We’ve received numerous comments here from residents wondering why leaves they’ve raked into the street aren’t picked up each week. Well, the simple answer is that leaves in street are picked up every other week. And that ends Dec. 2.

We’re still not sure why this service continues to be offered given the city’s current budget crisis, but that’s a discussion for another day.

Dearborn's curbside yard waste collection ends Dec. 16.

To guarantee pickup, Dearborn officials are reminding residents that they can put them in 32 gallon containers marked “Yard Waste” or in paper landscape bags and set them on the curb. This curbside service ends Dec. 16.

In addition, collection of loose leaves raked into the streets in Dearborn neighborhoods is scheduled to continue until Friday, Dec. 2, depending on the weather.  For those of you who still have leaves in the street after Dec. 2, be courteous to your neighbor and bag them so they don’t end up in your neighbor’s yard the first time the snow plows come through.

Loose leaves raked into the street will be picked up on Public Service Days/trash days during non-recycling weeks.

Note that crews may not be able to pick up leaves from an entire Public Service Day district in one day and will return during the next non-recycling week to start where they left off.

For a weekly leaf collection schedule, call the Leaf Hotline at 943-2444.

The East Dearborn Downtown Development Authority (EDDDA) Board of Directors and staff Melissa Kania and Mike Bewick invite you to their 3rd annual Holiday Open House on Wednesday December 14, 2011 from 4-8pm at the EDDDA office, 13750 Michigan Ave., two blocks west of Schaefer.

Join them and casually network with district merchants and residents, business partners, stakeholders and City of Dearborn officials.

It’s a great opportunity to connect with the EDDDA and learn what they do and what they can do to help support and promote their district businesses and the East Dearborn downtown area.

As always, guests will enjoy tasting “the world in a mile” with fabulous food from several of the diverse restaurants in the neighborhood. Beverages will also be served.

No reservations necessary, and all are welcome to attend.

Speaking of the holidays, the EDDDA also paid for holiday decorations of garland, lights and red bows that are merrily strung upon streetlight poles along Michigan Avenue and Schaefer Road.

For more on events and businesses in east Dearborn, visit the EDDDA website and sign up for their newsletter at www.EastDowntownDearborn.com. Also find them on Facebook –just search East Dearborn Downtown Development Authority.

A new, never opened hotel on Michigan Avenue that has sat vacant for months for lack of financing could soon get thrown a lifeline.

The property, just west of Telegraph on Michigan Avenue adjacent to Toys R Us,  is currently in the hands of a bank. The bank took possession of the property when the original developer simply ran out of money and couldn’t finish the project.

Now a second developer is in talks with the bank to purchase the property at a “bargain” price. The deal could close as soon as this month, a person familiar with the ongoing negotiations tells Deepsaidwhat.com.

The out-state potential buyer intends to open the building as a hotel. But it isn’t clear whether the hotel would open as a Holiday Inn Express, as was originally intended, or fly the flag of a different chain.

We’re hopeful a deal will be finalized soon.

For the third consecutive year, Dearborn’s Steven Bernard Jewelers is ramping up for its annual collection of warm coats for the needy in and around our community.

Last year through Bernard’s “Coupons for Coats” campaign, more than 400 coats, along with gloves and scarves, were distributed to the needy, Steven tells DeepsaidWhat.com. The number of donations was nearly double Steven’s first year of donations.

“Naturally, my goal this year is to again increase those numbers,” said Steven, whose jewelry store has been serving Dearborn with many one-of-a-kind items for more than three decades.

The third annual Coupons for Coats campaign is an incentive promotion to help encourage participation. Coat donations given will receive a 20 percent discount coupon from Steven Bernard Jewelers.

This year’s Coupons for Coats begins today, Nov. 14, and continues through Dec. 31.

Steven Bernard Jewelers will be collecting new and clean, gently used coats along with hats, gloves, and scarves. These items will be distributed by the First United Methodist Church of Dearborn. Donations will be accepted during holiday business hours at Steven Bernard Jewelers, located at 22266 Michigan Ave. in Dearborn in the 222 Shops.

For more information, call 313-562-8484.

Don’t miss this year’s Holiday Show and Sale at Dearborn’s Glass Academy on Saturday, 12/3 and Sunday, 12/4 from 10:00am-6:00pm.

The Glass Academy will have beautiful hand blown glass ornaments, icicles, snowmen, candy canes and much more to make your holiday shopping experience unique and fun. Enjoy live glassblowing demonstrations while you shop for that perfect one-of-a-kind gift made in Michigan. Admission is free.

