Elk Rapids News and Features | Elk Rapids, Michigan

Caughtcha being Good!
Anonymous

The Knit and Purl Girls Ellen Dunbar, Jeanne Boyd, Francis Procida, Margaret Deveneau, Susan Leassner, Corky Crimmins enjoy a special night at American House Wood Fired Pizza. Courtesy photo

The Knit and Purl Girls group recently changed their meeting date so that they would have more choices of open restaurants in Elk Rapids to visit after getting together to knit. Their first choice on the new date was American House Wood Fired Pizza. The group celebrated being together and were having the nicest time. They even told their waiter, Kevin, how they had changed their knitting night so that they could come to the restaurant. Later as they were getting ready to leave, Kevin came back to their table with unexpected news. Someone has paid their entire bill. Wow! “We asked if there was someone to whom we could say thank you, but supposedly they had already left the restaurant,” said Corky Crimmins, one of the delighted knitters. “What a special night. We don’t know who paid for our bill… so we couldn’t catch them. But what a lovely evening of celebrating many good things in Elk Rapids.”

Tree Lighting in Elk Rapids

The community is invited to the Christmas Tree Lighting on Saturday, November 27, 5 p.m. in front of Bayfront Beach and Bike, 130 River Street, downtown Elk Rapids.

Mill Creek Jog-a-thon fundraiser

Top 10 donation earners revealing the total amount raised at this year’s Jog-a-thon fundraiser. Courtesy photo

The Mill Creek PTO would like to congratulate all the students on a successful fall Jog-a-thon fundraiser. Each student who collected $20 or more in donations earned a chance to tape Principal Graham to the wall. We had over 140 students stick Mr. Graham to the side of the school. Mrs. Okma’s kindergarten class was the highest earning class this year and collectively the school broke all previous records by raising $10,002.36 this year! Congratulations and thank you, Mill Creek students!

Delta Kappa Gamma gives grant to Kalkaska educator

Delta Kappa Gamma is an international women’s educational society. Every year they offer grants to local educators, with monies they raise each year. With the help of Community Cash, Phi Chapter granted $300 to fifth grade teacher Ali Bridson of Cherry Street Elementary School in Kalkaska. Bridson intends to use the money to purchase books for the classroom at different reading levels for her students to read. We, of Phi Chapter, wish to thank the Village Market for their generosity and help.

Grass River Natural Area grant

The National Association for Interpretation Region 4 recently announced its Interpretive Project Grant Award winners and is pleased to report Grass River Natural Area is among the 2021 recipients.

The Interpretive Project Grants (IPG) program is designed to provide a source of funding for small projects by association members within the Great Lakes region including Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Ontario. Projects may include exhibitry, signage, programs, or other ideas that enhance visitors’ interpretive experience. Applications are submitted annually and reviewed by the IPG Committee consisting of members of NAI Region 4 who guide the grant process and make recommendations to the Region 4 Board of Directors.

Grass River Natural Area’s project – Reaching All Visitors with Interpretation: Interpretive Trail Guides – will add self-guided interpretive programs in the form of printed publications for visitors tailored to their natural interests. According to grant applicant James Dake of Grass River Natural Area, “[d]ue to the incredible success of this program in 2020, we want to continue this form of interpretation into 2021 and beyond... The self-guided interpretive programs will become an integral part of our education program during this time and help us to reach our mission of increasing knowledge, appreciation and community-wide stewardship of the natural environment.”

IPG funds will add financial support for the project, including funding for the printing of at least five different self-guided interpretive programs.

“It is always interesting and enlightening for the Committee to see all of the wonderful projects underway in Region 4 – we have very passionate and creative members in our region,” said Victoria Zablocki, Acting Chair of the Interpretive Project Grants Committee. “Congratulations to Grass River Natural Area for being creative in their efforts to reach every kind of visitor using their site.”

