Events for 2008 in Depot Town and the Parks

I’ve corrected some dates and added more events as of 4-10-2008

Here is a summary of the Events that are going to take place this summer in Depot Town and in The Parks. I’m not 100% sure that the dates are correct but I think most of them are or are close.

April Through June I9 Sports, is having Flag Football at Frog Island I think I9 is a For Profit company which will be using Frog Island. In the DTCDC report they suggest that they are going to ask I9 to help with maintenance I would hope they force them to pay rent or provide maintenance. If you have details please post a comment.

April 20th “Fuzzy Football” I don’t know what this is but it sure sounds fun
May 4th — Street Rod Show
May 24th — Ypsilanti Symphony Orchestra
May 26th — Memorial Day Processional
May 31st — Sober Fest Shouldn’t this be after the Summer Beer Fest?
June 1st — Orphan Car Show
June 5th – September 18th — Thursday Cruise Nights
June 7th and 8th — Volkswagen Festival
June 19-22 — Tucker Convention
June 21 and 22 — Ypsilanti Relay for Life
June 25th — WCC Jazz Band
June 26th — Ypsilanti Community Band
July 2nd — WCC Jazz Band
July 4 – Ypsilanti 4th of July Parade
July 5-6 — Camaro Fest
July 9th — WCC Jazz Band
July 11, 12th — Elvis Fest
July 16th — WCC Jazz Band
July 23rd — WCC Jazz Band
July 25th, 26th — Michigan Brewers Festival
August 6-8th — Triumph Car Show
August 15-16-17 — Heritage Festival
August 23rd – Fire Truck Muster
September 11th — Model T 100th Anniversary Tour
October 4th — Antique Truck Show
October 24th – Downtown Halloween Fall Festival

ALSO REMEMBER
June 5th through September 18th Every Thursday Night are the Depot Town Cruise Nights.

June 6-September 12 Ypsilanti Crossroads Music Festival Every Friday starting at 7pm on the corner of Washington St and west Michigan Ave.

June 3 till September 30th — Tuesday Night Motorcycle Mania outside Aubree’s Saloon on Cross Street.

June 4th – July 9th — Frog Island Music Series Every Wednesday at 7pm WCC Jazz Band, Ypsilanti Community Band & Symphony and more.

Frog Island and Riverside Park Plans Summer 2008

This is information taken from the March 18, 2008 City Council Meeting Packet. As always I recommend you read the entire packet before passing any judgments because these are just my interpretation of the highlights.

The CDC has secured $15,000 from Fifth Third Bank, $20,000 from Washtenaw County, and $2,000 from the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation.

Washtenaw Community College has agreed to construct a major project annually for the next 3 years. This Year they are planning to repair the dock, build a gazebo and construct a seasonal stage cover for the amphitheater in Frog Island.

I don’t understand why they are so hung up on Band-shells . The first thing they need to do is get someone who wants to use the amphitheater before they add to the amphitheater. The gazebo and stage cover will just be two more things that will need maintenance but thanks to WCC anyway and I’ll give credit to the DTCDC for getting them on board.

The Washtenaw Community Jazz Band has agreed to perform a 6 week jazz series for this summer.

The Ypsilanti Symphony and Ypsilanti Community Band have agreed to perform in the parks this summer, and hope to expand their series next year.

A spreadsheet of the DTCDC’s budget has been provided if you are interested in seeing how they are spending our money or how they plan to spend our money. The accounting seems to be in order but there are a few items I’m curious about.

March 2008 shows a charge of $2000.00 for “Ribfest Study,” $500.00 for Community Relations “Lunch Expense,” and $739.20 for a “Catch all.”

I am not sure who is eating these $500.00 lunches each month but I think you can do better. I also hope that the lunches are bought exclusively from privately owned businesses in DepotTown or Downtown. I’m also concerned about a $2,000 Ribfest study it seems they should have asked the community if we wanted Ribfest before they determined that they needed a study.

