The Dearborn Commission on Disability Concerns is seeking new members.

If you are a Dearborn resident interested in disability concerns from a personal or professional perspective, the commission would like to hear from you.

The Commission promotes full access to city programs and services for both communication and physical barriers. It also provides educational forums and up-to-date information about the implementation of the Americans with Disability Act.

Appointments to the commission are made by the mayor. To receive an application to be considered for an appointment, please contact the Dearborn commission at (313) 943-2789 TTY, call (313) 943-2835 or email Marsha Koet at mkoet@ci.dearborn.mi.us

(Source: Dearborn Youth Symphony Press Release)

The Dearborn Youth Symphony (DYS) will present its premier concert of the 2010-2011 season on Sunday, December 5 at 4 p.m. in Dearborn’s Michael A. Guido Theater of the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center.

 The DYS was formed in 1975 to provide young musicians with symphonic ensemble experience and to foster interest in instrumental music. Today, with the sponsorship of the Dearborn Recreation Department, strong parental volunteer efforts, and dedicated conductors, the DYS continues to nurture and challenge young musicians with their orchestras and flute choirs.

The Season Premier concert includes performances by the Combined Flute Choirs, Concert Orchestra, and the Symphony Orchestra. Featuring Saint-Saen’s Bacchanale from “Samson and Delilah” and Suite #1 from “Carmen” by Bizet, the Symphony Orchestra will be conducted by DYS Artistic Director, Tim Cibor. Joining Maestro Cibor will be Assistant Conductor, Joseph Deller and the Flute Choirs’ Conductor, Donna Olkowski.

General admission tickets for the DYS December 5 concert are $10 for adults and $8 for children and seniors. To purchase tickets please visit the Center box office at 15801 Michigan Avenue at Greenfield or call (313) 943-2354. Box office hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. The box office is also open one hour before show time. Visa, MasterCard and American Express are accepted.

The unfortunate part about any person seeking public office is that politics is ugly business. We saw it this year in Dearborn in the State House race between council members George Darany and Suzanne Sarini.

Tom Tafelski

It was also ugly during last year’s general election. In the city council race, Dearborn Council President Tom Tafelski became the target of an anonymous attack/smear campaign both on the Internet and in the mail.

We approached Tafelski when the mailings began, providing him the opportunity to set the record straight last November but he declined. Instead, he said he would speak openly to us when this investigation was done.

True to his word, Tafelski took time out to discuss the results of the investigation, which are now public. There are many tails to the origins of the Tafelski attacks.

While it isn’t yet crystal clear who actually penned the mailing or email, an investigation did reveal that the email was forwarded by a Dearborn councilwoman. The investigation also turned up evidence that one of the mailings was stamped from the company of a Dearborn councilman to-be, Tafelski tells DeepsaidWhat. And, a Wayne County commissioner apologized to Tafelski for forwarding the email once.

Worth noting is that Tafelski had this information ahead of the November election. But he decided against releasing it because he said he didn’t want to stoop to the negative campaigning he so despises, which was a good call on his part.

While it is unlikely anyone will be charged for any of this, Tafeslki tells DeepsaidWhat he is going to refer the information to the city’s ethics board, along with the county and state election commission. He also said he is evaluating filing civil lawsuits. So this has the potential to live on and get a littly messy.

“What they all did was unconscionable. The fact remains it hurt my family because they wanted to get ahead in politics. And shame on them. Now they are scurrying behind the scenes. When you start talking to attorneys and possible charges . . . people dime out people pretty quick,” Tafelski said.

But first a recap from last November.

Read the rest of this entry »

Switch is Official: Panera Cares in Dearborn Opens Today, Nov. 21

Eat what you want, pay what you can at Dearborn's Panera Cares, located at Michigan and Howard.

Dearborn’s Panera Bread officially switches to Panera Cares today, a non-profit restaurant where customers pay what they wish for their order.

We wrote about this switch earlier in the week (see that story HERE.). Dearborn becomes the second store that we know of to go to this new business model. The first opened in Clayton, Mo., earlier this year.

Readers of this site seem to be tracking neutral to negative with this change, questioning the wisdom, the people it may attract and what it will do to other businesses who can’t afford to give away their product for discount prices or even free.

Interesting that our Dearborn store is sandwiched between a Panera Bread in Dearborn Heights on Ford Road and another in Allen Park atop of landfill mountain. Kind of feels like the Panera corporate folks are hedging bets with this experiment in Dearborn.

