The Rundown: 2011

Hello community! Copy editor Jana Miller here...

I wanted to take the time to update everyone on a fresh year in our community. I also wanted to introduce a new employee, staff writer and online coordinator David Veselenak. He will be helping me out in Manchester and his assistance will be much appreciated. For one thing, I now have an extra set of legs to run to all the various township and village government meetings which means a more comprehensive picture of what's going on in our community. Second, it means more time to do the fun things (like blogging!) that may have fallen below government/breaking news on the totem pole.

A lot has been happening, both in our office and in the community. Let's begin with Manchester Village, in which lots of developments took place at the end of the year. For one, there has been a lot of news about the proposed Rails to Trails bike and walking path through the Village. The status of that project right now is that an application is out for county grant funding to convert the railroad bed into a trail. A bridge (the second phase of the proposed project) is still being discussed. Council will be looking over a scoping document in the near future to see if it adequately solves certain concerns which were voiced at the public hearing.

Other Village developments include taking a look at Main Street Bridge repair/reconstruction due to deterioration. This isn't something that is an immediate problem, but will continue to worsen in the next five years. Council is looking into repairs now.

Council adopted a wood burner ordinance that essentially prohibits them within the village limits. To the council's knowledge, there are not currently any of these structures within the village limits. The ordinance clarifies the amount of land necessary to have one on the property. Practically anything can be burned in these things, which can cause some pretty heavy smells and smoke.

M-DOT confirmed a project through the village and downtown. It is part of the downtown enhancement project which is piggy-backing on some M-52 road and bridge work. The enhancement includes streetscape stuff like new lighting, seating areas, new trees and shrubs, trash receptacles, etc. It has been in development for going on three years and will likely begin in the fall of this year.

Sharon Township has a new township supervisor in John Frey. He replaced Rich Jones who resigned for personal and health reasons. There was a second resignation at the Jan. 6 meeting when trustee Bill Chizmar resigned for personal and health reasons as well. There is also activity at the county level concerning Sharon Township now that several residents have filed petition language twice. The first petition language was filed against Kim Yordanich, Chizmar and Tom Lavender. It was denied by the county board that reviews these cases because it was too vague. New language was filed on Monday morning and a second clarity hearing will be held to decide if the filers can start circulating a petition for a recall election.

Manchester Township is in a budget shortfall and may put an operating millage proposal back on the ballot this year. It appeared twice recently, once in November when it failed to pass by four votes, and earlier in August during the primary.

There are also problems with roads in all four townships, and the Washtenaw County Road Commission is reporting being short millions of dollars... which means it can't complete those needed projects. There has been lots of talk about the Waldo Road Bridge in Sharon Township which was closed, and there are no current plans on the Board's part to put up matching funds for its repair. A majority of the dangerous bridges in the county are in Sylvan and Lima Townships. There are also roads in Manchester and Freedom Townships which have had flooding issues in the past and it was voiced that road work was needed.

Manchester Village Council signed a new police services contract with the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Department in December. The cost of a police unit was agreed upon by the Washtenaw County Commissioners. Police services now take up well over the majority of the Village budget. Bridgewater Township and the Village share a contract with Lodi Township for a handful of police officers.

Stories about all of these events can be found on our website at www.heritage.com. To search for articles from further than six months ago, click 'advanced search' and change the date range before entering your key words.

I'm really looking forward to 2011. A lot of projects and stories which are close to my heart were put on the back burner while we had some staffing shortages, and I'm excited to have the time to return to them (and blogging!) in the new year. Some of the staffing changes included Chelsea/Dexter editor Daniel Lai (previously the Manchester editor) who left approximately a month ago to work for a new website. Ed Patino left a while back to work at a daily in Adrian, and now new staffers have been hired to replace both of those positions.

As always, my door, inbox and voicemail is wide open if you have a story you'd like to share. I can be reached at (734) 429-7380 or jmiller@heritage.com with any questions, comments, concerns, or ideas.

Happy New Year!