The Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners pulled a resolution from its Ways and Means agenda Wednesday night that would have been the first step to issuing a $345 million bond for long-term retiree benefit liabilities.

Citing the need for more public input in the process and the mid-June release of a new actuary report, Board Chairman Yousef Rabhi announced the issue would be pushed to the board’s July 10 meeting for a first vote.

Yousef Rabhi

Andrew Kuhn | For AnnArbor.com

At the May 2 working session of the board, commissioners were presented with a proposed payment plan for a $345 million bond issue by the county’s bond counsel, led by lawyer John Axe of Axe & Ecklund.

The bond would be used to cover long-term liabilities the county has accrued in its retiree health care and pension plans. The county’s bond counsel has claimed it would reduce the county’s expenditures by $112 million over the next 25 years.

Wednesday night, the board was set to consider the first step in the process, which would be a first vote on a letter of intent to issue bonds.

The second and final vote on the letter of intent would have been June 5 - before the release of the new actuary report that would give the county a better estimate on how much their unfunded liability is.

“There were really some concerns about the timeline being too aggressive and for the public not having time to discuss it,” Rabhi said.

Health care and pension liabilities

Washtenaw County has been accruing an unpaid liability in its funds for retiree health care and pensions, which it pays for using general fund revenues and returns on trust funds.

The trust fund returns have not been great enough to cover the health care and pension costs. Although the county has made its annual general fund contribution to the funds, the actuary report had set the required payment schedule too low, said County Administrator Verna McDaniel.

Both plans have been capped as a result of the contract negotiations the county executed with the vast majority of its unions this spring that came about because of the right-to-work implementation deadline.

The 2011 actuary report defined the county’s unfunded liabilities as $101.4 million for the defined benefit pension plan, and $148.5 million for the retiree health plan.

Fully funding both of those liabilities on a 25-year payment schedule would require about $340 million.

Bond payments

Instead of paying back a growing, fluctuating pension and health care debt directly, the county is considering paying back the debt in fixed interest payments on bonds.

The county is looking to reduce its expenditures - which could be to the tune of $112 million, according to an estimate compiled in a report done by Meredith Shanle, president of Municipal Financial Consultants Incorporated.

Issuing bonds for the debt assumes that the rate of return - which is dependent on the market - will be greater than the rate at which the bonds were borrowed.

The Municipal Financial Consultants proposal assumes a rate of return of 6.5 percent.

Should the county choose to go into debt by bonding, it would be paying $344 million in principal with an additional $238.9 million payment in interest for a total payment of $583.1 million over 25 years.

• Review the estimated debt payment schedule for the $345 million bond

Those payments would be made from the county’s general fund at the current operating millage rate that the county levies. Should the county pursue limited tax bonds, the county would not have to get voter approval to issue them.

In 2013, the county paid a combined total of $22.3 million to both its retiree health care and pension contributions.

Without bonding, the county is facing a payment of $30.7 million to those funds in 2014 - an increase that McDaniel said would mean millions of dollars would have to be cut from the county’s services and staff.

The projected bond payment for 2014 would be about $18.5 million, according to the Municipal Financial Consultants proposal.

Risks

The ability of a municipality to bond for such long-term debt was made possible by Public Act 329, which was signed into law in October.

There are safeguards in the law, including the qualification that a municipality must have a bond rating of AA or higher. Washtenaw County has a Aa1 Moody’s rating and a AA+ Standard & Poor rating.

The Michigan Municipal League was supportive of the passage of Act 329 because of the local finance control it gives to local bodies of government, said Anthony Minghine, chief operations officer of the MML in an interview with AnnArbor.com.

“It’s not without risk. You make a number of assumptions in determining how much you borrow,” Minghine said. “ You assume you’re getting a particular rate of return.”

Univerisity of Michigan Ross School of Business Professor Robert Dittmar said in an interview with AnnArbor.com that one of the biggest risks the county would face would be investing its money safely to guarantee a profitable rate of return.

“The assumption that they’re making is that there’s a spread between what they’ll pay on the bond issuance and the income they’ll make on the bond proceeds,” Dittmar said. “The biggest risk right now is that it’s difficult to find relatively safe investments. It’s difficult to find something to invest in to generate the income in order to have this make sense.”

Dittmar said the worst-case scenario would be if the county did not get a good return on its investment and had to cover more of the payments for the debt issue. That would require more diversion of general fund cash flows to the payments - which would result in a cut to county services and operations, Dittmar said.

“Or, eventually you go bankrupt,” he said. “The investment return on the issue needs to be sufficiently high so that the county doesn’t have to divert cash flows to debt payment.”

Minghine said now is an almost perfect time for Washtenaw County to issue bonds for its long-term unfunded liabilities.

“We’re at historically low interest rates,” Minghine said. “Money’s almost free at this point. When you combine this with a marketplace where investment returns are good at this point - it’s almost a perfect time.”

As the payment schedule for the bond would be set at the time of issuance, the county would be able to plan for its general fund expenditures years in advance, adding a measure of stability to the county’s budget, McDaniel said.

The county’s direct payments to its retiree health care and pension plans fluctuate now based on actuary reports and market rates.

“Done correctly, it can be a great tool,” Minghine said. “If you don’t do this, you have an annual changing number that you’re dealing with.”

Though there is no other option being pursued by the county to pay off its unfunded liabilities, the county is also seeking an independent consultant to review the bond proposal, McDaniel said.

A worst-case scenario analysis for the bond issue is also being compiled, McDaniel said.

Public input

Since the county announced it was pursuing the $345 million bond issue at its May 2 meeting, there have been many questions to county commissioners and county staff on the issue - which prompted the board to take more time to engage the public in the discussion, Rabhi said.

Under the new course of action outlined by Rabhi Wednesday night, there will be two future public hearings on the bond issue: 6:45 p.m. June 5 and July 10.

A presentation to the public on the bond issue will also be a part of the engagement process, though a date has not yet been set.

“We want your feedback and your questions,” Rabhi said in an address to the commissioners and to the general public. “We’re postponing this action to give the community the ability to fully evaluate the pros and cons.”

Rabhi will also begin hosting coffee hours to talk through concerns with residents about the bond issue, which he has named “Bonding over coffee.” The first session has yet to be announced, but will likely begin after Memorial Day, Rabhi said.

July 10 will be the next time the Board of Commissioners considers bond-related resolutions in its Ways and Means meeting. A second meeting was added to that month for July 24 to allow the board to give a final vote on the bond issues.

Amy Biolchini covers Washtenaw County, health and environmental issues for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at (734) 623-2552, amybiolchini@annarbor.com or on Twitter.

Ann Arbor Pizza & Subs closed two years after opening on Packard Road.

Jessica Webster | AnnArbor.com

Paper covers the windows of the restaurant at 2111 Packard St., and the shopping center’s listing broker is now marketing the 1,700-square-foot space for lease.

“I have listed the space and we’re going to try and find another pizza business,” said Swisher Commercial’s Bart Wise. “The equipment and infrastructure is there.”

Brent Anderson opened Ann Arbor Pizza & Subs in May 2011, shortly after Marco’s Pizza closed. Although Marco’s struggled in that location, Anderson said there was potential in the shopping center for a non-corporate pizzeria.

Ann Arbor Pizza & Subs offered salads, submarine sandwiches and pizzas, including its specialty sourdough crust pizza. Anderson could not be reached to comment about the closure.

