I’ve never been all that interested in St. Patrick’s Day, probably because I don’t drink or find drunk people enjoyable. I did have a boyfriend long ago whose birthday is March 16 and whose mother sent him boxes with one green Hostess snowball for each year of his life. Even then, in our twenties, that was getting a bit ridiculous. And, also, a waste; Hostess snowballs are gross regardless of their color.

I am feeling fortunate to be writing for you, though, and this week’s lineup has a plethora of feel-good items. There was national media attention paid to an innovative activity for children with cancer, the Pioneer High boys swim team won the state championship, an old farmhouse could become an important cultural destination, and one Ukrainian refugee family in Washtenaw County is thriving and helping to support people back home.

The piece that really touched me, though, was ClickOnDetroit’s story about the retired opera singer with Alzheimer’s who got to sing one more time on a prestigious stage, if only for her family. This is one time when I’m telling you it’s much more impactful if you watch the video of the report rather than just read the written version because you really need to see and hear this woman sing to feel the goosebumps.

As I debate introducing the kids to the Shamrock Shake, I hope everyone’s week ahead is full of luck and pots of gold.

–Steve Friess, editor

Six AAPS superintendent candidates to be interviewed Saturday: The semifinalists include interim superintendent Jazz Parks, former Des Moines Public Schools superintendent Thomas Ahart; William Bradford, chief of schools for Fayette County Public Schools in Kentucky; East Baton Rouge Parish Schools chief Arcelius Brickhouse; Matthew Dunbar of Glastonbury Public Schools in Connecticut; and Antoine Reed, deputy chief of equity at Rockford Public Schools in Illinois. All are expected to be questioned by the AAPS board via Zoom this weekend, according to a district announcement. The board’s schedule for the search to replace fired longtime superintendent Jeanice Swift indicates finalist interviews would occur April 1-2 and a new leader would start on July 1. To watch Saturday’s meeting, which starts at 9 a.m., click on this Zoom link or watch via CTN’s livestream here. 

Ypsi man sues gun kit manufacturer after shooting: Guy Boyd, now nineteen, was accidentally shot in the eye in May 2021 by a friend who obtained the weapon by mail order from JSD Supply in Prospect, Pennsylvania, Fox 2 reports. The two then-seventeen-year-old best friends were drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana when the shooter took out his two “ghost guns,” weapons assembled from kits that don’t have serial numbers and require no background checks to obtain. Boyd, who lost his right eye and suffers ongoing seizures, is suing both JSD and his former friend.

Police looking for suspect in Burns Park sexual assault: A woman reports being grabbed and groped as she was opening her front door on Vaughn St. early Saturday, according to a public safety alert from U-M. The victim says her attacker, described as a six-foot White man with short brown hair, fled when she screamed and slapped him. Anyone with information can call the Ann Arbor Police tip line (734) 794-6939 or email tips@a2gov.org.

City reissues RFP for unarmed non-police response program: Ann Arbor chose not to accept the only proposal offered to start up such a program after the first review process, so this month it relaunched the effort with an April 18 deadline for submissions. City administrator Milton Dohoney shot down the proposal received from Care Based Safety of Washtenaw County in part because it would operate only during limited hours and take five years to get up and running. 

116 acres added to greenbelt: City council approved spending a total of $256,650 as its contribution to the purchase of development rights for three parcels, according to city records. They include $50,000 on a $155,000, sixteen-acre property on Zeeb Rd. between Liberty and Scio Church roads, with Scio Twp. kicking in the rest; $78,400 of a $392,000 seventy-one-acre property in Webster Twp., with the rest shared between the county, the township, and a federal grant; and $128,250 toward a $285,000, thirty-acre site also in Webster Twp. for which the county and township are paying the balance. The money comes from a thirty-year tax approved by Ann Arbor voters in 2003. 

A2 home sellers must have energy assessment: A new law kicked in this week requiring owners to provide prospective buyers with a report on the house’s energy efficiency, according to a city reminder about the measure approved in September. Assessments are free via this link. The Home Energy Rating Disclosure includes information on the house’s energy costs, energy use, and carbon emissions.

Two firms requiring $6,000+ fees to get in line for rental: Council member Travis Radina is planning a measure to ban waitlist fees, many of which are nonrefundable, amid outrage from the Ann Arbor Tenants Union over $6,745 charged by Campus Management Inc. and $6,887.50 charged by Prime Student Housing, MLive reports. Chris Heaton, property manager and co-owner of Campus Management, defended the fees, describing them as “options to lease.”

