It may be hard to remember but Former City Manager did his best work when he worked for the Residents of the City Bloomfield Hills. Imported by City Commission as expert on Puds (Principal of development) where normal zoning regulations are suspended for a perceived greater goal Mr Cravens was expected be the man of the hour who would tell us what to do with land with the former Fox and Hound Restaurant and former and Michigan Route 1 Inn and a restaurant on sat on.
Unfortunately before his arrival circa 2010 City Commision had split into two waring factions. One favoring a shopping Center and the other insisting on anything but. Residents who by law where entitled to Public hearing said they favored a fine dining establishment like the then departed Fox and Hound and said they who lived in the condos in the vicinity enjoyed walking to dinner.
A consultant for said our City was already slated for a Fudruckers.
Eventually It all got straightened out however. The Fudrukers we were slated for turned up a Square Lake and Woodward and closed shortly after the two year war ended during which nobody consulted City Cravens because every already had an opinion.
City Manager took it all in stride. He found a grant for a resident who needed but couldn't afford a new roof. It was one of the few grants City residents could avail themselves to because they were based on need not income.
Mr Cravens told the story quite often and was justifiably proud of himself. Cravens also made friends with the working press. They had a symbiotic bond. They both worked normal hours meaning Cravens was available for quotes, and stories. In his time Cravens would bring meals on wheels to City Residents who could benefit from it. again it was a service based on need rather than income. That was also the City's first contact with Contact with the Birmingham Senior Center. That connection never got the play it deserved. It was an election year in Birmingham all concerned where concerned about the political fall out. Years would go by before the Birmingham Senior Center which serves many communities came before Our City Commission and said our residents are welcome. (See previous Article).
and that is we are now with SOCCRA which stands for Southeastern Oakland Authority Reclying drop off and drop off Center and material recovery Facility (In Troy on Coolidge across from meiers thrifty acres. You might havef read the article in the EAGLE "SOCCRA REVEALS UPDATES IMPROVED SERVICE AND RESIDENT PARTICIPATION.
Unfortunately the usually flawless Eagle failed to include the City of Bloomfield Hills as a participating member. So I called. We are indeed members. this was an another Cravens accomplishment. He and City commission set it up for year round hazard since most waste haulers won't take it. Residents get so many free then pay nominal dome if more a required. They may if they desire set up a drop of appointment. That is only the the tip of the SOCCRA ice berg.
Your shredder break ? Makes a mess with paper shred which or which vacuums up worse than a than a dog or cat ? ? Take it to SOCRRA. Their shreder is about the size of Jet Engine and in a shack that can accommodating four shredding at simultaneously. It is only a slight exaggeration to say you can shred ten years of canceled checks tax returns in the time it takes to wait at a traffic light. You can dump ordinary paper in a stair accesed railway car.
Bring your Driver's license occasionally SOCRRA spot checks your validity on occassion but so does the Baldwin Library
Tuesday, March 27, 2018
Wednesday, January 31, 2018
BLOOMFIED HILLS RESIDENTS GAIN SENIOR CENTER Privileges
But City Commission missed the significance of moment. It happened at the January 9th City Commission Meeting Commission meeting. In fact it was almost a two month to the day that that the City Commission candidates were asked as the second question of the League of Woman voters Candidate Forum what if anything could, or would the City do for its senior Citizen residents. All five commission candidates blew the question falling back on Cedarbrook a multi purpose senior living by a private developer or meals on wheels a program former City Manager, Jay Graven pioneered by finding a grant that was age rather than income specific.
As it so happend Febuary 9th was an un seasonably warm night in Winter and this writer sitting in the cheap seats of an otherwise deserted City Hall had a hard time hearing much of anything. So when the presenters from Next (that is the name of the Birmingham Senior Center finished their presentation I followed them into empty lobby.
The meeting continued and with one ear I thought the City was using was its standard plead poverty/our seniors are to old for that of thing reply.
