City of Ferndale City Council Meeting 3-10-2025

To extend a a thank you to our DPW director, James, thank you so much for taking down that honey locust tree. I I actually called the resident, and you know I am the biggest fan of every tree, and I wanna save every tree. But that was a tree that had been on the list for a while, and that resident is absolutely thrilled with the work that we did, the way that DPW cleaned up after the tree was taken down, and she just could not speak highly enough of your team. So I want to thank you and also, extend my gratitude to our former interim city manager, James, as well as welcome, Colleen. So looking forward to working with you.

I believe I talk to you tomorrow, so don't get an ear load from me then.

Council member Kelly. Same. I just wanna welcome Colleen to our team. I'm, looking forward to working with you, and thank you, James, for a fabulous job as interim city manager. I will j, all you did and keep putting us in the loop and well informed.

You did a great job, And I'm looking forward to see what you two will do together. I'm excited. So thank you.

Alright. And with that being said, yes, thank you and welcome, Colleen. And thank you, James, because you got us through so many things where there were so much uncertainty. So I appreciate all the work you've done there. You kinda made the the framework, and now we have something to work with because of your your, initiative.

So glad to still have you, and, I look forward to working with both of you. I do want to, just send out send out some congratulatory notes with the schools. I know that, the robotics team had a competition at the high school. It was a lot of traffic. Thank you community for being so patient, but it was a great competition.

Our MB Warriors came in fourth, but that was out of 40 teams. And I just want to say something out, regarding them. Because at in the initial qualifying round, I was sitting in the audience watching them, and something happened with their robot that it just got stuck. It would not move. And the well, I'm watching the heartbreak of these students as the time is ticking down and their robot will not move.

It was out of their control. So I want you to know that they came back and fought and fought hard and was, fourth out of 40 teams. And I could not be more proud of them. So I I think they did an amazing job. Also this past Saturday, for those who don't know, our music program, the band, and the wind ensemble, they had to they had to perform at Clarkston High School.

And what festival is is that when you go you go to the high school, you perform the another high school, and judges from all around kinda judge your performance, and give you a a score of a one or a two or a three. One is the best. Also, what they do so you perform a pieces of music that you pre prepared for, and you also have to go into a room where you have to sight read and perform a piece of music that you're look you're laying your eyes on for the first time at that moment. And I cannot tell you how proud and how wonderful our our students did. They got ones in both categories.

It it was amazing. This is my son's last year of high school. He was, he's in the wind ensemble, and I'm just sitting in the corner just bawling like a baby because they did so beautifully. So congratulations to them for sure. We have a top notch music program, and I hope we continue to support that in the years to come.

Speaking of that, if you didn't get a chance to see Newsies, I did get to go to the opening night this past Saturday night. It's a great show. They have a couple of more shows coming up this coming weekend, the fourteenth, fifteenth, and the sixteenth. The fourteenth and the fifteenth are at Friday, Saturday at 07:30. The sixteenth is the closing show at 03:00.

So if you don't get a chance to go or if you didn't get a chance to go this past weekend, try to reach out and go to that that musical. It's really good. It was a lot of people in the audience, and I know that, typically, the opening night and the closing nights are the most fun. So and I saw you there, Dave, too. Yeah.

So we had a lot of fun. And regarding the information received regarding the laptops, I just want to put it out there. I know we have an organization that we're already using, But I just, like to take the opportunity to plug my day job where I help seniors and adults with disabilities. And I will tell you that the Michigan Disabilities Rights Coalition, they actually take those laptops and then give them to seniors who are in nursing homes that want to some access to the outside world. And I'm saying that because recently, I helped someone who is in a nursing home, and she wanted to go she wanted to take enrichment classes and go back to school.

Her degree was in marketing, and she just wants to do something, while she's in the home to feel, you know, part of the community. I was able to assist her through the Michigan Disabilities Rights Coalition to get that laptop, but they only have so many. So just, you know, putting out out there if it's something that we wanna do. But with that being said, it was a great meeting. I hope you enjoyed it, Colleen.

I but I this meeting is adjourned at 09:09PM. Thank you.