City Council - Regular Meeting

Roll call, please. Mr. Patz?

Here. Mr. Clark?

Here. Mr. Armstrong?

Here. Mr. Wallace?

Here.

Mr. Beatty?

Here. Mr. Thomas? Here. Mr. Johnson?

Here. Mayor Woolley?

Here.

Mrs. Bower? Here. Mr. Dragoni? Here.

We have a quorum. We're going to move on to 4.1. Can I get a motion to approve agenda with the deletion of 7.19? in addition of items 7.22 and 7.23, CDBG road construction? Motion to approve, Mr. Chairman.

Support.

Motion by Mr. Thomas, supported by Mr. Armstrong. Any discussion? All in favor? Yes. All opposed? Yeses have it, motion carried. 4.2. Can I get a motion to approve and accept the minutes of the meeting held September 1st, 2026 and dispense with all reading? Motion. Support. Motion by Mr. Thede, supported by Mr. Armstrong. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say yes. Yes. All opposed? Yeses have it. Motion carried. Mayor's communication.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just basically have a couple reminders. Number one is reminding everybody that Palo Palooza is going to be October 23rd. We haven't started the registration yet, but I want to remind everybody to keep a lookout for that because it fills up very, very fast. And then everybody starts asking if they can get in and stuff. So please keep an eye on that on our website and sign up for it as soon as you see because the spots go quick and it is a great time every year. The other one is September 20th. The city of Taylor Police Department is going to play the Romulus Police Department in a softball game at Rotary Park here in Taylor on Telegraph, and I believe it starts at 6 p.m. I'm not positive, but we just played the state police in the Rotary game that they have every year, and the state police actually got us by one run this year. Oh, did they? Yeah, so it's good to let them win every now and then, too. It was a great time, though.

Through the chair, I look forward to us having our full roster for this game too.

Yeah, that was an issue the other day. Okay, we're going to move on to the consent agenda. These are all normal items that we approve every month or every other month. And can I get a motion on the consent agenda? I'll make a motion. Support. Motion by Mr. Armstrong, supported by Mr. Thede. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say yes. Yes. All opposed, yeses have it. Motion carried. We'll move on to the regular agenda. Motion to approve the city budget amendment 2027-001, dated September 15th, 2026.

Motion.

Motion by Mr. Wallace. Support. Support by Mr. Clark. Any discussion? Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say yes. Yes. All opposed? Yeses have the motion carried. 7.2, motion to approve data national sole source for hosting the AS400 for one year term in the amount of 27,394 funded through the general fund IT contractual services.

Motion.

Support. Motion by Mr. Thomas supported by Mr. Patz. Any discussion? I actually have some. Is this open this last year?

Where are we at, Mr. Chairman? I'm sorry.

On 7-2?

7-2.

For the AS400?

Yes. So, hopefully, yes. Okay. The goal is the end of this year by spring. Okay, good. So, hopefully, this will be the last budget year. We may have to extend a little more within this budget year, but The sooner the better we can get rid of this, trust me.

That's what I want to hear. Any other discussion? Hearing none, all in favor?

Yes.

All opposed? Yeses have it, motion carried. 7.3, motion to approve RICO sole service, sole source for paper cut and inner card value loader with reader and card dispenser. Yearly renewal, an amount not to exceed $4920 funded through IT contractual, general fund IT contractual services. Motion. Supposed by Mr. Patz. Support. Supported by Mr. Clark. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say yes. Yes. All opposed? Yeses have it. Motion carried. 7.4, motion to approve sending one building department employee overnight stay to attend fall code officials of Michigan for amount not to exceed $700 plus incidental expenses funded through the building department conference and training account. Motion. Support. Motion by Mr. Wallace supported by Mr. Thomas. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say yes. Yes. All opposed? Yeses have it, motion carried. 7.5, motion to approve sign in Beacon's School Resource Officer Agreement with Lincoln Park Public School District and the City of Taylor from the date of sign in through June 30th, 2029. Motion.

Support.

Motion by Mr. Thomas, supported by Mr. Wallace. Any discussion?

Through the Chair. Chief, just because this has another city's school district, if somebody is watching at home, it might be interesting to understand the benefit to our city of this.

Absolutely, Mr. Chairman, Council, Mr. Mayor. Yes, Lincoln Park is just the fiduciary for this. This is a grant that was achieved through this organization called RESA. It's for children or young adults with special needs. And we have the Beacon School here in the city of Taylor that has taken on that task. So this officer would be acting as a school resource officer in that building full-time capacity.

Does that officer then have like additional things they do with the students and so forth beyond just guarding?

Yeah, that's absolutely. They're properly trained, a special train to go into the school. They'll handle day to day activities that happen there. And uh, and of course during the summer months they come back to the department and we can use them as we do with our other school resource officer.

Right. Thank you.

Any other discussion? Here are none. All in favor say yes. Yes. All opposed. Yeses have it. Motion carried. Can I get a motion to approve the opening of a public hearing to present program year 2025, July 1st, 2025, June 30th, 2026 consolidated annual performance evaluation report. This report discusses how the city allocates the expended It's Community Development Bokrak funds for program year 2025. Motion. Motion by Mr. Pat, supported by Mr. Thomas. Go ahead, sir.

