Archive for March, 2012

Writing in a post on the Friends of the Ann Arbor Skatepark website, FAAS president Trevor Staples gives a brief update on the group’s progress, estimating that construction on the skatepark will start in early spring of 2013. He writes: ”Next week, in collaboration with the City of Ann Arbor, and the Washtenaw County Parks Commission, we’ll be sending out a press release with more details of the process. We’re hoping that the press release will spark news stories, so that everyone in our community will know what’s going on with the skatepark. Thanks for your continued patience. We’re working (volunteering) our tails off to make this happen. Remember that we want this thing as bad as you do.” [Source]

Andy Fowler has posted to Flickr a set of photographs he took from a flyover of the area of Dexter that suffered damage from the tornado that struck on March 15, 2012. [Source]

With her regular constituent update, Ward 1 councilmember Sabra Briere has included a link to a report on a survey she recently conducted on the topic of transit. Around 70 people responded. The report includes several cross tabs of different questions. For example, of those who said that a local transit system that served Washtenaw County would be good for Ann Arbor, 72% also said that  local mass transit should be primarily for commuting. [Source]

At a work session held by the Ann Arbor city council on March 12, 2012, fire chief Chuck Hubbard presented the city council with a plan to reconfigure the geographic strategy for protecting the city against fires. It would rely on three stations instead of five, which would include re-activating one existing station and closing three.

The reactivated station would be Station 2 (south), located near Packard and Stadium. Also remaining active would be Station 1 (center), located at Fifth and Huron in downtown Ann Arbor, as well as Station 5 (north), located on Beal off of Plymouth Road in the northern part of the city.

Closed would be Station 6 (located in the southern part of the city, in the Briarwood Mall area), Station 3 (on Jackson, in the western part of the city) and Station 4 (in the eastern part of the city, south of Washtenaw Avenue on Huron Parkway).

Hubbard contends that the proposal will significantly improve response times for most of the geographic area of the city. Hubbard’s guiding metric for response time is the geographic area that is reachable by at least four firefighters in less than four minutes – a “four-in-four” standard. Four firefighters is the minimum number that must be on scene in order to enter a burning building – to conform with an OSHA “two-in/two-out” regulation.

The existing configuration would provide shorter arrival times for a first-arriving vehicle, but would not provide  a complement of four firefighters on that vehicle. Shifting to a focus of four-in-four – from the current configuration that optimizes fastest first-arrival – reflects a prioritization of fire protection over emergency medical response.

The council was shown a video at the work session that presented results of an April 2010 study done by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) that investigated the effect of crew size on task performance. Firefighting responses were studied in controlled conditions by sending four crews at a time to the scene of a structure built for that purpose. The study varied the size of the crews among two-person, three-person, four-person and five-person crews – for a total of 8, 12, 16 and 20 firefighters on scene. The study showed that a responding force composed of four-person crews (16 firefighters on scene) was clearly superior to one composed of three-person crews (12 firefighters on scene) – 25% faster overall.

But with one exception, the new Ann Arbor proposal would not increase the crew size for a given vehicle from the current level (three) to four firefighters. The exception would be for the ladder truck at Station 5, which would have a crew complement of four. At a briefing for the press held earlier in the day, Hubbard described part of the advantage of his proposal as allowing for two trucks to arrive together, departing from the same station, to coordinate their activity at the fire scene. In terms of the study presented in the video, this is called “stagger.”

The NIST study showed an improvement in performance by crews arriving spaced more closely together (close stagger) compared to crews that arrived with longer intervals (far stagger). However, the improvement in firefighting performance due to close stagger was not nearly as large as the improvements based on crew size.

During the council’s discussion, it emerged that the restructuring was not motivated by cost-savings, and that no decrease from the current number of budgeted firefighters – 82 – is expected. The station model does not require formal city council approval, but councilmembers will be considering approval of a recently negotiated contract with the firefighters union at their March 19 meeting. The contract includes operational changes that would allow for more effective deployment of Hubbard’s plan. It provides for firefighters to work more hours, in part by reducing the frequency of a mandatory “code day” when firefighters are not scheduled.

