Archive for March, 2011

Every Sunday in March, the Workantile Exchange – a coworking space at 118 S. Main St. in Ann Arbor – is hosting a series of workshops for FoolMoon, a new event that’s happening in conjunction with this year’s FestiFools street parade. While FestiFools will feature oversized puppets parading down Main Street on Sunday, April 3 from 4-5 p.m., FoolMoon will take place on the evening of Friday, April 1. Starting at 8:30 p.m., processions of paraders carrying hand-made illuminated sculptures will emerge from four different locations in Ann Arbor and converge downtown at Washington & Main for musical and shadow puppet shows – and who knows what else?

A moon's-eye view of luminary-makers at the March 6, 2011 FoolMoon workshop, held at the Workantile Exchange in downtown Ann Arbor. FestiFools asked Jimmie Thompson (former Michigan Artist of the Year) to direct the workshops.

The WorkEx workshops run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. – they are free, and are open to all. If you’d like some help in creating your lantern, here’s a video that gives some guidance. Alternatively, FoolMoon Luminary Sculpture Kits are being sold at several local stores. The kits cost $20, contain all the materials needed to make a koi-shaped lantern, and are available at these Ann Arbor businesses: Downtown Home and Garden, Peaceable Kingdom, Acme Mercantile, Ace Barnes Hardware, B-Green, Yourist Studio Gallery, Found, and Trillium Realty.

On Sunday, March 6, local photographer Myra Klarman captured the action at the WorkEx. See anyone you know? [Full Story]

Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority board meeting (March 2, 2011): At its regular monthly meeting, the DDA board approved its budget for the next two years – fiscal years 2012 and 2013. The DDA’s fiscal calendar is aligned with the city of Ann Arbor’s, which runs from July 1 to June 30.

DDA board members study the budget proposal they approved at the March 2 meeting. From left to right: Bob Guenzel, Sandi Smith, Russ Collins. Obscured, sitting between Guenzel and Smith, is John Mouat. (Photo by the writer.)

For FY 2012, the DDA is budgeting for $20,118,601 in total revenues – of that amount, $3,893,943 is forecast to come from tax capture, $16,162,752 from parking revenues, and $61,906 from interest earnings. Budgeted expenses, at $20,631,328, will exceed revenues by $512,727.

The board has not yet incorporated into its budget the likely revisions that will be made to the DDA’s contract with the city of Ann Arbor, under which it manages the city’s public parking system. Those contract revisions are expected to result in a total parking-contract-related payment to the city of $2.26 million in FY 2012. The approved DDA budgets for FY 2012 and 2013 include only the roughly $1 million of payments to the city that the DDA is currently obligated to make.

While the DDA expects to be drawing down its fund balances over the next two years – due in large part to the expense of the Fifth Avenue underground parking structure that’s under construction – the longer-range forecast by the DDA shows increases in revenue that are expected to replenish reserves. The DDA estimates that its tax capture revenue will increase from its current level of roughly $3.9 million to $4.7 million by 2020. Parking revenues are also forecast to increase – due in part to the increase in parking space inventory offered by the underground garage, but also due to increases in parking rates – from an estimated $16 million next year to $22 million by 2020.

About the underground parking garage, at the February 2009 board meeting, Russ Collins had said the board needed to keep alert for their next projects after “this pig makes it through the python.” At Wednesday’s meeting, mayor John Hieftje alluded to Collins’ remark in trying to emphasize the long-range projected financial health of the DDA.

In the other business item handled by the board at its Wednesday meeting, Hieftje cast the lone vote of dissent on a vote to approve $45,000 out of $50,000 for a discretionary management incentive that’s part of the DDA’s contract with Republic Parking, which manages day-to-day operations for the city’s parking system.

The board also heard its usual round of committee reports; however, no one addressed the board during either of the opportunities for public comment. Highlights from Ray Detter’s report from the Downtown Citizens Advisory Council included an update on plans for the new Blake Transit Center and a report from the city’s panhandling task force. [Full Story]

After morning interviews on Saturday, March 5, 2011, the Ann Arbor Public Schools board of trustees began deliberations on the two finalists for its open superintendent position. The result of those deliberations was a 6-1 vote to begin negotiations with Patricia Green (North Allegheny School District, Pennsylvania). Trustee Susan Baskett cast the dissenting vote.