TIP REPORTING-LARGE FOOD AND BEVERAGE ESTABLISHMENTS

Tips received by employees in the food and beverage industry are considered taxable income to the employee. Employees are required to regularly report tip income received on the job to their employer for purposes of documenting that employee’s income and for purposes of withholding taxes. Tips reported to an employer will be included on that employee’s Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement, Box 1, Wages. IRS defines a large food and beverage establishment as meeting all of the following criteria:

1.   A business that provides food or beverages for consumption on the premises other than fast-food operations.
2.   The tipping of employees is customary for that business.
3.   More than ten employees worked on a typical business day during the preceding calendar year.

Tipping is not considered customary in a cafeteria style operation or if at least 95% of total sales had a service charge of 10% or more. Service charges are considered revenue to the business and will only be taxable to an employee if paid out as wages by the business.

When an employee receives tips, whether cash or non-cash, and those tips do not get reported to their employer, IRS still expects those tips to be included as income on that employee’s Form 1040, U.S. Individual Income Tax Return. It is the responsibility of each employee to include these unreported tips in their taxable income. Understandably, the reliance on this self-regulating approach to reporting unreported tip income lends itself to less than the full reporting of tips received.

In an attempt by IRS to capture tip income that may never get reported otherwise, large food and beverage establishments are required annually to complete Form 8027, Employer’s Annual Information Return of Tip Income and Allocated Tips, to determine if they have any unreported tips. The report will contain information about the establishment’s sales and reported tips received by employees during the tax year. If the tips received by customarily tipped employees reported to that establishment are less than 8% of that establishment’s gross sales, the shortfall is deemed to be unreported tips. Large food and beverage establishments are required to allocate deemed unreported tips among tipped employees for their share of the shortfall. For example, XYZ is a large food and beverage establishment with gross sales from food and beverages of $10,000,000 for the 2020 calendar year. Eight percent of food and beverage sales equals $800,000. Directly tipped employees reported total tips of $570,000 and the difference of $230,000 is unreported tip income. Therefore, $230,000 will need to be allocated to tipped employees, and reported on Form W-2, Box 8, Allocated Tips for each respective employee’s share of the deficiency.

The large food and beverage establishment employer or a combined majority of employees may request a rate lower than 8% be used in the calculation, not to fall below 2%, by submitting a petition to IRS. The petition must provide sufficient information necessary to warrant a lower rate for use in the allocated tip calculation.

The employee should be taxed on all allocated tips unless the employee has adequate records to show that less than the allocated amount was received. Social Security and Medicare taxes will also be due by the employee on allocated tips and is calculated on Form 4137, Social Security and Medicare Tax on Unreported Income. For more information go to WWW.IRS.GOV and search Form 8027, Form 4137, and Publication 531. – Submitted by Char Kirchner, CPA, MSA and Rex Rudolph, CPA

Elk Rapids District
Library Corner

Due to a significant increase in Covid cases, the Library will offer curbside pickup as an option. Give us a call at 231-264-9979 and we will deliver your materials to your car. If you choose to come inside, please wear a mask. We are doing all we can to get through this latest surge safely.

Thanksgiving hours. The Library will close at 4:00 pm on Wednesday, November 24 and reopen at 10:00 am on Monday, November 29.

Take & Make Crafts. The December Take & Make craft bags will be available in the lobby on Wednesday, December 1.

Island House Readers. The book club will meet on Wednesday, December 1 at 12 noon to discuss “A Thousand Moons” by Sebastian Barry. This meeting will be held via Zoom due to high numbers of Covid cases in our area.

TALK – Text And Learn for Kindergarten. Have you signed up yet? This is a text messaging service for all families in Michigan with children 5 and under that helps with literacy and school readiness. Text TALK to 75547. It’s easy, and FREE!

ELK RAPIDS DISTRICT LIBRARY
Review draft director evaluation, employee handbook

By Steve Yencich, Contributing Writer

Ten minutes after the conclusion of the 13 Ways meeting, Chairman Tom Stephenson convened the November Board meeting. Trustees first viewed “Evaluating the Director,” a video produced for library boards. During the board’s review of the budget, concerns were raised regarding a negative balance on the November financials. However, those concerns were allayed when trustees pointed out that the negative balance was for November only and not a measure of year-to-date performance. Chairman Stephenson also reported that a total of five requests for refunds from the Capital Campaign had been received since the board’s October Meeting, with approximately $12K in requests during October and over $16K thus far in November.

