The Dearborn City Council Tuesday night unanimously passed the fiscal year 2011-12 budget, raised the city’s parking rates and will now be looking at a tax hike for residents.

This was one of the most difficult budgets the city has faced in recent history, particularly since the city is facing a budget gap of up to $20 million. And the hard work isn’t over. A tax increase is next.

Yet our elected City Council held the fewest amount of meetings in recent history to discuss this budget. This is why the idea of expanding public input on the budget and delaying Tuesday’s vote for a week was shot down. There was simply no time left.

Our elected Council had backed themselves into a corner. The budget had to be passed before the new fiscal year begins next month. So when City Council President Tom Tafelski said Tuesday night he was “not pleased” with the budget AFTER it was adopted all we could say was, really?

The City Council received this budget from the mayor on April 15. In the past, budget hearings would have been held immediately after council received the first draft, sometimes as many as 30 meetings before adoption. This year the number of meetings, according to one former councilman, was about a half dozen. Residents had no proper forum to voice their ideas or objections or get the full picture as to why pools and library branches needed to be closed or why parking rates had to go up and, and, and . . .

As residents of this city, we deserve better from our elected officials.

Closing pools and libraries isn’t going to fix the budget issue we have. If we are going to start nickel and diming, let’s take away the city paid cell phones from each City Council member. Do part time jobs really need a city paid cell phone? Let’s also consider a deeper pay cut for Council members. If Councilman Brian O’Donnell can take a 25 percent pay cut (you’ll recall he said he would when he ran for office) why can’t the rest of the Council? Sure the $3,900 O’Donnell has given back in pay to date isn’t going to repair the city’s deficit but if all of Council did the same that would be another $23,000 and change to date back to the City.

Now comes the work of convincing residents that even with all of these cuts we now need to pass a tax hike. Here is what will be cut this year:

• Snow Branch Library and both Whitmore-Bolles and Hemlock pools will close

• The Health Department will be eliminated by month’s end

• Our operating millage will increase by 1.38 mills to 15, which is allowed by the City Charter. The total 2011-12 millage rate will now be 21.9, up from 19.5 mills in 2010

• Parking rates will increase between $1 per hour and 50 cents depending on lots. The high traffic ones will be the most expensive. Sunday and holiday parking will remain free

• Leaf removal will remain because it is part of the city’s garbage millage

• Some 42 city jobs will be cut via a combination of unfilled vacancies, facilities closures and layoffs. Another 23 employees have taken buy-outs

The final public hearing on Dearborn’s proposed fiscal year 2012 budget will be held today, June 6, at 6 p.m. in the council chambers.

On Tuesday, June 7 at 5:30 p.m. the city will adopt the budget and set the tax rate for Fiscal Year 2012, which begins July 1, 2011.

No matter what is cut from the city to save money, including pools, library branches and the end of leaf pickup, we can all count on the city coming to residents to vote on a tax hike this year to cover the city’s massive budget shortfall.

If you have time, please try to attend both meetings this week.

If you need more information, feel free to contact your City Council office at 943-2025.

The Exchange Club of Dearborn joined with the Dearborn Police Department to present the annual Police Awards at a luncheon on May 17. Officers are recognized for their service to the community in a variety of ways. The top recognition is the Officer of the Year.

Shown here are (from left): Commander Jimmy Solomon, Dearborn Mayor John B. O’Reilly Jr., Officer of the Year Cpl. David Marshall, Commander Thomas Teefey and Exchange Club President Dennis Scanlon.

Also earning recognition was Sgt. Glenn Carriveau, Cpl. Joshua Urbiel, Officer Tim Stacy, Sgt. Jeffrey Mrowka, Lt. Neil Myres, Sgt. Richard Joynt, Lt. Mark Tobias, Sgt. Kevin Schaumburger, Cpl. Joy Ball, Cpl. Patrick Hayes, Cpl. Stanley Chiles, Cpl. Guerino Cerroni, Cpl. Michael Gracer, Cpl. Michael McNamara, Cpl. Steven Faith, Cpl. Joseph Kass, Cpl. Timothy McHale, Cpl. Brian Kapanowski and Cpl. Donald Kozlowski.

The City of Dearborn wants residents to know that as part of its routine spring work, contractors this week will begin applying fertilizer and broad leaf weed control on all of the City parks and City rights of way.

