The Dearborn Area Board of Realtors and the American Arab Chamber of Commerce sponsor this seminar conducted by Jumana Judeh, a certified general appraiser.
The seminar will help attendees understand how property taxes are calculated on their home or business and many other questions on the topic. For more info: 313-278-2220.
Dearborn Public Schools Education Foundation is holding its annual Mardi Gras Party Fundraiser on Tuesday, Feb. 24, from 3:30 p.m. until midnight at the Dearborn Hills Golf Course, 1300 S. Telegraph. The event will include live music, dinner, soft drinks and party favors. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door. For ticket information, call (313) 827-3006.
Dozens of you have written us over the last few days asking about the legitimacy of a telephone survey some residents have received in recent days. Rest assured, the telephone survey is an official one.
The City of Dearborn has hired a company to conduct a phone survey of its residents to best determine what residents want and likely get an idea of what services it could scale back or cut altogether.
Dearborn Mayor John B. O’Reilly, Jr., mentioned the telephone survey in his State of the City speech Wednesday
Dearborn is conducting the phone survey to determine what services residents value most.
night, telling residents that the community survey was being conducted to help Dearborn better understand the priorities of its residents. The complete copy of that speech can be found at our earlier post on DeepSaidWhat by clicking HERE
“I know it’s hard to talk about pushing forward when facing such difficult conditions,” O’Reilly said in his speech. “But our brightest dreams are generally conceived in our darker hours. So now is a chance to dream and to plan and to position our city for a promising future.
“I want to make you an integral part of that process. That’s why we’re reaching out in a number of ways to get your input and feedback.”
The survey company, according to residents who have already received the calls, asks about city services and to rank them in order of importance.
Resident Mary Jo Durivage is reminding residents to not forgot the importance of keeping our libraries at the top of our minds, too. And, she is right. Our libraries are even more important in these trying times.
“If you do receive a call, please tell them about the importance of keeping the libraries, including the branches (especially Bryant) open,” Durivage says. “During bad economic times, the library becomes even more important for a myriad of reasons — job searching, reading magazines we cannot afford to subscribe to, movies and music for some free entertainment, a place of respite, and computers. We all have our own reasons. Libraries are often the first to go on the chopping block. Please express your support.”
The Journal Register Co., owner of the Dearborn Press & Guide, and more than a dozen other papers in Michigan, including the Oakland Press and the Macomb Daily, filed Saturday for bankruptcy protection from its creditors — the third newspaper publisher to do so since December.
While the company blamed a slump in advertising for its financial woes, the Dearborn Press & Guide, part of the Heritage paper chain, appeared to be in slightly better shape in terms of overall advertising.
The Journal Register said it would cancel its stock, which has been trading as a penny stock now for sometime, and become a closely held company, owned by its lenders, under a proposed reorganization plan filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York.
The Journal Register listed debt of as much as $1 billion and assets of between $100 million and $500 million in Chapter 11 documents.
The bankruptcy filing is not expected to impact the Dearborn Press & Guide delivery, at least not in the foreseeable future. The paper recently closed its Dearborn offices and moved to Heritage headquarters in Southgate as part of a cost cutting effort.
The Journal Register follows the Tribune Co., owner of the Los Angles Times and Chicago Tribune newspapers, and the Minneapolis Star Tribune into bankruptcy.
Newspapers around the country are struggling because of slumping advertising sales and subscriptions, accelerated in part in trying to compete with online search engines, where these very newspapers give away their stories for free. Newspapers have been unable so far to find a way to make money on the Internet.
“With the increased competition from other forms of media and slumping advertising revenues, the downward pressure on newspaper earnings will likely remain intense in the near term,” James Hall, Journal Register CEO, in court papers.