Tragedy strikes a small town

By now you probably know that a Dexter teenager died Tuesday from injuries he suffered in a car crash outside Dexter High School.
The death of 16-year-old Tyler Steffey was a shock to the school system and to the community as a whole.
It is always difficult to see something like this happen at an otherwise joyful time of year.
Compounding the pain of his loss is the injuries his two companions suffered when the car they were in slid off Parker Road into a stand of trees near the high school entrance.
News travels fast in a small town, especially bad news like this.
I reported the breaking news Tuesday on our Web site, and readers will be able to see the story and photos in Thursday’s print edition of the newspaper.
It is still too early to say exactly what caused the accident, but I will follow up with the sheriff’s department and the school district on questions that have been raised.
Our office has already heard speculation on the cause and why the three teens were out of school at mid-morning, but I operate on facts, not rumor and innuendo.
To do otherwise would add unnecessarily to the pain their families are already suffering.
When I have information that can be verified, I will pass it along to you.
All that aside, it presents an opportunity to remind everyone – teens and adults alike ‑ of the dangers of driving in poor weather conditions.
It doesn’t matter how experienced you are behind the wheel, things can get out of control literally in the blink of an eye.
There is a whole lot of winter driving ahead of us, so let’s remember to be careful out there.

Don’t look now ‑ here comes Santa Claus

Like a lot of folks, I’m sure, this festive season happens to be my favorite time of year.
As soon as I see the lights and decorations go up on homes, businesses and streets in the various communities I visit, I feel like I’m holding onto the robe of the Spirit of Christmas Past.
Although Chelsea is a little bit behind other places in displaying its electric holiday glitter this year, City Manager John Hanifan assured me after Tuesday’s City Council meeting that the situation would be remedied immediately.
“We were going to do it a while ago, but the weather wouldn’t let us,” he said.
I understand perfectly, John; I still had leaves to rake up and put in my garden, but they are now frozen solid under a cold, white blanket.
Bad weather or good, it sounds like Chelsea will be a great place to be this weekend for residents and visitors alike.
The Chamber of Commerce’s annual Chelsea Hometown Holidays takes place Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and is jammed with activities to fill you with the Christmas spirit.
The main events are Friday’s tree-lighting ceremony in Pierce Park at 6 p.m., followed by the arrival of the head honcho himself; and the Holiday Light Parade at 6 p.m. Saturday.
Things get toned down and tuned up Sunday, with skating with Santa, a holiday ice show, concerts and carols.
In between, there’s a ton of activities happening each day, literally all over town.
If all these things put you in the mood to finish up your Christmas shopping, great.
But if nothing else, they should cause you to slow down, unplug from your hectic everyday schedule and enjoy the sights and sounds of my favorite season.

A Thanksgiving smorgasbord

A lot has been happening around here the last couple of weeks, and given the season, there are reasons to be thankful for all of them.
The Chelsea School Board gave the green light to important changes for kindergarteners and high schoolers.
Obviously the kindergarten issue is a Very Big Deal.
Even though I had a hard time believing it myself, I’ve studied the research that school officials used and it is irrefutable that our youngest citizens will be better off with the additional kindergarten class time.
Congrats to North Creek Principal Marcus Kaemming, School Board President Laurel McDevitt and all the other folks who made it happen.
As a bonus, North Creek will undergo a makeover as new classrooms are built to handle the increase in students. Stay tuned for developments on that.
MSU was on a trimester schedule when I attended in the early ’80s, and I found it to be advantageous.
For Chelsea High School students, the opportunity to have fewer classes per day but end up with more classes by the end of the year should be pretty appealing, especially considering the extra classes in math, science and social studies the state now requires.
I’m thankful the parents of this community care enough about their kids’ education to be involved in the community forums and meetings that led to those decisions.
And hats off to Ronald Weiser, Digger O’Dell and Fred Mills as Citizen of the Year and tandem Lifetime Achievement Award winners.
While Weiser’s pet project, the Clocktower complex, will be a focal point of the community for decades to come, the work done by the others (veterans affairs in O’Dell’s case and Chelsea Schools for Mills) is much more under the radar but has just as much impact on Chelsea’s future.
We all should be thankful that these men (and many more people we don’t know about) are quietly working among us.
That brings me to Thursday’s main event:
May we have the vision to see the wonderful people all around us, and have the grace to be truly thankful for each and every one of them.

