Michaels Arts & Crafts store, a key anchor in a Dearborn strip mall just off of Michigan Avenue, is calling it quits, closing its doors and consolidating its operations into its newer Allen Park store.

Just when the store will officially close its doors isn’t known but all indications are that it will be soon since a good portion of the store is now packed in boxes. Even so, employees at the store say they haven’t been given an official date. “We are on a need-to-know basis,” said one cashier. “They haven’t told us when the store will close. Never mind it’s our jobs they are talking about.”

And so goes another tenant in a Norm Newman property to call it quits. For those of you wondering, the next-door, ACO Hardware store, one of our favorites to Duke’s Hardware, is not in a Newman-owned building. Same with the vacant store to the west of ACO that at one time housed Hancock Fabrics.

As an outside observer, the move by Michaels to Allen Park seems to be a pretty straightforward business decision, consolidating operations into the company’s newest location. Even the company’s Westland location is closing. However, moving to Allen Park is not without its challenges. Just ask Party City who left its Dearborn location at 22938 Michigan (near the then Farmer Jack grocery store) to move to the fancy new Allen Park site only to move back to Dearborn to its original location. Business just wasn’t good in Allen Park.

Michaels may be making a similar mistake. Both locations have free parking. So take that off the table. The Dearborn store may look tired and old but it’s easier for people to get to at lunch and easier for seniors who may not like trying to navigate the poorly designed entrance and exits into the Fairlane Green shopping center. While we wish them well, we are sad to see Michaels leave Dearborn.

Challenges at West Village Commons
The West Village Commons in Dearborn, the Burton-Katzman project that still sits more than half vacant, suffered another unfortunate casualty, this time the au bon pain Café & Bakery, which appears to have closed its doors for good. The inside of the café has been gutted and a sign on the door reads the following:

“We have moved locations. Thank you Dearborn for your patronage. Please visit our other locations at Campus Martius Park, Renaissance Center and DMC Hospital.”

The departure of au bon pain now leaves a gaping hole in a key section of the West Village Commons. To the left of the café is a closed Caribou Coffee and to the right a closed Super Cuts. Hardly good for other remaining businesses at the location but it really is a sign of the tough economic times we are living in right now.

New Sushi Restaurant Opening
Even so, just down the street is a new restaurant opening simply called Sushi. The Sushi restaurant is located in a high visibility corner of Norm Newman’s mostly vacant property, just west of Michigan and Military.

The new restaurant brings to three the number of businesses selling Japanese cuisine along Michigan. The others are the newly opened Kabuki, at the corner of Michigan and Howard, and the upscale Crave restaurant at Michigan and Mason.

Just to pick up where we last left off following some changes that are almost completed here at DeepSaidWhat.com, the recount for the 19th District Court is over, the request by Candyce Abbatt withdrawn after just 28 of the city’s 58 precincts were recounted.

This of course means the outcome of the election for the district judge seat remains unchanged and goes into the record books as incumbent Judge Mark Somers as the winner with 17,077 to Abbatt’s 16,849 votes, same as on election night.

But guess who is now being asked to pay for the recount? You guessed it, the City of Dearborn.

Abbatt paid Wayne County the required $10 per precinct charge for a recount up front, totaling $580, but what is less clear is who will finally pay the people charges to actually get the recount machine up and running. Also does Abbatt get a refund of $300 for the 30 precincts that were never counted?

Consider this, the recount, according to City of Dearborn officials in the clerk’s office, required 27 people and looked like this:

– 20 state canvassers (2 people sitting at 10 different tables getting paid between $12 and $18 per hour)
– 2 Wayne County workers
– 1 corporate counsel person (Upwards of $120 per hour)
– 3 State of Michigan workers to oversee the counting
– 1 City of Dearborn worker

Dearborn City Clerk Kathy Buda says when she asked the State of Michigan employee in charge of the recount who would be picking up the tab for the work, the State worker’s response was that Wayne County would be paying.

But Buda says Wayne County will likely flip the bill back to Dearborn. That would mean one day pay for the group of workers for the first day of counting and two hours of pay the second day for showing up to do the remaining count only to learn the recount had been withdrawn by Abbatt the previous evening. The precincts counted in the district judge race included precincts 1, 2 (both McDonald School), 4, 5 (both Oakman School) 8 (Maples School), 20 (Salina School), 39 (Divine Child elementary); absentee boards 951 and 956. We requested a list of the 28 precincts counted but that wasn’t readily available.

“I have no doubt that the county will send Dearborn a bill,” Buda told DeepSaidWhat.com. “We recently received a bill from them for a recount resulting from the Aug. 5, 2008 Primary for State Representative – District 11. Three of our precincts were involved plus one absentee board. My deputy took our supplies downtown and the process took 1.2 hours. They want us to pay them $671.88. I am refusing to pay (with support of Council & Administration).”

It sounds like another bill from Wayne County will soon be on its way to Dearborn. Stay tuned.

Frank H. Bewick, editor and publisher of the Dearborn Times Herald newspaper, passed away earlier this week. May God rest his soul.

Merry Christmas from the crew at DeepSaidWhat.com.

Came across this story on Christmas Eve in the Wall Street Journal and we thought it was worth sharing. For the WSJ column, click HERE.

SURA Arts Academy, a free, diversity-themed digital photography instruction program for youth run by the Arab American National Museum (AANM), is accepting registrations for the Spring 2009 semester, which begins on January 20 and concludes on April 7.

Thirty slots are available at no charge to students in grades six through nine who reside in southwest Detroit and adjacent areas.

SURA registration materials and program details are available for download at http://www.arabamericanmuseum.org/SURA-Arts-Academy.id.438.htm or by contacting Janice Freij at 313.624.0203 or jfreij@accesscommunity.org.

Entry forms to submit works for the exhibit are available at www.dcacarts.org, or by calling 313.943.3095, or by visiting the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center.

The Dearborn Community Arts Council will present the photography exhibit at the Padzieski Art Gallery from Thursday, Jan. 22 through Sunday, March 8.

The hours of the Padzieski Art Gallery hours are Tuesdays through Fridays from noon to 6 p.m., Saturdays from noon to 5:30 p.m. and through intermission during theater performances.

Joe Piscopo, Victoria Jackson and Don Novello, who is known as the smooth-talking Father Guido Sarducci, will perform at the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center on Jan. 17, 2009.

The performance, which features a live orchestra, begins at 8 p.m.

Tickets: $24-$29 at The Center Box Office. Call or visit The Center at (313) 943-2354 or www.dearbornfordcenter.com

The third and final installment of 2008 Summer Tax Bill is due Jan. 14, 2009. Make checks payable to the City of Dearborn. Late payments will be charged 1 percent per month on unpaid balance from July 1, 2008.

The Dearborn Chamber of Commerce and Comcast Business Class are partnering for a special event at Cheli’s Chili Bar in Dearborn. Chelios will be on hand to sign autographs. Cost is $10 and includes appetizers and entree into drawing for Chelio’s jersey and 50/50 raffle.  Comcast representatives will be on hand to show you how to save money for your business communications. For more information call the Chamber at (313) 584-6100

Well, it has been a bit longer than I would have liked, but DeepSaidWhat.com will be back and running before Christmas if all goes as planned. We’ve moved to a new server with a larger bandwidth, which means we now will be able to offer Pod casts as well as streaming video. The actual appearance of the page hasn’t changed much but we have added a bit more functionality and a couple new features. We’ll have more to share and say later this week.  Thank you for your patience.