City Council - Regular Meeting

And can I get Mr. Mayor to do that for us? Sure. Pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Roll call. Roll call.

Mr. Pats?

Here.

Mr. Clark?

Here.

Mr. Armstrong?

Here.

Mr. Wallace? Here. Mr. Thede?

Here.

Mr. Thomas?

Here.

Mr. Johnson?

Here.

Mayor Woolley?

Here.

Deputy Clerk Sarah Rafiki? Here. And Mr. Jaloni? Here.

We have a quorum. We have a motion to approve the agenda with additional appointment to 5.1 under Mayor's communication. Motion. Second. Motion by Mr. Wallace, seconded by Mr. Armstrong. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say yes. Yes. Yeses have it, motion carried. 4.2, motion to approve the acceptance of the minutes held August 5th, 2026 in dispense with oral reading.

Motion.

Support. Motion by Mr. Armstrong, supported by Mr. Thomas. Any discussion? All in favor say yes. Yes. All opposed? Yeses have it. Motion carried. We move on to Mayor's communication.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have one motion, and that is a motion to approve the new appointment of Jason Daw to the Zoning Board of Appeals to fulfill the term of John Coughlin and to expire on May 31st, 2027.

Motion. Support.

Motion by Mr. Clark, supported by Mr. Armstrong. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say yes. Yes. All opposed? Yeses have it. Motion carried. Mr. Chairman. Is he here?

Yeah, he is here to be sworn in. Come on.

All right, you're going to raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, Jason Dahl, do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State of Michigan, the Charter of the City of Taylor, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the Office of Zoning Board of Appeals Member according to the best of my ability. Congratulations.

You'll keep the pretty one. Go Army.

Mr. Chairman, while they're doing that, I got a couple more things that I just want to talk about real quick. I just can't say how appreciative I am, how grateful, how happy over the last weekend and all of last week. It started with the World Series, Junior League World Series. Great turnout. Everybody was more than welcoming. And when you talk to people from other countries and other states that come here to enjoy in Little League, And to be able to ask them what they think of our city and all this stuff and got nothing but praises, which was phenomenal. That's what you always want to hear. I can tell you the Australians were really big fans because they told me every time they saw me. And it was just a great turnout. Congratulations to California for being the World Series champions this year. And to all the volunteers that helped over there, kudos to them and thanks for everything. I know Mr. Bezerra is very appreciative. and happy how everything went as well. The other thing I want to talk about real quick is the wall that heals. Absolutely incredible. I can't tell the city thank you enough. I can't tell the committee thank you, Dennis, who was responsible for bringing it here. Thank you for bringing such a shining diamond to our city. It was nothing but positive, absolutely incredible. Everybody behaved themselves. We had people coming from all over. There was people going all hours of the night. It was guarded 24 hours, or manned, or somebody was there 24 hours. And it was just absolutely incredible, and just with the setup, the takedown, and everybody filling those time slots, absolutely unbelievable. So on behalf of me and the city of Taylor, I can't thank all those volunteers and everybody that did all the hard work over these. Heritage Park was definitely cranking this weekend, and everything was nothing but positivity. And I'm so grateful for that. And everybody up here, everybody out there, everybody watching should be very, very happy with how everything went. I know everybody had something to do with it sitting up here and many sitting out there. So again, thank you, Dennis. And thank you, city of Taylor and state of Michigan for bringing that honor of hosting that to the city of Taylor. And Mr. Chairman, Councilman Patz wanted to read something real quick as well. To the chair.

This is from the Taylor Historical Society. The Taylor Historical Society would like to recognize and thank Dennis Schremler for all his hard work and dedication in bringing the wall that heals, the traveling replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial to the city of Taylor. For a very special week in August of 2026, the wall that heals brought people and communities together at Heritage Park to remember, honor, reflect, and learn. From the incredible escort that welcomed the Walton to Taylor, to the many thousands of visitors who came to pay their respects, and finally to its careful dismantling as it continued on to its next community. It was an experience that touched thousands. The wall that gave us the opportunity to honor our Vietnam veterans, remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice and help teach future generations about a very important part of our history. Dennis, we know event like this just doesn't happen. It takes countless hours, planning, dedication, and a lot of people working together. Thank you for helping make it happen here in Taylor. As a member of the Taylor Historical Society, you help carry on what we work toward every day, preserving the past for the future. We are proud to have this very special event become a huge part of Taylor's history, and even prouder to say thank you, Dennis, for all you did to bring the wall that heals to Taylor. With gratitude, your friends at the Taylor Historical Society.

Mr. Chairman, that's all I have.

That's it? I could go on, but I won't. Mr. Chairman, I just wanted to make a comment on this. I have never seen this city come together like it did just last week. With the World Series here, with the wall here, it was just incredible. I volunteer as a photographer for the wall that heals, and I've been a photographer for the World Series for four years. And I told Angie, I was like, you know, you know, The World Series is my Super Bowl. But I did agree to do that for her. Took hundreds of photographs over there and thousands of photographs over at the Junior League World Series. And I'm just so proud of this community because we had no problems, no complaints, and everybody just came together as one. So it was something to behold. Yes, it was.

Okay, let's move on to the consent agenda. Can I get a motion to receive and file the consent agenda? Can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda? Motion. Sorry. Motion by Mr. Wallace, supported by Mr. Armstrong. Any discussion on the consent agenda? Hearing none, all in favor? Yes. All opposed? Hearing none, all in favor? I said that already. Motion passes. Let's go to the regular agenda. 7.1 motion to approve the second reading of case 2626 z zoning ordinance amend appendix a city of taylor michigan code of ordinance regulating the development and use to rezone parcel 60 019 990029000 and 6001999028000, southwest section, city of Taylor, Wayne County, Michigan, to be rezoned from RC1 single family to I1 light industrial. This property is located at the northwest corner of Wick and Holland.

Motion.

Support. Motion by Mr. Clark, supported by Mr. Wallace. Any discussion?

Sir? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If I could just speak to this application for a few moments. My name is Larry Opaleski. I'm outside zoning counsel for the applicant here. I know you've all been informed of this application, have received your reports and your agenda packets. I just want to highlight a few items for the counsel, though, if I may. When making a zoning decision, as you all know, one of the most important documents to consult is the city master plan. And as you're familiar with, the master plan is a document that is painstakingly compiled by your your citizen planners with resident input and it really guides land use and zoning decisions that are made by a city and so and it's provided for in your ordinance as well that a rezoning decision should be made in consistency with the with the city master plan And it's important, too, because it makes a municipality an inviting place for property owners and developers if they know that they can consult the master plan and say, well, the city clearly prepared this. They're going to rule in favor and consistent with their master plan. So therefore, I know what's going to happen to my neighborhood or a piece of property. And that applies both to commercial and to residential residents as well. And here when we look at what the master plan proposes for this site, it's heavy industrial. So in essence, the city has already decided and published a document saying that this site will be heavy industrial. And my client, the applicant, they actually are proposing something that is more protective to the city and the surrounding residents by proposing light industrial here. Again, I know there's other questions certainly that need to be answered down the way in the development, but a lot of those can be answered at site plan. This is really just the beginning of the process, and we're just asking for the proper zoning to submit a site plan to the city for approval. We also see that there is existing warehousing to the west of the property. when you look at whether that's compatible with surrounding uses again the city's really already decided this with the master plan by designating this area for heavy industrial and again with the existing warehousing to the west it is a similar a similar use that's already there When we look at the capacity of city infrastructure to accommodate the proposed district, the report from McKenna suggests that, again, there's already industrial in this area. There's existing infrastructure that could serve the site. And certainly, if there's improvements needed, again, that is something that can be decided at the site plan phase. Really, I'm going to leave it there at this point. Again, I do commend to your attention, which I'm sure you've already read, the McKenna report. It's a very good one. I've worked with them, opposite them actually, for a number of years, and I can tell you they're not overly enthusiastic about development a lot of times. So when you get a report that is positive in recommending, I think that really means something. So we just encourage you to approve the rezoning request if you would, and I just appreciate your time and would be willing to answer any questions that you had. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other discussion? Hearing none. Wait.

Mary Sousa, Beverly Road. I'm going to try to focus here because my My thoughts are everywhere on this. First, I was wondering why it' s not a conditional rezoning and if that happens later or if it happens now. Secondly, I' m wondering why council hasn' t said anything. There' s been no discussion. Are you guys going to discuss this at all or is this you know you came to us first are you going to discuss council going to discuss this after the residents have their say or is your silence your discussion? Because this you guys have to have some type of an opinion you have to have some type of debate there' s been no debate there' s pros and cons to this and you' ve shown none you didn' t show it at the first reading you didn' t show it at the session you didn' t show it at the second session which was yesterday nor do you seem to want to do it today. I' m wondering why you already have decided before you even got here why you decided this rezoning should be denied as the planning committee wanted that' s a concern. I still have residual issues re-zoning because it' s the same thing different properties but it' s in the neighborhood and granted you guys weren' t here but chairman johnson was and mayor willie was and you didn' t seem to have any issues with the fact that and be right in the neighborhood of romulus there are residents there there are taylor residents on van bourne and inkster and no one seemed to really care about that there' s a school right there and council wasn' t concerned with that either with the rezoning to light industrial. my feeling is that you guys need to debate this there has to be cons there has to be pros you know it was always all you know there's gonna be taxes and there's gonna be workers and agree this and that across the street from us why isn't it the same there because the residents came to you and said no when on tv and said no we don't want this wick road takes take semis right now they don' t go all the way down wick they can' t it' s not allowed they can' t go on beverly so I' m not understanding the whole thing granted inkster is three lanes wick is two but the truck traffic is going to be the same on both just because there' s a third lane doesn' t mean that there isn' t going to be traffic that' s going to inhibit people from getting in and out of their homes. What else one more thing if I could I honestly and truly believe and you're going to disagree with this and I understand is that chairman Johnson you should recuse yourself because you live in that neighborhood you voted to rezone the Beverly property twice without any thought of the residents and lots of thought well you know the the wildlife everything everything that they're talking about is what we talked about you got went ahead and said no rezone it so I just feel and I know you disagree and that's okay that's okay that's fine so that that's my feelings and I will stop because I just I just believe you guys need to debate this okay you shouldn't so silent let me address a couple things I agree it's similar mm-hmm not the same

In my opinion, not even close. They're both next to a neighborhood, not in a neighborhood, next to. Beverly Road is a contaminated site. We had a chance to fix that, to take it away from our responsibility forever, the cost and all that. You have a concrete company right there. So it's not the same. Close, but it's not. I don't agree with it. I live in the neighborhood, absolutely. I live a half mile down the other way. The trucks don't bother me until they start coming and coming, like you're concerned about that they're coming down Beverly. They haven't. Hopefully they wouldn't at ours. But I just don't feel that we, it was zoned R1 for a reason. Master plans are made to change and made to alter and plans are plans. They're made to change. So I don't agree with it there. I think they got a big piece of property that they're going to put the other building on. I would rather see single family homes there. That's what I would like to see because it's zoned for that.

Through the chair. I have done my own research on this. from the original petition to mckenna' s opinion to the minutes of the planning commission meeting and I actually visited the site. I did not need to consult or debate with anyone on this issue.

I think you should have some back and forth on this whether you all agree on it it' s fine but you should tell us

what you're thinking because communication is what you you guys ran on okay so thank you through the chair so we represent at large people of the city when the property owners bought the property they bought it as an r1c property people who are adjacent in the area made it very clear they don't want us to change and in fact the master plan does say heavy industrial nobody's asking for this to be heavy industrial so somehow light industrial supposed to be better than heavy industrial what they're asking for isn't even part of the master plan in addition to that all right so you want to know my opinion I think that it is Because they said in the public hearing that they're still going to continue with their main building, number one. Number two, because they bought it as R1C. Number three, because they're not asking for it to be rezoned heavy industrial that is in the master plan. It is my opinion that it should not be rezoned. How's that? Thank you.

Any other discussion?

Go ahead. thank you Mr. Chair. thank you Mr. Chair line path 6860 jackson I want some understanding the last meeting you had there was the first Voted yes, that means they are changing it if it's voted. No, they're not changing it. This is the final right? This is where whatever you guys decide. This is it right here, correct?

Okay, because I thought at the last meeting they said they were canceling or stopping it or postponing it the company they asked to postpone but that it's already in the process we've never postponed according to planning in 30 years and

Right, I was a little confused on that too, but I didn't know if that made a difference in this here. So whatever you guys decide tonight on this, yes or no is what it does, what it goes. Or no. Okay.

For a year. Any other discussion?

Good evening. My name is Matt Stryker. I'm 8914 Holland Road. I live adjacent to the proposed rezoning. I was looking through this. This is, I think, June's Taylor Today, which is really quite an informational magazine. What I'd like to point out, it says that Taylor has solid financial footing. It really doesn't say anything on here if we need cold storage or any more warehouses. Now, having said that, I think a lot of the property owners and stuff around me and the people, they really like the quiet. They like the blend of Taylor where we have everything we want within a mile. in the city and we have such a nice rural area where we get to see deer on an almost daily basis we get to see animals and even children playing in the back fields when you know time is appropriate and it' s not swampy back there but I really think that as much as I work in a production facility I believe in progress I don' t think this is the area for this proposed rezoning which it sounds like many of you agree on but I would also like to say that it is important to keep tailor-made for the residents which you all are residents and I know that I know that you've all had to deal with something like this probably in your backyards in your own time so I respectfully you know I to the development to the developers and all that request that you deny this rezoning and just we keep Taylor the green space the nice beautiful city where we' re trying to build up the old infrastructures that are empty fill those up like the masco corporation and get uses out of the places that are

Mr. Chair, I want to make something else clear since I was very vocal. We welcome the business, very much so. And as far as green spaces go, that's private property. And I respect the fact that they have a right to and an obligation to be a good part of Taylor, and we welcome that part of it. It's very important for a balance in Taylor. And if we're talking about, in general, green spaces, somebody has to own those to keep them green. We don't get to take and tell businesses they can't build where they're zoned properly and they meet all the other requirements. We welcome your company doing that on that property. I want to make that clear. Thanks.

Hi. My name is Michael McDowell-Wilder and I live at 8826 Holland Road. At the going to beat a dead horse when they put in the planning they put in the code 150 for their general warehouse for their traffic reports and that's not it's a huge it's a high cube cold storage and it should be coded under 157 which is like 700 i think it's a 700 vehicles a day that are going to go down wick road excuse me i'm sorry to interrupt you but

This is just on the zoning. Well, I'm talking about Wick Road. Yeah, I understand, but this is just on the rezoning. It has nothing to do with all that. If it passes, it would come later.

So this is just about rezoning. The 13 people that live on Wick Road can't get out of their driveways now because there's so much traffic. I lived on Holland Road. I have to wait sometimes 10 and 15 minutes to make a left-hand turn on Wick Road. Northline? so traffic wise I think we need to consider that already there's too much traffic there. Okay, thank you. Thank you.

Eric Emerson, 26457 Wick Road. I'm a fuel hauler. I see a lot of traffic every day. I've watched the gas station go in at the corner, from the new company that took over Dawn Foods that also had reefer trailers in there. The reefer alarms go low or fuel alarms go low. They start beeping at all hours of the night. It's something we've got to consider. I can hear them from my house at the old dawn plant. With this place, there's going to be, I would assume, reefer trailers sitting out there running all night, cold storage, something we should think about as far as citizens hearing that. I just don't think the road can handle the truck traffic as a truck driver and seeing a lot of traffic. That's all I got to say. Thank you.

Any other discussion? Anything from the council? Hearing none, all in favor say yes. All opposed say no. No. Roll call, please.

Mr. Patz?

No. No.

Mr. Clark?

No.

Mr. Armstrong?

No.

Mr. Wallace?

No.

Mr. Thede?

No.

Mr. Thomas?

No.

And Mr. Johnson?

No. Motion fails. We're going to 7.2. Motion to approve the purchase of six Chevy Tahoes from Badger Merger Chevrolet state contract for amount not to exceed $335,950. $52 funded through the Federal Forfeit Justice Fund. Motion to support or approve. Motion by Mr. Thede, supported by Mr. Wallace. Opposed, Mr. Thompson. Mr. Thomas. Any discussion? Anything from the audience? Hearing none, all in favor say yes. Yes. All opposed? Yeses have it, motion carried. 7.3, motion to approve Senergy Products sole source with an emergency equipment outfit of six Chevy Tahoes in an amount not to exceed $81,894 funded through the Federal Forfeiture Justice Fund.

Motion.

Support. Motion by Mr. Armstrong, supported by Mr. Patz. Any discussion from the audience? Anything from the council? Hearing none, all in favor say yes. Yes. All opposed? Yeses have it, motion carried. Motion to approve Magic Graphics low bid to provide and apply police vehicle vinyl graphics on six police Lake Tahoe's. Lake Tahoe's? I'm thinking about it, that's where I'm going. For a amount not to exceed $3,132, they're $522 each, funded through the Federal Forfeiture Fund.

Motion.

Support. Motion by Mr. Armstrong, supported by Mr. Patz. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say yes. Yes. All opposed? Yeses have it. Motion carried. 7.6. Nope, 7.5. Caught myself. Motion to approve Dell State Contract for the purchase of three ultra-sharp curve monitors for an amount not to exceed $4,145 funded through DCC Brian Grant. Motion. Support. Mr. Thomas, supported by Mr. Armstrong. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say yes. Yes. All opposed? Yeses have it. Motion carried. 7.6, motion to approve CDW government state contract for the purchase of six lithium battery backups for 911 dispatch server room equipment for amount not to exceed $17,425 funded through the DC grant grant. Motion. Support. Mr. Thede. Support. Supported by Mr. Armstrong. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say yes. Yes. All opposed, just as have it, motion carried. 7.7, motion to approve CBTS sole source for the yearly renewal of Red Sky E911 for amount not to exceed or amount of $8,011 funded through the general fund IT contractual service. Motion. Motion by Mr. Wallace, supported by Mr. Clark. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say yes. Yes. All opposed? Yeses have it, motion carried. I get a motion to approve the contract to provide agreed upon lease services to the Taylor Community Development Corporation at the Villages of Taylor Properties. Motion. Support. Motion by Mr. Armstrong, supported by Mr. Thomas. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say yes. Yes. All opposed? Yeses have it. Motion carried. 7.9. Motion to amend CCR 8.362-26 to increase payment for additional repair cost by 666 to Down River Body Works for repair of the Taylor Fire Department Explorer XLT for the amount not to exceed $9,023 funded through the fire department repair and equipment fund. Motion. Motion by Mr. Thomas, supported by- Support. Mr. Wallace, any discussion? Sorry, we couldn't change it, $1. Can't do it.

