Archive for June, 2011

Most Saturday mornings at 7:30 a.m., some runners who call themselves the Nasty Boys Glee Club will gather near the corner of Cambridge Road and Washtenaw Avenue in Ann Arbor. The place is the very center of Ann Arbor – as defined by the Google Maps push pin for Ann Arbor. It’s known as “the benches” in NB circles – for the sit-able amenities in Douglas Park. From there, the Nasty Boys will head off on a route and pace determined by mutual assent, but generally guided by NB member Tom Bourque.

Bourque has maintained running logs for decades, including all of the Nasty Boys runs, which began in late 1996. Those logs reflect that for a year or maybe two, sometime around 2006-07, I joined them on several of their weekly Saturday morning runs. There’s also a Tuesday morning edition of the Nasty Boys run, but I never ran on a Tuesday.

While the Nasty Boys are a club, their membership seems fluid and flexible – non-regular runners who appear on Saturdays as friends, colleagues, or acquaintances of current members are welcomed to run along with the group, without a lot of hazing.

That held true on this Saturday morning – June 4, 2011 – when a former classmate of Nasty Boy Mitch Garner tagged along for the run.

Garner is known among the Nasty Boys as the “Iron Bulldog” – partly because Garner is a Yale University grad, and partly because he’s known as tough and tenacious himself. On Saturday, Bourque deferred to Garner on selection of the route – given that Garner had brought a guest.

So the group of a dozen or so runners headed west through the Burns Park neighborhood on a course for the University of Michigan athletic campus, completed a ceremonial lap around the track at Ferry Field, skirted the Crisler Arena renovations, crossed the East Stadium bridge, and then dove back into Burns Park. They wound up at Garner’s house, where he was serving brunch.

A group brunch is not part of the Nasty Boys Saturday morning routine. But when the men’s marathon gold medalist at the 1972 Olympic games joins you for a run, a break from the usual routine seems warranted. And that’s who Gardner’s guest was – Frank Shorter.

Shorter is in town to participate in this year’s 38th edition of the Dexter-Ann Arbor Run, hosted by the Ann Arbor Track Club. The Sunday, June 5 event includes 5K, 10K and half-marathon distances.

Celebrating the extraordinary is easy. Celebrating the routine and the ordinary – which is most of life – is more difficult. So I was envious of the Nasty Boys on Saturday, because I was not able to run alongside a legend like Frank Shorter. But I was also envious of Frank, because I was not able to join the Nasty Boys in their routine, regular run.

I did take some photos. [Full Story]

At a special session held in a meeting room at Weber’s Inn on June 3, 2011, the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority board heard extensive staff presentations on its budget and the future of the organization as it relates to a possible expansion of its service countywide. The board passed one resolution at its meeting, which decreased the budget for administrative salaries and benefits by a total of $200,000 and made a corresponding increase in line items supporting the effort of transportation master planning – for agency design fees, consulting fees, printing and production and media.

The board tabled a resolution that would have appointed three current AATA board members to an unincorporated board, which is expected to serve as an interim entity that could lead to the incorporation of a formal Act 196 organization. The rationale for appointing only three board members to the unincorporated board – called the U196, with the U standing for “unincorporated” – was based on the idea that appointing four members would constitute a quorum of the current AATA board any time the U196 met. The board decided to table the resolution until greater clarity could be achieved about what the role of the interim U196 would be in developing the eventual governance of a countywide transit authority.

Board chair Jesse Bernstein wrapped up the topic of a future governing body by saying he saw the issue of governance as very much still an open conversation.

This brief was filed shortly after the AATA board’s retreat, held at Weber’s Inn. A more complete report of the meeting will follow: [link] [Full Story]

Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority board meeting (June 1, 2011): At its regular monthly meeting, the DDA board performed the annual exercise of revising its budget to match actual expenditures for the fiscal year, which ends June 30. It was the only item on the agenda requiring a vote, which was unanimous. The DDA’s FY 2011 budget showed $23,038,310 in expenses against $19,111,321 in total income.

