Elk Rapids News and Features | Elk Rapids, Michigan

CAUGHTCHA BEING GOOD!

Glen Howse, George Siwirski and Charlie Waterson

George Siwirski, Charlie Waterson, and Glen Howse from the Elk Rapids American Legion Post.

It was nothing more than a plain outdoor storage shed. Now, it is a bright, insulated, ventilated, heated, and fully functioning wood shop for some lucky Sunrise Academy students, thanks to Elk Rapids American Legion members, Glen Howse, George Siwirski and Charlie Waterson. The three men saw that Sunrise Academy had a need for a workshop to hold their woodworking classes and they sprang into action. Using donations entirely from the American Legion the men were able to completely transform the shed, even installing a work bench and supplying the proper tools for the classes. Way to go, Glen, George and Charlie, you were caught being very GOOD! We and all at Sunrise Academy are truly appreciative for the time and dedication you put into this project.

Holiday early deadline

Classified ads
Due to the upcoming holidays, the deadline for classified ads for the December 26th issue of the Elk Rapids News will be noon on Thursday, December 19th. The deadline for the January 3rd issue of the Elk Rapids News will be noon on Thursday, December 26th.

Display advertising
Due to the upcoming holidays, the deadline for display advertising for the December 26th issue of the Elk Rapids News will be noon on Thursday, December 19th. The deadline for the January 3rd issue of the Elk Rapids News will be noon on Thursday, December 26th.

Editorial content
Due to the upcoming holidays, the deadline for editorial content for the December 26th issue of the Elk Rapids News will be noon on Thursday, December 19th. The deadline for the January 3rd issue of the Elk Rapids News will be noon on Thursday, December 26th.

VILLAGE OF ELK RAPIDS
Village Council Update

The Elk Rapids Village Council met Monday, December 2 beginning with an announcement that member Gerard Knoph had resigned from the council. During Citizen Comments three speakers, Christine Peterson, Karen Simpson, and Andy LaPointe commented on the lack of holiday decoration and the uncollected leaves. Village Manager Bill Cooper spoke about the decorations, which should be up within a week. DPW Superintendent Marcus Evans discussed the leaf pickup problem. Andy LaPointe agreed to survey the downtown businesses on how better to communicate with the DPW about their concerns.

Most of the items under Unfinished Business are still pending, including the Ethical Conduct Ordinance, the Employee Manual, and the Village Sewer Study. Concerning the Council’s use of iPads, there was a long discussion about council members’ need to provide a medical reason in written form to receive a hard copy of the agenda. A motion was passed that Trisha Perlman was to provide such a copy, as showing it to the manager was not sufficient.

New Business involved the establishment of a Housing Ad Hoc Committee made up of local businesses and government working with private citizens to discuss housing needs. Also discussed was the authorization of the next Business After Hours from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. to be held at the library.

Assistant Manager Caroline Kennedy announced that Elk Rapids had won a Bronze Level in Green from the Michigan Municipal League, Green Community Challenge. Marcus Evans of the DPW reported they are still working on leaf pickup, had decorated the two gazebos, and are waiting on consistent cold temperatures to set up the skating rink. Chief Dave Centala reported phone scammers are still around, and asked citizens to check with the police before sending money. Matt Lafferty, Planning Administrator, is working on short term rentals and will report in January. Royce Ragland spoke up about Michigan having no septic ordinances when e-coli is found in the water shed. The Harbormaster reported the Harbor is almost completely closed.

Upcoming meetings include a Budget Workshop #1 on Monday, December 9 at 6:00 p.m., when the council vacancy will be discussed. The next regular Council Meeting is Monday, December 16 at 7:00 p.m. Budget Workshop #2 is on Tuesday, December 17, at 6:00 p.m. And, the Budget Public Hearing will be on Monday, January 6, 2020 at 6:30 p.m. – Submitted by Dolores Hibbard, Contributing Writer

Elk Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce to provide turkeys to area families

The holidays are always a special time for families and friends in northern Michigan. But some families in our region do not have enough resources to enjoy this season of happiness and giving. According to data from Good Samaritan Family Services in Ellsworth, over 16% of the population in Antrim County lives in poverty. Over 40% of the county’s residents cannot provide the basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter to their family.

