Dearborn’s Farmer’s and Artisan Market, which is preparing for its second season beginning June 5, is in need of volunteers to promote the market, set-up and tear down and assist with general operations.

The market will have a new location this year, outside on the property of the Bryant Library, at the corner of Michigan and Mason.

Many of us here have expressed our support in words or by visiting the Market, which is hosted by the Dearborn Chamber of Commerce, but now is our chance to offer some physical volunteer support.

The Farmer’s and Artisan Market is exactly what Dearborn needs to boost foot traffic and bring some life to our downtown. Helping it to continue to be a success is something all of us in Dearborn can contribute to.

Nearly 25 vendors will again provide local produce each Friday beginning June 5 and running until Oct. 30 between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m.

For those interested, a special volunteer meeting will be held at the Chamber Offices, 15544 Michigan Ave., (just west of Greenfield) on March 19 at 9:30 a.m. Additional information can be obtained by writing Joan Reed, the manger for the Farmer’s Market, at jreed@dearbornchamber.org

Russ Gibb is back "jumping up and down".

After nearly a six month absence, Dearborn’s Russ Gibb is back “jumping up and down” at his website, RussGibbatRandom.com

Mr. Gibb had to take a break from his website after undergoing back surgery. His recovery took longer than anticipated.

“Getting old isn’t for sissies,” Mr. Gibb said.

Mr. Gibb was my favorite teacher at Dearborn High School. While he and I share very different political views and agree to disagree, I respect and care deeply for him. There is never any ambiguity on where you stand with Mr. Gibb or what his thoughts are on any one topic. You’ll always get a straight answer.

Mr. Gibb launched his website in 2001, posting his rants long before the word “blog” was invented. He was still a teacher at Dearborn High School when he began his website, influenced to do it by his students. Mr. Gibb retired from Dearborn High in 2005 but he kept his website active and later added his own video web casts.

“I still feel I have a few good years left in me,” jokes the 77-years-old.

Good to have you back, Mr. Gibb.

Dearborn City officials are urging MDOT to keep the traffic signal at Fordson and Telegraph operational.

Area residents upset that the traffic signal at Telegraph and Fordson may soon be removed received some good news Tuesday night in the form of a motion passed by the Dearborn city council that urges the Michigan Department of Transportation to keep the signal operational.

The suggestion to pass such a resolution was made by Dearborn Mayor John “Jack” O’Reilly, Jr.  The mayor said the city should go on the record to inform MDOT that given the high vehicle speeds on Telegraph, the multiple roads that tie into this area of roadway and the dangerous line of sight issue, the traffic signal should remain.

Councilwoman Suzanne Sareini made the actual motion, with support from Councilman Doug Thomas, and the resolution was unanimously passed. We’ve written here multiple times about this signal and the need to keep it in place, something nearly all residents in the area support. For our earlier story, click HERE.

While the council’s adoption of the resolution doesn’t guarantee that the signal will remain, the council’s actions,  along with a Dearborn police recommendation to keep the traffic light for safety concerns, does ratchet up the pressure on MDOT to keep the signal in place. 

A decision by the state on whether the light will remain will be made by mid-March.

Below is a video report on the same topic by Dearborn Councilman Doug Thomas.

If you’re from Michigan, we all have some type of memory or story about Vernor’s Ginger Ale, America’s oldest continuously produced soft drink.  Ours goes back to the Saunders store that once operated in Dearborn’s Westborn Mall.

Vernor's Ginger Ale is America's oldest continuously produced soft drink. A lecture on the history of the drink is being held at the Dearborn Historical Museum on March 4.

There patrons could order a tasty Vernor’s float while sitting at the horseshoe shaped counter. My pals and I would go there there after our paper routes. Those days are long gone but the tasty drink remains, albeit minus the glass bottles which somehow always made Vernor’s taste better.

The Dearborn Historical Museum is hosting a free public lecture about the history of Vernor’s at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 4. If you have time, it could prove to be an interesting lecture.

Vernor’s is a great American story whose history goes back before Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Hires or Moxie.

It was James Vernor who created the drink. Vernor opened a pharmacy in Detroit and then a barrel of ginger ale extract he had created before the Civil War, which he returned from, the story goes, in 1866.

