What does the future hold for the Dearborn Historical Museum?

On Thursday, Sept. 20 at 7 p.m. at the McFadden-Ross House acting museum curator Jack Tate will present an informational talk on what the future holds for Dearborn’s museums.

The presentation is presented by the League of Women Voters Dearborn/Dearborn Heights.

Tate, a former chairperson of the Dearborn Historical Commission, was named acting chief curator of the Museum in July 2012. He serves as a volunteer while the Museum transitions into a new business model, a response to the city’s ongoing financial challenges.

Tate will provide an update on the status of the museum and an explanation of how he and the Historical Commission are managing its daily operations in the wake of the city of Dearborn slashing the museum’s budget and eliminating its full-time curator and another part-time employee.  Attendees will hear about not only immediate plans for the museum but also what the future might hold for one of the city’s beloved treasures.

Parking is available immediately behind the museum. There is also a parking lot north of the Museum within a short walking distance. The museum is located at 915 S. Brady St. just north of Michigan Ave.

Simple refreshments will be served. Please call the League of Women Voters office at 313-278-6476 for more information.

A tired looking building once the home of an office supply store near the corner of Michigan and Outer Drive has undergone a major renovation and will soon reopen as a doctor’s office and beauty salon.

A new salon and doctor’s office is moving into newly renovated building at Michigan and Outer Drive in Dearborn.

The building once was used by the Audette Office supply store on the first level and a barbershop upstairs. Audette’s former main office still sits vacant next door to the new salon.

The renovation to the building is proof positive that Dearborn buildings can indeed be saved, updated and reused rather than torn down, which seems to be the preferred method for some in Dearborn.

We don’t yet have a date for the opening of the new businesses at this location but it is nice to see new life coming to a vacant building along Michigan Avenue. We wish the new owners the best of luck.

While Norfolk Southern and MDOT continue to negotiate, Dearborn officials say construction will soon begin on the train station.

Dearbornites tired of passing weed-covered piles of dirt at the site of what is supposed to be the city’s future intermodal train station on Michigan Avenue may soon get some reprieve.

While the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) and Norfolk Southern continue to negotiate to resolve several key issues, including right of way, train platform heights and purchase price for track, Dearborn officials tell DeepsaidWhat.com that construction on the actual train station at the southern portion of the property could begin shortly after Labor Day. Norfolk Southern apparently gave the city the green light to begin station construction.

We’ve received dozens of notes from readers asking what was going on with the construction project on Michigan Avenue, just east of Brady on the south side of the street. The piles of dirt in the parking lot of what will soon be the new location for the train station have been sitting for so long that weeds now blanket the dirt mounds.

MDOT and Norfolk Southern have not yet reached agreement on platform heights for the new station, which is a major hurdle since the single track will need to be used by both passenger and freight trains, each with different load heights.

Norfolk Southern also wants to install a second track sometime in the future. Just a single line exists today.

In addition, MDOT and Norfolk Southern still are negotiating on the price for the track from Dearborn to Detroit. The state has already purchased the property to Kalamazoo so it can construct a new high speed rail system but needs to purchase this final section of property.

No one said this project was going to be easy but the sliver of good news is that real work might soon get underway.

The Dearborn Recreation and Parks Department is offering the season’s final Music Under the Starts Concert Thursday, Aug. 30 at Dearborn Hills Golf Course.

The free 7:30 p.m. concert features local favorite Fifty Amp Fuse.

Bring your own lawn chairs and blankets and enjoy the live music.

For more information, call 313-943-2354.

Camp Dearborn’s official summer season rolls to an end this coming week with the camp’s End of Summer Bash on Labor Day weekend.

Over Labor Day weekend, a live band will once again help campers rock through the last official days of the season at Camp Dearborn, and roll right into fall activities.

The band, to be announced, will perform 7:30 p.m. – 10:30 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 2 at the popular Canteen Dance.

While the official camping season traditionally ends with an End of Summer Bash on Labor Day weekend, the Camp office changes gears to the welcome the fall camping crowd.

Dearborn officials say the Labor Day Weekend tent and cabin reservations are expected to be fully booked, but campers can call ahead to reserve a campsite for the following weeks at either of the Camp offices: Dearborn Recreation and Parks Department at 313-943-2350 or Milford Camp Office at 248-684-6000.

With plenty of warm days left following Labor Day, many campers opt for the quieter setting, pleasant afternoon swims and cooler evenings of September and October.

Camp offices begin taking 2012 hayride reservations September 20 for groups, and this year, Camp will host three Halloween Weekends filled with family fun and activity. RV sites, tents and cabins remain open for camping through October.

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The second of three Food Truck Rally Events in West Dearborn takes place Friday, Aug. 24.

The first Food Truck Rally was a big success, bringing nearly 1,500 people to the West Dearborn area, according to the Dearborn Chamber.

The Dearborn Chamber of Commerce and the West Dearborn Downtown Development Authority have collaborated to bring the Food Truck Rally events to West Dearborn.

The second of three events takes place Friday, Aug. 24 from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. in Lot I (between the parking decks).

The participating trucks for this event are:

• Treat Dreams
• El Guapo’s
• Frank’s Anatra
• Mac Shack
• Tasty Treats
• Jacques Tacos
• Ned’s
• Concret Cusine

Along with a variety of delicious cuisines the trucks also come armed with live entertainment, which this time with be “Junction Groove”. So bring the whole family and all your friends and come on down to West Dearborn.

Levagood pool opened in 1942 as Seashore Pool with a sand beach and Olympic-sized swimming area.