The other finalist was Michael Muñoz (Des Moines Public Schools, Iowa). A third finalist, Shelley Redinger (Oregon Trail School District, Oregon), had announced her withdrawal from consideration earlier in the week. Redinger accepted a different position – with the Spotsylvania County school system in Virginia. [Full Story]

Jo Mathis

I attended an open house at The Health & Fitness Center at Washtenaw Community College not because I wanted to work out, but because I’d heard it was the most fantastic rec center in the entire world.

I learned two things that day: It really is the most fantastic rec center in the world. And working out can indeed be that joyful, endorphin-releasing high I’ve heard about but rarely experienced.

I felt strong. I felt pampered. I wanted to sell my house and move closer to WCC so I could work out every morning and live happily ever after.

At the very least, I hoped a bit of that excitement would carry over long enough to pump up the at-home workouts. Didn’t happen. Not even a little. I have an elliptical machine in my office next to a window facing a TV. I have no excuse other than this: I don’t wanna.

Can anyone else relate? It’s two months into the new year. How’s that work-out resolution working out? [Full Story]

Dave Rice, a Zingerman’s Deli manager, shot a short video of the deli Annex building being raised off its foundation, as workers prepare to move the structure early next week. A new foundation will be built for the Annex as part of the Ann Arbor deli’s large-scale renovation and expansion project. [Source]

Editor’s note: The Ann Arbor city council has held two retreats to discuss the city’s FY 2012 budget – one in early December 2010 and another in early January 2011. A summary of the material covered in those retreats is provided in previous Chronicle coverage: “Ann Arbor: Engaging the FY 2012 Budget.”

Leading up to the city administrator delivering a proposed budget in April – for FY 2012, beginning July 1, 2011 – the city council is also holding a series of work sessions on the budget. Their typical scheduling pattern is for the weeks between council meetings. Previous work sessions have taken place on community services, as well as the 15th District Court and police and fire services. On Feb. 28, the council held its final budget work session of the season – on public services and the city attorney’s office. [.pdf of  combined public services budget impact sheets provided on the city of Ann Arbor's budget impact web page.]

Streets, sidewalks, trash collection, trees in the right-of-way, water and sewers are all included under the general label of “public services” in the city. At Monday’s budget work session on those kinds of activities, public services area administrator Sue McCormick did not present the council with any news more dramatic than Roger Fraser did when he announced at the conclusion of the session that he’d be leaving his job by the end of April.

But McCormick did present the council with options for meeting reduction targets that would, if enacted, have a significant impact on the range of services offered by the city. In at least one case, the range of service would expand – the city (instead of adjoining property owners) could assume responsibility for sidewalk repair and replacement.

In another case – which McCormick stressed was not a recommendation, but rather just an informational ballpark amount for potential annual savings to the city ($2.1 million) – the city would get out of the business of trash collection. In another month, the city expects to give the council a report that provides more detail on possible alternatives to having city workers perform that task, including some kind of franchised trash collection operation.

Many of the specific reduction target tactics presented on Monday evening involved assigning costs to a unit outside the general fund. While the city’s total budget includes around $340 million in expenses, the annual discussion typically spotlights the general fund, which gets revenue from the general operations millage [listed on tax bills as CITY OPER] – and is currently levied at a rate of roughly 6 mills. The widely reported projected deficit of $2.4 million for the city’s budget is for the general fund.

During the work session, the assignment of costs to other funds caused Sandi Smith (Ward 1) to wonder if it was just a matter of “shuffling” money from one bucket to another. The answer she heard was: No – it’s a matter of assigning costs appropriately to whatever fund should properly bear the cost of a particular activity.

One of the largest instances of such a cost reassignment would use the stormwater utility fund, instead of the general fund, to pay for forestry operations for trees in the right-of-way. That move would save the city’s general fund around $660,000 a year.

Another example of that kind of “shuffling,” albeit with a smaller dollar figure ($35,000), was a proposal from the city attorney’s office to charge capital projects part of the cost of a paralegal specializing in easements, instead of burdening the city attorney’s budget with that expense. The city attorney’s reduction strategy, which had originally been scheduled for a prior work session, was also part of Monday evening’s presentation. [Full Story]

In a column about the state Senate’s move to revoke partner benefits for unmarried state workers, the Michigan Messenger notes that Democrat Rebekah Warren of Ann Arbor was one of two state senators who opposed the resolution, which was approved on a 4-2 vote in the Senate Committee on Reforms, Restructuring and Reinventing. From the column: “Warren raised valid concerns with today’s challenge to the Michigan Civil Service Commission decision. As she stated, Snyder’s foundation for his proposal to turn Michigan around is rooted in his claim that we need to run Michigan like a business. The fact is that more than half of Fortune 500 companies consider it a priority to offer Other Eligible Individual benefit programs to their … [Full Story]

John U. Bacon

In the late ’90s, Eastern Michigan University assembled some its best basketball teams. The Eagles were so good they stunned the Duke Blue Devils in the first round of the 1996 NCAA tournament, 75-60. They were led by the nation’s second-leading scorer in 1998 – a guy named Earl Boykins – who the program said stood just 5-foot-8-inches tall. This, I had to see.

