The Dearborn Community Fund will host a rocking evening on Saturday, Feb. 11, featuring the music of ABBA performed by the Swedish group Arrival.

The Dearborn Community Fund (DCF) will host a rocking evening on Saturday, Feb. 11, featuring the music of ABBA performed by the Swedish group Arrival in a dynamic concert at the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center followed by the Ultimate Dance Party.

The event will benefit the DCF and other participating non-profit organizations that serve the Dearborn area.

Arrival’s performance in the Michael A. Guido Theater begins at 8 p.m. and includes some of the most upbeat, feel good sounds of the ’70s including classic ABBA hits featured in both the musical and movie “Mama Mia.” You know them all – “Dancing Queen,” “Take a Chance on Me,” “Knowing Me, Knowing You” and more! Arrival is the only group sanctioned by ABBA to perform their classic hits.

Immediately following the performance, the season’s Ultimate Dance Party, open to those 21 and over, kicks off at 10 p.m. at the center in the dome room. Under a spectacular light display, party goers will groove to more ABBA music and other tunes mixed by two of Detroit’s favorite DJs – Ray G of Detroit and MMK of South Beach. Included in the evening will be other entertainment, hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar featuring specialty ABBA drinks.

Combination concert/Ultimate Dance Party tickets offer special benefits. VIP tickets are $100 and include premium front section concert seating, an opportunity to meet the performers, Ultimate Dance Party admission, and two drink tickets. A $60 combination concert and Ultimate Dance Party ticket includes main floor concert seating.

Tickets to only the Ultimate Dance Party are $25. Individual Arrival concert ticket prices vary. The Center, located at 15801 Michigan at Greenfield, is fully accessible and offers free parking.

The Arrival ABBA Concert and Ultimate Dance Party fundraiser is coordinated by the non-profit Dearborn Community Fund (DCF). The organization provides resources to support arts, cultural and recreational projects that impact the citizens of Dearborn. It is funded entirely through generous contributions from individuals, businesses, sponsors and fundraising activities.

For tickets or more information, call the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center box office at 313-943-2354.

Judge Mark Somers

The Dearborn Press & Guide is reporting that 19th District Court Judge Mark Somers has pulled petitions to run for Wayne County’s Third Circuit Court.

Somers, who has served as one of Dearborn’s three district court judges since 2002, told the paper that he reached the decision over the holidays after speaking with his family.

“With three judges retiring, I don’t know that there will be another opportunity like this in my life,” the paper quotes Somers.

Somers must collect 4,200 signatures by May 1 to appear on the November ballot. He said he plans to start collecting signatures immediately.

The city of Dearborn was awarded a $7.5 million low-interest loan from the State of Michigan to continue the massive federally-mandated combined sewer overflow work that has been going on in our city for more than a decade.

This particular loan will go toward the sewer-separation project south of Wilson Street, east of Telegraph Road and north of the Rouge River, City Engineer Yunus Patel tells DeepsaidWhat. Construction is set to get underway in February. If all goes well, construction of this phase of the CSO product would wrap up in October.

Costs for this part of the project are expected to total about $12 million. These costs and interest on the loan, a 2.5 percent rate, will be paid down through the special CSO millage instituted in 2004. Any other project costs will be paid “using various funding sources”, the Dearborn Press & Guide quotes Dearborn finance officials as saying.

The CSO project is aimed at putting an end to the discharge of untreated sewage into the Rouge River. The cleanup is mandated by the federal Clean Water Act.

Those of you who have been following this project will recall that our elected Dearborn officials first chose to address the problem by approving spending on constructing multi-million gallon containment shafts able to store any excess drain water. But the implementation and construction has been a quagmire of engineering problems, followed by lawsuits.

So in 2010, Dearborn officials decided to abandon the containment shaft and go to sewer separation, which was one of the original ideas proposed nearly a decade ago but rejected for reasons we simply can’t recall. While a little more intrusive to vehicle traffic, separation is less expensive and results in new paved surfaces once the work is completed.

The Press and Guide says that according to the DEQ, from January through November 2011, Dearborn’s CSO Outfall 004, which services the area that will see work beginning in February, there were 27 reported overflow events, which released 45.7 million gallons of untreated combined sewage into the Rouge River. Prior to Dearborn beginning their CSO control program, the total average annual volume of overflows per year was approximately 929 million gallons.

The Dearborn Community Arts Council is hosting art experience workshops 3-5 p.m. on Sunday afternoons at the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center. The cost is $10 per person or $32 for a family of four per session.