Dearborn residents are invited to join Mayor John B O’Reilly, Jr. at Levagood Park on Thursday, August 23 to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the outdoor pool.

The Dearborn Recreation and Parks Department event runs from 6 p.m. – 10 p.m. and includes free swimming until dusk. Free hot dogs and pop will be available from 7 p.m. until 9:30 p.m. with complimentary cake served following O’Reilly’s congratulatory remarks at 8 p.m.

The band Bomb Squad entertains with a “Funk and Dunk Concert” from 7:30 – 9:30 p.m. The pool deck will be open until 10 p.m. Pool rules apply.

Levagood Park’s pool has historical significance. In 1940, local officials selected the 40-acre site located near Cherry Hill and Telegraph roads for the first of its kind City outdoor pool.

The pool eventually would have two names and several renovations. It was dedicated in 1942 as Seashore Pool and boasted a sand beach and Olympic size swimming area. Refurbished in 1948, the pool was reported to have the best health safeguards in the country.

Residents remember it then and now as a popular place to spend summers. In July 1959, a newspaper article recorded a weekend attendance of over 15,000 people.

The sand beaches were eventually replaced and in 1976, the late Mayor Orville Hubbard dedicated an enhanced pool complex that included a 45 x 60 foot diving tank, a 50-meter main tank of 75 x 165 feet; a fan-shaped wading pool and a renovated bathhouse.

In 1988, the Levagood Park pool was renamed the Jack Dunworth Memorial Pool Complex to honor Dearborn High School’s beloved swim coach and teacher Jack Dunworth. He also, for many years, managed Seashore Pool, and co-founded the Dearborn Dolphins swim team.

Generations of Dearborn residents learned to swim at classes offered by the Recreation Department at the Levagood Park pool. Others joined swim teams, participated in water exercise, enjoyed sun bathing on the deck or watched annual competitions.

In 2012, events held at Dunworth Pool included the prestigious U.S.S. Annual Swim Meet, annual City Swimming Championships and the annual Synchronized Swim Show.

“The Dance of Bliss” by sculptor Mike Sohikian is one of the 22 pieces of art that will be viewed and discussed during the guided tour on Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2012. The sculpture, which is available to be purchased for $7,500, is on display in the Starbucks courtyard on Michigan Avenue in west Dearborn through May 2013.

The public is invited on a guided tour of Dearborn’s “Outside Art Gallery” at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 12. Traveling on a small bus, participants will learn more about 22 works of art currently on exhibit throughout the community.

On exhibit are eight Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) Inside/Out Project reproductions, on display through September; 12 Midwest Sculpture Initiative pieces, and two Pockets of Perception (POP) student design team sculptures.

The tours, led by artist and educator Wendy Sample, will commence at the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center (FCPAC) and make stops at art installation locations in east and west Dearborn.

The tours, part of the “Art Connects Dearborn” project, are presented by the East Dearborn Downtown Development Authority, West Dearborn Downtown Development Authority and the Dearborn Community Fund (DCF).

Reservations are required and will be on a first come, first served basis. The cost is $10 per person.

Tours will leave from the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center (FCPAC). Participants will gather at the FCPAC in Wet Room 2 at 6:30 p.m. for a tour overview. The tour lasts approximately two and a half hours and concludes with the return to the FCPAC.

For additional information or to make a reservation, contact the Dearborn Community Fund at 313-943-5478 or mail your reservation to: Art Connects Dearborn Tour, Dearborn Community Fund, 15801 Michigan Ave., Dearborn, MI 48126. Checks should be made payable to the Dearborn Community Fund.

The last evening market of the Dearborn Farmer and Artisan Market will be offered Tuesday, August 21 from 4 – 7 p.m.

The market will still be open every Friday through October 26 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Located at the Bryant Branch Library (22100 Michigan Ave.), the market is a weekly community gathering place with a wide range of local products and produce.

More than 40 vendors participate in the market which is sponsored by Henry Ford Community College and Oakwood Healthcare System.

Visitors can purchase Michigan grown produce, watch cooking demonstrations, and enjoy live music and children’s activities. Vendors offer fresh produce, baked goods, honey, jams, cheeses, olive oil, pasta, salsa, fresh organic meats and fish, organic coffee and tea, granola, spinach pie, mustard, herbs; artist offerings include wire art, home decor, birdhouses, organic soaps, candles and much more.

Click HERE for more information or visit the Farmer’s Market on Facebook.

The Dearborn Police Department leads the region in handicap parking enforcement issuing nearly 6,000 citations between 2009-2011, according to a Detroit Free Press investigation on parking problems encountered by people who are disabled in southeast Michigan.

“I’m proud to say that the Free Press took note of what we’ve known all along: The Dearborn Police Department leads the region in ticketing those who deprive people who are disabled of the parking they need,” said Police Chief Ronald Haddad in a press release.

The Free Press series examined issues such as handicap parking permit fraud, improperly issued handicap parking permits and, of course, local law enforcement efforts in enforcing handicap parking violations.

According to the Free Press, Dearborn Police issued almost 6,000 citations for either Handicap Parking violations or Fraudulent Use of a Handicap Permit in 2009-2011, the time period examined by Free Press reporters. The total number of citations issued by the Dearborn Police Department was well above the number issued by any other department in the region, excluding Detroit.

“Dearborn Police Patrol Officers, Parking Enforcement Officers and Ordinance Officers will continue to investigate and enforce handicap parking violations and handicap parking permit fraud whenever and wherever possible in addition to their other enforcement duties,” Haddad said. “People who legitimately hold handicap parking permits should know that we do our best to keep open the parking spaces that are designated for their use.”