Ann Arbor Public Art Commission (May 12, 2009): Members of the Ann Arbor Public Art Commission spent much of their recent monthly meeting talking about their plan for the next year and projects they should tackle. They also discussed upcoming events, including AAPAC’s open house on May 21, a joint meeting with the DDA board on May 26, and the Golden Paintbrush awards on June 1. [Full Story]
Marcia Higgins (Ward 4) holds a red ribbon representing the general fund dollars in the Ann Arbor city budget. In the background are Mayor John Hieftje and Jim Mogensen, who gave a presentation during public commentary.
Ann Arbor City Council Meeting (April 20, 2009): At its Monday night meeting, Ann Arbor city councilmembers approved around $1.3 million in human services funding (after a “red-ribbon” presentation during public commentary on that subject).
They also heard the 2008 annual report from the chair of the local development finance authority (who was closely questioned by councilmember Marcia Higgins), allowed Tios an early exit to its lease, accommodated the University of Michigan’s request for a lane closure in connection with the football stadium renovation, and rejected the planning commission’s adopted downtown plan (which was expected) – which bumps the final decision on A2D2 zoning to early July.
During public commentary, council again heard support for public art, a critique of the proposed early-out option for police officers as a part of the proposed budget, a suggestion to remove the East Stadium bridge, as well as Jim Mogensen’s “red ribbon” presentation.
Roger Fraser also gave the official presentation of the city’s budget, which had been presented twice previously last week – at a working session and also at a town hall meeting. [Full Story]
Public art commissioners Connie Brown, Jim Curtis and Elaine Sims at their April 14 meeting.
Ann Arbor Public Art Commission (April 14, 2009): Much of Tuesday’s meeting focused on issues related to communication, and in particular how it related to the controversial Herbert Dreiseitl project for the city’s municipal center.
And though his visit wasn’t discussed at length, the German artist is coming to Ann Arbor on July 20 to present his designs to the commission and city council. Using funds from the Percent for Art program, the city is paying $77,000 for his preliminary design work, but would still need to sign off on the entire project, which is estimated to cost around $700,000.
There will be a public reception for him, said Margaret Parker, chair of the art commission. It’s not clear whether the commission will see his designs before he arrives, but they might try to vote on the project and take it to city council for approval while he’s here, she said, adding that details about his visit have yet to be finalized. Before he arrives, the commission also plans to have an open house for the public on May 21, to talk about their mission and goals. [Full Story]
Thank-you note from Congressman John Dingell as stamped and scanned by the city clerk's office. (Image links to file with both front and back of the note.)
Ann Arbor City Council Meeting Part II (April 6, 2009): We’ve already summarized council’s deliberations on the A2D2 rezoning effort in a previous report.
Here we focus on other business handled by council and topics raised during public commentary at that same meeting. Much of it was related to streets – whether it was vacating them, closing them for special events, or repaving them. The other major theme, as reflected in comments from the public, was public art.
We also include some evidence that the art of the handwritten thank-you note is not dead. [Full Story]
Mike Bergren, assistant field services manager for the city of Ann Arbor, assures city council that there'll be enough salt on hand, even if it snows again.
City council meeting (March 17, 2009) The “tomfoolery” that the headline indicates is nothing more than a play on words: Tom Wall expressed appreciation on behalf of All Star Hot Dogs; separately, Shoshana Hurand made a presentation about the upcoming FestiFools parade. City council’s Monday meeting also featured a brief performance on harmonica by Peter “Madcat” Ruth and a puppet-head of vast proportions resembling Mayor John Hiefte [photo after the break].
But woven into the mix was less lighthearted fare: People’s Food Co-op Board elections, protection for migratory birds, appointments to a zoning advisory committee, potholes, the vehicle fleet and road salt. Council authorized an expenditure that Mike Bergren, assistant field operations manager with the city of Ann Arbor, said was estimated to get us at least through the rest of the winter – saying it was possible that there’d be ice storms in April. [Full Story]
Laura Russello, executive director at Michigan Peaceworks, presented background on the collaboration between the nonprofit she leads and Veterans for Peace on the Iraq Water Project.
Ann Arbor City Council meeting (March 2, 2009): Whatever chance for controversy that might have been present in the Ann Arbor’s City Council meeting agenda on Monday evening was eschewed in favor of values statements. These expressions of values were reflected in many of the agenda items themselves. We’ve organized our account of the meeting in terms of values related to the following topics: water, the arts, land, energy, history, and democracy. [Full Story]
Despite the talk at city council of digging a hole and putting cars into it, what's meant by an underground parking garage is somewhat different from this photo illustration.