Good evening, through the chair, I'm Christopher Klimchak, director of community development here in Taylor. Through the chair, city council, elected officials, mayor, members of the public, staff, this is the annual report we do. It's called the CAPER. It goes over the expenditures we had for the last fiscal year. I'll give a few highlights from our draft financial summary. Our totals are not yet in. We're still going to do one more drawdown that will cover all the expenses that occurred prior to June 30th. Not sure exactly on that amount. It might add between maybe $50,000 to $100,000 under our expenditures. Currently, our total expenditures for, well, our unexpended balance at the end of last year was $1,439,000. And our current expenditures as of right now were $542,750 for the fiscal year. Again, there will be an addition to that based on our final drawdown that will occur probably this week. We spent 100% of our expenditures on low and moderate income benefit, which is the primary goal of the CDBG program. Occasionally, we do other projects like demolition or something that are not low mod income but we didn't do any of the these past this past year we have to achieve at least 70 percent of our expenditures for low and moderate income benefit so we are obviously i have met that with our 100 percent um some highlights uh while our planning and admin cap is capped at 20 percent We're currently at 12.9, but we will have some additional expenditures on that. We usually spend right up to the 20% on that to cover everything for the admin. Our public services, which are sub-recipients, which are currently the guidance center, senior alliance, and fish and loaves, that percentage is capped at 15%. We're currently at 10.61%, but we have a couple other invoices to process in our final draw, so we should be right about at that 15%. We don't want to go over those caps, and we are not projected to do that. we have a couple projects that are ongoing of course our residential rehabilitation program currently we spent it looks like about we're looking at 12 40 50 approximately 60,000 in housing rehab but again we have some additional expenditures for that Again, I went over the subrecipients and administration and that's probably our major expenditures during this past year. The report was attached on the council agenda and it was made public. We have the draft copy for review until we submit on September 28th so that anybody can contact the community development department we'd be happy to show them a draft copy or answer any questions as usual with public comment. So, um, if there's any questions or open it up for a public comment or questions, thank you very much.

Thank you. Any, any questions? Any other comments? Then can I get a motion to close the public hearing motion support? Motion by Mr. Pat, supported by Mr. Clark. All in favor? Yes. All opposed? Yes, have it. Motion carried. 7.8, motion to approve payment in the amount of $16,199 to National Faith Home Buyers. The down payment assistance for home buyer 2026005 funded through the home The home grant. Motion. Motion by Mr. Park. Supported by Mr. Wallace. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say yes. Yes. All opposed? Yeses have it, motion carried. 7.9, motion to approve one community development department employee to attend Michigan Community Development Association Fall Conference in an amount not to exceed $900, Funded through the CDBG administration grant account. Motion. Motion by Mr. Thede. Support. Supported by Mr. Wallace. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say yes. Yes. All opposed? Yeses have it. Motion carried. 710, motion to approve professional service agreement with Biomed Medical Waste sole source vendor.

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. Motion to approve Columbia collision for the repair of squad two in amount not to exceed $18,970 funded through the general fund fire repair and maintenance account. Motion. Support. Motion by Mr. Armstrong, supported by Mr. Pance. Any discussion?

Chief, come up please.

Good evening, everyone. Good evening, Chief. Hope everyone's well.

Through the Chair, last night Councilman Wallace brought up why did we only have one bid on this. Could you explain why?

So through the Chair, Columbia is the repair facility for Braun Ambulances, which it is a Braun Ambulance. It's like a body shop for them. It's where they take all their vehicles.

They're the only ones in the area that would take our emergency vehicle?

Not the only one in the area, but we can't take it to some local dealer like a normal body shop. I understand. They work specifically with Braun Ambulances. The reason is? Every ambulance is built a little bit different.

It's easier to get parts if they need something.

You could send it to another ambulance body shop, but then they would probably have a harder time getting the parts.

Thank You chief yep through the chair do we have a sole source agreement completed for this for the service I don't think it's we do okay we did get it okay cool okay any other discussion here are none all in favor say yes yes all opposed yeses have it motion carries

7.12, motion to authorize the mayor to sign a purchase agreement on behalf of the City of Taylor for parcel ID 60-035-01-0273-002, an amount of 1,000 proceeds go to the general fund. Motion. Support. Motion by Mr. Thomas, supported by Mr. Wallace. Any discussions? Mayor, could you tell us, audience, where this is at? Sure, Mr. Chairman.

This is right on the corner of Morton View and Goddard. It's right across from J.P. McGuire's. And the owners of J.P. McGuire's are purchasing this piece of property that is across the street. It used to be the brewery bar. And we learned that there's a little kind of like almost a triangle piece of property that the city owns, which is right almost in the middle of it. So they reached out and asked if we'd be willing to sell it, which I was gladly willing to do that. So it just allows him more of the parking area that he would use and stuff. So we weren't even aware of it. He wasn't even aware of it until he was getting ready to sign the purchase agreement. So that's what this is.

Okay, any other discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say yes. Yes. All opposed? Yeses have it. Motion carried. 7.13. A motion to amend CCR4150-26 to increase the authority to American Generator Rental for the animal shelter not to exceed 30,977 funded through the Act 179 contractual services. Motion. Supported by Mr. Patz, supported by Mr. Thomas. Any discussion?