At Wednesday’s meeting, the board also recapped the previous night’s session of the Ann Arbor city council, which had been a continuation of the meeting that began on May 16. At that meeting, the council had finally ratified its side of a new contract under which the DDA would continue to manage the city’s public parking system.

Key elements of that contract include a transfer to the city of Ann Arbor of 17% of annual gross parking revenues, reporting requirements by the city to the DDA about parking enforcement and street repair, and the ability of the DDA to set parking rates and hours without a city council veto.

The DDA board will likely schedule an extended board meeting in September to prepare for a contractually-required joint working session with the city council, which will include a discussion of parking rates and hours of enforcement.

Included in the usual range of the DDA’s reports from its committees was a review of a recent partnerships committee meeting, when DDA board members began to consider how they would handle the responsibility to plan future uses of city-owned surface parking lots downtown. The DDA was given that responsibility in a city council resolution passed at the council’s April 4, 2011 meeting. [Full Story]

The Jim Tressel era at Ohio State started on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2001.

The Buckeyes happened to have a basketball game that night against Michigan, so it was a good opportunity to introduce their new football coach. When Tressel stood up to speak, he knew exactly what they wanted.

He was hired on the heels of John Cooper, whose record at Ohio State was second only to that of Woody Hayes. But in 13 seasons, Cooper’s teams lost to Michigan a stunning ten times. Can’t do that. And you can’t say, “It’s just another game,” either – which might have been his biggest mistake.

Knowing all this, Tressel told the crowd, “I can assure you that you will be proud of your young people in the classroom, in the community, and most especially in 310 days in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on the football field.”

The place went crazy. “At last,” they said, “somebody gets it!” [Full Story]

The byline on a June 2 Detroit News op-ed piece should be familiar to the online Ann Arbor community – Rob Goodspeed was one of the first stewards of the now defunct ArborUpdate, a news and discussion website. Goodspeed’s op-ed, which focuses on how to revitalize Detroit, concludes: “But as the difficult conversation about what can be done for a better future continues, it should draw from the important lessons from the city’s past.” The piece cites the study Goodspeed undertook about the demolition of Hastings Street, including a look at voices that opposed the urban renewal project. Goodspeed calls for Detroit mayor Dave Bing to make sure that citizens’ voices are heard this time around. [Source]

A post on the SOS Community Services website describes how the nonprofit coordinated volunteers to help its Time for Tots free daycare program in Ypsilanti, for infants and pre-school children of homeless parents who are staying in local shelters. Three volunteers – Lisa Brown, JoAnne French and Sarah Wiebusch – sewed 30 matching sets of cots sheets and pillowcases to use during daily naptime. [Source]

Editor’s note: The monthly milestone column, which appears on the second day of each month – the anniversary of The Ann Arbor Chronicle’s Sept. 2, 2008 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.

The May meeting of the University of Michigan board of regents was remarkable for a rare display of discord. It’s the only time I can recall that this particular board has publicly voiced disagreement with the administration. It’s the only time I can remember some unscripted debate unfolding among regents on a substantive issue – the issue was a resolution recognizing the right of graduate student research assistants to unionize.

After the meeting, I happened to be leaving at the same time as UM president Mary Sue Coleman. As we walked down the hall together, I told her that despite the tension and clearly deep disagreement on this issue, I had found it refreshing to see an actual public debate at the meeting. It simply never happens.

Whatever disagreements exist among regents – or between regents and the administration – seem to be aired privately. When tuition rates are set, some regents will read statements of polite disagreement, before casting their votes of dissent. But most action items are approved unanimously, with little if any comment. I told Coleman that I realized the meeting had been at times uncomfortable, but that I appreciated the debate.

She gave me a withering look. “I’m sure you do,” she said, crisply.

Her pointed disdain took me aback – though I should have seen it coming. From her perspective, she’d been delivered a very public defeat on an issue she is passionate about, grounded in her personal experience. She seemed weary. But her comment also revealed a view of the media that’s more prevalent and more justified than I like to admit. It’s a view of reporters as hungering for headline-grabbing, website-traffic-sucking stories – and if the facts don’t quite deliver the juice, well, there are ways to spice up reality. There’s a reason why news gathering is sometimes called “feeding the beast.”

