Tickets are now on sale for Dearborn’s “Smoke on the Grill” charity fundraiser, which will be held from 4-7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 1 at Ford Field Park.

The event, which includes dinner, drinks and entertainment, benefits Dearborn public school students through the Parent Teacher Student Associations (PTSAs) and the Dearborn Goodfellows.

Dearborn Mayor John B. O’Reilly Jr. will serve as honorary chairman for the event, which helps raise money for new technology, uniforms and other items students need but aren’t covered in the school’s budget.

Money also goes to the Goodfellows to help them pay for all the great things they do in the community all year round, including buying holiday gifts for those in need. Tickets this year are $30.

Please call Gary Kuhlmann at Park Place Catering at 313-274-4499 to reserve tickets.

The 6th annual Arab American National Museum Concert Gala, at 8 p.m. Saturday, October 17 will feature a stunning live performance by the world renowned MESTO – Multi Ethnic Star Orchestra, a 40-piece orchestra conducted by the esteemed music director Nabil Azzam, with special guest vocalist Moroccan-born Karima Skalli, known as the “Golden Voice.”

Under the baton of Maestro Azzam, MESTO and Skalli will perform Arab music as never heard before, featuring the exciting instrumental and vocal works of Muhammad Abd al-Wahhab, Baligh Hamdi, Rahbani Bros., Farid El-Atrache, Muhammad Abdo, Nabil Azzam and many more.

This festive, black-tie-optional fundraiser at the Max M. Fisher Music Center, 3711 Woodward Ave. in downtown Detroit, celebrates the first and only Arab American museum in the United States and generates up to 10 percent of its annual operating budget, providing vital support to the AANM’s cutting-edge programs.

 A wide range of ticket prices from $25-$500 make this very special event affordable for all. Tickets are available for online purchase at  www.accesscommunity.org.

 For more information about tickets and sponsorship opportunities, contact Nissrine Hussein at 313.583.3360 or nhussein@accesscommunity.org

The Arab American National Museum documents, preserves, celebrates, and educates the public on the history, life, culture, and contributions of Arab Americans. It serves as a resource to enhance knowledge and understanding about Arab Americans and their presence in this country. The Arab American National Museum is a project of ACCESS, a Dearborn, Michigan-based nonprofit human services and cultural organization. Learn more at www.arabamericanmuseum.org  and www.accesscommunity.org

The Arab American National Museum is a proud Affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Read about the Affiliations program at http://affiliations.si.edu.

 The Museum is located at 13624 Michigan Avenue, Dearborn, MI, 48126. Museum hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday; noon-5 p.m. Sunday. Closed Monday, Tuesday; Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Admission is $6 for adults; $3 for students, seniors and children 6-12; ages 5 and under, free. Call 313.582.2266 for further information.

Dearborn High School will hold a ribbon cutting ceremony this Friday at 6:30 p.m. for the school’s $2.9 million athletic complex renovation. The ceremony will take place on the school’s new synthetic turf football field prior to the start of the Sept. 18 football matchup with cross town rival Fordson High School.

Dearborn High School will celebrate its new football field and athletic complex this Friday, Sept. 18. This earlier photograph shows the synthetic turf being installed.

As a Dearborn High graduate, I’m still having a hard time adjusting to the relocation of the football field from the valley to alongside busy Outer Drive. Don’t get me wrong, the field looks great and so do the new stands. It’s just the wrong place for a football field and the home seats are actually constructed on the wrong side of the new stadium (the sun is supposed to shine in the faces of the visiting team, not the home team sideline). In addition, noise complaints from nearby residents have forced the school to turn down the volume of the loudspeakers at the new football field.

We can’t help but wonder what the field would have looked like if the School Board had taken up the City of Dearborn’s offer to pay for the costs of moving clay and dirt from the holes being dug for the combined sewer overflow basins and used it to raise the grass field in the valley.