Wise said he believes a pizza restaurant can survive in the shopping center on Packard Street, but both Marco’s and Ann Arbor Pizza & Subs likely were affected by the economy.

He said the newly-vacated space is the only vacancy in the shopping center. BGreen replaced the former Hollywood Video space in 2010.

Lizzy Alfs is a business reporter for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at 734-623-2584 or email her at lizzyalfs@annarbor.com. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lizzyalfs.

The Ann Arbor Public Schools Board of Education met Wednesday for a study session on the budget. The trustees tweaked various proposals and attempted to identify cuts and new revenue to guide the administration on the board's priorities prior to next week's public hearing.

Danielle Arndt | AnnArbor.com

The Ann Arbor school board spent the evening tweaking, pulling and prodding every last dollar it could from a list of 30 proposed budget reductions for the 2013-14 academic year.

More than 70 employee positions still are on the chopping block, as well. And new employee groups were added. To try to cut fewer teachers, school board trustees asked central administration to look into cutting office secretaries and perhaps staff in the student support services department.

The Ann Arbor Pubic Schools needs to reduce its operating expenses — through a combination of cuts and increased revenue — to the tune of about $8.67 million by June 30.

Trustee Andy Thomas described the process as similar to a giant waterbed, "where you push down here and it pops up over there," meaning for every cut pulled off the table, the money must come from somewhere else. And, he said, often a savings in one area can result in an expense in another, if the district is not careful.

At the end of the board's five-hour study session, the majority of the administration's proposals — which were brought before the board on April 24 — remained on the table in some form. However, the trustees' deliberation did result in some cuts being lessened and others being given back to the schools or program directors for more freedom on how to come up with the cost savings.

The purpose of Wednesday's session was to give the administration a clearer picture — prior to the first public hearing on the budget May 22 — of what the board was amenable to cutting. The district legally is required to conduct two public hearings on the budget prior to approval. The second will be June 12, when the board also is expected to vote on a budget.

Among the items the board agreed to leave as-is in the proposed budget were:

• Eliminating high school transportation, $466,000.
• Closing the middle school pools, $70,000.
• Eliminating some counselors (3 full-time equivalents for $300,000).
• Freezing library purchases for a year, $100,000.
• Reducing noon-hour supervisors, $71,000.
• Most of the proposed cuts to athletics (for a total savings of $512,685).
• All of the proposed cuts to building operations and maintenance.
• Reducing the central office personnel by 6 FTE and restructuring, $477,540.

Despite the five hours trustees spent in deliberation over the budget, they could not come up with a way to save the 32 teacher FTEs the administration proposed elminating for a savings of $3.2 million.

Originally, there were a total of 80 employee positions on the chopping block for next year. The board agreed to reduce 1 grounds employee, 15 custodial staff and 1 crew chief with little fanfair.

Trustee Simone Lightfoot asked about how the staffing cuts would affect the complaints AAPS receives about trash on school property, stressing she still wants the district's facilities to be clean and well maintained. Executive Director of Physical Properties Randy Trent said these reductions would require the district to get rid of 648 trash cans on school grounds.

AAPS board President Deb Mexicotte took to the white board Wednesday at the Balas Administration to facilitate the trustees through a process of weeding out cuts and deliberating new funding sources for the 2013-14 academic year budget.

Danielle Arndt | AnnArbor.com

"The idea is we would be relying on most people to be respectful and would have to encourage ... people to be responsible for picking up after themselves," Trent said.

He added the reduction of custodians would be at the elementary schools, where classroom cleaning still takes place daily. The district went down to cleaning classrooms at the middle and high schools every other day, while continuing to pick up trash and clean the bathrooms every day. This is the schedule the elementary buildings will transition to.

More than 50 of the recommended position reductions are classroom teachers, including the 32 undesignated FTE, 5 FTE for the seventh-hour option at Huron and Pioneer high schools, 3 FTE for Skyline's trimesters, 3 FTE for fine arts and physical education, and 10 FTE for reading intervention specialists in grades 1 and 2.

In the administration's initial list of potential cuts back in December, reducing 3 FTE at Community High School to eliminate the school's block scheduling also was suggested. It would have saved the district $300,000.

Trustee Glenn Nelson proposed putting that $300,000 back on the table, as well as Pioneer and Huron's combined $500,000 savings through the elimination of seventh hour, and charging tuition for students who want to be able to take seven classes instead of six.

Schools officials have said the per-pupil foundation allowance that the district receives from the state is only for six classes per semester, 12 per year. But Nelson noted how the board has heard repeatedly from the community about the value of a seventh class option at these three high schools, and how it allows students to take four years of music, four years of foreign language or additional Advance Placement courses to earn college credit that a traditional six-hour school day does not allow.

Board members estimated in order for block scheduling at Community and seventh hour at Huron and Pioneer to be self sufficient, the district would have to charge between $300 and $500 per student per semester. But Thomas said that is still far less than a college course.

Officials said Wednesday the fine arts and gym teachers could be reduced through attrition and restructuring and would not result in a cut to the programs themselves.

The board agreed to cut five reading intervention teachers instead of the proposed 10.

The Pioneer Theater Guild also could get to keep its technician position. The board recommended approaching the theater group to find another way to save $50,000, the estimated cost of the position. Community, Skyline and Huron's theater programs do not have a technician, however, they do have part-time stage managers.

Vice President Christine Stead asked where the 32 undesignated classroom FTE would come from. Officials said about 4 FTE have been identified at the elementary schools but the rest, most likely, would be reduced from the high schools, considering the middle schools saw significant teacher cuts the last several years and already are pretty lean.

Because of the district's budget situation and having drawn down its "rainy day fund," the district may be forced to lay off teachers for the first time. The district only has received about 15 retirement notices so far for next school year. It typically sees 40 to 50 retirements annually.

None of the school board trustees are comfortable cutting that many more teaching positions, given that AAPS has reduced teachers by 65 FTE since the 2008-09 school year, the district's enrollment has remained stable and class sizes continue to grow and be a concern among parents. As a result, the board brainstormed other items to put back on the table or new items for the district administration to look into.

Among the possibilities discussed were:

• Principal sharing among six elementary schools for a savings of $300,000. Nelson proposed this and said he recognizes that principals are worth more than $100,000 a piece. But he recommended a lead teacher model, where at the schools with shared principals, there would be a teacher designated with some additional leadership responsibilities, requiring extra compensation for the teacher.
• Eliminating the district's additional .5 physical education requirement for graduation — and estimated savings of $450,000. Officials explained the state requires just one P.E. class to graduate, but AAPS requires an additional half a semester.
• Reducing the number of office secretaries by about 10 FTE for an estimated savings of $600,000. Officials reported there are about 111 office professionals in the district.
• Allowing digital billboards to be installed on property at Pioneer and Huron high schools and Wines Elementary School for $100,000 in advertising revenue. Some school board trustees were not in favor of this at Huron or Wines, but would be ok with it at Pioneer due to the University of Michigan Big House being across the street and neighbors being used to those lights.

The school board also agreed to most of the athletic cuts, except asked the athletic director to find another way to reach the approximately $512,000 in savings, rather than cutting middle school baseball, softball and seventh-grade basketball. Officials said this likely could be done by increasing the pay-to-participate fees a little more, such as perhaps charging students $50 for a second sport. Right now students only pay a one-time fee for up to five sports seasons.