One of the challenges that the Good Samaritan Food Pantry faces during the holiday season is providing a turkey for families to have for a holiday meal. Good Samaritan needs 400 turkeys to provide to needy families for this upcoming Christmas holiday.

The Elk Rapids Area Chamber, in partnership with Village Market, has decided to undertake this need as its community holiday project. Village Market has generously offered to provide the 400 turkeys at their cost from their wholesaler. The chamber will now reach out to the community through its membership to raise the needed funds to purchase these turkeys for families in our community.

As an added incentive, the Chamber Board of Directors will match any donation made by any chamber member business or individual. Any business or individual who would like to contribute to this holiday program can do so by sending a check to the Chamber at P.O. Box 854, Elk Rapids MI 49629. Credit card donations will also be accepted by calling the chamber at 231-264-8202.

For additional information on this program please contact Tom Kern at the Chamber at 231-264-8202.

Ladles of Love

Susan Huta, Steve Hatch, Sonny Szejbach, and Tom Brown enjoy some delicious soup. Photo by KLW

There was a whole bunch of love ladled out on Giving Tuesday at the Real Estate One office in Elk Rapids. Many crockpots filled to the brim with soup were on hand to help raise funds for Blue Star Mothers. The organization will use the funds for holiday packages to be sent to northern Michigan troops serving in combat zones. In addition, all monies raised will be matched 100% by the Real Estate One Charitable Foundation.

Neighbors helping neighbors

Beth Kuhn, co-owner of K&K Heating & Cooling in Elk Rapids, recently presented a check for $950 to AMVETS Post 114 Ladies Auxiliary President Pam Lein. The donation was the second of K&K’s “Neighbors Helping Neighbors” campaign in which $5 of each service call is placed in a fund and donated each quarter to a local nonprofit. Lein said the donation will be used toward the Auxiliary’s Christmas Giving Tree and for other programs to support local veterans. To find out more about the program, call K&K at 231-264-8323.

AMVETS Post 114 Ladies Auxiliary President Pam Lein accepts donation from Beth Kuhn. Courtesy photo

A small-town Christmas

An excited crowd waits for Santa’s arrival.

Saturday’s storm left a winter wonderland for Santa in Rapid City. Families began to arrive around 1 p.m. for hot cocoa, hot dogs, games and fun. But most of all they came for Santa and a chance to believe. Santa arrived on a sleigh being pulled by an orange tractor accompanied by the sound of sleigh bells. The Christmas music went silent as all the children turned to watch in quiet excitement. As soon as Santa was settled in his chair beneath the tent snowball fights and snow angels were all abandoned and a huge lined formed to meet him.

Donations were generous this year and as a result Santa was able to keep over 100 kids warm with coats, hats and gloves. More than 120 gifts were given including four bicycles, a snowmobile sled, two scooters and two sleds with stockings. Kids chattered away about what they wanted for Christmas and what they thought other family members should get too. Adults hung around the fire pit sipping hot cocoa sharing stories and laughter.

Once the visit with Santa was done there were sleigh rides to be had. Kids, many of them wearing their new hats and gloves, hopped onto hay bales atop a sleigh and went all around the park, bouncing along giggling and pointing at the piles of snow in the trees and looking for the reindeer Santa must have hidden nearby. As the afternoon wore on more families arrived, music played, and people sang. You could see the happiness on everyone’s faces, and you could feel the warmth of a community coming together.

Next year’s Christmas party is already being planned. There will be marshmallows to roast and ornaments to make. There will be family, there will be Santa and there will be love. Many thanks to everyone who helped make all this possible this year! Text and photos submitted by Jennifer Griffin, Contributing Writer

ELK RAPIDS FIRE DEPARTMENT
Department gets new gear

The Elk Rapids Fire Department is the recipient of 20 sets of Lakeland brand combination rescue/ extrication/wildland firefighting gear. An anonymous donation to the department last summer made the purchase possible.

