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Patrick Dunn: Welcome to the Washtenaw Weekly, a podcast from 89.1 WEMU. I'm your host, Patrick Dunn. Every Friday, we bring you the top five stories from the past week of WEMU's reporting on Washtenaw County. From Ann Arbor to Ypsilanti and beyond, we've got you covered on the community news you need to know. This week, we've got details for you on an early start to flu season, a big honor for the superintendent of Ypsi schools and heightened immigration enforcement activity in Washtenaw County.
But first we take you to Dexter. City officials there are taking steps to ensure they're prepared from a legal standpoint if data center developers take an interest in the community. The city could put a moratorium on data centers or it could create new ordinances regulating them. The city's current zoning ordinances don't mention data centers. That could leave the city at a disadvantage without some guardrails in place. Many residents of Ypsilanti Township and Saline Township have been vocal in opposition to data center projects there, while their local governments have had little on the books to regulate the projects. No one has approached Dexter officials about a data center project at this time, and there likely isn't enough available space in the community to build a large data center. But Dexter City Councilmember Joe Semifero says Dexter needs to be prepared.
Joe Semifero: It's just a matter of time before they get smaller, before they take up space. Even if we aren't a suitable location now, I think we would be better served to have something in place. So if and when the eventuality comes, we're not caught unprepared.
Patrick Dunn: Dexter Community Development Manager Michelle Aniol says the city particularly needs to evaluate its capacity to provide electricity to a data center. More discussion regarding a possible moratorium or ordinance changes isn't expected to begin until next year, when a new Dexter City Council takes over.
This year's flu season is off to an early start in Washtenaw County. Under normal circumstances, it wouldn't start for another two and a half months. But Washtenaw County Health Department spokesperson Susan Ringler Cerniglia says flu cases are already starting to appear.
Susan Ringler Cerniglia: So we're seeing some of that activity, still what we would call low to moderate, but that also means you have the opportunity to get that flu shot on board if you haven't. That's the best thing that you can do to really protect yourself from serious illness.
Patrick Dunn: The local activity is partly due to a mutated H1N1 flu virus that's been spreading along the West Coast. That's also unusual, as flu season usually starts in the South. Cerniglia says the good news is the flu shot is a good match for this year's virus strains.
Susan Ringler Cerniglia: As folks probably already realized, there are multiple strains of flu virus that go into that vaccine, and two of the ones that are emerging as circulating this year are included in that vaccine.
Patrick Dunn: Public health officials say those aged 15 to 25 are expected to be most affected by this year's flu strains as they have fewer effective antibodies.
Ypsilanti Community Schools Superintendent Alena Zachery-Ross received a major honor this week. The Michigan Association of Superintendents and Administrators, or MASA, named her Michigan Superintendent of the Year. MASA says it singled out Zachery-Ross for her exceptional leadership and dedication to student success. Under her tenure, the Ypsilanti Community Schools graduation rate has increased by more than 20 points. The district has also secured more than $42 million in state funding for legacy debt relief and scholar achievement, and nearly $15 million in federal magnet school funding. Zachery-Ross seemed overwhelmed with gratitude after being surprised with the award on Monday.
Alena Zachery-Ross: Oh my God, this is such an honor not only for me but for my community. My school community has done so much work to make this place so special and now other people will know about it. My board, my educators, and my scholars, we're so proud of all of us. This is a community award.
Patrick Dunn: Dr. Tina Kerr is the executive director of MASA. She says the state award puts Zachery-Ross in the running for the national Superintendent of the Year award, presented by the School Superintendents Association.
Tina Kerr: Now that Alena is our representative, she will be competing at the national level against all the other states. So we're excited to have such a quality candidate to put forth, and we're hoping that Alena can maybe be in those top four or be our national superintendent.
Patrick Dunn: The winner of the national award will be announced in February. We'll have a full-length interview with Dr. Zachery-Ross later this month on 89.1 WEMU.