AAPS has a general fund budget of approximately $189 million for the current school year. The district's third quarter financial report recently showed the Ann Arbor Public Schools is $3.8 million over that budget, which is expected to drain the district's fund equity, or primary savings account, to $6.8 million by the end of the school year.

The Board of Education authorized on May 8, for the first time in the history of AAPS, the district borrowing money to make payroll during three periods of low cash flow officials are projecting between now and December. The board previously was given the false impression that AAPS only had to have about $9 million in its fund equity in order to avoid borrowing money. But trustees found out last week that minimum balance actually is closer to $16 million.

The district will be borrowing a total of about $10 million.

The board started Wednesday's study session with an update from the state's so-called revenue estimating conference, which took place in Lansing earlier in the day. Lawmakers estimated that revenues to the Michigan School Aid Fund and general fund could be more than $500 million greater than projected.

However, Nancy Hoover, executive director of finance and chief financial officer for AAPS, said K-12 education is not expected to receive any of this money and the push in Lansing has been for the extra funds to go toward roads.

She said if public schools do receive a portion of the $500 million, it will go toward off-setting retirement costs, which Hoover said would help stabilize the budget a bit and help prevent the district's contribution per employee to the Michigan education pension system from rising above 30 percent.

Danielle Arndt covers K-12 education for AnnArbor.com. Follow her on Twitter @DanielleArndt or email her at daniellearndt@annarbor.com.

Washtenaw Community College President Rose Bellanca speaks in the Morris Lawrence building on Tuesday, May 14.

Daniel Brenner I AnnArbor.com

As Washtenaw Community College sets into motion a strategic plan intended to strengthen the college's regional profile, some faculty members are wondering how involved they'll be in decisions that will shape the school's future.

A group of faculty, including the leadership of the faculty union and several department chairs, has been at odds with WCC President Rose Bellanca in recent months, and both parties say they hope an improved relationship can lead to a positive trajectory for the college as it implements a plan that's taken more than a year to devise.

"Things are moving in a better direction," said Marvin Boluyt, co-chairman of WCC's life sciences department. "This has been the best place I've ever worked. It's a fabulous work environment surrounded by happy, optimistic, can-do people. So this winter that atmosphere was definitely affected."

A large group of WCC's roughly 190 full-time faculty members began publicly expressing frustration with Bellanca's leadership style this winter. The faculty union was unhappy with a perceived lack of communication from Bellanca and complained instructors were being shut out of major decisions. Department chairs wanted to meet with Bellanca in one large meeting, but she insisted on meeting in small groups, which vexed some faculty members.

Some were also concerned by a few of Bellanca's initiatives, including plans to offer late-starting classes and increase WCC's offerings to local high schoolers. When Bellanca went ahead with changes in these areas, faculty representatives said she made a top-down decision and expressed concern over the direction of the college. Faculty wanted more input on hires to WCC's leadership team.

Issues came to a head when Bellanca fired Stuart Blacklaw, the school's vice president of instruction, in March.

Stunned by the firing, faculty went on the offense. Roughly 100 faculty members signed a petition seeking improved communication with college administration on April 23. That came after the faculty leadership submitted a formal list of complaints in February.

"Change happens. It's not that we're really afraid of changes. It's that we're afraid of changes that might not be good ones," said Rosemary Rader, a chemistry instructor. "If we haven't been involved in the process of figuring out those changes, it's really hard to embrace them."

New efforts

Since then, Bellanca has promised to step up her level of communication.

"I've met with the department chairs as a whole, I've invited them here tonight. I try to send them updates on what's going on in the college," she said after a Board of Trustees meeting Tuesday, saying that communication with faculty is improving. "I just try my best to do whatever it takes."

Though she acknowledged as president she makes the final decision on major matters affecting the college, she said she does seek faculty input.

"At some point you say 'I don't think we're going to go left, I think we're going to go right.' I am in charge, I make the decision but I am open to input," Bellanca said in a late March interview. "Not everybody has to be involved in a decision because sometimes that would take forever and a day. But I do believe the people who are most impacted by that decision have some input."

Some faculty members say there have been small improvements. After listening to faculty concerns, she allowed the student newspaper to print a summer edition, which it originally been prohibited from doing this summer. She's begun sending email updates to faculty, and she went to the meeting with department chairs.

"She promised to improve collaboration and communication," said Carrie Krantz, chairwoman of WCC's English department. Krantz said that while such promises are positive, faculty are looking at Bellanca to follow them through.

"I haven't seen any evidence of it and I haven't seen any evidence of anything going wrong," Krantz said.

Bellanca in February announced a new advisory academic cabinet comprised of deans and select department chairs and faculty. Yet union leaders said they, along with department chairs, weren't consulted before she announced the cabinet.

David Fitzpatrick, chief negotiator for the faculty union, said that in a recent meeting with Bellanca she addressed faculty concerns piece-by-piece and had adopted a more positive tone with the union's leadership team.

"To her credit she laid out what she was doing to address issues. Of course, those issues arose because she didn't work with us to begin with," Fitzpatrick said.

Fitzpatrick says that while there have been improvements, he believes faculty is still not being fully informed about college initiatives. After hearing recently that WCC administrators were looking for ways to partner with a college in China, Fitzpatrick said he asked for details and didn't receive any.

"Things are improving, but the fundamental problem remains, and that is that there's a lack of communication about the projects and initiatives that the college is undertaking," he said. Fitzpatrick added that although details of the strategic plan were released Tuesday, for many months he was in the dark about the overarching goals of the plan.

The fall semester and the implementation of the strategic plan, faculty members say, will show if communication between administrators and faculty has improved. The faculty also wants to be intimately involved in the search for a new permanent vice president of instruction, and Bellanca has promised a collaborative search.

"We'd like to be able to say that there's been a track record of collaboration and so far we have the idea of collaboration and a spoken commitment to collaboration, but we'd like to actually have something to say 'Yes, that was a collaborative moment,' and we haven't had that yet," said Jason Withrow, a faculty member who has served on the strategic planning committee.

"The strategic plan has the potential to be really positive, but it depends on how it's implemented," Withrow continued. "If faculty are brought in and have a voice and have a strong role to play in it, then I think that's a very positive step. But if faculty are sidelined, then it's going to be very problematic going forward."

English instructor Sue Glowski put it bluntly: "Proof is in the pudding."

Strategic plan

Washtenaw Community College faculty, administrators and staff listen as details of the school's strategic plan are unveiled during a meeting in the Morris Lawrence building on Tuesday, May 14.

Daniel Brenner I AnnArbor.com

About seven faculty, and just as many staff, have been involved in crafting the parameters of the strategic plan. The majority of the plan committees are co-chaired jointly by an administrator and a faculty member. Staff and faculty were invited to participate in focus groups and fill out surveys about the college's future direction.

Bellanca said these measures are evidence of collaboration.

The plan is broad in scope. It includes blueprints for an entrepreneurship center, a centralized internship program and a center to lure more high schoolers to the college. It overhauls academic advising, emphasizes workforce development and establishes a college resource that aids instructors who want to experiment with their curriculum. It seeks to develop a fundraising campaign and increase grant requests to the National Science Foundation.