ER Fire Department wearing their new gear. front row: Lt. Joe Fischer, Deputy Chief Chris White, Chief Ken Williamson, Captain Vince Cooper and Don Marker. back row: Rafael Medina, Peter Vandenberge, Loretta Burfiend, Shawn Fitzgerald, Tony Jones, Phil Vandenberge. Not pictured: Nick Carpenter, Dave Gildersleeve, LT. Kyle Clark, Zack Strine, Robert Shugart. Courtesy photo

Village of Elk Rapids
Planning Commission Update

By Jennifer Griffin, Contributing Writer

The Planning Commission met Tuesday, November 26 at 7 p.m. Everyone was present with the exception of Jim Okonoski and Matt Conrad, who were both excused. Before the agenda was approved, Chairperson Royce Ragland added a summary of the septic conference to the end of the meeting. The new agenda was approved.

Quickly going through the usual bullet points the commission got to the reason why most people were attending the meeting – Short Term Rentals. Matt Lafferty, Planning and Zoning Administrator, gave a small presentation on how the data being used was collected, what that data was, and the information the data provided. The data was acquired from the website Host Compliance and included “all” the local short term rentals that did advertising through websites, magazines etc. (Here Lafferty stressed that the commission was aware that not everything was going to be listed and that fact was being taken into consideration.) The information listed facts such as owners of the property, location, last time the property was rented etc. Another site used was eastbaytwp.org, which has a section for short term rental applications as well as a phone number to call with problems pertaining to a short term rentals, a Good Neighbor brochure that is to be handed out to the renters and other documents needed to be able to operate a short term rental. These sites all contained features that the commission is looking to put into updating the Short Term Rental Ordinance.

At this point of the presentation various people stepped up with comments and questions. Many wanted to limit the time a rental could be used. During the peak tourist season many residents witnessed almost daily turnovers in neighboring houses due to short term renting. This brought up safety concerns (residents never knew who was going to be next door from day to day) as well as just general problems like trash removal (day to day rentals would accumulate more trash as there is only one trash day and that may be many days away between renters). Most of all there needs to be someone that the local residents could call to remedy the various issues that renters bring with them. Someone needs to be accountable to the actions of the renters.

A comparison matrix was printed out for various short term rental ordinances that were looked from various sources (available online at elkrapids.org under the Planning Commission’s agenda for November 26, 2019). After going through item by item an initial draft will be drawn up and gone over again for adjustments. The goal is to have something by February to present at a public hearing, another draft to go over in March, and then have a final public hearing and approval in April.

Some items being considered include: having a yearly registration as well as having to fill out business license tax forms, having a property maintenance code as well as a listing if the rental is ADA approved, having some kind of local agent that can be contacted 24/7 if the home owner is not local in case of emergency/problems with the rental, limiting the amount of houses a person can have as rental units, having a checklist on what the rental unit will provide, limit the amount of time the trash sits out and/or having the local agent pick it up, have a Good Neighbor packet issued to all renters with information on things like parking etc., setting a limit on how many rentals can be in a specified area, determine the difference between a full time resident who rents out occasionally versus someone who is just using the rental as a business, things that are prohibited (such as tents and campers), what to with any violations and how many chances the home owner will have before a major penalty will be invoked. In addition, the Commission should review the Short Term Rental Ordinance yearly to tweak as necessary. Lafferty will pull all the information together from this meeting for a review at the next meeting.

Both Wally Hibbard and Royce Ragland thanked the residents who came out to the meeting, stating that without their comments and input the commission could not be sure that they were meeting the needs of the public. Both encouraged everyone to continue attending meetings and submit any ideas and comments via email.

Ragland gave a brief summary of the septic conference that she attended. It was very informative as she shared various statistics as well as the push to get a statewide septic inspection ordinance. Barb Mullaly stated that the council is working on the budget for 2020. Ragland said that Green ER is working on a 2020 calendar that will be for sale. There was a vote to cancel next month’s meeting as it would fall on Christmas Eve. The next meeting will be Tuesday, January 28, 2020 at 7 p.m.

Around Town
with Rob Ford

I make no bones about my affections for live theater, particularly that live theater performed right here in Elk Rapids by the Elk Rapids Players.

For readers new to this column, the Players were formed ten years ago as a sort of fundraising arm for HERTHA – the Historic Elk Rapids Town Hall Association. At the time, our thinking was to produce plays and see if we couldn’t raise some money to help fix up the wonderful old place.

Both of those things happened and so much more.