A Dearborn Schools spokesman confirms the city did indeed make such an offer but it wasn’t as simple as filling the valley up with dirt to raise the field out of the flood plain. The quality of the soil that would have been trucked from holes along the Rouge River to the school was unknown and would have needed testing. In addition, the school district would have had to create a new flood plain in another location to match the exact size of whatever was changed in the valley of Dearborn High. While an interesting idea, those obstacles stopped the plan before it could ever get traction.

For those wondering, the $2.9 million price tag at Dearborn High covered the complete renovation of all athletic property at the school. The athletic complex renovation project began with the west complex in the spring of 2008. The complex includes a new synthetic turf football field, grandstands, press box, concession stand, new tennis courts, new softball field, renovated baseball field and renovated track.

The Dearborn High project is the final piece of a three year district-wide program to renovate the athletic facilities at all three high schools. A great deal of work was accomplished at Dearborn High over the summer. The school held their first gridiron match-up on their new synthetic turf field on Sept. 4, 2009.

Is it just us or has the whole Dearborn paid parking matter just gotten so confusing that it might be next to impossible to keep up on what to pay, when, what day and at what lot?

New $2 flat fee for some metered lots in Dearborn begins Sept. 21.

The newest tweak to Dearborn’s paid parking system becomes effective Monday, Sept. 21.

In metered Lot C and Lot H, patrons will have the option of a flat $2 parking fee daily after 6 p.m. These lots are located between Mason and Monroe on both sides of Michigan Avenue.

This change is the latest move by the Dearborn City Council to help bar owners in the area who have complained that they are losing some of their customers earlier than usual out of fear of getting a parking ticket for an expired meter.

A parking attendant will work collecting the fees, although we are not quite sure where this person will stand as the city removed and sold its parking booth on eBay months ago when the meters were installed at a cost of more than $200,000. Customers saying for a shorter period of time can still use the meters as they normally would.

In addition, council approved changing the hours of parking enforcement to 3 a.m. instead of the present 4 a.m.

The city’s paid parking system will continue to be operated by Park-Rite through June 2010. The city council approved a contract extension with Park-Rite that pays the company $4,200 monthly, plus 8 percent of parking revenues.

If you were planning to take part in the Friends for the Dearborn Animal Shelter’s 5K for K9s walk/run on Sept. 20 you’ll have until May 2010 to get into shape.

The Dearborn Animal Shelter and GoodBoy Events have cancelled the Sept. 20 event and have now decided to hold the run next May in conjunction with the Mutt Strut, which will celebrate its fifth year in 2010.

The good news is the Dearborn Animal Shelter will be holding another event on Sept. 24 called what “Must Love Dogs Singles Event.”

This event takes place at the Buffalo Wild Wings on Michigan Avenue in Dearborn from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.  Cost is $20 and includes appetizers, nonalcoholic beverages and a chance to win a date for two at Buffalo Wild Wings. All proceeds will benefit the Dearborn Animal Shelter.

To register, visit www.DearbornAnimals.org  or call 313-943-2697. The event is limited to 40 singles (21 and over) and their dogs.

Kelle S. Sisung, development director, Friends for the Dearborn Animal Shelter, says the event is part of the Dearborn Animal Shelter’s “Dog Nights in Dearborn.”

“Kiernan’s Steak House launched Dog Nights in August and the event brought almost 200 people (and some pooches) to their Silky’s patio and they raised $5,300 for our shelter,” Sisung said. “It was great to see so many people out and about on Michigan Avenue. Buffalo Wild Wings is now generously opening their patio for singles and their pooches.

“Dog Night is part of the nonprofit’s continued attempt to infuse some energy into our downtown business district, which so desperately needs,” Sisung said.

So at what point does the West Village Commons development emerge from the intensive care unit? Sadly, that much needed assistance feels a long way off now after seeing the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory quietly close its doors this week and quickly remove the equipment responsible for those tasty, pricey chocolates.

The Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory is the latest business to close in the Burton-Katzman developed West Village Commons project in Dearborn.

