Dec 21, 2008
Last night Penn State blanked Stanford for their second straight NCAA title (includes video) - get all the details (including photos and the post game press conference) from Penn State Volleyball.
Dec 18, 2008
The Traverse City Record-Eagle reports that the Penn State Nittany Lions, led by 1st All American and Leland graduate Alisha Glass (Alisha Glass's page at Penn State) have not lost a single set this season, let alone a match.
The Lions have won 109 consecutive sets, breaking the 105-set streak by Florida in 2003. Penn State also has won 62 consecutive matches, another NCAA record.
"It appears as though we have some history happening this year with Penn State and that we're all chasing them," Stanford coach John Dunning said. "We're all in a hunt chasing down the lion."
If they manage to continue this run through Thursday night's national semifinal vs No. 4 Nebraska (31-2) and the winner of No. 2 Stanford (30-3) who Penn State defeated for the 2007 national title or No. 3 Texas (29-3), they will cap the best season in college volleyball history.
They face Nebraska tonight at at 9 PM on ESPN 2 and the final is Saturday night (Dec 20) at 8 PM on ESPN 2 as well.
Snow Flakes by John Levanen
News from the Week
Stories from the week included feature on the 1917 shipwreck of the Rising Sun off Pyramid Point, a look at the candidates for the position of Leelanau County Administrator, the new Odaawe Gamik gift shop at Eyaawing Museum in Peshawbestown, a photo from Hohnke Road and a little history & thanks to the Leelanau County Road Commission.
The Week's Weather
The week's weather was - other than a brief warmup over the weekend - really cold. On Monday we had 46 degrees just after midnight and by afternoon we were below 10 degrees!
December 11, 2008: Flurries & upper 20s (31/18)
December 12, 2008: Snow & 20 (22/16)
December 13, 2008: Flurries & upper 30s (37/16)
December 14, 2008: Rain, especially overnight, windy & 40s (44/35)
December 15, 2008: Raging west winds (40+ mph), teens and blowing snow (46/9) How about that range??!!
December 16, 2008: Light snow and low teens (14/11)
December 17, 2008: Light snow & low 20s (23/11)
Click for the Leelanau News Archive from December 2007.
Patricia writes "Thanks to the Leelanau County Road Commission for keeping the roads clear. Without them it would be very difficult to capture our wintry scenes in the countryside."
Thanks indeed. The Leelanau County Road Commission today is responsible for 170 miles of primary roads and 425 miles of local roads. Approximately 80% of these miles are paved. Their Brief History of the Leelanau County Road Commission says:
In October of 1916 at their annual meeting, the Supervisors of Leelanau County adopted a resolution ordering "that the question of adopting the County Road System be submitted to a vote of the electors of the county at the election to be held the first Monday in April 1917." After the popular vote passed, the Supervisors appointed the first three Road Commissioners for Leelanau County: Elmer Billman, Chairman; Clinton B. Fisher; and Marcus Hoyt.
The Leelanau County Road Commission first met on June 26, 1917 in Leland, Michigan. According to the minutes, the "Object of meeting being, to confer with Board of Supervisors, upon various road matters, to endeavor to agree upon plans and manner of proceeding with construction of, and also to ask the Supervisors to provide means of paying for services of Surveyor and necessary help, for survey of roads."
Fourteen years later the Fourteenth Annual Report (October 1930) showed that the County Road System in Leelanau County consisted of 32.9 miles of unimproved road, 105.35 miles of gravel road and 8.0 miles of 1" Bit. Retread. During the winter of 1929-1930 the Road Commission maintained a total of 66 miles of "winter roads" that were snowplowed on a regular basis. The records showed that snow fence was regularly erected each fall and removed each spring along many of these routes. The total cost of winter maintenance was $4853.
As anyone who crosses the county line into Leelanau well knows, their service is still excellent!
The photo is LCRC Hard at Work by Pentax K1000 Gal and you might enjoy the "Leelanau roads" slideshow from Flickr.
Eric Carlson at the Leelanau Enterprise takes a look at the 4 finalists for the position of County Administrator, one of whom will likely replace current administrator David W. Gill who retires at the end of December:
- Peter Garwood, who currently serves as coordinator/planner for Antrim County, that county’s top administrative position.
- Thomas Menzel, who recently resigned as executive director of the National Cherry Festival and was being considered to serve as city manager for Traverse City.
- Patrick J. Yoder, a former chairman of the Leelanau County Board of Commissioners who has since served as county administrator for Wexford County.
- Robert Sobie, Ph.D., an assistant professor of public administration at Western Michigan University and director of information systems for Eaton County.
All of these folks are certainly competent, but am I the only one who thinks it's odd that there's not a woman in bunch?
The photo is Leelanau County Michigan Map on a Sign - Travel and Tourism Card by UpNorth Memories - Donald (Don) Harrison, one of his very many cool old postcards from Leelanau and elsewhere!
We'll roll back a few months for this gorgeous photo from Tom of a fall sunrise on Honke Rd. He's titled this "Hohnke Road, Leelanau County, MI #2".
Where's #1 you ask? Well right here. See more great shots from around the region in his Up North Michigan slideshow.
Have a great weekend folks!
