Berry and Adams Elected to School Board; HFCC Millage Passed

It was incumbents night out in Dearborn Tuesday.

Six incumbents again won back their city council seat in an election where just 29 percent of registered Dearborn voters (17,173 of the city’s 59,351 voters) went to the polls.

The lone new member of Dearborn City Council was Brian O’Donnell, a political newbie on the scene who ran a very effective campaign. He will replace Councilman Doug Thomas who finished in 10 place with just 5,078 votes.

The loss by Thomas certainly means he can now spend more time at his Florida home but it doesn’t mean he will fade off into the political sunset. Thomas told us before the election that if defeated he would work to put on the ballot a proposal to have term limits in Dearborn for all elected positions.  We do find it interesting that his term limit idea never came to his mind during any of the 22 years Thomas served on city council.

Tom Tafelski was again the top vote getter with 9,744 votes, despite having to wade through a heavy dose of mudslinging by unknowns who accused him of paying fewer taxes than his neighbors, committing fraud, and for not paying parking tickets, among other accusations.  He will continue serving as council president. A surprising second was Suzanne Sareini, who in her sixth term on council will now serve as council pro-tem.

George Darany, who was running for his second term, finished a strong third.

Robert Abraham, seeking his third term, finished fifth with 7,570 votes. This was his strongest finish yet since joining council and even more impressive since he finished ninth in the August primary.

Mark Shooshanian finished with 7,586 votes, just 16 votes in front of Abraham.

Nancy Hubbard barely made the seventh seat on the council with 6,970 votes. That is a huge fall for the councilwoman who last election finished third behind Tafelski but became council pro-tem when John B. O’Reilly, Jr., who was then council president, became mayor. This moved Tafelski into the council president seat and Hubbard as number two. 

A nervous Hubbard watches the vote tally come in Tuesday night in this photograph by the Dearborn Press & Guide.

Hubbard barely survived a strong showing by David Bazzy, who finished with 6,422 votes, 548 behind Hubbard. Hubbard no doubt can thank her absentee voters for getting her into office. Hubbard was worried Tuesday night. The Dearborn Press & Guide’s Millard Berry, the paper’s award-winning photographer, captured the tense moments Tuesday night as the votes were being tallied. For the full photo, click HERE.

In the mayoral race, John B. O’Reilly, Jr., cruised to an easy win, defeating challenger Michael J. Prus, 14,150 to 1,932, taking about 88 percent of the votes.

O’Reilly’s win, along with victories by four of the five people he endorsed for city council  (Hubbard, Shooshanian, Sareini and Abraham), means the mayor will be able to push forward his vision for the city more easily. Without the vote of Doug Thomas on council, it appears Tafelski will have a more difficult time solidifying support for his political agenda. Darany has voted with Tafelski in the past but he more recently has sided with O’Reilly, despite not being endorsed by the mayor this time out. O’Donnell will be the wild card but even if he and Darany vote with Tafelski that still only gives the council president three votes on matters.

In the Dearborn School Board race, Pamela Adams (6,968 votes) and Hussein Berry (5,965) won seats, beating out Roxanne McDonald (4,889) and John C. Corbin (4,517).

The Henry Ford Community College millage continuation proposal easily passed, 12,496 to 3,485.  The one-half mil operating millage expires in 2010. The renewal preserves about $2 million of the college’s local operating budget.  

The city council race results, in order of finish, are below.

1. Thomas Patrick Tafelski. . . . . . 9,744
2. Suzanne Sareini . . . . . . . . 8,103
3. George T. Darany . . . . . . . . 7,762
4. Mark C. Shooshanian . . . . . . . 7,586
5. Robert A. Abraham. . . . . . . . 7,570
6. Brian C. O’Donnell . . . . . . . 7,101
7. Nancy A. Hubbard . . . . . . . . 6,970
8. David W. Bazzy. . . . . . . . . 6,422
9. Sharon Dulmage. . . . . . . . . 5,789
10. Doug Thomas. . . . . . . . . . 5,078
11. Patrick M. Kiernan . . . . . . . 4,921
12. Ali Sayed . . . . . . . . . . 4,676
13. Patrick D’Ambrosio . . . . . . . 4,563
14. George Hart. . . . . . . . . . 3,915

WRITE-IN. . . . . . . . . . . 35

Former Dearborn mayoral candidate Tom Russell, a long-time reader and sometimes commentator on Deepsaidwhat.com, sent us a note the other day letting us know that he was endorsing Mayor John B. O’Reilly, Jr. for re-election.