Under correspondence, Stephenson said he’d met with architects to provide a status report and discuss plans. He reported that the architects requested to meet with the Building Committee and possibly meet with the board. Trustees next turned to further refinement of the draft Director Evaluation form sent to members last month. Speaking as Chairwoman of the Personnel Committee, Julia Pollister Amos asked the board to review the draft further and forward any changes before or at the December Board meeting. The board also approved new hours of operation, with the library now closing at 7 p.m. on Mondays-Thursday, with Friday-Sunday closings remaining at 5 p.m.

The board turned to a draft of the Employee Handbook, a 42-page draft document that legal counsel had already reviewed. Pollister-Amos asked the board to review the document and report any proposed changes before the next board meeting. There was, however, disagreement between Library Director Miller and Pollister-Amos over a provision dealing with maternity leave. However, because legal counsel had strongly recommended the language remain as drafted, it stayed in the draft, at least until further counsel review. Barring any other changes, the Employee Handbook draft will be presented for approval in December.

Also discussed was the Becky Travis Memorial Fund, which currently contains $19K. It was announced that library staff will work with members of the Travis family to develop plans to build a covered pavilion somewhere on the island. The pavilion will have electricity and be within the library’s wireless service, providing a benefit to the community and program space for the library. Miller reported that a staff in-service was planned for November 19, including two new staff members. Miller provided updates on Halloween events, as well as plans for Thanksgiving. Painters discovered that the men’s urinal is still experiencing leaky pipe syndrome. In the Friends of the Library report, new Chairwoman Camille Campbell reported strong results from their recent GGG Fundraiser, which grossed almost $25K, well over the budgeted $10K in revenues. Following the Friends report, Chairman Stephenson adjourned the meeting at 6:02 p.m.

ELK RAPIDS DISTRICT LIBRARY
13 Ways planners make pitch to trustees

By Steve Yencich, Contributing Writer

Elk Rapids Board Chairman Tom Stephenson called the special meeting of the Library Board to order on November 11. He welcomed all to a meeting he said would last one hour. 13 Ways Author Doug Griffiths and Heather Thomson were there to present their initial findings and recommendations related to the library and the 13 Ways community-wide strategic plan.

Griffiths said his firm had been hired by the Chamber to help the community find its path forward and to complete an assessment of the community, its strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities. He said he and Thomson had met with hundreds of people and groups to do stakeholder engagement, something Griffiths said was essential to the process. However, the two focused mainly on observations and recommendations to library trustees for better board operations in the future. Griffiths said many of the problems they would cite were not unique to the Library Board but were characteristic to all of the organizations in the municipality. He said there were challenges around communication, trust, and governance and alluded to political polarization so strong at the national level that it’s infected small communities in both the US and Canada.

Some of the recommendations Griffiths and Thomson made included a complete make-over of the board with all new members. Other suggestions included adding or subtracting members so that there is even representation amongst each municipality. Thomson suggested the board seek younger board members and focus more on delivering library services in the most cost-effective manner possible. In terms of governance, Griffiths commended the board for recent improvements but said that trustees should establish more explicit guidelines to avoid conflicts of interest. Again, while referencing the board’s recent progress, Thomson also mentioned the need to maintain a focus on professionalism. She urged the board to consider actual governance training. Finally, Griffiths said improving communications remained a priority, “Good communications need to be thorough and complete, but also simple, straightforward and timely.”

Griffiths also referenced the need to do a needs assessment and a robust feasibility study to determine the best location for a larger library. After such studies are completed, Griffiths said the board might ultimately decide to stay in its current location but said it “was important to stop the notion that the Island House is the best location until objective studies are completed. Don’t start with any preconceived notions, be authentic about it.” Thomson said she and Griffiths would forward all recommendations to the board in printed form along with the data that supported why each recommendation was made. The board was asked to consider the suggestions, and the meeting concluded in less than 60 minutes, just as promised.

