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Welcome to the final a2view of 2024. It’s been a long, emotional year for everyone, and now it’s time to… enjoy holiday decorations, of course! I asked for some cool “Christmas houses” as my three-year-old calls them, and you delivered.
On Sunday, on reader Jeffrey Holden’s insistence, the girl and I drove to 761 Taylor Street in Chelsea. It was a little bit of a hike, made more worthwhile by taking out pizza at the legendary Thompson’s, but Jeffrey was spot-on about what an over-the-top spectacle that house was. Just go if you have a moment.
The rest of the recommendations were in Ann Arbor. These don’t have exact addresses, but the houses are lit up like, well, Christmas:
● Pamela Ave., between Patricia Ave. and Center Dr. (Thanks to Mary Eldridge)
● S. Seventh St. just south of Scio Church Rd.; Lans Way near S. Seventh; and W. Stadium Blvd. heading west as the road bends north. (Thanks to Diana Crossley)
● Shadford Rd., just east of Ferdon Rd. (Thanks to Owen Jansson, Susan Rasmussen, and Elizabeth Bishop)
● W. Liberty Ave. between Murray and Mulholland avenues. (Thanks to Barbara Annis)
I also should include three wild homes in the Leah Ln. cul-de-sac in Superior Twp. That’s in my neighborhood; one of the houses has one of those 20-foot skeletons from Halloween now adorned with a Santa hat and beard and lights along with much, much more. My daughter makes us swing by on the way in and out of the subdivision every day to visit the skeleton. We’ve even named him Jeremy.
And with that, I’ll give you the week’s news and wish everyone a very happy, peaceful fortnight of holidays. I thank you for all of your comments, suggestions, concerns, advice, and support and look forward to whatever 2025 has in store.
– Steve Friess, editor
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As part of the AADL’s Ann Arbor 200 bicentennial project, LEGO builder extraordinaire David Lorch recreated the brief coexistence of the Victorian 1877 Washtenaw County Courthouse with its modern successor in 1955. After a community build on Dec. 7 caught in this cool time-lapse, Lorch is seen here finishing up a week later. Grace Shackman’s 1990 Ann Arbor Observer article tells the history of the county’s courthouses; the LEGO version is on display on the library’s third floor through Jan. 10. Credit: John Hilton.
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Concordia announces consolidation to Plymouth Rd. site: The Lutheran university isn’t saying what it will do with its vast and valuable land holdings off Geddes Rd. and along the Huron River. But in a letter posted online this week, president Erik Ankerberg says it will “migrate all existing Ann Arbor-based university operations to the campus located at 3475 Plymouth Road in Ann Arbor” by summer 2025. That’s where CUAA’s health care-related programs, which are being kept, are already held; earlier this year, the school announced it was ending most of its other academic programs, citing financial difficulties. Ankerberg writes that CUAA is weighing the construction of “an additional classroom and community building” as well “apartment-style student housing” around the existing North Building.
Santa Ono’s contract extension “raised the ante in presidential compensation”: That’s according to George Mason University emeritus professor James Finkelstein, who tells the Detroit News (paywall) the eight-year pact virtually guarantees the U-M president annual compensation of more than $2 million. Replacing Ono’s original five-year contract, it carries over deferred compensation of $350,000, adds new deferred compensation of $450,000, and “an annual performance bonus of up to 30% of his base salary based on uncited measurements agreed to by Ono and the board.” If the metrics are achieved, by 2032, Ono’s annual earnings will approach $3 million. Regent Sarah Hubbard called Ono’s compensation “very competitive” with private universities and corporations of similar size, adding, “We know that he is someone that other private universities are interested in, and we think it’s important to keep his talent in our public university.”
U-M fires DEI administrator over alleged anti-semitic remarks: Rachel Dawson, director of the office of academic multicultural initiatives, plans to sue the university for wrongful termination, the New York Times reports. She is accused of saying at a conference in March that Jewish students were “wealthy and privileged,” didn’t need her office’s services, and that “Jewish people have no genetic DNA that would connect them to the land of Israel,” according to documents included in a complaint from the Anti-Defamation League of Michigan. Her attorney told the Times the termination violates Dawson’s First Amendment rights and told Michigan Advance that Dawson “did not make the statements attributed to her.”
A2 sets aside $1M to respond to possible Trump trouble: Council voted 9-1 to create a “rapid response” contingency fund in the event the president-elect’s administration follows through on threats to financially punish municipalities that refuse to participate in mass deportations of undocumented immigrants or other proposals, MLive writes. “It is extremely prudent to think about political resilience, and we do not know what is coming,” councilmember Lisa Disch said. The money comes from greater-than-expected property tax revenues.
City lands $10M DOE grant for geothermal: The money will pay for a “geothermal loop” in the Bryant neighborhood, which Ann Arbor’s sustainability office and the Community Action Network see as a proving ground for achieving carbon neutrality in a low-income area. Liquid would be circulated underground to maintain a constant temperature, and buildings on the loop would extract heat from it in the winter and deposit it in the summer. Using geothermal energy for heating and cooling can help U.S. communities meet their energy needs, drive down costs, and create local jobs, according to a city press release.
