Google finally got it right

This was supposed to be a post on how Google just keeps wrong information about Manchester live and doesn't do anything about it. And then I checked, and found they had fixed themselves, saving a scolding from this blogger.

For the longest time, Google has listed Manchester High School as being at 410 City Road, and not at it's current location on Dutch Drive. Because I'm still relatively new to the village, I would assume this is where the high school was before the current one was built.

Being the map nerd I can be, I submitted an edit to Google to show them where the school is actually located. While it won't do too much during the summer, I venture it could be useful come this fall, say, when football season starts.

Sometime in the last week or two, someone finally made the changes, and Manchester High School's address and location are correct, although two listings appear: the first shows the school simply on Dutch Drive, and the second gives the correct location:

I'm not sure if it was my edits that did this, since I didn't receive an email telling me the edit had been reviewed and corrected, as has happened to some previous edits I've made. But it's now corrected, and Manchester is slightly better represented on the world's biggest search engine.

Is there someone wrong listed on Google in Manchester or the surrounding areas you'd like to see corrected, but don't know how to fix it? Email me at dveselenak@heritage.com and I'll submit a problem ticket for it! (And FYI, C&C Pizza owners: I've already submitted one to have your business replace Classic Pizza on the map.)

Take their word for it?

I was more than a little shocked Monday night when I went to the Manchester Community School Board meeting at 6:30 p.m. for its annual budget hearing and found I was the only person in attendance besides the director of transportation, Jeff Knasiak. What was even more surprising was when Finance Director Elizabeth Wingfield told me she hadn't had to publicly present the budget in the past, because no one usually showed up to the hearing. Wingfield did a wonderful job answering all my questions about the budget. It's too bad no one else was there to gain from her knowledge.

Granted, Wingfield went over the budget again during the regular meeting, but even then, no audience members asked any questions regarding the funds. I'm not sure if the taxpayers are extremely trusting of their school board's decisions or simply don't care.

I was further surprised Tuesday night when I attended Cherie Vannatter's interview for MCS superintendent. The district held various meet and greet opportunities with Vannatter during the day, prior to the interview. I'm not sure exactly how many community members took advantage of the opportunity, but at the interview it didn't seem too promising. I spotted maybe a handful of faces that normally don't attend board meetings. The rest were the usual staff members who diligently show up each month.

After Vannatter interviewed, the audience had the opportunity to submit questions for her to answer. Not a single question was asked. After Vannatter left, the board asked for feedback from several audience members who spoke with Vannatter during the day. They gave great input, but where was the rest of the community?

Why wasn't anyone there to ask Vannatter tough questions? It would seem especially important when this interview process is extremely out of the ordinary, with board members approaching Vannatter about the position and forgoing a traditional search method. Without a traditional search firm to assist, public input would seem even more important.

More photos from this past weekend's Relay for Life

Not very often do you get to hear from a cancer survivor of 10 years who hasn't hit 40 yet. But those who attended the first-ever Relay for Life event last weekend at the Manchester High School track did just that, listening to Eagle resident Lisa Mulder talk about her battle with colon cancer at the age of 29.

Overall, more than $20,000 was raised for the American Cancer Society to help fight cancer. Dozens of local residents came to walk the track for 24 hours, and 13 teams set up camp during the weekend.

If you missed it, here are some more photos from the event last weekend, which organizer Chris Fegan said will return next year:

Manchester's congressional, state senate, house districts may change under new plan

If you follow me on Twitter (which you should!), this morning I was tweeting up a storm of Michigan county names and numbers. The reason?

It was my second journalistic Christmas.

This morning, Michigan's Republicans released their proposed redistricting plan for the states congressional, state Senate and state house representatives for the next 10 years. It comes just a few months after the U.S. Census Bureau released specific data for states and municipalities, which I blogged about here.

Manchester's positioning saw a bit of a change, namely in its state Senate district. Currently, the village, Manchester and Bridgewater townships are represented by State Sen. and Majority Leader Randy Richardville, R-Monroe, in the 17th District. Freedom and Sharon townships are in the 18th district.

Richardville's current district, which includes all of Monroe County,  most of southern Washtenaw County and a few townships in Jackson County.

Under the proposed plan, all four townships and the village would be placed in the 22nd District, which encompasses all of Livingston County and Washtenaw County west of Ann Arbor.

The new district with Manchester,
with all four townships
 represented by the same senator.

No matter what happened, however, Manchester was going to have new representation in 2014, since Richardville is term-limited out.

This move makes good sense for the village for a few reasons: One, the Greater Manchester community falls under the same Senator, which is a good thing. Two, it connects Manchester more with communities that are more similar to it and it relates to; Chelsea is a closer town to Manchester than say, Monroe.

