Inside the Newsroom @ Chelsea, Dexter

The official blog for The Chelsea Standard and Dexter Leader


Thursday, February 18, 2010

School district transportation meeting tonight

Expect coverage of the DCS transportation meeting tonight dealing with moving the district's transportation facility to the main school campus. We'll also recap what happened at the previous couple of meetings, all of which will be summed up during a fourth meeting on Feb. 25.

Look here for an update, keep your eyes peeled for the story in the paper or show up yourself and go so far as putting your own two cents into the mix. For details on time and location, or to take a look at the district's transportation study check out the following link.

Reimagining transportation in Dexter.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

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Friday, February 12, 2010

Chocolate Extravaganza hits Chelsea this weekend

I'm excited that one of my first "big" events happening in Chelsea since taking over as editor for the Chelsea Standard is something called The Chocolate Extravaganza. Anyone who knows me, knows I love sweets -- from cookies to chocolate and ice cream. It's not the best vice to have, but it's also not the worst.
Anyway, it seems like there is going to be a lot going on downtown on Saturday. Roughly 36 businesses are going to have some sort of chocolate-related activity. It's the perfect venue for young and old alike to enjoy something fun for Valentine's weekend, especially if you have to work.
Here is a just a sampling of what will take place:
At Aberdeen Bike and Fitness, samples of brownies and a sale on outdoor clothing, bikes and accessories will take place.

Bumbles Dry Goods will offer samples of rabbit-shaped chocolate cookies and a free silver heart with a $10 purchase.

The Chelsea Center for the Arts is offering chocolate treats and workshops from 10:30 a.m. to noon. Participants can create a Valentine’s Day card for $17. From 1 to 3 p.m. participants can make a coiled wire heart. The fee is $30.

The Chelsea District Library will have samples of local chocolate treats and books on chocolate available to read.

Chelsea First Methodist Church will host a free bacon and eggs breakfast from 8 to 11 a.m. complete with chocolate muffins.

The New Chelsea Market will have samples of Zingerman’s candy bars from 10 a.m. to noon, Backyard gourmet chocolates and caramels from noon to 3 p.m. and heart-shaped chips and salsa from 3 to 5 p.m.

Chelsea Village Hardware will have samples of chocolate molded tools. Customers can look for items that have a red heart attached to them for a sale price.

Chelsea Woodworking will celebrate its four-year anniversary with free cake and treats, free gifts with purchase and storewide discounts on select items.

Cherry Optometry will offer chocolate covered cherries and a raffle for a pair of Polaroid sunglasses.

The Chelsea Teddy Bear Company will offer chocolate treats and T-shirt design for bears ($6). A 25 to 50 percent off sale on chocolate-named bears will also take place.

Cleary’s Pub will offer samples of hot chocolate.

Comfort Inn of Chelsea is offering room rate specials with chocolate covered strawberries and a bottle of wine with a Jacuzzi room.

The Common Grill is offering free brownie bites at the back door. The menu will feature chocolate martinis and desserts.

Dayspring Gifts will offer samples of Gilbert’s chocolates; free potted violets with a $20 purchase, or $3.99 each.

The Garden Mill will host “make your own chocolate treats.” Participants can celebrate the Year of the Tiger with a free “lucky” chocolate coin and a sale on selected items.

Gemini Salon and Day Spa will a chocolate fountain and a paraffin hand wax treatment, free carnations, a raffle and chair massages.

Gigi’s Flowers will also offer a chocolate fountain and treats.

Gourmet Chocolate Café will have dozens of handmade chocolate treats to taste and 10 percent off of purchases.

Heydlauffs will offer samples of Jiffy Mix chocolate muffins baked fresh in a Heydlauff appliance.

La Jolla Fine Jewelry will offer samples of gourmet chocolates, cookies and sparkling cider.

Merkel’s Furniture & Carpet One is offering samples of homemade brownies and coffee.

Mike’s Deli is offering a free homemade chocolate treat with a meal purchase.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Interesting village meeting

I wanted to talk about the Dexter village council meeting a bit earlier than this, but hey - the story won't be out until tomorrow.

Was very interesting reading about what the state Boundary Commission took issue with in the village's legal definition of the village boundaries. I agree with Joe Semifero's quietly voiced criticism of OHM's work here. I'm not knocking Rhett Gronevelt or his colleagues, but it's kind of surprising that their work didn't pass the state surveyor's scrutiny. Who knows. Maybe OHM did the best with what they had not knowing whether the village would want to pay additional costs to have another surveyor come out and clean things up. Sometimes consultants and other contract workers for a municipality try to keep their costs down for various reasons.

I'm still working on a story about the Westridge residents, who jammed Monday's meeting to capacity. Apparently there are concerns with the Border to Border Trail and connector project. A design option has residents concerned about "transients" wandering into the subdivision or parking en masse along curbs, among other things. This should be an interesting one when it's done.

Also look for the next Take Care article here on my blog before it goes to print next week. I wanted to get it in this week but with our Moving Forward special section deadline days away and other personal matters going on it had to wait a bit. I hope it's as interesting to read as it has been to research and (eventually) write.

Another note on Moving Forward, my article will feature Palmer Ford heavily and also Matt LaFontaine who has a huge presence in this county, so for those of you who usually toss the special section (I know you're out there - *glares*), you might want to hang onto this one and look through it. The new format is much tighter and much more focused than it has been the previous two years. All of the Washtenaw writers are responsible for at least an entire section.

