Environment

Animal shelter grants awarded

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By SHEILA SCHIMPF
Capital News Service
LANSING – About $135,000 in funds donated by taxpayers who ticked a box on their state income tax forms will go to 23 registered animal shelters throughout the state. The Animal Welfare Fund grants range from $175 to $10,000, and many will be used for spay and neuter programs, staff education and to cover the cost of housing animals involved in legal cases, according to Jennifer Holton, a communications representative for the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. But, she said, some of the money will go to innovative programs that teach children how to take care of animals. Grants for three such programs will finance public education on pet care on local television, a visit to a school with shelter pets to talk about animal care and a virtual fostering program that allows a classroom to follow the course of a shelter pet’s experience. Gladwin County Animal Shelter in Beaverton will get $10,000, its first grant from the Animal Welfare Fund, said Krystal Moore, one of its officers.

Nonprofits & Social Services

State grants give vets more counselors, faster service

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By SHEILA SCHIMPF
Capital News Service
LANSING – Almost $200,000 in state money is on its way to veterans’ services offices in 19 counties, the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency said. Another $50,000 could be awarded before the year ends, part of a $250,000 allocation from theLegislature, according to the veterans affairs agency. Most of the county offices will use the grants for new technology and to hire more counselors. Wexford County will establish a new office. Rob Price, director of targeted outreach at the Michigan Veterans Affairs Office, said by the end of the year, only seven of Michigan’s 83 counties will be without a county veterans office.

Parks & Recreation

For an uplifting walk in a park, find a cemetery

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By SHEILA SCHIMPF
Capital News Service
LANSING – The idea of graveyard as park, with landscaping designed to aid contemplation and to encourage the illusion that the visitor had left the regular world behind, is a surprisingly modern one. In fact, in this country it goes back only to the 1830s, says Thomas Dilley, author of “The Art of Memory: Historic Cemeteries of Grand Rapids, Michigan,” a new book published by Wayne State University Press ($39.99). Before the 1830s, graves were in or near churches, clustered in tight places. But then, as churches ran out of room, cities dedicated large empty tracts, either within the city or just outside, as burial places. The vacant space had to be structured for the dead and the living who came to bury and visit them.

Business & Economy

New apps wow state officials

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By SHEILA SCHIMPF
Capital News Service
LANSING – A team of software engineers from Grand Rapids won the state’s second web application design contest with an app to keep drivers up to the second on snow removal conditions. The SnowFi app would tell drivers where snowplows are and what roads are clear to drive. To be most effective, it would have to be updated every five seconds, said Eric Buehler, a member of the winning team. Josh Hulst and Ryan Graffy were his team members. The three will share $5,000 in prize money for developing the best app at the Newaygo contest site plus $10,000 for being the best overall.

News

New book explores Lansing's pioneer past, UP links

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By SHEILA SCHIMPF
Capital News Service
LANSING – The quirky thing about local history is its ability to take an unexpected turn as soon as you get yourself deep in the diaries, scrapbooks and newspapers of those who lived before. Elizabeth Homer, for example, started out to write a history of 19th century Lansing but sometime during the seven years she was immersed in it, she realized she was working on a national story with Shakespearean elements. Her new book, “Pioneers, Reformers, & Millionaires,” is filled with abolitionists, railroad titans, a housing bubble, women’s Christian Temperance Unionists, suffragettes, graft, corruption and corporate greed. And Cornelius Vanderbilt.

Homer, 71, of Lansing, considers herself a public historian. By training she is an educator and worked in Lansing as a curator for 20 years, at the Michigan Women’s Historical Center and Hall of Fame and then at the Turner-Dodge House.

Education

School safety bill needs only House approval

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By SHEILA SCHIMPF
CAPITAL NEWS SERVICE
LANSING – A bill that would establish a 24-hour hotline for confidential reports of crimes and threats in schools won Senate approval in June, got funding approved by Gov. Rick Snyder in July, and needs only House approval and the governor’s final signature. The Student Safety Act, based on a successful program in Colorado, is in the House Appropriations Committee, said Ari Adler, communications director for Speaker Jase Bolger, R-Marshall. “It’s being reviewed,” Adler said. “I don’t know what the timeline is. There are other ways to report that information now.”
Because those other ways exist, Adler said, the bill isn’t considered urgent.

Education

Bill would let school start before Labor Day

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By SHEILA SCHIMPF
Capital News Service
LANSING – A bill that would allow school districts to choose whether school starts before or after Labor Day is in the House Tourism Committee. Rep. Andy Schor, D-Lansing, its sponsor, said it may die there. “I honestly don’t know. The speaker’s office says tourism is more important than educational flexibility,” Schor said. Matt Blakely, chief of staff for committee chair Peter Pettalia, R-Presque Isle, said nothing has been scheduled yet.