While Russell admits his endorsement might not be “particularly newsworthy” (and we’d agree), he does point out that the 82 votes he received campaigning in his fuzzy yellow bathrobe was 19 more than current Mayoral candidate Michael J. Prus when the two ran in the last election.

He also wanted to set the record straight that he was not “picking my nose” in the front page photograph in the Dearborn Press & Guide that has run several times in the last month. Russell says he was “just thinking”.

We’re not sure about that part Tom, but we will take your word on it.

Here is some of what Russell had to say about the photograph and his O’Reilly endorsement:

“There’s been a picture printed on the front page of the Dearborn Press and Guide a couple of times in the last month or so from the last election, featuring Mayor Jack O’Reilly, challenger Michael Prus, and some doofus on the end who looks like he might be picking his nose. I am that doofus. (No, I’m not picking my nose. Just thinking.)

A number of people have recognized me from the photo, and asked if I was running again. No, I’m not, but I think more people have asked me about my candidacy in the last month than ever asked me when I was actually running. And part of that is because I really ran as a lark, with full knowledge that my chances of winning were next to nil. I just tried to have fun with it, which is why I did a video comparing municipal financing to the arcade game BurgerTime, and why I campaigned wearing a fuzzy yellow bathrobe.”

For the rest of the Russell article, click HERE.

And for Russell’s video comparing municipal financing to the arcade game BurgerTime, click HERE.

Vote Tuesday!

With the election just one day away, just how important is receiving an endorsement from the local paper, fire department and even the mayor going to be for the 14 candidates running for Dearborn City Council?

We will all find out in less than 48 hours. But until then, we thought it would be interesting to list which candidates got the stamp of approval from these various organizations.

Let’s start with the Dearborn Press & Guide. The paper went with a mixture of incumbents and new challengers, selecting a total of eight candidates for the seven open seats. On the new faces side, the paper endorsed David Bazzy, a former Dearborn Charter Commissioner, Sharon Dulmage, who served 22 years on the Dearborn school board, and Brian C. O’Donnell, a healthcare sales executive.

On the incumbent side, the paper chose Robert Abraham, George Darany, Suzanne Sareini, Mark Shooshanian and Tom Talfelski.

The Dearborn Fire Fighters Association, Local 412, in a front page ad in Sunday’s Dearborn Press & Guide, choose the following council candidates: Tom Tafelski, Nancy Hubbard, George Darany, Suzanne Sareini, Mark Shooshinian, Brian O’Donnell and David Bazzy.

Dearborn Mayor John B. O’Reilly, Jr., in a flyer mailed to voters, said “of the fine candidates running for City Council, there are 5 who I believe have consistently put Dearborn’s interests first.”

Four on the mayor’s list are incumbents and include, Nancy Hubbard, Mark Shooshanian, Suzanne Sareini, Robert Abraham. The only challenger who made his list was David Bazzy.

Finally, a group calling themselves “Citizens Allied for Truth”, put out a flyer that endorses five candidates: George Darany, Sharon Dulmage, Patrick Ambrosio, Tom Tafelski and Doug Thomas. We aren’t sure who is behind the mailer but if anyone does, please post it here.

Please get out and vote on Tuesday. Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m.

The Blockbuster store at 22914 Michigan in Dearborn is closing.

Dearborn’s Blockbuster video store on Michigan Avenue in west Dearborn is closing its doors, one of the nearly 960 stores the Dallas-based company plans to close by end of 2010.

Struggling against stiff competition form Netflix and Redbox, the video rental chain is shrinking its operations by more than 20 percent to save money and keep its lenders happy.

The move to close the west Dearborn store at 22914 Michigan, just down from Kroger in the strip mall located on the north side of Michigan at Nowlin, really shouldn’t come as a surprise. Most people these days either don’t have time for videos or simply are using Netflix, pay-for-view or checking them out for free at the library. Combine that with prices that continue to drop to purchase movie DVDs and the future doesn’t look so bright for the video rental company.

What will move into this large vacant space is anyone’s guess but it will bring to at least three the number of vacancies in this strip mall, which has plenty of free parking.

A new restaurant/lounge appears to be headed into the former Venue nightclub building.

Just east of the closing Blockbuster about four blocks away on the same side of the street, it appears a new restaurant/lounge could be moving into the building that once housed the Venue nightclub.

A sign in the window at the rear of the building, located at 22048 Michigan near Monroe, simply says it is “coming soon”.

Just what length of time applies to the word “soon” is anyone’s guess.

The definition of “soon” has been a rather nebulous one at Norm Newman’s vacant Inca and Pier 1 building where a sign has been promising a “redevelopment” since February. Same is true of the Fatburger sign promising “coming soon” on Hakim Fakhoury’s building at Military and Michigan.