Be careful what you ask for – you might just get it

Voters in Chelsea – well, at least 30 percent of them, anyway – delivered a strong message to the City Council on Tuesday.
Newcomers Rod Anderson and Bill Holmberg will take their seats on the council this coming Tuesday; seats vacated by Joe Merkel and Jamie Bollinger.
People apparently were in the mood for a change.
While candidate Jim Myles had previous political experience as a former village council member, Anderson and Holmberg do not.
Both are members of Chelsea Citizens For Accountability, which was successful in raising questions about the actions of the council and the operations of city government.
Voters must have been paying attention.
Anderson and Holmberg were elected by a strong majority, while Merkel and Bollinger received only about half as many votes.
And it was only by the slimmest of margins – at last report, only four votes – that Jason Lindauer fought off a challenge by Myles, who is seeking a recount.
Still, a 30 percent turnout for a single-issue election cannot be ignored.
Here’s a bit of unsolicited yet friendly advice for the new council members (and those who elected them):
You are about to enter a world that will challenge you far more than you may have imagined.
It will take perseverance, patience and, most importantly, a thick skin.
You wanted to change things, so here is your opportunity.
You asked for the responsibility, now you’ve got it.
I sincerely wish you the best of luck.

If you’re not willing to be part of the solution, you ARE the problem

I’m all for airing complaints if somebody sees an injustice; that’s the beauty of letters to the editor and freedom of the press.
But if you don’t have the courage of your convictions to sign your name to a letter, don’t bother sending it because we won’t bother printing it.
On my desk right now are two anonymous rants (which is the nicest way I can describe them) that start with the Chelsea Fair, but digress into a manifesto of complaints about the city in general.
“Shame on the Chelsea Fair Board!” begins one, then takes them to task for raising the admission price this year by $2 (for the first time in 10 years), and goes on to blame them for the mud that ensued after three days of heavy rain.
The writer even manages to make “You could find a parking space” sound like a bad thing.
Tell you what: The folks on the Fair Board go out of their way to ensure that people have a good experience at the fair, but even they don’t have the juice to control the weather.
The other writer complained about (among many other things) having to pay an admission charge to get into the fairgrounds to set up an exhibit a few hours before the fair officially opened.
“These volunteers should be armed with shotguns and if anyone dared to touch those gates without paying, shoot them on sight!” the letter stated.
Now that’s the kind of thing I would have wanted to look into as a reporter, but the letter was signed “Ashamed to Now Live in Traffic City USA, alias Chelsea, Mich.”
Hmm. Not much help there.
The first letter was e-mailed from a link on the newspaper's Web site, chelseastandard.com. The fields for name, e-mail, phone, address and locality all were left blank, so there’s no way to contact the writer.
The second was mailed, with no return address or other contact information on the envelope.
Despite the rambling inventory of how much better it was to live in Chelsea "50 years ago and up," perhaps my favorite aspect of the second letter was its admonition that we print it, which is below, verbatim:
“Pleasse print this. It needs to be said. Thank you. We will watch for our letter.”
You go right on watching for it, sweetheart, because this is as close as you’re going to get to seeing it in print.
I’m not doing this to be mean-spirited, and I’m certainly not trying to make fun of anybody.
But the newspaper can’t bring to light things that need to be changed unless somebody, somewhere, goes on the record and says, “There is a problem here, and it must stop!”

