Region Watch

Region Watch Group accuses CMU of keeping a lid on survey of controversial wind project
By Patrick Sullivan
A citizens group opposed to a wind farm in Benzie and Manistee counties
says Central Michigan University (CMU) is keeping documents related to the
project from public view.
An attorney for Arcadia Wind Study Group filed a lawsuit last week that
seeks to force CMU to release hundreds of pages of documents.
CMU and Duke Energy entered into an agreement on March 1 to undertake a
study called “Township Views of Alternative Energy and Wind Farms.”
Duke agreed to pay CMU $21,581 for the work.

Region Watch Things are generally pretty quiet at the Old Mission House, which reflects
on 169 years of history, dating back to the earliest days of white
settlement in the Grand Traverse area.

Region Watch CHERRY FESTIVAL MUSIC
The National Cherry Festival has announced its music lineup for the
Bayside Stage this coming July 1-9.
The big acts include:
• Kansas - Wednesday, July 6
• 1964 Beatles tribute - Thursday, July 7
• .38 Special & Brant Lee Gilbert - Friday, July 8
• Josh Graycin, country - Saturday, July 9
Susan Wilcox, media relations & marketing manager, says a $15 pass will
get festival-goers into all four shows, with nightly passes also
available. And, for the first time, premium seating options will also
be available up-front.
“We‘re also very excited about the line-up at the Cherry Blast Stage in
the beverage tent,“ Wilcox adds.
“These will all be free shows by great performers including the Sun
Messengers, the Detroit Pistons House Band, Motown R&B, Joe Caine, Larry
McCray and Thornetta Davis.“
Check out upcoming stories on the artists in the Express‘s Festival
Music and Cherry Festival issues in late June-early July.

Region Watch Please be seated..
At last year’s Traverse City Film
Festival, organizer Michael Moore made a spur-of-the-moment promise based
on an idea from a member of the audience: if the TC Area Public Schools
would officially honor the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday for the first
time since its inception 26 years ago, Moore said he would lead a campaign
to provide new seats for the Lars Hockstad
Auditorium, located at Central Grade School on 7th Street.

Region Watch Saving the Great Lakes
Water activists and experts from throughout the Great Lake Basin will
be flowing in for a “Saving the Great Lakes Forever” conference which
kicks off on Friday, May 6, at the State Theater in downtown Traverse
City.
“We take our incredible natural beauty and abundance for granted, but
there are very real threats facing the Great Lakes Basin.” said
environmental attorney James Olson, who serves as executive director of
the Flow for Water Coalition. “If we don’t protect these majestic
waters now, the Great Lakes could be lost for our future generations.
Our goal is to build deep citizen awareness and provide solutions to
make sure that doesn’t happen.”

Region Watch New film fest heads into the wild
A Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival will be screened at the State Theater in TC on Sunday, November 14, from 1 to 4:30 p.m. Headlining the festival is a humorous documentary, No Impact Man, along with five other short films.
Nationally, the Wild & Scenic Film Festival was launched by the South Yuba River Citizens League, a watershed advocacy group that formed in 2003 to fight several dam projects in California. The League eventually won “wild and scenic” status for 39 miles of the Yuba River. The film festival, which offers local presenters more than 50 films to choose from, began touring in 2004. This year the festival will be seen in more than 110 venues. It will be sponsored in TC by the Michigan Land Use Institute (MLUI).
After the films, the action moves to Left Foot Charley in the Village at Grand Traverse Commons, where MLUI hosts a free reception, from 5-6:30 p.m. The evening concludes with a CD release party and performance by Breathe Owl Breathe for Magic Central, benefiting MLUI, from 7 to 9 p.m.
No Impact Man follows a young, eco-guilty New Yorker, Colin Beavans, as he tries living for a year without affecting the environment. The film recounts the challenges he faces, including not using electricity, taxis or elevators; eating only local food; and making no waste. His biggest challenge? Getting his own family on board.
Fans of another entertaining documentary, King Corn, will enjoy Curt Ellis and Aaron Woolf’s follow-up, entitled Big River. The filmmakers track the harm caused by the fertilizers and insecticides they used to grow their now-famous acre of Iowa corn as those chemicals flow down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico.
Also on the program will be the winner of the Micromovie Competition for Young Filmmakers, organized by MLUI and SEEDS, a TC-based environmental education group. Entries are still being accepted from those 19 years or younger.
Tickets for the festival are $10 in advance and $12 at the door. They are available at www.mlui.org and Higher Grounds Trading Company, Oryana Natural Foods, and Pangea’s Pizza Pub—all in TC. Tickets for the Breathe Owl Breathe CD release party are $12 in advance and $15 at the door. They are also available at the ticket outlets listed above.

