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Dozens of homeless families remain in hotels: Nobody was tossed onto the streets as was feared in March when it appeared a program lodging unhoused people in local hotels was about to end, but the county is still working on moving those still there to other situations, Jan Schlain writes in this month’s Observer. Last winter’s dramatic spike in homelessness, attributed to the end of Covid-era federal rent assistance and a reduction of local accommodations for unhoused families, could reoccur later this year when temperatures drop again, experts warn.
Billionaire, major U-M donor Sam Zell dies: The eighty-one-year-old real estate tycoon got his start as a Michigan undergrad in the early 1960s who parlayed a gig managing an apartment building for free rent into a rental-management firm he later sold, the Associated Press reports. After selling his Chicago-based office-tower company Equity Office for $39 billion in 2007, he plunged $13 billion into buying the Tribune Co. only to have it file for bankruptcy protection the next year as the Great Recession took hold. He and his wife, Helen, are among U-M’s biggest donors, giving $50 million for a creative writing program in 2013 and co-founding the Samuel Zell & Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the Ross business school in 1999.
Property tax increase biggest in 30 years: The county will raise the rate by 5 percent, which is the legal limit under Michigan’s 1994 Proposal A, MLive reports. County officials say the inflationary adjustment will result in an influx of $9.5 million more revenue than 2022.
Water, stormwater rates going up in July: Council unanimously approved the increase earlier this year to raise $380 million for system upgrades and fixes, MLive reports (paywall). The water increase will add about $19 a year to the average bill, and the stormwater increase will add about another $10. The city plans in coming years to replace old underground pipes and modernize the water treatment plant.
U-M ups grad student pay offer to 12.5 percent over three years: As the Graduate Employees Organization continues its longest-ever walkout with a demand for a 60 percent pay increase, the school budged slightly from its pre-strike 11.5 percent offer, according to the University Record. The union reacted poorly, with contract committee chair Amir Fleischmann tweeting: “This offer is a joke.”
University plans $75M spree to buy property for new dorms: The regents are expected to vote today on a proposal to buy forty-nine properties in an area bounded by S. Division St., S. Fifth Ave., E Madison, and Hill streets, for the next phase of its Central Campus dorm construction plan, according to the meeting agenda. The properties were purchased by regent Ron Weiser, who is selling them to the school at the price he paid.
Middle school sub under fire for use of slur: AAPS is probing allegations that a longtime educator used the n-word while chastising a 13-year-old student at Slauson for doing the same thing, 7 Action News reports. The teen’s parent said the sub asked her daughter, “Why are you using n-word when you are an n-word?” Superintendent Jeanice Swift said administrators are “deeply disturbed by the content of the allegations” and promised a “full and thorough investigation.”
Black Lives Matter sign defaced twice this month: The word “Black” was crossed out and replaced with the word “all” on a banner painted last summer on the pavement at Wheeler Park on Depot St., ClickOnDetroit reports. City councilmember Cynthia Harrison called it hate messaging, and the city restored the original inscription within hours.
City picks different site for 200th birthday makeover: Southeast Area Park near Ellsworth and Platt roads will be renamed Bicentennial Park as part of next year’s celebration of the 1824 founding of Ann Arbor, according to city records. That’s a shift from a previous plan to use Fuller Park as a bicentennial focal point; council wanted to put the investment into a park in an underprivileged neighborhood. Celebration planners have talked about adding a splash pad, a sculpture garden paying tribute to Indigenous people, a sculpture honoring former Olympians, and more, but plans are not yet set.
County’s newest park may also be its most ambitious: The 98-acre Staebler Farm off Plymouth Rd. in Superior Township is being reborn as agricultural-themed public space and home to the Michigan Folk School, Trilby MacDonald reports in this month’s Observer. Its namesake, Don Staebler, died in 2017 having spent 104 of his 106 years on the dairy-turned-cattle farm; he had sold the property to the county parks commission at age ninety, but retained a life lease. The folk school, also now part of the parks system, offers classes in traditional skills like those practiced on a centennial farm. An advisory group of instructors, crafters, government representatives, and residents are working on the park’s evolving vision.