Even so, we will gladly take a “coming soon” sign in a window over an empty one any day of the week, regardless of how squishy the word might be. The “soon” at least represents hope and west Dearborn needs a bit of that right now.

The station should be removed in a couple of weeks.

Demolition work has begun to remove a long-vacant service station at the corner of Military and Cherry Hill, clearing the way for construction of a new single story medical office building.

Owner Tarick Seifeddine says after the station comes down a rendering of the new building will go up as a way to advertise the new one-story office facililty that will be built there. Construction on the new building is expected to begin in the first half of next year. 

A rendering of the new office building planned at the corner of Cherry Hill and Military.

One of the challenges at the site involved AT&T’s decision to install its refrigerator-sized new video boxes (known as U-verse boxes) in the middle of Seifeddine’s planned parking lot driveway entrance to the new building.

Following an earlier article on Deepsaidwhat about the boxes, AT&T contacted Seifeddine to determine if something could be worked out.   

“We had some progress with AT&T, including the involvement of city lawyers,” Seifeddine said. “An issue came up that if we were to pursue a forceful and court approved relocation of the boxes that after is all is said and done it could take about 18 plus months to actually have it happen and that is something we simply cannot do.”

AT&T has relocated boxes on some occasions following court orders, including one location in Dearborn, but as Seifeddine says, the process is a long one.

Instead, Seifeddine said the new building will move about four feet towards Military, which still meets city ordinances, and will provide even more landscaping to neighbors.  The design of the driveway closest to the boxes will now become one-way, he said.

The demolition of the gas station will certainly improve the aesthetics of the neighborhood. The gas station has been closed since October 1997. For that earlier story, click HERE.

This members-only tradition kicks off the holiday season with Santa’s grand entrance in Henry Ford Museum, the lighting of the towering Christmas Tree and plenty of holiday activities!

Clocktower doors open at 5:30 pm, and festivities commence at 6 pm as Santa makes his grand entrance into Henry Ford Museum to light the towering Christmas tree. After Santa’s arrival, holiday fun continues with plenty of seasonal activities until 9 pm.

Program Highlights

• Complimentary light refreshments

• Storytelling

• New LEGO® train display

• Classic TV Holiday specials in the Drive-In Theater

• Make-and-take activities

• Live musical entertainment

• Visit Santa and have your picture taken. You’ll receive your photo and a souvenir frame as a memento of your visit.

• Classic Holiday movies in the Drive In Theater

• Test your innovative building skills in our Holiday Construction Zone

• Meet author Philip Handleman from Birmingham, Michigan, who’ll sign his book A Dream of Pilots. Delight the older children on your Christmas list with inspiring stories about the icons of flight, from the Wright brothers to astronaut Alan Shepard.

• Have a snack or a meal at the Michigan Café

• Visit our Genius at Play store to discover innovative, educational, fun merchandise for your young genius.

• Door prizes

Also, don’t miss the opportunity for a special viewing of our limited-time exhibit LEGO® Castle Adventure! Step into a fanciful LEGO® kingdom where everything is made of — what else? — LEGO® bricks. Tour the kingdom and enjoy story-telling and hands-on activities.

MEMBERS ONLY, $10 PER PERSON

CHILDREN 4 & under are free

See you there!

Photographer John Sobczak captures a year in the life of his hometown, Detroit, in his new book, “Motor City Year”. A book signing for members of The Henry Ford will be held on Saturday, Nov. 7 from 1-3 p.m. in the Henry Ford Museum during Member Shopping Days

This is a great opportunity to pick up the perfect holiday gift for the Detroit enthusiast! Museum members receive an exclusive 20% discount on this product November 7

Much of John Sobczak’s career has been spent photographing for corporate clients such as Lear and the U.S. Postal Service. But at some point, John turned his camera in different directions. Instead of creating photos to sell a product, he began making works that were more intimate, more illuminating.

His special love? America’s great cities. His newest book “A Motor City Year” offers a loving, but honest, portrayal of a year in the life of his hometown, Detroit.

To learn more about John, click HERE.

Faced with the task of reducing expenses by $12 million for the 2009/10 school year, Dearborn school officials are considering cutting as many as 250 staff jobs, reducing salaries or a combination of both, according to School Supt. Brian J. Whiston.

The rush by the district to reduce expenses is caused by the most recent cuts from the state at the hands of Gov. Granholm who vetoed money the Dearborn district receives under section 20j of the school aid fund. Section 20j was created in 1999 to ensure equal funding increases to all school districts. The loss of 20j money will cost our school district $5 million. For an earlier story, click HERE.

