Baldwin Library at City Hall. Hills Highlights out of hiatus.Tree ordinance more than a hat rack?

The Baldwin Library  will soon be as close to residents of Bloomfield Hills as our  beloved city hall at 45 East Long Lake Road. A collection of Baldwin Books will be available for residents on the honor system. Take it and read it but please bring it back.No library card necessary. No questions asked. If you have good books you would like to bring by for others to read this might be the ideal opportunity. In addition a book drop for books you have checked out at the Baldwin Library will also be available for easy returns. The project was a campaign promise by the Baldwin Library and one I assume they took the initiative in fulfilling. Our city Government can at times be hesitant but Baldwin Library Director Doug Koschik, however said that our City Manager Jay Cravens and Library Liaison Commissioner  Pat Hardy had been been active participants in the process. At he last City Commission Meeting Cravens was very upbeat about the mini library and book drop due in March.

More details are expected to  be forth coming in The Hills Highlights the official newsletter of the city which is reportedly due any day now. Fans of the Hills Highlights know that the publication has been on hiatus since the last edition appeared in June 2011. At one time City residents received as many as four glossy editions mailed to their  home. In the last issue residents  were offered either two glossy  editions or if they opted out of home delivery six bare bones (words only) electronic editions. So far the six electronic editions have not materialized. With a website already in place cost is not a factor in an electronic newsletter nor is there ant reason why graphics and pix need to be omitted. It seems our City Commission the actual publishers of Hills Highlights  have been too busy slaying dragons and conquering worlds to communicate with us. In that regard Hills Highlight author and City Commissioner Connie Salloum has promised an article  explaining the tree ordinance, it's origins  and it's implications. Look for it when the newsletter arrives. Also look here for  Hills Highlights reviews and critiques from your unofficial  City of Bloomfield Hills Blog which is proud to publish three times a week.

You have the expression. "that is using your head for more than a hat rack". Well maybe the mechanics of the Tree ordinance can work for other things besides trees.

For example the upcoming mini library at City Hall. Say you saw a book there you really wanted . Not only to read but to keep.The City Commission is not in any way shape or form trying to limit the number of books you may own  but there has to be management . If you  announced at the City Hall desk your desire to keep the book the clerk could via the tax rolls look up the size of your home in square feet and tell you how many replacement books would be necessary to facilitate the request. Of course there would be an appeal process that either you  or the city could utilize but  the arbitrating board is already in place. The City already has a Board of Review to assist you with your tax assessment which is coming up in March. The rest of the year the Board  is relatively y idle. Why not make better use of  the board  as  the year round  Board of Book Reviews. Who better to decide if a paperback edition of  the third Harry Potter novel is balanced by a  bound  (high quality vinyl) volume of   Readers Digest Condensations  which includes Ernest K. Gann's  novel The High and The Mighty (the movie featured John Wayne).

While pie in the sky at  present, there is no denying that the city is ready for a literary leap. Why at the public hearing of the tree ordnance a former mayor referenced  Thomas Paine the author of Common Sense down to the very day of the meeting. Another quoted  John Donne( up to the semi colon) Meditation 17, Devotions upon Emergent Occasions.

"No man is an iland, intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine owne were; any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee...." 

Two world class "go to the head of the class" literary references beginning and ending a  paragraph. of  less than 100 words. Is that inspiring or what?  Maybe it will inspire a member the newly minted  Board of Book Reviews to assist in publishing the Hills Highlight on a more frequent basis.