Region Watch Preserving the Pigeon
The Pigeon River has enjoyed the protection of the Little Traverse
Conservancy since 1983 when Agnes A. Andreae donated 27 acres and a
cabin perched along the river.

Region Watch Couple to seek skydiving record
Skydive Harbor Springs is hosting a Guinness World Record Event on June
29, with the public invited to come and watch.

Region Watch Robert Downes Up in smoke: two proposed coal plants in Rogers City & Bay City
Plans for two new coal plants in Rogers City and Bay City were
scuttled last week, raising hope in Michigan’s environmental community
that power companies will pursue a cleaner path to producing
electricity.

Region Watch Desperate moms have an option
The recent deaths of two newborn babies abandoned in the Traverse City
area has prompted an adoption agency to speak out on a state law passed
nine years ago to help out desperate mothers.

Region Watch Everyone Knows It’s Windy
But some lakeshore residents are fearful of proposed wind farm project
A fight over wind turbines is shaping up in Oceana and Mason counties,
where 400 area residents have organized to oppose a proposed wind farm
project on Lake Michigan.

Region Watch Danielle Horvath No Home? New housing development offers refuge
By Danielle Horvath
Being homeless can happen to anyone, even for former NBA players like David Vaughn who blew through $22 million and ended up sleeping in his Chevy Impala. Or, it can be a single mom with two kids who escapes an abusive relationship and is living in a campground with winter coming and who still has no job. At least 1.35 million children in the U.S. are homeless during the year -- over 200,000 on any given day.

Region Watch Anne Stanton Region Watch:Med pot grower faces trial/Want to tell a great story?
By Anne Stanton 11/9/09

Archie Kiel, a “caregiver” who grows marijuana plants for himself and several other medical marijuana patients, was arraigned in 13th Circuit Court last week on felony charges for growing more than the legal limit of plants.
He pled not guilty. Kiel has a jury status conference on December 9—the final date on whether he can decide to plead or go to trial.
Charged with manufacture of more than 20 plants and less than 200, Kiel of Rapid City will likely stand trial in December, unless the judge agrees to dismiss his case, said his attorney Ross Hickman.
Hickman says he wishes the prosecutor would just drop the case. “At best, here’s a guy who was trying to abide by the law, and thought he was and made a mistake. It’s certainly possible he didn’t make a mistake. It just doesn’t seem appropriate to hang him out to dry for this,” Hickman said.

Region Watch Region Watch 8/31/09
Community Treasure Stolen
A 125-year-old wrought iron gate on the grounds of the Village of Grand Traverse Commons was so beautiful, photographers often used it as a backdrop for graduation and wedding photos.
But the massive gate was stolen on August 18 with the use of bolt cutters to cut a security chain and most likely heisted in broad daylight.
“It was right across from the K parking lot of Munson Medical Center, but people see trucks there all the time and might have assumed we were having it refurbished. It would have taken four men to carry it, and they’d have to have a flat bed or huge moving truck to carry it,” said developer Ray Minervini, who is renovating the former Traverse City State Hospital into a village of shops, offices, clinics, condos, and restaurants.
“We had intended to restore the gate and the hidden garden behind it,” said Minervini, who said he was devastated by the theft. “It’s terrible. It belongs to the whole community. It’s not Ray’s gate, it’s the community’s gate.”
He called the theft “unconscionable” and plans to contact area salvage yards and architectural resale stores in case someone tries to sell the gate.
Minervini said there’s a reward for information leading to its return: “I’ll buy them dinner, give them a tour of the site, take them to the underground tunnels. If, whoever stole it comes to their senses, we won’t prosecute them.
“We implore anyone who may have witnessed this to provide any information, and beseech those responsible to simply return it to its rightful place in history,” he said.
If you have any information, call Ray Minervini at 941-1900 or go to www.thevillagetc.com.

Region Watch Express Staff/ Rick Coates Standish: ‘Gitmo North‘?
Small town would reap 340 jobs & $100 million makeover

8/10/09
Some residents of the small Lake Huron town of Standish say they’re more afraid of losing their jobs than the threat of housing 229 Guantanamo Bay prisoners at the Standish Maximum Correctional Facility, which is in imminent danger of closing.
Throughout the town, handmade signs saying: “Save Our Town, Save Standish Max” have reportedly been popping up in the windows of local stores, restaurants and outside the prison itself.
Last week, U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Menominee) announced that the 640-bed prison is being considered as a possible destination for the detainees who’ve been held at Guantanamo, Cuba for the past seven years. The other site being considered by the Obama administration is Fort Leavenworth, a military penitentiary in Kansas.