The Glass Academy also is hosting a Holiday Show Preview Party on Thursday, 12/1/11 from 6:00-8:00pm. Tickets are $50 and can be purchased on-line by clicking on the icon below or by calling the studio at 313-561-4527.

Two more businesses this week have left the unfinished Burton-Katzman development in Dearborn known as West Village Commons.

New Hookah Bar Coming

Two more tenants in Dearborn’s West Village Commons -– the Burton-Katzman development on Michigan Avenue that has failed to live up to all it promised since opening  in 2005 -– are packing their bags and leaving.

Another “business” is coming to the development but more on that shortly.

The UPS Store and Cold Stone Creamery, two of the first stores to move into the once-promising development, closed their doors this week.

The UPS Store is moving to 23636 Michigan Ave.

The good news is that the UPS Store is moving a few blocks west on Michigan Avenue, adjacent to Miller’s Bar. The UPS Store moved because the owner apparently was unable to renegotiate a lower monthly lease rate. The current rate is about $20 per sq.-ft., a far cry from the $33 per sq.-ft. West Village Commons was charging when it first opened six years ago. But it still is uncompetitive when you compare it to Ford Land properties, which have a lease rate as low as $10 per sq.-ft. in some buildings.

Cold Stone closed because it simply wasn’t doing enough business. This is the second time this Cold Stone has closed. Longtime readers of this site will recall that the original owner of Cold Stone, a Ford retiree, closed this same Dearborn location and Allen Park store for lack of business several years ago. The two stores were repurchased by another entrepreneur and reopened. A sign on the Dearborn store directs customers to the still-open Allen Park location.

The West Village Commons development, sans Tom Clark’s little gem, the Village Picture Framing and Art Gallery, is now turning into a bar and food destination, rather than the retail our elected officials hoped for when it entered into this development. The portion of the building facing Michigan Avenue houses Sattva Yoga and the Kabuki restaurant. Those businesses, thankfully, seem to be holding on.

Other former tenants include, the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, Moe’s Southwest Grill, Caribou Coffee, Supercuts, Au Bon Pain Bakery and American Home Fitness. All closed their doors for good several years ago.

As for the new business coming to the West Village Commons, it isn’t retail. The owner of Le Cigar, one of the first tenants of the development, is opening a new hookah bar called La Hookah.

Let us count the ways we miss the former Jacobson’s and Price’s . . .

The City of Dearborn’s annual Tree-Lighting Ceremony and Sing-Along at the Ford Community and Performing Arts Center is 6-9 p.m. on Tuesday, November 22.

As an added attraction, the festivities are being held in conjunction with the Festival of Trees, which is a fundraiser for the Children’s Hospital of Michigan Foundation. There is no admission to this holiday fundraiser for those attending the tree-lighting on Nov. 22.

The schedule of events on Nov. 22 is as follows:

• 6 p.m. Dearborn Community Bell Choir (Michal A. Guido Theater Lobby)

• 6:30 p.m. Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony with Mayor John B. O’Reilly, Jr. (outside, in the Theater Circular Drive)

• 6:45 p.m. Everyone enters the Michal A. Guido Theater

• 7 p.m. Holiday-Themed Performance featuring the Dearborn Youth Symphony Flute Choir and the Dearborn Public School’s Honors Choir

• 7:30 p.m. Christmas Sing-Along with Mayor John B. O’Reilly, Jr.

• 7:50 p.m. Refreshments in the Main Lobby and a visit with Santa Claus in Studio A

• 7:50 p.m. Festival of the Trees Holiday Season Exhibit inside the Hubbard Ballroom (Free Admission)

All are welcome. For more information, call 943-2354.

The Festival of Trees runs Nov. 21-Nov. 28. There is a small admission charge during all times except following the tree-lighting on Nov. 22.

Dearborn residents voted Tuesday to raise the city tax rate by 4.5 mills and defeated a proposal to eliminate the Civil Service Commission.

On the Public School Board side, a new board member was elected and another long-time member kept his position for another term.

Voter turnout was a pathetic 21 percent with just 12,493 of the 59,160 registered voters in our city casting ballots. A lot more work has to be done by our elected officials but yesterday’s results were a big step in the right direction.

The results are below:

Proposal 1: 3.5-mill operating millage
YES . . . . . . . . . . . . 7,420 (60.42 percent)

NO. . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,860  (39.58)

Total . . . . . . . ….12,280

Proposal 2: 1-mill dedicated library millage

YES . . . . . . . . . . . . 7,379 (59.81 percent)

NO. . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,959  (40.19)

Total . . . . . . . . . 12,338

Proposal 3: Should the city eliminate the Civil Service Commission? 