April 2008 has another planned lunch expense of $500.00 and a Director’s Salery of $1,000.00 on a total budget of $4,757.50 $2000 goes to maintenance.

May is when they plan on spending money. They budget for rent of $590.00, Auditing $7500, $4000.00 in office equipment, $2000.00 for maintenance and $500.00 lunch expense and a Director’s Salary of $5208.00

DTCDC people please chime in. Erik told me he was not receiving any compensation but $6208.00 seems like a lot to me. Is this make up compensation? or an up-front yearly compensation or a monthly compensation.

Then they have the maintenance Plan
Grass Cutting 12 times (2 per month for 6 months at $700.00 for both parks).

Snow Removal — We intend to maintain the current level of service provided by the city. We understand this policy to only address significant snowfall of at least 6 inches and only when resources are available.

I suggested a volunteer snow removal group to at least take care of the stairs entering the parks but that idea was not treated well.

Utilities amont to $2600 a year.

The CDC would like to increase maintenance to include Weeding, Planting, Mulching, Edging, Pruning, Building/Parking lot improvements and Snow Removal.

Then there is a list of all of the people on all of the Committees.

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So go ahead and check out the DTCDCs report on the Parks for all of the information.

I hope the DTCDC does the right thing with the parks. I would personally like to see them hold community open-house events to discuss the direction of the parks but they seem unwilling to do this. I will give them credit because they seem to have done a good job getting the music series going and getting WCC to complete some projects.

Join My Team and help Capture the Trash

OK, this is another official call for people to join my team at the Capture the Trash day in Riverside and Frog Island parks. I WANT THE ‘Trashiest Team’ TROPHY to sit beside my TurkeyOff Trophy. All we have to do is win the majority of the prizes and I think we can do it.

“Most Unique Piece of Trash” — I plan on scouting the parks before Saturday, I wonder if I’d get disqualified if I dumped a statue made of toothpicks and used nails of Our Honorable Mayor Paul Schreiber in the woods on Friday night.

“Muddiest Team” — Since some of our team includes members from the MDWMWA (Metro Detroit Women’s Mud Wrestling Alliance) I’m certain we will win this.

“Most Bag of Trash” — This will take hustle and since Pete Rose is our official mascot I’m certain we will do it.

“Largest Piece of Trash” — This will again be part of our scouting report but I believe I know where there is an old railroad car that flew off the tracks and ended up in the river in 1839.

“Most Team Spirit” — We should have this locked up too. Most of the applicants to the team love trash and will be excited with each new piece.

No Problem Folks — Please Email me if you want to Join the Winning Team — Team Smoot Trash Detail.

Bread For Sale

I took this off the Cafe Luwak blog.

Bread for Sale at Cafe Luwak!

Saturday, March 29. 2008

I often get asked from customers if they can buy a loaf of bread, and I will usually sell a loaf when asked, but we have never really had a good process for it. I don’t really expect to sell too much of the Italian or the wheat because they are pretty basic breads, but I am sure there are a number of people who would like to buy the Challah or the Rye for home. I personally think the Challah makes really good French toast. If you would like some of our great bread to take home, just come in and ask for a loaf.

Challah (2lb) $5.50
Corn Rye (2lb) $5.25
Italian (2lb) $5.25
Wheat (1lb) $2.95

Fullfreight Express

If you missed the Fullfreight Banjo event at the Corner Brewery on Saturday you might have been the only one. I headed down there around 5:30pm and the place was packed. The entertainment was fabulous and they did a great job with the sound (which is almost impossible at the CB). They also did a great job with the lineup which played to the crowds they were dealt. Bands like the Hummingbirds and Annie Palmer went great with the more subdued early crowd and Black Jake& the Carnies really set things rocking to end the night.

I don’t have any of the numbers for cash intake which I’m sure was fairly substantial but more importantly the number of people that turned out show the support should influence future decisions on the future use of funds.

FYI — There are now 272 comments at the My Hometown Helper page in support of the Freighthouse.