Thank you, Dan Swallow

The following was submitted by The View staff reporter Jerry LaVaute:

You may have heard that VBT Planning and Economic Development Director Dan Swallow has resigned from his post, effective Jan. 7.

Dan will become the director of Community and Economic Development for the city of Monroe. I would be remiss if I didn't thank Dan for his help in my reporting assignment the last several years, and to say that I'm gonna miss him.

Dan started in 2002 as the township's Environmental Director. Along the way, he was recognized for his ability not only to do a superlative job on his current assignment, but also for an ability and willingness to take on new assignments, as he became Deputy Planning and Economic Development Director, reporting to Bryce Kelley.

When Dan became Kelley's deputy, he retained his previous job as Environmental Director. This represented an efficiency for the township, but more importantly began to illustrate to me Swallow's capacity for hard work, all the while raising a young family, and attending college to earn an advanced degree.

After Bryce Kelley resigned in 2008, the township decided to elevate Dan to the post of director. It was a superb choice - a bit of valuable continuity amidst much change - and Dan made the transition look seamless.

Dan wasn't replaced as deputy director when he was promoted - he retained that responsibility. And he retained as well as his original assignment as Environmental Director.

When I think of working with Dan, and watching him work now for years with other officials and residents in township board meetings, I think of several characteristics: professional, helpful, accessible, knowledgeable, and great with residents.

He's not the slightest bit defensive if challenged, but understanding and eager to help. I used to marvel at this ability as I watched him in township board meetings.

Monroe's gain is our loss. Best of luck to you, Dan, and thanks.

It's good to be in Belleville

The following was submitted by The View staff reporter Jerry LaVaute:

My wife Jan and I moved to this area from central New York over 33 years ago.
Partly as a result, I don’t have the lifelong native’s passion for the Detroit Tigers, the University of Michigan or the Detroit Red Wings.

I get lost easily lost in Detroit, or in the northeastern suburbs, and in many other areas in southeastern Michigan.

I’ve been up north a few times, and have always enjoyed it, but I lack, as I say, the Michigan native’s familiarity with and love of the region.

We moved to Belleville many years ago because Lemontree apartments, now called Harbour Club, accepted dogs, and we had a dog.

That’s why we came to the area. We stayed because we grew comfortable with and fond of many of Belleville’s people and places.

Since I became a staff reporter more than a year ago, I’ve learned other reasons to like the area.
I’ve been particularly surprised by the turnout at the last several community events, including the Taste of Belleville, the Harvest Fest, Trick or Treat on Main Street, and most recently Winter Fest.

The crowds have been quite amazing to me. There were pedestrian traffic jams and slowdowns on the Main Street sidewalks for Trick or Treat. I heard that there were over 500 who enjoyed this year’s Harvest Fest.

On Saturday evening, I stood elbow-to-elbow in near-freezing temperatures with parade watchers who lined up three or four deep along Main Street.

Before I became a reporter, I developed many reasons to like this area. I’ve not changed my mind about most of those things.

Some bemoan the limited degree of change in Belleville. While I understand this, I value the stability of the area more highly.

Let other communities develop retail-shopping opportunities, and learn to live with the congestion and the concrete.

Me, I’d rather be driving south on Sumpter Road from the city, farm land on my left and right, and a limited amount of traffic as I wend my way home.

But when I want collegiality, when I want a community, I know where to find it – right here in my hometown.

Last night, Jan and I attended the Angel of Hope candlelight ceremony, an evening of remembrance for those who had lost young people, perhaps sons or daughters or grandchildren, much too early.

Jan and I discussed, before we went to the event, how or even whether to cover it for the newspaper, wishing to be respectful toward the attendees.

In the end, we brought a camera and took a few photos from a polite distance. But we felt better being among the group, as part of a community, and less as a witness.

The snowflakes swirled in a chilling breeze as the names of the children were read, one by one. We stood in silence, alone with our thoughts, yet by our neighbor, as part of a community whose ability to celebrate, to reflect and even to mourn, heartens and lifts me.

A moment to share and to savor a rare victory

The following was submitted by The View staff reporter Jerry LaVaute:

The phone call came just before midnight on Saturday. At that time of night, I was pretty sure who it was.

A phone call at that time of night sometimes doesn’t bode well, but I was looking forward to it.
In fact, I was planning to call him in a moment, but he beat me to it.

It was my son Matthew, who was calling from a bar. There was a lot of noise in the background, and the conversation was brief.

Did you see the game? he asked, referring to Notre Dame’s defeat of the University of Southern California in football a few moments earlier, on Saturday night.

I sure did, I replied. Wasn’t it great?

We agreed it was a great win, an unusual win, and he and I, who have now made the pilgrimage many times to ND’s home in South Bend, with and without family, have celebrated glorious victories over formidable gridiron opponents, and commiserated over crushing defeats – the defeats outnumbering the victories lately – making Saturday’s win all the sweeter.

Notre Dame football fans have learned to savor their football victories, because it’s been slim pickins’ now for about 15 years.

ND has had a tough season – new coach, new program, lost four key starting players – quarterback, running back, tight end, nose tackle – and three tough last-minute losses, two of them to the University of Michigan and Michigan State University.

There’s a brief moment in an episode of the television show “Seinfeld” where someone runs up to Jerry, and shouts triumphantly after watching a game, “We won!”

“No,” Jerry says, “They won. You watched.”

I use this parable as a frequent reminder to myself of the futility of being a sports fan.

It had been nine years since Notre Dame had beaten USC – they had lost eight times in a row.

My wife was surprised to see me so upbeat after the victory: after all, USC is a school out on the west coast, not a regional rival like U-M or MSU.

There were three reasons for my elation:
· Notre Dame and USC is the oldest intersectional football rivalry in the country. Knute Rockne came up with the idea of the contest in the 1920s, when he was working hard to develop a national reputation for the small Catholic school in the Midwest. He went to the east coast to play Army, and to the west coast to play USC.
· Although the ND football program had fallen on lean years, none of their rivals had beaten them eight consecutive times, and often by wide point margins. For many of those eight years of losses, ND was not even competitive.
· If you’re measuring your worth as a college football team, the measuring stick for me must include teams in the south and the west. Teams in the Midwest may win an occasional championship, but football excellence (not academic excellence, sadly), belongs primarily to those teams.

There was a lot of good and bad luck involved in the victory. ND’s quarterback, an 18-year-old freshman who was starting for just the third time, turned the ball over to USC four times.
On the game-winning drive downfield, the ND running back lost the ball, but, amidst several USC Trojans in hot pursuit, it was recovered by ND’s tight end.

A USC receiver dropped what would likely have been for USC a game-winning touchdown pass, all alone at the 15-yard line. The ND defender had slipped and fallen in a steady downpour that began in the second half.

I have the game saved permanently on my TiVo. I watched it in its entirely on Sunday morning, having missed some of the game the night before.

I may never watch the game again. But I remember clearly the feeling on Saturday, made better by sharing it with other ND fans late that night – my wife at my side, and my son by a quick, thoughtful phone call – football fan joy, often elusive, is much sweeter when it can be savored with others.