Actually they were not. I asked the Next people if they were preparing a proposal for a future meeting. Apparently they were not. They said the purpose of their visit to invite residents of our City to discover all that Next has to offer. It is a lot and it is detailed in a 21 page magazine published every other month.
Games, games, movies, crafts. Book Clubs, and speaker series are but a tip of the ice berg. Next is sort of pay as you go when necessary. For example. You want to go to the Henry Ford Museum ? On February 8th ?. The cost is ten dollars for members and $15 dollars for non members and museum ticket of $21 for the all day event.Some activities like are book clubs are free . So is the Writers Corner and Current discussion groups You can even have your books returned from Next to the Baldwin Library and new titles selected sparing you the hassle of parking ing and stairs.
As it so happend Febuary 9th was an un seasonably warm night in Winter and this writer sitting in the cheap seats of an otherwise deserted City Hall had a hard time hearing much of anything. So when the presenters from Next (that is the name of the Birmingham Senior Center finished their presentation I followed them into empty lobby.
The meeting continued and with one ear I thought the City was using was its standard plead poverty/our seniors are to old for that of thing reply.
Actually they were not. I asked the Next people if they were preparing a proposal for a future meeting. Apparently they were not. They said the purpose of their visit to invite residents of our City to discover all that Next has to offer. It is a lot and it is detailed in a 21 page magazine published every other month.
Games, games, movies, crafts. Book Clubs, and speaker series are but a tip of the ice berg. Next is sort of pay as you go when necessary. For example. You want to go to the Henry Ford Museum ? On February 8th ?. The cost is ten dollars for members and $15 dollars for non members and museum ticket of $21 for the all day event.Some activities like are book clubs are free . So is the Writers Corner and Current discussion groups You can even have your books returned from Next to the Baldwin Library and new titles selected sparing you the hassle of parking ing and stairs.
Thursday, January 4, 2018
Celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day with the Baldwin Library
BIRMINGHAM, MI (January 3, 2018) – To celebrate, honor, and recognize the life and accomplishments of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Baldwin Library is hosting historical impersonator Rosie “Miz Rosie” Chapman on Monday, January 15 at 3:00 p.m.
Miz Rosie will impersonate Rosa Parks, who became a close friend of Dr. King during the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Chapman’s presentation will teach attendees about Ms. Parks’ life and will give audience the chance to take the roles of bus driver, riders and others.
Donna Smith, Youth Librarian, says, “Young and old alike are swept up in Miz Rosie’s dramatic and energizing theatrical experience. Through her presentations, storytelling becomes a useful educational tool for teaching cultural diversity, history, life skills, conflict resolution and social skills."
This is Miz Rosie’s sixth visit to the Baldwin Library for Martin Luther King, Jr. day. In previous years, she has presented on Madam C.J. Walker, Harriet Tubman, Coretta Scott King, Sojourner Truth, and African folk tales.
In addition to performing across the country and in Australia, Scotland, Germany, and Canada, Chapman offers professional development workshops for teachers, librarians, and major corporations on cultural diversity awareness insights.
The Baldwin Public Library is located in downtown Birmingham at 300 W. Merrill Street. The Library’s hours are 9:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., Monday through Thursday, 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday. The Library’s website www.baldwinlib.org has information on how to register for a Library Card and access all of the Library’s services.
It was a little over a year ago, when then Mayor Coakley writing in the Hills Highlight edition #95 touted the City's progress in tele communications by listing the antenna facilities popping up in the
City like mushrooms after the rain. He also mentioned one
company in particular Rocket Fiber, and wrote , "We (editors note who is we ?) I do not know if the matter has been before City Commision and if not why not ?