Bellanca said that now that the college is moving to the implementation phase of the plan, she's looking to college employees —and not outside experts— to lay the foundation and put it in place.

"It's all theirs, it's theirs ... faculty and staff," Bellanca said of the strategic plan after a WCC Board of Trustees meeting Thursday. "Everyone here is a part of this plan."

Bellanca joined WCC in fall 2011. She previously served as the provost and chief operating officer of Northwood University's Florida campus, president of St. Clair County Community College and provost of Macomb Community College. According to her personnel file, she earns $195,000.

When she arrived at WCC, enrollment was declining —there was a decline of nearly 10 percent in fall 2011, after years of increases. State funding for community colleges and public universities was cut by 15 percent.

Faculty members say the campus is healing after the firing in March of Blacklaw, the vice president of instruction who was hired by former president Larry Whitworth in 2010, and the sudden resignation of Steven Hardy, the chief financial officer, in November. They say the departures made employees distrustful of Bellanca's administration.

"The way [Blacklaw] was fired was ridiculous: the fact that he was fired when the faculty had been pushing very hard for them just to work together better," said Boluyt.

Julie Kissel, an English instructor who serves on the strategic planning committee, said the firing undermined faculty members' trust in Bellanca.

Bellanca has declined to comment on Blacklaw's departure specifically, but a review of his personnel file reveals a deteriorating relationship between WCC's two top leaders.

"I've lost confidence in Stuart's ability to lead and communicate with me in confidential matters when needed. The faculty and deans know that he does not support the president and believe there is conflict between us," Bellanca wrote in Blacklaw's June 2012 personnel review. "As president, I believe that having a positive culture to work and learn in is very important. Unfortunately, the deans or faculty members are not aware that their issues are not researched and presented as thoroughly as they could be and because of that they often receive an unfavorable answer."

In a written response to Bellanca's evaluation, Blacklaw wrote that administrators "cannot move an organization through intimidation" and that "those who empower and respect their staff get better performance in return."

In a late March interview, Bellanca said that when administrators aren't supportive of one another, the discontent reverberates throughout the organization.

"It's not any different from a sports team," she said. "You have to know that the person sitting next to you, that they're going to rely on each other. It's really hard to build a team if people don't feel committed to each other and just to where we are going."

Boluyt said that as the college moves forward with the interim vice president of instruction, Bill Abernethy, who is well-liked by instructors, he's hopeful that angered faculty can regain trust in Bellanca.

"We have an open mind. We're skeptical. We're not going to be convinced until we see the evidence," he said. "There's going to be an adjustment period [when a new president enters the college] but I think [the issues were about] more than that. Whether it continues to be more than that, we'll see."

The Board of Trustees, WCC's elected governing body, has publicly expressed confidence in the president. In an open letter released in late April, board chairwoman Anne Williams, on behalf of the board, said "there is clear evidence of [Bellanca's] efforts to commentate and collaborate."

"We are very aware that she has attended nearly 400 meetings with executive leadership, faculty, deans, chairs, the liaison team, union representatives, students and external constituencies," Williams wrote. "We are confident that the combination of continued strong performance from President Bellanca and her ongoing efforts to work with the college's faculty and staff members will help to ease some of the disconnect we have seen in recent weeks."

In an interview Tuesday, Trustee Diana McKnight-Morton said that at some point every college experiences a "bump in the road."

Trustee Stephen Gill said Bellanca, through the strategic plan, is trying to "get everybody on board to work across departments and disciplines." He said the plan "gives everybody a common direction," which could heal divides in the college.

Kellie Woodhouse covers higher education for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at kelliewoodhouse@annarbor.com or 734-623-4602 and follow her on twitter.

This parking lot, located on East Huron Street west of North Division, is zoned D1 and could potentially house a structure up to 180 feet tall.

Melanie Maxwell I AnnArbor.com

• Related: Video: Sabra Briere talks about challenges Ann Arbor faces with downtown zoning

The approval of another 14-story high-rise in downtown Ann Arbor marks the second time in recent years that City Council members have begrudgingly voted in favor of a controversial development they didn't like because they felt legally obligated to do so.

The first was City Place, a controversial student apartment project that involved knocking down a row of century-old homes on Fifth Avenue. Neighbors and city officials didn't like the project, but it was approved anyway, and the City Council found itself in a similar predicament again this week.

The 413 E. Huron apartment building, controversial because it will tower over a historic neighborhood to the north, met the city's zoning requirements and so the council had no choice but to approve it, argued the majority of council members who OK'd the project this week.

But following months of intense lobbying, protest, community debate, and hours of public hearings and deliberations, council members' failure to stop a project they didn't want to approve — at least not as presented — now raises questions about the city's downtown zoning.

City officials acknowledge it's time to reevaluate the zoning in certain areas to see if there are any fixes to prevent future projects that might be out of character with their surroundings. The City Council has directed the Planning Commission to undertake a thorough review of the D1 zoning.

"There are some areas that are working well and some areas that need to be changed to better reflect what the community wants," said Wendy Rampson, the city's planning manager.

Ann Arbor resident Widd Schmidt made this poster to show the proposed 413 E. Huron project — identified by the light yellow building — in relation to its neighborhood. The proposed building measures 263,504 square feet, containing a total of 208 apartments and 513 bedrooms.

Courtesy photo

Some have argued D2 step-down zoning with a 60-foot cap would be a better fit for areas like the 400 block of East Huron and other parts of downtown — especially edges that abut residential neighborhoods and historic districts where there's more potential for conflict.

Council Member Sabra Briere, D-1st Ward, has been leading the push for a review of the downtown zoning. At one point earlier this year, she proposed a six-month moratorium on downtown development, but the council voted 6-5 against it.

Nonetheless, the majority of council members still decided a review of the D1 zoning is in order, and that effort should get under way soon.

The Planning Commission has until Oct. 1 to complete the review and report back to council with its recommendations.

The council is asking the Planning Commission to address whether D1 zoning is appropriate for the north side of Huron Street between North Division and North State (the area of the 413 E. Huron project) and the south side of East William Street between South Main and South Fourth Avenue.

The council also is asking the commission to consider whether the D1 residential floor area ratio (FAR) premiums effectively encourage a diverse downtown population.

Mayor John Hieftje and other council members have said they'd like to see fewer apartments that cater to University of Michigan students and more workforce housing built for young professionals.

The council also is asking the Planning Commission to consider rezoning a parcel on the south side of Ann Street — adjacent to the north side of city hall — that is zoned D1.

Council Member Christopher Taylor, D-3rd Ward, said the multi-year A2D2 initiative that resulted in new zoning for the downtown in 2009 was an intensive public process.

"In the vast majority of cases, we got it right," he said. "I'm looking forward to revisiting residential premiums to better achieve our goal of increased workforce housing."

This map shows the different zoning designation of downtown properties and highlights the areas where the city is considering redevelopment opportunities for city-owned properties (shown in purple). The city's D1 core downtown zoning allows for buildings up to 180 feet tall (some have 150-foot caps), while the D2 step-down zoning allows for buildings up to 60 feet tall. Mayor John Hieftje, who has lived in Ann Arbor since 1951, estimated less than 40 percent of downtown Ann Arbor ever will be redeveloped because of the zoning designations and restrictions on properties.

