Halloween Campers’ Weekends at Camp Dearborn are October 7 - 9 and October 14 - 16.

Camp Dearborn, the Dearborn-owned, family-oriented recreational facility in Milford, is gearing up for the annual Halloween Campers’ Weekends October 7 – 9 and October 14 – 16.

Introduced at the Camp in 2007, Halloween Weekends have become very popular, attracting  hundreds of families who move into the campground to take part in the fun of decorating their campsites and enjoying the autumn activities.

Each weekend begins with a magic show at 8 p.m. Friday. Jeff Wawrzaszek, a popular family entertainer, will amuse the entire family with his magic show in the activitiy tent. After the show, families can jump on a haywagon for a ride around the Camp before returning to their campsites.

One pumpkin is given to each family at check-in Friday to carve at their campsite and join in Saturday’s first activity, the pumpkin carving contest. Saturday’s fun continues with a mummy wrap, games, costume parade and contest, and more hayrides.

All activities lead to the highlight of every Halloween celebration: trick-or-treating. Trick-or-treaters of all ages run safely from campsite to campsite begging for candy from 6:30 until 8 p.m. Saturday All traffic is stopped during this period to ensure the safety of the children.

Reservations for the Halloween Weekends can be made at either of the Camp Dearborn Offices: 313- 943-2350 or 248-684-6000. Camp Dearborn has 118 tents and 30 rustic cabins for rent, and 191 campsites for visitors who bring their own RV, tent or pop-up.

Halloween campers are reminded to bring plenty of candy for trick-or-treaters.

More information on Camp Dearborn, and a schedule of Halloween events, can be found on the camp’s website at www.campdearborn.com

If you enjoy blues music then here’s an interesting event to check out in Dearborn Wednesday evenings.

Joe’s Top Dog Coney Island & Bar, 13342 Michigan Ave., (just down from City Hall), hosts a new jam blues session each Wednesday night from about 8:30 p.m. until 2 a.m.

What’s cool about how Top Dog owner Joe Bojovic has put this together is that this blues night is an open mic jam session. So if you have an instrument and want to play with the band, you can. Bojovic has been hosting the Wednesday night blues sessions for just over a month now and interest has really started to pick up, he said. There is no cover charge either, which is also nice.

“We wanted to try and peak some interest in East Dearborn with these sessions,” said Bojovic, who for 29 years has been serving some of the best coney dogs in Dearborn. “It’s a nice way to kick back and enjoy some good music and food with friends in the middle of the week.”

Dearborn blues band Jack Rabbit Slim kicks things off each Wednesday at about 8:30 p.m.

Drafts are just a $1, well drinks $2 and Long Island Ice Tea $4 until 10 p.m. each Wednesday. The grill is open until midnight so you can get Top Dog’s coney, burgers, chicken sandwiches and salads.

Is the 1968 C10 Chevy panel wagon dressed with a custom graphic advertising Peder Blohm’s Internet business a commercial vehicle or a personal use one?

At a Dearborn Traffic Commission meeting on Tuesday at 7 p.m., Blohm will find out.

Is Peter Blohm's 1968 C10 Chevy panel wagon, pictured in the driveway of his Dearborn home, a commercial vehicle that is a nuisance to his neighbors or a personal use one?

Blohm’s “Beast”, the name he has affectionately given his ’68 Chevy, was recently found in violation of the city’s ordinance regulating commercial vehicles parked in residential neighborhoods.  According to Blohm, he received two violation notices at his Dearborn home that were signed by a Residential Services employee (formerly Building and Safety) telling him he had until Oct. 2 to move the vehicle.

Blohm says he contacted Dearborn’s Residential Services and tried to explain that the vehicle was not a commercial vehicle, and that it was registered as a wagon, driven for personal and not commercial use, and displayed at local car cruises and car shows. Still, he says, the inspector insisted it was a commercial vehicle.

We’ve written on these pages a couple of weeks ago how Dearborn was stepping up its enforcement of its ordinance regulating commercial vehicles parked in residential neighborhoods (see earlier story, HERE).

In a way, you can’t blame the enforcement officers. They are being told by their leaders to write up every commercial vehicle they see following a slew of complaints from residents on this very topic. In a recent four day sweep of the city more than 160 citations were issued.

Blohm admits that his vehicle has colorful graphics for a member-based Web site, mynewmarketplace.com that he is part owner of, and which helps to connect buyers and sellers nationwide.

He says when he asked the inspector if he were to purchase a $300,000 Bentley, put graphics on the doors, and keep it parked in his driveway, would it be considered a commercial vehicle. The inspector quickly replied “yes.” Blohm said he was told that if he continued to park his vehicle in his driveway the city would fine him and he’d be taken to court.

Which is why he is headed to the city’s Traffic Commission meeting Tuesday night with a petition signed by all of his neighbors (all want the city to approve it) seeking an exception to the ordinance.

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Earlier this summer, former Dearborn Charter Commissioner Raymond Trudeau came before the Dearborn City Council to ask questions about Judge Mark Somers and the more than $1.1 million in damages against him from two lawsuits that the city could end up writing a check for.