Gaza demonstrators hold die-in on Diag: About 150 U-M students and community members held the event last Thursday to show support for Palestinians killed in the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, the Michigan Daily reports. The action was also a vigil in honor of the death of Aaron Bushnell, a United States Air Force serviceman who died Feb. 25 after setting himself on fire outside of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. in protest of U.S. involvement in the Israel-Hamas war. He was eulogized by Levi Pierpont, a sophomore who went to Air Force basic training with Bushnell. 

U-M administrator to become president at Minnesota: Rebecca Cunningham, vice president for research and innovation, will be sworn in next January to lead the Big Ten’s other U-M, the University Record writes. Cunningham began at our U-M in 1999 as an emergency medicine physician, joined the faculty, and was appointed associate vice president for research in 2017; she’s held her current title since 2019.

180-year-old farmhouse closer to becoming Black history museum: The African American Cultural and Historical Museum of Washtenaw County has received $150,000 from the Song Foundation and $150,000 from Dug and Linh Song to renovate the building off Lohr Road in Pittsfield Twp., MLive reports. The farmhouse, known as the Byrd Center after the Black architect and WCC prof who rehabbed it with his students in the 1970s, was once the center of a 480-acre farmstead. 

U-M men’s basketball season ends with a thud: The last-place Wolverines lost to Penn State 66-57 on Wednesday to close one out “perhaps the worst Michigan men’s basketball season in modern history,” as 247Sports put it. With an 8-24 record including 2-17 in the last nineteen games, there will be not berth in either the NCAA or NIT tournaments for the first time since 2010. They also finish in last place in the Big Ten for the first time in nearly sixty years. All that’s left now is the debate over whether head coach Juwan Howard should be given a chance to fix the team, as the Detroit News’ Bob Wojnoski suggests, or if it’s time to fire him, as the Detroit Free Press’ Shawn Windsor argues (both paywall).

Pioneer boys wins state swim championship: The high school took its fourth consecutive title in Division I competition over the weekend, ahead of Saline High and third-place Detroit Catholic Central, MLive writes. The Pioneers didn’t win any individual event but claimed the championship with seven second- and third-place finishes. 

Group to buy building for U-M men’s rowing club: An independent non-profit is expected to close this month on a structure in Bandemer Park to provide an indoor practice facility for the team, MLive reports (paywall). Men’s rowing is not a varsity sport at the U-M, but its club team has won fourteen straight American Collegiate Rowing Association national championships. The building and its waterfront along the Huron River will also be used by local high school rowing teams and the Ann Arbor Rowing Club, according to Michigan Rowing Association president Dan Brock. The sale price is expected to exceed $1 million.

NBC News spotlights local rock-climbing cancer survivors: The segment that aired on Jan. 28 featured thirteen young participants scaling heights at Ann Arbor’s Planet Rock Climbing Gym, Lisa Lava-Kellar writes in this month’s Observer. The free monthly event, called Rock Cancer, helps young survivors build strength and self-confidence. The news report inspired a Philadelphia teen to start his own Rock Cancer there. 

A half-century on, Packard Health is a force for sliding-scale health care: It started in 1973 as single clinic founded by U-M Medical School graduate Jerry Walden to provide care to “whoever walked in his door, whatever their situation in life, health problems, or financial resources,” Grace Shackman writes in this month’s Observer. Board member Deborah VandenBroek says funding was “hand to mouth” until Obamacare and federal support brought financial stability. Headed since 2010 by Ray Rion, Packard Health now has four clinics, an active outreach program, and connections with a wide variety of other service nonprofits. 

Ukrainian refugees rebuild life, business in Saline: Maksym and Alla Kondratenko and their two children came to Michigan in September 2022, a few months after Russia invaded their country, and were resettled by Jewish Family Services of Washtenaw County with help from dozens of volunteers. In Ukraine, they were successful entrepreneurs but the warehouse containing their company’s handbags, purses, wallets, and backpacks was bombed and destroyed, according to a JFS press release. The Kondratenkos, whose harrowing story includes Alla giving premature birth four days after the war began, are rebuilding their company, Kondra Bags, with wares that are selling on Amazon from $25 to $85. On March 23 and 24, they’ll have a popup at the Found Gallery in Kerrytown.