Two employees of the Dearborn store say the same experience Panera Bread offered patrons will continue with the switch to Panera Cares.

Here is what an employee by the name of April Kersey and Rachel Sleger posted in our comments section (the typos and misspelled words are not ours):

April Kersey says:

Okay, I work at the panera cares in Dearborn Mi. We open tomarrow and we are on fire for the switch. This switch means nothing but great things for the community! The fereshly baked yesterday goods are only in the bakery section and taste exactly the same, dont belive us, let us give you a sample. We want you to taste our product before you donate for it. Our store is still held to the same standards. We only give product to our customers what is quality! The bread that your sandwhichs are on is freash baked daily and the food is all the same. We enocurage those with the means to pay at least suggested donation level, to do so and if you cant, well thats okay too. thats what we are here for. its not a hand out its a hand up. We open tomarrow – Sunday. Come see us. We’ll show you what were all about.

Rachel Sleger says:

I am also a worker at the Panera Cares in Dearborn, MI. This is something that is great and exciting! Everyone should be happy for this change because that’s exactly what we are doing…we are making a change. We are helping others who are in need and also still here for those regular customers that come in every morning to order their bagel with cream cheese and coffee before work. Panera is all about warmth. We want everyone to feel welcome. As April stated above, if you are at all concerned about the quality of our bakery items or cafe items everyone in the bakery cafe is more than willing to open their arms and answer any questions or hand out samples to ensure our product tastes no different. Our sandwiches are made on baked fresh daily bread along with the baguettes we serve as a side with any entree. The product is to the same standards as before. Our bakery section is baked fresh yesterday items. Our grand reopening is tomorrow Sunday, November 21! We encourage everyone to stop in to learn a bit more of what we are about and support our non-profit community cafe.

The two employees make a valid point. Before anyone writes off the switch, we should at least drop in once and try it.

A reader of DeepsaidWhat.com sent this news along, asking us to inform the greater community of a new Christmas tree lighting tradition being started this Thanksgiving weekend in Dearborn.

The Church of the Divine Child in west Dearborn will be hosting a Community Advent Tree Lighting Ceremony on Sunday, Nov. 28, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. on the front lawn of the church, 1055 N. Silvery Lane, marking the start of the four week Advent season. All are welcome to the tree lighting event.

The Catholic Church and some other Christian denominations observe Advent as a time of preparation and joyful anticipation of the birth of Jesus. Christmas trees and other traditional decorations are typically not displayed in Catholic churches until the vigil celebration on Christmas Eve, which officially begins the Christmas season for the Church.

“This Advent tree is going to be different,” says Divine Child Pastor, Rev. James Bilot. “It symbolizes the anticipation of Christmas and will serve as beacon throughout the weeks of preparation; a reminder of what the season is really all about. We hope that residents throughout our neighborhood will pause to enjoy it and will be intrigued by what it represents.”

The festivities will include caroling and refreshments leading up to the lighting of the 50-foot tall live blue spruce. The evening concludes with Advent Night Prayer inside the church at 8:00 p.m., which will last for about 15 minutes.

“Night Prayer involves a recitation of traditional psalms which really allow an opportunity to reflect,” says Fr. Bilot. “Everyone is welcome to join us just for the tree lighting or also for the prayer time, whether they are Catholic or not. If you haven’t attended church in a while, take this opportunity to join us for a brief service. If you’re curious, come have some hot chocolate and check it out. There’s no need to worry; it’s a very simple service.”

Since its founding in 1950, the Church of the Divine Child has been a strong Catholic presence in Dearborn and an anchor in the Levagood Park neighborhood. The parish serves over 2500 member families and the elementary and high schools have the largest coeducational Catholic school enrollment in Michigan. For additional information call 313-277-3110 or visit www.divinechild.org

Pay-what-you-wish is expected to soon begin at Dearborn's Panera.

Dearborn’s Panera will soon become one of the company’s nonprofit restaurants where customers pay-what-you wish.

Panera, which operates 1,400 franchised and corporate-owned bakery-cafes across the country, opened its first pay what you wish restaurant in Clayton, Mo., earlier this year.

Dearborn is now preparing to join this small non-profit experiment and will now be called Panera Cares.