Just through the chair, I want to point out that even though there was an increase that was unexpected in this repair, they still came in considerably below the second place better, so it's still a good deal.

Sorry, Bill. All in favor say yes? Yes. All opposed? Yeses have it. Motion carried. 710, motion to approve exotic low qualified bid to purchase hydraulic hose crimper for the compost site for amount not to exceed $44,095 funded through the compost capital outlay. Motion. Support. Motion by Mr. Thede, supported by Mr. Patz. Any discussion? Mr. Thede, you want to tell everybody what this is for?

Yes, for a machine to make hydraulic hoses on site. That way we don't have to go out and get it. Our guys make it. Any discussion? Yeah, but that's for everything. Loaders, grinder, the salt trucks.

Through the Chair, it includes a ton of supplies too. Of fittings, clamps, hose.

That's what most of the expenses are. All in favor? Yes. All opposed? Yeses have it. Motion carried. Let's go to 7-11. Motion to amend CCR 126630-24, increase authority in amount by $14,273 to revise total amount not to exceed $614,848 funded through the TBA Capital Outlay ARPA grant. Motion. Support. Motion by Mr. Thomas, supported by Mr. Wallace. Any discussion? Can we get Guido? Is this you, Guido?

Yeah.

Can you talk about it? I'm sorry, Mr. Eulon. No worries. That's my dad.

Through the chair, these are just some minor increases, about a $14,000 and some change increases with concrete, rock, and then the FOB system that we went with after consulting with IT. So these are the additional costs to cover those additional units that had to be used at the site. through the charitable the file base for what the dog park so that system would communicate you register your dog at the animal shelter there's a process in place with the system they add your information and make sure your shots and your license are up to date and then you're provided a fob and additional fobs for a small fee that can be tied to your account and that's how you enter the dog park thank you yes sir thank you any other discussion

Hearing none, all in favor say yes. Yes. All opposed? Yeses have it, motion carried. Can we get a motion to approve the submittal for reimbursement application for the state of Michigan for early voting wages for the 2026 primary and general election? Motion. Motion by Mr. Patz, supported by Mr. Clark. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say yes. Yes. All opposed? Yeses have it, motion carried. 713, motion to rescind resolution 5.203-26, 5.24-26, and 5.205-26, and authorize the removal of the charter amendment one, two, and three from the November ballot

November 23rd 2026 general election motion second motion by mr. Clark second by mr. Thede discussion through the chair Sarah through the chairs like to have Sarah explain why This was on here Through the chair we were notified by the county that adding three city proposals would cause us to have a second page on the November ballot which would increase costs and There would definitely be an increase in voter education that would need to be done. There would need to be training for election inspectors that would need to be done, which would increase the cost as well as mailings and advertisements and all of those additional things that come with a two-page ballot.

Through the chair, I just want to reiterate that we intend to still move forward with these in the future.

Yes, we are.

Through the chair, in case you don't know what they were, these were the charter amendments to raise the spending limit without council approval from 2005. So it just wasn't worth what it would be required to do it right now. It's not an emergency, so that's why. Any other discussion?

Mr. Chairman, even though I don't vote, I just want to point out that I was in favor of the removal as well. Just to stop the noise.

All in favor? Yes. All opposed? Yeses have it. Motion carried. Open business. Let's go to the audience first.

Again, Caroline Pat, 6860 Jackson. Just want to announce that this Sunday, August 23rd, from 10 o'clock to 1 o'clock, the Taylor Historical Society Museum, we're having a sale. Anybody want to come by at between 10 and 1? We are cleaning out lots of things, and so we have some picture frames and just all kinds of things. So if you would like to come, it's going to be right in front of the museum, underneath the tent and tables, from 10 o'clock to 1 o'clock this Sunday.

Thank you.

Dennis Schlemmer, 9478 Hazel Street. Good evening, Mayor Woolley, Council Chair Johnson, and members of council. I wanted to take a couple minutes tonight to simply say thank you. Last week, Taylor had the tremendous honor of welcoming the wall that heals to Heritage Park. We estimate nearly 10,000 people experienced the wall, and none of it could have happened without the extraordinary support of this city. Thank you to Mayor Woolley, Chairman Johnson, and Councilman Patz, who all served on our committee and worked for nine months to make this a reality. thank you to chief portis and chief blair for their incredible support of their departments. Chief blair didn' t just provide officers he joined them physically in building the wall and even worked an overnight shift on site. Thank you to guido uhlen and entire parks and recreation staff who were there for us throughout the entire week. councilman wallace who helped build work and take down the entire wall while also serving with cert at the junior league world series thank you to councilman clark who helped take down and councilman thomas who captured the entire week as one of our photographers thank you to every city official who visited the wall or attended our welcome home ceremony and heard medal of honor recipient command sergeant major terry richardson speak about the men on the wall who he personally knew and served alongside And thank you to Dan Mazur for his tremendous support on behalf of the Junior League World Series. I wasn't sure how the wall in the World Series would coexist at Heritage Park, and we had some road bumps, but we made it happen. The only thing that could have made the week better was the Taylor North Championship, and I think we can all agree on that. Something that happened last week that none of us could have planned, though, was that this wall brought this community together. veterans families volunteers businesses organizations and strangers came together for one purpose and it didn' t just unite taylor you could feel down river coming together. Will never be able to measure what that week meant but most importantly I hope every vietnam veteran who came to the wall felt how much this community honors them remembers their service and is grateful that their home. Taylor was with entrusted with the wall that heals and this city rose to the occasion thank you.

Okay, we're going to go to open business. I'd just like to say something about this last week. I was on council, I've been on council 12 years. This is the first time that I felt like every council member wanted to do something here. And we haven't had that before, and they were there. And it, to me, is amazing. Got to watch Mr. Wallace with a hammer, because of those arms. other than that. But when it opened and there was one of the bikers that came that was kneeling on the ground with a buddy behind him touching a name and just weeping, it really gets to you. So it gets to me right now. So thank you, Dennis, and thank everybody that came. Open it up to everybody else.

Mr. Chairman, before she reads that, I just want to Also thank from earlier, working at that wall, I want to say thank you to all the people that shared stories with me that I would have never thought I'd heard in my life. So for them to take the time and share those stories with me, I greatly appreciate that. So appreciative of that. So I just want to say thanks to them as well.

Through the chair. Last week was absolutely amazing to spend the days out as other people have said, bring this community together. There are people from all over the world for one reason and people of all different ages and from different communities for another reason. And it was really, it was kind of sad Sunday. It was like, this was like the highlight of my last few years in Taylor is to be able to be a part of the programs.

Just, just, you know, on another note, along the same lines is we have the best employees around. Our DPW, our water, our police, our fire, our parks department. I mean, everybody come together. This was a great experience. I'm proud to be part of the city. I guess we got a public comment also?

Through the chair. I'd just like to wish Tierra a happy birthday.

Birthday, 28th.

Thank you for all that you do for us. This council would not be operating as smoothly if it weren't for you. So thank you so much.

These guys really do spoil me, by the way. I do have a public comment. We have a comment from Charles Blackwell, a political activist who likes to make false accusations against public figures. That has no basis in fact. Here is his false comment. Good evening. I wouldn't be surprised if there isn't something fishy going on between Mayor Willie and Jay and Dee Grover, towing owner Louis Boussard.

That's it.

Well, there went all the positive.

We can always count on one thing, Mr. Chairman. The week is over. The week is over.

I'd like to make a motion to adjourn this meeting.

Support.

Motion to adjourn by Mr. Wallace, supported by Mr. Armstrong. All in favor? Yes. All opposed? Yeses have it. Motion carried. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.

I think and and I always promise the kids I will never yell at you never yell at you during the ball game embarrass you I won't do that maybe when we get behind closed doors I may say something that you have to improve on but not in front of parents and not in front of coaches and things like that I wouldn't do that.

From a success standpoint, you really did have some teams. You may have coached arguably the finest baseball player to ever come out of the down river, arguably, okay? I mean, I probably put Steve up there against anybody, but I know there were others. But how do you balance those, and what do you remember from those special teams?

You know who I remember most? is the kids were all smarter than I was. The whole team, the grade point average of the year with Steve Avery, The whole team, I'll bet you, great point average was around 3-3, 3-4 on an average. And I know that they were smarter than I was. And it was kind of satisfying as far as that's concerned because they would come to me and say, well, shouldn't we do this? Shouldn't we do that? I said, yeah, but what about this? Okay, you're right, Coach. You know, they respected for what I had. But about... The best player down there ever, I won't take the credit for that. I will not take the credit. It's his dad. The dad taught him everything that he knew. Because, you know, Ken was part of the Detroit system for a while. He was down there with Sparma, McLean, and Lulich in the minor leagues. So, you know, he pitched with the best. And he was one of the better ones that taught Stephen how to react on the mound. And I won't take the credit for that. I'll take the credit for what was behind Stephen, and that was on the Mount.

Did you ever have to fill a void with, let's talk about Steven for a second. Did you ever have to fill a void anywhere in there in the psyche thing, in the keeping him on the right track thing? I mean, Steve was a bright guy on top of being an exceptional pitcher. Did you ever feel like, hey, you know, at the end of all of this, I can maybe take credit for that particular thing? No.

Not really. I won't tell you. As I said before, there isn't anything in particular that at the end of the season made me feel good that Steve and I would talk during lunch hour, his lunch hour, that we would talk about, well, what do you think about this? Because he did have a scholarship to go to Michigan. He had a scholarship to go to Stanford. But he was also drafted, and he was trying to make up his mind what he wanted to do. And as far as knowing that and me being the next pro ball player myself, as a player, I would not suggest a player to go to the major leagues or even to the minor leagues. What I would suggest is a pitcher to go, but not a regular player. Get your college education first. And then if they still want you, they'll draft you right out of college.

In your lifetime, who was your who were your greatest influences or your greatest influence?

Two people come to mind as far as that's concerned. One is my dad. My dad tried out for the old St. Louis Browns. And but he. knew the writing on the wall. I mean, baseball is a business and he saw it early on that it was a business. And I didn't realize until I got home that it was a business and that's the way you treat it. The second Most important person to me was a gentleman by the name of John Lefevre. He coached at Gibraltar Carlson. He was at Carleton Airport where I went my freshman year. And we didn't have a freshman team, so I was sitting the bench for the varsity all that time. And near the end of the season, he put me in a game. And it just, I got a base hit. And the first base coach says, man, you did well. I said, well, I don't like sitting anymore. And I never sat another game after that. I played Garcia as a freshman at Air World.

Wow, that is an interesting story. You're bringing up some really big names from the past. I mean, John Lefevre, when you mentioned Jimmy Clawson, you were in the sweet spot of some really, really talented coaches.

Oh, was I ever with Bechtel.

Oh, yeah.

Roger Bechtel, Ken Avery. I mean, there was so many good coaches during that era that I learned a lot from all of them, taking the little bits and pieces from all of them. It made me well-rounded, I thought. Well, heading into this Hall of Fame, who do you want to thank? I want a Hall of Fame in particular for even considering me, number one. Two, this is such a great class that I'm going in with that every one of them deserves special attention, without a doubt. But the person I'd like to really particularly give thanks to is Danny. Danny... Danny's already put me in once, but I turned it down. And I turned it down because I didn't think I really deserved it. There's a lot of people at Taylor that have done a lot more than I have. But Danny Edmonds, he never gave up on me. He kept talking to me about it. You got to do it. You got to do it. So I'd really like to thank him for pushing me. And last, I'd like to thank my wife for pushing me also. She said, you deserve it. Go ahead for it. All the players that played for me, I appreciated them all. I mean, I really do. There are some that really stick out in my mind. There's probably others that I have forgotten about that I'm wondering how they're doing, but thank you. This was really great to have this honor.

Thank you.

Your mic's off. It's on?

It's real.

No. Oh, you're really mad. No. No. Mike has been a certified hockey referee. He has served almost four decades as an off-ice official with the Detroit Red Wings, including more than 25 years as a crew supervisor. Mike helped teams to five national titles and two second-place finishes, not to mention a few Stanley Cups. Let's learn more about Mike Hargraves.

Michael, greatest influence or memory in your sports career?

The greatest memories that I have in my sports career, you know, it's hard to pick just one. But some of the highlights locally, the Taylor Junior football program. I was privileged enough to assemble a staff that won the championship. and gave 40 kids the thrill of a lifetime. During that championship too, we did something that I don't know of anybody that's ever done it. Every single player on my team, whether they were a lineman, a kicker, or whatever, got to carry the ball during the course of the season. to see what it was like. And we just, you know, we really, really did a great job with the kids and the morale and everything like that was great. NHL wise, you know, I mean, I've been blessed to work with, you know, six Stanley Cup finals, the outdoor game in Ann Arbor, all-star games, travel to Sweden to work games. um and uh you know so there was a lot there but there's two points that i really want to highlight on that revolve around sports one revolves around my daughter in 2002 the red wings won the stanley cup here at home and i was lucky enough to have them at my game at the game after the game um I got to take them to the NHL party with the Stanley Cup and everything like that, which was an unbelievable privilege and something that they could talk about. But my daughter, she was a freshman in high school, and she was complaining because finals were tomorrow, and she was going to be tired and everything like that. So she walked into school the next day, and everybody was asking her, you know, why are you so mad, Stephanie? What's going on? oh my dad made me stave to a party last night well what party oh the stanley cup party after the red wings won the stanley she was the most popular girl in school the next that whole day you know and and and then another story um with my parents um they were not sports minded whatsoever you know so uh i had uh set up a red wing old-timer game with the taylor hockey association coaches at the L. Sheridan Community Center. And I invited them down to the game and everything like that. And so just before we went on the ice, I'd gotten half-dressed, and I was out in the lobby just making sure everything was going well. And the lobby was packed, and here comes my parents in, okay? And now, mind you, my dad is very, very old school. He had a bow tie on. I mean, he dressed for the occasion. But he also had on his... hat and scarf and gloves and a big coat. They had blankets and everything. You thought that they were going to the Winter Classic outside. They didn't realize what the temperature would be like. And just the smile that they had when I walked out there and that meant an awful lot to me. Just being able to share that night with them, you know.

That's fantastic. What about greatest influences in your sports related career?

greatest influences have to be my parents even though they weren't involved in sports they taught me the value my mom with her kindness and her respect for people my dad his dedication and always out there wanting to help people you know through the church and different things like that he never turned anybody down and that instilled in me you know the the what I want to say, the way to get involved, to give back. And, you know, you're not better than anybody else. You know, to just go out there and do what you can to help people out. What about who would you like to thank? Basically, there's a whole lot of people that I've crossed my life with. But the bottom line is my mom and dad, number one, because they instilled in me, they gave me the opportunity to be involved in what I wanted to be involved with. My family, my daughter, Stephanie and my son Ryan and their spouses. And because when they got involved in sports, you know, it wasn't one of these things where, oh no, I don't want dad to be involved. You know, they welcomed dad to be involved. And that's how I got, you know, into Ann Arbor and into Plymouth and different places like that at the high school program. Because I wanted to give back. I wanted to be involved to help other people too, not just my kids. And it was never about them. It was always about the team, you know. So, you know, those things... you know, really stand up. And then there's a family, the Sobre family. They're the ones who got me involved in hockey, period. They had heard that I was at Oakland Community College and working with the hockey team there. And they weren't very fond of their coach. All right. So they said they introduced me to their coach. And as soon as he heard that I was with the college hockey team, you know, oh, wow. you know, come on, and that was my start in Taylor and the rest is history. It went from Taylor Hockey Association to Little Caesars. You know, we had five national championships in Little Caesars. So, you know, those things that build your bridges, you know, that's the exciting thing. And the hundreds of people that I've been blessed with, you know, the families, the moms, the dads, the brothers, the sisters, the administrators, All those people that I got to work with through all these years, and even at the NHL. The gentleman by the name of Don Archer, he gave me my start. He pulled me in one day and asked me if I wanted to go work in the press box because they needed press box help. My first job was to run the teletype machine for out of town scores at Olympia. And people don't even know what teletypes are, but those are the starts that you get. But without him, I would have never gotten that opportunity. And then the people that had faith in me to put me into leadership positions and support me and everything like that. The bottom line is I've had a great, I've been blessed career in sports. Hopefully it's not over yet. There's still a few years to go. But the greatest thing that I have in everything is that I have the kids that I've coached 20, 30, 40 years ago. all right come up to me at red wing games and knock on the window come down and see me and say hey mr h remember me um unfortunately i don't because they were 10 or 12 and now they're 30 or 40 years old so they've changed you know but that is the greatest compliment to me and the greatest memory that i will have in all my years in sports is that people respected what i tried to do and still remember me and thank me for that. And the biggest thank you is to those people for what they've given back to me so that I could just give to them.

This guy does not turn down party invitations, so please join me in congratulating Michael Hargreaves. Please come up.

Our next inductee is Earl Jones.

He looks massive, very stout-faced, and then there's Paul Jones. He won his medalist in the 800 meter run of the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. an Eastern Michigan University Hall of Famer and Taylor Center graduate, was a seven-time NCAA All-American in track across country. Unfortunately, a car accident cut short Earl's brilliant career. We're going to learn more about Earl Jones to you guys and his high school coach, Mickey Church. Earl was unable, unfortunately, to get here this time around, but Mickey tells a pretty good story, and certainly Earl Jones was one of a kind.

Mickey, let's start with your trip to the 1984 Olympic Games. You were at the finals of the 800 meter, okay, when your own protege there, Earl Jones, gained the bronze medal. Can you tell us that story?

Yes, we'll try to reflect on that. First of all, before we begin, on behalf of Earl Jones, whom we spoke with, and my wife, myself, and the city of Taylor, we want to congratulate all of the other inductees. And it's proof, living proof, that Taylor has the individuals in it that can compete on a... national, state, and world-class level. And this is why we're here right now. So congratulations to all the inductees. Okay, reflecting on the meet, it's a really, really interesting legacy that we're going to have to share with everybody is that, first of all, Earl was not expected to make the team. It was a long shot. The paper said that he was a long shot and that He would probably be not on the team. Well, that is not Earl Jen's mentality. Number one, when he went into the Olympic trials, there was Johnny Gray and two other people right behind Johnny that were seasoned runners. They were in their late 20s. Earl, being the youngest kid eventually, on the Olympic team at 20 years old, They really, really had no business being there because of their experience in running. However, in the Olympic trials, Earl beat Johnny Gay and set the American record at 143.7. So now here's a young man that wasn't supposed to be on the team that is now the American record holder and on the team.

good runners in front of him. He went right to the front last week to win the American Championships and this week he's using the opposite tactic.

That's Earl Jones who has the lead. That's Stanley Redwine from Arkansas in second place at the moment. As usual, James Robinson, easy to spot on the candy stripe.

