Ann Arbor
Council sends art money back into city services
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — The Ann Arbor City Council has voted to send roughly $943,000 in unspent money for art back into city services such as road work and water system infrastructure.
Money from the Percent For Art Program, which the city ended last year, will go into various city funds, including about $448,000 to the sewer fund, around $219,000 to the street millage fund and nearly $210,000 to the water fund, The Ann Arbor News reported.
The vote was 10-1 Monday night. Backers of the decision say it’s a matter of priorities and that the money will be better spent on items other than public art.
City officials envision a new program where future capital projects will be evaluated case by case to determine whether it’s appropriate to include public art, while other public art efforts could be funded by a combination of public and private dollars.
Still, there are questions about funding as the city contemplates setting aside $80,000 for a full-time public art administrator next fiscal year.
“Given that we have so many unfunded needs in public safety and infrastructure, our roads are a mess, and our sewers and water infrastructure are failing, I can’t support making a commitment on public art funding for the next two years,” said council member Jane Lumm.
Mayor John Hieftje said he doesn’t agree that the city shouldn’t fund public art until every last pothole is filled, every broken water pipe is repaired and every criminal is arrested. By those criteria, he said, no city could ever fund public art.
“This is a very, very small portion of our budget,” he said. “By having a robust public art program, we can increase economic development in the city and have it more than pay for itself in the tax revenue that comes back.
“That is why so many cities are engaged in public art,” he said.
The council’s action Monday leaves money in place, to complete two major art projects: new Stadium bridges and a rain garden. The council also opted to leave $5,000 for the Coleman Jewett memorial project to dedicate two bronze chairs in honor of the educator.
The council also left $21,000 in matching funds so the city doesn’t lose a $21,000 grant from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs for Canoe Imagine Art. The project aims to recycle old canoes and have artists transform them into works of art.
Flint
Mayor calls for $70 million for ‘war on blight’
FLINT, Mich. (AP) — Flint Mayor Dayne Walling said he wants $70 million in federal funding to help fight blight and tear down nearly 6,000 buildings in the financially troubled city.
Walling made the declaration Monday in his State of the City speech.
“Today, Flint declares a war on blight,” he said. The money would be in addition to state and federal funds already awarded to Flint.
“These abandoned buildings surrounding us are offering shelter for crime and drugs,” he said. “This is not a new problem in Flint, but the scale of the challenge has pushed the threat level up and it is time for an all-out battle against blight.”
Last year, Flint kicked off an effort to tear down 1,600 homes with $20.1 million, the city’s share of $100 million in federal aid for Michigan. Major efforts to fight blight also are taking place in Detroit, Pontiac, Grand Rapids and Saginaw.
The theme of Walling’s speech was a year of service and action, The Flint Journal reported. Walling also aims to get volunteers to take care of 20,000 vacant lots in the next year, which would double the number taken care of last year.
“It’s an aggressive goal,” Walling said.
Flint has been operating under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager since 2011. Emergency manager Darnell Earley has said the city must take a number of steps before it can move back under control of elected leaders.
Grand Rapids
City to strike its ban on being willfully annoying
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — It’s soon expected to be OK to be willfully annoying in Grand Rapids.
The Grand Rapids Press reports that the City Commission is nixing a 38-year-old section of city code that states “no person shall willfully annoy another person.”
City Attorney Catherine Mish recommended repealing the language, saying the wording is “unconstitutional in terms of being vague” and “simply unenforceable.” A final decision is expected March 11.
Even with the change, related crimes such as obstructing someone in a public place or assault would still be on the books.
Mish has been scouring city code to find archaic rules.
Last year, rules that got a look included one prohibiting people from riding horses on a sidewalk and another allowing jail time for failing to return a library book.
East Lansing
Michigan State student sues East Lansing police
EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan State University student who says he was maliciously prosecuted by East Lansing authorities is suing.
The Lansing State Journal reports undergraduate Justin Socha is seeking unspecified damages with the lawsuit filed last year in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids.
East Lansing city attorney Tom Yeadon says he doesn’t want to try the case in the media.
The incident involving Socha happened in September 2010 the weekend of a Michigan State football game. Socha says two East Lansing police officers ordered him to sweep broken glass in the street and spread it in a parking lot. He says he later was wrongfully prosecuted.
Socha was charged with urinating in public, a disorderly conduct charge, but eventually was found not guilty by a jury.
Lansing
Michigan moves to delete ‘retarded’ from laws
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan lawmakers are looking to remove the terms “mental retardation” and “mentally retarded” from state law.
The legislation in Lansing incorporates some recent recommendations from a mental health commission appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder. The bipartisan bills would strike references to outdated language such as “retarded” from various statutes and instead use terms such as “developmentally disabled” or “intellectually disabled.”
Special Olympics Michigan has said Michigan is among just a handful of states to not have already passed such legislation.
A Senate panel last week approved bills to delete the “R word” from laws. They’re now pending in the full Senate.
Grand Rapids
Woman gets prison in axe attack on parents
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — A 29-year-old western Michigan woman convicted of attempted murder for attacking her sleeping mother and stepfather with an axe and a knife has been sentenced to 15 to 45 years in prison.
The Grand Rapids Press reports Amber Wilson learned her punishment Monday in Kent County Circuit Court. A jury earlier convicted her.
Defense lawyer Val Foster argued Wilson’s sentence should be lessened because she had a head injury when she was 16 that, since then, altered her behavior.
Authorities say Wilson told her mother and stepfather they were “going to die” before swinging an axe at them. The attack happened March 6, 2013, in the Grand Rapids suburb of Wyoming.
Police say Harold Clarke and Pamela Wilson escaped and flagged down a patrol car. Their injuries weren’t life-threatening.
Trenton
Police get $524,000 for help with US investigation
TRENTON, Mich. (AP) — A Detroit-area police department became $524,000 richer Monday thanks to its work on a federal bulk-cash smuggling case.
Marlon Miller, who heads up the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations unit, was scheduled to present Trenton police with money obtained from the probe Monday night.
“These funds will allow the Trenton Police Department to continue the excellent work they do in the community,” said Miller, who was to give an oversized check to Trenton police and fire Chief James Nardone during a ceremony at a City Council meeting.
Eskender Mafarani was convicted in 2009 after trying to smuggle about $2 million into the U.S. at the Ambassador Bridge. The Canadian citizen was sentenced to federal prison and ordered to forfeit his claim to the assets.
The remaining forfeited proceeds are being retained by the Homeland Security Investigations unit.
Trenton’s involvement began in 2008, when a Trenton police officer, who also is an HSI task force member, was one of the first responders on the scene. The officer provided assistance as a government witness in the case as well as transportation of the defendant, collection of evidence and interviews of witnesses.
