Belleville & Ypsilanti: Inside the Newsroom

Here you can find the musings of writers and editors of the Ypsilanti Courier and the Belleville View.


Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Jerry LaVaute Omnibus week of April 26

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

It ain’t braggin’ if it’s true…
I had a very productive week. I submitted 13 pieces for publication, including five news stories, four photo stories, three feature stories and one column. Got a nice attaboy from my boss, too.

I was especially proud of editing a couple of 30- to 45-minutes of video down to two movies, that each last about three minutes. And the result looks reasonably professional.

Current projects
I interviewed Rod Hill, a Milan resident since 1978, about a project on which he’s working called Sunset Point, across from Milan’s City Hall. It’s a pretty site, with especially pretty sunsets.

Later this week, I will bring my golden retriever Maisie to the “Bark for Life” event at Riggs Park in Belleville. Maisie’s skittish, so I’ll have to retain firm hold of my camera as I cover the story.

This event precedes another in Belleville on May 15 called the Relay for Life, a 24-hour event at the Belleville High School track that begins that morning at 10 a.m. Sounds interesting.

Later this week, I will attend a “Cinco de Mayo” evening sponsored by the Friends of Animal Rescue, about which I did a story a few weeks ago.

On Monday, GE is holding a press conference with Governor Granholm and Senator Levin to announce that its plans to hire 1,100 workers for its new technology site in Van Buren Township is ahead of schedule. In fact, it will announce that it now plans to hire 200 more workers than originally planned, for a total of 1,300 new jobs in the area.

Other
In the Sumpter Township Board meeting last night, I learned about Leonard Rochon, a longtime resident and community supporter who passed away a few days ago.

Mr. Rochon came in for some very high praise from residents and officials at the meeting. I never met the man, but I found myself wishing I had.

I heard from a neighbor yesterday that VBT Police Captain Greg Laurain had had a heart attack – I wish him a speedy recovery. The neighbor said that Laurain was expected to return to work in a few days.

Last Friday, my son Matthew and I traveled to South Bend, Indiana for Notre Dame’s Blue Gold game, their final scrimmage of spring football practice.

I had a great time – the visit to Sacred Heart Basilica and the nearby Grotto alone was worth the trip.

The rest was frosting on the cake, including a team that encouraged me for their chances in the fall. But there’s no use rushing it – time to enjoy the spring and summer first.

Monday, April 26, 2010

Results from our online poll

Thank you to everyone participating in our online polls. Here are the results of our most recent questions.



Do you think Sgt. Tim Casey should be demoted from sergeant to police officer over the firecracker incident (in Milan)?

Yes: 55 percent

No: 45 percent



What does spring inspire you to do?

Get outdoors and exercise: 36 percent

Gardening work: 27 percent

Clean house: 20 percent

Home fix-it projects: 16 percent



What's your main dish for Easter?

Ham: 64 percent

Chef's Choice: 17 percent

Something vegetarian: 12 percent

Turkey: 7 percent



What kind of content would you like to see from your community this summer?

More youth sports coverage: 33 percent

Gardening content with expert advice and video garden tours: 33 percent

Local home tours with photos and video: 22 percent

A wine column by an expert with video: 11 percent

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Jerry LaVaute Omnibus Week of April 19

The following was submitted by Staff Reporter Jerry LaVaute:

I attended a reception on Saturday morning at the Fred C. Fischer library, to celebrate National Library week, and the swearing-in of the seven new board members of the Belleville Area District Library.

Attendees, numbering well over 50 people, were transparently happy to see accomplished a goal that for some went back 20 years.

Tuesday night featured a grand meeting among Van Buren Township officials in their Board of Trustees meeting.

There were 12 agenda items, some of them very interesting, that drew a crowd of about 50 people: the township’s posture on land use requirements for medical marijuana growing and sale, closing the book on a legal issue that has lasted seven years, ending longevity pay for new township employees hired after May 1, and others.

Today, the fortieth anniversary of Earth day, I covered the visit of Laura the elephant to Edgemont Elementary school in Belleville.

Belleville Police Chief Gene Taylor had had the idea last year to bring Laura to this area, and contacted Karen Mida, the school’s principal, about her interest in hosting the visit.

Karen agreed, and I attended the first show this morning. Laura is a very sweet elephant, and her family appears to take very good care of her.

On Tuesday, I sat with Van Buren Township Treasurer Sharry Budd and asked her how the township was doing against its new lower budget, after three months of posting actual expenses.

The short answer is very well, although I have to sort through the details a bit more before I publish the story.

I had an idea for an interesting column planned for next week: when I covered Van Buren Township as a freelance writer between 2003 and 2007, current Township Supervisor Paul White and Harmony Lane resident David Frankling were very visible in their opposition to the then-current township administration, regarding issues that affected their homes and their neighborhoods.

