BENZIE
Area transit systems to get stimulus funds
HONOR -- Some area public transit systems are expected to catch a lift from the federal government.
The Benzie Transportation Authority and the Bay Area Transportation Authority stand to receive nearly $2 million collectively in federal stimulus dollars to buy new buses and create a transit facility near Honor. The funding will allow both agencies to retire older buses in exchange for more efficient vehicles that release fewer emissions.
The Benzie Transportation Authority, also known as Benzie Bus, will receive $690,000 for six new buses and $607,000 to create a new headquarters and bus garage from an existing building. The agency's 20 buses now are stored outdoors and a sheltered facility will improve maintenance capabilities, said Susan Miller, executive director.
"It will provide much-needed operational space and bus shelter," she said.
Benzie Bus will evaluate its fleet and use stimulus money to replace vehicles with higher mileage, Miller said.
"Most of our fleet is older, so this will improve our emissions significantly," she said.
It's much the same with BATA, the public transit system for Grand Traverse and Leelanau counties.
"We haven't been able to replace buses when we needed to for financial reasons, so we kept them on the road longer," said Tom Menzel, BATA executive director.
Half of BATA's fleet of 60 buses are eligible for replacement, and many top 500,000 miles on the odometer. That hikes maintenance costs for the nearly worn-out buses, Menzel said.
BATA is set to receive $660,000 to buy six new buses in the first phase of stimulus funding for rural transit agencies. The second phase is expected to provide money for another six buses, allowing for the replacement of about 20 percent of the fleet overall, said Don Scharmen, BATA's operations director.
"It will be a nice improvement," he said.
CHEBOYGAN
Deer-poaching state troopers are fired
CHEBOYGAN -- Michigan State Police officials fired two troopers who "shined" and shot a deer while on duty, though their union is challenging the discipline.
Troopers Jeffrey Hadley and Donald Bolen, both formerly of the Cheboygan post, illegally killed a 10-point buck sometime after midnight Nov. 13, two days before the firearms deer season opener.
Bolen, 41, drove a state police Tahoe patrol vehicle and Hadley, 45, propped a rifle on the passenger door and shot the buck as it stood on private property along Mograin Road in Cheboygan County's Benton Township.
State police administrators fired the pair last month after reviewing an internal investigation, spokeswoman Shanon Akans said. Both will have a chance to challenge the firings at arbitration hearings scheduled for this week.
"We took as swift an action as we could," Akans said.
Michigan State Police Troopers Association President Mike Moorman said both will continue to receive pay pending arbitrators' decisions. The union doesn't believe they should be fired.
"Should there be some type of discipline? Of course," Moorman said. "Should it come at the cost of their jobs? No." Hadley and Bolen used a saw to cut off the buck's head and antlers and threw the rest of the carcass into a railroad ditch, according to a Michigan Department of Natural Resources investigation.
Hadley later entered the ill-gotten antlers in a troopers' big buck contest, though the rack was disqualified because it didn't have a valid hunting tag attached.
GRAND TRAVERSE
Area braces for impact of GM bankruptcy
TRAVERSE CITY -- General Motors' long-anticipated bankruptcy filing generated more questions than answers in northern Michigan, where economic fallout from the automaker's financial collapse could ripple for months and beyond.
Suppliers and dealers in northern Michigan expressed relief over GM's Chapter 11 filing Monday, as it marks a bottom and potential turning point for the Michigan-based company. But locals also said it's too soon to gauge its economic impact on northern Michigan, where scores of smaller parts suppliers are anxious to learn how they'll be affected.
"Certainly, I think it's going to be a wait-and-see for a lot of suppliers," said Jon LeJeune, vice president of engineering for Tool North Inc. of Traverse City, a parts manufacturer for several Tier I auto suppliers. "Suppliers strictly aligned with GM will have problems." GM's bankruptcy is the largest for an industrial company in the U.S. The company listed $172.81 billion in debt against $82.29 billion in assets, and will receive another $30 billion in financial assistance from the U.S. Treasury and $9.5 billion from Canada. The federal government will take a 60 percent ownership interest in GM.
Jeff Crandell, vice president of Great Lakes Trim in Williamsburg, on Monday said he's waiting to hear from his Tier I and II suppliers about the impact of GM's bankruptcy.
"Right now, we don't know anything ... we're hoping to get some more information," said Crandell, whose company makes seat backs for GM's Buick and Cadillac lines, products that are sold to Tier I suppliers like Magna, Lear and Irvin. About 60 percent of the company's products are made for GM vehicles.
