No legal action will be taken against a group that helped organize an unsuccessful recall campaign in Elmwood Township, according to a letter from the Michigan Department of State obtained by the Leelanau Post.

Writing concerning the Elmwood Township Alliance (ETA) the letter says that "the evidence submitted to the Department leaves the distinct impression that ETA [one of the recall groups] was created in a deliberate attempt to evade the disclosure requirements" of the campaign finance act (MCFA) and that its actions "may have violated the spirit of the law." Nevertheless, the writer, Melissa Materman of the Legal and Regulatory Service, concludes that "the disclosure purposes of the [campaign finance law] were largely met" and that no further action will be taken. A fee was assessed for late filing of one of the groups.

At stake were three committees organized to lobby for the recall of Elmwood Supervisor Deri Smith: Elmwood Citizens for Honest Government (ECHG), Elmwood Citizens for Honest Officials (ECHO), and Elmwood Township Alliance (ETA). Critics, including the Leelanau Post, charged that at least one of the groups was created as a means to hide the names those who financed the campaign.

Contacted for a comment, the complainant, Nancy Doughty of Elmwood, said that she had "gained a new appreciation for grass roots democracy and our state officials." She said that she was satisfied that the late fee was assessed and that the recall organizers were "cautioned that the Department will take appropriate enforcement action if future violations of the MCFA occur."

Posted by Publius at 11:36 AM | Permalink

The Traverse City Record-Eagle, long rumored to be on the block, is to be sold to Community Newspaper Holdings Inc of Birmingham, Alabama.

According to this report CNHI has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire six community newspapers, including the Traverse City Record-Eagle, from Dow Jones & Co Inc for $282.5 million in cash.

It is not known whether the recent campaign against the Record-Eagle by a coalition of local government officials and business men was a factor in the sale.

CNHI owns more than 200 daily, weekly and semi-weekly publications in 20 states. Some editors and reporters at papers acquired by the company have complained of a formulaic approach that have diminished the quality of once-vibrant publications.

Posted by Leelanau at 09:42 AM | Permalink

There are five subspecies of this larger, approximately 7 inch sparrow. Most mature Michigan White-crowned Sparrows have a very striking white and black striped crown, gray cheeks and underparts, brownish wings with 2 white wingbars, and a gray-brown back. Immature, first winter White-crowned Sparrows have a chestnut and tan striped crown, buffy colored cheeks, a grayish to buff colored rump , and grayish underparts. The bill of the White-crowned Sparrow, shaped for seed eating, varies in color from pink, to yellowish, to orangish.

This bird is not known to breed in Michigan. It passes through our state from mid-April thru mid-May heading for sub-arctic Canada. It passes through again from mid September thru mid October as it heads south. Its southern winter range extends into central Mexico. Apparently there are winters when some of these birds do winter over in Michigan. Winter observations of this species in Leelanau County, however, are very rare.

White-crowned Sparrows, in all seasons, prefer to feed in areas of short grass to sparse vegetation adjacent to thickets and dense scrub or conifers for nesting and roosting. Their diet includes insects, spiders, forbs, fruit, seeds, blossoms and fresh leaves.

The song of this bird, though distinctive, is suggestive of the White-throated Sparrow’s in pitch but the notes are shorter, then trilled, sounding somewhat raspy and much less clear. During the mating-breeding season, the male White-crowned Sparrow often sings at night.

During courtship, the female flutters her wings and trills. This species nests either on the ground or in dense bushes or conifers close to the ground. It is seldom a cowbird host. The female chooses the nesting site, builds the nest, and incubates the eggs. The male assumes the feeding duties when the female begins the second nest. This species commonly raises 2-3 broods and occasionally as many as four a season.

During winters, White-crowned Sparrows often are found in flocks of 5 to 20 birds. Sometimes these flocks number as many as 100 birds. It is also not that unusual for one of this species to spend the winter in the company of Juncos or White-throated Sparrows.

~bob c.

Posted by Leelanau at 09:58 PM | Permalink

Save Leelanau Farmland has created a video that gives a good introduction to the farmland preservation measure on the November ballot. Click here to watch it.

Posted by Publius at 05:53 PM | Permalink

At their regular meeting held Monday, October 9, The Elmwood Board of Trustees voted 4-2 to reject zoning ordinance amendments written to create clearly defined standards or the township's Rural Resort-1 zoning district.