I watched Boykins torch Western, Central and Ball State. He could handle the ball, shoot it and pass it better than anyone on the court – even though he was shorter than everyone on the court. Yep, this was a story.

When I interviewed him, the story just got better. He told me he was so small growing up that he learned to dribble by using a tennis ball. When he was three, his dad could sneak him into games by stuffing him in a gym bag – but, Boykins told me, “Man, that’s back when I was small.”

Then he stood up, and I quickly realized the program listing was very generous. 5-foot-8? I’m 5-foot-8 – and I towered over him. I said, “Duuuuuude! You ain’t 5-8!” [Full Story]

The Ann Arbor planning commission meeting (March 1, 2011): Conducting its business in front of an audience that included more than a dozen Skyline High School students on a class assignment, the planning commission quickly approved revisions to a landscape and screening ordinance that have been in the works for years. They had debated the ordinance extensively at a meeting in December, when they ultimately postponed a vote and asked the staff for additional changes.

A cluster of Skyline High students at the March 1, 2011 Ann Arbor planning commission meeting. (Photos by the writer.)

On Tuesday, the issue of screening for privacy came up as commissioners discussed a request from the Michigan Alpha Chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon, which had asked for a special exception use that would allow it to convert a church at 730 Tappan into a fraternity house. The building has been the home of the Memorial Christian Church, which plans to move.

Three people spoke during a public hearing on the issue, including a representative from the neighboring sorority, who raised concerns about lighting and privacy – specifically, about the fraternity having “visual access” to the sorority’s sleeping rooms, which face the current church. However, she said she supported the project overall, and commissioners unanimously voted to grant the request.

During her staff communications, Wendy Rampson – head of the city’s planning staff – noted that city administrator Roger Fraser had announced his resignation the previous evening, at a city council working session. His last day with the city will be April 29 – he’s taking a job with the state of Michigan as deputy state treasurer for local government services. Rampson said she’d alert commissioners as soon as a date is set for his farewell gathering.

Rampson also mentioned that at the city council’s March 7 meeting, they’d be voting on a resolution of support for the state’s Complete Streets policies, saying that the city had been following similar policies for decades. Later in the meeting, however, commissioner Erica Briggs expressed some disappointment that the city wasn’t taking additional steps beyond what’s set by the state. “It certainly doesn’t establish us as a leader,” Briggs said. [Full Story]

Movie City News features a report on the upcoming Ann Arbor Film Festival, which runs from March 22-27: “Ann Arbor is one of those well-entrenched little regional fests that does a superb job of both knowing the community it’s serving, and finding a niche and excelling in it. Personally, if I were an experimental filmmaker I’d far rather submit my film to AAFF, where it would be lovingly showcased and appreciated and discussed passionately than at, say, Sundance, where it would likely get lost in the shuffle. No one’s making experimental films to explore getting rich, they’re doing it for the art, and there’s no better fest than AAFF … for truly experimental and avant garde work to be … [Full Story]

Editor’s note: We belatedly note that two months ago, in January, Laura Bien completed a year’s worth of her bi-weekly history columns for The Chronicle. We’re looking forward to the next year of her looks back into the archives.

He was born on the eve of the World War, a tiny baby with a fine fuzz of hair. Mac was tenderly cared for and quickly put on weight, soon growing to be a healthy, bright-eyed youngster playing in the grassy backyard.

Malcolm MacVicar, Sr.

The large home at 304 Washtenaw Ave. (at Adams Street) held two generations of the MacVicars, one of Ypsilanti’s many families of Scottish descent.

The 51-year-old widow Loretta shared the home with her three children: 22-year-old James, who was about to move out West with his University of Michigan electrical engineering degree; 27-year-old photograph retoucher Adelaide; and 29-year-old Malcolm, who worked as a traveling salesman for an optical company. It was a job title he shared with two of Loretta’s 50-something brothers, also residents in the house. In addition, three lodgers rented rooms there.

