With the demolition and cleanup of the Orchard Street bungalow where hundreds of Chihuahuas were found this summer expected to be completed by Monday, April 19, Dearborn officials will now turn their attention to finding a way to collect the nearly $50,000 in costs for the work.

Prior to the demolition of the home and the garage on Thursday, crews had to remove some small amounts of asbestos and spray the home with insecticide because many neighbors were worried what might come out of the home once it started to come down.

Cleanup costs and the removal of the hundreds of dogs cost the city more than $40,000, not including the $8,000 and change in demolition costs. It is not clear how the city will ever collect those costs from Kenneth Lang Jr., 56. Lang is currently serving a five-year probation for the hoarding of the dogs. As part of the restitution listed for Mr. Lang following his criminal case, he was ordered to pay the city for the cost of the cleanup. 

A city spokeswoman says there is a lien on the property for the cost of the demolition so if the family tries to sell the property the city would need to be paid first.

Given Lang’s financial situation, it is unknown how he would be able to pay,  the spokeswoman says.

Interesting and timely report from the American Library Association (ALA) on the state of America’s libraries.

The ALA report says that when jobs go away, Americans turn to their libraries to find information about future employment or educational opportunities. This library usage trend shows that Americans have turned to their libraries in larger numbers in recent years.

However, the report also shows that increased library use did not lead to an increase in funding for libraries. The research by the ALA and the Center for Library and Information Innovation at the University of Maryland suggests a “perfect storm” of growing community demand for library services and shrinking resources to meet that demand.

While library use soars, a majority of states are reporting cuts in funding to public libraries and to the state library agencies that support them.

For the full report, click HERE.

Morris Goodman, a Dearborn attorney, past president of the Dearborn Democratic Club, a longtime political activist and observer and regular reader of Deepsaidwhat.com, attended this week’s meeting at city hall to discuss the future of six of the city’s small neighborhood pools.  He sent this column to us on the matter of the city’s budget.

In his column below, Goodman writes that he thinks there might be some interest in trying to get Dearbornites to make voluntary contributions equal to their reductions in property taxes to specific projects in Dearborn (pools being one of them) if tax deductions could be obtained. It is an interesting idea and one Goodman says he has shared with our elected officials.

His column begins below:

No, this is not a column about Dr. Suess, but the problems Dearborn faces because of the sharp decline in our city’s property values could be a scary fairy tale.

Morris Goodman

As everyone knows throughout the State of Michigan, local tax assessors, especially Dearborn’s, have verified that property assessments have gone down, with the result that property tax revenues will decrease. Mayor John B. O’Reilly has cautioned that there is up to a $20 million shortfall in the city’s budget for 2011-2012.

Clearly, there are many, many people in Dearborn whose reduced economic condition makes a decrease in property taxes very welcome. Presumably, however, there are also many, many Dearbornites whose incomes and wealth (excluding their home’s value) have not only, not gone down, but in fact increased. Presumably thousands of Dearborn residents are either Ford workers, retirees, or just shareholders. Ford’s profitability and stock value have both soared. A Ford share’s value was about $1.50 a share in March 2009 and is now in excess of $12.50 a share, an over 800% jump. Moreover, Ford workers are about to get profit sharing checks.

For those who are doing OK financially, it might be more important to them that Dearborn’s historically wonderful services – both municipal and educational – be maintained rather than they pocket the difference between what they previously paid in property taxes and the smaller amount now. If these people could be convinced that if they contribute this property tax “windfall” to a specific fund that certain services they prize will be maintained maybe they will do so.

(more…)

It appears Biggby Coffee and a new coney island are going into the Norm Newman-owned strip mall on Michigan, just west of Military.

Signs promise new business in a Newman-owned strip mall.

Signs in the window indicate a Biggby Coffee will soon be moving into the strip mall. A visit to the Biggby website says the same, showing a new store at 22445 Michigan Ave.

The new coney restaurant is called Cedars Coney Island and will occupy the building that once housed Village Islands Coney, which was closed after a fire.

Our fingers are crossed these two businesses will open, and soon. It was more than a year ago that Mr. Newman put up signs in his vacant Inca and Pier 1 buildings promising a “Redevelopment Coming Soon.”  Thirteen months later, the buildings still sit empty.

Dearborn will soon be losing the Ritz-Carlton name, according to the Detroit Free Press.

In today’s edition, the paper reports that the Ritz-Carlton Dearborn has been sold to an investment group and will be managed by Greenwood Hospitality Group, a hotel investment and management company. As of June 2, it will no longer be a Ritz-Carlton, said Vivian Deuschl, a Ritz-Carlton spokeswoman.

Employees at the Ritz say the hotel will undergo a complete renovation and remain an upscale hotel but under a new name.

For the full story, click HERE.

Should Library Consider a Property Tax Levy for Direct Funding?

With our economy still sputtering and unemployment still rising, libraries are noticing a surge in business. This is good news for Dearborn libraries but higher usage doesn’t guarantee protection from the city’s budget cutting axe.

One of the current proposals being discussed would see the elimination of seven full-time library positions, leaving each of the city’s three branch libraries with just one full-time librarian and a host of part-time workers.

The good news is that the branch libraries would at least remain open, albeit with the same current short business hours — but at least open — under this proposal.  The collection of the Dearborn library system contains 297,070 volumes and circulates about 954,785 items per year, according to lib-web-cats.

This brings us to another idea on the best ways to keep our library system intact.

Other communities have floated library millages for the sole purpose of having proper funding for what is one of the single most important items for a city and its residents. Nearby communities in metro Detroit operate their libraries this way and it appears to be an effective way to ensure that libraries don’t end up with table scraps when it comes city budget time, which likely could happen to our libraries here in Dearborn when the budget slashing is done.

