South Lyon Herald Council Picks

South Lyon Herald has endorsed incumbent Erin Kopkowski, Bev Dixson and Joseph Ryzyi for City Council, all eager and good candidates. There are two seats to be filled with first time council-persons, and four candidates for office. The Herald endorsed a young person and one older-than-young person which means the paper endorsed the only new young person, and chose one of the three older candidates, who met the editorial criteria, and "fill a role left vacant since the death of Councilman Dick Selden." There are a lot of retirees in South Lyon, who have different concerns than other constituents. This is the intriguing sentence for me: not one of the candidates for office mentioned anything about the different concerns of their age group. Not one. I read the candidate profiles from last week's paper again. Three are not young. Richards has been attending city council meetings for 3 years, and his concerns seem the same as the rest. Do older people view the business of their hometown differently? Not according to the profiles. Are people elected to represent their particular age group? Or do those who stand for office want the best possible hometown for all residents? My primary issue with improving South Lyon is traffic patterns. Public safety. We all need to be able to cross the street without injury, whether we're 85 or 4 years old. This is the issue I will continue to work to fix. We need a slower speed limit on Pontiac Trail and at least two traffic-stopping crosswalks in this town. We do not need our people knocked down by folks driving too fast through town on their way to somewhere else. You have choices, and your reasons for voting for your choices are the right choices. Please get to the voting booth on Tuesday, November 8 and make your choices for the city that is your hometown, no matter what age you are.

South Lyon City Council Campaign 2011

Walking in the neighborhood this morning, I waved at the cars driving by, as I usually do. Saw Harry in the distance who hollered "you're a candidate now. You have to blow kisses." As we shook hands, I said I told Dad I wasn't kissing any babies. Harry laughed. "But you still have to kiss old men." Yeah, well, we'll see about that. Went to the clubhouse to report a leaking gutter, and Karen and I caught up. Told her I'd received a flyer from the Area Agency on Aging about a caregiver symposium at Diamond Center. When I brought it to post on the bulletin board, Alice was there. She said she heard I was running for city council. I told her about the serendipitous string of events that led there, about walking to city hall to get the sidewalk repaired where Ms. Kennedy had fallen and broken her jaw and wrist. And we talked about Tony getting hit by a car on his bicycle. I said, "what I want to do is help to keep our seniors (me included) safe." Alice said, "I'll vote for you." I said, but you're Bev Dixson's campaign manager. Alice said there are three openings, so we can choose three. Nice to know. I can vote for Bev Dixson, too. Life gets better and better.

South Lyon City Council Campaign 2011

Last post the $10/day fine was accruing. Today I got a Paid in Full receipt for paying the $10 - no additional fines, and perhaps I won't be turned in to the Attorney General. Not for this. So now I'm a street legal candidate, and it's time to start campaigning for real. Sent the questionnaire back to the League of Women Voters sent. One question was what three top priority issues does South Lyon need to address and what action would I take? We need to slow traffic on Pontiac Trail. The speed limit is 45 mph, and drivers speed. We have a confluence of a senior community and the high school. At 2:36 pm when the teenagers start exiting en masse, seniors meet those cars, sometimes head-on, sometimes broadside, and vice versa, and sometimes not in a car at all. We can't cross the street on foot safely. Tony got hit by a car on his bicycle two weeks ago. He's 85 and suffered a broken collarbone, shoulder, three ribs and pelvis. He'll be a long time recovering. Number 1 priority: South Lyon seniors, teens, walkers and bicyclists need to be safe.

South Lyon City Council Campaign 2011

New gold foil-stamped letter from Oakland County. $10 each business day is being added to the $10 late filing fee. As I did not have the original $10 when it was asked for, I'm glad they sent along a couple pages of Oakland County Election Rules of the Game for Dummies about how the County can do what the hell it wants about fines, fees and late charges. Now I know why I'm supposed to have a treasurer on my campaign committee. To write checks to Oakland County. One of the reasons I considered a political run was to try it without the huge sums candidates need to even think about running for office. Now I know why they need it. Poor people don't run for office. Oakland County is damn sure of that. Now what I want to know is this: does Oakland County have a debtors' gaol?