Supervisor's Weekly E-Letter

April 21, 2004

Thursday: Waters Edge New Member Night is tomorrow evening (Thurs., April 22nd) at the clubhouse on West River Road. Discount memberships for new members will be for sale that night only along with lots of prizes, raffles and fun. Plan to join us. Call 734-675-0777 for more information.

Sunday: Please join March of Dimes and my family in our annual "Walk for Benjamin" on April 25th in at Munson Park in Monroe. Sign up is at 8:15am followed by a group photo 8:30am. Baby Benjamin lost his little life to neural tube disease 6 years ago and our family has marshaled among the largest groups of walkers to help efforts in saving babies each ever since at this event. For more information or to donate contact Jennifer Lemerand at jenlemerand@yahoo.com. Any support you can provide will mean a great deal to me and my family. For more see www.walkamerica.org or call 1-800-BigWalk.

Monday: The Township Board meets at 7:30pm in the Merle Solomon Board Room, Township Hall, Hangar #1. Watch it live on GI-TV and send feedback during the meeting to questions@grosseile.com.

Get Rid of Those Cans & Bottles

Now thru Monday: Why hassle with returning those cans and bottles? TAILS is collecting them to raise money for our animal shelter and related projects. You can drop your cans and bottles anytime at the shelter on Centennial Farm. Please place them in the fenced pen located between the shelter and red barn. Collecting thru April 26th.
www.grosseileanimalshelter.com

Summer Reading

The Trenton Library's summer programs for children will be June 16, 23, 30 and July 7,14,21,28. Special programs for teens will be announced soon. Sign up begins June 2nd. All Grosse Ile residents help pay for that library as part of your property taxes so please take advantage of their fine programming.
http://www.trenton.lib.mi.us/

The Email Bag

Hi Doug: Thanks again for these helpful and informative updates. As a West River resident, I am so glad for the connector being re-opened. I can appreciate that some people don't like the traffic, however, given the trains, bridges and ever-present construction, island living has gone from elegantly exclusive to unattractively inconvenient as of late.
West River Road Resident

Response from the Supervisor: I think "unattractively inconvenient" is a great way to describe it. We have little control (read "no control") over the trains or projects of adjoining cities, like Trenton's current DDA improvements going in along Jefferson. And there are no easy solutions to the issues raised by having only one publicly owned bridge to a community of 11,000 people. There are more public works projects happening on GI now and this summer then probably ever in the community's history at one time, so I'll be asking for your continued patience. The big ones are: West River Road paving, East River Road (Ferry-Manchester) water main, Ferry Road (East River to the canal) water main, and our big sewer project (mostly along Meridian this summer). These water main and sanitary sewer projects can be expected to both create a mess and interrupt traffic flow along the roads. While inconvenient and messy, these things really are necessary. My approach has always been to recognize what is needed and then just get it done as quickly and efficiently as possible. Please remember that these projects will eventually improve the overall quality of life and real estate values on our beautiful little Island. How does the saying go? Temporary pain brings long term satisfaction?

Doug, I just finished reading the article in the camera by the Open Space/Greenways Committee on the Emerald Ash Borer. In the article they suggested that the residents apply "Sevin" to the trunk and surrounding soil as a means to significantly reduce the chance of infestation. Has the Township considered the possibility of purchasing Sevin in bulk and making in available to the residents at the resultant wholesale price? Sevin is relatively expensive and having it available to the residents at a reasonable cost may result in a higher percentage of usage with the obvious resultant benefits to the Township as a whole.
Salisbury Resident

This Week in Island History

April 16, 1945 – The Ile Camera was established with Pam Marsh (Frucci) as editor and Pat Pittman as associate editor. Ad rates were 5¢ for each ad.
April 21, 1986 – Vice President George Bush visited the island on a 2-day fund raising campaign. A cocktail party at $500/person was hosted by Heinz and Waltraud Prechter.

Compiled by Clare Koester, GI Historical Society

Used Book Sale This Weekend

The Friends of the Trenton Veterans Memorial Library Spring Used-Book Sale is scheduled for:
Saturday, April 24: 10-6
Sunday, April 25: 1-5

Lansing Notes

Project Great Start is a state program aimed at helping parents make sure their children get the most out of the critical years between birth and 3 years old. See: http://www.mi.gov/greatstart.

Legislation pending in Lansing would raise the minimum age required to operate personal watercraft (Jet Ski's and such) to 16. Currently 12&13 year olds can operate with a parent on-board and 14 year olds can operate them independently with a boating safety course. For more see: http://www.detnews.com/2004/metro/0404/19/c01-126726.htm

Quotes of the Week

"Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path that they have chosen, few in pursuit of the goal."
Friedrich Nietzsche

"Simplicity is making the journey of this life with just baggage enough."
Anonymous

Survey Question of the Week

This week's question: What should be the township's top goal or most important project for the remainder of 2004? Please email your response to GIquestion@yahoo.com on or before Wed., April 28th. Results and comments in next week's E-Letter.

Last week's question: Do you believe the County should close, leave as is, or improve the intersection of GI Parkway and West River Road? We received 55 responses: 22 (40%) leave as is, 2 (3.6%) close it and 31 (56.4%) improve it. Some commentary:

• We should NEVER think of closing this ramp. Do we want to be another Trenton, closing streets to the public just for the convenience of a few. Resident--Hawthorn Place
• Improve turn from free bridge to West River. I used to live on West River and would hate to see the entrance closed. Stay the same if that is what must be settled for, but improve if possible. I vote for leave it as it is. Do not put in a traffic light, which will cause traffic jams. Do not close the intersection, which will put undue stress on the alternate route roads.
• at very least improve - if not possible, then close
• Improve. Without a traffic signal.
• Improve it include a smart traffic light
• build a tunnel
• Improve - One Way with no left turn from Westbound Parkway and widen the turn lane from Eastbound Parkway
• There should be improvements made. The major problem is that when turning left onto Parkway one has to be very careful about the cars coming onto the island. Many times one car gets "lost" in another and people pull out. If you don't see the car come over the west river bridge you have to wait to make sure that there is not another car with it. They should eliminate left turns from the ramp to the bridge or put in a light..a light, however, could cause a big backup coming onto the Island..No left turn would be much safer and only a minor inconvenience to residence of West River rd. but would increase traffic at intersection of Meridian / Parkway..I don't believe that there is room for a second entrance on the North side of West Rd without a very expensive design,but that would be ideal,if affordable, because the s. side would be for East bound traffic only and the North side for West bound traffic only.
• I have been a GI resident for 7 years and live on Ruthmere Rd. I enjoy viewing the river on my way to and from work. I have seen no issues with the GI parkway and west river rd intersection. My vote is to leave as is......

Have a question or comment for the Supervisor? Email: doug@downriverfirst.com
Please help grow our email list. Forward addresses or email changes to doug@downriverfirst.com

Comcast internet users: My downriverfirst address has been blocked as a "Spam" address because all the E-letters are sent from that address, so please use my Grosse Ile address (douglasj@grosseile.com) as it may not get to me otherwise.

Resources available at Grosse Ile On-Line include:
Past weekly updates: http://www.grosseile.com/government/supervisor/eletters.html
Searchable township code, zoning ordinance & master plan: http://www.grosseile.com/government/index.html
This week on GI-TV: http://www.grosseile.com/government/cable/gitv.html

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