Starting November 1, Dearborn Police will step up enforcement of nuisance vehicles stored on private property to preserve the quality of neighborhoods and remove safety hazards.

To avoid a $500 fine, police are encouraging residents who have a title to an unwanted vehicle to take advantage of the City’s amnesty program by calling Rusko’s Towing at 313-274-4550.

The unwanted vehicle will be towed away without cost.

Residents who want to keep their vehicles are encouraged to move any that meet the definition of a nuisance into storage inside an enclosed structure. This includes vehicles that are disassembled, stripped, dismantled, can’t be driven or are in a state of disrepair.

Vehicles found to be inoperative for any reason could be in violation of the nuisance ordinance, known as City Ordinance 13-2.

This applies to property owners who store, or allow to be stored, a nuisance vehicle.

After November 1, vehicles found to be in violation of the nuisance ordinance will be tagged by the Police Department. Residents will have 72 hours to remove or properly store the vehicle.

After that, the homeowner may be responsible for towing/storage and a misdemeanor violation punishable by a fine up to $500.

“When you’re finished working on your car, push it back in the garage,” said Police Cpl. Mike Nelson. “Leaving them out is neighborhood blight.”

Nuisance vehicles also can be dangerous.

They often have broken glass, sharp metal protrusions or are mounted on blocks or jacks that might become unstable.

Because they frequently block access for fire equipment to adjacent buildings and structures, nuisance vehicles also constitute a fire hazard.

They can serve as a breeding ground for insects and rodents.

Back in August, we wrote about a new grocery store moving into the building that once was home to a Kroger store in East Dearborn.

On Monday, the new store at 13661 Colson St. near the corner of Schaefer Rd. and Michigan, celebrated its grand opening.

Called Dearborn Fresh Supermarket, the new 50,000 sq.-ft facility features a wide range of traditional & international groceries, fresh produce, fresh meats & poultry. It is much more than your average grocery store.

The Dearborn Fresh Supermarket also features an Oasis Cafe for lunch on the spot, bulk food section, Tim Horton’s, Sweet Dreams Cakes & Pastries, a sushi bar, Hashem’s Nuts & Coffee Gallery, a flower shop, a pharmacy with a cell phone shop and a fashion accessory store.

“As our country plunges into deeper debt and higher rates of unemployment, we believe that a personal business initiative and an entrepreneurial spirit may well maximize the strength of our falling economy,” said Fuad and Kamal Turfah, the co-owners of the store, in a press release.

We wish the store the best of luck. Dearborn Fresh is open 7 days a week from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.

There were lots of questions about Dearborn’s city calendar at Monday night’s City Council meeting so we thought we’d remind readers again about what needs to be done if you’d like to receive a free city calendar for 2012.

Residents who want a calendar mailed to their homes must have their order in by Nov. 4. The preferred method to order is through the city’s website, www.cityofdearborn.org

The direct link to the request form is HERE. Ordering the calendar at www.cityofdearborn.org ensures accuracy and reduces the cost to taxpayers.

As an alternative method only, residents without Internet access can order a calendar by calling 943-3003 and leaving a mailing address.

As a cost-saving measure, it is no longer mailed to every household automatically.

The 2012 City Calendar will also be found at www.cityofdearborn.org in January and can be viewed or printed in its entirety or by individual pages.

Those who order a calendar should receive it in the mail before Dec. 23, 2011. Additional copies will be available in December at public buildings while supplies last.

The Friends For the Dearborn Animal Shelter (FFDAS) will host the 11th anniversary of their annual Black Tie & Tails fundraiser dinner and auction event on Friday, October 21st, at the historic Dearborn Inn.

Going green this year, the event highlights the ultimate recycling gift of finding homes for adoptable animals. Many aspects of the event this year incorporate green-friendly initiatives from eco-printing invitations, hosting the evening in a Leeds certified venue and donating any leftover food to a local food bank.

“We are concerned with leaving gentle pawprints everywhere we step as an organization, including in the care of animals,” said Elaine Greene, executive director of FFDAS.

Black Tie & Tails is the premier fund-raising event hosted by FFDAS. Since its inception Black Tie has raised over $850,000, which has directly benefited 20,000 rescues. This year, the organization strives to achieve the $1,000,000 mark for an 11 year total. The proceeds are much needed funds for the shelter, as a steady stream of homeless kittens and puppies continue to flow through its doors.

