Dec 27, 2016 | Featured, Marketplace |
Alpacas in the MistSaline’s Two Branch RanchWeekend visitors to the Saline Farmers Market can’t miss Mark and Sue Schalk of Two Branch Ranch. As Mark operates a sock-knitting machine, Sue knits, crochets, and sells...
Read MoreDec 21, 2016 | Marketplace |
Chelsea has scored a $68 million coup, and landed 195 new jobs. In July, the shuttered Jaytec factory at 5800 Sibley Rd. was quietly purchased for $4 million by the Spanish automotive supplier Corporacion Gestamp. In late...
Read MoreDec 17, 2016 | Community |
After the 2016-2017 Community Observer was published in September, we got an email from NorthRidge Church Saline campus pastor Justin Powell asking how to add his congregation to the Religion listings. Though we’d often...
Read MoreDec 12, 2016 | Community |
Thirteen years ago, on a late morning in early May, I was biking on Dexter-Chelsea Rd. when I heard a car coming up behind me. Over my shoulder I saw a white SUV. I was as far to the side as I could be; there was good...
Read MoreDec 6, 2016 | Marketplace |
When Country Market, the former anchor store for Saline’s Commons at Sauk Trail shopping center, closed back in 2012, it left behind a vast parking lot, empty apart from isolated clusters of cars outside Biwako Sushi,...
Read MoreDec 6, 2016 | Marketplace |
Restoring a century-old building means unexpected challenges. That’s been the case for Donna and Lisa Southwick as they lovingly return the old Saline Reporter building to its 1870s glory. This spring the two figured they...
Read MoreDec 2, 2016 | Marketplace |
Pete and Laurie Toarmina, along with Pete’s two sisters and their husbands, opened Mangiamo Italian Grill on Saline’s Main St. in 2011. The restaurant and its adjacent bar are on the first floor of a three-story...
Read MoreNov 26, 2016 | Marketplace |
“Still open for a limited time” reads the A&W Drive-in billboard on Baker Rd. It doesn’t bother to specify–because everyone in Dexter knows–that it’s a seasonal, not a permanent, closing....
Read MoreNov 24, 2016 | Marketplace |
First inspired in an art class at Chelsea High School, Stephen Kolokithas has forged a career in custom jewelry design working from home. Now he’s moving to Main St.: he plans to open Jewelry Set in Stone November 12 in...
Read MoreNov 18, 2016 | Marketplace |
Plaid Melon Cafe closed its doors in September after two years in business, citing a staff shortage, but owner Dave Gallinat promised something new in its place. By mid-October, he and his wife Tessa had launched Plaid Melon...
Read MoreNov 13, 2016 | Marketplace |
“I wasn’t doing it to get rich,” says Alison Mackie of her Chelsea Underground Art Gallery, which she closed at the end of the summer after two years. It took its name from its original location in a basement...
Read MoreNov 10, 2016 | Marketplace |
We took a trip in the way back machine for the fake ad in the Fall Community Observer. The ad, for perennial political candidate Ed Nimby, appeared on page 43 of the issue.Several veteran Fake Adders recognized Nimby’s...
Read MoreOct 9, 2016 | Community |
Local nature lovers are rejoicing over the new 1,122-acre state park. The Watkins Lake State Park & County Preserve is about thirteen miles south of Chelsea and five miles west of Manchester, straddling Washtenaw and...
Read MoreOct 7, 2016 | Community |
Saline is enjoying a spurt in residential development that soon will add about another 120 condos and single-family homes within a mile of downtown. “This much development within close proximity to downtown is certainly...
Read MoreOct 5, 2016 | Community |
It is with a heavy heart that DCP must cancel our fall production, Little Shop of Horrors. Due to unforeseen circumstances, Copeland Auditorium is no longer available for use. Dexter Community Schools has unexpectedly rescinded...
Read MoreSep 25, 2016 | Marketplace |
Viewed from the outside this summer, you’d hardly guess that Saline’s Two Twelve Arts Center was about to close its doors forever. Events like the colorful “Knit 1 Bike 2 Saline” scavenger hunt had...
Read MoreSep 21, 2016 | Marketplace |
With their grand new 3bird, Cathy Swan, Laura Telesco, and Laura Keefer have invigorated retail on Main St. Their new store is still on Main St., but they moved it over a block, consolidating Nichols & Stafford and the Home...
Read MoreSep 20, 2016 | Marketplace |
Mexican returns to the Clocktower Commons.Clocktower Commons lost its Mexican restaurant in 2013, when Pancho Villa (ne Las Fuentes) closed. Now it has one again. In early August, Los Tres Amigos was bustling with workers...
Read MoreWashtenaw County’s Honor List of the men and women who died or disappeared during World War II includes names still familiar to our communities: Hafly, Heselschwerdt, Koch, Schaible, Schneider, Salter, Van Dyken, Vetter,...
Read MoreA few years back, the Centers for Disease Control anounced approvingly that 145 million Americans walk for exercise. But a good hike should be more than racking up steps on a Fitbit or Apple Watch. An amble though our towns can...
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