Ann Arbor DDA

At this point, city officials say they aren't aware of any other potential downtown development projects that could cause the kind of controversy seen with 413 E. Huron.

But under the current zoning, Briere said, there are certain properties where the city is left vulnerable, such as the private parking lot on Ann Street just east of city hall. It's owned by the UM Credit Union, which purchased it along with the former Ann Arbor News building in 2010.

"We're vulnerable there for two reasons," she said, mentioning that it's next to a residential neighborhood and it's zoned for 180-foot-tall development.

"So, if a creative, wealthy developer came along, that creative, wealthy developer theoretically could acquire the Ahmo's property (at the northwest corner of Division and Huron), the property next to that on Huron … and the parking lot, and they could build a big, 180-foot-tall development."

Briere said she's also concerned the east side of South Main Street from William to Packard is zoned D1, creating the potential for a future 180-foot development towering over nearby houses.

"It's not a historic district, but it's a residential area that has some very active, very engaged people who live there," Briere said. "And they have invested in these downtown homes to live in … and they would see a 180-foot-tall building literally in their backyard as an overwhelming threat."

Briere said the row of houses on Thompson Street between Liberty and William in the middle of downtown are zoned D1 and theoretically could be bulldozed for a 180-foot-tall development.

Rampson said the planning staff will turn its attention to establishing a scope for the upcoming review of the downtown zoning now that the 413 E. Huron project has gone through council.

She said planning commissioners might be interested in doing a deeper dive than the council suggested. She said the items council wants addressed would be prioritized to meet the Oct. 1 deadline, and the Planning Commission could keep talking further after that.

In another attempt to take a closer look at the city's planning procedures, the City Council in March decided to reconvene the city's Design Guidelines Task Force to review and make recommendations to council regarding improvements to the city's design guidelines and design review process. The task force must report back to council in September with a set of recommendations.

Rampson said the Planning Commission is eager to dive in and figure out what changes can be made to improve the design review process. Right now it's mandatory that developers take their projects before the city's Design Review Board, but the board's suggestions don't have to be followed.

Local radio show host Lucy Ann Lance interviewed Council Member Jane Lumm on Tuesday morning after Monday's approval of the 413 E. Huron site plan, which Lumm voted against.

In the interview, Lumm raised concerns about the D1 zoning along Huron Street, argued the city's design guidelines lack teeth, and questioned whether the student housing market is saturated. She also explained her vote against the development, disagreeing that it met city code.

"I think our obligation is to approve site plans when they meet all of our development-related ordinances and regulations, and this one certainly didn't in my view," she said. "And I also think it will result in a detrimental effect to the public health, safety and welfare of the community."

• Listen to the full interview

Briere, who also was among a minority of council members who voted against the 413 E. Huron project, said it's not about being anti-development.

"The fact that we didn't find value in this project was the problem — not that we didn't want something built there," she said, adding she wants to see more housing built downtown.

"We talk about the early-career young professional living downtown, and I absolutely want to see housing work for that demographic," she said. "But also people in their 50s and 60s who want to move out of their four-bedroom homes that they no longer want and need."

As part of an annual review of the city's master plan, the Planning Commission will hold a public hearing at 7 p.m. May 21 inside city hall. The commission is seeking comments about master plan elements that should be studied for possible change or new elements that should be added.

The master plan is a collection of plans that work together to describe a vision for the city's future and guide decisions about its land use, transportation, infrastructure, environment, housing and public facilities. The adopted master plan elements can be found on the city's website.

Ryan J. Stanton covers government and politics for AnnArbor.com. Reach him at ryanstanton@annarbor.com or 734-623-2529. You also can follow him on Twitter or subscribe to AnnArbor.com's email newsletters.

The Powerball jackpot has soared to $550 million after no one matched the winning numbers Wednesday.

The Powerball jackpot has increased to $550 million, after no one won the prize on Wednesday.

The prize is the second largest Powerball jackpot of all time, ABC News reported.

The drawing is at 10:59 p.m. Saturday and to win the entire jackpot, players must match all five numbers and the red Powerball. The estimated cash value of the prize is $350.1 million, according to Powerball’s website.

Over the course of Thursday, the jackpot has increased $75 million from the original $475 million reported earlier in the day.

The winning numbers for the Wednesday drawing were: 2, 11, 26, 34, 41 and a Powerball of 32. The jackpot was $360 million for the Wednesday drawing. Tickets in Delaware and Pennsylvania won $5 million and there were 16 states that had $1 million winners, according to Powerball's website. Powerball's largest jackpot to date was $587.5 million in November. Two other jackpots in the past year have topped $300 million.

Katrease Stafford covers Ypsilanti for AnnArbor.com.Reach her at katreasestafford@annarbor.com or 734-623-2548 and follow her on twitter.

Eastern Michigan University student Michael Petersen will have a portion of his zombie film, The Last Broadcast, screened at this weekend's Motor City Comic Con in Novi, Heritage Media reported.

Petersen's film will be screened at the Motor City Comic Con

The convention is the largest show of its type in the state of Michigan and several comic book writers, artists, and filmmakers will be at the Suburban Collection Showcase, located at 46100 Grand River Road.

Comic book legend Stan Lee and Norman Reedus of the widely successful AMC show “The Walking Dead," will be at the event, as well as former "Doctor Who" star Colin Baker, according to Heritage. The convention runs Friday, Saturday and Sunday and tickets are $25 per day or $60 for a three-day pass.

• Read the Heritage Media article.

Katrease Stafford covers Ypsilanti for AnnArbor.com.Reach her at katreasestafford@annarbor.com or 734-623-2548 and follow her on twitter.

Editor's note: This story was updated at 4:50 p.m. with comments from Enbridge.

Lane closures on Interstate 94 just east of Chelsea in Lima Township are set for Thursday and Friday nights as workers fix a dip in the roadway where a crude oil pipeline was recently installed.

Enbridge Pipelines Toledo Inc., the company that had installed the pipeline as a part of its Line 79 expansion project, has hired a contractor to do the work, said Mark Sweeney, manager of the Michigan Department of Transportation’s Brighton post.

Westbound Interstate 94 at mile 163 as of May 3 in Lima Township. There's a small sinkage in I-94 at the site where Enbridge directionally drilled underneath the road to install a new pipeline.

Courtney Sacco | AnnArbor.com file photo

The company is the only entity with a recent permit for work at the site of the sinkage, Sweeney said.

Enbridge opted to contract and pay for the repair of the road, Sweeney said.

“There was no assigning of blame and responsibility,” Sweeney said. “Enbridge has recognized there’s a problem and they’re working with us on a solution.”

Enbridge released the following statement Thursday:

"We are working with MDOT to address the situation as quickly as possible. MDOT identified a repair procedure to and we are carrying out that work now. We will continue to work with MDOT to ensure the road remains safe for public use."

Enbridge had drilled horizontally underneath I-94 in Lima Township to place a new 20-inch diameter pipe that will be a part a new Line 79 system connecting cross-country Line 6B with refineries in Detroit and Toledo. Line 79 is 35 miles long.

When the pipe was placed underneath I-94, the disturbance and removal of soil from beneath the roadway may have created voids.

The voids compromised the integrity of the pavement and, with the high-traffic volume on the road, caused it to sag, Sweeney said.

“The road itself is not damaged -- it’s the base beneath the roadway,” Sweeney said.

