Honor Roll

There’s a large wall right in the center of downtown Mason.  I see it every time I drive there, and I have always wondered what it was for.

Today I stopped there and found out it’s a memorial wall dedicated to individuals from Ingham County who fought in the Korean and Vietnam wars as well as World War II.  There is a  walkway leading up to it with engraved bricks honoring anyone from Ingham County who has served in the armed forces during times of peace and war.

Now that I have been reporting in Mason for the semester, I actually felt a sort of connection while I was reading the names on the wall.  I have heard so many stories about old war veterans from the history buffs I have interviewed, it seemed fitting that I discovered the memorial now rather than at the beginning of my work.

But, one of the coolest things about being there today was when I noticed that the patriotism in Mason, especially at that memorial, was everywhere – even the fire hydrant was red, white and blue.  If that doesn’t say something, I don’t know what does.

New CATA Fare Prices

The CATA has recently come up with new fare prices. These prices not only affect college students, but Lansing area residents as well.

New fare prices are $1.25 for regular cash fare and 60 cents for any discounted fare. This includes seniors, students, people with disabilities and medicare card holders.

Are College Too Young To Be Ministers?

Recently I wrote a story on college students who also take on the role as minister. These students juggle their ministry along with jobs and school work. Normally when you think of ministers, you think of older or middle aged persons participating in church functions and helping with the flow of the service.

So are college students too young to be ministers?

Special City Council Meeting Raises Questions in Williamston

In an E-mail read aloud, Williamston resident Jennifer Chisholm expressed her skepticism of the special city council meeting being held the night of, Dec. 19, 2007,

            “I am all for new businesses in this town. We need the infrastructure if we are going to             remain solvent. However holding a ‘special’ meeting for ONE business that hosted your OWN fundraiser is extremely suspect.”

Williamston High School Switches to Trimesters

The Williamston Board of Education will change its long-standing double semester year at Williamston High School to a trimester year starting in the 2008-2009 school year.

            The Board said the switch is an effort to better prepare its students and give them a higher quality of education.

            Under the current schedule of two semesters a school year, students attend six one-hour long classes a day and receive six credits a year.

            The new trimesters will only have five classes a day, but for a longer period of time and students will receive 7.5 credits a year.

Capital Area Humane Society

Refuge is found here, with plenty treats for good behavior. These unlikely residents have a big day coming up.
The Capital Area Humane Society, 7095 W. Grand River Ave., are hosting their 5th Annual Fur Ball Saturday, April 19, 2008, and you and your fine canine are invited.
This event will be held at Eagle Eye Golf Club, 15101 Chandler Road. More than half of the proceeds from each individual ticket will go towards CAHS.
“The Annual Fur Ball is our main fundraising event that is ran completely on donation. You can even bring your dog and they go into the ‘pooch spa’”, said Sarah Soltis, adoption consultant.

Being Students and Ministers

Being a new and young church in a college town for EOW, means having many new and young college students flood your church.

            At the Epicenter of Worship, 227 N. Capitol Ave., many college students are fulfilling roles that many of their parents would normally fill.

            The role of minister.

           

Schools of Choice

Amy Al-Katib

The Mason Board of Education announced Monday, Feb. 11 that they would close Cedar Elementary School in accordance with the facilities consolidation plan. Following this, they informed the public that an in-district school of choice option wouldn’t be offered for elementary students during the 2008-2009 school year.

“Once we get past this facility consolidation piece we will go back to allowing schools of choice within the district among the three remaining schools,” said Superintendent James Harvey.

This is the first year the Board has voted against allowing the in-district schools of choice option. Harvey said it was intended to avoid chaos while closing a school. “You have all these kindergartners and first graders that you need to put somewhere,” said Diane Wilson, administrative assistant to the assistant superintendent of instruction. “And we don’t know how it’s going to unfold yet next year,” she said.

Kindergarten and first grade students who would normally attend Cedar will be redistricted to other schools next year as part one of the phase out. “We don’t want people leaving the schools they are assigned to,” said Harvey.

But, the question parents have is, How can we keep our kids together? The answer: students who are reassigned but have siblings in other schools can still apply for in-district schools of choice. “There’s no guarantee for any schools of choice student, but we don’t want to split up families,” said Harvey. Therefore, the students will be allowed to apply and will be granted permission given there are enough openings for the particular grade and building they will enter.

The Board will still allow for out-of-district schools of choice students to attend Mason schools. Because funding is distributed on a per pupil basis, the out-of-district students help balance the budget. Harvey said that most years they lose approximately 30 or 40 students, but they gain 40 or 50. “It’s about a net effect of zero, but we’re usually positive by at least a few,” he said.

