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.”

Arella Studio in Dearborn is moving to Canton and selling its building to a local dentist.

Say goodbye to another longtime Dearborn business.

Arella Studio, which has been family owned and operated since 1936, is selling its building in Dearborn and moving to Canton.

The family has decided to sell its building at 22801 Newman to a dentist.

“The building has become too big for us,” said Mike Arella, the third generation of Arellas to work at the studio. His father Angelo still works in the studio.

The last day for the business in Dearborn could come as early as Aug. 10, Arella said.

The Arella Family has been snapping family portraits and graduation pictures for 75 years. The bulk of the family business has historically been prom and graduation photos, including the senior pics of this writer back in the late 1980s.  But Arella says the market today in Dearborn for these types of pictures just doesn’t exist any longer.

“Kids don’t appear to be taking high school photos any longer, ” Arella said. “There isn’t a market left here. ”

Arella said the family is searching for a smaller location in Canton to lease. We wish the family the best of luck on this next chapter of their business.

For the third year in a row, the Dearborn Library is offering a Food for Fines program, which will run August 6-17, with all items donated given to the Dearborn Firefighters for distribution to needy local families through the Burn Drive program.

Library patrons may donate non-perishable, non-expired food items and receive $1 reduction in overdue library fines for every item donated.

All Dearborn libraries will be accepting canned or boxed food items in exchange for reductions in overdue library fines.

While there is no limit on the number of items donated nor to the amount of fines cleared, it can only be used for overdue items.

Patrons cannot use the donation program to pay for lost items or any damaged items.

Check at any Dearborn Public Library for further information.

Dearborn Mayor John B. O’Reilly, Jr. (right) and Fire Chief Joseph Murray (second from right) witness the swearing-in of three new Dearborn firefighters, all of whom participated in the Dearborn Fire Department’s Cadet Program. Shown here (from left) are City Clerk Kathleen Buda, and Probationary Firefighters Timothy Duda, Matthew Bajjey and Matthew Allen Ferrell. They were sworn in during a ceremony on July 18.

Three lifelong Dearborn residents were recently sworn-in as firefighters after earlier participating in the Dearborn Fire Department’s Cadet Program, which helps local students prepare for public safety careers.

The three join two other successful Cadet Program graduates hired by the Fire Department in August, 2010.

The Cadet Program was initiated six years ago by Mayor John B. O’Reilly, Jr. and then-Fire Chief Nazih Hazime as a way to attract Dearborn youth to firefighting careers.

The local students participate to gain valuable training and experience while they pursue the necessary education and certifications at fire academies, which can take three years.

The Cadet Program is similar in concept and operation to the Police Department’s Intern Program, which also was initiated by Mayor O’Reilly, along with Police Chief Ron Haddad.

The intern program recruits young people from the Dearborn community who have an interest in public safety.

Four graduates from Fordson and Edsel Ford high schools are active in the internship program, which began in July 2010, and the police plan to have Dearborn High graduates soon. Another two local students will start as unpaid interns in the fall.

These programs support the extensive recruiting efforts pursued by the Dearborn Fire and Police departments.

Read the rest of this entry »

The “Food Truck Rally” comes to Dearborn Friday, July 20.

The Dearborn Area Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with the City of Dearborn and the West Dearborn Downtown Authority will host the first of three food truck rallies planned for this summer.

The first event, sponsored by Westborn Market, will take place Friday, July 20 from 5 – 9 p.m. in Lot C, just behind Pizza Papalis and west of Monroe Street.

Patrons can expect 8-10 food trucks selling gourmet fare directly from their “kitchen-on-wheels.”

Committed food trucks include Franks Anatra, Concrete Cuisine, Treat Dreams, Ned’s, Mack Shack, El Guappo, PPC, and Jacques Tacos. On average, food items are priced between $4-$7. Patrons can enjoy live music, as well.

The Dearborn Chamber says that thanks to the Michigan Mobile Food Truck Association, food truck rallies are becoming very popular in the region with events scheduled regularly in Royal Oak, downtown Detroit and Ferndale, among others. Future events will be held August 24 and September 21 from 5 – 9 p.m. in downtown West Dearborn.

Food trucks experienced a boom just as the economy started to decline in 2008. Restaurateurs who were hesitant to drop serious cash on launching a restaurant turned to mobile trucks as a less expensive way to sell food in a down economy.

While one might think these food trucks could hurt the taxpaying restaurants in the area, the Dearborn Chamber claims that existing restaurants experience an upswing in revenue by proximity to these rallies.

“We think this will be an exciting and unique way to bring families downtown on Friday evenings for food, fun and entertainment,” Jennifer Giering of the Dearborn Chamber said in a prepared statement. “These community events have a tremendous economic impact on surrounding businesses with the first event in Ferndale attracting 1,500 people, many of which patronized local bars and restaurants after the event.”

A new hookah bar is coming to Dearborn’s West Village Commons.

It has been a revolving door of businesses at Dearborn’s West Village Commons -– the Burton-Katzman development on Michigan Avenue that opened in 2005.

But one of the first tenants of the development, Le Cigar, continues to thrive in this location and now plans to open a new hookah bar next door to his current business, which will be called La Hookah.

We wrote about the new hookah bar coming to this location back in November. See earlier story HERE.

The new La Hookah, which is expected to open in two weeks, is one of two new hookah bars coming to west Dearborn.

While hookah bars aren’t our thing, they apparently are popular. Le Cigar and La Hookah owner Najib Rizk says his businesses help draw people to west Dearborn.

“We have customers that come from Northville, Novi and Royal Oak,” Rizk said. “We are a unique place. We do need to draw more tenants to this area. The more we can draw new business to this area the better.”

The second hookah bar is planned to go into the Gateway Plaza development at the corner of Michigan and Military.

This would be the first business to go into the Gateway Plaza building, which opened in 2007 offering some 11,000 square feet in retail space and lofts on the second floor.

Regular readers of DeepsaidWhat.com will recall that Gateway developer Hakim Fakhoury once touted it would be occupied with a Bora Bora Coffee Shop, Quizno’s Sub Shop, Armani store and Caliente Grille. It isn’t clear when the new hookah bar business will open. A separate restaurant also is slated to open in the Gateway Plaza, which will offer carryout to serve hookah bar patrons and others.

When both open, west Dearborn will offer at least four places for hookah fans to smoke. The marketplace will decide just who will survive.

Dearborn Police recovered this 1930 Ford Model A convertible that was stolen from the Henry Ford Museum parking lot on June 26.

Dearborn Police today announced that surveillance officers (July 11) recovered the 1930 Ford Model-A and trailer that was stolen  June 26 from the grounds of The Henry Ford Museum.

After several weeks of developing leads from concerned citizens and subsequent surveillance, the trailer containing the classic Ford roadster was found in an industrial area in Detroit near Mt. Elliot and Gratiot. The car and trailer were valued at more than $30,000

“It was a pleasure for us to be able to call the car’s owner in California to let him know that his classic piece of Ford history was recovered by our Special Operations crew,” said Dearborn Police Chief Ronald Haddad in a statement. “Needless to say, he was elated. The hard work that our surveillance officers as well as our detectives put into this case cannot be overstated.”

Haddad also wished to thank the local and national media and H.E.A.T (Help Eliminate Auto Thefts) for their help with this case. The Dearborn PD is still looking for the stolen 2001 F-250 truck with a California license plate that was used to tow the Model A.