In his confrontational style of question asking, Trudeau wanted answers to two questions: would the city would have to pay $1.1 million for the jury awards and why Dearborn didn’t settle these two civil lawsuits for a fraction of the cost rather than going to trial.

City leaders said Dearborn wasn’t responsible for those jury awards.

That appears not to be the case now.

The Michigan Court of Appeals late last week denied an appeal hearing made by the attorney general’s office to throw out the award of $463,820 to Simone Calvas, a former probation officer at the district court in Dearborn.

This means the city of Dearborn could be forced to write the check for the entire amount. It is worth noting that the Appeals Court denied the motion because the attorney general’s office was late in filing the appeal within the required 21 day window from when the jury award was made. Kind of makes you wonder if the State should pay for the entire amount for being late with its appeal request.

The Calvas award is one of two that separate juries in two different civil trials awarded to two former District Court employees in Dearborn over claims they were fired by Judge Somers in violation of Michigan law. The second award was for $732,000 to Julie Pucci, a former deputy court administrator.

At that council meeting Trudeau attended in July, he never received an answer on why the city didn’t consider settling with Ms. Pucci.  According to Trudeau, Pucci would have settled for less than $50,000. One city council member told Deepsaidwhat.com that Judge Somers was asked to consider settling the suit on several occasions but he declined.

The season premier of Under The Radar Michigan will turn its camera lens on Dearborn.

The TV show airs locally on Detroit Public TV and various affiliates around Michigan and Ohio or on the website HERE. The show airs at 10:30 a.m. Dearborn’s Green Brain Comics will be one of the businesses featured on the program.

For those who may not be familiar with the program, Tom Daldin, the host of the show and Rochester, MI dad of  three,  makes our state’s underground gems shine on his cool PBS TV program.

Should be good . . .

A few years back, Dearborn kicked off a campaign called Fall into Dearborn.

It was great idea developed as a way to get people to visit Dearborn shops, restaurants, bars, museums, etc. But since its inception, the annual event appears to have lost some of its horsepower.

Enter Moose’s Martini Pub, whose owners initiated a meeting with the Dearborn Chamber of Commerce to get an event schedule rolling for this year’s event and to inspire some action in downtown West Dearborn.

So beginning this Friday, Sept. 23, and running through Saturday, Oct. 1, Fall into Dearborn will get underway again with the goal of generating extra activity through the streets of downtown West Dearborn.

For a list of activities so far planned, you can visit a facebook page for the event, set up by Moose’s Martini Pub.

“I’m trying to do what I can to stir things up downtown,” said Hisam Elawad who owns and operates Moose’s with his brother, Chad. “It seems like it’s been pretty stale and that our city and Chamber are doing little to spark the business NOW, rather than just future. The things in the pipeline are great. However, the businesses that are here and that plan to stay need some incentive and push.”

Indeed.  West Dearborn has a lot to offer and the more we can find ways to draw people to visit the better. Mark your calendars and tell your friends to do the same.

Fall Into Dearborn kicks off on Friday, Sept. 23 with the Dearborn Symphony celebrating its 50 year anniversary with its first concert of the season.  On Saturday, Les Stanford will host a massive Corvette show at its dealership on Michigan Avenue.

All week offerings, include:

• Mati’s Deli: 10% off any time this week (call 313.277.3253)

• Silky’s: Half-off drinks and appetizers

• Big Fish: $20 for 3-course meal all week

• Village Picture Frame: 40% off framed art; 25% off gallery items

• SEEN Vision: 20% off all sunglasses

• Moose’s Martini: 3-5pm Fall Craft Beer bottles $2; pints $2 from 5-7pm.

For the facebook page that lists events and all participating businesses, click HERE.

A community wide plan to address bullying, organized jointly by Dearborn Public Schools and the City of Dearborn, got off to a strong start this month due in part to an unanticipated boost in funding provided by a leading Wayne County official.

Dearborn Public Schools Supt. Brian Whiston (left) and school board president James Schoolmaster (right) accept a ceremonial check from Wayne County Commission Chairman Gary Woronchak for a $20,000 county grant to support the anti-bullying effort launched Sept. 14 jointly by the school district and the city of Dearborn.

Wayne County Commission Chairman Gary Woronchak secured a $20,000 county grant which was formally announced at the kickoff for the anti-bullying effort held Sept. 14 at the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center.

Planning for the city schools program to combat bullying had been in the works for a year, but Woronchak approached school officials with the offer to help fund the effort less than two weeks before the kickoff event.

Woronchak explained that the funding is a county PASS grant. PASS (Prevention Action Services System) provides grants for programs that help young people develop academically and socially and to avoid the juvenile justice system. The county’s 2011-12 budget, which was approved by the commission last month, included funding for the grants through the Department of Children and Family Services.

“As word got out about the school district and city’s anti-bullying efforts, around the same time as we were putting final touches on the county budget, it seemed to me that this program would fit perfectly with the prevention service grants,” said Commissioner Woronchak, himself a product of Dearborn Public Schools.