When he actually got the bronze medal, He wasn't able to run his race that he normally runs. Earl would go out faster than any other athlete in the history of the half mile. Earl would go out in 48, 49. They would go out in 50, 51. And coming off, he got boxed in the first, so he wasn't able to run his race in the Olympic finals. But anyways, when he got unboxed, he was coming on, and if I think there would have been five more yards, I believe he would have taken the gold. However, our seats were five yards from the finish, from the awards table, and we were eye-level with Earl where he could see us, which I just think that may be an intervention of a higher source to put it that way, so... That was our experience at being at the 84 Olympics. Earl was the youngest athlete on the, he was 20 years old, running against 29 and 31, Joaquin Cruz and Sebastian Coe, who went one and two.

I think given the fact that we couldn't get Earl on video, but Earl is in the audience tonight, how would you like to welcome him officially to the Hall of Fame, Nick?

Well, Earl is one of the most humble human beings you'll ever meet. And first of all, he would like to welcome everybody in becoming, you know, a part of the Hall of Fame here at the City of Taylor. And once again, I've often believed that The people in the city of Taylor have the credentials to compete on the levels which I just stated previously, that we can compete on a state, national, world, what class level. And the people that are gonna be inducted today are just examples of that. So we really have just a tremendously talented community here that I think that Earl and everyone can be very, very proud of.

Whether it's high school, college, track and field, or cross country, what are the things that jump out at you, Mickey?

Well, one of the things that jumped out at that Earl started to define himself as a world-class runner in high school is we were running against one of the best milers from Ann Arbor Pioneer. I think his name was John Davies. He had never been beaten, and Earl beat him in an indoor meet. And so Earl started opening eyes that here's an individual that may have some really, really outstanding talent. And that summer, we took Earl to the National Junior Championships in Bloomington, Indiana. Chuckie Evans was with me, who's going to be inducted also tonight, and Warren Jenkins, who's my assistant coach, and Earl broke the 1,500 national 16-year-old record. So he became the number one miler, 1,500, in the United States. Then we go on to his senior... Junior year, we ran him in the state finals. We ran him in the mile and the two-mile, which is unprecedented for somebody to do a double of that nature and try to win. Well, he took second and a half mile and lost by a tenth of a second, but he won the mile. And he came up to me and he said, Coach, everything comes down to a kick, as you say. And he said, I could have kicked, and he said, I could have won that. Well, he didn't. Well, then that next season, as a senior, we took Earl to a meet, which is in Oakland, and they asked him to run the 600. And Earl ran the 600 and ran the fastest time in the nation, not only for high school, but for collegiate. He had the number one time in the nation for everybody, college and high school kids, as a senior. So then he got invited, the very first kid in the history of the Midwest to be invited to compete in the high school mile in the Winnipeg game at Madison Square Gardens. We took Earl there. And it was really a learning experience for Earl. Earl was invited as senior to compete in the Tri-State meet down in Fort Wayne, Indiana. And there was a kid there that had never been beaten from Indiana who was the three-time Milo State champion. And we set up a way for Earl to run the race. And he beat the kid and ran a 4.07. And so he came up to me and said, hey, coach, he said, I could have broke four flat today if we did. Our strategy would have been a little bit different. Well, unbeknownst then, one of the quarter milers for the mile relay got injured. So they came to me and said, Mick, can he run the anchor, or they wanted him to lead off. I said, no, anchor him, anchor him. So the kid that he was running against, Indiana, that was a three-time state champion and had just won the quarter mile at 47, when Earl got the baton on the anchor leg, the kid was 30 meters ahead of him. And Earl caught him before he went into the last turn, stayed behind him, came off the turn and sprinted down and ran a 45.4 quarter, the fastest of ever... a high school miler had ever anchored, and he was only two seconds away from the world record in the quarter. So he got the most valuable athlete's award in that regard, and then it was on to the Olympic Games, as we just said. Wow, wow, fascinating stories.

Our next inductee is Bill Kostich.

They called him Billy the Kid. Back in 1988, pro scouts were following Kennedy High School's Steve Avery around. Steve would become the number one pick of the Atlanta Braves. Along the way, those scouts watched a Kennedy-Taylor Center baseball game and loved the fastball-curveball combination of the Rams' young pitcher, Bill Kostic. Bill would go on to lead TC to its most memorable season, a 29-0 run ending in a 2-1 loss to Detroit Catholic Central. Bill, unbeaten on the mound that season, was drafted by the Seattle Mariners and was eventually named a 1990 Arizona League All-Star and Minor League Relief Pitcher of the Year. Overall, he spent six years in professional baseball and And then he was able to return home and follow his daughter Kayla to state championships at Cabrini High School. To learn more about Bill, let's check out the video.

Greatest highlight or memory? among your athletic career, your achievements?

My greatest highlight or memory of my athletic career, I would say, is my second year in professional sports where I actually made the all-star team. I think I only gave up two runs that season on a home run, a hanging curveball home run. Yeah, I ended up making the All-Stars that year, and then I also won the Fireman's Relief Award that year for that season. That was one of my favorite memories.

Where were you pitching at that time?

I was pitching in Arizona, Tampa, Arizona, in minor leagues.

Okay, for the Seattle Mariners?

Seattle Mariners, yes.

Okay, tell me, what happens next? after that?

As far as in my career? Yeah. So after that, so I got promoted up to the next level, which is like a high A level. It's above the rookie level. So after that year, basically you go out and you start on a whole other team, right? You get promoted and then it's just like starting all over, starting the season over. It's all new teammates. Everything's all new, new opponents. So yeah, so I got moved up to that. and then i think i ended up finishing pretty well with that year um and then obviously you go back and you start spring training start all over again the next year okay and then keep trying to get progressed obviously up through the ranks of the minor leagues you guys were really special in taylor center okay that was on that was a fantastic couple of years there uh what do you remember out of that I just remember just how good the team was, the chemistry we had. I mean, we had a great coach in Tom Bloom. I mean, he was just an outstanding coach, right? He took care of you on the field. He also, you know, he was a coach at, or I'm sorry, a teacher at our school, too. So he was always looking at you, you know, if you're out in the hallways when you shouldn't be in the hallways, you know, he's giving you that eye. So he actually took care of you on and off the field. But, yeah, no, the team was just, I mean, we had huge chemistry, right? It was just a really good team. I had myself. We ended up with Todd Boyd. He was on that team, too. So the pitching staff was very formidable. It was really tough to beat us.

Which is fantastic. The greatest influence on your athletic career?

The greatest influence on my athletic career, I would, I'm positive. It's my grandfather, right? I can remember one of my earliest memories of playing catch or playing sports, right? So we're out in our front yard and we're playing catch. And I don't know how I can remember this. Obviously, I was very young. So we're throwing and I'm wild, right? I'm throwing it all over the yard, pretty much. Well, finally, I break a window. It's like, oh no. So I'm getting kind of in trouble, right? You know, so we keep doing it. We do it. I did it again. Broke a window and Finally, he's like, I don't know what's wrong. We're going to figure this out. I was throwing right-handed, right? So now they realize I'm left-handed. It was all uphill from there. Wow. Yep, yep. It was all good. Once they figured I was left-handed, and I can remember, honestly, we had a mound in my front yard. We're in the middle of a neighborhood. I had a mound. My grandfather, he had that old 1952 baseball glove, you know, with the big roundy outsides. Everybody can picture what that looks like. And he'd go out there, we'd march it off, and he'd catch me all day long.

Headed into Hall of Fame here with a pretty good class. Who do you want to thank?

I'd like to first thank Tom Bloom. Like I said, he really had, and even more so myself, he really had an eye on me, right? I wasn't the best person off the field as far as schoolwork, so he actually made sure I did all the stuff I needed to do. He watched me on the field and taught me a ton on the field, but he also watched me off the field and made sure I was doing what I needed to be doing when I was off the field.

Anybody else you want to thank?

My wife, wife of 31 years, right? A drugger all around the country. She's seen more baseball games than most. I promise you that. I mean, between myself and my daughter, I mean, she was she's been with us.

Okay, our next up in line is Lisa Mackey, otherwise known as Lisa Giannullo, which you probably knew. This is the first of the two Giannullo sisters. Notice how the older sister always ends up first going into song. Lisa was a graduate of Taylor Center in 87. She went on to become one of the most accomplished basketball players in Northern Michigan University history and a Hall of Famer there. She was a Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Player of the Year as a senior. All these years later, she still remains Northern's all-time leading scorer with 1,699 points and 111 games.

She now teaches at Escanaba High School. Let's learn a little bit more about Lisa. Tell us the greatest highlight or memory from your career in athletics.

I think some of the biggest memories I remember are the people that I've come across and played with throughout my career, whether it was at Taylor Center or Northern Michigan University. I remember we had a team of seven at one point. at Taylor Center where we excelled. I remember playing basketball with my sister. That's a great memory to have both in high school and college. We always joke with my parents, they owe us some money because of our success at Taylor Center. We both got full ride scholarships, but I realize now that that's just a select group of athletes that get this chance. Again, I really do remember Coach Lever a lot giving everything to our program. He was one that pushed us and loved the game just as much as we did. I also remember when I was recruited by Northern Michigan University, I didn't know where the UP was and my parents have never visited it. My dad flew up here and it was really bad turbulence. My mom said it was too far away to go, but obviously it was a great decision for me and eventually my sister to become a Wildcat. We had some great teams with great work ethics, goals, and lifelong friendships. And I know today that my best friend is my roommate from college and played on the team with me. And I know Wendy and I both made some great friendships. In terms of highlights, I think making it into the NMU Hall of Fame, being the all-time leading scorer, the second leading rebounder, MVP of the conference. It happened because I had great teammates and great coaches that believed in me and I loved the game and probably my parents for the continued support and the memories we made along the way.

Tell us your greatest influence on your athletic career.

My greatest influences are probably my parents. They met on a basketball court, in the middle of a court, actually. They were introduced to one another. Their best man in their wedding was the University of Detroit coach. I know my dad coached me for years. My mom was the scorekeeper. I know this wasn't something we planned after high school. It just happened. But having influential friends, parents, coaches, Mike Lever, Coach Gary recruited me, Coach Stein, my assistant coaches, player development. I think I couldn't accomplish all that I've had along that way.

This is your night. You're headed into the Hall of Fame. Tell us who you'd like to thank.

I guess I'd like to thank my parents for introducing us to the sport. My sister for always making me better because she was always better than me. My favorite saying is, hard work beats talent. When talent doesn't work hard, so I worked hard in the sport. I loved, again, I think all of my coaches, all of my teammates. And I thank Taylor Sports Hall of Fame for recognizing this great honor and being part of this great group. I don't think people really truly understand the commitment and sacrifice that people make, especially when they coach or excel in a sport. So I just congratulate everyone, and it's an honor and a privilege to be here, and I truly hope we can inspire others along the way.

Perfect.

Our next Hall of Famer, Joe Marvin, is one of the longest serving coaches ever, and a league official with a tailored youth sports history. Now, he's still going strong. He still shows up two hours early for practices and games, and is one of the last to leave the field. mainstay in Taylor Northwest Little League for four decades. Joe managed baseball teams to state titles in 1989 and 2003, and others to district and regional titles. He was the Northwest Vice President from 1983 to 2011. and chaired the bingo program until it closed in 2010. The Joe Marvin Field of Dreams at Pat Park is named in his honor. He's also held coaching positions in the Treasurer's Post with Taylor Junior Football for over four decades. He coached the Taylor Eagles to the peanut bowl title in 1990 and the Taylor Seahawks to a championship in 1994. Let's learn more about Joe Marvin.

Joe, what is the greatest highlight or memory in your sports-related career?

Greatest memory or highlight of mine, well, I've been involved in baseball, football, and everything, but my first start off was when I was younger when my son was in baseball, but I had a team that went to the state, won the state, went to regionals in Peru, Illinois. We lost in Peru, Illinois, but that was probably the most memorable thing. I'm always so happy when I see one of the kids that I coached in either football or baseball that say, hey, Coach Marvin.

and after they've gone into 10 years or 15 years i said yeah but i forgot your name from an influential standpoint who is the most influential person in either your sports career or your life

My son was very influential on me. He got me into baseball and football. My wife, she gave me no hard times about going to practice, going to games, going to out of state for tournaments. I never complained. I mean, she always let me go do what I had to do. Never complained.

Fantastic. Okay, now from a standpoint of thanking people, would you like to thank Joe?

I'd like to thank all the people like, well, Lanny Hall from baseball and Paul Sparks from football. They were both influential, you know, very helpful in helping me get through all the programs.

Okay. Congratulations, Joe. Very, very deserving. Very few people are dedicated to such great stuff. Wendy Moore, otherwise known as Wendy Daniel, is the second of our two siblings here. Wendy was one of Down River's most accomplished female athletes, starring in both basketball and softball before graduating from Taylor Center in 1990. She was seventh in the Miss Michigan basketball voting as a senior, a first in all state selection, a USA Today honorable mention pick. Thank you very much. She finished with school records in scoring, assists, and steals.

Her efforts on the softball field mirrored what she did on the basketball court, whether it was as a dangerous hitter or as a standout pitcher.

Wendy followed her sister to Northern Michigan, finishing among the school's top 15 in three-pointers, steals, assists, and scoring.

Let's learn more about Wendy Jr.

My greatest highlight from my athletic career, I mean, honestly, there was a lot. The one that sticks out the most was probably sophomore year softball. And we were in the pre-districts and we were playing the number one team in the state. I think it was Monroe High School. And bottom of the seventh inning and I was up to bat. I got on first base. Jerry Abraham was the coach at the time. And he had me steal. He had a girl bunt. And then I was on my way to third, they overthrew it to first, and then I slid head first home, and we won one to nothing and knocked them off. And that was the year we went to the state championship. Wow. When we were with Taylor Kennedy and Steve Avery.

Right, right, wow.

So, yeah, it was great because we were both there at the same time. So that's probably the one that I remember the most, you know, looking back on it. I kind of wish I would have played softball, or both, or at least tried. But with basketball, we won four district championships. We had a great team. And college was fun too. But my biggest memories are probably I guess from high school. In college, I was definitely more of a role player. And in high school, a little bit more of a leader, I guess. So more so, more memories from high school than from college. But I mean, college, we went to the NCAA tournament my freshman year. And we had a good run at it. So playing with my sister for a year up there, a year in high school and a year in college.

What was that year like in college when you played with your sister?

How did that go? Well, not as good as when it was in high school. The year I played with my sister in college was not as good as the year in high school. You know, it was nice because I did get playing time my freshman year. I didn't start, but I got a lot of playing time. So playing with her, you know, she was an All-American that year. And that was different than in high school because in high school, I think I was scoring more points than her when I was a freshman. And she was a senior, so it flip-flopped, and yeah, she made me earn it in college. She came after me, and she didn't go easy on me. Oh, my.

Yeah. So you were truly little sister. Oh, I was. Okay, all right.

Oh, yeah.

Greatest influence on your career?

The greatest influence on my career, I would, I mean, most likely I would say, you know, my dad. He got us starting playing sports early. You know, I started playing sports in Taylor. when I was three years old, starting at T-Ball. T-Ball at St. Pascal's, then I went to St. Cyril's to play softball, basketball there. So I've been in Taylor, and then to Taylor Center. But yeah, my dad would be probably the greatest influence. He was always there. He was always involved. He was always coaching us constantly, whether he was our coach or not. He was always coaching us. From a teacher and coach perspective, you know, Jim Ryan was a great influence on me. He was my gym teacher in I want to say fourth or fifth grade, and then he was my junior high principal, and then he was my high school principal. Wow. So he followed me, or I followed him all along, and he really influenced me with sports, talked to me a lot, helped me get into basketball camp at Michigan Allstate. He was a big influence, and then I would say third would be Jerry Abraham, softball coach He was phenomenal, and I still talk to him to this day. I mean, he was a great coach. We were lucky to have him.

Wow. That's fantastic. Going into the Hall of Fame and going in with your sister and many others, who would you like to thank when it comes to, you know, this is your night, okay? Who would you like to thank?

Yeah. Well, I'd like to thank you, the committee, everybody who got this going again. It's been a long time. I mean, it's what, 30, 35 years? I don't even count it since high school. So it's nice to be back. I thank the committee for nominating my sister and I and everybody else. And I'd like to thank all the coaches I've had over the years, all the teachers in Taylor. You know, the support I've had from my parents. I mean, my parents supported us through everything. They were at all of our games. So, you know, I really appreciate that. And, you know, my family, you know. My sons, my husband, you know, I coach them. So, I mean, I've had a big career in sports, and ironically, it ended last night. Yeah, so it's bittersweet.

It always ends somewhere, doesn't it? Yeah. And usually with an offspring.

Yes.

Yeah, exactly.

Our next Hall of Famer is Ann Gamper-Rock.

years of women's softball and basketball. She started her playing career at St. Alfred Catholic School right here in Taylor under her father Earl and Bob Wilkerson who are both Catholic League Hall of Famers. She eventually started at Divine Child High School and then Hillsdale College where she was a rare two-sport standout. As a basketball player she captained her team as a senior setting records in assists and steals. On the diamond, her outstanding pitching led the Chargers to their first league title. Ann is also part of the Hillsdale and Catholic League Halls of Fame. After college, Ann became a longtime teacher and coach. Let's learn more about Ann.

My greatest, one of my greatest memories would probably be when I was in high school and we beat Regina in softball for the Catholic league championship. I don't remember a lot of games and scores, but this one we beat them two to nothing at King Boring because my sophomore year, I kind of got thrown to the wolves and we, I think we got smoked like 10 to nothing. So it was good. You know, like I said, I don't really remember a lot of specific games, but that was one for the books. Most of my highlights and memories when I look back at all the basketball and softball probably comes from like the bus rides, the meals, hanging out, laughing, the friendships. So it was really hard when I started thinking about what was the biggest highlight. It really was more like off the court or off the field, just the friendships.

Are you still friends with a lot of your teammates?

Yes, and I also find that I'm friends with some of the people that coached me in the past, like Bob Wilkerson, who I'll talk about is a great influence. He was the one who got me my first teaching job, my first coaching job, and I probably drove him nuts. He was my first softball coach, and I probably drove him crazy. I know I drove him crazy.

Back then, how hard was it to create and gap at the pitch?