Thanks to the hard work of a strong few, the generous financial support of several more and, best of all, the people of our little town we have survived and prospered.

Comparing our debut show, Neil Simon’s comedy The Odd Couple, with the show we just completed, Frank Loesser’s masterpiece musical Guys and Dolls, would be a microcosm of what has happened.
From casting to production, our improvement has been… dramatic. In our early days, even though we advertised open auditions, casting plays often involved begging and cajoling friends of ours to join us. In casting The Odd Couple, I even turned to drafting an employee of ours to take a role. By contrast, the cast of Guys and Dolls included actors from Rapid City, Traverse City and Suttons Bay joining our now more solid local troupe. In fact, our last several shows have drawn actors from a wider and wider pool.

Underwriting our shows has also always been a challenge. Throughout our decade of growth, the financial backing that our community has offered has been astounding. Plays have been financially supported by businesses large and small. Simply, our goal has been for advertising to pay for production costs so that ticket sales are then available to support HERTHA.

Could we be more aggressive with ad sales? I suppose so, but having owned a business in Elk Rapids, I am keenly aware of the fundraising that occurs in a small town.

But casting and underwriting aside, the most gratifying element we have experienced is the general embracing of our product by our community.

Every show that we’ve done always reaches a point during rehearsal, for me. That is, after six weeks of practicing, you begin to ask yourself questions.

Is this show good?

Is this show funny?

Will people pay to see this?

It’s natural and it comes from being up close and in constant contact with everything. The rehearsal process has a way of wearing people down so much that the only thing that can revive them is a live audience. The great audiences that support the Elk Rapids Players probably have no idea how often they’ve provided the missing ingredient, but time and time again, they most certainly have.
So a week after Thanksgiving Day but before Guys and Dolls rolls into infamy, along with the17 other shows we have produced, I want to take a minute to thank everyone that has done anything to help us out over the past ten years. Actors, directors, backstage help, advertisers, Art Rapids!, our audiences; whatever you’ve done … thank you very much.

As always, in order to keep this ball rolling into our next decade and beyond, we open our arms as widely as possible to anyone looking to join us in any capacity. If you have the urge to get on stage, move stuff around backstage, move people around on stage, sew costumes, build sets or just hang around a group of people that do, please let me know.

And again, thanks.

A Backyard Bunch 4-H Club donations

Landon Porteous, Briggs Wheeler.

A Backyard Bunch 4-H Club started off the new 4-H year by volunteering. Following the idea of the Gifting Tree at the Village Market, the kids wanted to thank our local friends for the support the community shows them when marketing their 4-H projects of steers, sheep, swine, chickens, etc. They decided to purchase turkeys and donated them to local families that could use a little boost this time of year. With the help of Rick Young and his crew at the Village Market they met there recently, and each club member purchased the one they picked out.

These same young people shined at their respective fairs, Antrim County Fair and Northwestern Michigan Fair last August. Besides auctioning their projects, they all placed high in the showmanship classes winning either Grand Champion or Reserve Champion. Photos and text submitted by Sandra Pyle, A Backyard Bunch 4-H Club Community Leader.

Elk Rapids District
Library Corner

Preschool Story Hour with Miss Sue and Jacquie. Wednesdays, 10:30 am, when school is in session.

Drop-In Resume Workshop. First Monday of the Month, 3:00 pm. Next session January 6th. Stop in for a one on one resume session with Michigan Works career advisor Mandi Brown.

Fly Tying Series with Eric Crissman. Tuesday December 3rd, 10th, and 17th, 5:30pm. Register for this three-part class on trout flies. Tools and materials are provided. Call the library to register.

Kids Cookies and Crafts. December 7th, 1:00 pm. Kids of all ages are invited to join us to decorate holiday cookies and make holiday crafts. All materials are provided.

Relax Before the Holidays. December 13th 6:00 pm. Join us on the porch for breathing, relaxation, and guided meditation before the holidays. Call the library to register.

2019 Winter Solstice Photography Contest. December 21st. Watch our Facebook page for further details.

Notice
The location of the Elk Rapids District Library Board of Trustees meetings has been changed to the Government Center, 315 Bridge St., Elk Rapids.

The next board meeting will be held at 3:00 pm on December 12th.

Please call the library at
231-264-9979 for more information