Guido, could you come up please?

you turn the Sun on thank you very much it's gonna be brighter now because they had it in the middle spot on a we'll find the sweet spot it's just one of those demo bowls and when you get in the exact wrong spot you get that good evening through the chair the motion in front of you is to increase is adding two months of rental agreement service until the new unit arrives and is installed at the animal shelter the 30,000 is for two months No, it's a cumulative total. It's $3,600-ish a month, and we've had it for X amount of months, and we're going to have it for another two months. So that's just authorizing another two months of payments in case we run into a second month. I'm hopeful we'll have it in October, and we won't need that second one. And the reason for this is? The animal shelter had a catastrophic generator failure months back, so a new unit had to be ordered. It was an insurance claim, so the city is not funding. You guys approved this in March, so the new unit is being built, and it's in production, so we should hopefully have it installed in October. This is just authorizing two additional months of payment.

So we'll just get a new one when it's built, and then you're done with this one?

That is correct.

Okay, thank you, Guido. Thank you.

Any other discussion? Thank you. Hearing none, all in favor say yes. Yes. All opposed? Yeses have it. Motion carried. 7.14, motion to approve payment to Michigan Associated Chief of Police Law Enforcement Accreditation Program in amount of $2,700 for the initial fee to be sent to the state. application funded through the general fund contractual services. Motion. Supported by Mr. Armstrong, supported by Mr. Wallace. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say yes. Yes. All opposed? Yeses have it, motion carried. 715, motion to approve pipeline management current vendor to pay invoices for Emergency sewer repair of $206,734 funded through the sewer disposal system fund reserves. Motion. Support. Motion by Mr. Armstrong, supported by Mr. Thomas. Any discussion?

Through the chair, is there anybody here that could kind of explain why we had emergency cleaning services and where this is located, please? Thank you, Mr.

Christopher Gibbs, good evening, Mr. Chairman, members of city council, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Wallace, this was located on the north and south sides of Ecourse Road between Morton View and Pelham. We have a lot of large diameter sewers that is impractical for the DPW to clean with the equipment that we have. So we found a lot of debris and potential areas that we're going to be backing up that would have flooded the entire sub to the north. So we felt it prudent to have our sewer lining contractor go in there and clean it all out to make sure we didn't have any problems.

Thank you. So this is part of a program where you keep an eye on all of the sewers in the city?

Yes, sir. It's an area that we are watching and had been neglected for a little while because there's a lot of sanitary sewers in the city of Taylor. And once we noticed it, we wanted to address it immediately to make sure we are never on the news.

Fantastic. Thank you.

Thank you guys for your hard work. Thank you. Any other discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say yes. Yes. All opposed? Yeses have it, motion carried. 716, motion to approve IGA work order 47242 between Wayne County and the City of Taylor for cost shared on Northline Road improvement located between Telegraph and Racko Road. Estimate city expenditures $75,112 funded through major roads. Motion. Support. Motion by Mr. Armstrong, supported by Mr. Patz. Any discussion?

Through the chair, it sure is dusty. They're cutting concrete blocks out and replacing it with blocks, and the mess is outrageous, but it's going to be nice having a smooth north line.

Any other discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say yes. Yes. All opposed? Yeses have it, motion carried. 717, may I get a motion to approve MI custom signed sole source for the purchase of additional precinct banners that amount not to exceed $2,274 funded through the general fund election supplies.

Motion.

Supported by Mr. Clark, supported by Mr. Thede. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say yes. Yes. All opposed? Yeses have it, motion carried. 718, motion to approve the second reading of the ordinance to amend the City of Taylor Code of Ordinance, Chapter 22, Article 4, Section 97, Fireworks.

Motion.

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

Mr. Chairman? Yes. I respectfully remain opposed to this proposed ordinance amendment, and I will state my position again for the record. I do not believe the solution is for the city council to pick winners and losers by restricting lawful competition or favoring one type of business over another. More importantly, this amendment does not address the concerns we continue to hear from residents. It does not reduce the state mandated number of days fireworks may be used, restrict the hours during which they may be discharged, or address their impact on neighborhoods, pets, wildlife, veterans, and others affected by noise. I stated this before the first reading vote because I wanted residents to understand what this ordinance revision will not do. I fully understand that these changes can only be made by lobbying our legislatures in Lansing. I support reasonable regulation and public safety, but I do not believe restricting lawful businesses is the answer. For those reasons, I will again be voting no. Any other discussion?

Through the Chair, I just want to reiterate that the reason that this was proposed is because it was to encourage businesses to become more deeply involved in the community. We have one current fireworks vendor who is here 365 days a year. And the people that I talked to, I'm so sorry, my computer's going crazy here. I've got to turn it off. The people that originally approached me about it, and I agreed with them that I think the whole idea of having a bunch of tents for a month or so up and down Telegraph is kind of trashy.

Can I have the chief come up, please? Fire chief. Chief Portis.

You could do it all. You have to lose a little bit more of this to do nothing.

Sorry about that. I met with you way back when we discussed this. Would you please discuss this one more time, what these people have to go through to set up their tents?