He discovered the four years of aging had mellowed the taste to perfection. A new deliciously different flavor had been created and Vernor’s Ginger Ale was born. From a small drugstore in Detroit to a product enjoyed across America and Canada. The lecture will bring to life the story of a small back-room product turned into a highly successful brand.

At more than 140 years old, Vernor’s remains America’s oldest continuously produced soft drink. Lecture attendees will be taken on a journey from pharmacy to factory, from entrepreneur to franchised corporation.

For more information about the lecture at the McFadden-Ross House, 915 Brady Street, call 313-565-3000.

Morley storm sewer separation and repaving is set to begin in March. City officials say the project will be done before Dearborn Homecoming in August.

Get ready for a new round of street construction and detours, due in part to Dearborn’s massive Combined Sewer Overflow Control Project.

Beginning in March, road crews will begin work on a $1.75 million storm sewer separation project on Morley Avenue, between Military and Monroe, shutting the road down to Morley residents only.

The construction project calls for new 8-inch water mains to be installed, replacing existing 6-inch diameter pipes. New storm sewers also will be installed, going from the current 15-inch diameter pipes to new 30-inch ones. The storm pipes will be routed directly into the Rouge River, via Military Street. Existing 21-inch pipes, which currently carry both storm and sanitary waste along both sides of Morley, will not be replaced. These large pipes will become dedicated sanitary sewers for this area.

This project, which also calls for the complete repaving of Morley, along with new driveway aprons for all residents (sod will be replaced in September) must all be completed before Dearborn Homecoming. Yes, that means the end of July, including the repaving of one block of Howard and one block of Mason, both between Morley and Garrison.

Dearborn officials have promised residents along Morley that this aggressive contruction project will be completed before Homecoming in August or the company hired will face penalties. Bids from construction companies to the city were due last week.  Now Dearborn city officials must quickly select a company to kick off the project.

The second part of this project calls for the reconstruction of Oakwood between Morley and Michigan Avenue. This road repair is scheduled to begin in August (after Homecoming) and run through November. That price tag is $450,000.

In 2010,  Dearborn officials are tentatively looking at repaving and replacing pipes along Monroe, between Morley and Michigan. That project, if kicked off, would also run from March to August in 2010.

City officials say similar future construction projects would eventually have to take place along Mason and Howard streets, between Garrison and Michigan Avenue, depending on the needs of future businesses along those streets.

If there were ever an example of why we are proud to say we are from Dearborn, it is the story of Meghan Marie Salter and how Dearborn officials, firefighters and a growing list of area restaurants are coming to she and her family’s aid.

Dearborn Mayor John B. O’Reilly, Jr. (front row, right); Council President Tom Tafelski (left); and Firefighters Lt. Steve Worden (left) and Brian Keith visit with Meghan Salter at her home while planning a fundraiser with Meagan’s family to help with her medical bills.

Meghan was born a healthy girl in October, 2002.  However, within months of her birth, her health deteriorated.  Now six years old, Meghan has experienced seizures and life-threatening physical illnesses so that she is totally dependent upon medical equipment for life support.

After an untold number of visits to doctors and specialists, even to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota for testing, doctors have been unable to determine the cause for her decline or diagnose her condition.

Dearborn residents, city officials, firefighters and dozens of area businesses are stepping forward to help with her family’s medical bills.  On Saturday, Feb. 21, from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. the Dearborn Firefighters Burn Drive is hosting a fundraiser for Meghan at the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center, 15801 Michigan Ave.

The “Meghan’s Miracles II Benefit” is supported by Dearborn Mayor John B. O’Reilly, Jr., Council President Tom Tafelski, other dignitaries and the City’s firefighters.

The fundraising “strolling dinner” at the Center is provided by a growing list of sponsoring area restaurants, including Andiamo, Levy Restaurants, Ford Field Caterers, Park Place Caterers, Tim Horton’s, Shield’s Pizza, Mexican Fiesta Restaurant, Joe’s Top Dog, LaPita and PM Catering. More restaurants are planning to join in support of Meghan and her family.

“Catholic Connection” radio talk show host and motivational speaker Teresa Tomeo will emcee the event, which includes guest speakers, dancing, a tin can raffle, entertainment and a cash bar.