Dexter hiker rescued in Montana: Nineteen-year-old Matthew Read slipped off a trail in Glacier National Park and was missing for more than two days last weekend, the New York Times reports (paywall). A heat-seeking device on a helicopter located him, and rescuers airlifted him using a 175-foot hoist. A park service spokesperson said he had “descended into chest-deep snow, losing his phone, water bottle, and shoes.” Read is in stable condition.
City tests less-frequent mowing at eight parks: The pilot program is an attempt to improve environmental conditions for pollinators, MLive reports (paywall). The eight parks are Buhr, Kelly, Redwood, Sugarbush, Virginia, Ward, Wurster and Veterans Memorial. Most have specific sections that are not getting mowed at all in May and then every other week in June, a city website explains.
Woman in critical condition after Huron River rescue: She was pulled unconscious out of the water at Gallup Park by police on Wednesday morning, MLive reports. The park reopened in early afternoon. No information about how the woman got in the water was released.
Man arrested ten minutes after bank robbery: Virgil James Ross, 49, was collared soon after the Chase Bank on S. Main St. was held up last week, police say via Facebook. The robber handed a note to the teller demanding money and bolted on foot. Ross is being held in jail without bond.
Ten years later, murder victim remains unidentified: The fate of the man, whose body was found on May 13, 2013, at the bottom of stairs in an unused area of an Ann Arbor home, still stumps police, ClickOnDetroit reports. Believed to have died about two months before he was found, he is estimated to have been between 40 and 65 years old and had long reddish-gray hair. Click here to see a rendering. Anyone with information should contact the police at (734) 794-6920 and reference case number 13-21766.
School evacuated after gasoline used to clean a classroom: Nobody at Ann Arbor Open was hurt, but a hazmat team swept the school last week after reports of the smell of petrol prompted calls to the fire department, the Detroit News reports. An investigation found someone had used gasoline to clean the room.
Ypsi axes law requiring landlords to inform tenants about elections: Council voted to suspend a 2018 ordinance forcing property owners to give renters a packet with information about polling locations and voter registration forms that was being challenged in court, MLive reports. The move came five days after a lawsuit was filed by five landlords asserting they cannot be forced to “act as couriers of the municipality’s ideological messages to prospective tenants.”
Scio Twp. to refund $1.6M in unspent road money: Board members disagree last week over whether the extra dough should be spent or given back to taxpayers who paid into a ten-year special assessment district for roadwork and maintenance, MLive reports (paywall). Ultimately, they voted to provide a tax credit and to put a new roads levy on the 2024 ballot.
Pittsfield Twp. OKs $1.58M plan for bike, pedestrian path along State Rd.: The plan would add a 10-foot non-motorized path along the west side of the road between Textile and Morgan roads, MLive reports. The township board unanimously approved a measure to have the pathway designed and put out for bids; the project could be done next year.
Trustee elevated to Dexter Twp. supervisor: The board picked Karen Sikkenga, a management consultant and former associate director of U-M’s Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum, to replace Diane Ratkovich, MLive reports. Ratkovich, elected to a four-year term in 2020, resigned effective last week after the board failed to increase her pay to her liking.
U-M men’s lacrosse stuns Cornell in NCAA Tournament run: The team that had never qualified for the post-season nonetheless won an overtime 15-14 upset on Sunday in Ithaca, the Michigan Daily reports. The triumph sends the Wolverines to the Elite Eight where they face top-seeded Duke on Saturday.
Tennis teams in Elite Eight: Michigan’s men’s and women’s squads both won their matches last weekend to advance in their respective NCAA Tournaments. The women lost Wednesday to Georgia, ending their season. The men squeezed by USC on Friday and play TCU in the quarterfinals tonight.
Bo Schembechler’s son added to Harbaugh’s coaching staff: Glenn “Shemy” Schembechler is now assistant director of football recruiting at U-M under his father’s former star quarterback, the Detroit Free Press reports. Schembechler most recently scouted for the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders and has worked for the Chicago Bears, Kansas City Chiefs, and others.
Med school grad is third generation of women doctors: Hannah Glick’s mother and grandmother also were physicians, forming an unusual trifecta, according to the Record. Glick’s grandmother, now 92, served as director of pediatrics at Detroit Receiving Hospital and associate dean for student affairs at Wayne State’s medical school. Rachel Glick, the new doctor’s mom, was associate dean for student programs at the U-M medical school.
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