MTV’s popular MADE cable TV show is coming to Dearborn to begin taping an upcoming segment at the city’s ice arena.

If you aren’t sure what MADE is all about, you can click HERE for a look at some earlier episodes. In a nutshell, MADE says it is all about proving that with hard work, dedication and some help from MTV, “kids just like you can accomplish anything they set their minds to.”

MADE producers aren’t yet telling city officials what the segment will be about but the fact the show is asking for permission to tape at the Dearborn Ice Skating Center (the Adray Ice Arena to us longtime Dearbornites), our guess is that it will either be about someone wanting to be a figure skater or a hockey player.

Dearborn Mayor John B. O’Reilly, Jr., says the show is expected to begin taping in the next few weeks. While it isn’t clear if the person starring in the segment is from Dearborn, the program’s site selection suggests that it will at least be a person from metro Detroit.

Either way, it should result in some positive coverage about Dearborn.

Anyone who has taken the time over the past 33 years to drop in and visit Steven Bernard Jewelers in Dearborn knows that when it comes to finding a one-of-a-kind gift Steven’s shop on Michigan Avenue is the place to go.

Now Steven Bernard Jewelers is providing residents another reason to drop into this store at 22266 Michigan Ave. Called “coupons for coats”, the jewelry store through Dec. 31 will be collecting new and gently used winter coats, which will be distributed by the First United Methodist Church of Dearborn.

Bernard says he established “Coupons for Coats” to support those in need in our community. In exchange for a coat, Steven Bernard Jewelers will give participants a 20 percent discount coupon that can be used in his jewelry store, located just east of Military throughout December.

Steven Bernard Jewelers is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursdays and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays. Starting Nov. 29 the store will be open noon to 4 p.m. on Sundays for the holidays. For more information, call 313-562-8484.

A former Dearborn Building and Safety Department employee has pleaded guilty to a bribery charge – the second former employee to do so this year – and now faces up to 27 months in prison and $50,000 in fines when sentenced Jan. 21.

Wanda Smith, 42, entered her guilty plea in U.S. District Court in Detroit Monday to a bribery charge in connection with charges that she illegally issued work permits in exchange for money. She must also pay restitution in the amount of $29,000 to the City of Dearborn.

According to U.S. Attorney Terrence Berg, Smith received more than $15,000 in bribes and discounted repairs to her home and automobiles between 2006 and 2009 in return for issuing more than 1,000 permits. Berg says Smith issued the permits without charging a fee or at a greatly reduced fee.

Berg commended the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Dearborn Police Department for their investigation and thanked the City of Dearborn for their cooperation and assistance.

“Public servants owe a high duty of honesty and integrity to the citizens that should never allow the acceptance of money or services to avoid carrying out their official duties.” Berg said in a prepared statement. “We will continue to make such cases a priority.”

Smith is the second person from the Dearborn Building and Safety department to enter a guilty plea rather than go to trial.

In July 2009, Leticia Bosemon, 38, of Inkster pleaded guilty to accepting bribes in return for issuing temporary certificates of occupancy for residential property in Dearborn.

Bosemon admitted in court that from the fall of 2006 until June, 2008 she accepted in excess of $63,000 from many individuals in return for preparing fraudulent performance bonds and issuing temporary certificates of occupancy, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Under the terms of the agreement, Bosemon faces a maximum penalty of 37 months and a $250,000 fine. Her sentencing date has been set for Dec. 3, 2009.

Dearborn school officials are asking for input from parents, students, staff and community members to determine whether to change the high school start time from the current 7:20 a.m. to a later time.

We wrote about this very topic back in September. Now a public meeting is being held on Dec. 8 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. to gather additional input to determine whether 7:20 a.m. is too early to begin classes for high school students. We think it is and so have many school districts across the country that now begin classes at least an hour later. The meeting will be held at the Administrative Service Center, 18700 Audette.

Results from an online survey conducted earlier this fall revealed that 60 percent were in favor of some type of change in the school start time. The survey was conducted to determine whether a later high school start time was a topic of interest in the community.

Any change in the start of high school would impact the start of middle and elementary school grades, as well. So it is important for parents with a child in the school system to take part in this discussion.

With an overpopulation of cats at the Dearborn Animal Shelter, the Friends for the Dearborn Animal Shelter are hosting a “cat adoption express” Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 2621 S. Telegraph road in Dearborn, next to Pet Supplies Plus.

“The purpose of this adoption event is to quickly find new homes for the overpopulation of cats in the care of our Shelter” says Elaine Greene, the shelter’s executive director. “Due to two critical hoarding cases this summer and a slower rate of cat adoptions, the Dearborn Animal Shelter is in immediate need of placing felines into homes.”

Reduced adoption fees for the felines are as follows: kittens (less than 4 months) $45 each, cats (4 months and older) $20 each and any second cat or kitten adopted is free. Adoption fees include sterilization, microchip and first set of vaccinations.

“We hope this will expedite cat adoptions,” Greene said. “The Dearborn Animal Shelter training center (2621 S. Telegraph) is easier to access, this event will feature only cats and kittens and rates are reduced for quicker adoption.”

For more information, you can contact Elaine Greene, at DASGreene@aol.com or 313-943-2697

Join the Dearborn Hills Civic Association, the Dearborn Hills Golf Course and special guest…SANTA CLAUS…for Breakfast with Santa.