From that perspective, Coleman perhaps heard my remarks as the comments of someone who was hungry for more drama of regents mixing it up in front of the plebeians. Ouch.

So on my drive home from UM’s Dearborn campus – where the regents meeting was held – I thought about why the exchange had touched a nerve for me. For one, I’m dismayed that elected officials and other civic leaders are so often reluctant to hold difficult discussions in public. The board of regents is not the only body that does its business like a tightly choreographed kabuki dance. But as a journalist, I’m angered when irresponsible actions by those who earn a livelihood as part of the news media give public bodies a cheap excuse to be even more closed-off. [Full Story]

Eva Feldman, a University of Michigan neurologist and director of UM’s Taubman Medical Research Institute, has been named by the Detroit News as a Michiganian of the Year. She is recognized for her work in developing therapies – including treatments using stem cells – for ALS and other neurologic diseases. Says Feldman: ”I have diagnosed thousands of people with the [ALS] disorder … but all have succumbed to the illness. My patients give me the inspiration to come back to my laboratory and work as hard as I can to understand what causes this horrible disease as well as fast-track new therapies.” [Source]

At its June 1, 2011 meeting, the Washtenaw County board of commissioners approved two appointments.

Robert Grese was named to a two-year term on the county’s Natural Areas Technical Advisory Committee, which oversees the county’s natural area preservation program. The term expires Dec. 31, 2012. Grese is director Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum and a professor at the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources and Environment.

The board also appointed Mark Creekmore to a three-year term expiring March 31, 2014 for the Washtenaw Community Health Organization (WCHO) board, a partnership between the county and UM. Creekmore is founder and executive director of the nonprofit Community Service Systems, Inc.

This brief was filed from the boardroom of the county administration building at 220 N. Main St. in Ann Arbor. A more detailed report will follow: [link] [Full Story]

Diana Torres-Burgos, the county’s public health medical director, recently announced her resignation – she’ll be leaving her job later this month. At its June 1, 2011 meeting, the Washtenaw County board of commissioners approved the hire of her replacement – Monique Reeves. Reeves received her medical degree and a masters degree in public health from the University of Michigan, and will start the job on June 20 with a salary of $125,000.

Medicare services provided by the county – including immunizations and the maternal infant health program – require that a licensed medical doctor on staff bill Medicare, via the state, for reimbursement.

This brief was filed from the boardroom of the county administration building at 220 N. Main St. in Ann Arbor. A more detailed report will follow: [link] [Full Story]

At its June 1, 2011 meeting, the Washtenaw County board of commissioners gave final approval to two items related to the county’s employment training and community services (ETCS) department.

Commissioners approved the acceptance of $455,000 in federal stimulus funds – from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) – to pay for weatherization assistance. The funds were originally granted to other municipalities but weren’t used, and are being redistributed. Washtenaw County has already been granted $4.3 million in weatherization funds from 2009-2011, and has finished work on 611 residences. The new funding will pay for about 70 additional residences. The services – including home inspections, refrigerator efficiency testing and consumer education – are available to residents with an income at or below 200% of the federal poverty level. That’s $23,448 for a single person, or $45,088 for a family of four.

The board also approved a grant application to fund a summer food program for children. Nearly $116,000 in federal funds, distributed through the state Dept. of Education, are available to pay for breakfasts, lunches and snacks to low-income children at 30 sites throughout the county.

This brief was filed from the boardroom of the county administration building at 220 N. Main St. in Ann Arbor. A more detailed report will follow: [link] [Full Story]

At its June 1, 2011 meeting, the Washtenaw County board of commissioners gave final approval to allocations for $507,500 in children’s well-being and human services funding for 2011. Additional funds in 2012 and 2013 were also approved, contingent on the board’s approval of those budgets later this year. In total, the county allocated $1.015 million through 2013.