All areas will be marked according to the Department of Agriculture standards. These areas include the medians, cul de sacs and easements that are maintained by the City.

All pesticides used will have a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) that is available through United Lawnscape, the contractor applying them. The hours of operations are from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and dependant upon park usage.

City officials say all areas are safe after the material has dried, which is usually within 2 – 4 hours depending on weather conditions.

What do the cities of Rochester Hills, Novi, Canton, Woodhaven, Birch Run and now Royal Oak have in common? An Emagine megaplex movie theater in each of their downtowns.

Dearborn was supposed to get one as part of a major development project on Michigan Avenue but years after it first was pitched to City Hall still nothing has materialized.

Instead, Dearborn is left watching on the sidelines as Royal Oak becomes the sixth city to open its doors to an Emagine megaplex, which will celebrate its grand opening on Monday, May 16.

We wrote about plans for the Emagine many times HERE on these pages, as did the Dearborn Press & Guide.

Economic & Community Development Director Barry Murray said in 2010 that an Emagine Theatre was being discussed as having potential to be located on the former Vic Tanny/Bally’s site, adjacent to the Oakwood Muirhead building.

Then the proposed plan for Dearborn called for a bowling alley (the new facility in Royal Oak has 16 lanes) on the lower level and a multiplex movie theater above (Royal Oak has 10 screens). The private investment for this facility was then estimated to be $12 million to $15 million, roughly the same investment in Royal Oak.

Hakim Fakhoury, a developer in Dearborn, earlier said the theater was to be part of a larger building plan he proposed along Michigan Avenue. The theater was one reason, he said, the Fatburger chain was supposedly considering opening a location in the building at Michigan and Military.

A vinyl sign that hung outside the building saying Fatburger was “coming soon” has long since been removed.

A Emagine megaplex would be a terrific addition to downtown West Dearborn. We’re hopeful it still could happen . . .

Dearborn-based nonprofit groups can boost their fundraising efforts by participating in the 2011 Dearborn Homecoming festival, which attracts about 150,000 people each year.

City officials say a limited number of food booths still remain in the festival’s Food Court.

It is a rare fundraising opportunity for groups new to Homecoming, and it is being offered by the City of Dearborn and the Dearborn Community Fund.

The 2011 festival is Aug. 5-7 at Dearborn’s Ford Field Park.

Dearborn’s Homecoming is known for its spectacular fireworks, main stage entertainment and regional performers, arts and craft show, carnival and festival food, which is sold by Dearborn charities and service clubs.

Booths in the popular Food Court are only rented to Dearborn nonprofit groups. They start at $350 for the weekend. Menus are subject to approval.

For more information, call the Department of Public Information at 313-943-2285 by June 1 to reserve your booth.

Adrian Cronauer will be the grand marshal of Dearborn’s 2011 Memorial Day Parade.

Dearborn officials Monday announced that the grand marshal of the city’s 2011 Memorial Day Parade will be Adrian Cronauer, the man best known as the high-energy DJ portrayed in the 1987 movie Good Morning Vietnam!

Cronauer is an appropriate choice for this invitation from the Dearborn Allied War Veterans Council (DAWVC) because the theme of Dearborn’s 2011 parade is the Vietnam War.

This year marks the 50th Anniversary of the conflict, and the parade will also include a special tribute to the 69 men from Dearborn who died in the war.

Dearborn’s Memorial Day Parade, presented by the DAWVC with support from the City of Dearborn, begins at 9:30 a.m. on Monday, May 30 on Michigan Avenue at Greenfield with a funeral procession to honor veterans who passed away without resources for burial.

Then at about 10:30 a.m., the parade begins, and will include 90 military and community groups.

The parade is followed by a Remembrance Service, during which Cronauer will give a keynote address.

Cronauer is a former sergeant in the U.S. Air Force, but is remembered best for his major role in military radio.

He co-authored the original story that became the 1987 motion picture, Good Morning Vietnam!, and was loosely portrayed by Academy Award nominee, Robin Williams.

(more…)

Lifelong Dearborn Resident Helped Shape City for More Than 61 Years

City Planner John Nagy, who worked for Dearborn 61 years and had a hand in the design of every major development in the City since the 1950s, passed away on April 28. He was 84.

Dearborn resident and City Planner John Nagy, who worked for Dearborn 61 years, was considered an institution in our city.

Mr. Nagy was considered an institution in Dearborn, and his breadth and depth of knowledge of the development of the City, as well as individual properties, was remarkable.

