Culver

CCMS Career Day 2010

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April 23rd was Career Day at Culver Community Middle School.  As discussed here earlier, I volunteered to speak as a Landscape Architect since April is National Landscape Architecture Month.  The schedule called for me to speak to five different groups of kids in 20 minute time slots. 

Speaking for 20 minutes wasn’t really a big deal, though it was hard to decide what level of detail would be interesting to 7th graders.  Of course the nightmare scenarios were 1)  a sea of blank staring faces or; 2)  a horrible reinactment of “Are You Smarter Than a 7th Grader” with me as the brunt of the joke.  As it turned out, the worst part was a planning mistake on my part.  I was right that 20 minutes of material wasn’t a big deal, but by the time I was doing the third presentation I began to forget whether I was repeating myself since I remembered saying it before to the previous group.  By the end, I also realized that I wasn’t used to  talking that much!  My throat was actually a little dry and scratchy.

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MCEDC Culver Representative 2010-2012

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I have served as the Town of Culver representative to the Marshall County Economic Development Corporation (MCEDC) for the past three years. This took the group through incorporation as a 501(c)6 corporation. Since that time I have been vice chairman of the corporation. My term expired at the end of December last year and I volunteered to be reappointed to the corporation board. I am pleased that the Culver Town Council chose to reappoint me at their meeting, February 10, 2010. (Pilot News Article here.) I have represented Culver to the best of my ability and believe I have served the Town well.

MCEDC has made great strides in the short time it has existed. We have established offices in Plymouth and hired an Executive Director, Administrative Staff and just recently a dedicated Grant Writer. We have a functioning website and have established ourselves as a regional leader with State and local officials as well as site locators throughout the nation. We are currently working to increase our regional position through cooperation and strategic partnerships with surrounding counties.

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Lurkers Welcome!

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I sat through the testimony and public comment on the Maxinkuckee Village project Thursday and Friday last week and learned that I have a few more lurkers than I realized.  My previous blog entry on Maxinkuckee Village was cited directly by one side and I understand the other side references it in some of their online discussions.  For those of you dropping in to see what I said, I thought I would make it easy for you and link that previous entry here.

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Culver Garden Court Property Annexation Continues to Move Forward

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The Culver Town Council held a public hearing on the annexation of 80 acres on South Main Street on January 26, 2010.  Part of this property is the parcel slated for the Culver Garden Court.  There are three properties involved in this annexation.  One property owner is protesting, but the Town Council has chosen to move ahead despite this.  The Annexation passed on the second reading by a vote of 4 to 1.   The article is currently online here and is available in two scans, Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

Despite the protest, this annexation should benefit all three property owners as well as the Town of Culver.  The Town plans to extend water and sewer to this area in an effort to promote future development.  There is a distinct dearth of developable land within Culver that has adequate water and sewer.  The few parcels that do have the potential for development are currently held under ownership with no interest in development on their own or in selling parcels for development.  Two of the parcel holders within this annexation have expressed an interest in development.  Regardless of their intentions for their property, the third property owner will no doubt see and increase in their property value resulting from the potential achieved here.