As of October 26, Dearborn is looking at reducing the district’s expenses by $12 million from the current budget ($655 per student), which is above and beyond the $10.2 million already cut from the 2009/10 budget back in June.

“This loss of funding from the state, made when we are already a quarter way through the fiscal year, has caused an extreme financial crisis in our district,” Whiston said in a letter to the district.

“We must have a balanced budget plan in place by December 1 that addresses these most recent funding reductions from the state. The longer we wait to make cuts, the more cuts we will need to make. For example, cutting a person that cost $50,000 at the beginning of the year will only save $37,500 right now, one quarter of the way into the year. The same can be said when looking at cutting other expenses.”

Whiston and his administrative team are working on a plan that they will present to the school board on Nov. 9.

“This is not an easy task and will most definitely impact all staff members in the district,” Whiston said. “We are reviewing options that would include as many as 250 staff reductions, a reduction in compensation, or a combination of both.”

Whiston said a group of community and staff members were in Lansing this week to talk with state legislators to try and convince them that they need to work to restore school funding. “We will also be reminding lawmakers in Lansing that Dearborn is a donor district and sends $14 million more dollars to the state than the district gets back,” he said.

“There has never been a more pressing time when we need to come together and overcome these financial setbacks,” Whiston said. “Despite the economic challenges faced by schools across the state during the last eight years, Dearborn is still a very attractive district to parents. I feel the reason for this is that we have remained focused on providing a quality education for each child.”

With the Village Picture Frame and Art Gallery moving from its location on Monroe west two blocks to a new home on Michigan Avenue, we thought it was a good time to provide a brief update on other businesses opening, reopening or just plain stalled in downtown west Dearborn.

Let’s start with Ristorante Ciao. Closed since an April fire hit the popular Italian eatery, the restaurant’s owners told us this week that they plan to reopen this year. However, it may not reopen in the current location but in a new building located in west Dearborn. Challenges apparently remain over whose insurance company should cover damages to the building, the restaurant owner or the building landlord. Whatever the matter, we just hope they reopen soon. It has always been one of our favorite Italian restaurants in town.

Say goodbye to Parisian Bistro and hello to Bora Bora. The new restaurant and nightclub could open as early as Nov. 1, according to banners hanging outside the building that once housed the Salad Bar restaurant. The Dearborn location would be the second restaurant for this family-owned establishment. The first Bora Bora opened in Novi about two years ago and has been a huge success in that city. The owners tell us the restaurant/bar will be open for lunch and dinner beginning at 11 a.m. daily. On Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, the restaurant will feature a more nightclub atmosphere. We welcome the new restaurant to the neighborhood and wish them the best of luck.

A new martini bar also is said to be moving into the location that once housed Caribou Coffee in the West Village Commons development on Michigan Avenue. We don’t have full details yet, but the bar would join The Well pub and La Cigar in the Burton-Katzman project.

Finally, we have received dozens of emails asking for the outcome on the bench trial to settle a dispute between Caliente Grille restaurant co-owner Jeremy Sutton and Gateway Plaza developer Hakim Fakhoury. Dozens of hours of testimony have taken place so far over a period of nearly three months but there still is no resolution. We ran into Dearborn 19th District Court Judge Mark Somers the other day, who is hearing the case, and he tells us the trial will continue into November. In addition to this trial, Judge Somers has a full docket of other cases he must handle on a daily basis. Fakhoury is trying to evict the restaurant and its owners, claiming they failed to move forward with their restaurant. Sutton is countersuing, claiming breach of contract. The restaurant is located at Michigan and Military.

If you missed the Mayoral Candidate Forum, CDTV, the city of Dearborn’s government cable TV channel, is now airing it and will continue doing so through Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3.

The forum is also available for viewing on the City of Dearborn website at www.cityofdearborn.org

The CDTV broadcast schedule is as follows:

Mayoral Candidates Forum:

• Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays: 6:30 a.m., 2:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.

• Tuesdays and Thursdays: 11:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m.

• Saturdays and Sundays: 12:30 a.m., 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.

Ballot Proposal Explanations and School Board Candidates Forum:

• Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays: 7 a.m., 3 p.m. and 11 p.m.

• Tuesdays and Thursdays: Noon and 8 p.m.

• Saturdays and Sundays: 1 a.m., 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

City Council Candidates Forum:

• Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays: 2:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m.

• Tuesdays and Thursdays: 7:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.

• Saturdays and Sundays: 4:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.

CDTV can be found on WOW cable channel 10 and Comcast cable channel 12 in the City of Dearborn.