Overnight lane closures beginning on westbound I-94 and then eastbound I-94 this week have been in place as the contracted company repairs the road:

• Single lane closure from 9 p.m. Thursday to 5 a.m. Friday on eastbound I-94 just east of Fletcher Road
• Single lane closure from 9 p.m. Friday to 8 a.m. Saturday on eastbound I-94 just east of Fletcher Road

After drilling into the pavement to see the extent of the void, a solution is injected into the space to fill it and provide support to the road.

“It’s a proven method,” Sweeney said, noting MDOT has used the procedure before.

Enbridge’s contractor is conducting the work under the permit Enbridge had to complete the drilling underneath the roadway, Sweeney said.

“This is not a situation that we deal with often,” Sweeney said.

View Eastbound I-94 lane closures for Enbridge road repairs in a larger map

Amy Biolchini covers Washtenaw County, health and environmental issues for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at (734) 623-2552, amybiolchini@annarbor.com or on Twitter.

The woman who reportedly convinced her boyfriend to stab a man in the abdomen will serve up to 10 years in prison, a judge ruled Thursday.

Courtney McCoy

Courtesy of the WCSO

Courtney McCoy, 21, will serve between two years and two months and 10 years in prison on both a count of assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder and conspiracy to commit assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder. She also was sentenced to serve between two years and two months and five years in prison for a charge of carrying a weapon with unlawful intent.

McCoy pleaded no contest to all three charges in April. In court Thursday, McCoy apologized to the victim, who she was friendly with before the incident.

“I know I’m responsible for the part I had in this case,” McCoy said. “I send my sincere apologies to the victim. We had a great relationship prior to this case.”

McCoy and her boyfriend Dorian Johnson will both be serving up to 10 years in prison for the alcohol-fueled stabbing that took place about 3:30 a.m. Sept. 9.

Galien Foster, 22, was in his apartment in the 400 block of South First Street in Ann Arbor when he heard a knock and got up to answer the door. On the other side was Johnson, who stabbed Foster in a horizontal motion across his abdomen, according to his testimony at Johnson’s sentencing.

Dorian Johnson

Courtesy of WCSO

Foster walked “with my guts in my hands” to the BP gas station at the corner of William and South Main streets. Police and medical personnel were called to the gas station and Foster was taken to the hospital. It took three major surgeries for Foster to fully heal.

McCoy’s sentencing hearing Thursday was a tearful affair. Many of her friends and family members were in Washtenaw County Trial Court Judge David Swartz’s courtroom and they became very emotional as her sentence was read out.

The incident was McCoy’s first contact with the criminal justice system and out of character, said James Gallagher, her attorney. He asked for a bottom-of-the-guidelines sentence for McCoy because of her history of good behavior and the fact that she is pregnant.

Gallagher said McCoy is truly apologetic for the whole incident and has expressed her remorse to him many times.

“She is truly thankful Mr. Foster was able to recover from the injuries that he suffered,” Gallagher said.

Washtenaw County Assistant Prosecutor Blake Hatlem called McCoy the instigator of the incident. At Johnson’s sentencing, Erika Julien — Johnson’s attorney — said McCoy urged Johnson to stab Foster while Johnson was intoxicated and stuck the knife into his hand.

It’s still not clear what type of dispute was going on between Foster and McCoy that led to the stabbing. In court Thursday, McCoy said she never had the intention to hurt Foster.

However, his injuries were so severe that Foster nearly died, Hatlem said.

“This could have been a murder case,” he said, asking for a top-of-the-guidelines sentence.

The plea deal accepted by McCoy saw her plead no contest to the three charges while charges of assault with intent to murder, conspiracy to commit assault with intent to murder, carrying a weapon with unlawful intent, assault with a dangerous weapon and conspiracy to commit assault with a dangerous weapon were all dropped.

She received credit for 82 days previously served in jail. Her sentences will all run concurrent.

“The prosecution’s theory is that this wouldn’t have occurred without the actions of this defendant,” Swartz said just before sentencing McCoy.

Before she was led away to be cuffed and taken to prison, McCoy said the incident was not reflective of who she is.

“I hung out with the wrong people and … got caught up and was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” she said.

Kyle Feldscher covers cops and courts for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at kylefeldscher@annarbor.com or you can follow him on Twitter.

• Related: Michigan Board of Regents approve $16M field hockey, softball and baseball projects

University of Michigan's new student body president told the school's Board of Regents that he and other students are not happy about a new seating policy that will be introduced at home football games in the fall.

Instead of seat placement assigned by seniority, seating in the student section at Michigan football games will now be first-come, first-serve.

"The students are upset to say the least, they feel that the athletic department broke its long-held social contract with the students," said Michael Proppe, Central Student Government president for the 2013-14 academic year.

The Michigan Student section during a 2011 game.

Proppe asked for more collaboration between students and university leaders during a Thursday public Board of Regents meeting at U-M's Dearborn campus.

The athletic department changed the student seating policy to encourage students to show up earlier for games. Student turnout has been a challenge in recent years, with particularly low turnouts for kickoff at noon games.

U-M athletic director Dave Brandon approximated that at Michigan's home game against Northwestern on Nov. 10, 2012, 7,000 of the 22,000 student ticket holders didn't show up for the game at all and even more were late.

"It's just a downer for our team to charge out of the tunnel and see the student section half-empty," he said at an April 29 faculty senate committee meeting. "I'd like to believe that they're all studying but you and I have been up and down State Street enough to know that our students have a lot of choices."

Several Big Ten schools use a general admission practice for student seating, including Michigan State University and Penn State University.

Proppe said while he understands Brandon's reasoning, he thinks students should have been consulted on the change.

"I wish the first step had been going to students and saying 'how can we get you to show up on time?'" Proppe said. Brandon has been informally encouraging students to show up early since the 2011 season.

Proppe asked the board and university administrators to seek student opinion in future initiatives. He mentioned the upcoming presidential search to replace Mary Sue Coleman, who is retiring in July 2014, as an example.

"The university is going through some significant changes in the coming years," he said. "Central Student Government as the voice of the students would like to set a precedent of student input."

Along with changing the seating policy, the athletic department also increased student ticket prices from $32.50 to $40 per game.

Kellie Woodhouse covers higher education for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at kelliewoodhouse@annarbor.com or 734-623-4602 and follow her on twitter.

Just weeks after closing a $33 million round of funding, the leadership of Plymouth Township-based Esperion Therapeutics has declared its intention to take the company public.

In documents filed Tuesday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company declared that it is setting a $70 million goal for the initial public offering and will be traded on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol ESPR.

Esperion President and CEO Tim Mayleben (left) and Chief Science Officer Roger Newton are taking the company public for the second time.

Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com file photo

When Pfizer closed its Ann Arbor offices in 2007, it also shut down work on the drugs that Esperion had been developing. The following year, Newton raised more than $22 million to buy back the intellectual property and re-launched the company.

Newton stepped aside as CEO of Esperion in January when Tim Mayleben, who had been the chief operating officer and chief financial officer of the original Esperion, returned to lead the company.

Esperion is currently focused on clinical tests of a drug that would lower “bad” LDL cholesterol without the use of statins, which cause a negative reaction in some patients. Mayleben previously told AnnArbor.com that the drug, ETC-1002, is on track to be submitted to the FDA for approval in approximately three years.