Each session is a sampling of an aspect of the arts. The remaining schedule is:

• January 8 – Pottery W/ Village Potters Guild Artisans

• February 12 – Photography – How to use your own camera

If you are interested in registering call 313-943-4095 or email sgreene@ci.dearborn.mi.us

So what New Year’s resolutions have you made for 2012?  Bill Maher, the host of of HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher”, penned a few in a column in today’s New York Times. We thought we’d share a few of his thoughts here. Happy New Year!

New Rule Starting this year, every appliance doesn’t need a clock on it. My stove, my dishwasher, my microwave, my VCR — all have clocks on them. If I really cared that much about what time it was (or what year it was), would I still have a VCR?

New Rule Starting next year, any politician caught in a scandal can’t go before the press, offer a lame excuse and then say, “Period. End of Story.” Here’s how you indicate a “period” and the end of a story: shut up.

New Rule Now that we have no money, and all our soldiers have come home from Iraq and they’ve all got experience building infrastructure, and no jobs … we must immediately solve all of our problems by declaring war on the United States.

New Rule Internet headlines have to be more like newspaper headlines. That means they have to tell me something instead of just tricking me into clicking on them. If you write the headline, “She Wore That?” you have to go to your journalism school and give your degree back.

New Rule Let’s stop scheduling the presidential election in the same year as the Summer Olympics. I get so exhausted watching those robotic, emotionally stunted, artificial-looking creatures with no real lives striving to do the one thing they’re trained to do that I barely have energy left to watch the Olympics.

New Rule You can’t be against same-sex marriage and for Newt Gingrich. No man has ever loved another man as much as Newt Gingrich loves Newt Gingrich.

To read Maher’s complete column, click HERE.

The Rotary Club of Dearborn will offer a new scholarship to high school graduates in 2012, the Dearborn Rotary Past President Young Scholarship, to one or more graduating seniors from Dearborn’s three public high schools.

While the first scholarship of $1,500 will be awarded next year, applications to be considered need to be submitted by Jan. 16.

This new scholarship was made possible through the generosity of Robert Young, a longtime member and past president of the Rotary Club of Dearborn. He was also an educator in the Dearborn Public Schools and served as principal of Edsel Ford High School.

The scholarship will be awarded based on the applicants’ understanding of the 4-Way Test of Rotary International, along with academic performance and community engagement.

The Rotary Club of Dearborn also is seeking donations to grow this scholarship award for the future, said John Artis, Dearborn Rotary president.

“Contributing to this scholarship is a great way to honor someone who has given so much of himself to education in the Dearborn community,” Artis said.

Additional information and the application form for this year’s Dearborn Rotary Past President Young Scholarship are available online at www.DearbornRotary.org

Completed applications must be mailed to Dearborn Rotary Club, P.O. Box 2347, Dearborn, Michigan 48123 by Saturday, Jan. 16, 2012.

 About Dearborn Rotary

Established in 1923, the Dearborn Rotary Club is one of 33,000 clubs located in more than 200 countries worldwide. Rotary is the world’s first and largest international service organization, founded in 1905 by Paul P. Harris, a lawyer, in Chicago, Illinois. The Rotary Club of Dearborn meets every Thursday from 11:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. at the Fairlane Club on Hubbard Drive in Dearborn. Guests are always welcome.

A ground-level rendering of Dearborn's new train station. Construction is set to being in spring 2012.

The city of Troy turned down $8.5 million in federal grant money for a new train station but Dearborn continues to move forward with its plans for one, recently receiving a free grant for help to make its station more environmentally friendly.

Dearborn is one of just eight communities in America that will receive free neighborhood design consultation in 2012 from Global Green USA with the help of a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities Program.

The grant winners were announced last week.

The grant focuses attention on the new intermodal train station to be built in west Dearborn, and the surrounding neighborhoods that will be part of a transit oriented development (TOD) plan.

The grant pays for sustainability experts to make recommendations to the City of Dearborn on how to integrate environmentally-friendly and energy efficient concepts into the TOD.

The new train station itself will be built according to national recognized Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) silver standards.

Over the next six months, four sustainability experts will conduct three-day visits to Dearborn and the other seven communities. A specific timeframe has not yet been set.

As for the city of Troy, Mayor Janice Daniels can say “there is nothing free about government money” but you can’t help but wonder if there is something more behind her stand against taking the federal dollars. Remember, this is the same Mayor Daniels who posted a message to her Facebook page last June, after New York State approved same-sex marriage, stating, “I think I am going to throw away my I Love New York carrying bag now that queers can get married there.”

Construction for the new train station in Dearborn is expected to start in the spring of 2012.