The Board’s decision to target in-district rather than out-of-district schools of choice students has not raised many issues for the public. In-district schools of choice only applies to elementary students because there is only one building for both middle school and high school. Gina Stanley, principal at North Aurelius said she hasn’t heard any complaints. “I announced it at kindergarten round-up that we wouldn’t be allowing it because that’s where parents sign up for it, and I didn’t even get any questions,” she said.

Lisa Francisco, the principal at Cedar Elementary, said that with any institution there are always undesirable decisions that have to be made. And while she doesn’t like to see options taken away from her students, she said there’s not enough money in education.

Heather Waldrop, the Secretary at Alaiedon, feels that the Board made an excellent decision. The facilities consolidation plan was designed to reduce costs because of insufficient funding. “This policy will end up saving our district a lot of money just in transportation alone,” she said.

Harvey explained that out-of-district schools of choice students arrange their own transportation but that the district provides transportation for the in-district schools of choice students. However, he said costs will remain the same. “It really doesn’t have any bearing on the transportation because we already have connecting buses between every one of our buildings,” he said.

Therefore, the Board decided to stop in-district schools of choice only to make transitioning easier. “This way, a teacher at one school doesn’t have to wonder why they have 27 students when teachers in the same grade at other schools only have 17,” said Harvey.

And class size is a concern for parents too. In a previous interview, Dawn Stark, a parent of an elementary school student, said she worried that classes were going to get too big to provide a conducive learning environment.

“We’re trying to prevent a large exodus of students because we don’t have the slots to accommodate them anyway,” said Harvey. “But the decision not to allow in-district schools of choice is really a very minor piece of all this. The main significance is moving all of them out of there,” he said.

City Council Meeting

Amy Al-Katib

The Mason City Council discussed ways to reduce new businesses on Cedar Street to one driveway while maintaining traffic efficiency at their 7:30 p.m., Monday, January 21 meeting.

Martin Colburn, the city administrator, informed council members of the Michigan Department of Transportation’s plans to reduce the number of ingresses and egresses to prevent accidents.

On Wednesday, January 16, the Planning Commission approved a special use permit for a final site location for the new Biggby’s coffee shop, which is located at 661 N. Cedar St. but not yet open for business. “It looks like a tremendous plan,” said Naeyaert. The building is currently used as a location for the Mason State Bank, which will be moving to a new location, so the parking lot is designed for customers to enter at one location, park or circle around to the drive-thru and exit at a different location.

However, the plan MDOT designed for Cedar Street has the entrance and exit for Biggby’s combined, not separate. “The reality is, we’re going to try to find out how strict this policy is,” said Colburn. “I can see them asking to reduce the size, but having only one driveway, that doesn’t make any sense at all,” said council member Leslie Bruno Jr.

While the city of Mason will have to incur the cost of possibly removing one of these driveways, that doesn’t seem to be the main concern. “If you’ve got a situation where people come in one way and go out the other, forget the cost, it’s going to be hard to manage,” said council member Russell Whipple.

MDOT’s standard operating procedures does not include the limited driveway approach for select areas as a requirement, but they are thinking about adding it in the future, according to Colburn. “I support MDOT’s reasoning,” he said. However, he and the other council members agree that there are situations in which a separate entrance and exit are more logical. The decision concerning Biggby’s driveway remains to be made, but the City Council has been discussing other options with MDOT and will continue to do so until it is resolved. “It seems like we’ll have a good chance of at least being heard,” said Naeyaert.

In other business, a scheduling conflict for the annual budget workshop caused a small dispute among council members. During a previous meeting, the members had discussed tentative dates for the workshop, planned to take place on April 9 and 10. However, at this meeting, council member Whipple pointed out that he could not make one of these dates.

In response to his concern, Kathy Revels, the finance director, reminded him that last year they completed the budget workshop in one night, but that they planned for two just in case. “The ninth is no good for me,” he said. The members agreed to meet on April 10 instead, but Mayor Leon Clark said he would be unable to attend that day.

After a few moments of silence, Colburn moved to resolve the situation by saying that since there wasn’t a day that would work for everyone, they would leave it as planned. “I just though that in the past we tried to pick a day that everyone could be there because it’s so important,” said Whipple. “But whatever you want to do,” he added. Naeyaert then brought up the fact that these dates had already been agreed upon, and he is the one who changed his schedule. However, Whipple said he misunderstood the exactness of the dates and thought they were only tentative and would be decided upon at a later date.

Later, after some mediation among council members and some quick fact-checking, they successfully scheduled the workshop for April 8, and they will meet again on April 10 if necessary.