We aren’t sure what to make of this move but some employees at the Dearborn Panera aren’t happy with the switch. Perhaps worth noting is that in the first experiment of pay-what-you-wish, nearly all baked goods were day-old from other stores. We are not sure how that will sit here in Dearborn.

In Clayton, cashiers tell customers their orders’ “suggested” price based on the menu. About 60% to 70% pay in full, Panera says. About 15% leave a little more and another 15% pay less, or nothing at all. A handful have left big donations, like $20 for a cup of coffee.

Panera’s Clayton store is run under the company’s St. Louis Bread Co. banner by a nonprofit organization called Panera Cares that publicly traded Panera Co. supports. But Panera won’t bear the nonprofit’s losses if the experiment fails. In an earlier story, Panera said the nonprofit is considering locations that, like Clayton, are upscale but accessible to lower-income customers. In Clayton’s case, St. Louis County’s offices and court house are nearby.

An earlier news article said “The Clayton Panera has hardly turned into a soup kitchen. Its longtime business clientele kept the lunch hour busy last week, with well-dressed workers clustered around laptops and talking on cellphones.”

To control freeloaders in the Clayton store, signs remind customers that “You’re on your honor.”

If it moves forward in Dearborn, it should be an interesting experiment.

We have written here a few times about Artspace and the work the East Dearborn Downtown Development Authority (EDDDA) is doing with this organization to perhaps bring affordable living and work space for artists to Dearborn.

Well, we all can help in this project by spreading the word to anyone within a 50 mile radius of Dearborn. The bottom line is if this project even has a remote chance of taking place in our city, we need people to take the survey at www.artspacedearborn.org  The survey can be taken from now through Jan. 4, 2011 – and it only takes 10 minutes to complete.

Below is from the EDDDA, requesting our help:

At the request and on behalf of the EDDDA, who has partnered with Artspace projects (a national nonprofit developer) to study the space needs of the creative community in Dearborn and the surrounding Detroit Metro area, we’re reaching out to YOU to assist in the development of affordable new spaces where artists may live, work, and pursue their art as well as space where organizations and business can exhibit, perform, rehearse, teach, create, and conduct business in Dearborn .

If you’re an artist (or you know an artist) working in any discipline (graphic design, sculpting, dance, music, writing, fashion design, painting, theater, crafts, etc), you need to participate in this survey. The results will help Artspace developers understand the living, studio and business space preferences for the creative community in metro Detroit , and demonstrate to funders how important new space is to artists and organizations in the region.

And if you’re not an artist but work with a cultural arts organization or business that serves the creative community (coffee shops, art supply and paint stores, galleries, theater companies, book stores, publishers, design firms, social service organizations, etc), your two cents are wanted too!

So how do you take the survey? Go to www.ArtSpaceDearborn.org between now and Jan. 4, 2011

Please be sure to pass this email along and tell your friends and colleagues about these surveys.

The Dearborn Atrium, formerly Adams Jr. High School, apparently has been sold for somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.6 million.

Sold in 2005 for $19 million, the Dearborn Atrium is said to have sold for about $1.6 million.

Several city officials have now confirmed to DeepsaidWhat.com that the three structures – the school, a parking deck and a third building (also formerly a school) – were fetched for the bargain basement price of $1.6 million. This is the same building that in 2005 traded for $19 million.

The big question on the table is who purchased the building and what will move into the building.

There has been much speculation that the building would be used for a charter school, but the property currently is not zoned for such a use. That at least means the city would have control on whether to approve such a use or not. As it stands now, city planners would not be in favor of such a use.

Dearborn Mayor John B. O’Reilly, Jr., says the city understands the buildings will be used as the primary operations for a business that wants to move into Dearborn. O’Reilly couldn’t provide any more detail beyond that as the city apparently does not know much about the purchaser yet.

A new business moving into that building would be great news for business owners that surround that area. Business owners near the school took a big financial hit when automotive supplier Plastech closed shop and filed for bankruptcy.

There are lots of possibilities for this building that was built in 1916. The former school was completely renovated to the shell in 1994.

The property consists of two three-story office buildings and a covered parking structure consisting of 90,774 square feet and 307 parking spaces. The two office buildings consist of 133,001 net rentable square feet and 154,104 square feet of gross building area and sit on 4.09 acres.

Dearborn Schools Supt. Brian Whiston, who, among other things, needs to find a way to negotiate a new contract with Dearborn school teachers, took some time out to pen the column below and send it here to DeepsaidWhat.com

With the Dearborn teachers union already filing a complaint with the state, alleging the district is no longer trying to negotiate a new contract, the timing of his column is curious.