Ann Arbor City Council (Feb 17, 2009): City council’s Tuesday meeting began and ended in the woods: Dicken Woods (celebrating its fifth anniversary) and Bird Hills Park (off-leash dog problems).
In between, the deliberations on the Fifth Avenue underground parking structure sometimes ran off into the weeds, with some councilmembers seemingly more interested in rhetorical flourish than in just laying out an unadorned case for or against the decision they eventually made, with only Mike Anglin dissenting: to approve the site plan and financing (up to $55 million in bonds) for an underground parking garage at the “library lot.” The facility will, on the slightly reduced scale approved on Tuesday, provide around 670 additional parking spaces in downtown Ann Arbor.
The agenda item drew a mix of downtown merchants to the meeting, who were in favor of building the garage. Among them was Tim Seaver, co-owner with his wife of Tios Mexican Cafe on Huron Street, who offered a single wistful sentence of support: “I just want to let you know: I firmly support underground parking.” He had spoken earlier during public comment time against the use of the Huron Street property, purchased last year by the city of Ann Arbor, in order to create 16 (above ground) parking spaces. [Full Story]
City council’s regular Sunday caucus was canceled yesterday. Sunday caucus is a gathering of councilmembers every Sunday before council’s regular Monday meeting, and provides a chance for the public to hear councilmembers’ thoughts on the upcoming agenda items. It also provides an additional opportunity for the public to share their thoughts with councilmembers in a setting less formal than a public hearing or public commentary slots at council meetings. The Chronicle typically attends caucus and reports them in the Meeting Watch section.
The cancellation of caucus might have been connected to the President’s Day holiday – when there’s a Monday holiday, council’s Monday meeting slides to Tuesday. However, no specific reason was cited for the cancellation this week. [Full Story]
Katherine Talcott, the new part-time administrator for the Ann Arbor Public Art Commission, and commissioner Jim Curtis at Tuesday's meeting.
Public Art Commission (Feb. 10, 2009): With two new commissioners and a newly-hired administrator on board, the Ann Arbor Public Art Commission spent a good portion of Tuesday night’s monthly meeting discussing the need to communicate better with the public and to educate them about the value of public art in Ann Arbor. That issue was in response to a Feb. 3 Ann Arbor News article – and the comments posted after it by eight readers – about the commission’s decision to enlist German artist Herbert Dreiseitl to design a waterscape installation at the police-court building, which will begin construction in April. The comments from News readers weren’t exactly supportive of that choice, or of the $72,000 that Dreiseitl is requesting for his initial design work, which represents about 10% of the potential $700,000 total price tag. [Full Story]
Local artist Margaret Parker was re-elected chair of the Ann Arbor Public Art Commission at their Tuesday night meeting. Jan Onder was re-elected vice chair, with Elaine Sims agreeing to fill in while Onder is in L.A. for three months, returning in early April.
Public Art Commission (Jan. 13, 2009): Tuesday night’s meeting of the Ann Arbor Public Art Commission covered a lot of territory, from updates on specific projects to concerns over a contract delay for the newly hired administrator, and the as yet non-appointment of Cheryl Zuellig to the commission. But commissioners spent a small portion of their meeting deciding to hold two parties – and who doesn’t need a little party planning to heat things up on a cold winter night? And if you stick with this article, you’ll also find out which artist is a direct descendant of Ann Allen. [Full Story]
Editor’s note: We’ve retooled our Meeting Watch headline format. The previous template was “Meeting Watch: Public Body Name (Date).” Headlines for these articles will now follow common headline conventions. To make up for whatever was lost, we’ve created a category called Meeting Watch. Clicking on the Meeting Watch category label at the bottom of an article or in the footer of the page will give a chronological sorting of all Meeting Watch articles. We’ll begin applying this category to previous Meeting Watch articles as resources permit.
Public Art Commission (Dec. 9, 2008) Tuesday’s meeting of the Ann Arbor Public Art Commission was the last one for two of the members. John Hieftje, the city’s mayor, dropped by for a brief visit, and the group discussed the recently hired administrator and got updates on several ongoing projects. [Full Story]
A major step forward on a public art installation for Ann Arbor’s new municipal center was among several updates at Tuesday evening’s meeting of the Public Art Commission. Another potential project – called SoundFall – is moving ahead with a formal presentation planned in December.
The Ann Arbor Public Art Commission held its monthly meeting on Tuesday, with much of the group’s discussion focused on setting up a process for handling projects. That includes AAPAC’s first large project: public art for the new municipal center. [Full Story]
