Traverse City Record-Eagle

Archive: Monday

March 15, 2010

Editorial: Cheers: 03/15/2010

-- To Dr. William Lee and the TART Trails organization for donating and locating a heart defibrillator for the Vasa trail system. The portable defibrillator is a rescue-ready and user-friendly device and will be mounted in the Timber Ridge Resort lodge, operated by Gordon Waggoner. It will be available to the public and is conveniently located near the start/finish line of events such as the Iceman Cometh bicycle race and the Vasa ski races. The defibrillator can be used to jump-start a heart that could be failing for a variety of reasons.

-- To Northern Michigan Hospitals Inc. in Petoskey for an $84,950 grant to establish a primary care model for rural and remote areas by creating a proposed alliance that would bring together Northern Michigan Regional Hospital in Petoskey, Charlevoix Area Hospital, Cheboygan Memorial Hospital, Mackinac Straits Hospital and Health Center in St. Ignace and Beaver Island Rural Health Center to maximize resources.

-- To the volunteer coaches, judges and 450 area students who participated in the recent Odyssey of the Mind Region 3 Tournament. Sixty-three teams from area schools competed with the help of 100 volunteers and 80 judges. Winning teams will go to state finals in mid-April in Grand Rapids. World finals will be held in May at Michigan State University.

-- To the organizers and hundreds of students from across the state who participated in the first District Robotics Tournament, held March 5-6 at Traverse City Central High School. The competition involved student-built robots trying to avoid obstacles and score points by kicking soccer balls into nets at four corners of a soccer "field."

-- To the Bay Area Transportation Authority, which received $1 million of the $12.4 million in federal stimulus funds recently awarded to the state to support rural transit agencies. BATA will buy six new hybrid buses, bus surveillance cameras and mobile computer terminals for eight buses. Antrim, Benzie, Charlevoix, Cheboygan, Crawford, Kalkaska, Manistee, Otsego and Wexford counties also are among 62 nonurban counties to receive stimulus dollars for transit expenses.

-- To Karena Hacker, a Traverse City West High School senior from Lake Ann, and Tina Allen for organizing a coffee house for teens to hang out, socialize, play music and also have discussions that will help increase understanding of basic issues facing people and communities in northwest Michigan. The L.A. Coffee House was scheduled to open Saturday from 6:30 to 11 p.m. at the Lake Ann United Methodist Church, but it is not affiliated with the church. Housing was to be the first topic of an informal discussion guided by guests from Homestretch and Freedom Builders. The group plans to meet every other Saturday.

Text Only