Council approves $856K for B2B Trail, parking lot at Fuller Park: Fonson Company Inc. received the contract to widen 0.4 miles of the trail from Maiden Ln. to Cedar Bend Dr. to ten feet to meet national trail standards, according to the city’s meeting agenda. Fonson also will reconstruct the park’s parking lot. The paving is expected to be done by May, with the trail finished by next winter.
Billionaire alum gives $1.15M to Kelsey digs: With the donation from New Mountain Capital CEO Steve Klinsky, a Detroit-born, New York-based financier and 1976 LSA graduate, the institution will establish the Klinsky Expeditions, a series of five archaeological digs that will be led by LSA faculty and include U-M students. Klinsky is No. 308 on the 2024 Forbes 400 wealthiest Americans. To read about the five digs spanning four continents that the gift is funding, click here and scroll down.
U-M researcher high on magic mushrooms potential: “From the early studies, what we have seen is that psilocybin, in a good dose, seems to help people with depression,” psychiatry professor Avinash Hosanagar tells Antonio Cooper in this month’s Observer. In Hosanagar’s ongoing study, patients receive psychotherapy plus either a placebo or one of three doses of a synthetic form of psilocybin for up to sixty-two weeks. “The biggest question for us is trying to understand the durability of the treatment,” Hosanagar says. “Can two doses take care of someone’s depression for three months? Six months? And if so, who are those people who will benefit from them?”
AAPS surveys departing parents: For the third year in a row, enrollment fell by less than 1 percent in the fall student count, MLive reports (paywall). Though almost 1,000 students left the district, nearly 900 arrived, for a net loss of 106 students. Most departing families who responded to an exit survey said they left the area, but more than 300 moved to other public school districts in the county, private schools, and charter schools. Asked anonymously why they left, eighty cited specific problems; teaching-related issues led the list, followed by too-big schools, a lack of support for special-ed IEPs, “bullying, lack of academic rigor or seeking a different school program,” and “complaints about building administration.”
Parents launch fund to support school staff: With AAPS employees outraged at the prospect of hefty increases in their health insurance costs, a group posted a Google doc urging contributions. The Teachers Community Funds are intended to head off a feared mid-year exodus of teachers and staff; the district and its unions are currently in tense contract negotiations.
Ypsi Community Schools get book vending machines: They provide free books to students who earn special tokens, MLive reports, and all ten of the district’s schools have one. The $48,000 purchase from Ypsi-based Superior Text was funded via a 2021 grant. School leaders plan to stock the machines with books that greatly interest students, from graphic novels and books on sports to memoirs and youth fiction.
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Seventh-grader Jace Mendoza, a record-breaking inline skater from Superior Twp. who aspires to become an Olympic speed skater, is profiled in this month’s Observer by Shelley Daily. “We’re in the mindset of ‘We are all in.’ If our kids put in the work and they have a dream, it’s gonna happen,” Mendoza’s father, Jeff, says. Credit: J. Adrian Wylie.
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Belleville man charged in wife’s death: Forty-eight-year-old Teea Ann Elka died after she was struck by her husband’s pickup truck during a confrontation in Augusta Twp. in September, MLive reports. Last week, Nicholas James Elka, thirty-eight, was charged with murder; he is accused of intentionally driving into her while drunk. He’s being held without bond in Washtenaw County Jail. Teea Ann Elka was a teacher at an Ypsilanti Twp. preschool, according to her obituary.
Suspect seeks to dismiss 2013 rape case: The DNA evidence from the incident in Ypsi was not processed until 2016 and the two men accused of the crime were not charged until 2023, which one defendant says is a violation of his due process rights, MLive reports. Douglas Ulysses Johnson, thirty-five, told the Michigan Court of Appeals there is “no justification” for taking so long to file charges and that the delay makes it more difficult to mount a defense. Raphael Demonte Holman, thirty-four, was also charged in the assault; he pleaded guilty to fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct and is due to be sentenced in March.
“Emotional support” snake rescued after whiteout crash: Jessica Welch of Canton Twp. thought her ball python, Pina, had escaped when her tank was smashed amid a car pileup on I-94 near Chelsea, but employees at Manchester Collision and Towing, which hauled her vehicle, kept looking, Fox 2 Detroit reports. Eventually they located the limp snake under a seat and put her by a space heater. Pina showed no signs of life the next morning, but when the owner arrived to collect the body, she began moving. Pina spent a night in critical care at an Ann Arbor vet and is recovering.
Dexter residents intrigued by mysterious tunnel: The Dexter Area Fire Department’s Main St. station there is being replaced, and demolition of the old one revealed a seven-foot-tall tunnel ending at a bricked-up wall. That prompted wild theorizing about its purpose, the Sun Times News reports – including speculation that it was a remnant of the Underground Railroad or a bootlegging network. The truth was more mundane: historians say it was “part of a hydro system that channeled water from the Mill Creek dam to power the [grist]mill’s turbine.”