It was information he freely shared, and he often helped clarify complex issues with first-hand facts from years before.  I had the pleasure and opportunity to work with Mr. Nagy while a writer at The Detroit News and later as a City Plan Commissioner. Mr. Nagy was the consummate gentleman and a wonderful man to work with and simply be around. Like many others whose lives he touched,  I will miss him dearly.

He was well-respected in the planning community and continued to bring fresh ideas to Dearborn by visiting other cities on his free time.

He was an incredibly creative and flexible thinker who often generated solutions to planning problems that stumped others.

Professional and precise in his dealings, he was universally respected and thought of fondly by his City Hall colleagues and the City Plan Commissioners with whom he worked.

“It was impossible not to enjoy any interaction with John,” Mayor John B. O’Reilly, Jr. said.

Several years ago, to honor him for his contributions to Dearborn, John Nagy Drive, the road just south of City Hall, was named after him. In 1994, he received the first Michigan Society of Planning Officials Community Planner of the Year Award.

“Whether you know it or not, all of Dearborn benefitted from Mr. Nagy’s planning expertise,” said Mayor O’Reilly. “John clearly loved Dearborn and worked tireless to ensure its long term vitality.

“As Dearborn grew with new residential, retail, office or industrial complexes over the decades, he worked to make sure there was logic to the progress. He preserved the integrity of our neighborhoods while allowing for beneficial economic development,” Mayor O’Reilly said.

“Beyond that, he is just an incredible example of a dedicated public servant, unmatched in 61 years of service to Dearborn,” he said.

Mr. Nagy was first hired in the City Plan division in 1947 as a level one draftsman. In 1953, he was appointed acting city planner by the Dearborn City Plan Commission. He became a planning technician in 1954.

In 1960, he was appointed Housing Commissioner by Mayor Orville Hubbard. The Dearborn City Council appointed him as urban renewal director in 1963.

He left Dearborn to become an assistant city planner in Livonia in 1964, but returned in 1967 to become the City Planner following an appointment by the Plan Commission.

Over the decades, he worked closely with Ford Motor Land Development as it was developing much of the center of the city with offices, residential, retail and research facilities.

He was most proud of supervising the Operation Eyesore project, a program begun by Hubbard in the early 1960s in which substandard houses are purchased by the City, then sold for the construction of new homes, helping to keep the City’s housing stock attractive for young families. More than 1,300 properties were purchased in his time and about 600 new homes built.

Mr. Nagy directed the City Plan Commission, which makes recommendations on zoning issues and land use to the City Council.

He was instrumental in the development of the first Dearborn Civic Center at Michigan and Greenfield, Dearborn’s senior citizen towers, and the first master parking plan in the west Dearborn business district more than 40 years ago. Because of the length of his service, he experienced two or three cycles of development on the same property.

This year, he was overseeing the creation of a new master plan for the city to allow for its long term success by anticipating future residential and commercial needs.

Economic and Community Development Director Barry Murray, who has worked for the City for five years and often turned to Mr. Nagy as a resource, said, “John was truly a fountain of knowledge about the community and his passion for Dearborn was clear in the fond way he would recall a story about a development or planning process that improved his home town.”

Mayor O’Reilly said: “Dearborn will never be able to replace the talent, the knowledge, and the dedication that John represented.”

The loss is personal as well.

“John was a colleague of, and later a department head for, my father but more than that, he was a treasured friend of both my parents,” said Mayor O’Reilly, whose father was also mayor.

A lifelong Dearborn resident, Mr. Nagy was a Fordson High School graduate and attended Dearborn Junior College. He served in the U.S. Army 1944-46.

A Memorial service for Mr. Nagy will be held Monday, May 2, 2011 in Studio A at the Ford Community and Performing Arts Center at 10:00 a.m.

After five years sitting vacant, the Quality Inn Motel on Michigan Avenue and Brady is finally gone.

With the Quality Inn at the corner of Michigan and Brady now gone, what does the future hold for this prime piece of real estate in West Dearborn?

But now what is going to happen to this prime piece of vacant real estate in the heart of West Dearborn?

With a clean slate, the Dearborn Historical Museum has the opportunity to rethink the future of persevering the city’s past and bring some new development to this very busy intersection.

Kirt Gross, chief curator for the Dearborn Historical Museum, will host a presentation on the history of the museum site and the museum’s plans and goals for future development on Wednesday, May 4 at 7:30 p.m.

