The Dearborn Community Arts Council today released the names of the 2011 honorees for the 24th Mayor’s Arts Awards.   These esteemed individuals and organizations have been selected for their outstanding achievements in the Dearborn community.

Honorees for the 2011 Mayor’s Arts Awards are:

• Frank Padzieski, The Mayor’s Award

• Isabelle Renaud, Artist/Performer Award

• Kurt Doelle, Arts Educator Award

• Leslie Greeneisen, DCAC Bravo Award

• Cynthia Frabutt, Volunteer Award

• UM-Dearborn, Patron Award

• Artists Society of Dearborn, Organization Award

The Awards ceremony will take place Wednesday, February 8th in the Michael Guido Theatre at the Ford Community and Performing Arts Center.   The ceremony will begin at 7:30 pm and is free to the public.     A reception immediately following  the ceremony will be in Studio A, next to the theatre and will also be open to the public.

The  Mayor’s Arts Awards were created by Dearborn Community Arts Council (DCAC) and  late Mayor Michael Guido to honor those members of our community who create, perform, educate and the support the fine and performing arts in the greater Dearborn area.

 The Master of Ceremonies for this year’s  event will be Dearborn’s multi-talented  Brian Townsend.   Among the groups slated to perform during the evening are the Prysm School of the Arts, the Dearborn High Thespians and a film montage of the DHS Film and Video program.

No reservations are required.   Any inquires can be directed to the DCAC office; 313-943-3095.

Dearborn City Hall was built in 1922.

For 90 years, the corner of Michigan and Schaefer has been the home of Dearborn City Hall.

Now, it appears that could change.

The Dearborn Press & Guide on Sunday reported that a proposal to combine administrative offices for the city and Dearborn Public Schools is getting serious consideration.

Call us nostalgic, but Dearborn’s City Hall building needs to remain the hub of Dearborn. The building may need repair but it is simply too important of a symbol to this city to simply leave it to others (like an art community) or, worse yet, raze.

Dearborn City Hall was built in 1922. According to Press & Guide editor J. Patrick Pepper, the parking garage behind City Hall is “falling apart and could require a complete rebuild within the next couple years. An addition put on in 1981 that connects the main City Hall building on Schaefer Road to the western annex also is in need of a new roof liner.”

Dearborn Public Schools administration is currently is housed in the 1950-vintage Ten Eyck facility on Audette. The Press & Guide reports that the former school building has “several structural issues that need to be remedied. For one, the roof leaks in some places and needs to be replaced. Even more pressing is a settling foundation on the backside of the building that has started to cause significant cracking in the cinder block walls.”

“Those are very major expenses that will need to be address so if there are opportunities to save money we’re definitely interested in exploring our options,” DPS Spokesman David Mustonen told the Press & Guide.

So where would Dearborn City Hall and the Dearborn School District relocate?

Top on the list is the old ADP Detroit sales headquarters on Michigan Avenue. Dearborn Mayor John B. O’Reilly, Jr., told the Press & Guide that the property is about to revert to bank ownership and that within the next few weeks it should be on the market at a bargain-basement price.

The building is located across the street from Ford Motor Co. world headquarters and sitting adjacent to a nearly half-mile-long campus of other municipal properties, the move would consolidate all of the city’s biggest entities into one central location, the Press & Guide says.

The idea of combining administrative offices has been on the table for several years and was one of the considerations in 2003 when the city spent $2.3 million to purchase the 5.9-acre parcel between the ADP building and Henry Ford Centennial Library, the paper says. Part of the purchase agreement with Ford Land Development Co. was that the property, which is a grassy field, had to be turned into an office space within 15 years.

The Press & Guide says Dearborn could have a potential buyer for City Hall in the developer ArtSpace, which is looking to establish a live/work facility for artists in Dearborn. The mayor recently gave the Minneapolis-based nonprofit a tour of City Hall. With its big windows and tall ceilings, the Georgian-Revival style building fits a lot of criteria ArtSpace looks for in a redevelopment project.

“The timing of this is extremely good when you look at all the factors from the efficiencies too possible savings,” O’Reilly told the Press & Guide. “But we’ll do a thorough evaluation of it and if it works we’ll pursue it and if it doesn’t we won’t.”

In response to the popularity of its “tech time” workshops in December and January, Henry Ford Centennial Library now plans to offer the sessions in February.

This time around, patrons are asked to register for the free sessions, which teach people how to use their new electronic devices and to take advantage of the library’s Digital Catalog.

Kindle users should register for the session 6-8 p.m. Tuesday, February 7.

Nook, Sony, and Kobo users should register for the 6-8 p.m. Thursday, February 16 session.

Two more sessions for users of any devices will be 2-4 p.m. Thursday, February 23 and 6-8 p.m. Tuesday, February 28.