The Traverse City Record-Eagle reports that:
Odaawe Gamik, the gift shop at the new Eyaawing Museum and Cultural Center in Peshawbestown, is now open. The shop is stuffed with the work of artists from the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians and other local Indian artisans.
..."Odaawe Gamik" melds the word "Odawa," meaning "trader," with "Gamik," meaning "this place."
The store features traditional and contemporary works, including black ash baskets, bead and quill jewelry, Petoskey and native stone jewelry, dream catchers, prints, birch bark mirrors and herbal soaps and lotions.
The store is located across from the Leelanau Sands Casino and you can call 534-7764 for info.
The artwork is called Leelanau Dancing by Leelanau native artist Lois Beardslee and you can check out a great article that Jim Rink wrote titled Lois Beardslee: Daughter of the Earth in the Northern Michigan Journal.
Crystal River Snow by jsorbieus
News from the Week
News - we had lots! The big story this week was the launch of our 2008 Leelanau Gift Guide, stuffed fuller than Santa's sleigh with great gifts made and sold right here in Leelanau County! Other stories included budget woes affecting everything from home heating to snow plowing & road maintenance (though not the maintenance that will close the Glen Lake Narrows bridge). If there's any bright spot to this gloom, it may be that Leelanau County has the lowest unemployment in Michigan.
The Week's Weather
Speaking of gloom, the first time I saw the sun this week was 2:05 PM today! That's some February-class gloom!! That, plus over a foot and a half of snow means that we are all entitled to get cabin fever a month early this year!
December 4, 2008: Snow (2-4"), wind & 20s (25/18)
December 5, 2008: Light snow and teens (20/16)
December 6, 2008: Light snow and 20s, then evening snow and heavy wind (27/18)
December 7, 2008: Light snow, windy & 20 (21/17)
December 8, 2008: Mostly cloudy, light snow and 20s (26/18)
December 9, 2008: 2-5" fluffy overnight snow, then more snow & upper 20s (30/24)
December 10, 2008: Light snow and low 20s (25/20)
Click for the Leelanau News Archive from December 2007.
Over on Michigan in Pictures today, there's a post about Michigan road salt & salt mines that you might find interesting. The Traverse City Record-Eagle certainly found road salt & plowing to be an interesting subject. They have an editorial that looks at how $4.50 a gallon gas caused a shortfall in the per-gallon gas tax revenues that fund winter road plowing and maintenance has coupled with soaring salt prices and worker layoffs:
The result has been a nightmare for area drivers. Winter has come on like a lion, with nearly 2 feet officially recorded for Grand Traverse County already but much, much more in many areas. Maple City recorded more than 9 inches on Saturday alone.
...Not doing what it takes right now to ensure safety is not a viable option. Asking motorists to risk their lives and the lives of their passengers to compensate for a budget shortfall is not an equitable trade-off.
Michigan lawmakers must make this and other road problems a top priority when the new Legislature starts work in January. Until then, however, road commission managers must do the right thing now and fix the budget later.
The picture is snow plow - m 72 by Billie K67, part of his Pics from the Car set.
The Traverse City Record-Eagle reports that despite diving prices at the pump, area residents are still looking at home heating prices well above last year's and that homeowners and agencies are feeling the bite.
"We and other utilities had acquired gas during those summer months, assuming that trend was going to continue," he said. "This year really was an anomaly."
Propane gas ranges from $2.29 per gallon to $2.79 per gallon, depending on the company, said Val Stone, community services coordinator for the Northwest Michigan Community Action Agency. Fuel oil is about $2.89 per gallon.
The Michigan Public Service Commission allocated $72,600 to the 10-county agency, down from $104,649 the year before, said Kris Brady, NMCAA community services director. Of that, $31,000 is designated for Grand Traverse, Leelanau, Benzie and Kalkaska counties, Stone said. All of it already has been accounted for this year.
One of the resources they list for help with heating is the Northwest Michigan Community Action Agency.
The photo is Tweddle Farmhouse by jimflix ... best I could do for a home heating related photo!
The Leelanau Enterprise reports that in the dark cloud that is our state's economy, Leelanau County is a bright spot:
The Michigan Department of Labor & Economic Growth reported Tuesday that unemployment rates rose in all 17 major labor market areas in the state, including the northwest Lower Michigan region that consists of Leelanau and nine other counties. The state’s jobless rate went from 8.4 percent in September to 9.2 percent in October – the same totals tallied in the region.
In Leelanau County, however, the October unemployment rate was unchanged from September. Leelanau and Isabella counties share the state’s lowest jobless rate at 5.9 percent, while Baraga County in the Upper Peninsula remains the highest at 14.2 percent.
...Only Leelanau and Grand Traverse counties had unemployment rates of below 8 percent in the northwest Lower Michigan region. Grand Traverse was 19th in the state at 7.6 percent, and was followed regionally by Benzie (28th at 8.5 percent), Manistee (36th at 8.8 percent), Kalkaska (42nd at 9.2 percent), Emmet (48th at 9.4 percent), Antrim (61st at 10.4 percent), Missaukee (71st at 11.3 percent), Charlevoix (73rd at 11.6 percent) and Wexford (81st at 13.6 percent). Total employment in the region was at 140,100 in October, compared to 143,200 in September.
The photo is The Sleeping Bear by .jowo.. Definitely take a moment to see it larger and also view it in his Michigan's Little Finger Slideshow!