This elegant evening for four-footed friends is emceed by Dan Miller, Fox 2 sports director and FFDAS adopter. It includes: a champagne reception, hors d’ oeuvres, dinner, dancing, silent and live auctions, and a “green”carpet promenade for adoptable animals. For the first time, auction items can be previewed online.

The evening event is sponsored this year by MaryAnn Wright and Bob Sayles. Special guest stars include honorary co-chairs Congressman John and Mrs. Debbie Dingell, Detroit Lions quarterback Drew Stanton and Mrs. Kristin Stanton and Detroit Lions long snapper Don and Mrs.Alix Muhlbach.

Tickets for Black Tie & Tails are $175 per person. The event will take place from 7 p.m. until midnight at the Dearborn Inn. Tickets are available online or by calling the Dearborn Animal Shelter.

Learn more about this and other upcoming events, volunteering, donating or to view the Shelter’s adoptable animals online. The Dearborn Animal Shelter is located at 2661 Greenfield Road, Dearborn, and is operated by the Friends For the Dearborn Animal Shelter, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Main phone: 313-943-2697 and on the web www.DearbornAnimals.org, you can follow the Shelter on Facebook or Twitter.

Oakwood is moving its headquarters into this building at 15500 Lundy Parkway in Dearborn.

Oakwood Healthcare Inc. in Dearborn has signed a long-term lease with Ford Land for a new headquarters building in Dearborn at 15500 Lundy Parkway, Crain’s Detroit Business is reporting.

According to Crain’s, the health system will move 650 employees to the 135,000-square-foot, two-building facility in the coming days.

The move will save Oakwood 20 percent per square foot and provide an additional 25,000 square feet of building space for its nonclinical corporate staff. Oakwood is currently at 18101 Oakwood Blvd., Crain’s reports.

Oakwood is home to more than 9,000 employees and 1,300 physicians and is the second-largest employer in suburban Wayne County.

For more information about Oakwood Healthcare, visit oakwood.org

Halloween Campers’ Weekends at Camp Dearborn are October 7 - 9 and October 14 - 16.

Camp Dearborn, the Dearborn-owned, family-oriented recreational facility in Milford, is gearing up for the annual Halloween Campers’ Weekends October 7 – 9 and October 14 – 16.

Introduced at the Camp in 2007, Halloween Weekends have become very popular, attracting  hundreds of families who move into the campground to take part in the fun of decorating their campsites and enjoying the autumn activities.

Each weekend begins with a magic show at 8 p.m. Friday. Jeff Wawrzaszek, a popular family entertainer, will amuse the entire family with his magic show in the activitiy tent. After the show, families can jump on a haywagon for a ride around the Camp before returning to their campsites.

One pumpkin is given to each family at check-in Friday to carve at their campsite and join in Saturday’s first activity, the pumpkin carving contest. Saturday’s fun continues with a mummy wrap, games, costume parade and contest, and more hayrides.

All activities lead to the highlight of every Halloween celebration: trick-or-treating. Trick-or-treaters of all ages run safely from campsite to campsite begging for candy from 6:30 until 8 p.m. Saturday All traffic is stopped during this period to ensure the safety of the children.

Reservations for the Halloween Weekends can be made at either of the Camp Dearborn Offices: 313- 943-2350 or 248-684-6000. Camp Dearborn has 118 tents and 30 rustic cabins for rent, and 191 campsites for visitors who bring their own RV, tent or pop-up.

Halloween campers are reminded to bring plenty of candy for trick-or-treaters.

More information on Camp Dearborn, and a schedule of Halloween events, can be found on the camp’s website at www.campdearborn.com

If you enjoy blues music then here’s an interesting event to check out in Dearborn Wednesday evenings.

Joe’s Top Dog Coney Island & Bar, 13342 Michigan Ave., (just down from City Hall), hosts a new jam blues session each Wednesday night from about 8:30 p.m. until 2 a.m.

What’s cool about how Top Dog owner Joe Bojovic has put this together is that this blues night is an open mic jam session. So if you have an instrument and want to play with the band, you can. Bojovic has been hosting the Wednesday night blues sessions for just over a month now and interest has really started to pick up, he said. There is no cover charge either, which is also nice.

“We wanted to try and peak some interest in East Dearborn with these sessions,” said Bojovic, who for 29 years has been serving some of the best coney dogs in Dearborn. “It’s a nice way to kick back and enjoy some good music and food with friends in the middle of the week.”