The train station, to be built on Michigan Avenue west of Southfield Freeway, will be the center of a TOD District that includes a historic neighborhood, business districts and Fairlane Town Center, the University of Michigan-Dearborn and Henry Ford Community College, The Henry Ford: America’s Greatest History Attraction, major thoroughfares and Ford Motor Company headquarters and facilities.

Other criteria for the grant included the presence of a strong neighborhood organization, the involvement of community leaders, the demonstration that the project contributes to a larger plan, and the ability to leverage federal, state or philanthropic funds.

“The City of Dearborn is excited and ready to work closely with Global Green USA through this program,” said Dearborn Mayor John B. O’Reilly, Jr. “This is a timely opportunity for us to leverage the latest planning tools and concepts of LEED-Neighborhood Development for improving physical design and policies to develop strategies for our ultimate goal of a sustainable future.”

Walker Wells, director of Global Green USA’s Green Urbanism Program, said, “Cities are responsible for up to 70 percent of global warming pollution, but they can also be the laboratories for climate-friendly solutions that save money, improve health and quality of life. For nearly two decades, Global Green has been helping cities create sustainable plans for the future. We are excited to be able to bring our expertise to these eight deserving communities.”

The other communities are Lafayette, Indiana; Eden Prairie, Minnesota; Greensboro, North Carolina; Lakewood, Colorado; Oakland, California; Louisville, Kentucky; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Dearborn residents should be aware that the curbside trash and recycling pickup schedules will be delayed one day for the weeks of Dec. 26-30 and Jan. 2-6.

Republic Services’ decision to delay trash pickup by one day was made after the City of Dearborn published information indicating otherwise.

The one-day delay throughout both weeks is due to the Christmas and New Year’s Day holidays. Trash will be picked up on a Tuesday-Saturday schedule those weeks.

For example, homes with Monday trash pickups will have their trash picked up on Tuesday; homes with Tuesday trash pickups will have their rubbish picked up on Wednesday, and so on.

Residents may call Republic Services at 1-800-878-4626. Offices will be closed Dec. 26 and Jan. 2.

Need help borrowing an e-book from the Dearborn Public Library’s website, uploading apps from the Internet, or downloading photos by using that nifty new tech item you received as a gift this season?

The Dearborn Public Library is hosting free “Tech Time” sessions where participants can learn how to register and successfully use devices, including e-readers, electronic tablets and digital cameras.

The Library’s “Tech Time” sessions will be Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2-4 p.m.; Wednesday, Dec. 28, 6-8 p.m.; Thursday, Dec. 29, 2-4 p.m.; Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2-4 p.m.; and Thursday, Jan. 5, 6-8 p.m.

Reservations are not required.

Participants should bring their fully charged electronic devices, along with any cords or attachments, to the session in the first floor training room at the Henry Ford Centennial Library, 16301 Michigan Ave., Dearborn.

For more information, contact the Dearborn Public Library at 943-2330.

Beginning in January, Dearborn residents may no longer be allowed to have their car block the sidewalk while in the driveway during snow emergencies.

A new city ordinance will prohibit residents from parking in their driveway over the sidewalk during snow emergencies.

This change in the city ordinance regarding snow emergency rules is likely to be approved in January by the City Council. If approved, residents will no longer be able to park vehicles across the sidewalk during a snow emergency.

Dearborn officials say this practice is being eliminated because it is in conflict with the American with Disabilities Act. A car parked across a sidewalk may block a person with a disability from traveling safely.

Dearborn officials say by moving parked vehicles off of the street whenever three inches or more of snow is predicted to fall allows snow plows to clear curb-to-curb instead of working around parked vehicles.

If Dearborn declares a snow emergency, residents must remove parked vehicles from the street or you could be ticketed and your vehicles could be towed.

Police do not issue warnings during snow emergencies.

Generally, you may move vehicles back on the street once the street has been plowed curb to curb and no further heavy snowfall is expected.

Driveway aprons do become snow covered during snowplowing operations. Dearborn officials ask that residents not pile snow back into the cleared street and avoid throwing snow onto your neighbor’s property without permission.

You can check if a snow emergency has been declared via any of the following methods:

• Snow emergency hotline at 943-2444.

• www.cityofdearborn.org

• CDTV, which is cable channel 10 on WOW and cable channel 12 on Comcast.

• TV news programs and news radio stations.

• You may also hear the City’s emergency warning sirens go off.

• Twitter.com messages via the “cityofdearborn” account.

• Text or email messages sent to your phone or email from the public safety information system known as Nixle. Sign up for alerts at Nixle.com.