Fans of the Ann Arbor Summer Festival's annual Top of the Park events in Ingalls Mall have probably noticed the festival goes by a lot faster lately. It's not your imagination. For the past five years, the festival has lasted 15 days or three weekends. But this week, the festival announced it will return to its old 21-day, four-weekend schedule next summer. Summer Festival Executive Director Mike Michelon says many festival-goers have requested a return to the longer season. It's possible because the festival has reduced costs over time so that a 15-day and 21-day season now cost about the same. For example, Michelon said the festival had invested in purchasing more of its equipment to reduce rental costs. Despite this expansion, the festival is still grappling with financial challenges. Michelon says the event has cost about an extra $150,000 every year since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mike Michelon: I think that there was a real market adjustment over-needed for the fees that we pay artists, the way that employees are compensated, and that happened across the board kind of coming out of COVID. But another thing is just a new understanding on what it takes to safely produce events. So whether that be police and life safety needs at Top of the Park, all the way through to the production costs that make events excellent.
Patrick Dunn: Michelon says the return to a 21-day season will also help the festival bring in extra income to fill its budget gap.
And in our top story for this week, residents and law enforcement are reporting heightened immigration enforcement activity in Washtenaw County. Washtenaw County Sheriff Alyshia Dyer says residents alerted her office to four different incidents involving ICE agents between Nov. 5 and 10. The incidents took place in Ypsilanti and Pittsfield Township. Dyer says ICE agents arrested people, including an 81-year-old man who has since been released. Some ICE agents have been fully masked. Dyer said she's particularly concerned about ICE agents who have been driving unmarked vehicles with no license plates. She says this made it more difficult for her office to identify the ICE vehicles as such.
Alyshia Dyer: No law enforcement locally does this. And many federal agencies don't either. It is not consistent with federal guidance or regulations. It's not consistent with Michigan law and all it does is make it so if something does happen, there's zero accountability. People have no clue how to even identify the person that stopped them. And it definitely raises hardship for us in even trying to follow up on incidents to figure out if this was actually ICE. Or is this someone else that's trying to cover their plate for nefarious reasons?
Patrick Dunn: A statement from Dyer's office says residents can call 911 to report a vehicle with a concealed license plate. It says the sheriff's department will, quote, "respond, document what happened and investigate when warranted, just as we would in any other situation," end quote. Dyer says she shares many community members' concerns about ICE activity.
Alyshia Dyer: We empathize with what the community's been going through. People deserve to know who is policing them, who is driving around in our community. And we really hope that these concealment and masking and darking out license plate tactics stop.
Patrick Dunn: Dyer emphasizes that community members may record or observe ICE agents, but should not attempt to interfere or obstruct them.
Well, that just about wraps up another episode of the Washtenaw Weekly, but if you're looking for an interesting listen this weekend, check out the latest episode of WEMU's Issues of the Environment podcast. It digs into the unexpected potential of combining artificial intelligence with birdwatching. Many birdwatchers use popular apps to log their observations on the bird species they spot. University of Michigan researcher Dr. Hengxing Zou led a new study that examines how AI can be used to analyze those observations to identify bigger trends in the avian world.
Hengxing Zou: Like the old natural history notes that were, you know, from the beginning were the roots of ecology as a study, these natural history notes nowadays still carry a lot of very important information. And it is for us ecologists to do, to like actually distill this information into something we can actually use.
Patrick Dunn: To hear the whole conversation, look for Issues of the Environment on your podcast provider of choice or under the Podcasts tab on WEMU.org.
That's it for this edition of the Washtenaw Weekly. We'll be back next Friday with another rundown of the week in 89.1 WEMU's local news coverage. The stories you heard today were reported by the WEMU news team: Caroline MacGregor, Kevin Meerschaert and myself. Our theme music is by Rick Roe and I'm your host, Patrick Dunn. Until next time, stay well and stay informed.
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