Getting fairly excited about ‘The Fair’

There’s been an awful lot of activity around the Chelsea Standard office the last few days as we prepare for the one of this area’s biggest events, the Chelsea Community Fair.
But what we’ve been doing doesn’t come close to all the energy being spent just down the street from us at the fairgrounds.
I went over there on a recent evening to gather some information for some articles, and the place was positively buzzing. Now I understand why they call it a "work bee."
Fair board members and their families, exhibitors and their families, and plenty of folks who just want to lend a hand showed up, ready to work hard.
They pitched in to set up stalls in the livestock and horse barns or tables and chairs in the exhibition buildings, prepare the track for the demolition derbies, put the finishing touches on the brand-new pavilion, and lots more.
Most of them didn’t quit until after dark on a hot, humid, uncomfortable night, and that was just the one time I was there.
They were doing all the behind-the-scenes work that not only makes the fair run so smoothly, but makes it one of the best small-town fairs in the entire state.
For the people of this area and beyond, the fair has been A Very Big Deal for a very long time.
It’s not an exaggeration to say, if not for the volunteers, there simply would not be a Chelsea Community Fair.
So when you see one of these volunteers while you’re at the fair next week, make sure you tell them how much you appreciate all their hard work.
Over the years, I’ve found that probably the best way to get a true sense of what life is like in a small town is to attend whatever festive event they have that involves the entire community.
Saline has its Celtic Festival, Manchester has the Chicken Broil and Dexter has Dexter Daze, but Chelsea has The Fair.
Some folks might think they are too cosmopolitan to bother with a country fair, but they don’t know what they’re missing.
As far as I’m concerned, you have not really lived until you have dripped mustard all down the front of your shirt from eating a corn dog or gotten your fingers impossibly sticky on cotton candy or elephant ears.
And there are few moments as thrilling as seeing a ribbon attached to a plate of vegetables you have grown in your own garden or to some goodies you made in your own kitchen.
I know this to be true, because I have done all of those things (except for the corn dog — I prefer the big sausage dog with grilled onions and sauerkraut on the homemade bun, but I still end up wearing some of it).
This is the third year I have taken home a prize from the Jackson County Fair.
Foremost is my German Extra Hardy garlic, with a blue ribbon my first year, third place last year (I wuz robbed), and first place again this year.
But a bonus this year was my baked goods. I won a blue ribbon for cheesecake brownies and second place for pecan pie, and this was the first time I'd entered anything in that category.
Because I work for the Standard, I don’t know if the Chelsea Fair Board will allow me to enter anything in the fair next year, but I wouldn’t mind being a judge.
A few years back, during my last two years with the Adrian newspaper, the Lenawee County Fair invited me to be a judge for the pie contest. Anybody who knows me well also knows my penchant for pie, and perhaps I could do the same for the Chelsea Fair.
My wife and I have attended the Chelsea Fair several times in the past, but by working at the paper this year, I’ll likely be over there every day and see more of it than ever.
And that’s just fine with me. That gives me plenty of opportunity to scout out the whole thing so that when I do bring her with me, we’ll know exactly where to find the best exhibits to look at, the best rides to ride and the best sausage dog to slop on my shirt.
So, yes, I guess you could say I really look forward to fair season.
See ya at the fair!

In a democracy everybody has a voice, even when you don’t like what you hear

It seems the Chelsea City Council has been put on notice.
Townsfolk unhappy with the council’s handling of city finances have banded together in a grassroots effort to form “Chelsea Citizens For Accountability.”
On one hand it’s unfortunate that people like Jeanne Olinyk and Rod Anderson felt such a move was necessary, and I find myself in agreement with Mayor Ann Feeney:
“They didn’t really need to form a group. This is America, and they are free to speak their minds.”
On the other hand, it’s not such a bad idea after all, and I find myself agreeing with CCFA's basic argument:
“The Chelsea City Council does not appear to be strongly motivated to cut costs before raising taxes as a last resort. We hope to provide additional motivation.”
I don’t mean to suggest, not even for a millisecond, that there could be anything untoward or illegal going on behind the scenes.
I’m convinced the council members are honest and sincere in their belief that they are acting in the best interest of the city’s residents.
But isn’t it at least possible that there were a few more cost-cutting avenues to explore before deciding on a tax increase?
This is a tough one.
After years of covering municipal governments and school boards, I’m about as well-versed as anyone in the financial difficulties they face.
People in this state are struggling economically, and so, as a result, are their local units of government.
Mayor Ann Feeney and the council members defend their actions, saying that they are trying to live up to obligations to the retirement fund, contract negotiations and so on.
That’s good news. It’s exactly what they SHOULD be doing.
However ‑ and this is one of CCFA’s main arguments ‑ how did we find ourselves in such a hole in the first place?
Here’s the thing: When you get right down to it, all of that is really irrelevant.
What’s done is done, and anguishing over what could or should have been decided differently in the past is a frustrating waste of time and energy.
Instead of thinking of what went wrong, I would encourage the CCFA, the council, every city employee, indeed every city resident to concentrate on how to make things right.
And it just so happens that we are at a unique point in history that provides this opportunity.
Within the past year or so the city has hired several new department heads and a new city manager; administrative decision-makers who are relatively unburdened by the baggage of the past.
The residents should to make their needs and desires known to their elected representatives on the council.
The council should work with city staff to prioritize those needs and desires.
And city staff should try to find creative, innovative ways to make those needs and desires a reality at a minimum of expense to the residents.
If nothing else, the formation of CCFA reminds us that in a democracy, the voice of the people should be heard the loudest.