At their regular meeting held Monday, October 9, The Elmwood Board of Trustees voted 4-2 to reject zoning ordinance amendments written to create clearly defined standards or the township's Rural Resort-1 zoning district. The up-date was taken up on the advice of township attorney Jim Young to correct deficiencies exposed in current zoning language during the planning commission's review of an application by Wilderness Development, inc for a massive destination water park. The planning commission proceeded on the re-write with the approval of the township board, and with funds allocated by the board to hire planning consultants LSL Associates of Grand Rapids and to compensate attorney Young for work in authoring the codes. Along with the endorsement of the Elmwood Planning Commission, the new standards passed a review by the Leelanau County Planning Commission. These changes to the existing RC-1 zoning have been in progress since January.

While the new standards had been carefully formulated to mirror direction provided by Elmwood's Master Plan, argument from the board majority focussed on trustees' personal opinions favoring the flexibility of individual property owners in their pursuit of maximum investment returns. Trustee Terry Lautner argued for an eight-fold increase in developable land area for the district, even though consultant Val Lasdens of LSL had demonstrated the ability of the amended language to allow a development just as intense as the one proposed by Wilderness as Glacier Bay. Lasdens was compelled to respond to Lautner by putting the eight-fold increase in perspective by observing that the resulting build-out would accommodate 5 million square feet of hard surface commercial development, a figure Lasdens compared to downtown Denver which holds roughly 12 million square feet of commercial floor space. Lasdens found such a standard difficult to reconcile with the township master plan, which speaks to outdoor recreational opportunities scaled to meet the needs of local users for the district. Trustee Jeff Howell also felt the up-dated standards should not be adopted until developable surface area was increased from 8% to 13% of property total. Trustee James O'Rourke rejected the ordinance amendment based on his feeling that the planning commission should "work with the property owners" to develop standards for the district.

In arguing for the adoption of the amendment Supervisor Derith Smith and Trustee Paul Walter cited the township's immediate exposure to legal challenges arrising from known deficiencies in the current ordinance. Smith and Walter suggested that trust placed in LSL and Mr. Young by both the board and the planning commission was based on the demonstrated ability of that team to come up with standards that were clear cut, straightforward to apply, protected the township legally, and had demonstrated support of the township's official community plan. Smith observed that accommodating the changes suggested by the board majority would require the township to engage in a significant re-examination of its master plan.

Beside the fact that the product of months of work at the planning commission level and thousands of dollars in professional compensation have been rejected by the board, the character of the debate on the issue tells Elmwood residents what they really need to know: despite referendum votes, the "unelection" of the high profile large land holders, and the complete overhaul of the township planning commission, the vested board majority has no intention of allowing even the most moderate reform of land planning and zoning to occur in Elmwood.

Interestingly, after rejecting the RR-1 ordinance amendment, The Board voted to move 17,000 additional tax payer dollars into the planning commission's 2006 budget to facilitate the creation of exactly the same kind of zoning tools for several other zoning districts. The work will be carried out by the Elmwood Planning Commission, LSL Associates, and attorney Young.

Posted by Erik at 11:35 AM | Permalink

Although the Tom's Food Market chain has locations in Leelanau County's neighbor, Grand Traverse County, it has locations in Leelanau County and its founder was born there.

Tom Deering was born in Empire on October 5, 1908, a son of Mark Deering (1873-1974), who began Deering's Meat Market in the village, and later opened a second one on S. Union Street in Traverse City. After high school, Tom was engaged in the business his father started, and then decided to go into the grocery business on his own in the 1940's. In 1946, Tom Deering open the first Deering's Market in what was originally a gasoline station on the corner of 11th and Maple Streets in Traverse City, and the business became successful, being located in the Central Neighborhood.

In 1953, Tom renamed Deering's Market as Tom's Food Market, maybe to avoid confusion with his father's meat market, which was also located in Traverse City's Central Neighborhood. By 1958, Tom's son, Dan Deering was working for his dad in the business.

In 1960, construction began on Leelanau County's first Tom's Food Market on the corner of M-22 and M-72, part of the West Bay Shopping Center which included Gauthier's Shoe Store & Repair, a laundromat, and a pharmacy. The shopping center and Tom's opened on February 23, 1961, giving Traverse City and Leelanau County each their own Tom's. The West Bay Tom's also included a garden center for buying flowers and gardening supplies, at was even open in December for selling fresh cut Christmas Trees.

In 1967, another Tom's began construction on the corner of Division (US-31/M-37) and 14th Streets. However, Tom Deering, who began the Tom's Food Market chain, passed away on October 21, 1967, and Dan Deering took over ownership of the stores and supervised the new store's construction which opened in July 1968. After that, the original Deering's Market that opened in 1946 was closed and the building now houses the Salvation Army's Thrift Store.

Tom's Food Market remained at one store each for Leelanau County and Traverse City until the Summer of 1982 when construction began on the third Tom's in Acme, and had its grand opening in April 1983. Since then, three more Tom's have opened in existing buildings.

