Leelanau.com Blog
leelanau county news • traverse city news • michigan news

From the Grand Vision:

BATA, the Bay Area Transportation Authority, needs your help to create its public transportation strategy for 2010 and beyond.

Please provide your input by completing a short questionnaire. Look for the survey in your local newspaper or go to www.BATAsurvey.com to fill it out online. All registrants qualify for a prize drawing on December 15th. You could win one of several prizes. BATAsurvey.com

forestlady (Vicki) took this photo last spring in Empire.

Be sure to check this out in her Leelanau County set (slideshow), take a little trip south to Benzie County and view many more photos from around the state in her Michigan photo collections.

The Traverse City Record-Eagle has a cool feature titled Green Through The White: Year-round produce is becoming a reality that looks at a new trend in food that has to make you smile if you're a lover of fresh & local:

Sustainable greenhouse systems, year-round farmers markets and winter CSA programs are cropping up all over cold, cloudy northern Michigan, extending the short growing season and making it possible for locavores to get their greens -- and other veggies -- all year long.

One of the first in the region to go year-round, the Frankfort Farmers Market is offering fresh produce, along with honey, maple syrup, meat, eggs and other products, from its new winter site at the city-owned Recreation Center.

There's a bunch more about where you can get fresh eats in wintertime including the Wellington Street Market in TC and (sometime in 2009) the TC City Market. They mention Black Star Farms' Hoop House and CSA and there's also Oryana. Maybe if enough people express interest, we could get a year-round market in Leelanau County!

Definitely click through to read the rest - at the end, you'll get a tasty recipe from Chef Eric Patterson of The Cooks' House for his Classic French Onion Soup Gratinee!

The photo is Chili & Co. - check out more tasty treats in my Local Food slideshow!

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!

Our first major blizzard of the season has closed schools and rendered roads treacherous. As we head into the winter season, it's probably a good time to dust off some links to help you deal with winter.

The TV 9&10 School Closing Page will let you know if your school is closed or on a delay and you can set your school so you see it at the top.

Once you know school is closed, you'll want to get out and enjoy that snow. A great place to start is our Ski Leelanau page. It offers reports for downhill skiing at The Homestead and Crystal Mountain resort and also cross-country skiing trail reports.

If you want to range a little further afield, check out these Michigan skiing articles & links from Absolute Michigan!

The photo is 'Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow'! by John Levanen and if you have another link that you like, share it in the comments!

There's just two days left to fill out your Grand Vision Scorecard and weigh in on how you think our region should grow. Leelanau.com developed the web site for The Grand Vision, and we feel it's critically important that everyone take a little time to think about how our region will accommodate the tens of thousands of new residents that will move to northwest Michigan in the coming years. The results of the Grand Vision will help guide how money is spent on transportation in our region for years to come.

Please take the time (just 10 or 15 minutes) to fill out your scorecard and please also pass it along to your friends & family!

Today begins a 3 week period in which year-round and seasonal residents from all across the region will fill out "The Grand Vision Scorecard", a survey designed by The Grand Vision to establish a long-term vision for the next 50+ years of development in Antrim, Benzie, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska, Leelanau and Wexford counties.

The Leelanau County Kickoff event takes place next Monday (October 13) at the MSU Horticultural Research Station.

Visit thegrandvision.org to fill out your scorecard online and get a list of locations where you can pick one up around the county!

Full disclosure: Leelanau.com is working for The Grand Vision!

In just over a month, residents of Leelanau County (also also Antrim, Benzie, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska, and Wexford counties) will be asked to help decide the next 50+ years of transportation and land use development in our region through a project involving community, government, business and citizens known as The Grand Vision.

Leelanau.com has been working on videos that explore what people across the region feel about issues surrounding the growth of the area. Here's the latest (click to YouTube to watch in high-quality) - please share this important effort with your friends & family and click over to thegrandvision.org to see more videos, learn more about the project and how you can get involved!

We've created this spot to give Leelanau and Traverse City area businesses a spot to post brief notes of good news and new offerings from their business. This most definitely includes your "help wanted" and job openings!

Please post a note below and feel welcome to link to your web site. Entries that are too long will be edited, so keep it short and sweet!

Photo: The Silvertree Deli by John Levanen

The Glen Arbor Sun reminds us that the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore will hold three public meetings this week to solicit public input regarding a new General Management Plan for the Lakeshore. The public meetings will be held on Tuesday, May 1 from 6-8:30 p.m. at Platte River Elementary School (11434 Main St.) in Honor; Wednesday, May 2 from 6-8:30 at the Glen Arbor Township Hall; and Thursday, May 3 from 5:30-8 at the Traverse Area District Library (610 Woodmere Ave.) in Traverse City.

The public is being asked to consider three Preferred Alternatives for management of the Lakeshore:

Alternative A calls for approximately 3,000 extra acres of the Park to be classified as wilderness, mostly in the Sleeping Bear Plateau west of the Dune Climb and Glen Haven; Alternative B calls for eliminating the wilderness designation everywhere except North Manitou Island, and highlights recreational opportunities; and Alternative C calls for "concentrating visitor use in selected areas" while promoting "more natural, primitive conditions" elsewhere in the Park.

Read Park considers public input on eve of new Management Plan from the Glen Arbor Sun and also Park releases new planning documents, seeks more input from the Leelanau Enterprise. You can view the proposed Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore General Management Plan in detail at the Park web site and also submit your comments.
Photo credit: Sleeping Bear Dunes, National Park by Kathy