After the jump, we take a look at: (1) some additional maps The Chronicle has created; (2) how the maps fit into the overall response-time picture; and (3) councilmember reaction to Hubbard’s proposal. [Full Story]

University of Michigan board of regents meeting (March 15, 2012): About 100 people – most of them students advocating for tuition reform or changes to the University of Michigan’s childcare subsidy – packed this month’s venue for the regents meeting: The Michigan Union’s cavernous Pendleton Room.

With minimal discussion, regents dispatched a variety of action items during the meeting, including several related to health education, facilities and athletics. They authorized a $50 million new building for the School of Nursing, as well as $20.5 million in renovations at the Taubman Health Care Center. In athletics-related items, regents approved renaming the Crisler Arena to Crisler Center, reflecting the broader uses there, as it has expanded in recent years. The board also authorized a $2 million increase in the budget for renovations at Yost Ice Arena, bringing that project to $16 million.

Ron Zernicke, dean of the School of Kinesiology, gave the meeting’s only presentation. He described the school’s facilities and academic programs, and the pressures of its increasing student enrollments. For undergraduates, kinesiology is the fourth largest school at UM’s Ann Arbor campus, with 877 students.

As part of her opening remarks, UM president Mary Sue Coleman reported that Fred White – a retired university auditor –has been hired as project manager to implement recommendations from an internal audit. The audit relates to an incident last year involving child pornography allegedly viewed on a UM health system computer. White will also serve as a liaison for an external review ordered by the board at its February meeting.

Several reports were received during the meeting as items of information, including the regular report on internal audits, and a summary of ongoing construction activities. Tim Slottow, UM’s chief financial officer, noted that the Fuller Road Station has been removed from the construction project list. He told regents that the university and city of Ann Arbor couldn’t agree on a memorandum of understanding on the joint project, but that he thinks it’s still a good aspiration. [See Chronicle coverage: "UM, Ann Arbor Halt Fuller Road Project"]

As it did at last month’s meeting, public commentary focused on better access to a childcare subsidy available to parents who are UM students – an issue being negotiated by the Graduate Employees’ Organization (GEO) – and equity for students who are charged out-of-state tuition because they are undocumented immigrants. Students urged regents to support both issues.

The meeting ended with three speakers – including eight-year-old Genevieve Urbain – asking regents to honor Willis Ward, an athlete at UM during the 1930s who faced discrimination because of his race. Regent Martin Taylor, who said Ward had been a friend and fraternity brother, got consensus from regents to seek recommendations on how Ward might be appropriately recognized. [Full Story]

The Detroit Free Press reports that the Governor’s Council on Educator Effectiveness – a group chaired by Deborah Ball, dean of the University of Michigan School of Education – won’t be submitting a final report by its April 30 deadline. The report quotes Ball: ”We don’t want to take this opportunity in Michigan and do something that’s damaging. There are so many ways it can go badly. But done right, we can be a total leader in the country.” The council has been asked to make recommendations for teacher evaluation, as well as an evaluation plan for school administrators and a student growth and assessment tool. [Source]

A Pure Michigan TV ad – to be used in a national campaign featuring Ann Arbor – has been posted on YouTube. [Source] The $1 million ad campaign is being coordinated by the Michigan Economic Development Corp., and includes $200,000 in funding from Washtenaw County that was allocated at the county board of commissioners’ Feb. 15, 2012 meeting.