“We’re pursuing a path that would allow us to take this drug through [the FDA] approval process and onto the market ourselves,” he said at the time.

In 2000, the first Esperion filed an IPO looking to raise $138 million. The company was listed on Nasdaq for three years before Pfizer purchased the company for $35 per share.

The pharmaceutical giant paid a premium to acquire the company. According to a CNN article, the purchase price was 54 percent higher than Esperion’s average closing share trading price over the 20 days before the company was purchased.

In its current form, Esperion employs 13 people, many of whom worked for the first Esperion and Pfizer, at the Michigan Life Science and Innovation Center that was also formerly a Pfizer property.

The company has raised nearly $57 million since its inception five years ago, including multiple investments from local venture capital fund Arboretum Ventures.

In its IPO filings, Esperion reported that as a development stage company it had net losses of $11.7 million in 2012 and $10.8 million in 2011. Like most pharmaceutical startups, the company will continue to operate at a loss until the drug is commercialized.

Mayleben declined to comment on the company’s filing.

Ben Freed covers business for AnnArbor.com. You can sign up here to receive Business Review updates every week. Reach out to Ben at 734-623-2528 or email him at benfreed@annarbor.com. Follow him on twitter @BFreedinA2

The Michigan field hockey team, pictured above, will be getting a new facility following the 2013 season.

Joseph Tobianski | AnnArbor.com file photo

• Related: University of Michigan students upset over new football seating policy

As expected, the Michigan Board of Regents approved two major athletic facilities projects at its meeting on Thursday. With the stamp of approval in hand, the athletic department can go forward with plans to break ground on construction of a $13.5 million field hockey facility and make $2.55 million in improvements to the Wilpon Baseball and Softball Complex.

“We are appreciative of the donor support for both of these projects,” said athletic director Dave Brandon in a release. “The two projects are part of our department’s strategic initiative to build a connected athletic campus that will unify all 31 teams. We are excited about the future for each of these three varsity teams."

The projects are part of the department's $250 million commitment to non-revenue sports, which Brandon laid out in May 2012.

The field hockey improvement will include a 13,000-square-foot building that will include locker rooms, offices, training areas, hydrotherapy pools and broadcast capabilities. The artificial playing surface at will also be replaced at Ocker Field. Construction will begin on the project following the 2013 fall season and is expected to be completed by the 2014 season.

The grass at Alumni Field, pictured above, and at Ray Fisher Stadium will be replaced with artificial turf.

Daniel Brenner | AnnArbor.com file photo

“The new playing surface will allow our student-athletes greater opportunities for outdoor practices at all times of the year,” Brandon said in a release.

The softball program also will be getting a new $5.3 million center next year, which the regents approved of in March. The softball and baseball projects are all expected to be completed before the 2014 spring season.

Pete Cunningham covers sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at petercunningham@annarbor.com. Follow him on Twitter @petcunningham.

Colleen O'Brien won the No. 1 singles regional title Thursday at Greenhills.

Daniel Brenner | AnnArbor.com

Colleen O’Brien was back at Greenhills Thursday, once again wearing green and once again winning a girls tennis regional title.

But this year, the flight and the team were both different.

O’Brien, the No. 2 singles state champion for the Gryphons last year, transferred to Father Gabriel Richard for her junior season.

Playing No. 1 singles this year, O’Brien won her second straight regional championship with a 6-0, 6-2, finals win over Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central

“I had good confidence out there I’d say,” O’Brien said. “I think my forehand was working pretty well.

O’Brien was one of three Gabriel Richard singles regional champions, helping the Fighting Irish qualify for the state tournament for the sixth consecutive year. Senior Anjali Sood won the No. 2 singles flight and junior Maddy Szuba won No. 3 singles, while freshman Sarah Szuba finished runner-up at No. 4 singles.

“It was a really good day in singles,” Gabriel Richard coach Jim Sayed said. “And they work really hard all year-round, and the results came today so a really nice showing for them.”

Grosse Ile took home the regional title, and SMCC also advanced from the state finals from the Greenhills regional. All three will compete at Kalamazoo College May 31-June 1 in the state finals.

Greenhills, our AnnArbor.com Team of the Week, was unable to make it back to the state finals after finishing No. 3 in the state last year. This year’s Gryphons lineup features just two seniors and one junior, after losing O’Brien and No. 1 singles state champion Kasey Gardiner from last year’s team.

“We need experience in every facet of the game and especially in competing well,” Greenhills coach Mark Randolph said. “My hope is that this is a step in the direction of learning how to compete. We’ll see if we can build on that next year, that’s our plan at least.”

The Gryphons best flight of the day was No. 4 doubles, when the team of Minna Wybrecht and Anicka Gajar won a first set tiebreaker in a semifinals match, then dropped the second set 6-0 before winning the third set 6-4 to make the finals.

“This is a new team but also a nice team,” Randolph said. “They competed well, I’d like to think all four of them are going to be proud.”

With her regional title, O’Brien stayed undefeated on the year against a schedule that has included many of the top players from around the state moving up to No. 1 singles in a tough Gabriel Richard schedule.

The Irish went 13-1 in duals on the year, facing every top ten team in Division 4 and several top teams in the other three divisions. Their only loss on the year was to defending Division 4 state champion Bloomfield Hills Sacred Heart.

“We have a very demanding schedule, and they’ve done a great job with it,” Sayed said.

O’Brien said her toughest competition two weeks from now in Kalamazoo will be Meika Ashby, a Kalamazoo Hackett senior whose only high school loss was to Gardiner in last year’s state finals.

“I think I’ve got a good chance of going the distance, so we’ll see how it goes,” O’Brien said.

Kyle Austin covers sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at kyleaustin@annarbor.com or 734-623-2535. Follow him on Twitter @KAustin_AA.

Michigan second baseman Ashley Lane, above, said she's looking forward to home field advantage for the NCAA Tournament.

Daniel Brenner | AnnArbor.com file photo

And if there is a second leg, the Wolverines will have home field advantage again.

The Wolverines will host the NCAA Regional Friday-Sunday at Alumni Field, and as a No. 8 seed in the tournament are guaranteed to host a Super-Regional the following weekend should they win. Michigan coach Carol “Hutch” Hutchins sees it as a huge advantage.

“We spend so many weeks on the road, so to get to be home here at the end of the year is an added bonus, just to be in our comfort zone and in front of our fans. And it’s such a great reward to our fans,” Hutchins said. “And Alumni Field is a top facility not just as a facility but, when we fill it, it’s one of the greatest venues to play in.”

2013 NCAA Women's Softball Tournament

Regional schedule:

Friday, May 17
Game 1 - Central Michigan vs. California, 4:30 p.m.
Game 2 - Michigan vs. Valparaiso, 7 p.m.*

Saturday, May 18
Game 3 - Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner, Noon
Game 4 - Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser, 2:30 p.m.
Game 5 - Game 3 loser vs. Game 4 winner, 5 p.m.

Sunday, May 19
Game 6 - Game 3 winner vs. Game 5 winner, 1 p.m.
Game 7 (if necessary) - Game 6 winner vs. Game 6 loser, 3:30 p.m.

“I love being at home. I would not want to spend, especially being a senior (year), my games anywhere else. At home is where it feels best,” senior second baseman Ashley Lane said. “There’s nothing better than being at home.”