School officials were pleased to learn of the grant and expressed gratitude to Woronchak for taking the initiative and quick action to obtain the funds.

“In working to put this plan together over the last year, organizers came up with many good ideas and concepts to address bullying, but some seemed out of reach because funding was going to be limited with tight budgets in the school district and city,” said Superintendent Brian Whiston. “Commissioner Woronchak bringing this unexpected grant to us just as we were about to kick off the program gave us great momentum going forward.”

Parents, students, staff and elected officials attended the Anti-Bullying Extravaganza Sept. 14. At the event, Dearborn Mayor John B. O’Reilly Jr. and Superintendent Whiston shared details of the plan, including the intended curriculum and activities for schools.

Students presented videos they created that capture the anti-bullying theme and the district rolled out the “Response to Bullying Behavior” poster contest. The winning poster will be distributed and displayed at schools, shops and homes throughout the city.

The kickoff program also featured costumed team mascots from the Detroit Tigers, Lions and Pistons, and emceed by WXYZ-TV reporter Anu Prakash.

It’s that time of year again to sign up for a city of Dearborn calendar, full of relevant information, city phone numbers and events in our city in 2012.

Dearborn residents can now order a free 2012 City of Dearborn calendar on the web from now until Nov. 4, 2011. Dearborn officials say that using the city website to order you calendar (www.cityofdearborn.org ) ensures accuracy and reduces the cost to taxpayers.

The new calendars will be mailed to Dearborn residents who place their order before Nov. 4, 2011. As a cost-saving measure, the calendar is no longer mailed to every household automatically.

The preferred method to order a calendar is to visit the city’s website, www.cityofdearborn.org

The request form can be found on the right side of the homepage. Click on “Order your 2012 Dearborn Calendar.” The direct link is HERE..

Residents without internet access can order a calendar by calling a voice mail box at 943-3003. They will be instructed to leave their complete mailing address.

Residents will also be able to find the 2012 City Calendar at www.cityofdearborn.org in January and can view or print the entire calendar or individual pages at their convenience.

Those who order a calendar should receive it in the mail before Dec. 23, 2011.

The city of Dearborn is stepping up enforcement of its ordinance regulating commercial vehicles parked in residential neighborhoods.

City leaders say they are taking this action as a way to preserve the residential character of our neighborhoods. Commercial vehicles parked illegally in these areas are subject to $60 citations ($30 if paid within three-business days.) .

In a recent four-day sweep of Dearborn, 164 citations were issued for commercial vehicles in violation of the parking ordinance.

“Dearborn residents want a safe City where people obey the laws,” said Police Commander Jimmy Solomon.

In ever increasing numbers, residents have told police that their quality of life is being affected by commercial vehicles, including semi-trucks, parked in their neighborhoods and along roadways.

“They (residents) tell us about big box trucks and semi-trucks, sometimes parked overnight, in driveways, side streets and even on main streets. These vehicles generate safety issues by blocking drivers’ views, as well as creating noise issues when left running,” Solomon said.

The Traffic and Motor Vehicles section of Dearborn’s Code of Ordinances states that it is “unlawful for any person to park any commercial vehicle on any residential street within the City or upon private property within a residential area of the City.”

Further, it is “unlawful for any person to park any commercial vehicle on any nonresidential street for a period of time longer than one hour between the hours of 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. of any day.”

People whose jobs require them to use a commercial vehicle and be on call 24-hours a day may apply for a permit through Dearborn’s Traffic Commission.

A processing fee of $50 and proof of employment are required. Details are found in Section 18-356 (Parking of Commercial Vehicles) of Dearborn’s Code of Ordinances.

Additional information may be obtained from the Dearborn Police Traffic Bureau at 943-2275.

Dan Merritt, co-owner of Dearborn’s Green Brain Comics, sent over this news to us about the 50^th anniversary of the Fantastic Four and a tribute that will be held at his store.  Drop by and see the exhibit and say hello to Dan. The news begins below:

Fifty years ago a new “world” was created. Ushered into existence by creators Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, the Marvel Universe was born with the first issue of Fantastic Four in November, 1961.

​To pay tribute to this visionary comic book, and its lasting impact on popular culture, you need a suitably grandiose concept. Green Brain Comics’ co-owner and Headspace Gallery curator Dan Merritt came up with one: Assign 26 different artists a page each of the landmark issue’s entire contents (The cover and 25 interior story pages). Each artist was asked to bring their own style to the page while staying loyal to the original content and intent of the overall issue.

The results of this tribute will be on display in Green Brain Comics’ Headspace Gallery starting on Wednesday, September 21 with an opening reception from 7-10pm. The exhibit will be shown through Dec. 31, 2011.

Many local artists will be featured, including contributions from Dave Acosta, John Nagridge, James Anderson and Sean Bieri. Admission to the reception is free, however, we will be accepting donations for the nonprofit arts and literacy advocacy group KIDS READ COMICS.

HEADSPACE GALLERY is located inside GREEN BRAIN COMICS at13210 Michigan Avenuein East Downtown Dearborn. For more information check the website HERE or call 313-582-9444​