Malcolm carefully fed and cared for Mac. As he grew up, the little one didn’t have the slightest conception of the plaudits and fame that lay in days ahead, after the war. He could not imagine his eventual, and lucrative, popularity with the ladies. He never thought of the future. [Full Story]

At their March 2, 2011 meeting, the Washtenaw County board of commissioners passed a resolution recognizing that the United Way of Washtenaw County is a legitimate local nonprofit, and authorizing the county clerk to complete a form from the state’s charitable gaming division. The resolution is required from a local government entity by the state’s Bingo Act in order for the United Way to hold a charitable fundraiser that includes gambling. There had been some discussion of the resolution at the board’s Feb. 26 administrative briefing – at Wednesday’s meeting, county administrator Verna McDaniel clarified that the nonprofit needed permission in order to raffle off gift baskets at the March 9 Power of the Purse fundraising event.

This brief was filed from the county board of commissioners meeting at the Washtenaw County administration building. A more detailed report will follow. [Full Story]

The Washtenaw County board of commissioners, at their March 2, 2011 meeting, approved a revised annual calendar that eliminates all future administrative briefings from the board’s meeting schedule. The decision to eliminate the administrative briefings – informal meetings which have been held the week prior to the board’s regular meetings, to review the upcoming agenda – was made at their final briefing on Feb. 26. Some commissioners, most notably Ronnie Peterson, have objected to the briefings, saying they are too far out of the public eye – even though they conform to the Open Meetings Act.

This brief was filed from the county board of commissioners meeting at the Washtenaw County administration building. A more detailed report will follow. [Full Story]

The Washtenaw County board of commissioners, at their March 2, 2011 meeting, gave final approval to create a new full-time position – a veterans relief program specialist – as part of a minor restructuring in the county’s veterans affairs department that includes downgrading an administrative assistant position to office coordinator. The moves are expected to result in about $20,000 in structural savings for the department. The board gave initial approval to the change at their Feb. 16 meeting.

The new position is estimated to cost $75,000 and will be funded from the Veterans Relief Fund, which gets proceeds from a dedicated millage and has a fund balance of $250,000. The job will entail coordinating the county’s veterans relief efforts and doing public outreach activities.

This brief was filed from the county board of commissioners meeting at the Washtenaw County administration building. A more detailed report will follow. [Full Story]

A meeting of the Library Lot RFP review committee, originally scheduled for Thursday, March 3, 2011, has been canceled, to be rescheduled for an as-yet-undetermined date during the week of March 7. The reason for the cancellation, according to an email from Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority director Susan Pollay, was the expectation that full attendance would not be achieved. The committee is charged with reviewing responses to the city’s request for proposals on the use of the space above the Fifth Avenue underground parking garage, currently under construction by the DDA.

At the DDA board meeting on Wednesday, March 2, John Splitt – who represents the DDA on the RFP review committee – had announced that a letter of intent from the city of Ann Arbor to Valiant had been completed, and that discussion of the letter would be the focus of the committee meeting. Valiant is the developer whose conference center/hotel project was recommended by the consultant Roxbury Group as preferable to one from Acquest – the two finalists previously under consideration. [Full Story]

An editorial in the Detroit News argues that school districts and charter schools in Michigan that have already made structural reforms should be spared from some of the school aid cuts proposed by Gov. Rick Snyder. “Snyder’s cuts will force many districts to tackle benefit reforms they’d avoided — such as having employees contribute at least 20 percent of their health insurance coverage and moving to defined-contribution retirements plans such as 401(k)s. Michael Van Beek, an education researcher at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, says traditional districts which meet the 80/20 benefit model are ‘few and far between.’ But there are a few, including Ann Arbor, St. Johns, Watervliet and Vicksburg.” [Source]

At its March 2, 2011 meeting, the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority approved an operating budget for fiscal years 2012 and 2013. For FY 2012, the DDA is budgeting for $20,118,601 in total revenues – of that amount, $3,893,943 is forecast to come from tax capture, $16,162,752 from parking revenues, and $61,906 from interest earnings.

For FY 2012, budgeted expenses will exceed revenues by $512,727 – they total $20,631,328. Budgeted expenses do not include terms of a new parking agreement under which the DDA manages the public parking system for the city of Ann Arbor. The $1,010,930 city payment in the budget is based on the current arrangement between the city and the DDA under which the DDA pays the city proceeds from the old YMCA lot and the 415 W. Washington lot, plus around $800,000 for the city’s street repair funds – that’s related to the cost of maintaining on-street parking spaces.