Patrons who need help borrowing an e-book from the library’s Digital Catalog, uploading apps, downloading photos or just learning to use their new tech device would find a benefit to the sessions.

Participants are asked to bring their charged devices and all connecting cables with them to the First Floor Training Room on the date of their session. Please call the Adult Reference desk at 313-943-2330 during regular library hours to register and for more information.

Oakwood Common resident Marguerite Doman, age 96, is one of the interviewees featured in the newly published book Best Dearborn Stories: Voices from Henry Ford’s Hometown. We’ve been running excerpts from the book, which is a great collection of stories.

In recognition of Doman’s contribution to the book, Oakwood Common will host a book signing event, open to the public, at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012.

Doman will be available to greet guests and sign copies of the newly published book, which will also be available for sale.

Proceeds from the sale of the book, priced at $20 each, benefit the Dearborn Historical Museum.

In addition to her featured story, Doman is recognized as a natural writer in rhyme and meter. A former elementary school teacher in Taylor, where her husband held public office, Doman had never composed a poem before joining the writers group at Oakwood Common where she has lived for nine years.

Since then, her work has been published regularly in the residents’ newsletter and in several larger writing collections including Oakwood’s annual literary journal, Poetic Resonance Imaging. She is also a regular member of the Common Expressions writers group.

The book signing event will be held in the Rotunda Room of the Oakwood Common Retirement Community which is located at 16351 Rotunda Drive in Dearborn.

For more information, email donna.brandt@oakwood.org or call 800-642-4663.

Dearborn's Bistro 222

Dearborn residents know from living here that we have many great restaurants to choose from and visit. But it is always doubly nice to read stories about our eateries by people who actually do restaurant reviews for a living.

Enter Molly Abraham, a veteran restaurant reviewer who has published several books about her favorites places to eat. In her new list of the Top 12 restaurants to visit in 2012, she lists our own Bistro 222 at 22266 Michigan Ave.

Bistro 222 owner and veteran chef Michael Chamas (LA Express, La Dolce Vita), who trained with Wolfgang Puck and Keith Famie, has won several awards for his fine food since opening in 2009. He now can add another.

Here is what Molly had to write about Bistro 222 to people who want to try a fresh new restaurant and expand their taste buds in 2012.

“The L-shaped room is something of an oasis, entered from the rear through a courtyard-style passageway. Although wine and beer are served, there is no bar, leaving the space for linen-covered tables surrounded by a collection of art. Single page menus offer a list of dishes that include pastas, some house-made, a few vegetarian selections, and a nice mix of seafood and meat choices all freshly garnished with vegetables and herbs. The quiet skill of chef/proprietor Michael Chamas keeps this 60-seat spot a haven for those who appreciate handcrafted fare.”

Congrats, Michael. It’s a nice way to start the year.

How bad is Chuck E. Cheese these days? Well, consider that in the last month, one local TV station has reported on three assaults at area metro Detroit restaurants.

The most recent was here in Dearborn on Sunday evening at the store located in a strip mall on Michigan Avenue, just west of Telegraph

According to local broadcast and print media, a Dearborn Heights grandmother who was celebrating her grandson’s seventh birthday was allegedly assaulted by a man following her request to him that he watch his profanity.

The man in the other group responded with more profanities and then allegedly attacked her, hitting her in the face and dragging her by her hair, according to the victim’s family.

“There was an altercation,” Lt. Patty Penman of the Dearborn Police Department told The Detroit News. “And we’re trying to see if usable video exists and submitting the matter to our local prosecutor for review.”

It is another story taking off across the Internet, putting Dearborn again in the spotlight. We heard of the news from one of our readers who sent us this link HERE.

Headpace Gallery inside Dearborn’s Green Brain Comics is proud to announce its next exhibit, HOT/COLD, featuring some of Michigan’s best women artists.

The idea behind the HOT/COLD exhibit theme was to offer each hand picked artist the choice to create something hot and sassy, cool and wintry, or incorporate both themes. The results are amazing and Headspace Gallery is honored to showcase the wide range of styles resulting from this unique theme.

“As always, we like to promote our local home grown talent,” says Katie Merritt, co-owner and curator of the exhibit.

Most of the artists hail from the metro Detroit area, with one addition from Kalamazoo, and one former Detroiter currently residing in New York.

The artists vary as wildly as the styles including a published graphic novelist, Jane Irwin, two Center for Creative Studies students, Natalie James and Hanna Lee Stockdale, a musician/local business owner, Windy Weber, and even a 10-year-old aspiring artist, Audra Evans. The exhibit is featuring 14 of Michigan’s finest female artists in all.