So, through the chair, I apologize because I was in a discussion with Mr. Berserk. Can we go over the question again? It's about the tents on Telegraph. It's about the tents. Fireworks. The fireworks? Yes. Okay, so a firework tent sale has to get all their state regulations done first, their state license to sell fireworks. Then they have to apply at the planning department for a special permit for a tent. And then they have to have safety inspections through the building department and fire department. And also the state goes back out and inspects them while the tents there.

And how many days is this permit for?

I believe I don't have it in front. I think it's 14 days, 14 days. And the regulations pertain to safety regulations. If they have a tent and they have sides, they have to have exits lighting. Um, the generator has to be so far from the tent. The gas has to be so far from the tent. They have to have extinguishers, a water can, and also a normal extinguisher. They can't have a continuous row of fireworks. It has to have a break in it of about eight foot. Now, there's no distance recommended between these tents.

There's nothing there. No, sir.

No.

Councilman Wallace, you brought up about having the buildings, because we have some empty buildings. Is it feasible for somebody to come in there and fix them up so they can have them for the 14 days?

I don't know if I feel comfortable.

I mean, they gotta have sprinkler systems, they gotta go by code.

Yeah, because Phantom, which is here in the city, they have a sprinkler system, a fire alarm. Is it worth it for them? I don't know. Okay, thank you. I don't know what their payroll is or their budget. Thank you.

Through the Chair, my entire proposal was that it would hopefully encourage more businesses to come here permanently. I want to make that clear.

I want to make a comment. I have no doubt that when these tents are out there, they're safe because our fire department looks at it, our building department and all that. And I agree with councilman Wallace. I think, I think they do look trashy. I think that if we, There are buildings out there. I've seen them. I've been in them that have sprinkler systems here nor there. It wasn't about safety. We know it's safety and it's not about, it's not about taking out and telling somebody what they can do with their property, but it's about the way it looks and you got a guy full time in the building paying taxes. So that's my opinion. So any other discussion here? None. All in favor? Yes. Yes. All opposed? No. Roll call, please.

Mr. Armstrong?

No.

Mr. Wallace?

Yes.

Mr. Thede?

No.

Mr. Thomas?

No.

Mr. Patz?

No.

Mr. Clark?

No.

Mr. Johnson?

Yes. Okay, let's move on to 7.720. Motion to approve action on risk management claim 2025-01844NI as recommended by corporate council.

Motion.

Support. Motion by Mr. Armstrong, supported by Mr. Wallace. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say yes. Yes. All opposed? Yeses have it, motion carried. Okay, 721, motion to approve. Approve payment to Metro Narcotics Enforcement Team in an amount not to exceed $800,000 funded through the state forfeiture.

Motion. Support.

Motion by Mr. Thomas, supported by Mr. Wallace. Any discussion?

Mr. Chairman, I would just like to point out that this is part of a big bust and it was put into our account, so we're paying their portion of it. And we'll actually receive a portion of their portion.

Any other discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say yes. Yes. All opposed? Yeses have it. Motion carried. 722, motion is approved. Dominic Gagliel, Construction Incorporated, lowest qualified bidder for the 2026 CDBG road construction contract in the mountains. of $330,110 with a 10% contingency of $33,011, an amount not to exceed $363,121 funded through the Community Development Block Grant. No, they want to just keep dragging it on. Motion by Mr. Thomas. No support. Supported by Mr. Wallace. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say yes.

Yes.

All opposed? Yeses have it, motion carried. 723, motion to approve Hennessy Construction Engineering Inspection and Testing of CDBG 2026 Jeanette Court, Deborah Court, and Michelle Court Road Reconstruction Project in Mountain Arctic Seed 39,613, funded through the Community Block Grant.

Motion. Support.

Motion by Mr. Armstrong, support by Mr. Clark. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say yes. Yes. All opposed? Yeses have it, motion carried. We're now moving to open business. Can I have the audience first? Anybody from the audience want to come speak? Come on. I'll take more than three minutes. That's what Ronnie said. Nothing from the audience? Okay, how about from the council? Any open business?

Through the chair.

Taxes are due end of the month, September 30th. So hopefully everybody can get them in soon. Appreciate it. Okay.

Through the chair, just to reiterate from the mayor, we do have a softball game coming up on the 20th. Taylor Police versus Romulus Police Department. Should be a great game. Our roster is fully staffed this time, so I'm looking forward to a good game.

Do we have the concession stand open there?

We don't for those games, but when they have the softball games, I believe we do. I'm not positive, I would have to check.

Do you know, Christian, by any chance?

Not at the moment, no. I can find that information out.

Any other open business?

