City Council agrees to Pop-Up Storytime at Village Park on July 25

To move along with its plans to increase the use of Village Park, the Parks and Recreation Commission is teaming up with the Belleville Area District Library to present a Pop-Up Storytime in the park at 11 a.m., Wednesday, July 25.
At Monday’s regular meeting of the Belleville City Council, Commissioner Juli Balestrieri said the library’s Children’s Librarian Nakenya Lewis-Yarbrough will tell stories and lead songs and Balestrieri will supervise the painting of rocks to hide around town.
“We are telling the families to bring a lunch to enjoy a picnic in the park after the event,” Balestrieri said.
Mayor Kerreen Conley said she will alert the Boys and Girls Club at Edgemont School to the event and they might like to join in.
The park is at 660 Savage Road next to Victoria Commons subdivision.
Balestrieri said the next meeting of the Parks and Recreation Commission is 4 p.m., Monday, July 23, and there is new leadership since Jeff Vernon, the former chairman, has moved out of town.
BACA Fish Project
The council then heard Ken Voigt of the Belleville Area Council for the Arts and Music Lakeside ask for permission to display the 91 painted wooden fish that have been collected by the BACA Fish Project to put up, one or two at a time, on rerods stuck into the ground behind the “Hands Held High” sculpture at Horizon Park.
He said the fish will be able to withstand the weather and they plan to leave them up until October.
Mayor Pro Tem Jack Loria voiced concerns about the artistic fish because of the vandalism at the nearby kayak launch.
“If they get vandalized, they get vandalized,” Voigt said.
When the location of the underground sprinkling system was mentioned, noting it could be damaged by the rerods, Building Official Rick Rutherford said that system hasn’t worked in a long time.
Voigt showed samples of the fishes and reported a stained-glass fish donated by Diane Eissinger was so nice they sold it at auction at the recent soiree and it brought $100 to put into the project.
Voigt said the fish were cut out of wood by Neil Griffin, who with his wife Thelma chairs the project, and people volunteered to decorate the fish.
The council unanimously approved placement of the fish in the park.
In other business at the 17-minute meeting on Monday, the council:
• Heard Rutherford report that he has been unable to consult with McDowell and Associates engineers on the changes seawall repair contractor E.C. Korneffel Co. wants to make in the contract because McDowell is on vacation. He said he couldn’t set up a meeting with Korneffel because he has not been able to get McDowell’s recommendation on the changes;
• Approved accounts payable of $185,660.46 and the following departmental purchases in excess of $500: to Blue Ribbon Contractors, $3,930 for the Fifth Street water main break and $3,045 for the E. Huron River Drive water main break; to Wayne County Fire Mutual Aid, $2,439.01 for annual dues; to Wise Technologies, $806.23 for computers / phones (includes discounted purchases to replace a printer and monitor); to Farmer & Underwood, $739.20 for fill for water main breaks; and to Robert Zokoe, $675 for grave buy-back;
• Learned the payment to the towing company questioned at the last meeting was “a wash,” and the company had agreed to accept payment of whatever the city gets for vehicles in the auction. Mayor Conley asked if the city has a list of cars in storage at towing companies, such as where the court cases are, etc., and City Manager Diana Kollmeyer said Chief Hal Berriman has been directed to work on a list. Berriman was not present at the meeting;
• Heard Councilman Tom Fielder report the Substance Abuse Disorder group to which he belongs met earlier Monday. He urged council members to read Sunday’s Detroit Free Press article comparing the Michigan recreational marijuana proposal with the Colorado law. He said the Michigan proposal is more open than the Colorado law;
• Heard Councilman Jesse Marcotte report he is happy to see the green building on East Huron River Drive is in better shape now; and
• Heard Mayor Conley say that Jeff Vernon had been a part of the community and he will be missed. She also reported that the Conference of Western Wayne, to which the city belongs, had made possible the texting to 911 now available and it didn’t exist five years ago. She said it was a collaborative project. She made the statement in reference to the seven-year-old girl who was hit and killed on I-94 over the weekend after she texted 911 when her father, allegedly drunk driving, crashed the car. She thought her father was dead and after texting went for help and was hit on the freeway.