TC commissioners approve budget
TRAVERSE CITY -- Traverse City commissioners agreed to next year spend an additional $450,000 on infrastructure -- like streets and sidewalks -- as part of their $14 million general fund budget.
Commissioners on Monday unanimously approved the city's $35.4 million budget that includes general fund expenses and all special and operational funds, including $1.1 million for streets, sidewalk repairs and other work. That's an increase over this year's $650,000 general fund infrastructure expenditures and $1 million more than the $100,000 spent two years ago.
City commissioners will meet again on June 8 for a study session to discuss how to prioritize infrastructure improvements, such as sidewalks and both major and local roads.
At least one commissioner, Barbara Budros, would have liked to see even more budgeted for such work. She suggested spending more of the city's savings from the budget stabilization fund.
"It's money sitting there I can't see any use for," she said. "I want to see something happen that people can see and appreciate." Mayor Michael Estes said keeping some savings may be wise, especially considering the $40,000 lost from state revenue sharing and the state's current economic climate.
"I would contend that leaving some of the reserve intact may be prudent," Estes said.
Budros said perhaps commissioners were being "a little too conservative."
Blaze destroys furniture building
TRAVERSE CITY -- A Garfield Township custom furniture business is deemed to be a total loss after fire gutted the building.
Flames consumed Wholesale Rustic Furniture, located next to Belle Tire on U.S. 31 South, shortly before 4:30 p.m. Wednesday. The fire clogged traffic on one of Grand Traverse County's busiest commercial strips at the height of the evening commute.
Crews from the Traverse City and Grand Traverse Metro fire departments controlled the flames, which streamed from all sides of the structure.
Thick, black smoke was visible farther down the highway.
Six employees were inside the building at the time of the fire, but all escaped uninjured, said Pat Parker, chief of the Metro fire department. The fire is believed to have started in a workshop area.
"The employees tried to put it out themselves," Parker said. "It was too great for them."
Company lays off 45, halts processing
TRAVERSE CITY -- Farmers on the east side of Traverse City "are holding their breath" to see if they have a market for this year's cherry crop.
Cherry Blossom, LLC, of Williamsburg, laid off about 45 workers and stopped processing cherries this week due to problems meeting payroll, a company spokesman said. Cherry Blossom's sister company, WRS Holding LLC, owes almost $41,000 in back property taxes.
The company is working with unnamed third parties to arrange a sale or cooperative agreement to allow it to reopen.
"We're trying to pull this thing together," said Christopher Hubbell, president and owner of Cherry Blossom. "We're in the middle of reorganizing the company." The processor's financial difficulties are tied to its history of environmental waste disposal problems, Hubbell said. An on-site treatment system couldn't handle its food processing waste, and neighboring residents and the state sued in response to spills and other waste discharge violations.
The company now pays to truck its waste to Muskegon for treatment, but it can't keep up with disposal costs, Hubbell said.
"We did everything we know to make it go; it's just economically devastating," Hubbell said. "I don't say we didn't make mistakes, but it's just devastating."
Passerby spots man pinned by van
INTERLOCHEN -- Something didn't look quite right to Ken Walton.
Walton, of the Karlin area, was driving back home from running his dogs shortly before 7 a.m. Tuesday when he noticed a van about 30 feet up a private drive on South Betsie River Road. The van's door was open, and Walton could see something underneath it.
Walton turned around, stopped and walked up to the full-size van. There he found Bradley Allen Herzfeld, 47, partially under the vehicle. Herzfeld's leg was pinned under the driver's side front wheel, and he had been there for about 11 hours.
"He was able to talk, but he was in shock and hypothermic," said Walton, who covered Herzfeld with his shirt and coat and called 911.
Herzfeld, of Interlochen, remained in serious condition at Munson Medical Center Wednesday. Police said he stepped out of his van Monday at about 8 p.m. and believed he'd shifted into parking gear. The vehicle instead was in reverse, rolled back and pinned Herzfeld to the driveway.
Herzfeld's leg was bleeding and appeared broken, Walton said. He also endured unseasonably low temperatures in the high 30s and low 40s for much of the night.
Several trees prevent a clear view of the driveway from certain directions, but Walton still wonders how he was the first to find Herzfeld.
"It had been daylight for close to an hour; I don't really know how no one else noticed," he said.
TC Coast Guard station to have new leader
TRAVERSE CITY -- There will be a changing of the guard.
Well, at least a change of command at the local U.S. Coast Guard air station.