Just a couple announcements here. Shred Day is on Saturday, September 19th, so this Saturday, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. We do prefer that the last car is in line by 1245 in case we have a line. And also, once the truck is full and it's done it's done it's gone so if you come up and the truck is gone it's because we are full and we were done it's supposed to rain on saturday so dress accordingly i guess if you're going to be getting out of your car even though we want you to stay in your car um we do we do the heavy lifting so um today is national voter registration day so if you want you can go on our website follow the links check your voter registration make sure everything is up to date I say have a plan to vote. Don't wait till the last minute. Be prepared. We do not have ballots yet. I've seen comments on Facebook. Where's my ballot? They are just now being printed. There are lawsuits, things that happen that even though we know who the candidates are, there were things that were happening behind the scenes that held that up. So we don't want to print them and then have to reprint them and pay again. So they will be mailed on September 24th or by September 24th if you have requested one if you have not you can also go on our website or Michigan voter information center and do that also view a sample ballot as well I've been hearing a lot about the mail mail-in ballots that is Something you have to make a personal choice. We are mailing all the ballots. I can't personally deliver them to each and every one. We're going to mail around 10,000 of them, so that would take quite an army to get us to deliver them all. But we recommend, we have four drop boxes throughout the city. We have one at the Senior Center, one at the DPW building, which is at Northline and Beach Daily, Senior Centers at E-Course and Troy, the library off of Pardee by Heritage Park, and then one right here on Pine Street next to City Hall. They are monitored and they are checked frequently, daily. Obviously we don't work every day, but as it gets closer to the election, we do work every day. So then they are checked every day. That's a good way to return them also. You can bring them right into the counter at the clerk's office, see my smiling staff during normal business hours. That's everything. Thank you.

All right. Any other? Through the chair. There's a rumor that Taylor School District is supposed to have the new field ribbon cutting on the 25th. There's a varsity football game, but it's not etched in stone. I've been trying to reach out to the superintendent, and he hasn't gotten back to me. Tomorrow he's got a meeting, and I should find out more about it, about the ribbon cutting. And also the Goodfellows, I'll be dispensing some cans from the Goodfellows starting this week. Just remember, no child left without a Christmas. And canned goods, anything that you have, there's two dispensers at the police department. Toys or canned goods, anything that would be worth value to help these homeless, or not the homeless, but are in need of canned goods and toys. So no child left behind this year, please. Thank you. Mr. Wallace.

Thank you. Through the Chair, this past weekend at the Heritage Park Pavilion, for two nights we had Battle of the Bands. It was a fundraiser for the Community Emergency Response Team, which is a team that goes out if there are storms, any kind of disaster, help with power lines. We supply first aid for some of the events in the city. And I just want to take a moment to thank so much Parks and Recreation, Mayor Woolley, We had a fan. It was a fantastic event. I'm very poorly attended Next year we're going to do it on a different date There were a lot of competing things going on and we'll be a little bit more careful about promotion, too But thank you so much. The facilities are awesome all of the people I don't have a list to thank everybody in this venue in this venue I want to thank the city all the employees who came and helped with everything. It was wonderful Even at our own event, the drummer hurt his finger so we got a band-aid.

Okay, any other open business? Mr. Chairman, just- Oh, you had your turn.

Sorry, I know. Just quickly, to piggyback on Councilman Patz, the Goodfellows comment. Goodfellows 5K, the registration, not reservation, registration is open for the Goodfellows 5K, which is Saturday, December 5th. And even if you don't, I don't know, it's just such a, it's cold out there, but the kids racing, first thing, they race first. And then the adults after, and it's just so much fun to watch and everything. And it's for such a great cause.

And if you're really slow, you can bring your dog and use the dog as an excuse why you're really slow.

Thank you.

Madam clerk stole my announcement. That's good. You did it.

Beautiful. Yes.

Good job. Any other discussion? Any other hope? May I get a motion? Motion. Motion by Mr. Pat, supported by Mr. Thede. All in favor to adjournment? Yes. All opposed? Yeses have it. Motion carried. Thank you. Have a good night, everybody. Be safe.

Thank you.

And he also taught me, he says, I want you when you go in a competition to be gracious when the game is over. He says, I want you to remember when we win, we win. But I want you to be gracious and accept the fact that there is defeat out there and it's only going to make you a better person. my family for always backing me and being there as often as they could be when I was participating in different athletics. And I'd like to thank my wife because we started dating in high school. And as I said, I was quite busy playing sports and she stayed by my side. even during the summers when I was playing. And then when I signed my contract and that, she backed me 100%. And she always told me, you know, Bob, you got to be true to yourself. Go as far as you can. Be the best you can. And when you feel... It's over and you need to do something else, but I'll be there for you. I mean, she even took a part time job while I was playing pro ball to make extra money so we can make our ends meet. And then she eventually became a teacher. And it's with her love and backing that I had a chance to fulfill my dreams.

Bob Gorski, come on up, please. Thank you.

The next inductee is Wayne Hamilton, and you can see some parallels here between Rob Korsky and Wayne Hamilton. Like Bob, Wayne was a star athlete. He went to airport high school, and he was eventually drafted by the Detroit Tigers.

He gave up that to go into public education,

Eventually, he stopped coaching football in the Taylor schools to focus on the Kennedy High School baseball.

He took the program to new heights, dominating the Tri-River League and making its mark across Southeast Michigan. His teams captured three straight league and regional titles, the 88 team led by Hall of Famer

in Florida now. We interviewed him on a Zoom call, so that's going to look a little bit different.

But let's learn more about Wayne Hamilton.

My greatest moments, probably as far as the coaching is concerned, was my second year at Taylor Center, of which I was Coaching the JVs, as a matter of fact, with Jim Claussen. And it was kind of gratifying because on Friday night, of course, you're working with the varsity, but with the JVs. We didn't quite have the numbers. We only had 13 kids when we went to our very first game. Really? And even the whole season, those same 13 kids stuck it out. I mean, they never complained about an injury or anything like that. And you know how you have some kids that you coach and they're just afraid to hit because of football and... But they want to be out there with the boys. Well, even those kids started hitting and it made a difference in the team. Now, we didn't win a game all year, but we did improve quite a bit.