The cost for tickets is $50 per person.

For more information about the benefit, including how to make reservations, donate money, become a sponsor or donate items for the raffle, please visit Meghan’s website at:  www.meghansmiracles.com.

Checks should be made out to Fr. Patrick O’Kelley KofC #3860—Meghan’s Fund.  Include the bottom portion of the reservation/donation form found on the web and mail to Fr. Patrick O’Kelley Council/Meghan’s Fund, C/O Mary Lockwood, 11836 Tall Tree Dr., Plymouth, MI  48170.  All donations are tax-deductible.

For those of you who may have missed it, the Detroit Free Press on Sunday ran a front page story about our decaying Michigan roads. That’s hardly breaking news for those of us who do any amount of travel around our city. With record snowfall, record cold and road crews running through record amounts of salt to keep our roads clear, it’s no wonder our streets are crumbling at a record pace.

But Michigan isn’t the only state that gets snow and cold. Yet, our roads seem to deteriorate at a much faster rate. Might the poor condition of our roads be partially a result of Michigan having the highest truck weight limits allowed in the Midwest? 

Potholes along Michigan Avenue in West Dearborn are making the daily commute a painful one.

Travel along the quilted patchwork of asphalt and concrete that now makes up Michigan Avenue between Outer Drive and Brady in Dearborn and it’s as if the repairs done just before winter never occurred. Making matters worse, repairs to the first repairs won’t be coming anytime soon. So this could get ugly . . . and fast, particularly since we have two more months of winter left.

When you combine those high weight truck limits with thawing and freezing, along with the poor upkeep of our roads, you get the surfaces we have today. Drive along roads where heavy trucks don’t travel and the roads are typically in better condition.

Yet, road commissioners from Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties in the Detroit Free Press article all point to the weather as the main culprit.

• “It’s not a very good situation,” Lorenzo Blount, Wayne County roads division director, said last week. “It’s been a very cold winter. If it gets warm really quickly, you get that freeze-thaw, and it gets ugly.”
• “It’s just been so cold so long,” Bob Hoepfner, highway engineer for the Road Commission of Macomb County said. “When the ground thaws, that’s really when we’re going to see the breakup of our roadways.”
• Craig Bryson, spokesman for the Road Commission for Oakland County, said a series of wicked freeze-thaw cycles could make the pothole situation worse than last year’s prodigious crop.

Declining gas-tax revenues means Michigan’s funding for construction and maintenance of expressways and major state roads has dwindled to about $900 million in 2009, from highs of around $1.5 billion earlier this decade, according to the Free Press.

County and local road agencies also are falling farther behind because their primary sources of road funding – state fuel taxes and vehicle registration fees – have been steadily declining for several years. 

A task force appointed by Gov. Jennifer Granholm concluded last fall that the state needs an additional $3 billion a year to get all state and local roads into good shape. That’s about double what’s currently being spent statewide.

And we can forget about our state roads getting relief from President Barack Obama’s new stimulus package. As it stands now, the money can’t be used for routine maintenance like pothole patching.

Strap in. Our daily drives unfortunately are going to get a lot worse before we see any real road repairs.

The driver of a gasoline tanker that overturned near Telegraph and Wilson in Dearborn appears to have been trying to avoid another motorist who lost control after hitting a patch of ice in the right lane of northbound traffic, Dearborn police said Saturday.

Police tell DeepSaidWhat.com that they are trying to piece together the exact cause of the crash and are asking for anyone that may have witnessed the crash to call the department’s Accident Investigation Bureau at 313-943-2245.  No one was seriously injured in the crash.

The gasoline tanker was hauling about 10,000 gallons of fuel when it overturned about 9:30 p.m. Friday. Police said between 2,500 and 3,000 gallons spilled out of the hauler and into the road.  Hazmat crews were able to get the spill cleaned up, including vacuuming fuel that spilled into nearby sewers.  The northbound lanes were reopened about 2 p.m., police said.

The driver of the car that apparently trigged the chain of events spun out of control after hitting a patch of ice in the roadway that police believe was caused from a recent water main break near Wilson and Telegraph and not the water main break near Einstein Brothers Bagels.