Before concluding "with the Rocket Fiber to bring fiber optic internet cable into our the City". The folks have been very enthusiatic and entergetic about serving the city and we look forward to bring them this about in due
Before concluding "with the Rocket Fiber to bring fiber optic internet cable into our the City". The folks have been very enthusiatic and entergetic about serving the city and we look forward to bring them this about in due
Almost a year has gone by and now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by the sunny Sun of York (with apologies to Shakespear) Or For that matter anyone one who wishes to to sell us something
Last weeks did not bring "due course" but it did provide a reveation of what seem to be a done deal.
when Commissioner Coakley writing in the Winter 2017 Hills Highlights with has been delivered to City residents in last week or so wrote the following"
"We have been working"The Rocket Fiber people to bring fiber optic cable into the City (of Bloomfield Hills) and we (unamed) look forward to bring this about in due course.
They (Fiber Optic?)will first roll fiber optic or wireless optic service ro the more than300 bisinesses in our city and from there branch out to the (neighborhoods)( sic).This will take some time to implement but we have taken rthe first to bring the City into the 21st Century. dAs in the case of
MAYBE MAYBE not but a numbered questions arise. Was there any competitive bidding sought. How many commissioners besides Mr. Coakley were part of the decision making process.
Will City residents be required install Rocket Fiber optic on their premises or will they make their one internet cable provider. Since Residents have been excluded from the decision making process up to now the future does not look to be rosey.
Will City residents be required install Rocket Fiber optic on their premises or will they make their one internet cable provider. Since Residents have been excluded from the decision making process up to now the future does not look to be rosey.
The Coming of age of Tele communications
In 1959 at the end of a relatively prosperous decade in the City of Sacramento, California in a dozen or so homes that faced a rather large Catholic grade school, half the homes had telephones but no televisions. and the other half had TV,s but no telephones.
The latter became painfully apparent when sibllings of absent were sent home for lunch with notes pinned to their jackets.
Yes dear reader it does get cold even in California in October.
Today each of those homes probably homes That have two or TVs and perhaps as many as three telephones. That is the tele communications revolution.
In 1984 my father retired after a career in television. At thta time in Detroit Michigan Tv viewers had a choice of programming provided on three channels, 2,4, and, seven. They were the network affilates and. Detroiters also had and independent station Channel 50 which broadcast on UHF which newer Television sets could recieved. In addition. Residents could also get channel 9 in Windsor and even channel 11 in Toledo Ohio. All of which was Broadcast over the airways. The airways belonged to all and the mediums that used them had to show cause when their liscence came up for renewal that thy were used for the common good.
A new form on Television was was coming or so everyone said. It did not broadcast over the air but a cable buried in the ground as a result it could carry 100 different channels. The trouble was laying the Cable was expensive and if a neighbor an over it with a riding lawn mower a sub division could be shut down.
To off set the expense of Cable communities gave cable companies exclusive rights to a community. In return the residents got Public acces. which filmed City Government meetings, Founders day parades, high school and other items of a purely local interest. The cable company would also teach residents how to film events and loaned them the camera or studio space when necessary.
A factor called low popuation density limited our City’ participation in the the last cable revolution. Still we were of among the first communities to film city commision meetings. Current City Commisioner and former Mayor Coakley believes Fiber optics is the cure to what ails us. Is It ? Read on.
Thursday, December 28, 2017
Wednesday, December 20, 2017
DVD'S/BLU-RAYS
A World War II thriller about the evacuation of Allied troops from the French city of Dunkirk before Nazi forces can take hold.
Editors note : To be sure the jerries took a nap after the official fall of France but had the no planes as good as the English Sptfire or skilled pilots the Poles and other nationals who flew with the RAF and the rest as they say is History.
A couple's relationship is tested when uninvited guests arrive at their home, disrupting their tranquil existence.
The extraordinary true story of an unexpected friendship in the later years of Queen Victoria's remarkable rule. When Abdul Karim, a young clerk, travels from India to participate in the Queen's Golden Jubilee, he is surprised to find favor with the Queen herself. As the Queen questions the constrictions of her long-held position, the two forge an unlikely and devoted alliance with a loyalty to one another that her household and inner circle all attempt to destroy. As the friendship deepens, the Queen begins to see a changing world through new eyes and joyfully reclaims her humanity.