So the DDA’s FY 2012 budget does not currently provide for the equivalent of an additional $2 million “rent” payment to the city, which is currently being negotiated by two “mutually beneficial” committees – one consisting of city councilmembers and the other consisting of DDA board members. A Feb. 28 meeting of the two committees – announced four days earlier – to discuss a draft of a new contract was canceled, when councilmembers Carsten Hohnke and Christopher Taylor were unable to accommodate the meeting, having just arrived back from their vacations. That meeting is now scheduled for March 7.

The DDA’s 10-year plan does factor in a new parking agreement with the city, under which all of the parking-related payments by the DDA to the city would come from a percentage of gross parking revenues. The percentage-of-gross numbers currently under discussion to be paid to the city are 14-15%, which would amount to a total payment of $2.26 million in FY 2012.

This brief was filed from the DDA boardroom at 150 S. Fifth Ave., Suite 301. A more detailed report will follow. [Full Story]

At its March 2, 2011 meeting, the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority approved payment of $45,000 as a discretionary component of a management incentive for Republic Parking. While the city of Ann Arbor contracts with the DDA to manage the public parking system, the DDA in turn contracts with Republic to handle day-to-day operations. The DDA’s contract with Republic covers Republic’s expenses – roughly $5.8 million annually – plus pays Republic a “management incentive” of up to $200,000 per year. Of that amount, $150,000 is paid in monthly installments as a part of the contract, with the remaining $50,000 left to the discretion of the DDA board.

In making a recommendation to pay Republic $45,000 out of the maximum $50,000, a memo from DDA deputy director Joe Morehouse points to: (1) parking customer survey results that show 6-7% responses in the lower two scale points on a 5-point scale, and over 55% in the top two scale points; (2) an operating surplus that exceeded budget by $243,438; (3) independent facility cleanliness audit ratings of 93.7% – a slight increase over last year’s average of 93.4%; and (4) a dead ticket average of 1.61%, which is within the target of 1.75%, but more than last year’s 0.65%.

Mayor John Hieftje cast a vote of dissent on the approval of the incentive, as he has in previous years, but offered no comment at the board table on the issue.

This brief was filed from the DDA boardroom located 150 S. Fifth Avenue, Suite 301. A more detailed report will follow. [Full Story]

Editor’s note: After 11 years of service on the Washtenaw County board of commissioners, Democrat Jeff Irwin was elected by voters of District 53 to serve as their representative in the Michigan House of Representatives. The district covers most of Ann Arbor, plus parts of Scio, Pittsfield and Ann Arbor townships.

Jeff Irwin, representative for District 53 of the Michigan state House of Representatives, met with constituents at Espresso Royale in downtown Ann Arbor last Saturday. (Photos by the writer.)

In each of the first two months of his term, Irwin has held meetings for constituents in local Ann Arbor coffee houses – Cafe Verde and Espresso Royale. On Saturday, Feb. 26, The Chronicle caught up with Irwin after his talk with constituents and spoke with him for about an hour. The conversation included a discussion of Gov. Rick Snyder’s proposed budget overview. [.pdf of budget overview]

In presenting the interview below, The Chronicle’s conversation with Irwin has been reorganized and edited in some places to achieve greater coherence and focus.

Last Saturday, Rep. Jeff Irwin (D-53rd District) entertained questions and concerns from constituents on a variety of topics, including local interest in the future use of the top of the underground parking structure, which is under construction on the city-owned Library Lot between Fifth and Division streets.

Three blocks east from Irwin’s conversation with constituents, a constant parade of concrete mixers on Division Street headed south across Liberty to the east edge of the Library Lot construction site. They dumped their loads into a pump, and through the course of the day, workers poured around 6,300 cubic yards of concrete. Coincidentally, in his subsequent conversation with The Chronicle, Irwin introduced images involving concrete and construction – he was drawing an analogy between teacher contracts and construction contracts.

We’ve chronicled this conversation in a Q&A format, divided into seven sections: (1) a budget bright spot in Medicaid; (2) education as an area of concern; (3) a lack of sufficient, specific goals associated with the budget; (4) labor relations in general; (5) labor relations in Washtenaw County; (6) Irwin’s relationship with former fellow county commissioner Mark Ouimet, a Republican who’s also now a state rep; and (7) a partisan imbalance in committee appointments. [Full Story]

Editor’s note: The monthly milestone column, which appears on the second day of each month – the anniversary of The Ann Arbor Chronicle’s launch – is an opportunity for either the publisher or the editor of The Chronicle to touch base with readers on topics related to this publication.