When: Saturday, December 12, 2009

Time: 10 a.m.-12 p.m.

Where: Dearborn Hills Golf Course, 1300 S. Telegraph Rd., Dearborn, MI 48124. Phone: 313.563.4653

Cost: $10.00 per person (children under 12 months no charge)

Tickets: Purchase tickets in advance by calling or visiting the Dearborn Hills Golf Course. Tickets may also be purchased online at www.dearbornhills.com

*Cash, Credit and Checks are accepted.

*Tickets WILL NOT be sold at the door on the day of the event.

Admission includes a holiday buffet breakfast provided by the Dearborn Hills Golf Course, crafts, music, story time and photo op with Santa. Remember to bring your camera!

Four-legged friends from the Dearborn Animal Shelter will make a special appearance at the breakfast. Please bring a toy and/or pet supply to donate to the shelter.

Closed for more than nine months, the Dunkin’ Donuts shop on Michigan Avenue, just west of Telegraph appears to be on the verge of reopening.

Dearborn's Dunkin' Donuts, covered and closed in this photo, is now on the verge of reopening.

The plastic that once covered the windows and sign of the building has all been removed.

A sign on the door to the building says it will soon reopen and that it is now taking applications.

We’re not certain why it closed in the first place but we’re happy to see that it is reopening and hopefully with friendlier drive-thru service than the first time around.

Earlier last week we mentioned in our Upcoming Events section that the Ford Historic Homes District was celebrating its 90th year with its annual home tour from noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 6.

Well, The Detroit News ran a fantastic good-news story about Dearborn’s Ford Historic Homes District on Friday the 13th and the upcoming home tour that we’re hopeful will help generate even better attendance than in previous years for this neighborhood association.

This is a Model A home photo in the Ford Historic Homes District taken back in the day.

The article is a shot in the arm for Dearborn and does a nice job of capturing the neighborhood’s charm. It is well worth reading and clicking through the photographs, too.

Here is just the top few paragraphs from the story:

Ford Homes Historic District celebrates 90 years

By Susan R. Pollack / Detroit News Design Writer

Jason Hayburn and his family live in a Model A.

But it’s not one of Henry Ford’s vintage cars.

Rather, it’s a distinctive home in an historic west Dearborn neighborhood that’s a lesser-known — though no less fascinating — part of the auto pioneer’s legacy.

The Hayburns live in the Ford Homes Historic District, a community of 250 high-quality yet affordable houses built for Ford Tractor Plant workers in 1919 and 1920.

One of America’s first planned subdivisions, the neighborhood was built using production concepts borrowed from the assembly line. It features seven home styles — models A-F, plus a modified, four-bedroom version of D — by architect Albert Wood, who also designed Henry Ford Hospital and the Masonic Temple.

The two-story homes, sometimes called Ford Colonials, are set back at different distances from the streets to avoid cookie-cutter sameness, and included front or side porches to promote neighborliness, according to district historians. Building materials were delivered to the site via a mini railroad, they say, with horses pulling train cars along tracks laid in a backyard alley and separate crews of construction workers — diggers, plumbers, painters, etc. — rotating from house to house.

“It’s quaint and charming — I wouldn’t live anywhere else,” said Don Ludwig, a Ford Homes history buff, as he washed the original wavy-glass windows on his Model F home, with its trademark central entrance, on Nona Street this week.

Over in his Model A on Park Street, Hayburn is among 11 district homeowners preparing to throw open their front doors — his is a 1919 wood original — and welcome visitors to a Holiday Home Tour on Dec. 6, to celebrate the neighborhood’s 90th anniversary.

For the complete article in The Detroit News, click HERE.

With Dearborn’s loose leaf collection program set to come to an end Dec. 4, there is a possibility many of us may be bagging that last batch of leaves from the front lawn.

In a city press release, Dearborn officials say this:

“The volume of leaves this year means that City crews cannot reach every street within each trash section on that trash day. It may take three weeks before the leaves on your street are picked up on your trash day.

“For instance, if you live in the Tuesday trash collection section, it may take three Tuesdays before leaves are picked up on your street.”

While the city recommends that leaves not be raked into the street until the day before your trash day or ideally until you know crews are coming to pick them up, a drive through most neighborhoods shows that most are already in the street.

To find out if your city does have a leaf collection day coming, you can call the city’s Leaf Collection Hotline at 313-943-2444 after 3 p.m. the day before your trash day. Alternatively, you may also call 313-943-2107 from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. to get an estimate of where crews are expected to be over the next several days.

Now the city doe say that to guarantee leaf pickup, the best bet is to bag your leaves and then set them out the night before trash day. While some balk at the thought of having to bag – with the amount of trees in some neighborhoods bagging leaves can result in upwards of 25 bags curbside – it is better than the days of leaf burning.

The City of Dearborn wants residents to know that there will be people from the Working America AFL-CIO canvassing Dearborn neighborhoods beginning today.

The organization will be canvassing neighborhoods through Dec. 31 in hopes of signing up new members.

The canvassers will be out from the late afternoon until 9 p.m.

Dearborn officials say the canvassers will carry prominently displayed picture identification cards. The vehicle they will be using is a red Dodge Caravan with an Ohio license plate.

The City of Dearborn says it does not endorse or object to this activity, but requires all canvassers to follow city ordinances.

Resident should call the Police Department’s non-emergency number at 943-2201 if they have concerns about canvassers on their street.