That's amazing because I know you've had so much success in your coaching career, yet the first thing you mention is a team that didn't win. But there's a lot more than winning to this, isn't there?

That is correct. That's correct. And the desire of the kids changes somehow with the way you coach, I think. And I always promise the kids I will never yell at you, never yell at you during a ballgame, 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. 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, grade 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, 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 not what was on the mound.

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. As I said before, there isn't anything in particular that, at the end of the season, it 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 uh my dad my dad tried out for the old st louis browns and uh 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 the freshman at airport.

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 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.

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 and uh we just you know we really really did a a great job with the kids and and the the morale and everything like that was great um nhl wise um you know i mean i've been blessed to work with you know six stanley cup finals the outdoor game in ann arbor um all-star games uh travel to sweden to work games And, 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. 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, 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 that whole day. And then another story, with my parents, they were not sports-minded whatsoever. So I had 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. 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, that meant an awful lot to me, just being able to share that night with them. 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... What I want to say, the way to get involved, to give back, and you're not better than anybody else, 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. Because when they got involved in sports, 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 the greatest thing that i have okay in in everything okay is that i have the kids that i've coached okay 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 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 you know for what they've given back to me so that I could you know just give to them

This man has not turned down party invitations, so please join me in congratulating Michael Hargreaves. Please come up.

Thank you.

Our next inductee is Earl Jones. Let's face it, there's us, and then there's Earl Jones. Blonde's medalist, the A.R. Miller, winner of the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, this Eastern Michigan University Hall of Famer and Taylor Center graduate was a seven-time NCAA All-American in track and cross country. Unfortunately, a car accident cut short of 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. He lives in Tulsa, Ohio. He was never able to get here to stay 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 gonna 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, 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 Olympians. 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-class level. And the people that are going to 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 Earl What 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. And 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 1500 national 16-year-old record. So he became the number one miler, 1500, 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 Ohio 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 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 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 after that?

As far as in my career? Yeah. 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. And then obviously you go back and you start spring training, start all over again the next year. And then keep trying to get progressed, obviously, up through the ranks of the minor leagues.

You guys were really special at Taylor Center. Yes. That was a fantastic couple of years there. 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. He took care of you on the field. He was a teacher at our school, too. So he was always looking at you. If you're out in the hallways when you shouldn't be in the hallways, 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 huge chemistry. It was just a really good team. We had myself. We ended up with Todd Boyke. 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?

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? 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, a 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's been with us.

Okay, our next up in line is Lisa Mackey, otherwise known as Lisa Janula, which you probably knew. This is the first of the two Janula sisters. Lisa, notice how the older sister always ends up first going into something. Lisa was a graduate student. 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. 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 love 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 Lieber, 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. My 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 in the NFL and league official in Taylor 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. A 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?

The greatest memory or highlight of mine, well, I've been involved in baseball, football, and everything, but when I first started off, it was when I was younger and 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 say, 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. I mean, 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 and never complained.

Fantastic. Okay, now from a standpoint of thanking people, who 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 influenced with, you know, very helpful in helping me get through all the programs.

Okay. Congratulations, Joe. Very, very deserving.

Very few people have dedicated themselves to it. Wendy Warren, otherwise known as Wendy January, 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 team 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 Julian.

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. More so, more memories from high school than from college. But college, we went to the NCAA tournament my freshman year. And we had a good run at it, 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.

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 you know t-ball t-ball at st. Pascal's and I went to st. Cyril's to play softball basketball there you know so I've been in Taylor then and then to 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. Yeah. 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?

Well, I'd like to thank, you know, you, the committee, everybody who got this going again, you know. 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, 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. Exactly.

Our next Hall of Famer is Ann Gamper-Rod.

Through the true pioneers 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 starred 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 Ann 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 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 of the picture?

Oh boy. So one of the biggest influence 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, high 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 went into coaching.

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 at Gabriel 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.

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, and 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?

What 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 Baums, the Ray Kovals, the Bob Wilkersons. I had Nick Stan. I could just go on and on to all the different coaches that I had. You know, 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, you know, 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. So 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 Al Phan's movement.

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 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, yes.

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 of 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. And... 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, you know, I've been able to pass it forward for all these years. I'd like to thank my wife, who's her... 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 All the encouragement that they've given me, not even knowing it, but helped me succeed. I've been able to do this for 75, I'm going to run 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 Sika. 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. Let's learn more about James Seacott.

Greatest highlight or memory

from your sports related career being the public address announcer for the junior league world series for over 30 years probably my biggest accomplishment if you want to call 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 teams 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 year, 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, 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 be difficult. That much time. Yeah, no doubt about that.

Anyone else that you'd like to thank?

Probably Hall of Famer Greg Mazura. 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 Charles 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 a coach at Romulus. I mean, Romulus is coaching. He was a 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. 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, you know, because my dad played. And my dad actually... I played in southeastern Kentucky. He was on scholarship. He was a big influence. My mom, you know, my dad was usually working. My mom worked too. My mom and dad, both of my mom was a beautician. She moved me around when 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 what do you, who are your greatest influences when you come up to Taylor?