In 1978, Cherryland Mall (now Cherryland Center) opened at the corner of Garfield and Airport Roads near Traverse City, which contained a Kroger's Supermarket. That same building space went through two more supermarkets (Hamady Brothers and Plumb's) before becoming the fourth supermarket in the building and the fourth Tom's in November 1986 (called Cherryland Tom's).

In May 1993, the fifth Tom's, and the second for Leelanau County, opened in Northport when Tom's, Inc. purchased the Dame's grocery store, and in February 1994, the sixth Tom's opened in the building space that was occupied by a Giantway supermarket in the East Bay Plaza on Munson Ave
(US-31 N.).

In 1997, plans were begun to do a total rebuilding of the Westbay Shopping Center in order have an upgraded structure. After taking several years to work out issues such as water drainage, construction began on a brand new West Bay Tom's Food Market in 2005. The new building opened to the public on February 27, 2006, the remaining section with its bakery, deli, and expanded produce section completed the following June, and holding its grand reopening the following Autumn. Jeff DeRusha is the current Market Manager of the new West Bay Tom's.

Since the 1950's, Tom's primary wholesaler has been Spartan Stores, which began in 1917 as the Grand Rapids Wholesale Grocery Company (called Spartan Stores since 1957), and helps independent grocery stores and supermarkets sell food and other items at competitive prices.

~ Thomas Baird

Posted by Publius at 01:43 PM | Permalink

The Great Blue Heron is the largest and most widely distributed wading bird of North America.

Great Blue Herons have variant forms one of which is white. The white morphs are usually found only in marine habitats. Though they tend to be colonial, some Great Blue Herons are solitary. Vagrant Great Blues have been observed in such places as the Arctic, Greenland, the Azores, Spain and the West Indies.

Though varying in size, when standing with head raised, Great Blue Herons average about four feet tall. Their wingspan is about 70 inches. In flight they are easily distinguished from flamingoes and cranes which fly with heads and necks extended whereas the head of the Great Blue Heron, except on takeoff and landing, rests upon a neck which is folded back, not extended. In flight, the legs trail behind and, because of the bird’s very short tail, serve as a rudder.

Males tend to be slightly larger than females. It is not unusual to see these herons standing on one foot with the other hidden in the lower body plumage. They also, at times, fold the neck so that the head rests on the shoulders.

Adult plumage is attained in their second year. In breeding season, the plumes on the back of the Great Blue are relatively short. However, the plumes of the crest and foreneck tend to be longer and more pronounced.

The diet of Great Blue Herons is largely opportunistic. Besides fish, frogs, small turtles and crustaceans, they also eat mice and other small rodents as well as snakes, nestling birds and possibly insects. Their preferred food is fish. They have been observed swallowing fish having a length of two feet.

Great Blues breed colonially in all the 48 contiguous states. The colonies vary in size some of which include other species. However when this occurs the great Blue Heron nests are usually found higher up. Though they do tend to select the highest point of whatever tree or bush they choose to nest in, on occasion, they have been known to nest on the ground and from time to time numerous nests have been found in a single tree.

Incubation of Great blue eggs takes 28 days. Both parents brood the eggs. Once hatched the young are fed regurgitated food until able to eat small fish. Young Great Blue Herons remain in the nest until they are as large as adults. Mortality rate for nest bound young is quite high.

The literature reveals that Great Blue Herons are at times the victims of a kind of avian “piracy” which is defined as the harrasment of one bird by another to force the victim to give up food. Accordingly, Great Blue Heron nestlings have been observed under harassment by Turkey Vultures as they force the nestlings to regurgitate their most recent meal which is then ingested by the vultures to feed to their own young.

During breeding season Great Blue Herons are known to fly considerable distance (6 miles or so) in search of food for themselves and their young. Presence at a particular place in a county regularly during breeding season may, but does not therefore necessarily, indicate the presence of a rookery. No known rookeries have been found recently in either Grand Traverse or Leelanau Counties. There is however at least one in Benzie County.

Mature Great Blue Herons have few natural enemies. Its large pointed beak is a daunting weapon. Nevertheless, because of its conspicuous size, it is often the target of thoughtless humans looking for something trophy-like to shoot at.

The Great Blue Heron is partially migratory. Generally it withdraws from the northern portions of its breeding range in winter except along the coasts.

Though most Great Blue Herons migrate, a few remain in Michigan through the winter months if there are places with open water and food sources. Migratory herons return to Michigan in mid to late March with courtship and nest building occurring for the most part in April and early May. Most Lower Peninsula young Great Blue Herons are sufficiently mature to leave the nest by the end of July. Migration begins in late summer and continues through October.

~bob c.

Posted by Publius at 11:58 AM | Permalink