The state House district remains very similar, covering most of western Washtenaw County. The only real difference is it snakes out a bit farther north and east, stretching to Salem Township, and no longer covers part of the City of Ann Arbor.

The new 52nd district, under
the state GOP plan.

  Congressionally, the village would remain in the 7th District, currently represented by Tim Walberg. The district doesn't change too much, except it loses Calhoun County and the Battle Creek voters it comes with, and now includes Monroe County, which is currently served by U.S. Rep. John Dingell, D-Dearborn.

The new 7th district, proposed by the Michigan legislature. If it goes into effect,
the 7th would lose Calhoun County and pick up Monroe County.

Overall, not too much change for Manchester. The biggest change is the state Senate, but it looks like the village will be grouped with similar areas and could benefit from it in the long run.

Of course, all this is conditional that the legislature approves the change and challenges to the plan are not successful. Plans must be completed and finalized by Nov. 1 of this year, and will take place during the next election cycle.

And because I can't help myself, here are a few other observations from around Michigan:

•  People talk a lot about gerrymandering, or drawing the lines to benefit one party or another. The most obvious case I can see of this is the new 5th Congressional district, which takes Bay County, most of Saginaw County (including the city of Saginaw), western Tuscola County and all of Genesee County, home of Flint. The district is a very liberal one, and keeps many blue areas together.
• Detroit has the potential to not be represented by a native in both the state Senate and Congress, which was pointed out in this Detroit News article. Because of federal law, majority minority districts must be protected. And since Detroit lost so much in population the last 10 years, boundaries had to be expanded into more black suburbs, such as Southfield and Oak Park. 
• As many people thought, Reps. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township, and Sander Levin, D-Royal Oak, have been merged into one seat, since Michigan had to forfeit one of its 15 seats due to decrease in population. The next curious step is, who will run, and who will win?
• The 1st Congressional district, aka the "Yooper District," has boundaries that make more sense now. Before, the district, which spans the entire Upper Peninsula, reached down the eastern coast of Lake Huron and touched down into northern Bay County. Meanwhile, Traverse City and Leelanau County were represented by U.S. Rep. Dave Camp, R-Midland. The proposed map has the 1st district lines across the state, taking the complete upper third of the Lower Peninsula with it. This is a no-brainer, and probably should have been done 10 years ago.

 Are there other anomalies with the proposed map? Share them in the comments, I'd love to hear them!

The Civil War: Still making news 150 years later

Our story on the Civil War was posted today at heritage.com, and it documents some historic ties Washtenaw County had with the bloodiest war in American history.

It's a fascinating war, the only war fought completely by Americans. Being in Michigan, it can be difficult to connect with the war: most of the battles were fought in the South, and very few made it north of the Mason-Dixon Line (with the exception of this doozy).

But we have lots of history from the war in our state, and Washtenaw County, and specifically Manchester, is no exception.

If you travel down Main Street to Austin Road on the west side of the village, you'll find Oak Grove Cemetery, which is full of history and headstones from the Civil War. It's always interesting to wander around old cemeteries and look back at what remains of people that died 100, 150, even 200 years ago.

The flagholder with an iron star denotes a
Grand Army of the Republic member in Oak Grove Cemetery. 

Almost immediately walking into the cemetery for the first time a few weeks ago, you are in the midst of American flags complete with "GAR," or Grand Army of the Republic, icons. The Grand Army of the Republic was the North's fraternal organization after the war that lasted until the mid-1900s, when the remaining Civil War vets died. It's a reminder of the service those men and women performed to keep the Union intact, and also, not to mention that below your feet rests someone who fought during the most divisive period in American history. It's kind of eerie, if you think about it long enough.

Manchester has several veterans buried in the cemetery from the war, and it could behoove you to just go and visit. School's out, which makes for the perfect history lesson field trip during the day. Read the names on the headstones. Maybe head to the Manchester library and find some local history. Or talk to the Manchester Area Historical Society, there are several members that are into the war and could help you understand more about our local ties.

And you'll never know when you'll find that connection. Just this week, my parents, who are vacationing in Kansas to visit family, found out our family had several soldiers participate in the Civil War. They were members of the 12th and 13th Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and participated in battles such as the ones at Shiloh, Vicksburg and even Gen. George Sherman's infamous March to the Sea, which resulted in the burning of Atlanta.

Hopefully our local history piece has inspired you to go and do some digging on your own. It's a lot like the Ancestry.com commercial: You don't have to know what you're looking for, you just have to start looking.

Banning pit bulls in Michigan?

If one Michigan legislator had his way, this little guy wouldn't be allowed to cross the border to Michigan.