No - I won't tell you which one. You'll have to read all of them.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Review hijinks

It seems that special writer Crystal Hayduk also attended and wrote a review of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, so expect a hybrid review, with me talking about some of my observations in the first portion and then Crystal actually reviewing the play. It's kind of like I went as a news reporter to see how attendance was and she handled the rest.

As I said in my "review," more people need to go see 25APCSB, particularly this weekend. It's a comedy with an odd little Breakfast Club love story at the play's gooey center. More importantly it was a very fun experience. I'm just glad they don't randomly choose audience members to "participate" in the bee.

If you're scratching your head at that point, read the review.

Anyway, off to Dexter village's meeting in a bit. I'll throw something up here when I get back.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Great evening in Dexter, Encore play review coming soon

Nothing like a night at the Encore Musical Theatre and one of the great restaurants in town for a wonderful time. It was a blast watching The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (not actually a spelling bee ... that's the name of the musical).

I'll have a review done sometime tomorrow. I was surprised and disappointed at how few people were in attendance, considering what a great show it is. I know it's not Oklahoma! or Sweeney Todd, but it's just as excellent a show. Please pass the word along that the 25APCSB is worth seeing, especially with Valentine's Day coming up next weekend.

Anyway, I'll talk more about it in my review. For now I'm still coming down from the Terry B's experience. Nearly three years as the Dexter reporter and I'm just now discovering this place. Amazing. Thanks for the recommendation Bill!

Friday, February 5, 2010

News now on Facebook

Hello avid readers,
The Chelsea Standard and Dexter Leader now have Facebook pages. In addition to content you can elect to receive from our blogs and our Web site, www.heritage.com, we will post fresh information, stories and videos for your enjoyment on Facebook. Soon we will also join Twitter and offer "tweets" of fun events and stories in town. To see all the excitement in Chelsea and Dexter, visit www.heritage.com, click on The Chelsea Standard or Dexter Leader and then click on "follow us" on the Facebook icon to the right of the screen.
As always, Sean and I will strive to bring the people of Chelsea and Dexter the latest and greatest happenings.

Daniel

Back-blogged: Government, Dexter Garden Club



Village government, and how we cover it

I wanted to provide an update on our coverage of the Village Council's fire prevention discussions, which some argue we botched a bit two issues ago. On page 7-A of this week's paper there is a clearer picture in terms of written copy of what the discussion was about.

So far feedback from the village indicates that our followup clarified the issue much more effectively than our first story, which had a portion of the story in text and another portion of it in a video uploaded to the heritage.com video section.

This blog, video, Facebook and a number of other things are new tools that we intend on leveraging to provide you with a variety of content. In human-language, we're trying to provide more ways for you to get the news from us and we're trying to do it faster than before. You may not use all of these things - maybe you're just on Facebook, but don't Twitter. Or maybe you're a blog-crawling newspaper regular who doesn't even know what Facebook and Twitter are.

We want you to be able to use what's comfortable and familiar to you, which is why we're trying to branch into as many different means of digital communication as possible. And we want to get things out there quickly!

Dexter Garden Club teaches Generations Together pre-schoolers about plants

Thank you to Dexter's garden club for inviting me out to witness a really neat program. The children at Generations together got a really neat, dynamic lesson in the plant growth cycle. They also got to put on a play covering how the environment interacts with the plants, from the plucky gardener to the smiling sun (literally the smiling sun, played by one of the little kids holding a drawing of a sun on a pole). The event was capped off by the kids working with some plantings they had done last fall.

Check out the attached photos and the below video for more.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Launching "Adopt-a-farm" series

Beginning this week, readers in the Heritage Newspapers western region coverage area will be offered a rare treat -- a look inside a real working farm. That's right folks, our award-winning "Adopt-a-farm" series is back.
In years past, this series was written by our former reporter, Ed Freundl. Ed is now off to bigger and better things, and it's now time for a new reporter to take up the challenge that is farming.
Back in 2009, I was approached by my boss, Michelle Rogers, and my colleague, Lisa Allmendinger, about the prospect of becoming the new "ag" reporter.
At first I was hesitant. Growing up in large cities most of my life, I didn't know the first thing about farming. In fact, the only time I have ever been on a farm was when my fourth grade class took a trip to a local dairy farm and my classmates and I got to milk the cow.
Since I didn't know much about farming, I wasn't sure if this was the best assignment for me. And when I was told I could pick a farm that interested me, my first question was, "what about a bee farm?"
I always heard those were cool.
Of course that suggestion didn't fly.
Instead, I was instructed to contact the Washtenaw County Farm Bureau, who could help pair me with a local farm. The result is what you will see in the coming months published online and in the pages of Heritage Newspapers.
Beginning this month, I am on a mission to better understand the intricacies of sheep farming. I will be visiting with Ken and Bonnie Hieber of Freedom Township once a month for the next several months as their sheep farm plans get underway.
Last week was my first experience to get up close and personal with the sheep. It was definitely interesting to see the sheep shearing process. Equally amusing was the look on Ken and Bonnie's faces when I asked if they raised both sheep and lambs (which I quickly learned were the same animal).
It will definitely be an adventure for this city-dweller to head into the unknown world of farmers. Truly it is terra incognita. Hopefully by the end of the series I will emerge unscathed and a little more knowledgeable about farming in Michigan.

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