Josh
____________________
Josh Rouan
Baldwin Public Library
300 W. Merrill St.
Birmingham, MI 48009
248-554-4655
josh.rouan@baldwinlib.org
Monday, December 18, 2017
Last Minute, grab and go Christmas Shopping that will leave money in your pocket.
Electronics is big year. What else is new ? Somebody on your list wants an Monster (the biggest one they make) I -pad. Figure around five or six hundred dollars plus the money you have to shell out to get your car out of troy impound if you double park to do that ? It wouldn't be so galling if you didn't have to have to listen to a seres of lectures at various tables in the apple store about the companies theory of every which should be quite simple. You want their product ? You give them money. Any deviation from said is why our economy barely teeters above that of China as number 1 economy a position it has held for more than a century. However this year
the Monster Apple pad. however has a competitor in the range of $100.
It is the Kindle 80 which Screen rivals the that of the monster Apple. Ask a clerk to help you if you to try this for yourself lest you set off an alarm which would really put you in dutch on Christmas eve.
for now regardless of size The Monster Apple is the superior tablet. For the cost difference it should be. I will tell you that that edge will evaporate as time goes on. Both companies introduce products at two year intervals or so it seems. The difference is Kindle up grades are are more significant quantum leaps so much so that you you'll keep your old ones or hand them down to other family members as the years go by. Kindle also offers book reading, movies, television, and game playing, with better integration than Apple. Currently the Kindle 40 as last upgrade before the current 80 is selling a deep discount prices. One Troy electronic retailer was selling it in the mid forties. It is slimmer and lighter the newer one and much more intuitive. Great for entertainment. The retailer in question has a parking lot so you won't even have to think about about double parking.Merry Christmas.
the Monster Apple pad. however has a competitor in the range of $100.
It is the Kindle 80 which Screen rivals the that of the monster Apple. Ask a clerk to help you if you to try this for yourself lest you set off an alarm which would really put you in dutch on Christmas eve.
for now regardless of size The Monster Apple is the superior tablet. For the cost difference it should be. I will tell you that that edge will evaporate as time goes on. Both companies introduce products at two year intervals or so it seems. The difference is Kindle up grades are are more significant quantum leaps so much so that you you'll keep your old ones or hand them down to other family members as the years go by. Kindle also offers book reading, movies, television, and game playing, with better integration than Apple. Currently the Kindle 40 as last upgrade before the current 80 is selling a deep discount prices. One Troy electronic retailer was selling it in the mid forties. It is slimmer and lighter the newer one and much more intuitive. Great for entertainment. The retailer in question has a parking lot so you won't even have to think about about double parking.Merry Christmas.
NEW TITLES FROM BALDWIN LIBRARY TO START THE NEW YEAR
BOOKS
The only legitimate child of Lord Byron, the most brilliant, revered, and scandalous of the Romantic poets, Ada was destined for fame long before her birth. Estranged from Ada’s father, who was infamously “mad, bad, and dangerous to know,” Ada’s mathematician mother is determined to save her only child from her perilous Byron heritage. When Ada is introduced into London society as a highly eligible young heiress, she at last discovers the intellectual and social circles she has craved all her life. Little does she realize that her delightful new friendship with inventor Charles Babbage—brilliant, charming, and occasionally curmudgeonly—will shape her destiny.
It began on New Year's Eve. The sickness came on suddenly, and spread quickly. The fear spread even faster. Within weeks, everything people counted on began to fail them. The electrical grid sputtered; law and government collapsed--and more than half of the world's population was decimated. Where there had been order, there was now chaos. And as the power of science and technology receded, magic rose up in its place. Some of it is good, like the witchcraft worked by Lana Bingham, practicing in the loft apartment she shares with her lover, Max. Some of it is unimaginably evil, and it can lurk anywhere, around a corner, in fetid tunnels beneath the river--or in the ones you know and love the most...
DVD'S/BLU-RAYS
After the death of his girlfriend at the hands of Islamic terrorists, Mitch Rapp is drawn into the world of counterterrorism, mentored by tough-as-nails former U.S. Navy SEAL Stan Hurley.