Oh, boy. So one of the biggest influences for that and in my life was my dad. So he would... We'd go in the backyard, and if you ask Al Ruffner about this, he will attest to this, that there were a lot, a lot of hours in the backyard. And we would, my dad would take the mechanics from what a baseball pitcher would do as far as weight and shifting weights. and arm speed, and we would take those mechanics and try to break them down into fast pitch. And my dad had played fast pitch as a young man, and he would actually, and school's very important to them, but I even remember one time he pulled me out of school and we drove to Detroit because he had a friend who owned a bar who used to fast pitch. And we went in the alley behind the bar as his friend, who was the owner of this bar, was kind of going through some mechanics with me. So my dad was the best at just, we just tried to figure it out. And if you went in my mom's backyard and dad's backyard to this day, We would throw up against the garage and there are wood planks along the side that still have holes in them to this day from just our trial and error. But yeah, we just figured it out. Who were your greatest influence? So my greatest influence was obviously my dad, because he was my coach in basketball starting when I was in the fourth grade. And he was the assistant coach when I was in high school. When I got out of college and started coaching, he was my assistant. And like I said, with the softball, he was the one that helped figure out all the mechanics. And he pushed me. And I put in the hard work because of him. Other really big influences is my sister Bridget. I have a lot of brothers and sisters and they're fantastic. My sister Bridget, she's two years older than me and she was just probably the toughest athlete I ever met and she would probably never take that credit but she was the one who had to catch for me in the backyard. She was the one when we played softball and I would have to pitch batting practice at Divine Child. I hit her more than anybody else, to the point that one time she actually chased me around the field with a bat, which is a different story. But, you know, she was just a warrior and set a good example of how you're supposed to play. And then other really big influences, like I said, Bob Wilkerson, who put up with a young pitcher who would, you know, I might strike out 13, but I also walked 16 and hit seven batters in the early days. And that's the truth. I mean, it was everywhere. You know, my high school coaches in the summer, big influences, Mike Baum and Ray Koval. I had a lot of good times playing for those guys. You know, just probably every coach I came across that put in the time and had faith in me when I didn't have faith in myself.

Did those, obviously those coaches probably had a great influence as you were their coach.

Oh yes.

Okay.

In fact, they held my hand as I went through, you know, when I coached softball at first, Bob, I worked with, so he went from being my coach to me coaching with him, it gave a Richard. And then when I started in basketball, I coached, my first two years, I coached under some great people at St. Alphonsus and at Marion, but then I got right at Wyandotte at 23, and then my dad came over, and he was my assistant. So I feel like I had so many people who helped me. It's hard to name them all. How did you end up at Hillsdale? I was stubborn, and even though I was probably a better softball player, I wanted to play basketball because I think it's an absolutely beautiful game, and I just love it. And so Hillsdale was going to let me play both sports. They were going to let me play basketball and softball, and that was the decision.

Was that difficult to play two sports? Very few people play two sports at the college level, no matter what level you're at there.

it was difficult it was difficult but i also feel and i think i look at high school kids today too i was always better when i was in a season all around than i was when i was out of season you know everything grades getting stuff done being responsible and i just feel like playing both sports kept me very regimented you know this is what you do you go to school then you go to practice then you do you know so It didn't feel hard at the time, but I look back and I'm like, how did I do that? And then you're doing your student teaching and you finish in four years. And I look back, but at the time it didn't feel as hard as it probably was.

Who do you want to thank?

Who do I want to thank? Well, I want to thank my family, obviously, my dad, my mom for endless conversations. Like I said, I want to thank everybody that's coached me along the way and has been really patient with me. And there were a lot of them. Like I said, the Mike Baum's, the Ray Koval's, the Bob Wilkerson's. I had Nick Stan. I could just go on and on to all the different coaches that I had. I just want to thank my immediate family. I mean, I played for a long time. I played basketball as long as I possibly could in rec league. And I played softball for as long as my arm would hold up in adult league. and even those people who gave me a chance to keep playing. I also obviously want to thank the city of Taylor because this is really cool. This is a really amazing honor.

Next inductee is Alphonse Ruffner. Al is a track and cross country runner. He's already in the Wyandotte Hall of Fame for his achievements as a runner at Roosevelt High School and then Eastern Michigan. Today he enters the Taylor Hall of Fame essentially as a lifelong contributor to sports. spending five decades as a Michigan High School Athletic Association track and cross-country official. His efforts helped students gain thousands of dollars in scholarships, win titles at every level, and achieve All-American and Olympic status.

If you need a reminder of just how good Al Ruffner was as a runner, He has led Roosevelt High School's two-mile record. He has held Roosevelt High School's two-mile record for almost 60 years. Let's hear more about Alphonse Rooney.

Well, let's see, the greatest athletic memory is probably when I won the state championship my junior year because it told me that I could run with the big boys and it gave me confidence for the the running that I would do in college. But that first race helped me know where I was going to go.

Get over the hump, so to speak. Now, you were a standout as a high school athlete, a college athlete, and then you move into a little coaching, a little consulting, and a lot of track officiating. Now, as an official, do you get to have a memory or a highlight?

Oh, one of the highlights of officiating is when I see a kid that I've worked with or I've given some advice to, do what I asked them to do or worked on something that we talked about and just watching the smile on their faces is worth millions to me because I said, okay, I've paid it forward and I've seen somebody else succeed.

As an official, do you have favorite places or favorite meets to work that you work on regularly?

I've worked U of M. I've worked up at Michigan State. I just love going to any high school and working with the kids.

What about greatest influences on your career? Because you've been in sports for a very long time.

Well, some of the greatest influences in my career, I had a couple teachers in high school that wouldn't let me fail. I was an average student and I hadn't even went out for track. I couldn't swim, so the teacher would throw me in the pool and I said, how do I get out of swimming? And he says, go out for a sport. So I went out for cross-country, and these teachers wouldn't let me screw off in the classroom, so that contributed to me being on the track. Some of the coaches that I've worked around with now, Mickey Terchak, Tony Mifsud, guys that are in the area that have influenced kids, they took me under their wing. Just so many people that I've come in contact with that have been an inspiration to me and helped me along my way.

Who would you like to thank as you enter the Hall of Fame?

Who would I like to thank? I would like to thank God, first of all. He gave me the talent to succeed, and he also taught me that it isn't what you do, but do what you've done, but what you do for others. And I've been able to pass it forward for all these years. I'd like to thank my wife, who's standing behind me and her influence and her encouragement. My children, they've succeeded way past anything I could have done. and the staff I work with, the men in church that are just workers that want to feed their families and they don't look for glory. People like that inspire me and I want to thank them for all the encouragement that they've given me, not even knowing it. You know, help me succeed. I've been able to do this for 75. I'm going on my 75th year and I'm just thankful that I've been able to do everything I've done.

Our next Hall of Famer is James Seacott. A homeowner resident for over 80 years and a Taylor resident for over 50, Jim Seacott is known as the voice of the Junior League World Series. He was the tournament's public address announcer for three decades. He volunteered at the Junior League World Series for almost 40 years. He was part of the Taylor Northeast Little League from 1971 to 1985 and remains a lifetime member, having served as its president, vice president, sponsor chair, general manager, secretary, and equipment manager. Taylor Northeast softball field is named in his honor.

Greatest highlight or memory from your sports-related career?

Being the public address announcer for the Junior League World Series for over 30 years was probably my biggest accomplishment, if you want to call it accomplishments.

How'd you get that job?

The tournament director of the World Series after the first two years asked me if I would be interested in announcing for the World Series and I thought about it a while and then I said yes and went on until I couldn't climb the stairs up the third floor of the World Series building anymore.

And those stairs are tough to climb. Very much so. Very much so. I have to ask you this. As the voice of the World Series, okay, it goes back so many years, so many decades. Do you have a favorite team?

I think the team's from Hawaii. I have a very good friend that was the district administrator in Hawaii. So I kind of was partial to, not in my announcing, but if I wanted to see anybody win, I would have liked to seen Hawaii win. They're very well behaved. Actually, back in the days when we used to house the kids in the homes, I actually housed kids from Hawaii the first year that Pearl City won the World Series.

Oh, fantastic.

greatest influence on your sports-related career? Who would be? Probably my father. He was big into sports, and he encouraged me to play different sports. They didn't have organized sports, but I played in a lot of sports until I grew up. And then I was attending a practice of my oldest son's, And the manager of that team didn't have a coach, and he asked me if I'd help out with the kids. And I said, OK. And he then said, as long as you're coming out of the practice, why don't you become a coach? And so I did, and did so for about 30 years after that.

Who would you like to thank today? You're going into the Taylor Hall of Fame. Who would you like to thank?

Well, my wife put up with me all those years. My wife, Ellen, she loved attending the games and everything, but, you know, it's hard when you're... When you dedicate that much time, it's got to... That much time. Yeah, no doubt about that.

Anyone else that you'd like to thank?

Probably Hall of Famer Greg Bezzera. He had the confidence in me to be his public address announcer. And if it wouldn't have been for him, I wouldn't have done that. And as I said, I consider that my biggest accomplishment.

Our next inductee is Chuck Sauls. Chuck has a basketball life of it. A journey that started at a hoop in his Kentucky backyard. He eventually started as a player at Taylor Center. After vowing to never become a coach, he ended up doing just that. In nearly 30 seasons coaching both boys and girls, he amassed 473 wins. and was a positive lifelong influence on thousands of Taylor children. Let's learn more about Chuck.

Greatest highlight or memory in your athletic career?

My greatest memory is winning that regional tournament, I think. And it was against Romulus, who was being coached by Nate Oates. Now, Nate Oates was the coach at Romulus. I mean, Romulus is coaching. He was the coach at Romulus. He's coaching at Alabama now, University of Alabama.

Was that a big rivalry between Taylor and Romulus?

Oh yeah, especially we went to that league and competed very well in that league and you know it usually came down to us and Romulus playing in the regional tournament.

Who was your greatest influence or who were your greatest influences in your athletic career?

Well, my dad was the one that I really looked to because from the time I could walk, there was a hoop in our backyard. Because my dad played. My dad actually played in southeastern Kentucky. He was on scholarship. He was a big influence. My mom. My dad was usually working. My mom worked too. My mom and dad. Both of my mom was a beautician. She moved me around, or my dad couldn't move me around until I started driving. Then I had a great coach who was probably my next, you know, influence. Roscoe Shackleford. Hazard, Kentucky. I patterned myself as a coach after him.

You have a lot of success as a player in Kentucky, but you eventually, your family moves up to Taylor. And who are your greatest influences when you come up to Taylor?

Al Whited. He just took a liking to me and he felt that, you know, here's a little hillbilly boy that's coming in here and can barely understand what he says. But he took the time and talked to me a little bit about his life and wanted to know more about mine. And, you know, for the time that we stayed at TC until they closed it down, you know, Al was, he had me under his wing.

When you start coaching, tell us the story of how you got into it.

Well, we had this little kid next door. He was a little guy, you know, weighed like 40 pounds or 27 pounds or something. But he was a basketball freak. He was dribbling his ball, you know. So then I finally got a hoop in my backyard and had it paved. And so then he's coming over, you know, visiting every day. And it was just a scenario where now every time I went to the game, he's with me. You know, he was about maybe fourth grade. Yeah, and so one day I come home from work and Jason's sitting on my front porch and he's crying. I go, Jason, what's the matter? Charlie, he's sobbing. Our coach quit today. Well, I told her that you could coach. You know, that's what he tells me, and I said, Jason, I'm not going to coach. You'll have a coach, you know, by the end of the week. So next thing I know, he's got me out in the street, and Chris is coming over, and they're tag-teaming me about, you know... taking the team, and I said, no, I'm never going to be a coach. And nothing personal. So then the very next morning, it was like, it wasn't even 6 o'clock in the morning. It's like 5.30 in the morning. It's Pat Leiby on the phone. Oh, coach, this is Pat Leiby. I go, I'm sorry, you must have the wrong number. You know, and I didn't know who the principal was at the time even. She says, well, I have a couple people here who are telling me that you are our next coach. So anyways, it all went down to it. And, you know, Pat Labia got in my ear and she kind of locked down to it. And she said, well, I can't find a coach. You know, I need you to do this, you know. And I finally said, if you can't find a coach in the next couple of days, I'll help you out. And that's how it all started. I should get a hold of her and thank her for it. Because even though I'd said all my life I never wanted to be a coach, never would be coaching, but since I've done it, It's been one of the most rewarding things in my life.

Other than my wife. That's good. That's good. This is your night. You're headed into the Hall of Fame. Tell us who you'd like to thank.

So I'd like to thank all these people that I've got. And I probably have forgotten a couple here and there. But I'd like to thank my coaches for their hard work and dedication. Mike Pearson, who was from day one till the end, till we retired. Tim Rogers. Tim Rogers was a Kennedy player that ended up on my staff. And just had a meeting with him this weekend, went to watch a couple of playoff games. Me, him, and Mike Pearson, the first guy on the list. Tim Allen. Another guy that was with me the whole time, a Taylor Center guy, Brad Schwartz. Brad came from out of town somewhere, but he ended up coaching at baseball at Kennedy. And somehow he wiggled onto my staff at Taylor Center. Chris Simons, who now is the, I think he's the acting AD over there now. Chris Simons, a lifetime friendship, and Jason Stewart, lifetime friendship, both of those guys. They were both best friends. So Christian Moon, former player, is on staff over there now. Brian Keithley, former player, is on staff over there now. Darrell Thomas, I think he came from Kennedy. Didn't have to twist his arm, but he was always around, and he finally eventually worked his way on staff. And I think he played at Kennedy. And then the Gorski brothers, of course, everybody in Taylor knows them, that went to Taylor. Steve and Bob were on my staff at different times throughout their lives. But also I'd like to thank Pam Pearson. She was a central part of our basketball family right from the beginning. Thank you, Pam, for all your work and dedication. Judy Gorski, this is the lady that made it happen. She hired me. Someone else didn't want me. Melissa Skokinski. I hope I said that right. And I believe she's still the principal over there, right? And the basketball family when we moved to Truman High School was my wife Barbara. Could not have made this journey without her. From getting me to the games on time to shopping for concessions and so much more.

And don't forget, if you're without Barbara, you never make it, everybody.

It's somewhat ironic that after inducting Chuck Suttles, our final inductee tonight is the late Al Whited, one of Chuck's mentors. Al was a very humble man who wore many hats, but sports lived in every thread of his being. As a young man, he dreamed of playing pro baseball, and he was drafted by the old St. Louis Browns. As a college athlete, he was an outstanding basketball player who was part of the Spring Arbor College Hall of Fame. He spent decades as an administrator in the Taylor schools and is still beloved by all of those whose lives he touched. Later in life, he became a tremendous golfer, recording six holes in one and five times shooting his age while earning championships in senior golf tournaments. Let's learn more about Al from his son, Gary, and his daughter, Cindy.

Okay, Cindy, let's start with you.

You have a letter that your dad got way, way, way back decades ago when he was starting as an educator. Why don't you tell us about it?

Well, this is from one of his first students' class he'd had in 1951, and it was from a young lady named Judith. And it was to all the girls and boys that might have Al, my dad, in their class at some point in time. And she writes, going over it briefly and not taking every word for it, but basically she said when she started school, they were going to a new school, and she was going into seventh grade, and she'd always had men teachers for the last three or four years. And so she had gotten word that she had... A young girl teacher coming in, woman teacher coming in. She was thrilled. Her girlfriends and her were thrilled because they were going to be able to talk about sewing and all kinds of things related to what girls like. And so they ran down the hallway, got in the classroom, and they were stopped. They had a man. And it just happened to be our dad, Al White. And she says, after she cried a few tears, she said, well, I guess we're not going to do sewing anymore. with those kinds of homemaker things this year. And she said she saw him reading the newspaper and he started by asking the class about a $64 question. And every morning he started with his $64 question for the day. And so they had to come back to school the next day and he told them they had to talk about what they liked to do, their name and so forth like that. And of course she said she liked sewing And she says, he seemed like a pretty nice guy. And so then she goes in to describe him. And it was interesting, her description of him. But then she said, he started talking about sports. Well, she knew nothing about sports. And throughout the school year, He became big influence on her as far as sports go. They started a baseball team and the girls got to play. And she decided that she did like sports after all. And she sort of forgot about sewing for a while. And pretty soon it came for the choir for the concert at Christmas time. And she said, and Mr. Whitey could sing. And she said she loved that because she could sing and she loved to sing. And then at the end of her story, she talks about seventh grade and she said, if I look back on my school career so far, she says, I think I had the best year I'd ever had with Mr. Whited and that she loved sports now and that she would go on later in life. And she said, I think I would tell all the kids they would be lucky if they got Mr. Whited as a teacher. And I thought that was so precious because, you know, you always are honoring your dad or your parents and everything. And she really was talking from the heart. And, you know, she came in not liking sports and left loving sports. And that's sort of some of my dad's legacy, I think.

Without a doubt, that's very touching. Gary, let's expand on that. Because you were telling me before we've gone on camera here that your dad used sports as a way to relate to kids.

Go ahead. Yeah, I think that he loved playing sports. He loved competing. But mostly, I think he loved the relationships he developed. through sports, whether it was his buddies from golfing, or mostly being in the high school, and he would tell stories about going down to the gym and having free throw shooting contests with the kids, or playing horse, or jumping on a trampoline, or I can remember one girl he challenged to a race around the track. And it didn't matter to him whether he won or lost those things. I think he would like to have won. But what was important is it was a way he could relate to the students through something that they enjoyed and something that he enjoyed. And I think he did that through his whole life. And so he loved sports, but he loved all the relationships and the friendships that came with them.

You were also talking about people and things that were influential on him that he talked about that a little bit. Go ahead.

Yeah, I think he, you know, his first, he played baseball when he was young and played, I think he said at one point in time, he was playing on four different baseball teams and one softball team in the summer, which is every stuff he did every day. But he distinctly remembers going to Briggs Field and walking out and seeing that beautiful stadium and seeing the players come out and the players cheer for them. And like many young boys of that age, he dreamt of someday being the guy that was that professional baseball player going out on that field and to all the cheering fans and everything else.

Cindy, did he talk very much about his athletic career? I mean, he had great success as a college basketball player. He also played baseball. He was drafted by the St. Louis Browns. He turns into a tremendous golfer. Did he talk about that with you two very much?

Yes, he did. He talked briefly. Well, you could always see the joy in his face when he talked about the sports that he played in. And again, the relationships that he built, because much of our family life was based around not only his church and belief of that, but around his sports activities and the people that he... developed friendships with that we came in contact with. We traveled a lot with him during the summer on the Publix tournament, and so we got to see some of his accolades there. But we really, I didn't really know how good he was until it was later in life and we started talking more and reminiscing about some of the things that he did that it really came to my knowledge that, wow, he was really good at a lot of things. And he influenced me because I became a phys ed teacher. and followed it with the sports. I'm very interested in sports, obviously, and had a very successful career as a teacher and related to sports.

Kelly, what about you?

Yeah, I think that, you know, growing up, sports was always at the forefront. I can remember going out and we'd go play golf on Sunday afternoons after church. And he always had a transistor radio listening to the Tiger game while we played golf. And then we'd come home, and if it was football season, we'd have one TV on and another TV stacked on top of it so we could watch the games on both channels. It was just something we did as a family. I remember playing on the church softball league or the church basketball league or going to play hockey back in the day when you could actually have an ice rink outside in Detroit. And just anything to go compete and have fun and have that camaraderie.