Last week's village council meeting touched on, among several other issues, the village's dog ordinance. The issue came up when several residents, including Planning Commission Chairman Ron Milkey, approached the council after a neighbor's dog had gotten loose and attacked a family pet, killing it.

Current village ordinance states that a dog that has been found to be dangerous, but does not cause any harm to anyone or anything, can be returned to it's owner, so long as a few precautions are taken.

More discussion is scheduled to take place at the next council meeting, which is at 7 p.m. June 20 in the village chambers of the village hall.

Some discussion, triggered mostly by Trustee James Dzengeleski, revolved around banning specific breeds in the village altogether, namely pit bulls. That discussion was seemingly shot down quickly by other trustees, saying it was illogical to approve an ordinance like that.

Several other communities has taken measures against the dogs, including the City of Saginaw, which recently began working to ban certain breeds in the mid-Michigan city.

But a recent lawmaker in Michigan from Grosse Pointe may change this discussion completely. Although currently tabled, State Rep. Tim Bledsoe, a Democrat, recently introduced legislation that would eventually ban pit bulls from the State of Michigan.

Several dog groups and bloggers, including our sister paper The Oakland Press' Karen Workman, opposed this law, saying banning a specific breed of dog isn't fair. A big argument is that breeds aren't naturally vicious, but rather are trained to become vicious.

The law's been tabled, which means very little action will be taken soon. But judging by the response online, it doesn't look like there's a lot of support for the bill.

My two cents: I'm not a dog person at all; I've grown up around a cat my whole life (even though sometimes, my previous cat thought he was a dog. He did the usual stuff, play fetch, etc), so I'm not the most qualified to speak.

However, when I worked in Bay City this past fall, I lived next door to a woman who owned a little puppy pit bull. He was a nice little dog, and he grew fast. Never once was I worried that he might suddenly attack when he was out; the only thing I couldn't stand about him was the constant howling early in the morning, which I assume was because he was lonely. It did help change the perception of pit bulls, and showed that they can be good dogs, as long as they're trained properly.

Congratulations Megan Linski!

Manchester Enterprise freelance writer Megan Linski graduated with the Manchester High School class of 2011 June 5 in the Manchester High School . Watch the video of her big moment.

Graduation ceremony highlights everyone's achievements

When I graduated from John Glenn High School with roughly 400 other kids at Eastern Michigan University, there was barely a pause after my name before the next student was announced to come get their diploma. Manchester High School graduates had no such problem Sunday. With about 100 students graduating, each student had a moment to shine.
After each student's name was called, announcers read off accomplishments of the graduate and their future plans. It was an intimate ceremony in the high school gym with the graduates surrounded by family and friends. Each graduate also went into the crowd and gave their parents a flower.
After all the hard work students put in throughout their school career, it was nice to see each one recognized for more than half a second. The ceremony showed another aspect of how special it can be to be a student in Manchester Community Schools.

One reporter's small memories of Dr. Jack Kevorkian

Whether you loved him or hated him, you to to respect the guts he had.

Dr. Jack Kevorkian died this morning at the age of 83 at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak. The physician, who became an advocate for assisted suicides and helped dozens of people perform them, served eight years of a prison term for the murder of Thomas Youk, a Waterford man who was unable to press the button to inject the deadly chemicals that would take his life. Kevorkian would be found guilty of murder and sentenced to 10-25 years in prison.

With me being a Royal Oak native, Kevorkian was talked about a bit more than normal in the city. He would always be found downtown, walking the streets wearing his trademark sweater-vest. His art was in a gallery downtown, and while I never saw it, I heard he had some skills with a paintbrush.

One day, in the summer of 2008, I went to the Royal Oak Post Office to mail something to my girlfriend who lived up north at the time. As I walked in, I saw a little man chatting it up with the worker behind the counter. Sure enough, it was Kevorkian.

I'd never seen him in person before. My parents had, but not me. It kind of became an urban legend.

He was in the midst of running for Congress in the 9th District, which is now represented by Gary Peters. He collected a good chunk of his signatures there, as did most people who wanted something or someone on the ballot.

He came in, and I just listened intently to his conversation, without looking too obvious as to what I was doing.

"Do you collect signatures?" the woman behind the counter asked him.

"Yup, I'm on the ballot," he said, swinging his hand in happiness.

Kevorkian had been such a polarizing figure during my childhood, especially with Court TV (remember that?) airing his trial. It was on the whole time in my house as my mom watched it closely. And now, here I was, feet from a convicted murderer, and one of the most internationally-known Royal Oakers of all time, and he was a short, little old man wearing a derby hat and coat. Needless to say, I was slightly disappointed.

Do you have any memories of Jack Kevorkian? What did you think of his philosophy regarding assisted suicide? Let me know in the comments below!