Whiston’s column begins below:

Supt. Brian Whiston

A big Detroit parade, a classic football game, and a traditional family dinner; these are just a few November events that I enjoy. However, events like these don’t just happen, they require planning! Even a big family meal must be planned in advance. Great events, big achievements, and sustained traditions don’t just occur they require a process to ensure they happen and keep getting better each year.

In Dearborn, we too have a process in place to make sure that the long tradition of excellence in the classroom continues. The School Improvement Plan is a year long course of action that all schools embark on in the fall and complete in the spring. Because one size doesn’t fit all, students learn differently, and for every student who needs extra help there is a student that needs to be challenged beyond the curriculum; a School Improvement Plan, that utilizes data and other indicators of student performance, is a proven method to describe how a school will address the different learning needs of each student.

The first part of the school improvement process is the evaluation of goals. School goals for the year are determined by a team consisting of the building principal, teachers, para-pros, and, in most cases, parents. Each school improvement team meets with the District school improvement team, which is a group of central office and building administrators, to present their plans and goals.

Mid-year the District school improvement team will visit each school to talk with staff and visit classrooms. They will look for evidence that the school is working toward the goals set in the fall. If needed, goals are adjusted to better meet the academic needs of the students.

Finally, in the spring, a celebration takes place as all school improvement teams gather at one location to showcase their accomplishments to the Board of Education and community. At the celebration, schools will share ideas and programs that helped them meet their goals. They will also discuss practices or challenges that kept them from meeting a goal either in part or in full.

After summer recess the process begins again in the fall. This continuous cycle of school improvement has been going on in the district for five years and has had positive results in the classroom.

Great success happens when there is great planning. In classrooms throughout our district students are making academic gains because a dedicated staff is actively involved in a system of planning. A system that keeps our schools improving and student achievement the focus of all staff members.

Back in August after the primary election, we wrote that former Dearborn council-candidate David Bazzy would indeed be joining the city council, despite his earlier election loss.

That was because Dearborn Councilman George Darany and Councilwoman Suzanne Sareini were competing for the 15th District seat in the Michigan House of Representatives. With Darany’s victory on Tuesday, Bazzy will now join council in January. Bazzy you will recall finished just 548 votes shy of landing a seat on the Dearborn City Council in the last general election, finishing just behind Councilwoman Nancy Hubbard.

David Bazzy

DeepsaidWhat.com  caught up with Bazzy on the day of the election to get his thoughts on what he views are the biggest issues facing our city and what he hopes to accomplish when he finally does join city council. He says he is excited about joining the council.

”I ran because I felt I had some value to add to the city during these tough economic times, certainly the toughest in my 52 years living here in the city,” he told DeepsaidWhat.com.

Bazzy says while he may make some mistakes on council, he will always act and vote in a way that is best for the city.

He says the city’s two biggest problems right now include managing a huge budget deficit with a declining tax base and finding a way to fill the many vacant building in our city.

“These vacant buildings are detrimental to us being able to move the city forward. That is both vacant commercial buildings and residential housing. We have problems on both fronts.

“We need to focus on being a consumer advocate on individual owned homes,” Bazzy added, referring to how mechanisms in place today create an area of more foreclosures because of those who short-sale homes in our city.

“We have to get smarter and more creative to get younger couples to move into the city. We need to put things in place to attract them to move here and then work with them to help them become owner-occupants of homes.”

Bazzy said he will “work hard and I will listen” on council.

“Public service is not unlike a private business,” he said. “There is a process. The city has to move things at a faster pace because business is moving at a faster pace.”

Bazzy, 52, is a life-long Dearborn resident who graduated from Edsel Ford and earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Wayne State Univesity. Today, he is the President of Kenwal Steel and Kenwal Pickling in the east side of the city. He and his wife of 26 years have three boys, all of them now in college (two of his sons graduated from Divine Child, one from Dearborn High School). He was elected to the Dearborn Charter Commission in 2005 and served as its president. He formerly served on the Zoning Board and Recreation Commission.

Bazzy wouldn’t say who he voted for State House because he said whatever the outcome, he will need to work with one of them on City council. “Whoever gets elected, I know they will do what is in the best interests of our city and the state.”

Spoken like a true politician.