People of the Blogosphere, I have returned

It says “Reporters Ed Freundl and Don Richter post blogs twice a week” on the front page of our newspaper, and “Ed Freundl talks not only about issues but why they are important to you” on my blog page at www.chelseastandard.com.
Ouch.
After a gentle reminder from my editor, and a not-so-subtle nudge from elsewhere, I’m back in the blogging business after going 0-for-June.
Not for nothing, but it’s been a busy month around here.
Car crashes, city council tax increases, historical museum openings, high school graduations, retaining wall collapses.
Chelsea is a busy place, and it’s kept me busy bringing you the information about your town that you want and need to know.
Did you know we have a new city manager who spent the last few years in Dexter village government? You do if you read our paper.
Did you know Timber Town has been restored to its former glory by the tireless efforts of an army of volunteers? You do if you read our paper.
Did you know many of the town’s ancestors came here from out East by way of the famous Erie Canal? You do if you read our paper.
Did you know that Michigan’s only venomous snake, the Eastern Massasauga rattlesnake, can be found right outside Chelsea?
You didn’t? Well, neither did I, but you will when you read our paper this week.
You have a right to expect that we will do our best to bring you the news on a timely basis (at least as timely as a weekly publication can be), and to expect that I can take at least a few minutes each week to update our Web-based readers.
My thanks to “JW” and “Leslie” for talking the time to post comments on my few previous blogs, and to Michelle for that not-so-subtle nudge reminding me to get back online.
“Twice a week” is a good goal to strive for, but let’s start with baby steps for now.

Relay For Life a life-affirming event

Over the weekend the Chelsea Standard had the privilege of reporting on the Relay For Life at the Chelsea Community Fairgrounds.
The Relay is the biggest annual fund-raiser for the American Cancer Society, and the local event generated more than $55,000 in pledges.
It’s a 24-hour event that takes place in thousands of communities nationwide, but its focus is local.
Local team members, local companies and organizations, local volunteers; all raising money or donating goods and services to help track down a killer.
Participants walk for several reasons: sometimes it’s in memory of a loved one whom cancer has claimed; many times it is for someone who has stared death in the face and conquered it.
Most poignant are those who walk even while the disease continues to ravage their bodies.
Witnessing their courage and dedication is what makes it such an honor and privilege to be involved.
I, too, have walked in a Relay. At the time I was editor of the Albion newspaper, and I simply wanted to show support for a young reporter who recently had lost his mother to cancer.
We had signed up several co-workers but when the event arrived, only one of them showed up.
I stayed with Tom virtually the entire 24 hours, awestruck by his focus and determination.
The toughest part of the Relay comes in the middle of the night, when participation and motivation is, understandably, sparse.
You have a lot of time for introspection at 3 a.m. Why are these people out here, missing a night of sleep or a favorite TV show or ball game? Why are they putting themselves though such fatigue and soreness?
If the American Cancer Society just wants to raise money, why don’t we just write them a check and go home?
Well, the answer dawned on me, literally at about dawn.
This is not about money. It’s about sacrificing a few hours of comfort to commemorate the ultimate sacrifice made by cancer victims and their families.
Cancer has a vicious tendency to run in families, and I consider myself extremely lucky that my family has been pretty much untouched by it.
My closest association with cancer was through my father-in-law, Hager Large.
Not long after the Relay that I walked in Albion, doctors discovered something in him that had gone undetected for many years.
The surgery to remove half his tongue and lower jaw went about as well as one could expect, but a blockage in his carotid artery also had gone unnoticed — until a clot broke loose and caused a major stroke in the recovery room.
The most cruel thing was that it did not kill him outright.
This generous, jovial and gentle man spent every day of the final five years of his life in agony I’d rather not try to comprehend.
If it was just a matter of writing a check, I’d gladly turn over half my salary.
But the memory of Hager Large, Carol Kochinski and the millions of other cancer victims and survivors is worth a lot more than that.