If your dad was still around, who do you think he'd like to thank as he's inducted into this hall? I mean, he was a part of this hall for a number of years. It's one of the reasons why we're inducting him tonight is because he refused to go in before, okay? Which probably fits, right? It fits with his personality. But who do you think that he'd like? What do you think he'd like to say if he were here?

I think he'd like to thank all of his friends that he got to make over the years playing golf, playing basketball, playing baseball. I think he'd thank all the coaches that he had over the years at different schools because he felt they were very important to the development of the kids and their personalities and everything else as part of the education process. I probably want to thank my mom for putting up with all the weekends he was away playing golf tournaments. And everybody else that's kind of been involved with sports over his life.

Sandy, you're an educator. He was an educator. That obviously was a very, very big part of his life. It was probably the majority of his life. What was the most important thing he handed down to you?

to enjoy what you're doing. Again, sports for me became the connection to other people. And one of the things I remember most is that, and he was the example of that, is it's not necessarily all the content you give to them sometimes as an educator, but it's the feelings that they create And you want to be very careful how you choose your words and how positive you can be to a student that you never know, many times you never get to know the influence you've had on a student. And I use sports sort of in his footsteps at times to be that connection with kids. And I appreciate that from him. He's my hero.

Did he leave you, too, with any funny stories or anything from his golf days or his baseball days or his basketball days or anything like that? Anything jump to mind? It's okay if it doesn't.

One of them was, and I don't remember the gentleman's name, but he was, I think at Taylor Truman or Truman High School, and they had to hire a head football coach. And he interviewed four players, or four coaches, potential coaches. One of them went on to be the head coach at the University of Colorado. One went on to be the head coach at Northwestern. The other one was Lloyd Carr, who went on to be a coach at Michigan. And he hired none of those three. But he does back himself up and say, we did win the league championship that year.

Oh, that's great. That's fantastic.

Representing a wonderful man, Al White, are his son, Gary, and his daughter, Cindy. Please come to the Hall of Fame stage.

I don't think that's right. their relatives, their offsprings, their spouses, has been an absolute pleasure to work with. They're just tremendous people, every single one of them. I don't believe I ever met Al Ryan, and that interview says it all. He was a tremendous man. On behalf of the city of Taylor, Mayor Tim Loney, Parks and Recreation Director Camilo Ewan, my partner David Corrigan, and myself, I'd like to thank everyone involved with this evening's induction ceremony. It's been a truly special group. It's been a pleasure to host this. We'd like to get all... No, we don't have to do that. We've done that before. Excuse me. Take note that Gerald Thomas of Gerald Thomas Photography is here. If you'd like to get more photos with your family and friends, if you guys want to come up here, Gerald will shoot anything you need and we'll eventually get it to you. If you want to look up Gerald's work, he does tremendous photography on Facebook. You are welcome to stay and enjoy yourselves here or go down the hall to the Lake House Bar and Grill for the rest of the evening. Our late staff is going to go back and forth. For all of you Hall of Famers, remember the packs have to stay here because we're going to put them up in a sports flex. You get to keep the keepsakes. And lastly, again, thanks for attending. We apologize for any technical difficulties here with the Bluetooth, but we'll work that out eventually. So, again, thank you, and there's no reason to hustle off if you don't want to.

Thank you.

Hi, I'm Carl Zymek, and this is another installment of From the Mayor's Desk with Tim Woolley. In this show, we're going to focus on business activity in Taylor, along with several city-initiated projects and some other important issues that seem to be stacking up on us. Tim, welcome to the Media Center. How are you doing today?

Thanks, Carl. It's good to see you. It's been a little while.

Well, yeah, it's been a little while, but all we've been talking about is Storm. But we're not going to talk about Storm yet. We're going to talk about it later here. Let's talk about some fun things. After sitting vacant for six years, give or take, It appears that the old Masco headquarters, probably the most iconic building in the city, is going to become a focal point for a new multi-use project, including professional services, medical facility, and a convention-type center. What can you tell us about the project that's been approved by the Planning Commission as well as CityCom?

Well, it's actually really exciting. What I didn't really realize until I really went over and looked at the facility, there's multiple buildings over there as well. So it's a beautiful building. And when I came into office, we didn't want to see that torn down. The previous owner... We went over there and toured it. Me, Dan, and Tim Keys went over there and looked at it. And I thought the building was in beautiful shape. I think that might have been the first time I'd ever been in there. I couldn't believe how well kept it was. It basically just needed the dusting. And at that time, they were pitching tearing it down and making it a trucking facility.

Just what you wanted to hear.

Well, I made it very clear. I said, absolutely not. That's not going to happen. You know, I said, if you want to tear it down, that's up to you. But it's not going to be a trucking facility. You have a neighborhood there. You have a neighborhood there. You know, and so luckily that kind of, you know. So I got a call from somebody at Wayne County, reached out to me and said, hey, would you mind if I shared your number with somebody? They want to talk to you about potentially the old Masco building. And I said, sure. And took the phone call and he said, hey, you know, I have some gentlemen that are interested in possibly and they want to talk to you about what you guys may be envision going in there and stuff. And I said, well, absolutely. So. A gentleman out of Chicago, Sheboygan, and a few people, we met over at a restaurant by the airport, and they came in and started telling me what they kind of wanted to do. And I said, well, as long as you let us know, we definitely are willing to work with you guys. And I learned about a PUD, which allows us to do different zonings on a property, almost even on different floors of a building. So told them we'd be willing to work with them, and I walked out of there thinking, man, that was a pretty good meeting. I'm pretty excited about this, but you never know how things are going to turn out. Sure. Well, the phone kept ringing, you know, and so I told Dan and Laura and said, hey, you know, I think this is possibly going to happen. Then we found out, you know, talked with them more that they were really interested, and they ended up purchasing the building. sat down with everybody in the room and said, this is what, and basically it was whatever you guys are thinking about doing, just come to us first and let us know. And everything's conditional, so they have to basically get our permission before they, and if they change that, then they'd have to go back through planning and everything and stuff. So they want to do different things on different floors. And that building's so big, that we understood that, you know, and when I first walked the building, I instantly thought of a medical center because it reminded me of a smaller U of M. Yeah, kind of a hospital setting. You know, when my mom was out there, I was visiting there regularly. And when I walked in there, that's what it instantly reminded me of. And then when they talked about a potential, you know, convention center or something like that, a smaller one, you know, like maybe like a Novi Expo or Chime. Yeah, whatever it's called. Suburban, you know.

Suburban, yeah.

I guess they did their research and there's not one of those, you know, from either Troy or Novi. So one close to Detroit would be at that size would be great and stuff. So I think they got a lot of great ideas and they're moving. They're moving quick on it and stuff. So we're pretty excited about it, you know, and I think they already have a few tenants.

When you came into office, did you give any thought to the Masco building? I mean, it's kind of out of sight, out of mind for as big.

We have. We did, to be honest with you, because it's a big tax base. It was losing value, so that was a concern. That's one of our bigger buildings in the city. And so, you know, with it losing, you know, its value, you know, that was hurting when we found out, you know, Masco was leaving. I was on council at the time, and that was something. So we always kind of kept an eye out on it. And so it was nice to hear there was interest in it and stuff like that. There was a couple different pitches, but this one was the most exciting, and it stuck. And these guys have been great to talk to and work with so far and everything, you know. You know not everybody's gonna love everything, but I think it's I think it's great for what they're doing and You know some people talked about you know because there is a storage part of it, but yeah It's you know when people are like well at the high end store. You know Mr.. Manoogian used to store his artwork right in that facility you know so it's it was meant for that anyway, and this thing is built like a battleship and It's unbelievable, you know, the thickness of the concrete, and so, you know, there's limitations on what they could do in certain areas, so it made sense to us, and, you know, council and planning both agreed, and plus that's what it was being used for anyway.

Get any feedback from residents, because I know you've always been concerned, no matter what the project has been, about...

that particular area because it is tricky because you have really strong housing on each side well the main thing was is which was we were glad to hear they you know they want to keep the landscaping the convention center we talked about parking and stuff between me and you and maybe all those that are watching we're hoping that maybe leads into them because they didn't purchase the Kmart right building right so talking with them I thought well You know, hey, if you're going to do that there, you know, the Kmart would be great for maybe a hotel and additional parking for that. And they were actually pretty, you know, they're like, oh, that's a pretty good idea. And I'm like, that'd be great, you know, and stuff. So, of course, I'm trying to spend their money. And, you know, and so, I mean, that's a possibility in a couple of years, they said, you know, the people that own. Masco used to own Masco and the Kmart. So they still own that Kmart facility. I think they still have a lease with Ford for a couple of years to do the parking there if they choose. But, you know, absolutely. We keep in mind of those residents. They did pitch and they want to put a sign on 94. Right. So but they have to go through the state and DNR and things like that to get. But I definitely want to see how it's going to affect the neighbors. Mm hmm. that live right by that area where they want to put it.

The architectural drawing is impressive.

Yeah, it's a beautiful sign, but I want to see how much light it's kicking out. If I live over there, I don't want that thing going in my front window and stuff. Where they position it, how tall, and all that stuff.

So everything's hardly done on this thing, it's just started. Absolutely. Okay, well let's talk about another development and that's the development or redevelopment of the Eureka telegraph area. You've got a Raising Cane going into the Walgreens. You've got a second Kroger, bigger Kroger even, coming in with a lot of different ramifications including to Pardee and things like that. Talk at that.

Yeah, so that was another great thing. You know, one day we get this call, you know, and Kroger was like, hey, we're... Because that was becoming a concern. Oh, yeah. You know, that mall was emptying out pretty quick. Right. You know, and then we got where Value City was kind of, you know, going into foreclosure or basically, you know, they were going bankrupt. Sure. And then... So we're like, you know, that's that's a big corner right there for us. And the Walgreens was sitting empty. And then all of a sudden we get a call from, you know, Kroger was interested. And so we all kind of sat in a room together and, you know, Paula, Laura. Caitlin, me, Dan, Tim, I mean, we had the whole team there. We were definitely pitching it because it goes through a process with Kroger. Like they go by region and then they pitch their areas and locations and all that stuff. So we were glad that that place got chosen, you know, and yeah. they took out the old uh what was it michael's right right christmas tree story christmas tree store christmas story and then um what was the other one bed bath and beyond right so and they're busting over there right now i rode by there today and i'm like man they're really cooking you know so we worked with them um sat down and uh it's been that's been a really good relationship as well They're like, hey, is there any way we could get maybe some demolition? And we said, sure, we'll work with you in any way possible. And so, yeah, they're doing... I think they want to be open by the end of the year. I know some people... They actually put some... In the drawings, I think they left some area for, like, potential outlot locations for maybe a restaurant or a store or something like that because it's a big parking lot.

Well, to be honest with you, you know, once all the construction and everything clears up down there, and I know it's been a long time and people get frustrated with it. Yeah, it's been nuts. But the reality is they're going to be finished with those bridges and things are going to get back to normal. And that is a... That is a really visible coin.

And we do know that somebody is going into the old Value City building. I just can't say who yet.

Gotcha. I think I know too, but I'm not going to say it. Sworn to secrecy. What about Raising Cane's?

You know, I'm very excited. That was, you know, there was some potential issues there with a company that we're going to be talking about later. But, you know, we're going to be the first city downriver to get one. And, you know, there was some issues with the electrical lines. We wanted everything on Eureka to start going underground. That was not... Another company didn't want it to do that way, but it was affecting their drive-through and everything. And so, you know, I handle everything privately, Carl. I'm talking about it now, but I see there's people out there, where's Wooly? You know, he's not doing this. He doesn't do that. You know me. I'm on the phone and I do things, you know, I feel privately, professionally and all that stuff. You know, I made it very clear that if I was to lose the title of being the first city downriver to lose, you know, raising, lose that title of being the first city, there was going to be issues. So they worked it out to where they're going to run the wires all the way around. the property line or whatever to where it won't affect their entrance or their drive-thru because the wires were going to run right over the entrance where you can't walk in or out of a building with electrical wires or through the drive-thru with the wires going over. Long story, but either way, finally got it all worked out, and Raisin Cane's, I did see their, they did submit all their stuff, and I think they're just working on their Wayne County water permit right now, you know, for their... water discharge.

That's amazing. I think by the time everything is finished in that corridor there, it's really going to be pretty impressive.

Touching on what you said earlier, thank God Kroger is putting a gas station as well. Near the fire station. Yeah, right behind the fire station. And they even agreed to put in a road that's going to connect that mall area to that party that will get people to a light to get people in and out of there. Because, you know, anybody that goes to either that mall or to Famous Dave's, it's really hard to make a left. Right. And I wouldn't recommend anybody doing it. So that road will now get you over to a light, which makes it much easier to make a left if you want to go west on Eureka Road.

Yeah, and if you're connecting all the way down to Pardee, that really takes you away from all of the other stuff that's going on there, which is...

I don't know if it's Pardee. I don't think it is. It's the one just on the back side of that mall there. I'm thinking Pardee is one close. Is it Pardee?

Yeah, because I was looking at their graphics, and I think it is.

Is it the one that takes you out by Meyers? But I think it's not that one. I think it's the one just before that. I can't think of the name of the street.

Well, either way, it's going to give you an option.

Either way, it gets you to a row with a light. Yeah.

Yeah, exactly. On another hand, you've got Kroger now to the north, you've got Kroger to the south, and now we're going to have the old Meyer Eureka, and now we're getting a Meyer Mart, which is really a cool concept in the old... Handy Andy, well, it depends how far you go back. I'm thinking Handy Andy to me. What do you think?

It was Forest City. Forest City. To me, yeah. But then there was a, I can't remember, Laura was telling me what it was when she was a kid. There was something else there, too. Yeah, I can't think of what it was called, but she said she bought her first pair of roller skates. I got a chuckle out of that. But it was Forest City before it became Handy Andy, so I always knew it as Forest City.

I think Taylor residents are getting a reputation for eating because there's a lot of places coming in. We've got all these.

We've got two Kroger's. We've got two Meyers. I can't talk. Well, I'm not far behind you. Yeah, it was kind of funny. You know, I was doing a radio interview for WJR, and he actually made a mistake. And he says, yeah, hey, I hear Taylor's getting a new Meyers. He goes, oh, I'm sorry. I mean a new Kroger. I said, no, actually, we're getting a new Meyers now, too, you know. So it was kind of a nice segue into promoting that we were getting that new Myers grocery store. And, you know, it's a newer model that they're rolling out and stuff. It's just grocery. Right. And I think everybody that I've talked to is very excited. I know my neighbors. I'm a stone's throw from it. Yeah. Talk to all my neighbors and everybody. You know, we're always a little... Nervous about traffic on the street a little bit, just like anybody else, but we thought it was a good fit. And so I think everybody in my neighborhood that lives by there has all been pretty excited about it.

It's really kind of cool. I was reading about the philosophy behind that concept, and it's kind of like, you know, Small has gone big, and now big is trying to go small. And they're giving their general managers at these particular locations a lot of leeway in their purchasing. Because they're really leaning heavily toward produce from the area. So you're looking at Pure Michigan. And Kroger has too.

And see, I think it's all depending on what people want to wear. If I'm going grocery shopping, I want the grocery store. I don't want the big. Right. You know, where some people like the big, you know, and I don't like the too many. You know, I guess it depends on what you want, you know.

Well, I know when I found out about it, I know Kaylee Guffey works here. She just gave me a double take and said, hey, I get to walk to my grocery store.

Yeah, we get to. Yeah, absolutely.

Which is just fine. And the other Sheetz location, which is moving very quickly.

Yeah, I think they're starting to bring, I noticed they just completed all the asphalt. So I think all the surfaces are down. So I think they're going to, I wouldn't be surprised if they're just going to start stocking the store here. I think they're, I think they want it to be open by the end of this month.

which is fantastic for that whole that whole area jumps a little bit because you know it's not far away from walmart it's not far away from the dairy queen all of those places up there when you look at it now and you've got that going in there and hook and reel is there too yeah you know yeah they get a good crowd and me and amy keep talking about it

We always forget about it. Really? It's right there. It's right there, yeah. I've never been in there, you know, and I like seafood, you know. But, you know, Dairy Queen does a great job, and, man, you talk about a drive-thru, but, boy, do they get them through there like nothing.

Well, I remember when they were putting that together, and I remember seeing the schematic, the aerial schematic of it, and I'm going, this is not going to work, and yet it works beautifully.

Once in a while you'll see them on telegraph, but I'm telling you, Carl, you can almost set your watch by it. 8 o'clock. Well, that's... Man, it fills up, but they get people through there, and it's unbelievable. And they're another great community partner. Well, I was going to say... Ali is unbelievable, and here's a guy that reaches out to me, and, hey, I know the crew's sent him over for lunch, you know.

Well... That's great. It's funny, because it's not like I hang around at Gary Queen's, okay?

But the reality... Me and... They might know mine and Amy's order.

Yeah. But, you know, with Ali and his group, that's a really good group. That's the kind of business people you want. Very clean, absolutely.

Oh, yeah, just tremendous. You know, when you walk in and they say the usual, you might not know. They're great. And you know their employees are happy there because they always got a ton of employees there. It's clean and they're great.

Your reputation just precedes you because you got the same thing out of the people at the roadhouse, if I'm not mistaken.

Well, I mean, I've known my daughter worked there. Don't forget. So, you know, I was nervous when they opened the Dairy Queen, like, you know, that close to my house. I'm like, oh, this could be a problem.

What about Lang Park? Moving very quickly, yet there's so much to do there, including at the end, you've got to do the road.

Yeah, so that's what we're basically waiting on. I think we're waiting on the pump track to be poured.

I don't think, when I was out there, I don't think that was right.

The skate, you know, I don't know what they call it, the drop down the pool, I kind of call it. Yeah, it looks like a pool, but it's a skate park. That's all done. I think the pump track is next. Then they're going to go in and, you know, level certain areas and stuff, you know, sculpt the sledding hill a little bit different, you know, and stuff. So there'll be final touches. Once all the heavy machinery is out of there, we're going to redo Lang Road. Gotcha. And we'll be ready to open it. So, I mean... It's looking really cool. I couldn't believe, you know, just going over there, you know, Mr. Evans, Warren Evans from the county executive office and his team came over and we all met over there. And he was very impressed, very happy with their, you know, their partnership.

Sure, because they're partners, yeah.

