February: Peak Holmes
Budget/regular mtg minutes, don't forget to vote tomorrow! and varied nubbins
The minutes for the February meeting, which was also the budget hearing, were a doozy again, so, since I wrote them, if you could just, uh, go ahead and read the draft on the Village website, that’d be great.
If you’d like more juicy details, you can listen to the *whole meeting* below.
((((((((( Audio of the February Budget Hearing and Council Meeting )))))))))
Primary Day Tomorrow, 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Tomorrow (Tuesday) is the Michigan primary for the 2024 presidential election. If you didn’t take advantage of the extravaganza of early voting this past nine days, tomorrow is your chance to let your voice be heard.
Note that your voice can also say “uncommitted.” If it so happens that enough people vote uncommitted in either the Republican or Democratic primaries in Michigan, our state will send uncommitted delegates to the relevant convention. The last time this happened to any significant degree was in 2008, according to the Detroit Free Press.
Whatever you decide, please thank our election workers. They have put in a lot of hours already (72 not counting tomorrow), and they will do it again for early voting at least twice more this year!
Here are some other updates and things people have sent me.
Justin Towle passed his CDL test on February 21!
We now have an in-house big-plow-truck operator. Thank you, Justin, for all your hard work on this and also the upcoming trip to Mt. Pleasant in March for water training.
Do You Support the Monarch-y? Support Milkweed
It’s just a bill, but someday it may be a law. Oh I hope and pray that it will.
Elberta Ski Hill in the Betsie Current
A great article by Andy Bolander and *video* of Aubrey Parker and Liz Negrau exploring the history of Elberta’s winter sports paradise. One of our cooler claims to fame.
The Benzie County Natural Hazards Mitigation Plan: Would It Kill You to Look at It?
The Heartlands Project
Commissioner Sauer mentioned this preservation of 32,600 acres in Keweenaw County in his update at the meeting, which appears to be going ahead. Heartwarming!
Trains! and Andy Bolander!
Our resident historian is talking about the Manistee & Northeastern Railroads at the Mills Community House on March 14. You can experience this lecture live in 3D at the actual place, or watch it later on the Benzie Area Historical Society’s YouTube channel.
How to Make the Garden Theater Grow? Take This Survey by March 8
Katie Jones and other Garden-ers would like your feedback on our local theayter: what kind of programming would you like to see? What local needs could they advocate for or fill? And other thought-provoking questions!
Holmes Field
One of the agenda items at the February meeting was to approve several new signs for the Village (see minutes). And sometime this spring, we’ll be planting a sign at the ballfield by the Community Building in honor of looooooongtime Elberta resident and public servant Kenneth Holmes. I’ll announce when we have a date for the dedication, and it’ll be more than time for a profile of Mr. Holmes before then.