Switchback to perform Christmas Concert in Elk Rapids

Brian FitzGerald and Martin McCormack of the duo Switchback return to Elk Rapids for a memorable evening of holiday music at the beautifully restored Historic Elk Rapids Town Hall on Saturday, December 11. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., with music starting at 7:30 p.m. Switchback has been playing its brand of eclectic Celtic and Americana music at sold-out concert halls, performing arts centers, and festivals around the world for almost 30 years. Their unique blend of Celtic and American music and original songs from their catalog of over 400 tunes has been described as, “breathtaking scenery for your ears.” In 2008, the Irish Music Association presented Switchback with the award for “Top Duo in a Pub, Festival, or Concert” for the USA, Ireland, and the UK. Attendees have the option to wear face masks, provided free at the door. Wrapped snacks will be offered, with a full bar available for alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. Proceeds of the concert will benefit the Historic Elk Rapids Town Hall Association’s Window Replacement Campaign. Handicap parking and access are available on the east side of the building. Tickets are available at Corner Drugs in Elk Rapids, Oryana’s 10th St. location, and at brownpapertickets.com. There is limited seating for this special one-night show.

Terri's Take Aways
with Terri Glenn, FNP-BC

“November is lung cancer awareness month”

Lung cancer kills more people each year than any other cancer. It is estimated that 1 in 16 will be diagnosed with lung cancer in their lifetime and I think it is fair to say most of us have a relative who has been diagnosed and or died from lung cancer. Not all were previous smokers, although that still remains the number one risk factor. Lung cancer is more prevalent in older populations. Most importantly, many do not know there is a yearly screening test for lung cancer that you may qualify for if you are in this high-risk population. A low dose CT scan can detect lung cancer earlier than a chest X-ray and, if you fit the criteria, is available as part of your yearly preventative care. Since early detection is key to survival we need to make “awareness” and “access” of this test known!

The “Greatest Generation” and those before were smokers! It was rare to know someone my parents’ age that didn’t smoke. It is hard to describe what it was like when the majority of the population smoked. I remember patients smoking in rooms and nurses at nurse’s stations. When the data became clear that smoking and second-hand smoke put you at risk for lung cancer, emphysema, heart disease and COPD a war was declared on smoking. With second-hand smoke you could no longer say you were only risking your own health and with the cost to the healthcare industry something had to be done. As a health education major my classes focused on “smoking cessation programs.” My mother was my class project and we tried every approach to get her to “kick the habit.” She did eventually quit “cold turkey” and was a non-smoker for many years. Sadly, she was our family’s loss to lung cancer. I know the pain and devastation of losing someone so precious to this cancer. That is why it is so important to me to get the word out that early diagnosis and treatment have made a significant difference in beating lung cancer. Although the number of people who smoke today is much less, we still have far too many deaths from lung cancer. Therefore, a reminder of the risks of smoke exposure, radon, and carcinogenic materials is still imperative!

Take-aways: We all have challenges when it comes to staying healthy. We try to make good choices and yet we often eat too much, get too much sun, or develop habits that we know are unhealthy. Shaming or vilifying has never been the right way to motivate and yet it continues. Never give up on trying to improve your health and reach out for help. If you have a history of exposure to smoke be sure you are getting the early detection screening you qualify for and don’t be ashamed to ask for it. Seek care early if you experience worsening or persistent cough, shortness of breath, weight loss without explanation, fatigue, wheezing, or coughing up blood.

Yearly lung cancer screening is recommended for those who are between the ages of 50-80 and are current smokers or have quit less than 15 years ago and have a 20 pack / year smoking history. Be sure to ask your provider if you qualify! If so, Medicare and most insurances cover at 100%. Wishing you and yours a very blessed Thanksgiving! Terri Glenn, FNP-BC is a Nurse Practitioner at the Elk Rapids Medical Clinic with Dr. Ann Kuenker, DO.

Caughtcha being Good!Anonymous