Dearborn police Friday night shut down northbound Telegraph Road at Cherry Hill after a gasoline tanker rolled over about 9:00 p.m. Roads were not expected to reopen until early Saturday so crews could clean up spilled fuel.

A resident quoted on (click wxyz for video) WXYZ TV said it appeared the tanker lost control after hitting a patch of ice on Telegraph where a broken water main still needs to be repaired. Those of us who frequent Einstein Brothers Bagels know that the right lane of northbound Telegraph has been filled with ice buildup for several weeks now, making driving a bit dicey in that area during peak travel times.

It wasn’t yet clear if there were any injuries or what caused the rollover but Dearborn police did evacuate nearby shops because the tanker was leaking fuel onto Telegraph. Police also closed southbound Telegraph at Ford Road. Fumes from the gasoline tanker filled the night air on the patch of Telegraph between Cherry Hill and Ford Road even late Friday night.

We’ve received quite a few notes from readers that live in the Dearborn Hills area who, like us, are upset about the possible removal of the traffic signal at the intersection of Fordson and Telegraph. Those same people have contacted the Taylor office of the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), the office that is conducting the actual study on whether to keep the traffic signal or remove it. So we thought we might provide an update on the study now underway.

The study on whether to keep the signal was triggered by the state office of the Federal Highway Administration, whose ultimate role is to keep our roads safe. MDOT is working with the federal agency to deliver on that objective by studying traffic flow at this intersection.

Dearborn Hills residents want the traffic signal at Fordson and Telegraph to remain.

As MDOT describes it, any time a traffic signal (or stop sign) is installed it actually increases traffic accidents. Eliminate the signal and that section of roadway would see fewer rear end and side swipe accidents, according to MDOT.

While it sounds counterintuitive, MDOT says data shows that any time a motorist has to stop there is a high risk of vehicle “conflict.”

The city of Livonia, working with the Traffic Improvement Association (TIA), recently removed some 100 stop signs and traffic signals in its city as a way to reduce traffic accident and improve vehicle flow. The TIA has approached Dearborn, too, hoping to sell its services here.

The signal at Fordson was switched to a flashing signal on Dec. 5 and will continue through March 5, totaling 90 days in all. After that MDOT will finalize its study, working with Dearborn Police, and submit its findings to the Federal Highway Administration who will then make the determination on whether to remove the signal.

“It is not a foregone conclusion it will be removed,” said MDOT’s Michael Budai who is conducting the study. “We are working with the City of Dearborn, Dearborn Police and a very active neighborhood association. We are carefully studying the impact the flashing signal is having on traffic flow for that stretch of road.”

Dearborn Police have expressed concern to MDOT that the flashing signal has now caused vehicles to congest in the turnaround lane trying to head north on Telegraph from Rockford Street each morning and evening during peak business times. That isn’t safe.

Even so, the highway administration has a set of eight “signal rules” in its Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) handbook that it uses to determine whether to install or keep an existing traffic signal. Of course, the rules aren’t ironclad as city government, local police departments and neighborhood associations can have huge influences on placement of a signal should an intersection fail to meet the any of the eight signal rules.

One requirement in the MUTCD is that a traffic signal needs to have a vehicle flow of 400 vehicles per hour. Clearly, the number of vehicles exiting Fordson to the northbound lanes of Telegraph has never in its more than two decades in existence approached that level.

While people do cross at this interaction, it is not and was not designed as a crossing area, MDOT officials say. According to the MUTCD, to have a proper traffic walk signal installed for pedestrians there would require 150 crossings per hour. 

As much as we would want to have the traffic signal remain in operation, when you step back and look at the facts from MDOT, it appears the only way the light might stay is through a request or resolution by Dearborn city leaders. This is likely how the light was installed at this intersection more than 20 years ago – through city intervention on behalf of residents – as the intersection has likely never met the minimum traffic requirements set by the Federal Highway Administration in the first place.

“Everyone assumes it is going out but we are going to continue to evaluate it for the next 60 days,” Budai said. “It is by no means a foregone conclusion.”

Concerned residents can contact Mike Budai at MDOT at 313-375-2400 to make clear why the traffic signal should remain. Callers should be prepared to explain why the signal should remain in operation.