Dearborn blues band Jack Rabbit Slim kicks things off each Wednesday at about 8:30 p.m.

Drafts are just a $1, well drinks $2 and Long Island Ice Tea $4 until 10 p.m. each Wednesday. The grill is open until midnight so you can get Top Dog’s coney, burgers, chicken sandwiches and salads.

Is the 1968 C10 Chevy panel wagon dressed with a custom graphic advertising Peder Blohm’s Internet business a commercial vehicle or a personal use one?

At a Dearborn Traffic Commission meeting on Tuesday at 7 p.m., Blohm will find out.

Is Peter Blohm's 1968 C10 Chevy panel wagon, pictured in the driveway of his Dearborn home, a commercial vehicle that is a nuisance to his neighbors or a personal use one?

Blohm’s “Beast”, the name he has affectionately given his ’68 Chevy, was recently found in violation of the city’s ordinance regulating commercial vehicles parked in residential neighborhoods.  According to Blohm, he received two violation notices at his Dearborn home that were signed by a Residential Services employee (formerly Building and Safety) telling him he had until Oct. 2 to move the vehicle.

Blohm says he contacted Dearborn’s Residential Services and tried to explain that the vehicle was not a commercial vehicle, and that it was registered as a wagon, driven for personal and not commercial use, and displayed at local car cruises and car shows. Still, he says, the inspector insisted it was a commercial vehicle.

We’ve written on these pages a couple of weeks ago how Dearborn was stepping up its enforcement of its ordinance regulating commercial vehicles parked in residential neighborhoods (see earlier story, HERE).

In a way, you can’t blame the enforcement officers. They are being told by their leaders to write up every commercial vehicle they see following a slew of complaints from residents on this very topic. In a recent four day sweep of the city more than 160 citations were issued.

Blohm admits that his vehicle has colorful graphics for a member-based Web site, mynewmarketplace.com that he is part owner of, and which helps to connect buyers and sellers nationwide.

He says when he asked the inspector if he were to purchase a $300,000 Bentley, put graphics on the doors, and keep it parked in his driveway, would it be considered a commercial vehicle. The inspector quickly replied “yes.” Blohm said he was told that if he continued to park his vehicle in his driveway the city would fine him and he’d be taken to court.

Which is why he is headed to the city’s Traffic Commission meeting Tuesday night with a petition signed by all of his neighbors (all want the city to approve it) seeking an exception to the ordinance.

Read the rest of this entry »

Earlier this summer, former Dearborn Charter Commissioner Raymond Trudeau came before the Dearborn City Council to ask questions about Judge Mark Somers and the more than $1.1 million in damages against him from two lawsuits that the city could end up writing a check for.

In his confrontational style of question asking, Trudeau wanted answers to two questions: would the city would have to pay $1.1 million for the jury awards and why Dearborn didn’t settle these two civil lawsuits for a fraction of the cost rather than going to trial.

City leaders said Dearborn wasn’t responsible for those jury awards.

That appears not to be the case now.

The Michigan Court of Appeals late last week denied an appeal hearing made by the attorney general’s office to throw out the award of $463,820 to Simone Calvas, a former probation officer at the district court in Dearborn.

This means the city of Dearborn could be forced to write the check for the entire amount. It is worth noting that the Appeals Court denied the motion because the attorney general’s office was late in filing the appeal within the required 21 day window from when the jury award was made. Kind of makes you wonder if the State should pay for the entire amount for being late with its appeal request.

The Calvas award is one of two that separate juries in two different civil trials awarded to two former District Court employees in Dearborn over claims they were fired by Judge Somers in violation of Michigan law. The second award was for $732,000 to Julie Pucci, a former deputy court administrator.

At that council meeting Trudeau attended in July, he never received an answer on why the city didn’t consider settling with Ms. Pucci.  According to Trudeau, Pucci would have settled for less than $50,000. One city council member told Deepsaidwhat.com that Judge Somers was asked to consider settling the suit on several occasions but he declined.

The season premier of Under The Radar Michigan will turn its camera lens on Dearborn.

The TV show airs locally on Detroit Public TV and various affiliates around Michigan and Ohio or on the website HERE. The show airs at 10:30 a.m. Dearborn’s Green Brain Comics will be one of the businesses featured on the program.

For those who may not be familiar with the program, Tom Daldin, the host of the show and Rochester, MI dad of  three,  makes our state’s underground gems shine on his cool PBS TV program.

Should be good . . .