Friday, November 10, 2017
CITY REMAINS IN DARK ON KAPEL HOSLER, COMMISSION OUTCOME
William E. Hosler (write-in)
0.00%0Mark Kapel (write-in)
0.00%0Rejected write-ins
0.00%0Unassigned write-ins
9.97%185 remain
THE INCUMBANT RACE WITH with all four candidates winning four of the City's Commission seats was the Proverbial dead Heat merry go round.
The Magic number in the single commissioner race is 185 votes which is enough to swing the election one was or another in a variety of ways.
The polls opened on Tuesday at 8am and closed for voting at 8pm.
The candidates were invited to view the early counting. One chose to the other did not.
Imagine the a shopper at the food store being a given a long paper tape. Long enough the reach head to knees of a short person.
The well trained and experienced eye can spot canned peas at full price instead of the discounted price on the shelf which requires price check that holds up the line the check out line. You get the That is essentially where we are now picture on the tapes are the signatures of the voters who wrote in. Capel for Kapel or Hoffman for Hosler would be easy to attribute. others might be hard to attribute and in either case an unfilled box by name would get tossed. With the exception of unfilled box the example listed are just guesses on my part.
THE INCUMBANT RACE WITH with all four candidates winning four of the City's Commission seats was the Proverbial dead Heat merry go round.
The Magic number in the single commissioner race is 185 votes which is enough to swing the election one was or another in a variety of ways.
The polls opened on Tuesday at 8am and closed for voting at 8pm.
The candidates were invited to view the early counting. One chose to the other did not.
Imagine the a shopper at the food store being a given a long paper tape. Long enough the reach head to knees of a short person.
The well trained and experienced eye can spot canned peas at full price instead of the discounted price on the shelf which requires price check that holds up the line the check out line. You get the That is essentially where we are now picture on the tapes are the signatures of the voters who wrote in. Capel for Kapel or Hoffman for Hosler would be easy to attribute. others might be hard to attribute and in either case an unfilled box by name would get tossed. With the exception of unfilled box the example listed are just guesses on my part.
Nov 7 at 10:45 PM
OF NOTE IS THE DATE AND TIME OF THE THE EMAIL WHICH IS Election Day after the polls closed.
Dear Candidates:
The County Board of Canvassers is responsible for tallying and certifying the write-in vote totals as part of their audit of the election process. The Board of Canvassers could take up to a week after Election Day to be complete. I have reviewed the write-in votes and prepared the following summary:
The name or a variation of the name William Hosler was listed as a write-in candidate approximately 122 times between the absentee and in person ballots.
The name or a variation of the name Mark Kapel was listed as a write-in candidate approximately 52 times between the absentee and in person ballots.
I can’t make a determination on the validity of the votes cast for either write-in candidate. The Board of Canvassers must take into consideration several factors including the spelling of the write-in candidate’s name and the marking of the box next to the write-in name on the ballot.
All other inquires made to my office for election results will be directed to the Oakland County Elections website for updated results.
Thank-you all for your patience. I will continue to keep the candidates informed as the County reviews the election results.
Congratulations to all for a great election!
Amy
Amy L. Burton
City Clerk
City of Bloomfield Hills
45 E. Long Lake Road
Bloomfield Hills, MI 48304
(248) 530-1403 Direct
From: Amy Burton
Sent: Tuesday, November 07, 2017 9:40 PM
To: coakley@millercanfield.com; smcclure77@aol.com; sdsherr@comcast.net; smccarthy218@gmail.com; William Hosler <WEHosler@WWRPLaw.com>; markekapel@yahoo.com
Subject: RE: Election Results
Sent: Tuesday, November 07, 2017 9:40 PM
To: coakley@millercanfield.com; smcclure77@aol.com; sdsherr@comcast.net; smccarthy218@gmail.com; William Hosler <WEHosler@WWRPLaw.com>; markekapel@yahoo.com
Subject: RE: Election Results
Candidates:
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