And... He had to go, so he didn't even get a chance to go over and see the dog park and stuff. And that was my first time seeing it all fenced in and everything. And Guido was showing me how we got some old fire hydrants and stuff and put those in. I couldn't believe how big it was. I'm like, you know, could you make it any bigger? But it's unbelievable. It's going to be another fantastic park here in the city of Taylor.

In 2013, when you first were elected, okay, to the council, did you ever think that you'd be seeing that particular

area of land developed again i mean it turned into it was long gone now by that time i mean you know lang park and carl i i wasn't even aware of lang park to be honest with you when i was a kid so you know when i heard it was like a water park and all that other stuff i never went there you know we had the northwest pool sure that's what we did and i guess by the time maybe lang park opened i was an older teenager but i really didn't know of it or I think somebody said, so I might have been even in the Army when it opened, but I don't know. So I never went over there. And like just as I joined the Little League board, they moved the haunted house that used to be over there over to back to Pat Park. So I never really was familiar with it at all. And then one day. Guido, when I got elected, he's like, well, let's go over there and we walk the whole place and stuff, you know. And I was like, man, this place does need some, you know, that's when the paintball and everything was there and stuff. But I was looking for deer the whole time.

I remember I took the tour with several people, but John Madrako was with me the whole time. Yeah. And John knew everything about Lane Park. Yeah. Yeah, and you know, the Dodgem cars used to be here, and the amphitheater was right here. And if we go around this corner where this tree is, this was here.

You know, and it was really kind of comical. Yeah, we had the Northwest Pool, and then we would ride our bikes up to Midway. Sure, sure. You know, for the gold carts. But I had never really been there, you know. So it was... But to see what it's becoming, and that was just... Me, Dan, and Guido really sitting in a room and crunching something really quick with them. I think we had seven to ten days to come up with a new plan and to knock that out what we did and to see the county because I thought the county was maybe being a little cheap, only giving us 50% with the amount of ARPA funds that they had. But when I look at how much everybody else got on different things, we did really good. I'm happy that we got 50% now. And I think people are going to be very happy with that park when they see the finished product.

Tim, when do you think, I mean, realistically, when do you think it's going to open? I mean, we've had several different dates.

Yeah, I mean, I was hoping for like July, August, but I'm thinking maybe end of August, you know, maybe. More ahead of 12. Yeah, you know, I don't know. I was kind of. I don't know why the pump track hasn't been poured yet, to be honest with you, but Guido's got so much on his plate. Well, he does. I'll give my shout-out early. Between Summer Festival, we've got some big things coming at Heritage Park still, and then we've got Pickleball. So he's had a lot on his plate and stuff. Yeah. Yeah, I think, you know, maybe, I don't know. We'll see how quick it goes, but I would love to see it happen in August, but it might be September.

Okay, all righty. Speaking of pickleball, those courts going in at Heritage Park, okay, I know there was a little bit of a delay.

Yeah, we had a crack. There was a crack in the court, and they had to redo that. We instantly said, no, we want a whole new, you know.

Right, but even better than that, huge new playscape that's going just to the south that's going to connect with the old playscape and they're going to refurbish that and this is a biggie uh so many residents when they talk about playscapes and kids they constantly refer to heritage park and uh and it's funny because that's probably the oldest one we have, you know, compared with the others. Got to be excited about that, because that really kind of makes everything come together. So many kids in here.

Carl, when I was on council, it was something that I used to talk to, you know, CDBG about, and I used to talk to Rick about it, and I said, you know, because, you know, I hate to say, but, you know, my kids, I didn't have any, but I have friends and family, you know, a lot that have, you know, disabilities, you know, and i just i love the fact i want to see kids to be able to play together sure and i don't want to see you know this group have to play over here and this group over so it was always something that i wanted to do even when i was on council so you know when we'd have talk about cdbg spending funds and it's like well what can we do here can we get the swings that you know and stuff so When I came in, that was something that I was focusing on. I had a couple priorities that I wanted to get, and that was definitely one of them, but we had to get the funds to do it. So when we did Lang Park, there's definitely a lot of those features, but not all the ones because I knew we were going to do this. And I think Lang Park will definitely compete with Heritage Park, but Heritage Park is our diamond. Sure. And I want it to continue to be our diamond, you know, and I think this park will be, it will touch. Everyone. Everyone that has a child or even an adult child that has disabilities will be able to partake in something at this park. And probably multiple things. So we're kind of focusing on Lang Park right now. And once we get that, we're really going to blow this up. But people are going to start seeing work being done right after the Junior League World Series.

Well, when you look at Heritage Park, I mean, you know, there was a lot of heavy lifting that was done at the beginning, okay? And it set up what the park is now. But a lot of those, you almost can describe them as little things, but they're not little things. You came in, the very first thing, you were always on light the trails.

And when you lit the trails... Well, just lift the back of the park up a little bit, man.

Well, when you lit the trails, though, it... It really changes the whole park at night. I mean, it really makes a gigantic difference. And then you look at Pickleball, which is very, very popular. You look at the playscape, because you have so many kids at the park. And I mean, every 11-year-old that's playing soccer or baseball at the park has... probably a five-year-old brother or sister whose mom is looking to where can I take this kid, you know, and... Well, when we met with, you know, we met with all these different groups that came in and pitched ideas and stuff, and many of them have actually...

kids and people with these disabilities, whether they're in a chair and some can get in a chair, some can't, you know, and stuff, they work for these companies. Sure. And some have just like kids that come in and test their, you know, and it's awesome, man. It was, watching these videos was incredible. So we learned so much about just each one's needs and requirements, you know, learning about, you know, kids that can get out of chairs And kids that can't, you know, and stuff. And kids that can get out of chairs can transition onto it. And they love to climb, you know, but they need that little resting spot, you know, or something. So you'll see that at Lang Park and stuff. But there's also kids that can't get out of chairs, you know. And, you know, that's on the lower end of, you know. But still, I want them to be able to partake. And they make things where kids can play with toys. Kids in chairs can play with kids that are not in chairs, and they make equipment, and it's... It's pretty cool. I don't want to give too much away right now, but it's going to be awesome. But I'm sure somebody, you know, I mean, I think it's going to be absolutely incredible. And, you know, I do talk to people that have those children and stuff that are my friends and family, and I try to get their feedback because, you know, I even ask them about, like, hey... I don't even know how to say things. As long as your heart's in the right place. They can't even keep up with the lingo anymore.

Oh my goodness.

I'm very excited.

This has been, when it comes to weather in Michigan, this has been one of those, it's either hotter than the 80s or it's colder than that. We recently have replaced HVAC systems in a lot of these buildings. And talk about a time that makes it tough when you don't have air in these buildings. Because you can't open the windows. You can't do a lot of things. It seems like that's coming to its fruition, though.

Yeah, everything is done. I think they're finally, we ended up having to get a mobile unit for lakes. Mm-hmm. Because there was delays, they have a certain type down, coils in the basement or something. But yeah, it took a little, we didn't expect to get the hottest spring that we did. And as you know, me and Mr. Bezzura probably suffered some of that. We stuck it out, and we said we probably could have asked for one of those mobile AC units. I said, no, we're not going to do it because we understand people are hot, and if they want to complain, they can come up to our office. And it was funny, every time somebody was in our office, they were like... My God, how are you doing? And trust me, me, Dan, Michelle, and Sam, we were all, it was tough.

The last time I remember going to your office during that time frame, when it was really hot and they were working on the HV, you were stuck like this to your desk. Oh, yeah. Hey, Carl, how you doing? I can't move.

Or if I was on my computer and I'd lean up and I'd have papers stuck to my arm. It was brutal, and it's kind of funny now because me and Dan don't want to say anything, but sometimes we're actually freezing over there right now.

You've got to watch what you ask for. Well, amid all these projects and improvements, we've had major renovations to the course.

Mm-hmm.

at the Lakes of Taylor, and now they're moving over to Meadows. Have you been out there? I have not.

There's been multiple times that I wanted to go over and see the work that's been done, but it seems like every time I get a little free time to think about it, it starts raining. I've heard it's beautiful. I have been out to Meadows, but there hasn't been any work being done. That course looks great, but I have not been out on lakes. But I hear everybody that I know that's been out since it's been reopened all the way has been good. It was tough when we did the nine holes. We thought more people would maybe golf the nine, so that was a little tough. And then the fact that we were having it was so hot in the building, people weren't going in and eating and stuff. So it was kind of... But we wanted to time it to where, hey, let's get this done at one point, you know. Sure. It was tough, you know, and it was tough on those guys. And, you know, there was, you know, I'll tell you, the spring was warm. Well, it was warm. A lot of people in some of these buildings, I know police were struggling. I mean, there was a couple of times I called Guido, like, I don't know how much longer I can do this. Where we at, you know, and stuff. But I think lakes should be, I don't know if they're actually running fully on their own area, but we did have to bring in a separate unit for that.

Let's go on to Priority Waste. That's our city's curbside service provider for trash, compost, bulk. Recently made the news for everything that they didn't want to make the news for. A lot of struggles. Various cities had them. We've had them here with them keeping up with the job that they're employed to do. Led to some major changes with the company. I know just in the past couple weeks, you had them in here and had what you termed as a really good, frank conversation with them. What can you tell the residents about where is this going with priority waste? Because we did sign a 10-year contract with them. We're three years in, something like that. That saved a lot of money from the tax dollars viewpoint. But now you have, you know, this issue.

Yeah, there's issues, you know, so... Not many times do you see a company remove their CEO. Basically the guy that founded the company. So kudos to them for doing that. I often say sometimes when I came into council, year one, we came into a deficit. And it took us some time to get out of that a little bit. So they brought in a new CEO. And we have a rep. You know, his name's Paul. He hears from me often. I'll tell you that. He's a good guy. I have nothing against him. But he knows how I am. And business is business. You know, we can be friendly and everything. But when it comes down to business, sometimes, you know. But again... I do things privately and professionally. That's the way I like to be treated that way. He explained to me what was going on because the company that took over, a little bit of a hedge fund company type thing, made us a little nervous, like, uh-oh, what's going on here and stuff. The fact that they invested a ton of money, I think it was like $100 million, that made us breathe a lot easier. That, okay, they're in for the long haul. The thing that I really liked hearing, you know, Paul's a garbage guy. He had his own garbage company and stuff. This guy was part of a garbage company. His dad founded, you know, so he grew up in the business. He knows. And just from meeting with Paul, and actually I'm having a meeting with the new CEO, I think, in the next couple weeks or something like that to meet him and stuff. So I feel they're definitely on the right track.

Mm-hmm.

They're actually doing pretty well. I mean, on average, I think they're maybe a day behind on compost, sometimes two days. One of the issues is there is compost requires throwers. You know, they need people behind, and that's becoming harder and harder to hire. You know, people don't want to do that job, you know. They're getting new trucks, you know, and there's a lot of things these new trucks can do, which is going to help them, save them time and money. I think, you know, they were talking about like the arm actually tracks. It's going to help us track things and stuff. So I definitely feel like they're on the right track. We're working with them, but we're also letting them know that, hey, you know, we're on it. Sure. You know, I don't Carl, you have a job to do. Me and you talk about things. We'll get into this maybe more with the storm, but when there's things to be put out, when there's things to be discussed, I reach out to you, and I have you do it. That's your job. I can talk sometimes once in a while. I will do it, but there's times that I don't. I don't feel the need that I need to stick up. camera in my own face and talk about this and rah rah rah rah rah rah I'm not doing that and you know why I'm not doing that because I'm not running for any other position right ever again yeah okay you know I don't want to seek any higher position or anything like that so I'm content on being the mayor of Taylor and when I need to call somebody and let them know I'm not happy about something I promise you I'm doing it and you know I'm doing it oh yeah you know so these people that you know want to get on there and Where's Wooly? I'm right here. Yeah. I'm right here. I'm right here all the time. Right. You know, so I got it.

You know, so. Well, you know, you've been around the block with these waste haulers a little bit now. Yeah. Okay. Started with Midwest Sanitation, which was our carrier when I first got here 13 years ago. We both came in.

They went to GFL. Yeah.

Well, then it went to Rizzo. Oh, Rizzo, yeah. Then it went to GFL. And we had to remove. Right, and we had to remove GFL. We have to be careful. Exactly, we won't talk too much about that. And then we went to Priority Waste. And it seems like, you know, the big, whoever gets to the top of the mountain eats everything else around them, you know. Who are you going to turn to? Well, that's the concern.

You know, Carl, I mean, that's the other thing. You have to see, you know, I don't think a lot of people realize that there's not a whole lot out there.

Right.

You know, waste management is very, they don't even bid on it. Republic's basically gone on household pickup.

Right.

You know, I think they only do roll off, and I think they're even almost getting out of that a little bit. Right. Waste management doesn't really do a whole lot unless it's like right next to one of their dumps. That's where they make, you know, and they're very expensive. Right. You know, they're even having issues, you know, so there's not a lot out. I think there's a new startup. Sure. But. I think the owner might have one of those last names that you said earlier. So we're willing to work with this company, we have, and see the direction they're going in, but knowing that they just had a hiccup in their company and we're willing to work. But in the same sense, one of the biggest things that you didn't talk about too is cans. You know, that was a big issue, you know, and we're addressing that, you know, and like, hey, where are we at on that and stuff? And so we were really happy with, you know, what we got. And we're seeing if that comes to fruition, because if it doesn't, then, you know, I think that was one of the issues that maybe led to the change, because. A lot of people, including us, yeah, we're getting cans, we're getting cans, we're getting cans. And when nobody was ever getting them, and I don't even think they were being ordered.

That was a real big portion of the frustration on the part of residents. It's one thing if your trash is out there for longer than it should be. It's another thing if you can't replace the container. Well, not only that, especially if I paid for it. Right.

If I paid for a can six months ago and I still don't have a can, you shouldn't have took my money.

And I think, if I'm not mistaken, the new CEO's latest correspondence with residents in the cities and stuff, I believe they said it was 19,000 new containers. I think they ordered that many. And those aren't.

Yeah, this next batch, I believe, you know, we were told, because there's still people waiting, you know. This would catch them up, I think. Yeah, we're hoping that, yeah, it gets caught up and stuff. But, you know, it was, you know, there was quite a few issues there and stuff. So, you know, we're working with them, but we're also letting them know, you know, hey, you know. But I think the difference, too, is, And maybe I've been told this too, the way you handle things might work in your favor as well.

In your favor at times, yeah.

Because I think going publicly bashing somebody and doing something, do you think that's going to get them to pick your trash up? Because some people think that. Some people think if I go on social media, the squeaky wheel is going to, and you know as well as me, that... It don't work with me. If you go on social media and you rip me apart all day long, that's not going to get me. There's other people already waiting that have gone through the process so that you can go on and talk bad about me or the city. Now, if it's a legit something, but you're not going to go to the head of the line because you're talking bad about me. There's people that have done it properly and that are waiting, so there's a process.

Well, I think when you're associated with these companies, and again, I don't get to make the call on this, okay, but when you are associated with these companies, you do develop... A partnership, a professional acquaintance, whatever you want to call it. Some people would call it friendship. It's not really friendship.

No, there's relationship there, but there's also business.

Yeah, exactly. I know that the council and the city has covered its behind here because despite the fact you have a 10-year contract, you can get out of that contract at almost any period of time. That said, I don't think anybody in their right mind wants to switch providers' just to switch providers. My opinion is give them an opportunity to get the thing right and let's see how it goes.

Well, if you remember when we did do that the last time, it was unbelievably not even comparison to what we're going through right now. So there was a big difference. There's frustration, I get it, and stuff like that, but they're also going through changes in their company and I think it's for the better.

Right. And hopefully this will all be just part of the past, you know, when we move on. Over the, well, no, I'm going to skip the question here. Junior League World Series is coming up in Taylor, August the 9th through the 16th. At the same time in Heritage Park, the wall that heals, a three-quarter size replica of the Vietnam Memorial will be on display on the northern part of the park near the soccer fields. Mm-hmm. And that will be going on from August the 13th through the 16th. You're a veteran. You're a sponsor. This sounds like an exciting time in Taylor history.

Yeah, I'm always excited for the World Series, but to be able to bring that wall here this year is absolutely incredible, and we did. You know, at first we thought it would be great to be able to combine the two as well. Because we're going to have a lot of people going through Heritage Park and they have this there. You know, people from all over, not just Taylor, I think are going to come see this. Dennis Schlimmer. Yeah, I kind of messed it up. He was responsible for getting that to come here. He created a group of volunteers that are heading it up. I know we're always looking for volunteers. Angie Winton is heading that up, our former councilwoman. You can find her on social media. She's always posting because there has to be somebody at that wall 24-7 the entire time it's here. So we're looking for volunteers to kind of help set it up, to help break it down when it's ready to go. I think they're looking for volunteers. motorcycles are going to bring it in, you know, like once it gets to the Michigan border, I think, and stuff. So I think it's going to be incredible. I mean, we're already, Dan, you know, being the director of the Junior League World Series, we're going to have the teams come over and check it out, you know, in between games and stuff. And so I think it's going to be a great addition to that park, you know, during that time. And we're making, you know, we're going to have – Golf carts there for people that might not be able to make it over there as well. There's going to be parking. There's going to be signs lit up, everything. But that is going to be a 24-7, you know, people can go there. And you can actually set up tours as well, like if you want to bring a group of kids or something like that. So we're looking for tour, people that will do tours as well and stuff like that. So I'm hoping to do some of that. You know, like I told Angie, I said, you know, I'm sorry, but I'm not going to be able to commit to anything until it We get right close, which she totally understands. But I'm looking forward to seeing it. I know, you know, they're also going to have like a projection room, like for people that aren't on there. But if, you know, like I think Angie's dad's going to be on there. Kimber and Michelle's dad will both be in there, you know, that lost their lives because of Agent Orange, you know, and stuff. And so there's going to be like a reel and like I think a little trailer or something that will show, you know, I think it's going to be a great thing. I'm looking forward to it.

I'm glad you mentioned Schlemmer because he's going to be on with us in a couple of days. We were going to do a preview for Destination Downed River in addition to our cable network. He deserves a lot of kudos. He's not the type of guy who goes for... He doesn't strike me as the type of guy who's looking... to make a name for himself or anything. But his story is interesting because he's not a veteran.

No, I think he did it for his dad.

And he did it for his dad. And it's really kind of a good story. It's what it's all about.

You know, Carl, you see so much of that, and that's what makes me... You know, as a vet, I can tell you, you know, when I was the president of Victory Gym and just being part of VAW because you got auxiliaries and stuff that even people that, you know, Charlie Johnson with the museum, you know, his dad was a vet. There's people that just aren't veterans, but they do so much for veterans. You know, Mayor McCray to Romulus with Foundation 14 and stuff. There's, you know, when I was in Mecca, I saw Gary Sinise talk. It was that man's story. He's an interesting guy. The things that man has done for veterans, it's unbelievable. There's so many people out there that are either just trying to honor a family member or something that they may have never served. But to me, that's incredible. And to me, you might not have the title, but you're an honorary.