Trip to ancestral home brings back memories I never had

My wife and I went out of town this weekend on our annual pilgrimage to Frankenmuth.
For the unfamiliar, Frankenmuth is a little town located roughly between Flint and Saginaw that is most famous for two things: chicken dinners and Christmas decorations.

Those are two of my favorite topics, but we go for a much more personal reason.

If my paternal great-grandfather had not been a stereotypical stubborn, hard-headed German, in all likelihood I'd probably be running one of the breweries there.

But no. Great-granddad was the brewmaster and a business partner at the Frankenmuth Brewery, one of several that came and went in that town over the years.

For those who know Frankenmuth, it was the brewery on the south side of the Cass River, since torn down and replaced with River Platz, a faux reproduction of an Alpine village and filled with overpriced trinkets for unsuspecting tourists.

At any rate, after Prohibition was repealed and the brewery was again able to openly produce its liquid gold, some sort of disagreement arose between Braumeister Freundl and his partners.
Seems ol' great-granddad didn't like the bean counters telling him how to make beer, and he told them to take a flying leap -in probably more than one language.

A German not wanting to be told how to do something. Go figure.

So he packed up the family and moved to Jackson, where he hooked up with another brewery.
And that explains why I had a fairly normal, middle-class upbringing in Jackson, rather than being a beer baron in Frankenmuth.

There are a few other juicy details mixed in there; something about the Purple Gang out of Detroit wanting to get their hands on the Frankenmuth brewery - or else; but those stories are quickly being lost to the mists of time.

Frank Freundl died in the mid-1940s; his son (my grandfather), Frank Freundl Jr., died in the early '80s; and the health - and memory - of my father, Frank Freundl III, is beginning to slip away.

Therefore, my wife and I go to Frankenmuth every year to pay tribute to what might have been.

It also explains one of my father's favorite sayings:

"You can always tell a German, but you can't tell him much."

Edward Freundl
The Chelsea Standard

Where do I begin?

The boss wanted us to start a blog for the newspaper’s Web page, and I do what I’m told (most of the time).

Apparently “The boss,” AKA Editor Terry Jacoby, is unaware of my personal feelings toward this whole “blog” thing.

I have confronted the obvious: that I’m definitely an “old-school” kind of journalist.

At the risk of sounding like a cranky old grouch, I am not as enamored of current technology as many (OK, most) of my colleagues.

The only laptop I use is the one on which I tend to spill my lunch when I’m sitting at my desk.

I still prefer to use a pen and notepad as my primary tools. At least they still work when the power goes out, like it did here twice just last week.

And until my wife gave me one for Christmas, I previously regarded cell phones as symbols of obnoxious self-importance at best; and at worst, a deadly dangerous distraction to motorists.

But these technological gadgets can be wonderful, if used with proper respect.

The Internet is a godsend to those in my profession, however; it makes researching a story and checking facts almost effortless. The downside is all the garbage you have to sift through when you type something in to Google or Yahoo.

Which brings us back to the blog.

When they first started appearing on the Web, I couldn’t think of anything more representative of our increasingly self-centered and self-absorbed culture.

Electronic versions of “Dear Diary: Today I watched my cat throw up” or some such nonsense hold absolutely no interest for me.

It’s not that I don’t care about someone else’s thoughts and opinions, but the concept of personal restraint seems to be eroding before our very eyes.

And the advent of MySpace and YouTube video carry this to a ridiculous extreme, with the added treat of watching someone’s inanity instead of simply reading it.

With that, I thank you for stopping by and letting me blow off some steam. See you next week, if the boss lets me.

-- Edward Freundl