Webster Twp. residents squawk over chicken ban: The rural township has been in the news recently for forcing a homeowner to give up her chickens to the Humane Society of Huron Valley, among other controversies. At a heated town hall meeting earlier this month, board members heard from locals who find the rule prohibiting farm animals on lots smaller than five acres even if they have agricultural zoning to be strange and unbecoming of such a rural region, MLive reports. “Don’t we want our kids raising chickens and eating the fresh eggs and stuff instead of on their screens all the time?” one resident asked.

Detroit Opera House opens up for Saline singer with Alzheimer’s: Lauren Wagner was a globetrotting opera singer when she was diagnosed with the disease in 2019. Her memory is fading fast, but she still asks the staff at StoryPoint Saline senior living to sing for her, ClickonDetroit reports. That led the facility’s enrichment director to ask the opera house to give Wagner and her family a private tour that included one more chance to sing on stage. In 1981, the New York Times wrote about the Ann Arbor native as a rising star.

Ypsi Art Supply and Atelier settles into permanent space: The former pop-up business inside the Riverside Arts Center last month finished taking over 42 N. Huron St., a storefront previously occupied by Silver Spoon Antiques, Concentrate reports. Owner Megan Foldenauer says she plans to expand her inventory and offer classes and workshops.

Discount clothing shop opens in Oak Valley Center: Ross Dress For Less, the national chain, launched an Ann Arbor location last weekend in space previously occupied by OfficeMax, MLive reports. Ross also opened locations in Westland and Burton on the same day, bringing it to eleven stores in Michigan. The California-based retailer has more than 1,750 locations in 43 states.

Briarwood pop-up gets its own space: Go! Calendars, Games & Toys, which previously sold its wares outside Macy’s, now has a roomy storefront of its own with a full product line geared toward gift shoppers, Dave Algase writes in this month’s Observer. The private company based in Austin, Texas, also operates calendars.com, which claims to offer the world’s largest calendar inventory.

Surge in need prompts EMU food pantry to seek donations: The three-week drive at Swoop’s Pantry, which continues until March 22, is a response to a doubling of the number of students using it since last year, ClickOnDetroit reports. Email swoops_pantry@emich.edu to arrange a pick-up from your porch in the Ypsi/Ann Arbor area, click here to give money, or check out the pantry’s Amazon wishlist here. 

U-M, Hope Clinic brings sleep aid to uninsured: Michigan Medicine’s neurology department has launched what they believe is one of the first free sleep clinics in the U.S., WXYZ reports. Inpatient sleep studies can cost as much as $4,000 a night, but a grant from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine Foundation is providing home sleep apnea testing devices and CPAP machines to drive down the cost. The free program is available to Hope Clinic patients, with a waitlist of about six to eight weeks.

Free breakfast program celebrates forty-two years: CBS News Detroit profiled The Breakfast at St. Andrew’s, which provides a cooked breakfast for anyone who wants it at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church on Division St. The story noted how impressive it is that the church hasn’t skipped a single morning since the 1980s, including continuing to serve meals throughout the Covid pandemic. Click here to donate and here to volunteer. 

By Jennifer Taylor

Friday: See director Mike Cheslik’s new indie movie “Hundreds of Beavers” at the Michigan Theater. It’s a broadly comic, mostly silent, black-and-white slapstick extravaganza about a drunken applejack salesman who tries to defeat hundreds of beavers, played by men in beaver suits. 7 p.m., Michigan Theater. $10.50 (children under 12, students, seniors age 65 and older, and U.S. veterans, $8:50; MTF members, $8) online at michtheater.org and at the door. 

Saturday: Sample and vote on chilis at the Michigan Firehouse Museum and Education Center’s annual Chili Cook-Off Fundraiser. Also, a chance to tour the three-floor museum, see old firefighting equipment, and climb on century-old fire engines. Cash bar. Noon–3 p.m., MFMEC, 110 Cross St., Ypsi. Tickets (includes two drinks) $30 (2 people, $50; kids 12 and under, $15) at a2tix.com or at the door. (734) 547–0663.

Sunday: Hear one of Michigan’s hottest rising Irish bands, On the Lash, at Acoustic Routes. This quartet brings accomplished fiddle, flute, mandolin, guitar chops and tight harmonies to its performances of traditional Irish music, along with spirited originals. 8 p.m., Stony Lake Brewing, 447 E. Michigan Ave., Saline. $20 in advance at stonylakebrewing.com and at the door. (734) 316–7919.

See the Observer’s online calendar for many more local events. 

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