsilanti post will lose five troopers, making it among the hardest hit in a statewide reduction of 100 troopers announced Friday. “The layoffs were sparked by an executive order issued by Granholm and approved by state lawmakers Tuesday cutting $304 million from this year’s budget. State Police officials are expected to soon announce plans to curtail the number of miles troopers can drive during their shift to save on gasoline.” [Source]
Coffee Review, “the world’s leading coffee buying guide,” gives Zingerman’s Coffee Espresso Blend #1 a 91-point rating out of 100. One reviewer writes: “Aroma notes of brandy, honey and walnut yielded [to] flavors of passion fruit and orange bitters. The aftertaste was dry with notes of bakers’ cocoa. In milk, some of the great spice notes showed: cinnamon, coriander, allspice.” Who should drink it? ”Elegant, understated espresso with quiet authority and complexity.” [Source]
At the base of Mulholland hill at the bend that parallels Washington, Adopt-a-Park staff with neighbor inspecting public right of way for possible wild flower installation.
Large sculpture is being installed in front of Museum of Art. [photo]
The New York Times reports that General Electric is shifting its focus to include more lower-cost health care products, and quotes UM business professor Noel Tichy about this strategy change: “This is going to force G.E. to wrestle with big issues – technical ones and beyond. It’s a real broadening, and very different from selling MRI machines to big hospitals.” [Source]
David Behen, right, talks with Gene DeRossett before Thursday's working session of the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners.
David Behen, one of Washtenaw County’s two deputy county administrators, has resigned and will leave his job at the end of May. Washtenaw County commissioners and department heads were informed of the decision in an email sent Thursday morning from county administrator Bob Guenzel. In that email, Guenzel stated that he does not plan to fill the position after Behen’s departure.
The county is struggling to balance its budget in the wake of declining revenues and a projected $26 million deficit over the next two years. Behen’s salary is $144,000 – the total compensation for that position, including benefits, is roughly $200,000.
Behen told The Chronicle that it was his decision to leave and that he has other opportunities. “Maybe by me leaving, I save someone else’s job,” he said. He said he’s been contemplating the decision for a while. [Full Story]
Downtown Development Authority board meeting (May 6, 2009): At its regular Wednesday meeting, the DDA board passed a resolution expressing skepticism about a new city plan aimed to generate an additional $380,000 in parking revenue. The plan, which was introduced to the board by Mike Bergren and Pat Cawley of the city, would achieve the additional revenue by installing more parking meters in residential areas adjoining downtown.
The resolution was amended in a way that, for the time being, headed off a direct confrontation between the DDA and the city over control of DDA dollars.
Another theme running through multiple parts of the meeting – including a discussion among interested parties afterward – was the issue of access to data, and the use of technology to share information.
In other business, the board heard a presentation on a city pilot plan to install automated trash cans in the downtown area, plus heard the usual reports from its subcommittees, including one from the operations committee that portrayed the DDA’s finances still in good order, despite the gloomy economy. [Full Story]
Someone was walking their pet skunk – never seen that before.
Bike cops pulled a car over.
From a Detroit News report: “National Air Cargo, a subsidiary of Ypsilanti-based National Airlines, has started flying supplies for the U.S. military directly from Willow Run Airport in Van Buren Township to Bagram Air Base, the center of American operations in Afghanistan. The base is roughly 40 miles north of the capital of Kabul.” [Source]