NO. . . . . . . . . . . . . 6,158  (51.11 percent)

YES . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,891  (48.89)

Total . . . . . . . . . 12,049

Dearborn Public Schools Board Member 

Joseph A. Guido . . . . . . . . 5,988  (31.09 percent)

Roxanne McDonald . . . . .  5,922 (30.75)

Mary K. Petlichkoff . . . . . .  4,784 (24.84)

Stephen Stanley Dobkowski, Jr. . . . 2,528  (13.12)

WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . . . . 39 (.20)

Total . . . . . . . . . 19,261

An early postcard photo of the Dearborn Inn.

On July 1, 1931, Henry and Edsel Ford hosted many noted dignitaries at the opening of the Dearborn Inn, located directly across the street from the Ford Airport on Oakwood Blvd.

Now 80 years later, a book about the history of Dearborn Inn has been written by Dearborn native Jennifer (Czerwick) Ganem, and published by Arcadia as part of their Images of America Series.

To celebrate, Dearborn Inn is hosting a champagne reception and book-signing event in the hotel lobby on Thursday, Nov. 10 between 5-8 p.m. The inn is anxious to show off the completion of a multi-year renovation throughout the hotel, including the introduction of a new restaurant, Edison’s, as well as the conversion of the popular Ten Eyck Tavern restaurant to the hotel lounge.

Dearborn author Jennifer (Czerwick) Ganem will sign copies of her book on Thursday 5-8pm at the Dearborn Inn.

Ganem began collecting Dearborn Inn memorabilia many years ago, and attributes a bed she owns from Dearborn Inn, a photo she found in the attic of her West Dearborn home and some Dearborn Inn dinner plates that a friend purchased, as the three intersecting reasons that she began researching the inn’s rich history.

“I was born and raised in Dearborn, and already had a life-long interest in both Ford and local history, writing this book seems to have been my destiny … my way of helping to preserve a small piece of history and telling this important part of the Ford story,” Ganem says, as she is anxious to continue gathering memories and important pieces of history from those with information to share. “The book is written, but the story is just beginning. I look forward to meeting everyone who attends the book signing event.”

Most recently, the Dearborn Inn lobby and adjacent sun porch were completely refurbished. The classic black and white checkerboard marble floor was restored to its original luster, and new hand-tufted area rugs and furnishings were installed. Paint colors were selected to highlight the Albert Kahn – designed architectural features such as pilasters, crown moldings, and the decorative ceiling filigrees that surround the original chandeliers. While all of the lobby seating consists of new, traditional furnishings, many of the desks and side tables have been carefully refinished to retain a sense of the past.

For more information about the inn visit www.dearborninnmarriott.com or call (313) 271-2700. Books will be available for purchase and to be signed by the author at the reception on Nov. 10. Ganem will also be signing books at Barnes and Noble in Allen Park on Saturday, Nov. 26, from 2-4 p.m. For more details about the newly released book, visit HERE or HERE.

Goodwill Industries of Detroit is close to inking a deal with Norm Newman to move into the former Inca building in West Dearborn.

Nearly three years after posting signs promising a “Redevelopment”, the long vacant building that once housed the Inca computer store in West Dearborn could soon have Goodwill Industries as its new tenant.

At Monday night’s City Council meeting Goodwill officials announced they are close to inking a final deal with Norm Newman to lease the vacant building, which is adjacent to another Norm Newman vacant property that once was home to Pier 1. The Pier 1 store relocated to Allen Park.

The Dearborn location, just like the one Goodwill operates in Canton, would be a retail store as well as a drop-off point for just about everything.

At Monday’s council meeting Newman’s daughter, Randee Freedman, represented Newman Building.

We spoke to Norm Newman back in March of 2009 and he hinted that a large retail store would be coming to this location. Many believed it might be a large chain grocery store, such as Aldi.

In between that time the white paper went up covering the glass windows in February 2009 and today, Newman rejected at least one other request to lease the space now headed to Goodwill Industries. That earlier request was for a family gaming business that was to be modeled after a popular Canadian chain.

Dearborn Chamber president Jennifer Knott Giering wrote in the Dearborn Press & Guide in August that Goodwill was looking at Dearborn as a location for another retail store. Giering toured the Canton store for her article and wrote that  “we (Dearborn) should consider them as a creator of local employment opportunities, and support these businesses.” You can read her full column HERE.