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 front porch and he said he's crying i go jason what's the matter charlie he's sobbing our our coach quit today well i told her that you 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, 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 i didn't know who the principal was at the time even she says well i have a couple people here who tell me that you're going to be you are you are our next coach so anyways it all went down to it and you know pat livey got in my ear and she kind of locked down to it and he said well i can't find a coach you know i need you to do this you know so 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, That'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 the hard work and dedication. Mike Pearson, who was from day one till the end, you know, 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. Daryl 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. 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're never making it, buddy.

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 student's class he 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 gonna 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 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 always are honoring your dad or your parents and everything. And she really was talking from the heart. And 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 the trampoline or i 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, 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... 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. 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.

Cindy, 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? Does 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.

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

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 Whiting, and that interview says it all. He was a tremendous man. On behalf of the city of Taylor, Mayor Tim Lowe, Parks and Recreation Director Amigo Yuen, 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 with this. It's been a pleasure to host this. We'd like to get all... No, we don't have to do that. We did 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 give it to you. If you want to look up Gerald's work... He does tremendous work on Gerald Thomas 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 that blacks 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.

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, uh 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 gonna turn out sure well the phone kept ringing you know and so I 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 Laura, you know, Dan, 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 what is it? Yeah, whatever it's called. Suburban, you know.

Yeah, 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 just 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. Not everybody's going to love everything, but I think it's great for what they're doing. Some people talked about, because there is a storage part of it, but when people are like, well, Mr. Mnookian used to store his artwork in that facility, so it was meant for that anyway. And this thing is built like a battleship. Yeah. it's unbelievable you know the thickness of the concrete and uh so you know there 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 a hotel and additional parking for that and they were actually pretty you know they're like you know that's a pretty good idea you know 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 uh so i mean that's a possibility in a couple years they said you know um 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.

Well 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. uh okay well let's talk about another uh development and that's that's the development or redevelopment of the eureka uh telegraph area got a raising canes going into the walgreens uh you've got uh a second kroger bigger kroger coming in with a lot of different ramifications including to party and things like that talk at that yeah so that was another great thing you know um

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 They took out the old, what was it, Michael's Christmas Tree Story, or Christmas Tree Store, Christmas Story, and then what was the other one, Bed Bath & Beyond. And they're busting over there right now. I rode by there today, and I'm like, man, they're really cooking. So we worked with them, sat down, and 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.

Yeah. 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 backside of that mall there. I'm thinking Pardee is one close. Is it Pardee?

Yeah, I think I was looking at their graph.

Is it the one that takes you out by Myers? 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.

Either way, it's going to give you an option. 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 Well, it depends how far you go back. I'm thinking Handy Andy to me.

What do you think? It was Forest City to me. 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 Aldi's, 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. 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. That's fantastic. I think they want it to be open by the end of this month.

Which is fantastic for 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, 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... Dave, 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 ready.

The skate, 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. Yeah, so that's all done. I think the pump track is next. Then they're going to go in and level certain areas and stuff. 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... Just going over there, Mr. Evans, Warren Evans from the county executive office and his team came over and we all met over there. He was very impressed, very happy with their partnership. Sure, because they're partners. He had to go, so he didn't even get a chance to go over and see the dog park and stuff. That was my first time seeing it all fenced in and everything. 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 to the council, did you ever think that you'd be seeing that particular park? area of land developed again? I mean, it turned into, it was long gone by that time.

No, I mean, you know, Lang Park, Carl, 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 or something, 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.

There's some big deer back there. I remember I took the tour with several people, but John Madrako was with me the whole time. And John knew everything about Lane Park. And he's going, yeah, and you know, the Dodgham 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, it was really kind of comical. Yeah, we had the Northwest Pool, and then we would ride our bikes up to Midway, you know, for the gold carts. But I had never really been there, you know. 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 2020. 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, 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. So many residents, when they talk about playscapes and kids, they constantly refer to Heritage Park. 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 are there carl when i was on council it was something that i used to talk to you know cdbg about and i said you know i used to talk to rick about it and i said you know because you know i i hate to say but you know my 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 right everyone that has a child or even a an adult child that has disabilities will be able to partake in something at this park sure 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, 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, 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 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'm i even asked 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. 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 that I said, no, we're not going to do it because if people 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 you know and then trust me uh 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 yeah or if i was on my computer and i'd lean up and i'd have papers 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.

at the lakes of taylor and now they're moving over to meadows have you been out there have you seen i have not okay like there's been multiple times that i wanted to go over and see you know the work that's been done but it seems like every time i get a little free time to think about it starts raining you know or something so i've heard it's beautiful you know everybody that i i have been out to meadows but there hasn't been any work being done um they uh that course looks great but i have not been out on lakes you know so um but i hear everybody that i know that's been out since it's been real far all the way has been good it was uh it was tough you know when we did the nine holes you know there wasn't we thought more people would maybe golf the nine you know 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 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, there's issues, you know, so, you know, not many times do you see a company remove their CEO. No, basically the guy that founded the company. Right. So kudos to them for doing that. You know, 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. So 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, rah. I'm not doing that. And you know why I'm not doing that? Because I'm not running for any other position ever again. 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. So these people that 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.