But millages can be double-edged sword as one can never predict how a community will vote, particularly in today’s economy. That said Jennifer Brash, a staff writer at the entertainment blog thecounterproject, raises some interesting points, comparing how West Bloomfield Township was able to levy a property tax for direct funding of its library services and it has never looked back. You can read that history HERE.

Could something like that work in Dearborn? Hard to say but the idea is an intriguing one.

Mayor John B. O'Reilly, Jr.

Dearborn Mayor John B. O’Reilly, Jr. can expect to be peppered with questions from residents about the city’s proposal to close some city pools and cut other city services when he speaks to the Howard Park Neighborhood Assn. on April 15 at Lindbergh Elementary School.

O’Reilly will speak to the neighborhood association at 7 p.m. in the cafeteria of the elementary school, located at 500 N. Waverly St.  Everyone is welcome to attend the session.

The association says O’Reilly will discuss the current state of the city, as well as future plans and developments within Dearborn.

The Howard Park neighborhood consists of the area between Telegraph Road and Outer Drive, bordered by Ford Road to the north and Wilson Street to the south.

In yet another example of why Dearborn still has that caring small town feel, a group of Dearborn city employees are holding a benefit spaghetti dinner to help a couple recovering from surgery.

We received word of this benefit spaghetti dinner for Craig and Donna Bechtel from a reader who passed on a flyer to us.

Below is what the flyer said:

Craig Bechtel, a city of Dearborn carpenter, is suffering from a long battle with Lupus. Due to the severe affects of this illness, Craig was in need of a kidney transplant.

Craig’s wife, Donna, who works in Dearborn’s Recreation Department – Senior Services, was selected to be the donor for Craig’s March 12, 2010 surgery.

In an effort to help this family financially, a group of City of Dearborn employees are hosting this fundraiser to help offset the loss of income, until they are able to return to work.

Here are the details for the fundraiser:

When: 3 – 10 p.m. – Saturday, April 24

Where: Patrick O’Kelley Knights of Columbus Hall, 23633 Park St. Dearborn

What: Dinner will include:  All you can eat spaghetti, salad, dinner roll and soft drink; cash bar will be available. Proceeds will benefit the Bechtel Family

Donation:  Tickets are $10

For more information, please call:

• Craig Champagne at 313-801-6539 or email cajchamp@aol.com

• Maria Santigiago Powell at 734-522-5372 or email mesantiago57@yahoo.com

• Nancy Niner at 313-943-2239 or email nniner@ci.dearborn.mi.us

Dearborn residents upset about a proposal to close six small neighborhood pools are turning up the heat on the mayor and city council, this time using YouTube as a way to amplify their voices to city leaders.

About 175 Dearborn residents rallied Monday evening at Summer-Stephens Park (one of my favorite parks as I took swimming lessons there as a kid) to protest the potential closure of six of the city’s public pools.  There is also a new SaveDearbornPools channel on YouTube.com. You can click HERE for that link.

City officials have argued that closing the Crowley, Hemlock, Lapeer, Summer-Stephens, Ten Eyck and Whitmore-Bolles pools would save Dearborn $132,000 a year in operational costs alone.

On Monday at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall, city officials are holding an informational meeting where they can expect to hear from residents vehemently opposed to closing pools, even if the city says it will save $3.8 million by not pursuing investments necessary to keep the aging pools in a safe and healthy condition.

From where we sit, given how this is shaping up, there is a strong likelihood council members will not approve closing any city pools.

Councilman Robert Abraham

Dearborn’s proposal to close six of the city’s public pools as part of cost cuts to help close the gap on a multi-million budget shortfall is a “tragedy” but the city must work to balance its budget, says Dearborn Councilman Robert Abraham.

“The elimination of city programs and activities, like the outdoor pools is a tragedy!,” Councilman Abraham tells Deepsaidwhat.com. “Unfortunately, the Mayor, the administration and the City Council must work to balance the budget, and more importantly to position Dearborn to remain a premier community in Michigan for the next generations.”

The proposed pool closings has touched off a firestorm of angry posts on this site from residents against the closures. (Click HERE for that earlier story). A Facebook page dedicated to saving these pools now has 2,646 members at the time of this posting.

Abraham is non-committal on whether the pools should be closed but he does say whatever cuts are taken will not be easy. What is interesting is that Abraham says the city is trying to correct a $10 million dollar shortfall, while the city in its official press releases has said it is a $20 million shortfall. Our guess is that the larger figure is based on what it would cost the city to fund every department at current funding limits or before budget reductions.

“These cuts are not easy,” Abraham says. “We are trying to correct almost a $10 million dollar shortfall without the elimination of police officers and firefighters, due to the charter mandates. This means we have to save the $10 million dollars from about $50 million dollars in non-public safety programs.”

I came across my Dearborn Recreation I.D. Card from 1976 and on the back of the card (just $1, by the way) it noted Dearborn offered free ice skating at 33 outdoor rinks and swimming “at any of the 21 indoor and outdoor pools”. Today, Dearborn has but one outdoor skating rink and one large indoor center. As for pools, we are down to eight, which is still far more than most neighboring communities, which sometimes have just two pools.

“I remain fully committed to preserving the city services that make Dearborn unique,” Abraham said. “We must find creative and new ways to continue this fine tradition of first class services and generate the necessary revenue to balance these costs.

“We need Wayne County and the State of Michigan to step-up and provide fair and equitable revenue and services to Dearborn at a standard that Dearborn residents deserve and expect. Without their fully commitment and participation, Dearborn will continue to lose ground on the fight to keep our services and balance the budget.”

Residents will get a chance to speak their mind on the proposed pool closing on April 12 in the council chambers of City Hall. It will be a standing room only meeting for sure.