When the township settled with Dave Frankling earlier this week for $55,000, the two men who shared a common opponent were once again in the public eye, involved in a controversial township decision. This, I thought, is an interesting juxtaposition.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Heritage reporters feted at SPJ awards


Three Heritage Newspapers reporters swept the sports columnist category in the Society of Professional Journalists Detroit chapter’s 2009 Excellence in Journalism Awards.
At a dinner held April 14 at the San Marino Club in Troy, Jana Miller, Mike Larson and Don Richter won first through third place, respectively, in the sports columnist category in print, Class B, with a circulation less than 100,000.
In addition, reporter Gerald LaVaute won third place for investigative reporting for his piece “Police Compensation Comparison.”
LaVaute is a staff writer for The View in Belleville and The Milan News-Leader.
Miller, a former Saline and Milan sports reporter, is a copy editor and reporter for The Manchester Enterprise. Judges noted that all three of her entries were award worthy. They were “Hush, hush controversy brings sex into sports,” “Academics and athletics can mix” and “Gender equity in sports.”
Richter, a former sports reporter for The Chelsea Standard and The Dexter Leader, now covers sports for The Saline Reporter and The Milan News-Leader. His winning piece was his farewell column to Chelsea and Dexter readers.
Larson, a sports reporter for The Ann Arbor Journal, a new publication launched July 9, 2009, by Heritage Newspapers, won for his column “Medal More than Award.” This is the first award produced from the A2 Journal. The other Heritage publications have a long history of winning journalism awards in the SPJ contest, as well as in the Michigan Press Association Better Newspapers Contest and Suburban Newspapers of America editorial contest.
This year’s competition was judged by the North Central Florida Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, SPJ Minnesota Pro Chapter and Chicago Headline Club.
More than 100 Excellence in Media awards were given to area journalists during the banquet.

Friday, April 16, 2010

5th annual Rock-a-thon Fundraiser at the Ypsi Senior Center

From Rebecca Dunkle at the University of Michigan Library:

The rock-a-thon (an idea that one of our seniors conceived of 5 years ago) gets seniors, friends, family, neighbors and special guests rocking in rocking chairs for the afternoon - some people pledge money to see others rock, others make a donation, some just come for the fun and camaraderie (and free popcorn, balloons, etc.)  We have had the Mayor, the Sheriff, the President of EMU and others as guests.
It is this Sunday, April 18, this year, 2 - 6 p.m. at the Ypsilanti Senior Center located on 1015 N. Congress St. I hope you can join us!
The Center offers programming for seniors in the daytime, mostly free (yoga, Tai Chi, art classes, nutrition and health classes, a low-cost lunch program, massage, gardening). And a number of community activities for all ages, including Ballroom Dancing, FLY Children's Art classes, community gardening, a meeting place for neighborhood associations and other community groups.
     
We operate on a budget of about $50,000/year, a very small amount of which is provided by the city of Ypsilanti; but most of it we raise through grants, fundraisers, private donations and rental income.
For more information about the event, contact Rebecca at rdunkle@umich.edu. 
Rebecca Dunkle for the Friends of the Ypsilanti Senior and Community Center
REBECCA DUNKLE
Director of Onsite Access Services and Distributed Libraries
University of Michigan Library

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Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Jerry LaVaute Omnibus week of April 12

The following was posted by The View Staff Reporter Jerry LaVaute:

My calendar for this week looked even from a distance to be a challenge, and it’s proving to be such.

Monday evening found me covering the Milan City Council meeting, in which the city’s withdrawal from a four-community fire department is being considered.

I have found that public safety issues are hot-button items in the communities I’ve covered.

With the audience at near capacity in the meeting room, city officials and residents alike exchanged ideas pro and con. Tempers generally were controlled, and several city officials thanked the attendees for their input.

On Tuesday afternoon, I covered an “Animal Magic” show at the Bessie Hoffman Elementary School in the Lincoln Schools District.

Mark Rosenthal treated about 300 children in two different shows to visits from several exotic animals, but one of the favorites was a friendly Great Dane whose name was “Trip,” so named because the family often trips over him at home.

On Tuesday evening, I covered the Sumpter Township Board meeting, in which the next step was approved for a $91,000 project for a new larger water main for a township subdivision. If and when the project is fully approved, seven homeowners will be affected, whose tax bills will increase by $67 each month.

I just returned from a photo session at the Sumpter Country Festival fairgrounds, where Belleville resident Bob Balderston is painting cartoon murals on the 190 foot fence adjoining the fairgrounds. The effort adds a lot of color to what was a plain white stockade fence. People who attend the Sumpter Country Fest on Memorial Day weekend will be pleased by what they see.