This is one worth attending if you can.

For more information, call 313-565-3000.

The city of Dearborn sent out a release today that nicely explains the city’s actions as it relates to Pastor Terry Jones. Despite some comments posted here, the city clearly has afforded Jones a venue to spew his hate.

The release begins below:

Mayor John B. O'Reilly, Jr.

The City of Dearborn has always offered Pastor Terry Jones the opportunity to exercise his right to free speech, and so his announcement to return to Dearborn on April 29 to protest in one of the City’s permit-free zones is consistent with Dearborn’s position all along.

The City is not anticipating any pre-determined outcome to Pastor Jones’ protest on Friday. The City will be preparing appropriately to manage the large crowds that may be drawn to support or counter Pastor Jones’ message.

Since the content of Pastor Jones’ message has never been the issue, the City also believes it is on solid ground regarding potential legal challenges to any action it has taken so far.

The City also notes that Pastor Jones has been given due process under the law at every step from the moment he filed his application to protest in Dearborn, initially set for April 22.

Mayor John B. O’Reilly, Jr. praised Dearborn residents for their measured response to Pastor Jones last week, and for their participation in events promoting the unity of the community.

On Friday, a peaceful gathering at the Henry Ford Centennial Library, one of the city’s designated permit-free zones, attracted about 400 people.

On Thursday, 700-900 people participated in an event at the Islamic Center of America, organized by the InterFaith Leadership Council of Metropolitan Detroit.

This week, Mayor John B. O’Reilly, Jr. encourages residents to continue to focus on the community’s unity and respect for all of the faith traditions.

Because of the high-profile of this case, people may be learning about Dearborn from misinformed sources, so the community’s positive actions will paint an accurate picture of a united Dearborn.

Mayor O’Reilly also feels it is important for residents to understand what happened last week amid the whirlwind surrounding the plans of Pastor Jones to hold his demonstration on April 22.

Mayor O’Reilly recognizes that the dizzying details may have left some with legitimate questions about what really took place.

“I’ve been approached by a number of Dearborn citizens who were confused by what happened last week and why. So, as we look ahead to the pastor’s announced return on April 29, I thought I should try to clarify what has occurred so far,” said Mayor O’Reilly.

He provided the following:

 “Dearborn never questioned the pastor’s right to exercise free speech. The question we differed on was where this demonstration should take place in order to protect both the pastor’s rights as well as the rights of those wishing to observe religious services,” he said

 The pastor’s preferred location was on a grassy area near Altar Road, a two-lane road with limited access serving four Christian churches, which, on April 22, were hosting Good Friday services. The road also serves a mosque, which hosted weekly prayer services on April 22.

 This location does not have any public parking or public sidewalks, and is adjacent to the six-lane Ford Road. The grassy area is not designed for human occupation.

 The City requires groups that want to hold special events not on public sidewalks or permit-free zones to apply for a special event permit with the police department. The department looks at public safety concerns and logistics to minimize the impact on adjacent property owners and traffic, amid other concerns.

 The City has areas in which no permit is required for a special event. These zones provided high visibility, can accommodate large crowds and have plenty of public parking, including for supporters and the media.

 The City denied Pastor Jones’ special event application for Altar Road, but referred him to City Hall, one of the permit-free zones.

 Pastor Jones said publicly that he intended to protest at the Altar Road site despite the City’s denial of the permit. Pastor Jones has not appealed the denial.

 Other groups also applied for special event permits at the Altar Road site and were denied. They were referred to the permit-free zones.

 Meanwhile, the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office on April 15 initiated a process in the 19th District Court to determine if Pastor Jones should pay for a “peace bond.”

 A jury decided the “preponderance of evidence” showed that Pastor Jones and his associate, Wayne Sapp, would likely cause a breach of peace if they protested at the Altar Road site on April 22 at the time that they chose.

 This verdict prompted the judge to set the conditions of the peace bond. He set the amount at $1 for each man. He also set a condition that neither man visit the planned protest site or the Islamic Center of America for three years.

 Pastor Jones and Mr. Sapp refused to pay the $1 bond. So they were initially taken into custody to be processed for the Wayne County Jail.

 During the processing, each agreed to pay the $1 and were released Friday night.

 Pastor Jones later announced he would return to Dearborn for a protest on Friday, April 29.