It’s also a time that we highlight, with gratitude, our local advertisers, and ask readers to consider subscribing voluntarily to The Chronicle to support our work.

We no longer number the monthly milestones here at The Chronicle. If we did, this one for March 2011 would be number 30. Parents with young children can probably peg 30 months to 2.5 years without even doing the math. Two and a half years does not seem like a terribly long time for a publication to stay in business – especially compared to the nearly 175-year run of The Ann Arbor News. The announcement of that paper’s closure came two years ago – on March 23, 2009. Coming as it did late in the month, the grim news did not figure in The Chronicle’s March 2009 monthly milestone.

Instead, publisher Mary Morgan filled the column that month with mostly lighter fare, including a mention about the addition of the Skyclock widget to the right sidebar of this website – scroll down to the bottom under the advertisements. Now, exactly two years later, Skyclock has again earned a spot in the milestone column – which this month is a quick tour of twilight, marijuana, and snow. [Full Story]

Fogged Clarity’s Ben Evans interviewed Jeff Daniels about his work as an actor, playwright and musician: “I love the music. I enjoy the music. The music I do, whether I’m gigging or whether I’m recording, I do that year round. And I can take that with me when I go do an acting job. The acting jobs – you don’t control that. You’re not in charge of that. The phone rings and then someone wants you. They want me this spring. So, ‘Oh, good. Okay.’” (A podcast and transcript of the interview are online.) [Source]

At its March 1, 2011 meeting, the Ann Arbor planning commission unanimously approved a special exception use for the Michigan Alpha Chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon, allowing it to convert a church at 730 Tappan into a fraternity house for no more than 44 residents. The building is located at the northwest corner of Tappan and Hill, and has been the home of the Memorial Christian Church. No changes are planned for the exterior. Tuesday’s meeting also included a public hearing on the request.

This brief was filed from the planning commission meeting at the Washtenaw County administration building, 220 N. Main St. A more detailed report will follow. [link] [Full Story]

The Ann Arbor planning commission, at its March 1, 2011 meeting, unanimously approved the recommendation of a revised city landscape ordinance. Among other things, amendments will prohibit the use of non-native invasive plants, encourage the use of native plants, provide design flexibility and modify how the conflicting land use buffer is applied. Other changes include requiring portions of interior landscape islands to be depressed and utilized as bio-retention to improve water quality.

The commission had heard an extensive presentation from staff about the proposed changes at its Dec. 7, 2010 meeting, but tabled action on the ordinance after concerns were raised. Commissioners asked city staff to address their concerns, which included a desire to give the commission more flexibility on landscaping issues during site plan reviews. At Tuesday’s meeting, commissioners had no additional questions or discussion on the revised ordinance. It now moves to the city council for consideration and final approval.

This brief was filed during the planning commission meeting at the Washtenaw County administration building, 220 N. Main St. A detailed report will follow: [link] [Full Story]

Hour Detroit magazine features the work that Matt and Kelly Grocoff have done to make their Ann Arbor home the nation’s oldest net zero energy house, which generates at least as much energy as it uses. The article quotes Matt Grocoff: “What we’ve done sounds extraordinary, but it really wasn’t. We wanted to prove something by making an old home net zero and inspire others to do the same. Most net-zero homes — and there are fewer than 100 of them in the country – are brand-new, and most are million-dollar-plus homes. Ours is a Norman Rockwell house in a Rockwell-type neighborhood. The age of the house doesn’t matter; it could have been 700 years old.” [Source]

Shelley Redinger, one of three finalists for superintendent of the Ann Arbor Public Schools, has withdrawn from consideration, according to an announcement from AAPS on Tuesday morning. Redinger has accepted a job as superintendent of the Spotsylvania County school system in Virginia. The Fredricksburg Free Lance–Star newspaper reports that she was offered the job by the Spotsylvania County school board on Monday.

The two remaining finalists for the AAPS job are Patricia Green (North Allegheny School District, Pennsylvania) and Michael Muñoz (Des Moines Public Schools, Iowa). A public forum to meet the candidates will be held on Friday, March 4 from 6-8:30 p.m. in the Pioneer High School cafeteria annex, 601 W. Stadium Blvd. Also open to the … [Full Story]