Tonight, I go to Troy to receive an award from the Society of Professional Journalists. Three other Heritage newspaper reporters also will receive awards.

The award is for either a news story that I published last December 17, comparing police compensation in four different communities, including Van Buren Township, or about the column that I wrote that complemented the news story. I’ve gotta say, I’m excited.

My ongoing news coverage of three communities has proved to be interesting. I’m able to see budgets being developed, reviewed and approved for Van Buren and Sumpter townships, and for the city of Milan.

And, occasionally, I see items that don’t reconcile, or things that one community is doing that may be helpful to another. I’m able to use my contacts in government to let them know items that may be of interest.

Speaking of contacts, my Facebook audience grew by leaps and bounds recently when my wife Jan linked me with many of her friends on Facebook. Thanks, Jan.

Tomorrow, I interview Milan school officials about their plans for the school’s prom on May 15.

And Saturday will find me at the Fred C. Fischer Library in Belleville, covering the swearing-in of the new Belleville Area District Library officials. I learned last night that the state has approved the change that removes the library from Wayne County governance, and controls the library's funding and operations at a local level.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

A fool and his wine...

I took in my first Tigers game of the season yesterday and was treated to a fun time.

It wasn't the outstanding play of the Tigers that peaked my interest, but the actions of a drunken fan that gave me (and some 10,000 other fans) a really good laugh. While I'm sure the visiting Kansas City Royals weren't so amused initially, I'm sure even they had a good laugh about the matter.

According to a blog by someone who was at the game and sitting close to the fool and his elixir, a man apparently got drunk off of a bottle of vodka which he smuggled into Comerica Park. The blog said that people around him were egging him on to jump onto the field and make a mad dash to the 420' wall in center field. Fans around the culprit said they'd offer the fool $500 to take the bet.

After finishing his bottle, he hopped over the guard rail into the Royals' dugout where he was ABRUPTLY met by Detroit's finest. The drunkard began yelling "Go Tigers" and from my seats behind home plate, I heard a laugh resonate throughout the entire stadium.

The Tigs went on to lose the game10-5, but the memory of my first Tigers game of the 2010 season can be forever relived through this YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-S1zWScOcA8
(P.S. Volume is low on this video, so turn your volume way up.)

Staring into the vast unknown of fatherhood

From Heritage Newspapers' Austen Smith

I am going to be a dad for the first time.
For such a simple sentence, that certainly carries a lot of weight, huh?
I don’t believe the entirety of this new chapter of my life has hit me square on just yet, I have been told by several of my college buddies whom now have kids that having nine months of mental preparation helps a great deal.
Now don’t get me wrong, I love kids and I am absolutely thrilled that my home will be filled with the joy of a little boy or girl. I am good with kids, we get along just fine but by and large my experience with small children has been on my terms, you see? For example, I have a brother-in-law who just recently turned nine, on occasion he’ll come over and we’ll play video games, goof around and in general just hang out have fun.
At some point, he goes home and life, as we know it, returns to normal.
But come around Oct. 5 (when Susie, my wife, is due), I shall not be calling the shots anymore, and it is this little fact that has been, well, is there a stronger term for “freaking me out?”
Over the past 30 years of my life I have had limited exposure to child rearing. I am an only child, I babysat once in my teens and wasn’t asked again and I only visit Chuck-E-Cheese’s once in a blue moon to play in the balls and get some pizza.
From my experience with kids, I have essentially learned two things:
* They are basically little versions of us
* We enjoy some of the same cartoons
On top of all of that, I’m a notorious neat freak obsessed with order, regiment and simplicity; an idiosyncrasy that borders on unhealthy. I don’t believe my newborn child will be able to understand that I like to go to the gym around 5 to 6 p.m., I like to sleep in on Saturdays and the fact that I spend a criminal amount of time and energy dedicated to fantasy sports.
So, looking at my disturbingly inadequate knowledge about raising a child and because of my lifelong quirks, my wife decided it was in our collective best interest that I do a little research. Isn’t that nice when you don’t have to think of everything on your own?
In preparing for our arrival, Susie purchased a dense and textbook-like tome from Consumer Products about best buys for babies. All alliteration aside, it is a very informative book and I have been assigned chapters – yes, I said “assigned.”
The chapters I must read, take notes and later be quizzed on are the following: clothing, cribs, crib alternatives, crib bedding, crib mattresses, diapers, diaper bags, diaper pails, formula (even though we plan to breast feed, I’m not sure why I just said “we” there), swings, thermometers, toys, walkers and stuffed animals.
I volunteered to read the chapter on breast pumps but was told that might be counter-productive.
So far I have made it through the chapter on clothing…slow and steady I always say, but I will get there. All joking aside, I am serious about learning more on having a child and creating the safest environment possible for this tiny person who will not be able to defend or take care of its own well being for at least the first several years (I know some of my friends with grown children would venture to say it takes a lot longer than that).
So now I find myself staring the wide and unknown black hole of fatherhood, like nearly every situation I tackle in life, I plan on taking this one step at a time.
Despite my wife’s persistence I believe a lot of our questions and concerns will be answered in a much more organic manner. Experience is everything, and I doubt this is much different.
But, it never hurts to ask for advice. So, I am enlisting all of you – my reading public – to send in comments, advice, suggestions, articles etc., and I will keep a running tab on where we are with the pregnancy and, more importantly, where I am as far as mental preparation.
You can post comments on this blog site, Inside the Newsroom at courierviewnews.blogspot.com, on my Facebook site (search for Austen Smith, or The Belleville View and Ypsilanti Courier) or through good, old fashioned e-mail at asmith@heritage.com.
Now, back to those cartoons…wait, I meant to say studying.
Contact Heritage Newspapers’ Austen Smith at 1-734-429-7380 or email asmith@heritage.com.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