Capt. Stuart Merrill will transfer command of Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City to Cmdr. Jonathan Spaner today at 11 a.m. in the station's main hanger. Rear Adm. Peter Neffenger, commander of the Ninth Coast Guard District, will preside over the ceremony.
Merrill served as commander of the local air station for two years, time he and his family enjoyed here, he said.
"The station in Traverse City is the absolute jewel. It's everything people said it would be," Merrill said.
Merrill, from Westwood, Mass., is a graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and now is on his way to the Ivy League. Merrill will serve as the Coast Guard's 2009-2010 National Security Fellow at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass.
Merrill will complete a broad study of international safety and security during his one-year fellowship, a "wonderful opportunity," he said.
Cold weather hampers crops
TRAVERSE CITY -- Cold weather keeps Leelanau County strawberry grower Gary Bardenhagen up at night.
Not worrying, so much, but working to keep Jack Frost away from this year's crop, a stress familiar to other area farmers and growers who struggle to fight off the effects of an unseasonably cool spring.
Bardenhagen spent several recent nights pouring water on his strawberry fields near Leland to make sure the fruit doesn't freeze before it's ready to be picked in a couple of weeks.
"We've got some surplus water in some of the fields; we've had to water so much," he said.
Local growers and agricultural officials said nagging cold hasn't yet created any widespread damage to northern Michigan's fruit and field crops. But some harvests will be delayed and yields are expected to be low for early-season hay and wheat.
Unrelenting chilliness also means farmers will have to wait to get their products to area farm markets or to processors, and anxious consumers won't be able to enjoy many of their fresh favorites as soon as usual.
Joy Urka's family operates u-pick strawberry fields near Kingsley and Brethren. Most years she's ready to open by next week, but this year's crop is a week to 10 days behind schedule.
Urka hopes her customers -- some travel hundreds of miles to pick at her patch -- don't show up before berries ripen.
"What we tell people is to call before they start their journey," said Urka, who's also been watering fields to prevent frost damage. "It's been cold."
KALKASKA
Bass Festival features music and fishing
MANCELONA -- The 54th annual Mancelona Bass Festival kicks off tonight at Mancelona Middle School, with kids' night starting at 5 p.m.
The festival lands on a packed weekend for the little Antrim County community, as the Mancelona High School baseball team prepares for Division III regionals this weekend. Games begin on Saturday afternoon.
"We're excited about it," said Trent Naumscheff, Marketing and Fishing Contest director. "Mancelona is still a great place to live and be." A bass fishing contest begins Thursday at 8 a.m. and ends Saturday evening. Prizes go to the top five contest winners.
Naumscheff said catch-and-release fishing highlights this year's contest. Judges will review pictures of each contestant's catch this year instead of weighing and keeping fish. Fireworks are also back on the festival's lineup this year and will launch from the high school at dusk on Saturday.
Entertainment and events coordinator Pam Calvin lined up numerous bands and acts to play daily at a massive tent in the street across from the carnival site at Palmer Park.
Events include juggling acts, dueling pianos and banana split-eating contests. The tent also will be the venue for the Mancelona Idol preliminary rounds on Thursday and finals on Friday.
"It's all part of a full slate of free entertainment we have lined up," Naumscheff said.
MANISTEE
Report cites area's wind farm potential
A new state study on wind energy reinforces a point Manistee County Commissioner Allan O'Shea constantly promotes: Manistee County is a good spot for windmills.
A state board identified most of Leelanau County and parts of Benzie and Manistee counties as the second best region in the state for wind farms. The western half of Charlevoix County and Banks Township in Antrim County also were included among four regions with the most potential to churn wind into energy.
"Manistee County is in good shape, and we've already got some things in the works," O'Shea said. "This may help promote more." The report was created by the Wind Energy Resource Zone Board, and is the first step in a process for the Michigan Public Service Commission to create wind energy zones that will streamline the process to upgrade electrical transmission lines to handle wind energy.
The report indicated it often can take longer to plan, site and construct transmission system upgrades than wind farms.
The study cross-referenced areas with the highest wind energy potential and the availability of open land to establish the four regions. Two other such regions include parts of Allegan County southwest of Grand Rapids and parts of Huron, Sanilac, Tuscola, Bay and Saginaw counties.
The four regions chosen didn't surprise anyone in the wind energy business, said Steven Smiley, a wind energy consultant from Suttons Bay.
"It pretty much put a public stamp on what people in the wind industry already know," Smiley said.
The key issue now for siting wind farms is zoning, Smiley said, something the current report doesn't directly address.
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