Went to GFL. 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 had 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 other 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. 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...

that sheet this next batch i believe you know we're you know they're we were told because there's still people waiting you know this would catch them yeah yeah we're hoping that yeah it gets caught up and stuff but you know it's it was uh you know there was a lot of there was quite a few issues there right and stuff so um you know we're 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. That's part of, you know, hey, there's people that have done it properly and that are waiting. So, you know, 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. And 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 forever. 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. But we thought it would be great to be able to combine the two as well. We're going to have a lot of people going through Heritage Park and have this there. People from all over, not just Taylor, I think are going to come see this. Dennis Schlimmer, I kind of messed it up, but 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... 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... And 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 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 I think a little trailer or something that will show, you know, those. And I think it's going to be a great thing. And I'm looking forward to it.

I'm glad you mentioned Schlimmer because he's going to be on with us in a couple of days. Oh, okay. and we were going to do a a preview for uh destination down river and yeah in addition to our cable network uh 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 to make a name for himself or anything but uh his story is interesting because he's not 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.

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. I mean, everything was great. I would have liked to 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, you know, which is sad. It really is. I thought that I'm not a big country, you know, but I thought that was a solid lineup. The shows were great. I thought they were, you know, I watched them and stuff, got to meet the guys. They were 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 his 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, so... 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 money. I'm like, there's no way. So it worked out good. I ran into... So my friend is the drummer of Daniel Harrison, $2 Highway, Rich, who was also on Hardcore Pawn, you know, everybody. So he reached out to me. He's a good drummer. Yeah. He drummed back in the day, you know. I was joking because a lot of my friends played drums for some reason. And then 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, you know, and something. Because we were buddies in high school. And 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 that 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 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 on or something, you know, or something like that. So, 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 in Taylor, which is awesome. Amanda and Rob, they're great people, man, and just nice as can be, always willing to play here, you know, as they said. And I think they're... And they're ready to boom. I know they are. And then David lives here still and he's a great kid and everything. You should say man, but I always think of him as a kid. I thought it was a great show too. And it was just a little bit of country, a little bit of hardcore rock and roll. 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.

What I love about them, too, is the whole time when David was playing, Rob and Amanda, or people call her Eva, they're out talking with people in the crowd. People are like, hey, is there any chance? I'm like, she's over here. She's right there. Go meet her. They wanted to meet her, and I'm like, she's out here. in the crowd, you know. She's never changed. Yeah, you know, and they go out and talk with everybody. But I thought it was cool night one, too, which, you know, Chase Rice and all them guys coming out to the, you know, and signing autographs and talking with people. And, you know, Tierra 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.

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. Uh-huh.

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 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.

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 hold on buddy you know you might be hearing from me soon it was even it was even cool 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 all into it and stuff. They're just great people. Like I said, the fact that they go out and hang out and talk to everybody and stuff. I'm sitting on the picnic table when Kyle pulled up from the Family Tradition Band. He's like, what? do you 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 calm i've never had any issues with it you know some of their managers can be a little well hey 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 uh that's peter's job you know and uh so but you know i 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 yeah you know 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 right i can't think of her name yeah but she's like to have chase rice and zach john king and the family tradition band and i think we were charging 40 right she goes to get in this and that's for a seat oh yeah she's like but you're you're 10 feet away from these people oh right She's like you you can't that she goes that's a hundred hundred fifty dollar ticket all day long You know and some places it's 200 and she goes and that's way out and you know And she's like I 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, I

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, you know, it moves pretty quick.

Well, it's always nice because 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. J.T. Corova needs a shout out because 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.

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.

Well, 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, you know, that kind of thing. And I think they will get to it. And we also have through next week, okay, 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 a company come through the back my my backyard and trim the tree and when they did yeah 12 inches yeah 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 um but again i i let them know but What are they going to do? 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 on every hand. They just can't do that. It doesn't work that way.

It has to stop. I mean, 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 switch and have light and press a button and have either air conditioning and heating and stuff. But 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 out there. I did. It was very well put out. You could feel the heat of the anger. 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 can feed them or get them a beer or whatever they need. 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.

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 Chrissy and Jay well, and Chrissy 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. And, you know, one of the issues was is which what we experienced. It was a holiday weekend. Oh, yeah. So they have a lot. I think they had a lot of people on vacation. I do want to give a shout out to those that, you know, I had animal control. Oh yeah, I had Parks and Rec working in our DPW and on the water crews. We had seven water main breaks and stuff. 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 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.

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. Thanks to Mayor Tim Woolley for coming on today and for all the updates he gave us. 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.

It's where you go to bike, hike, and stroll miles of pathways over more than 7,000 acres of parkland. A place to go explore rivers and fish their bountiful waters. Natural places to go marvel at magnificent wildlife while you play outdoors and go wander charming communities. Find all this and more at Destination Downriver. Give it a go.

Today's podcast is presented by marketinsights.us with the podcast on YouTube produced by the city of Taylor's Media Center. Thank you to our team sponsor, Allegra, marketing, print, and design. Let Allegra assist you with your print, mail, design, and signs. Located in Wyandotte, Michigan, or call 734-284-5330.

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 non-stop, 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 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?

So, 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. So I didn't let that stop us and I applied again for the next year. And 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 Down River community. Which makes sense. Yeah, and so it's just been an amazing process.