Tween skater aims for Olympics: Jace Mendoza recently set three national records for his age group on inline skates. Now the twelve-year-old from Superior Twp. is training at the Ann Arbor Ice Cube with the goal of becoming an internationally competitive ice skater, he tells Shelley Daily in this month’s Observer. Like Olympic speed skating gold medalists Apolo Ohno and Erin Jackson, he’s making the transition because inline speed skating is not an Olympic sport. “We’re in the mindset of ‘We are all in.’ If our kids put in the work and they have a dream, it’s gonna happen,” Mendoza’s father, Jeff, says.
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Rally House has added two more Ann Arbor locations, one in Briarwood Mall and this one in Maple Village, as it moves to dominate a U-M merch industry in the vacuum created by the demise of M Den. This location is Rally House’s first to exclusively sell Wolverine-related items, Dave Algase writes in this month’s Observer. Credit: John Hilton.
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Rally House scores in U-M merch game: The Kansas-based team retailer first took over the M Den stores on S. Main and S. State and now has opened locations in Maple Village and the Briarwood Mall, Dave Algase writes in this month’s Observer. “It was something that we’ve always had a hope for: to get a bigger presence in Ann Arbor,” corporate spokesman Colin Novick says. Most Rally Houses carry merch from multiple college and NFL teams, but the Maple Village store sells exclusively U-M-themed offerings.
From software to sourdough: Engineer Ben Brown opened B-Cubed Bakery in Ypsilanti Twp.’s Gault Village neighborhood after years of selling his breads at farmers markets, MLive writes. Between tech jobs, Brown took a two-year sabbatical to study at the Great Lakes Culinary Institute in Traverse City, then worked at a small bakery in the area and at Zingerman’s Bakehouse. He went back to software engineering, but soon realized he wanted to bake full-time out of a brick-and-mortar shop.
Another chicken chain coming to roost: Arkansas-based Slim Chickens will open its first southeast Michigan location on Jan. 6 near the Jackson Rd. Meijer, the Detroit Free Press reports. Franchisees Brad and Todd DeLange, who own and operate ten Jimmy Johns stores in suburban Detroit, say they envision twenty-five Slim Chickens locations in the next decade or so. The fast-casual chain, founded in 2003, has more than 200 stores in the U.S. and more than fifty in the U.K.
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Four options for free Christmas meals: Food Gatherers is hosting dine-in meals at the Delonis Center, 312 W. Huron St., from 3 to 4 p.m. on Dec. 24 and Dec. 25. On Christmas Eve, Word of Deliverance Church at 1005 Midway Rd. in Ypsi., gives out food from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Hope Clinic, at 518 Harriet St. in Ypsi, hands out hot to-go meals from 5 to 6 p.m. In Chelsea, Chelsea Hospital opens its dining room from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Christmas for a free meal; register by calling (734) 475-9242.
Ypsi Warming Center seeks supplies: Shelter Association of Washtenaw County executive director Dan Kelly tells WEMU the site is seeing “a record need,” especially for warm socks, basic clothing, and food. To see what is needed and ways to donate, click here.
Warm the Children also sees rising need: Hosted by the Kiwanis Club of Ann Arbor, the program collected enough donations this year to help more than 1,500 children across the county, the Sun Times News writes. “Many of these children are from Spanish, Russian, Ukrainian, Arabic and Chinese speaking families,” program manager Mary Stewart says. Since she started here in 2012, more than 120 volunteers have shopped with local children with a $90 voucher at JC Penney. For more information or to donate, email Stewart at mkcstewart61@gmail.com.
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By Jennifer Taylor
Friday: See nearly 100 local dancers of all ages perform a family-friendly production of Tchaikovsky’s Christmas ballet set in early 20th-century America at Randazzo Dance Company’s “The Nutcracker: Clara’s Dream”. Features live music with local composer Eric Bannitt’s jazz-inspired arrangements of the “Party” and “Fight” scenes. 7:30 p.m. (Fri.) and 3 p.m. (Sat. and Sun.), Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre. Tickets $20 to $28 in advance at the Michigan Union Ticket Office or at the door. (734) 477–9350.
Saturday: Help update the nation’s longest-running ornithological database by joining the 125th Annual Christmas Bird Count, volunteering for all or part of the day as a field observer or (if you have a bird feeder) as a feeder watcher. Everyone from novice to experienced birder is invited. The results are tallied at a potluck dinner at U-M Matthaei Botanical Gardens at 6 p.m. 12:01 a.m., Washtenaw Bird & Nature Alliance, various locations. Preregistration required here. Free.
Sunday: Catch local pianist Kathryn Goodson, South African soprano Goitsemang Lehobye, and local cellist Thor Sigurdson at the Kerrytown Concert House Winter Solstice Celebration. The program of music in honor of the darkest night of the year includes Debussy’s “Sonate pour violoncelle et piano,” “Dream with Me” from Leonard Bernstein’s Peter Pan, and music by Florence Price, Strauss, and Schubert. 4 p.m., KCH, 415 N. Fourth Ave. Tickets $29 to $40 (students, $18 to $30) in advance here and (if available) at the door. Reservations recommended. (734) 769–2999.
See the Observer’s online calendar for many more local events.
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