The Detroit News reports that the March 15 tornado that touched down in Dexter was likely an F3 category, with winds in the 158-206 mph range. [Ratings are based on the Fujita Scale, used to categorize the intensity of tornados.] From the Detroit News report: ”The worst hit areas were Carriage Hills and Huron Farms neighborhoods of Dexter, with more than 100 homes registering serious damage and 13 homes completely destroyed. Dexter-Pinckney Road remains closed Friday to through traffic from Island Lake Road to North Territorial just north of the Dexter village limits. Homes along the road were damaged and emergency personnel are only letting residents drive the stretch of road to get to their homes, officials said.” [Source]

Sharon Carty, a journalist who lives in Dexter, describes how her neighborhood has pulled together in the wake of Thursday’s tornado. The essay was published by the Dexter Patch. Carty writes: ”There were a lot of hugs. A lot of tears. A lot of people checking in on friends. My eight-year-old son’s best friend, Katie, came by as soon as she could to make sure he was OK. As the firemen went around checking on homes, tying yellow caution tape around doorknobs of homes that checked out OK, friends went around also touching base. People touched each other on the elbow or shoulder. ‘Are you guys OK?’ ‘Everyone safe?’ ‘What can I do for you?’” [Source]

Two weeks ago, I wrote about one of the University of Michigan’s lowest moments, when athletic director Fielding H. Yost scheduled Georgia Tech for a football game in 1934, which required Michigan to sit out its star player, Willis Ward, because Southern teams would not take the field against African-Americans.

The attention Yost’s decision received surprised and embarrassed him. In his limited view of the situation, Yost thought he was simply providing a courtesy for a friend, not making a racial stand. National newspapers, radio programs and even Time magazine featured the controversy prominently. It also sparked bitter debate among students, and created a morale problem on the team. By all accounts the players felt Ward was intelligent, hard-working and well-liked.

That was the bad news – very bad news. The good news, as I wrote, is that the press, the alums, the students, and particularly Willis Ward and his roommate on the road, Gerald Ford, had the courage of their convictions, and derived lasting change from the incident.

But I feel it necessary to fill out this story, to give it more depth, and perspective. [Full Story]

The United Way of Washtenaw County has set up a Dexter area tornado relief fund to handle donations for long-term recovery from the March 15 tornado. Donations are accepted online, with 100% of the funds going toward long-term recovery efforts. Donations for immediate emergency relief are being handled by the American Red Cross Washtenaw and Lenawee chapter. Donations of food, clothing and other items are not accepted, but financial contributions can be made by calling 734-971-5300, donating online, or  sending a donation to the American Red Cross, Washtenaw-Lenawee Chapter, 4624 Packard Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48108.

At 8:20 p.m. on Thursday, March 15, the Washtenaw County sheriff’s office issued an update as one of the first responding agencies following a tornado touchdown in the Dexter area. There are no known serious injuries or deaths, although door-to-door searching continues, according to spokesman Derrick Jackson.

Multiple fire agencies are in place, and police have established points to direct traffic, including inner and outer perimeters. The sheriff’s office is advising residents who have power to stay in their homes. Individuals who need shelter should report to the Dexter Mill Creek Middle School, located at 7305 Dexter Ann Arbor Road.

Jackson described the situation as in stasis, with fire and police agencies working to confirm damage and provide assistance and support where … [Full Story]

An online DTE Energy map reports power outages by zip code. At about 8 p.m. on Thursday, March 15, 2,819 customers were without power in the 48130 zip code – in Dexter, where a tornado touched down earlier in the evening. In Ann Arbor’s 48103 zip code, 510 customers were without power.

At its March 15, 2012 meeting, the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority board voted to accept the audit for fiscal year 2011, which ended Sept. 30, 2011. It was an unqualified or “clean” opinion. The AATA board has typically accepted the audit in March for the past fiscal year, ending the previous fall. The AATA’s auditor is Plante Moran PLLC, which the AATA board approved for a one-year contract its Sept. 15, 2011 meeting.

A policy adopted by the AATA board on June 16, 2011 limits contracting with any one auditing firm to a total of eight years. That meant that the auditing firm the AATA had previously used, Rehmann Robson, was not eligible to provide auditing services when the … [Full Story]