The Burton-Katzman team that sold the City of Dearborn and our elected officials on a project that seemed too good to be true has turned out to be just that — a project that so far hasn’t lived up to the hype. All that remains in the courtyard portion of the near vacant two-story structure is La Cigar and a struggling Maestro’s Restaurant.  A new bar called The Well is expected to open soon but that has been delayed, caught up in the bureaucracy of liquor licenses. It is doubtful this Burton-Katzman development will fill any time soon as the Bingham Farms developer is being sued by the City of Dearborn for failing to complete the very project it promised the city.

To be fair, there is a bright spot in the West Village Commons development. The portion of the building facing Michigan Avenue houses a Cold Stone Creamery, Sattva Yoga, a UPS store and the Kabuki restaurant. Those businesses, thankfully, seem to be holding on and they are doing it despite paid parking, which is another reason paid parking cannot be blamed for the current state of business in Dearborn.

We’ve lost track of the number of businesses that have closed on Michigan Avenue between Outer Drive and Brady. And, quite frankly, it is just too depressing to tally them up. It feels as if West Dearborn is sitting in this perfect storm — a devastated state economy, surrounded by other cities that are struggling even more (minus, the city of Allen Park, of course), and a string of empty, unkempt buildings that makes this stretch of Michigan Avenue even more unsightly and depressing to passersby.

Making matters worse is the fact no one can predict how many more businesses, such as the recent Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory closing, we are going to have to witness in West Dearborn before things get any better.

Let’s hope our elected officials have a plan to stop the hemorrhaging.

Golfers Jim Ives and Toni Tront were the lucky players to sink hole-in-one shots at the Dearborn Hills Golf Course.

We don’t normally write about golf results here but when we heard about the Dearborn Rotary’s recent golf outing yielding two hole-in-one winners, we thought we’d share it here.

Golfers Jim Ives and Toni Tront were the lucky players to sink hole-in-one shots, both on the first shots of the day. The two prize winners were participants in the Rotary Club of Dearborn’s Hugh Archer Golf Outing at Dearborn Hills Golf Course in late August.

“We promised golfers a fun event,” said Roger Miller, chairman of the fourth annual golf outing which helps raise scholarship funds in memory of the late Rotarian and Dearborn resident Hugh Archer. “We just didn’t know it would be quite this exciting.”

Event organizers were prepared with prizes for both hole-in-one winners who received golf trips–Ives to Las Vegas, Nevada and Tront to Garland, Michigan.

Other winners of the outing included the men’s team of Rick Goward, Pat Jensen, Randy Knight and Joe Guido who earned prizes and recognition as the overall winners. Women’s team winners were Julie Pucci, Pam Leshinsky, Sharon Langen and Corrine Celeski. Mixed team winners included Tim Peck, Lucy Peck, Maureen Wall and Jan Clarey.

Proceeds from the golf outing will help provide a scholarship award of $3,000 to a 2010 high school senior attending a public or private high school in Dearborn. Additional scholarship information and an online application are available on the Club’s website at www.dearbornrotary.org

The 27th Annual Festival of Quilts and Crafts will be held at First United Methodist Church on Friday, Oct. 2 from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and Saturday, Oct. 3 from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. The church is located at 22124 Garrison at Mason.

Quilt Exhibit admission is $3.00. Lunch served daily 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. for $7.00.

The show includes a silent auction, demonstrations, crafts, and bake sale.

For more information, please contact: Claudia Nickel cjnickel@wowway.com or Saranne Good saranneg@comcast.net

Mark your calendard for Sunday, Oct. 4. That is the date for the Dearborn Education Foundation’s Annual Golf Outing at TPC Michigan, one of metro Detroit’s best golf courses.

To reserve tickets, send an email to Education Foundation Executive Director Eddie Fakhoury at fakhoue@dearborn.k12.mi.us

The cost to participate is $225 per golfer and includes 18 holes, cart, lunch, dinner and an awards ceremony.

The Dearborn Community Arts Council presents the the Fall Into Dearborn Art Fair, which will be held in the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center Oct. 3-4.

A Preview Party for the Fall Into Dearborn Art Fair will be held Friday, Oct. 2.  You can purchase a ticket to both the Preview Party and the Dearborn Symphony Orchestra’s season opener for just $40.

For tickets call the Symphony office at 313-565-2424.