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■ Paint Chelsea Pink

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Chelsea StandardVOL. 139, NO. 40 THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4, 201275¢

h e r i t a g e . c o m

Printed on recycled paper

Editorial Page 6-A

Calendar Page 11-A

Death Notices Page 12-A

Sports Page 1-B

Community Page 1-C

News Tip Hotline: 475-1371

INDEX

Silver Maples to host Harvest Art Market

Page 7-A

INSIDECheck out more photos of Paint Chelsea Pink

Page 1-C

INSIDE

Offi cials brainstorm water optionsBy Sean DaltonHeritage Media

What should be done with a water treatment facility built for 1,300 customers that only has 110 customers?

That’s the lat-est question being tackled by Sylvan Township officials, now that the 4.4 mill 20-year tax levy is voter approved. The levy will begin servic-ing $12.5 million in bonds issued by Washtenaw County on the township’s behalf, in addition to $1.2

million owed to the county treasurer’s office.

Township officials shared a table on Sept. 28 with officials from the city of Chelsea and

the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, as part of an effort led by

State Rep. Mark Ouimet, R-Scio Township, and State Sen. Rebekah Warren, D-Ann Arbor.

Every option appeared to be on the table, based on the direction of the discussion during the nearly hour-long

meeting, including bottling and selling water, shut-tering or “mothballing” the plant until economic circumstances and develop-ment within the township call for its capacity, or some form of partnerships with Chelsea involving the plant’s capacity, undersized customer base or both.

Being about a decade old, Sylvan’s water facility is getting close to requiring significant maintenance and capital improvement needs that far outstrip its current ability to generate revenue from the existing

market that it serves.“Sylvan Township’s

situation is that the gen-eral fund is down to about $350,000, and if we sepa-rated out water and sewer charges it would account for $100,000 of operating loss on the water side every year,” said township attor-ney Peter Flintoft, who warned that the 110 cus-tomers have expressed and will continue to express, ever more loudly, their objections to carrying the underserving utility.

“At some time, there is going to have to be an

accounting and there is going to be a crisis.”

Flintoft and Chelsea City Councilmember Frank Hammer discussed the option of handing over the existing customer base to Chelsea to be rolled into the much larger existing Chelsea water utility cus-tomer base.

Chelsea officials made it clear that they don’t neces-sarily need Sylvan’s excess capacity, given the trajec-tory of economic growth and development.

Photo by Danny Shaw

Linda Ballard, Chelsea District Library assistant director, right, and her son, Ian, a Chelsea fi refi ghter, right, “pink-a-fi ed” their hair in support of the event.

Paint the town pink

By Danny ShawHeritage Media

Everyone’s favorite color was pink in Chelsea on Sept. 29 for the first-ever “Paint Chelsea Pink,” a citywide breast cancer awareness event.

More than 100 Chelsea businesses and organizations partnered with the Chelsea Area Fire Authority and the Susan G. Komen of Mid-Michigan Foundation to help increase breast cancer awareness and raise donations for breast can-cer research.

Chelsea Area Fire Authority Lt. Scott Basar, who was co-chair for

the event, said all proceeds from the event will be donated to the mid-Michigan affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure Breast Cancer Foundation.

“We had donation stations set up all throughout downtown and in a lot of the businesses, which some also will be donating a portion of their sales,” Basar said. “Some of those things were just overflowing with cash.”

While the day-long event was free, participants had the option to purchase an event “passport” for $25. The passport included exclusive benefits and deals at local busi-nesses and granted access to the post-event party at Chelsea Lanes, which included chances to win prize packages.

Basar estimates it will take about a week to total all the proceeds, and then a check will be presented on behalf of Chelsea and the event

sponsors to the Komen Foundation.He said while the event didn’t

atract as many people as he would have liked to have seen, it was more than enough to prompt planning for Paint Chelsea Pink 2013.

“You can never have enough money to donate to a great cause like this,” Basar said. “But we will definitely be bringing the event back next year. We want this to be an annual event that Chelsea is known for putting on.”

Chris Pearson, Komen Mid-Michigan executive director, said citywide efforts for events like Paint Chelsea Pink are engaging ways to help spread awareness.

“This whole community has embraced the cause to help breast cancer awareness and what to do to take action,” Pearson said. “There were fabulous supporters

Businesses, groups partner to raise funds, awareness

PLEASE SEE PINK/3-A

PLEASE SEE SYLVAN/3-A

Sylvan Township

Gateway initiative launches new site, brandBy Nathaniel SiddallSpecial Writer

The Gateway Communities Initiative announced a new brand name and website, at a

press release event September 28. The public face of the economic devel-opment and preservation group will now be “The Big 400,” and their combined website is www.thebig400.com.

Gary Jones, park man-ager for the Waterloo State Recreational Area, and a founding member of the group, explained that the name refers to 400 square miles of Southern Michigan.

The core of the group are the communities of Chelsea, Stockbridge, Manchester, Dexter and Pinckney. Representatives of those communities are joined by the Department of Natural Resources, visitors bureaus and conservancy groups.

“We envision The Big 400 to be an important economic development tool for the region,” said Bob Pierce, executive director of the Chelsea Area Chamber of Commerce.

At the same time, the Gateway Communities Initiative will work to pre-serve the environment and atmosphere of the rural communities.

Jones said the initiative has provided new opportu-nities to connect the state

PLEASE SEE GATEWAY/3-A

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