It's amazing how that goes sometimes, how it develops sometimes. And I get it that... Somebody like Tom Hanks is on maybe a little different level than what we're talking about. But even him, okay, when you're looking at a guy like that, and I remember watching, it was on Government Channel or something, the ceremonial D-Day thing, and it wasn't this year.

He's doing one this year, I think. Yeah, he does them all the time. World War II or something, yeah.

But it was amazing, because this was a couple years ago, and... And when he got there, the whole thing changed. It was like he was, a celebrity because he's done so many different profoundly good war films from Band of Brothers to the rest of them. It's really kind of amazing how it draws you in from everywhere. That's really pretty cool. Lastly, let's take a look back at the Taylor Summer Festival. We just had that a week and a half ago. Seemed really successful, June the 25th through the 28th. Tremendous fireworks show. I mean, just amazing. Sponsored by J&T Crova. Concerts by country star Chase Rice, along with Zach John King and the Family Tradition. A rock concert with Yvonne DeFire, along with Daniel Harrison and the Two Dollar Highway. And local talent Dave Feo. Did we have any significant problems? No.

Saturday we had one little teenager fight thing. We were showing that we weren't playing. We had multiple cop cars over there and threw them in the back of the car and got them out of there. I was happy with everything. Everything was great. I would have liked to have seen maybe a few more people, especially on Friday night, but talking with some people, I think this whole team takeover definitely hurt a little bit. Which is sad, it really is. I'm not a big country, you've heard me say that, but I thought that was a solid lineup. The shows were great, I watched them and stuff, got to meet the guys, they were all All super cool. Chase Rice was really cool. He brought his dog with him. That Zach John King was really cool. I enjoyed him. I think my wife's got a little crush on him now. I really enjoyed this show and stuff. And then the Family Tradition Band. Those guys are super great. They've played here before and they're always willing to... I talk to those guys on a regular basis and stuff. I thought it was a great night, and I really enjoyed it. We had a good turnout. I was just hoping maybe expecting a few more people there. Saturday night was awesome. It was unfortunate. Bad Flower had to cancel on us, so we kind of had to scramble. We could not get another huge band with that short a notice. The ones that we had were either... not worth bringing in. They wanted way too much money for the bands that I thought, you know, I'm like, there's no way we're paying them this much money. And then some of the people, you know, I don't know, maybe they knew we were in a buy and they wanted way too much. There's no way. And then, um, so it worked out good. I ran into, uh, So my friend is the drummer of Daniel Harrison, $2 Highway, Rich, who was also on Hardcore Pawn, everybody. So he reached out to me. He's a good drummer. Yeah. He drummed back in the day. I was joking because a lot of my friends played drums for some reason. So he reached out to me. He's like, hey, it's been a while. We ran into somewhere. He's like, let's get lunch and something. Because we were buddies in high school. So we actually went to BJ's over here. It was so funny because everybody, you know, he's got the goatee. Oh, yeah. Everybody recognized him from the show. And so we're eating lunch, and people would come up. And, you know, you could kind of see them, you know, and they're like, are you the guy from the movie? And you'd be like, yeah, you know. And you'd see people try to, like, why is the mayor meeting with this, you know, and stuff. And it was so funny. But we had a great lunch, and it was nice catching up. And I told him, I said, hey. you know we'd love to you know we're we need another band and i know you know i've seen you you know and he's like yeah let me let me check the date and i said well we did put another we did put an offer on somebody right but their bass player was out of town or something you know i'm thinking man don't you have a that's the way it's fun or something you know or something so um at that point i said hey you know would you guys be willing to play you know and the only thing we knew is like rich's band is kind of like country-esque you know but they play a bunch of different things and then so because we ended up having to go with like the hometown crowd again you know because eva's right here from in taylor which is awesome uh amanda and rob they're they're great people man and just nice as can be always willing to play here you know what they said and i think they're They're ready to boom. I know they are. And then David lives here still, and he's a great kid and everything, you know. You should say man, you know, but I always think of him as a kid. I thought it was a great show too, you know, and it was just, you know, a little bit of country, a little bit of hardcore rock and roll. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, definitely. It was a great show, too, for $20, you know. And I thought, man, if people wanted to just come see some good all-around music and have a few beers and then watch an awesome fireworks show. And I thought there was a pretty decent crowd there on a Saturday night, too, you know. So talking to Guido, I think we did okay.

Well, and I think, you know, Yvonne Fire is always going to put on a good show. Absolutely. Okay. She is the energizer bunny, okay, and the band is solid. And like you say...

every time you see them they're incrementally better uh what i love about them too is the whole time like when david was playing right and they're there you know rob and amanda or people call her eva you know but they're out you know talking with people in the crowd and everything you know people are like hey is there any chance like i'm like she's over here she's right there go meet her you know she's never changed meet her and i'm like she's out here and crowd you know she's never changed yeah and they're awesome you know and they go out and talk with everybody but i thought it was cool night one too which uh you know chase rice and all them guys coming out to the you know and signing autographs and talking with people and uh you know tiara gave chase rice that bandana for his dog and then he brought his dog out and it had the bandana on it so she got a nice plug out of that you know so well i will tell you this

Daniel Harrison can sing. He can. And that whole act, I'll tell you, and I've heard them all for the last 13 years, and some have been really out of sight, and some have been not as good as you thought maybe they would be. But we've had our share of really, really good. That Daniel Harrison and that band, which is like almost a show band. They've got bongos going. They've got all kinds of stuff. But he's got a great voice. Yeah.

You know, it was funny because, who was it? I can't remember. I think it was Kyle from the Family Tradition Band. He said, hey, have you seen Daniel Harrison? I said, no, but my buddy Rich is the drummer. He goes, you know, he took two years off. He goes, you're going to be impressed. He goes, that guy can sing. He can really sing. I can't remember. But anyway, somebody, they were like, you're going to be impressed. That guy can sing, you know. And he reminded me of a cross almost between Charlie Daniels and Hank Williams Jr. You know, it came off that way. i was blown away by that because it was so funny amanda from eva was walking by yeah and they started out with like masters of puppets and i'm like how are they going to do this in country and then they went into a sad but true and she looked at me and she's like You know, this is good. And I'm like, yeah, this is good. And, you know, we kind of had a little bit of chuckle, you know, and I was impressed by them. They were really good. Yeah, I was very.

Well, and it's and it's funny.

Boy, that boy's got the pipes.

Well, he really does. And the whole band is just. Really good. I mean, you sit back and you can watch any portion of the band at any time and get a show out of it.

Well, it was funny because I was walking through and David Field was doing his warm-up. And, you know, I grew up on Motown, man. I love, you know, Aretha, Smokey, all them guys. And he was doing something. And, I mean, he made the hair on my arm stand up, man. And he finished up and I started clapping. And he's like, thanks, Mayor. You know, and I'm like... Dude, you got my, you know, you got it. No, you just, you got it. Keep working, you know.

Well, you know, Tim, the funny thing, and I know you know because you've been behind the scenes, but it is funny because these people, they aren't above anything. interacting oh no not at all at all no you know you want this done you want that done you want to just talk about how they're doing or whatever uh it's fascinating how accommodating once it was funny because once bad flower backed out david's like hey hey mayor i'm here if you need me he texted me and i'm like hey hold on buddy you know you might be hearing from me soon because you know we do those meet and greets and uh and we had that one young lady who brought her bachelorette party of 15 and got dressed up like eva and eva said yeah i'll meet with them and she was when i told her you know i was in the back and they come walking up and uh

you know, Rob, I saw Rob first and he's like, you know, he, he was telling me, and then, you know, Amanda come walking over and I said, Hey, if you guys don't mind, I said, there's a bachelorette party that's going to be here. And the lady that's getting married, her second date was your concert. And she's like, Oh, that's awesome. So she was like all into it, you know, and stuff. And they're just great people, you know. And like I said, you know, the fact that they go out and hang out and talk to everybody and stuff. And, you know, I'm sitting on the picnic table when Kyle pulled up from the Family Tradition Band. He's like, man. do you know and stuff so they're all very cool people and um even chase rice was very down to earth and so was zach john king yeah they were all very accommodating yeah very common i've never had any issues with it you know some of their managers can be a little well they you know i don't i don't hardly ever deal with them to be honest with you i'm just walking back and forth and stuff that's peter's job you know and uh So, but, you know, I will say I never really had a bad situation with any of them or whatever. I did have a band member kind of bark at me one time and I'm like, easy, dude, you know, just like, you know. But it happens. Yeah, you know. It does happen. It was just, you know.

You brought up a good point, though. A shout out to Peter Kite. Yeah. What a job he's done in two years with that stage production and those lights. If people haven't been to our summer festival in the last couple of years, definitely make the next one because Peter, he's got a touch. with lighting, with sound, with everything.

Well, I think like if you paid at the door, because the lady from 95.5 was there. I can't think of her name. But she's like, to have Chase Rice and Zach John King and the Family Tradition Band, and I think we were charging $40. She goes to get in this, and that's for a seat. Oh, yeah. She's like, but you're 10 feet away from these people. Oh, right. She's like, you can't. She goes, that's a $100, $150 ticket all day long. In some places, it's $200. And she goes, and that's way out in, you know, 200 yards away. I hear you. And she's like, you know, this is unbelievable, you know, and stuff. So it's like, yeah, you know, it's just a matter of, you know, people, I don't know what it is. And we do it on Friday because we know some people don't want to come down because of the fireworks. They're worried about the traffic and stuff. Right. Which I understand, you know.

Although a lot of people were online on social media right after the event saying, you know, it used to be 45 minutes to get out of Heritage Park to go three miles, and now I'm home in 10. I thought it moved pretty quick.

I usually hang out for a little while to let it kind of calm down, but the police do a really good job. They run everybody down the north line, and it moves pretty quick.

Well, it's always nice because, you know, people don't realize that the festivals around here pay for themselves, essentially. I mean, we do throw in X amount of bucks.

Sponsorship is huge.

But sponsorship is huge. Deity Corva needs a shout out because, you know, they put on a lot of that and we had Taylor Ford in there.

We do not make, I can tell you right now, ticket prices on the bands do not cover the bands. Oh, not even near it. Not at all. Right.

Yeah.

And it's, yeah.

And that's a whole different story.

We hope for good beer sales and, you know, it's good sponsorship.

Barking, good beer stories, you know, that type of thing. But it was another, and it was a great day.

Yeah.

You know, so that's fantastic. Well, Tim, hey, I think we've gotten through another episode here. Okay, yeah. You know, but we're not going to wait another whatever. Yeah. We'll do one maybe next month or something like that.

Let's just touch on the storms real quick. Oh, yeah. I'll skip through it. I'm sorry. No, that's okay. Crews are going to be going through the neighborhoods, picking up limbs, but they've got to be out at the curb. We're not going in anybody's backyard or any of that stuff. We're not going to sweep and rake up all the leaves that are there and stuff. We're going to grab the limbs and stuff. We're going to try to get to them as soon as we can. We're going to try to kind of maintain with the pickup, you know, the trash pickup. But depending on how much stuff is out there, we may not be able to keep up with that and stuff like that. So I know we put that out there, but we just want to talk about it too and let everybody know that our crews will be doing that to help.

Yeah, DPW really emphasized the, hey, look, we know you're out there. Be patient. We're going to be coming through, but it's not going to be just picked up in a day, that kind of thing. And I think they will get to it. And we also have through next week, we have the compost center. You can drop off your stuff for free if you want to take it there. You don't have to, that kind of thing. DTE... Seems to have a handle on, you know, we're doing this show on, what, Tuesday after the storm, and they're down to, I believe, 1% now of power outages. But that's a whole different thing. And, you know, Tim, you guys don't, at the local level, you really don't have a lot of leverage.

No, I have a representative. We have a DTE, and, you know, and I'm not afraid to say it. I am not a fan of DTE. You know, I think they're a monopoly. But they're also, these are people that, you know, Our state legislators, they dictate whether or not they get to raise their rates. In my opinion, DTE gets to, they make hundreds of millions if not billion dollar profits and then they say we need to hike our rates up because we got infrastructure problems. Well, wait a minute. That's what you should be using your profits for. You would think. That's the issue that I have. So I encourage everybody to look and see who is on those committees because they're subcommittees that are appointed by the governor and see who's on there and start reaching out to them and tell them, stop doing these. Stop giving them the right to raise our rates. I don't like paying these rates. I pay them just like everybody else. In the same sense, the state of Michigan has a lot of trees. And I know some people are not going to like hearing this, but you know as well as I do, every time we cut a tree down, we got people that are throwing a fit. So that's part of the issue, too. But it's DTE's responsibility. They hire companies. It's been... probably almost two decades since I had a company come through my backyard and trim the tree. And when they did, 12 inches. Hey, do you guys, you know, if I give you a little money, you think, nope, 12 inches. Really? You know, that lasted, what, a year? Yeah. So, I mean, I got my issues, too, and I voiced my concerns to them. And I'm not happy that we have residents that are still out. But, again, I let them know, but... What are they going to do? You know, I could make a Facebook video. I could get a petition signing. But what are they going to do? They're going to look at it.

Well, the reality is you have to have you have to like you just said, the people who control this situation have to have come to Jesus meeting. OK, they just can't.

hand them all the cards yeah on every hand they just can't do that okay it doesn't work that way it has to stop i mean we're we're paying a lot of money for electricity i mean don't get me wrong i'm grateful that i can walk in my house and flick a light church sure and have light and uh press a button and have either air conditioning and heating you know and stuff but you know in the same sense it gets to a point where Okay, when's enough enough? You keep charging us this. You're making record amounts of profit, but yet you keep hitting us up to fix your product. Right. You know, when you're making these profits. It doesn't make sense to me.

Did you read the piece that... christy mcguire put on i did that was very well put out you know and you could you could you could feel the heat of the anger there's there's a lady who her and her husband have four local places they've got all those people they're all dependent on you or me or somebody else out there walking through their door so they could feed them or get them a beer or whatever they need uh and All of that network, all of the girls that walk up to your table, all of that, you know, everybody making the food, the food itself.

Well, they're doing a GoFundMe because there's a gentleman I know he's associated with the Little League football here. You know, he was just getting ready to open his barbecue business. and lost like thousands of dollars worth of meat.

Was that the one that lost $8,000? Yes, they're doing a GoFundMe for me.

So I know Christy and Jay well, and Christy doesn't, you know, I give her kudos for that. And here's what, you know, she wasn't bashing the workers because the workers are working her tail off, and actually her daughter's boyfriend works for the company that she's talking about. He's a lineman, and he's working seven days a week right now and stuff. One of the issues was what we experienced, it was a holiday weekend. I think they had a lot of people on vacation. I do want to give a shout out to those that had animal control. I had you know Parks and Rec right you know working in our DPW and on the water cruise we had seven water main breaks and stuff so I mean I understood people were on vacation and they couldn't make it in and stuff so I mean there's no ill will there but I appreciate those that did come in and work in different departments and kudos to Guido and Johnny that said hey all of our parks and And our buildings, everything's good that can wait till Monday. So anybody that's available can go work in DPW or water if they need it, you know, or if they want to and stuff. So, yeah, it was nice, you know.

And well, hopefully. Somewhere along the way, some of this is going to improve. Because it really needs to. This is a problematic area. And it doesn't help that, and I think I can say this accurately, in Taylor, we're in a bad portion of their grid. It just is. It is what it is.

You know, and that's the thing. It's just, it's like, okay, everybody barks now and it just goes away. And I mean, we saw that in Romulus with the well and everything. It just needs to continue to be. That's why I encourage people to find out who's on those committees and reach out to them and say, listen, this is enough is enough. Enough is enough. Stop raising our rates to, you know, feed them.

bingo we'll leave it at that uh thanks to mayor tim woolley for coming on today and for all the updates he gave us uh also thanks behind the scenes to joe camilleri at our production desk we hope you enjoyed the show today and we'll see you on the next from the mayor's desk

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Hi everyone, I'm Carl Zymak and this is Destination Downriver. Today we're going to be talking about the Wall That Heals, which is a three-quarter scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which is located in Washington, D.C. It will be appearing in Taylor's Heritage Park on August the 13th through the 16th. With us today is Dennis Schlemmer. the major driving force behind the wall's appearance downriver. Dennis, welcome to the program, and you are a busy guy these days.

Thank you, Carl. Yes, it's pretty much nonstop, especially with this wall.

What's your schedule been like? Give us a typical day in the life of Dennis Schlemmer.

I wake up in the morning. I go to work. I come home from work. My mother's in a rehab center, so I go visit her. And then the rest of the night is either VFW. I'm the national president of the Sons and Daughters of the Vietnam War. So that takes up a lot of time. I'm involved in a few other organizations, and the wall has just taken up a majority of my life for the past six or eight months.

All right. For people who don't really understand the wall or haven't really looked into the replica and everything that it represents, can you give us kind of a nickel tour of describe the wall that heals?

Yeah. So it's it's as you said, it's a three quarter scale replica of the wall in D.C. This is the official wall. There's multiple walls that travel around the country. But this is the official wall through the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, who are the people behind the wall. It travels around the country to about 30 cities a year. This year it's going to 31. It's the 31st year they've been doing it. The wall comes on a trailer, and after the wall's unloaded and put together, that trailer becomes a mobile education center. So one side will feature all the men and women on the wall from Michigan on a TV, and their pictures will scroll. There's a second TV that will have the men and women that were inducted into the in-memory program. And then the backside of the trailer is like a mini mobile museum where it's got artifacts that were left at the wall in D.C. Oh, which is pretty cool.

I didn't know all of that. That's really neat. You know, if somebody is planning to go out and see the wall that heals, how long is it going to take, do you think? And what's the typical thing that goes on?

So if you go by yourself, not as part of one of the tours we offer, you're looking at probably 20 to 30 minutes. We also do have a couple ceremonies that will be happening during the week as well. But we do have opportunity for group tours. And there will be, even if you're not with a group, there will be opportunities that you can join a group tour. And those tours take about 45 minutes. They go a little more in depth. They tell stories behind those objects that were left at the wall. So you know the stories behind the care package that's in there is one of the packages. And you learn the long story of how it sat in the closet for eight years before a mother gave it to somebody to take to the wall because she couldn't herself make it. And just a lot of great stories like that that you'll learn as part of that tour. So anywhere from 20 minutes to 45 minutes or so.

Very emotional.

Absolutely, absolutely. What's kind of neat about this is when Maya Lynch, she's the designer of the wall, when the wall was designed, it was meant for you to approach it from the center. And after the wall was opened for the first year, they realized they couldn't do that because everybody just kept walking along the side. So if you go there now, you'll notice there's nice railings that kind of walk you along the wall. This recreates that experience that Maya Lin wanted you to have when she designed the wall where you walk up from the middle and it just kind of overwhelms you and it overtakes you and you get that emotion that she intended when she designed the wall.