HOT/COLD officially opens Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012 with an opening reception/meet and greet with the artists at Headspace Gallery. The fun starts at 7 p.m. and runs until 10 p.m. with a live DJ, Terri “WhoDat?” McQueen.

Headspace Gallery is located inside Green Brain Comics, 13210 Michigan Ave.  in East Downtown Dearborn. For more information check the website HERE or call 313-582-9444.

The exhibit will be on display until March 31, 2012.

The Dearborn Community Fund will host a rocking evening on Saturday, Feb. 11, featuring the music of ABBA performed by the Swedish group Arrival.

The Dearborn Community Fund (DCF) will host a rocking evening on Saturday, Feb. 11, featuring the music of ABBA performed by the Swedish group Arrival in a dynamic concert at the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center followed by the Ultimate Dance Party.

The event will benefit the DCF and other participating non-profit organizations that serve the Dearborn area.

Arrival’s performance in the Michael A. Guido Theater begins at 8 p.m. and includes some of the most upbeat, feel good sounds of the ’70s including classic ABBA hits featured in both the musical and movie “Mama Mia.” You know them all – “Dancing Queen,” “Take a Chance on Me,” “Knowing Me, Knowing You” and more! Arrival is the only group sanctioned by ABBA to perform their classic hits.

Immediately following the performance, the season’s Ultimate Dance Party, open to those 21 and over, kicks off at 10 p.m. at the center in the dome room. Under a spectacular light display, party goers will groove to more ABBA music and other tunes mixed by two of Detroit’s favorite DJs – Ray G of Detroit and MMK of South Beach. Included in the evening will be other entertainment, hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar featuring specialty ABBA drinks.

Combination concert/Ultimate Dance Party tickets offer special benefits. VIP tickets are $100 and include premium front section concert seating, an opportunity to meet the performers, Ultimate Dance Party admission, and two drink tickets. A $60 combination concert and Ultimate Dance Party ticket includes main floor concert seating.

Tickets to only the Ultimate Dance Party are $25. Individual Arrival concert ticket prices vary. The Center, located at 15801 Michigan at Greenfield, is fully accessible and offers free parking.

The Arrival ABBA Concert and Ultimate Dance Party fundraiser is coordinated by the non-profit Dearborn Community Fund (DCF). The organization provides resources to support arts, cultural and recreational projects that impact the citizens of Dearborn. It is funded entirely through generous contributions from individuals, businesses, sponsors and fundraising activities.

For tickets or more information, call the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center box office at 313-943-2354.

Judge Mark Somers

The Dearborn Press & Guide is reporting that 19th District Court Judge Mark Somers has pulled petitions to run for Wayne County’s Third Circuit Court.

Somers, who has served as one of Dearborn’s three district court judges since 2002, told the paper that he reached the decision over the holidays after speaking with his family.

“With three judges retiring, I don’t know that there will be another opportunity like this in my life,” the paper quotes Somers.

Somers must collect 4,200 signatures by May 1 to appear on the November ballot. He said he plans to start collecting signatures immediately.

The city of Dearborn was awarded a $7.5 million low-interest loan from the State of Michigan to continue the massive federally-mandated combined sewer overflow work that has been going on in our city for more than a decade.

This particular loan will go toward the sewer-separation project south of Wilson Street, east of Telegraph Road and north of the Rouge River, City Engineer Yunus Patel tells DeepsaidWhat. Construction is set to get underway in February. If all goes well, construction of this phase of the CSO product would wrap up in October.

Costs for this part of the project are expected to total about $12 million. These costs and interest on the loan, a 2.5 percent rate, will be paid down through the special CSO millage instituted in 2004. Any other project costs will be paid “using various funding sources”, the Dearborn Press & Guide quotes Dearborn finance officials as saying.

The CSO project is aimed at putting an end to the discharge of untreated sewage into the Rouge River. The cleanup is mandated by the federal Clean Water Act.

Those of you who have been following this project will recall that our elected Dearborn officials first chose to address the problem by approving spending on constructing multi-million gallon containment shafts able to store any excess drain water. But the implementation and construction has been a quagmire of engineering problems, followed by lawsuits.

So in 2010, Dearborn officials decided to abandon the containment shaft and go to sewer separation, which was one of the original ideas proposed nearly a decade ago but rejected for reasons we simply can’t recall. While a little more intrusive to vehicle traffic, separation is less expensive and results in new paved surfaces once the work is completed.

The Press and Guide says that according to the DEQ, from January through November 2011, Dearborn’s CSO Outfall 004, which services the area that will see work beginning in February, there were 27 reported overflow events, which released 45.7 million gallons of untreated combined sewage into the Rouge River. Prior to Dearborn beginning their CSO control program, the total average annual volume of overflows per year was approximately 929 million gallons.