'Train Stops Here' Freighthouse benefit a success

Last night I had the opportunity to be one of the 220 or so guests at "The Train Stops Here" Freighthouse Benefit Auction.

It was my first REAL auction and boy did I have a good time. From shaking hands with the who's who of Washtenaw County in attendance, to watching those who aren't so effected by the economic downturn bid thousands of dollars for charity, it was a great night from start to finish.


State Rep. John Dingell and Senator Debbie Stabenow were among the attendees, as well as Ypsilanti Mayor Paul Schreiber and Ann Arbor Mayor John Hieftje.


There were some truly awesome packages being auctioned off including a car, a Bruce Springsteen signed guitar, four luxury vacations (including two to South Africa and one to Florida), private wine tastings, and many, many other deluxe gifts.



I was caught up in it all and even made a few bids! My first bid was well outside of my meager journalist salary as I bid $1,000 on a one week stay at a luxury resort with all spa visits, tours and gourmet meals included. I was outbid at $1,000, but got up to $1,150 before I was ousted by a $1,300 winning bid.

My other bid was for a week-long, all-expenses paid trip to Higgins Lake in northern Michigan. The cabin accommodates 14 people and, again, is all inclusive. This time STARTED the bidding at $1,000. (Can you tell that I'm really in need of a getaway?) John McMillan and Linda French, however, set out to win two things before they even set out to come into the auction. Unfortunately for me, the Higgins Lake vacation was one of them.

So there I was stuck in a heated bidding war with John and Linda. You have team a) Journalist salary, and team b) one of the best Ypsilanti business family's salary. Needless to say, I was outbid there too. :) (They are great people. I'm sure they'll enjoy the much-needed getaway as well.)

 

Although I walked away empty-handed (I bid on a couple other items as well, but I had a cap on those things), I had a wonderful time. In all, there was about $45,000 raised, including the Sidetrack's donation of all the proceeds from the cash bar sales last night, sponsors donations, admission prices and auction money raised.

I can say that even though I didn't win anything, I'd do it again in a heartbeat!

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Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Van Buren Township Fire Dept. is well-run, approachable

The following was submittted by Staff Reporter Jerry LaVaute:

My wife hosted a baby shower recently, and some of her family from New York came for a visit.

Among them was my nephew Zachary, who is a volunteer firefighter in a small town in central New York.

Zach, who’s been a firefighter for a couple years, was interested in seeing how the local Fire Department was run.

On Friday evening, after they arrived, my wife called Van Buren Township Fire Chief Darwin Loyer and asked if he would show Zach around a bit.

Darwin said yes, that he would be working in his office on the weekend, and to give him a call.

Around 11 a.m. on Saturday, after calling Darwin to confirm, Zach and I drove to Fire Station #2 on Ecorse Road, where Darwin has his office.

After a little help getting into the building and being directed to his office, we sat with Darwin, and he and Zach exchanged facts, ideas and views about firefighting.

I was an interested but under-educated listener when it came to firefighting skills, but I was impressed with Darwin’s willingness and patience as our host.

The discussion was followed by a tour of the fire station, only the first time I’d been inside either of the two relatively new fire stations.

Ironically, I’d visited Fire Station #1 on the south side for the first time only a few days earlier, for a story on which I was working.

The tour was amazing – it’s an impressive facility, with impressive equipment.

It was clear that Chief Loyer, who was the Fire Chief in Belleville until last September, was proud of his new department.

It looks as if someone who knew what they were doing cared. And what more can you ask of a public employee, or anyone?

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