The allocations for these awards were recommended by a coordinated funding review committee. The process is being managed by the joint county/city of Ann Arbor office of community development, which is coordinating the funding efforts of the county, the city of Ann Arbor, the United Way of Washtenaw County, and the Washtenaw Urban County. The Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation is participating in other parts of the effort. [.pdf of funding recommendations]

During public commentary, 10 residents spoke in opposition of Planned Parenthood of Mid and South Michigan, urging commissioners not to provide funding to that organization. Two people spoke in support of funding Planned Parenthood. Commissioners did not change the allocation for Planned Parenthood – a total of $67,440 was allocated to the nonprofit, including $53,040 from the county.

The county board of commissioners approved the coordinated funding process at its Nov. 3, 2010 meeting. Commissioners had been briefed on the effort at an Oct. 7 working session, and most recently discussed the process at its May 4 meeting. The Ann Arbor city council, at its meeting on Tuesday, May 31, approved its portion of the human services allocations.

Also on Tuesday, the city of Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County office of community development released a 16-page report that attempts to quantify the economic impact of the 37 local nonprofits that are funded by the county and city. In 2011, the combined investments from the city and county in those nonprofits totaled $2.7 million. According to the report, those funds leveraged more than $34 million in non-local revenue.[.pdf of nonprofit investment report]

This brief was filed from the boardroom of the county administration building at 220 N. Main St. in Ann Arbor. A more detailed report will follow: [link] [Full Story]

At its June 1, 2011 meeting, the Washtenaw County board of commissioners gave final approval to a grant application for the county’s community corrections program, operated by the sheriff’s office. The grant of $421,801 – for the period from Oct. 1, 2011 through Sept. 30, 2012 – is only a portion of the program’s $1.01 million budget.

Other revenues include $215,983 from the county’s general fund, $76,386 from the program’s fund balance, and an estimated $295,890 in program-generated revenues, including fees from tethering and drug testing.

Programs run by community corrections are designed in part to provide sentencing alternatives to the Washtenaw County Trial Court. Programs include pre-trial screening, drug testing, electronic tethering, supervised release, and educational efforts, such as the “Thinking Matters” program offered in partnership with the nonprofit Dawn Farm.

This brief was filed from the boardroom of the county administration building at 220 N. Main St. in Ann Arbor. A more detailed report will follow: [link] [Full Story]

At its June 1, 2011 meeting, the Washtenaw County board of commissioners gave final approval to the Washtenaw Urban County annual plan from July 1, 2011 through June 30, 2012.

The plan must be submitted to the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), outlining specific projects and programs that the Washtenaw Urban County will undertake with HUD funding from several sources: the federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program; HOME grants; and Emergency Shelter Grants (ESG). The county is expected to receive $3,602,480 from these programs during the coming fiscal year. A $448,920 in-kind county match is required. [.pdf of fiscal year 2011 Washtenaw Urban County plan]

The Urban County is a consortium of 11 local governments that receive federal funding for programs that serve low-income residents and neighborhoods.

This brief was filed from the boardroom of the county administration building at 220 N. Main St. in Ann Arbor. A more detailed report will follow: [link] [Full Story]

At its June 1, 2011 meeting, the Washtenaw County board of commissioners gave final approval to the brownfield plan for the LaFontaine Chevrolet redevelopment project in Dexter.

The LaFontaine brownfield plan would enable the use of up to $330,330 of tax increment financing (TIF) for four years to pay for cleanup work, including asbestos and lead abatement. Of that amount, $25,410 would support the county’s brownfield program management, and $50,820 would be deposited into the county’s Local Site Remediation Revolving Fund. The project is expected to retain 76 jobs and create 50 new ones, and to increase the annual tax revenues to the county from $4,516 to $11,119 after the TIF ends.

This brief was filed from the boardroom of the county administration building at 220 N. Main St. in Ann Arbor. A more detailed report will follow: [link] [Full Story]

At its June 1, 2011 meeting, the Washtenaw County board of commissioners gave final approval to hire the professional services firm Experis (formerly known as Jefferson Wells) to perform internal auditing services for the county for one year, with the possibility of extending the contract over additional years. The board had authorized the county administration to issue requests for proposals for these services at its Dec. 1, 2010 meeting. The county received 10 responses, and a review team narrowed the selection and held interviews with three firms. The team’s recommendation for Experis was unanimous, according to a staff report.