Tell us about how you started here. How did you get your start in all of this?

Well, I guess with the veteran aspect, it goes back to joining the sons and daughters of the Vietnam War when we started five years ago. We started right after the pandemic. And then I became the first vice president of the organization. Then I've been the president for a little over two years. I'm on my second term now. So I started doing that, and then my father passed away in January 2023. And after his death, I found out about the Vietnam Veteran Memorial Fund's In-Memory Program, which is a program for those veterans that came back from the war but then died later because of war-related causes. So we got him inducted into that, and then right after that program, I found out about The Wall That Heals. So without any backing, any committee, anything, I just applied for it, and we got denied. oh okay so i didn't let that stop us and i uh i applied again for the next year and uh last november i got a call and taylor was awarded the wall so then it was a matter of just scrambling because i didn't have a committee i didn't have approval from the city i said we were using heritage park we didn't have approval So it was a lot of backtracking, but I've had absolute wonderful support from the mayor and from the city council and previous city council members. And it's become a great big community effort outside of Taylor as well. I've brought in people from the Downriver community. Which makes sense. Yeah. And so it's just been an amazing process. I think for all of us, just the planning has been an amazing part of our lives so far. And we just can't wait to see the wall make its Taylor.

Tell us about your dad and about your own upbringing. Okay. Because all of this ultimately starts with him. It really does.

It does. He volunteered for the Vietnam War. He wasn't drafted. He volunteered at age 17. He was able to graduate high school early. He went to Henry Ford High School in Detroit. Went to basic training and then shortly after was sent to Vietnam. He was with the 864th Engineer Battalion. He was a... heavy equipment mechanic. So his unit, what they did is they went in to Vietnam before there was any bases and they cleared everything and they built the bases up so then everybody could come in and they would move on to the next stop. So he was there for two years, was exposed to Agent Orange in the process, but we didn't find that out, obviously, until 40 plus years later. Yeah, a long time afterwards. is when it affected him. So I've always had, because of him growing up as a Vietnam veteran, I've always had a strong tie to veterans, to the Vietnam cause. So it's always instilled in me that it's a very important part of my life.

Interesting. Very, very interesting. You mentioned all of the organizations that you've been in, like the VFW and things like that. Is it, how are, what's membership like in those kind of organizations these days? Because it seems to ebb and flow, you know, depending on what era you're in. After World War II, all of those things took off. Then they kind of faded after a little while. What are you seeing?

And that's the case now. I think a lot of our VFWs and American Legions across the country are having a little bit of a struggle with membership. And it's not just them. I think it's all our fraternal organizations, the Moose, the Eagles, the Elks. They're all struggling. Back in their heyday, they had millions of members, and the membership has dwindled off. But I think a lot of the organizations are changing to attract those younger families as well. What a father that is a war veteran that's 35 years old now is looking for different things out of that organization than that same man 40 years ago. So as long as those organizations adapt to the VFW and the American Legion, they'll be around for years and they serve a great cause for veterans and all the outreach and work that they do. So I think as long as they're able to adapt, they'll be around, but membership definitely has fallen off on all the organizations.

What about for the sons and daughters?

So we're fairly new, and we're more of like a lineage organization, more like the Sons of the American Revolution or Daughters of the American Revolution, to where you need to be a descendant. Now there's a category where you can join as a friend, but initially you join as a descendant of a Vietnam veteran. And we're having great growth right now. We're actually this month... I just talked to my treasurer last night and we are having our largest month for membership ever. We're running a membership campaign. You may at some point see a video with me on Facebook. But we're running a shot right out here at the plaza. But there's a video of me going around to boost membership and we're seeing some great gains on that. And we serve a little bit different purpose, you know, other than like the Vietnam or the VFW and the American Legion. They have their auxiliaries, but I'm an auxiliary member, so we're there to support those veterans. But the Sons and Daughters of Vietnam War is a little bit different because we're also acting as a support group for those children. You know, Vietnam veterans, you can ask most of us, we grew up in a different childhood than those that grew up in non-veteran households. So we have that common bond that we're able to connect with each other and talk about the different things that we experienced when we grew up that a lot of our other friends didn't have that same experience. So we've seen a lot of great things through our members being able to connect where there wasn't a lot of resources previously before our group started.

What was your dad like when he came back?

I don't know. I wasn't alive. Okay, you weren't alive. Yeah. So, yeah, he came back in 70. I was born in 77. Okay, all right. He had already been through quite a bit by the time that I was born.

Okay. What did he get into? What was his career path?

He was a mechanic. He stuck with that. So he ended up being a diesel mechanic the rest of his life. And he was retired for the last 15, 16 years of his life and just spent a lot of time with my mom after that.

Now, the wall, when it gets here and when you guys have it all set up, will be open 24 hours a day from all the way until 2 p.m. on that last day, Sunday the 16th. That must be a tremendous undertaking, okay? And what do you need as far as volunteers and sponsors and things like that? I know you've made a lot of headway into that, but... As of, you know, we're here in the first week of July, you're about a month off. What do you still need?

We still need volunteers. We still need to fill about 50 volunteer shifts, and that's out of a total of over 250. So we've filled quite a bit, but we still need about 50 volunteers. And a lot of that's the late overnight shifts that you're talking about. We're open 24 hours. We're looking for people for those over midnight shifts into like 6 in the morning. And then sponsors. It's a big undertaking. When all is said and done, it's going to end up costing us about $30,000 or so. And that's also including gifts in kind, but we still need money or donations, gifts in kind, to make this happen.

Now, where in the park is this going to be located?

It's going to be on the north end by the soccer fields.

Already. And the Junior League World Series will be going on near the south end simultaneously here, including that final day when you guys are going to be shutting down right about the time that the World Series will be shutting down. Have you gotten any interaction with the World Series and are they going to work as they're bringing teams in from everywhere?

So a little bit. They've offered one day they're going to help feed our volunteers, which is nice. Oh, okay. All right. We've talked to them about bringing the teams in for part of our group tours. So Caroline Patz, who's our group tour chair, she's working on that to try to get, once everything is settled with the teams, to extend that invite for them to come check out the wall. Since it's right there, you might as well. Sure. But it's going to be a wild, wild, wild week in the park. Absolutely. But it's going to be so fun.

I think it's going to be a blast. You were estimating, what did you think, about 10,000 people?

We're expecting about 10,000 people.

Which is phenomenal. And I don't think you'll have any problems with parking or anything. Just knock on wood with the weather. That's all you can do with that. You've mentioned in some of your statements out there, especially on social media, you're really proud of the leadership team that you have for the event. Would you like to mention some of them?

Yeah, I've got, so myself as chair, I've got co-chairs. I've got Sherry Shivel, who's a longtime Taylor resident. The mayor is one of our co-chairs. Our volunteer coordinator, who has just been such a tremendous help, and she's done so much above and beyond. Her responsibility is Angie Winton. She's just been incredible. Caroline Patz is our tour coordinator. Bill Patz is along, and he's our representative from the council. So he's been helping out. Stephanie Krieger, who is past VFW state auxiliary president, she's on the board of the Veterans Museum. She's overseeing our ceremony, so she's actually writing, put together the two ceremonies that we're putting on. So it's just an amazing group of people.

Yeah, no doubt. You've got some real energizer bunnies going there. I'm telling you, especially Angie Winton and Caroline, they both, once they get started, they don't stop. There's no doubt about that. You mentioned those presentations that you're going to have, and I believe you're going to lead with...

uh congressional medal of honor winner yeah tell us a little about that yeah so um our our opening ceremony is called the welcome home ceremony it's going to be on thursday at 10 a.m okay um and we'll have seating we're expecting about 300 people or so um but especially because our keynote speaker is uh command sergeant major terry richardson from grayling he uh he was the command sergeant major of camp grayling for many years he's a vietnam veteran and this past march president trump awarded him with the correctional medal of honor so he'll be our keynote speaker So that's very exciting for the city to have a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient.

Fabulous guy to look up. And, you know, even if you wiped away the honor at the end, the story just from his family upbringing and everything else was fascinating.

Yeah, it's incredible. I'm so happy that we're able to have a Michigan guy here, too.

Oh, yeah, yeah. How did you manage to do that?

So I found out he was getting the... the medal and I went on to the Medal of Honor website the day he got it and I put in a request and so I was probably one of the very first if not the first requests for an appearance from him.

And I'm sure he appreciated that because it's right in state. That's fantastic. Where can people learn more about this event? Before they go there, where's the best places to go?

Our website, thewallthathealthtaylor.com. That's where you're going to find everything from signing up to volunteer, if you want to make a donation, if you want to sponsor. If you want to find out about the ceremonies, all that information is right there. Our Facebook page also is a great resource. We feature one of the heroes that's on the wall from the Down River area every day with the story about them and why they're on the wall. And then as that picks up, we're going to start featuring our in-memory honorees from Down River as well. And then we'll share the information on there as well. But the core information you're going to find on the website.

Okay, so we went through this like a sprint. Did we miss anything? I don't think so. Hopefully we didn't. I think we've kind of got our arms around it. Once this is over, what are you going to do next? What's the encore for Dennis? Breathe.

I'm going to breathe and hopefully start looking for some type of vacation and take a week off somewhere.

Do you have anywhere you want to go?

I don't. But I work for Little Caesars in the international division. So I travel internationally a lot. So sometimes when I go on a trip, I'll add on days. Kind of gets me free airfare.

sure I'm so I'm I'm kinda holding out for something maybe I'll get some nice trip that I can just add on a great way to do it it is it absolutely is I know my what my wife for for a while was going back and forth to Seattle for her her job in fact it was much much longer than a little while was like two years and are and one time she dragged me along and for you know and I have the whole week in Seattle great place to go okay it's it's always need to go somewhere that you haven't been absolutely just learn things and and stuff like that it's really kind of cool so well hey thank you very much for coming on the show and thanks for doing this for the entire region i think uh a big thank you should go out the pat on the back to you because you made this happen it's all the committee fantastic fantastic that's it for this episode Of Destination Downriver, thanks to Dennis Schlemmer for being our guest today, and to his team for bringing the wall that heals to Taylor's Heritage Park, August the 13th through the 16th. For Joe Camilleri, Behind the Controls, I'm Carl Zymak, and we'll see you on the next episode of Destination Downriver.

Thank you to our team sponsor, Allegra, Marketing, Print, and Design. With a special thanks to our production partners here at the new Taylor Media Center. Thanks for listening and watching. Please visit our website, DestinationDownRiver.com or our Facebook page and be sure to join us for next month's podcast.

Good morning, everyone. Good morning, good morning. Welcome. Welcome to the annual presentation of the State of the City for the City of Taylor. My name is Tanya Clayton and I proudly serve as the president currently for the Rotary Club of Taylor. Thank you. The Rotary Club of Taylor proudly serves this community. Rotary is an international club and Rotary is one of the largest service organizations in the world. So I am very proud to be serving in this capacity this year. Equally proud to serve this community of Taylor and our mayor, Mr. Tim Woolley. So in Rotary, first of all, you all can just assume that you are at a Rotary meeting. This is one of the largest Taylor Rotary meetings that we have every year. So welcome. It is customary for us to open with the ringing of the bell. So here we go. Rotary is now in session. So we will begin with the invocation by Pastor Ryan Bettinger.

We knew God was going to hear me, but now you can. So that's good. But let's pray together. Heavenly Father, thank you for this day and for this time that we have together. I thank you for the privilege of living in this great city and being able to serve it with our hearts, Father. And we ask that you would just bless this time today and that it be just a time of encouragement, a time of blessing. Lord, I also ask now that we know that we also come as a community with hurts. Father, a lot of things that have gone on, and Father, with 11-year-old Jacob Robinson passing tragically on Eureka Road for the Bezira family and the loss in this community, God, I ask that you would be near to them, the families, and all those that... maybe don't get that publicity. Father, we ask that you would be near to this community in that way. That's what we are. We're a community of people together, and we hurt when each other hurt, and we rejoice when each other rejoice. That's why we've gathered. We're also not only hurt, but we're hopeful. for all that you have done, but all that you are going to do in our community. And Father, we just thank you. We ask now that you would just bless the rest of this day and the rest of this event. May you be glorified and honored through it all. We thank you for your Son, Jesus Christ, who paid the price for our sins so that we could be in a relationship with you and know you and know that you hear us even now in this prayer. And Father, we love you and we thank you for all that you do for us. It's in the name of your Son, Jesus, we pray. Amen.

All right, technology. Thank you, Pastor Ryan. Pastor Ryan is a pastor of the Northline Church right here in the city of Taylor. So, as I mentioned, Rotary. is one of the oldest service organizations in the world. We are actually the oldest organization in the world. We have over 1.2 million members worldwide, 35,000 clubs, over 200 countries. So we are really large and our mantra is service above self. And right here, although we are all over the world, right here in our own backyard in this community, the Service Club of Taylor works with many organizations in helping with their service projects for underserved children, service projects for those in need, our veterans, and so many different things that we do to support this community. Our mantra, Service Above Self, is shown in the way that we show up every week in our weekly meetings and it's also shown when we are called upon to pull together and volunteer at different activities. Some of those activities, Northline Christmas Party that they have every year for underserved children. We work the Shred Day for the city of Taylor twice a year. We come together and partner with Macy's right here in the city and Meyers and provide coats for those children and needs through our childcare programs and our schools. So many different things that we do. Our Night to Shine prom with 242 Church, we all just came together and volunteered there. So, so many different things that we do to serve this community in our service above self mantra. Another important way that Rotary contributes is we raise money and we give it away. So that's one of the biggest things that we do to serve our communities. We have supportive organizations like Children With Hair Loss, our food pantry right here, Fish and Loaves Food Pantry right here in the city of Taylor, and so many more. So there are so many things that we do in our city and we're always looking for more opportunities to serve. So if there are projects that you have, ideas that you have, come and join us. We'd love to have you and you too can be a part of the service that we provide right here in the city of Taylor. So there are three signature events that we do and we want you to watch out for these dates. The first one is our Wounded America charity ride. We do that every summer. This year is going to be on Saturday, July 18th. Our motorcycle has come out. It's a beautiful sight to see. We hosted right at Harley-Davidson on Telegraph. And the motorcycles go out under that flag and it's just a beautiful, beautiful thing. And that event goes directly to serve our veterans that have been harmed or wounded in service. So that's an important one. And for those of you who are businesses, we showcase our business partners at that event. You will see some of those pictures. coming up a little bit later. Our charity golf fundraiser, if you are a golfer in this room, you do not want to miss our charity golf fundraiser, Thursday, August 20th, right here at the Lakes of Taylor. So we're looking forward to you all signing up for that, talking to us about it so that you can get involved and For the businesses in this room, we would love to have you to partner with us so that we can showcase your business at our event. Another event that we do that we're super proud of is our Law Enforcement Appreciation Day. This is our state police versus the city of Taylor police baseball softball game. Very exciting event. This is not a fundraiser, but it's something that we do every year for those families as an appreciation for the work that they do when they're on the front lines with us each or for us. each and every day. So those are the things that we do and we're super proud of it. And I just want the Rotarians in the room to just raise your hand really quickly so everyone can see who you are. Thank you for being here and including our own mayor who is super active with our Rotary Club. We are very, very proud of that. one of the things that we love to do is acknowledge each other we love to acknowledge people we love to acknowledge our community so one of the things that we do at the state of the city every year is our paul harris fellow award this award is given to individuals in the community who show acts of service either through heroism did i say that right heroism through acts of service different things that they may do in our community this year We have a special guest, a special honoree, Mr. Giuseppe Persicone. Can you stand? And Larry, is Larry in the, do you have the award? You can come forward. We all call him Joe. You all know that, right? Come on forward, Joe. Do you have the award? so we just want to acknowledge you right here in front of the city for everything that you do you never say no i don't know this has joe ever said no to anybody in this room you never say no i've been in the city until 1970 but work together i built and we love you for that we love you for that thank you joe thank you and we will have your pen for you okay

get a certificate to come okay thank you thank you thank you Joe don't answer your phone Joe

You didn't know I knew about that, did you? Okay, this year we have a few milestone awards in our Taylor Rotary Club. And we are very, very proud to present those awards here in front of the city for those that have served over 50 years in this club. So we're super proud of that. Is Enrico here? Did he make it here yet? Enrico's not here yet? Okay, we may have to come back to Enrico. Enrico Muto has served 50 years in this Rotary Club. We are so proud of that, and we have an award for him. If he makes it before the end of my time, then we will call him up. But for now, we're going to move forward to another 50-year Rotarian in the city of Taylor, Mr. Robert Williams. Let's give him a round of applause as he comes. Come on up, Bob. Come on up. Come on up. Bob, we are very proud. I'm gonna ask the Rotarians in the room to stand. We are very proud to present to you the Service Above Self Award. And it says, Service Above Self, presented to Robert G. Williams for 50 years of service since October 1st, 1974. Presented by the Rotary Club of Taylor. Thank you. Thanks for you. Thank you, Bob. Thank you, thank you. Now, the next and the last milestone award, many of you in this room knows Anthony Nesita. He has served as a judge in this city, but for Taylor Rotary, he will be celebrating his 70th anniversary, 70 years as a Taylor Rotary. Rotarian. So let's give him a round of applause. Tony could not be here with us today, but my husband and I went and spent time with him on Saturday, and he gave us so much history about this beautiful city. We went back, Larry Wright and I, on Monday, and we took a video of him because it was just going to be a challenge for him to be here today. So we would like to play this video for you. It's very short, but just him showing his gratitude. Judge Tony Nesita. Anthony Nesita. Right. But the city and everyone knows you as Tony. And we are here today to celebrate your 70th year at Taylor Rotary.

Well, they've been great years. I remember vividly becoming a member on December 6th, 1956. Rotary to me has been a camaradership that I have with the members. I can still count on any time I need a friend. The things that I've been able to be involved in, in Rotary, Enjoy Rotary while you're young enough to do it and don't wait until you're 97 like I am.

That's our buddy Tony Mesita. Let's give him another round of applause. It was such a joy sitting with him and just learning so much about the history of this city, and he had so many wonderful stories to share, and I was just so happy to be in this company and to be able to get those. You know we have to celebrate people while they're here with us so they know and feel the love, right? I almost said amen because I'm not in church, but... Okay, so as I mentioned, Taylor Rotary Club, we are people of action. We come together, we volunteer. We come together, we raise money. We come together, we give it away. And that's what we do. We have a beautiful social atmosphere. We all get together once a month for our evening socials and just with our spouses and have a great time. So it's work, it's play, and it's just very...