In addition to this, Phil Birdsall, executive director of the Downtown Development Authority, spoke briefly to inform residents where they could find flyers with information about the project and to request approval for a grant application.

Elaine Ferris spoke in favor of applying for the downtown planning grant during the public comment segment of the meeting. “They have some really great things planned for downtown. I encourage everybody to pick up a flyer in the lobby (of City Hall) or go to one of the meetings to find out more,” she said in an interview after the meeting.

Other issues discussed at the meeting include a severe budget decrease for the drug task force, which will reduce funds by two-thirds, an announcement of the Boy Scouts troop 763 who attended the meeting to meet requirements to earn their citizenship merit badge, acceptance of a grant to allow sidewalk easement at the Riverwalk Meadows subdivision, the monthly revenue and expenditure report and the primary election turnout; approximately 19 percent of registered voters showed up.

Dave Downing

Amy Al-Katib

The Medal of Honor. It’s the highest military decoration awarded by U.S. government, often awarded after death. It’s a symbol of patriotism and bravery, and it’s a gift of honor and appreciation. It was also one of many items at a garage sale 43 years ago that no one bothered to buy. But today, that same medal belongs to someone who values it entirely too much to ever put a price a tag on it.

“It was like providence, it was just so bizarre of a story,” said Dave Downing.

Mr. Downing says his interest in history dates back to when he was 10. He and his family drove through Gettysburg on their way back from Washington D.C. “It happened to be the weekend of the 100^th anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg,” he said.

He raved about the celebration to everyone. But, when news traveled to his grandma, it turned out she had a better story to tell.

“My grandma told me we had an ancestor who fought in Gettysburg,” he said. “He was awarded the Medal of Honor.”

Mr. Downing dedicated a few years to doing research on his ancestor, Walter Mundale. His interest in the Civil War continued to grow the more he found out. In 1983, Mr. Downing joined the 7^th Michigan Volunteer Infantry, Company B and has remained a member for 25 years. This Civil War reenactment group is based on an actual Mason militia, which entered the war in 1861.

Before the Civil War, several states had local militias organized, prepared to fight in the event of an attack. “It was mostly a social thing,” said Downing. The men would act out the drills and afterward their families would have picnics together and go home. But, when the war broke out, a lot of these groups would go in as a company since they were already cohesive military units.

One of Downing’s co-workers, Tyler Young, said he doesn’t talk about the reenactment group often. However, Young went to one of the events and said it was quite impressive. “The way he would talk about what was realistic and what wasn’t made me realize how much he really knew about the time period and how passionate he really was about it,” he said.

Downing’s daughter, Amanda, agrees with Young. She said he doesn’t talk about it much at home unless there’s an event soon, but he is undoubtedly dedicated to it. When she was a child, Downing forced her to attend events so she didn’t appreciate them as much, said Amanda. “Now that I am older I respect him for doing it and sticking with it,” she said.

According to Downing, members drop out frequently. “This is a hobby and people’s lives change and things happen. You do what you can,” he said.

“I joined the club 11 years ago and found Dave there. We went to high school together many, many years ago, so that was pretty interesting,” said Mark Lynch. “He’s always been passionate about the Civil War, even when he was a small child. And I think that passion just grew over the years, and that’s why he’s as involved in the club as he is,” said Lynch.

Throughout the years, Downing has reenacted several military rankings. “He was corporal for a while and he got promoted to adjutant, which is second in command for the union troops,” Amanda said. Corporals are out on the fields following orders for battle, and adjutants are the ones giving the orders. Now, because his knees are bad, and he can’t move around as easily, Downing’s an announcer, said Amanda. This means he remains stationary, while providing the audience with information about the battle.

“Generally what we’re trying to do at events is portray what life was like for the average person: both the soldiers and the civilians,” said Downing.

The 7^th Michigan hosts one of the largest events in the Midwest, called Civil War Muster. It takes place at the Cascades in Jackson, Mich. “We have about 2000 reenactors show up, and a typical event has 200-400 people,” he said.

More people participate in this event because it’s so huge. For some people, especially people who used to be involved a lot, the Muster is the only event they will participate in each year. Lynch said he’s not as involved in the group as he used to be. “You get to a point where you get a little burnt out,” he said.

Not for Mr. Downing though. “This is what I love,” he said.

Two years after he visited Gettysburg, he tracked down a cousin who remembered his great-great-grandfather, and his parents invited her over for dinner. She brought over the Medal of Honor she had tried to sell when she came. “She was older, and she was moving into assisted living and needed to get rid of some things,” said Downing. “It had a price tag on it,” he said, and as he remembered, he looked down and chuckled in disbelief. “It was just fate I guess.”