The total cost for internal audit work in 2011 is $87,500. It would include: (1) overall internal control review and risk assessment; (2) more detailed internal control review for two county departments; (3) establishing a fraud hotline; and (4) eight hours of internal control training for county staff.

The contract was originally proposed for a five-year period. At their May 18 meeting, several commissioners raised concerns about the expenditure to an outside firm, and the resolution was amended to shorten the contract to one year.

This brief was filed from the boardroom of the county administration building at 220 N. Main St. in Ann Arbor. A more detailed report will follow: [link] [Full Story]

At its June 1, 2011 meeting, the Washtenaw County board of commissioners gave final approval to establish the 2011 county general operating millage rate at 4.5493 mills – unchanged from the current rate. Several other county millages – including those for parks and recreation, emergency communications and the Huron Clinton Metroparks Authority – are levied separately, bringing the total county millage rate to 5.6768 mills. One mill equals $1 for every $1,000 of a property’s state equalized value, or SEV.

No one One person – Thomas Partridge – spoke during a public hearing on the millage rate, which was also held at the June 1 meeting.

This brief was filed from the boardroom of the county administration building at 220 N. Main St. in Ann Arbor. A more detailed report will follow: [link] [Full Story]

At its June 1, 2011 meeting, the Washtenaw County board of commissioners gave initial approval to the price that municipalities will pay for a contract sheriff’s deputy through 2015. The police services steering committee recommended setting the price in 2012 for a police services unit (PSU) at $150,594.

The price in 2012 will remain unchanged from the 2011 rate of $150,594, which was a 4% increase over 2010 rates. In each of the following three years, the price per PSU increases about 1%: to $152,100 in 2013; $153,621 in 2014; and $155,157 in 2015.

In late 2010, the committee brought forward a recommendation to the board that set the cost of providing a PSU at $176,108. At its Dec. 1 meeting, the county board voted to accept that amount, with the understanding that commissioners would need to make a much harder decision – about the price that the county would charge for a PSU – at a later date. The difference between the cost of a PSU and the amount charged – roughly $25,500, based on current figures – would be covered by the county.

Final approval is expected at the board’s July 6, 2011 meeting.

This brief was filed from the boardroom of the county administration building at 220 N. Main St. in Ann Arbor. A more detailed report will follow: [link] [Full Story]

At its June 1, 2011 meeting, the Washtenaw County board of commissioners gave initial approval to five projects planned by the county’s water resources commissioner.

The projects, which require the county to back bond payments totaling up to $6.54 million, are all located in Ann Arbor: (1) Allen Creek drain cistern installation, downspout disconnection and tree planting – up to $330,000; (2) County Farm drain stream bank stabilization – up to $1.2 million; (3) Malletts Creek drain/Burns Park porous alley; Malletts Creek cistern installation, downspout disconnection, and tree planting; and Malletts Creek stream bank stabilization – up to $3.48 million; (4) Swift Run cistern installation, downspout disconnection, and tree planting – up to $75,000; and (5) Traver Creek cistern installation, downspout … [Full Story]

The Detroit Free Press is among several media outlets to report on changes to the University of Michigan’s trespassing policy, which was announced on June 1. The article notes that the previous policy had been criticized after UM banned former assistant state attorney general Andrew Shirvell from campus. Shirvell was accused of stalking Chris Armstrong, who was student government president at the time. ”Because of the change, U-M police are in the process of reviewing the 1,800 adults and 200 juveniles currently on the [banned] list. Interim Police Chief Joe Piersante said he expects about 900 people to be notified by the end of the summer that they have been dropped from the list.” [Source]

At its June 1, 2011 meeting, the board of the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority approved revisions to its current fiscal year’s budget in order to square it up with recent decisions it’s made, including the ratification of a new contract with the city of Ann Arbor, under which it would continue to manage the city’s parking system. The DDA board ratified its side of the contract on May 27. The city council voted to ratify it on May 31.

The regular rectifying of the approved budget with the actual expenditures takes place every year. It included a host of other adjustments not directly related to the new parking contract.

This brief was filed from the DDA offices located at … [Full Story]