Michigan pitcher Sara Driesenga called Alumni Field “one of the best places to play in the country,” and said she’s looking forward to experiencing the postseason there after hitting the road for the regional round last season. Michigan's juniors and seniors have all experienced hosting a regional in years past.

Driesenga is not alone in her sentiments.

“From what the upperclassmen have told me about how crazy it gets here and how packed and just the environment and having home field advantage, I’m really excited for it,” freshman shortstop Sierra Romero said.

Romero said she’s not just looking forward to her first postseason at home, but also to getting off on a new foot after a disappointing Big Ten Tournament in which the conference player of the year was 0-for-8 without zero RBIs. Michigan, the regular season champions, was ousted in the semifinals.

“One thing that one of my friends told me is you can’t stumble on things in the past. You need to just move on and I’m really excited to have this weekend to just start over,” Romero said. “Things didn’t go our way (at the Big Ten Tournament), now we have a way to change it and do something about it.”

State of the state

The Michigan softball team won’t be the only team representing the Great Lakes state at the regional with Central Michigan playing in the tournament as well. Between Central and Michigan, 29 players from Michigan will be participating in the tournament, including Chelsea High School alumnus Brogan Darwin, a senior outfielder for the Chippewas.

“I think it’s great for the state of Michigan,” Hutchins said. “There’s going to be a lot of kids from the state that are going to be playing in this tournament this weekend. It’s awesome.”

Pete Cunningham covers sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at petercunningham@annarbor.com. Follow him on Twitter @petcunningham.

Saturday Looks Good To Me will release a new album on Tuesday.

photo by Doug Coombe | courtesy of Polyvinyl Records

Now, 6 years after its last release and after more individual releases and collaborations than you could possibly count, Thomas has resurrected his former band.

“It doesn’t feel like a comeback album so much as it was just time to get things going again,” said Thomas over a couple of beers at a watering hole down the street from his Ypsilanti home. “It’s not that Saturday is necessarily the best single outlet for me—it’s that it’s the best outlet for a certain kind of pure pop song that I’ve always loved to deeply and have always been able to rely on.”

On May 21, Polyvinyl, SLGTM’s longtime label, will release “One Kiss Ends It All,” the band’s fifth full-length record (among several 7-inch releases, cassettes, compilations and other assorted releases) and its first since 2007’s “Fill Up The Room.”

A lot has happened to Thomas since then. He moved to Portland, then moved to New York City, then moved back home again to the Ann Arbor area. He released records with his noise band, City Center, with Mighty Clouds (a collaboration with former SLGTM singer Betty Marie Barnes;) and with local supergroup Swimsuit, not to mention a couple of solo records, and scads of tapes on his Life Like cassette label. And that only barely scratches the surface.

Along the way, he’s established an international reputation, not only as a bandleader, collaborator and genius songwriter, but also as one of the most reliably kind, thoughtful and extraordinarily accessible artists you’re likely to find.

Yet since folding the band following a a June 2008 performance in London, Saturday Looks Good To Me has remained something of a crucible for the 36-year-old Thomas. On the one hand, it’s the project he’s most closely associated with and the one that more or less established his reputation. On the other hand, for all its acclaim, the band never really lived up to its commercial potential or Thomas’ strict standards and ever-evolving musical passions.

By 2009, Thomas felt SLGTM had run its course and he was focusing his energies on myriad other projects.

“I really did think I was done with it,” he said, thinking back over SLGTM’s tumultuous, 6-year initial run. “We were working hard the whole time, but we were just playing the same shows and I don’t know if the records we were making were having any kind of an impact.

“I think we kind of confused our audience.”

Then one day in 2011, Thomas was talking to his old friend and former SLGTM band member Elliot Bergman, who suggested that, perhaps, it was for time for Thomas to re-launch his signature band.

“That was basically it: a challenge from a friend,” Thomas says with a laugh. “I started writing songs for it that night.”

Soon, a reconstituted SLGTM was playing shows, and beginning work on what was to become “One Kiss Ends It All.”

The next step was to contact the folks at Polyvinyl, the label that has served as SLGTM’s longtime home base. The highly regarded label is also home to such indie luminaries as Loney Dear, Deerhoof and of Montreal, among others, and has been a staunch supporter of Thomas.

“Polyvinyl has really grown and become one of the indie labels that’s really a success story,” he said. “But they were really excited about a new Saturday record and that was really important to me.”

Of course a lot changes during 6 years. Band members scatter and others find jobs and settle down. While SLGTM has always been something of a loose confederation built around Thomas, the only returning member this time around is bassist Scott DeRoche, who has been with the band on and off since it formed in 2000. Rounding out the current version of the band is keyboardist Amber Fellows, guitarist Shelley Salant and singer Carol Gray. Thomas said the band might change from one gig to the next, with, say, a horn section dropping in for a night.

Thomas worked with friend and collaborator Brook Davis to engineer and produce the new record, which he recorded both in Chicago and at Jim Roll’s Backseat Studio in Ann Arbor, as well as doing some recording at home.

Yet, if the sounds are familiar, lots has changed about how Thomas approached this recording.

“The earlier records, I was recording them myself and kind of making things up as I went along, then piecing them together” he said. “There was a detachment, because I wasn’t really thinking about the finished products.

“But this record started out as songs.”

And the record’s buoyant sound belies the somewhat bleak content of the songs.

“The sound is happy, but the songs are lonely,” Thomas explained. “There’s lots of solitude and empty heartbreak.

“But Saturday has always been an outlet for my heartbroken songs.”

In other ways, though, the new record marks a clear line of delineation from any of the band’s previous incarnations.

And as his interests and musical horizons have broadened, so has his perspective.

Not unlike the proverbial river that can’t be stepped in twice, the new Saturday Looks Good To Me is both the same and different at the same time.

“I don’t feel the same way about it anymore, because in a way, that band is done,” he said. “I think I’d feel really sad if everything was the same as it was at the turn of the century.

“Everything you do leads to the next thing you do.”

For upcoming concert dates, see the Tour section of the SLGTM Facebook page.

• Related: Three Gryphons make tough doubles-to-singles transition
• Sunday: A year after fall from dorm window, Lexi Pew back supporting Greenhills tennis

The first seven matches of the Saline-Greenhills girls tennis dual all finished in straight sets Tuesday, and players crowded around to watch the final remaining one, No. 4 singles.

When the two players split the first two sets, the coaches huddled together to decide whether or not to play out the entire third set with everyone else already finished. For Gryphons coach Mark Randolph, there was no question he wanted his player, freshman Anjali Purohit, to play out the set.

THE INSIDE SCOOP

State Ranking: Greenhills is tied for No. 10 in this week’s Michigan High School Tennis Coaches Association rankings.

Top athletes: The No. 4 doubles team of Makaila DeSano-Smith and Anicka Gajar had the best regular season among Greenhills players, earning the No. 2 regional seed after recording wins over Father Gabriel Richard and Monroe St. Mary Catholic Central. Rae Schueller had a tough season at No. 1 singles but is a former state champion and state runner-up in doubles.

P-T for short: It’s no surprise that on the results sheet, Greenhills shortens this mouthful of a name: Christina Panagoulia-Triantafillopoulis, a No. 1 doubles player, goes by Christina P-T, for short.

Presidential Classmate: Randolph graduated from Occidental College in 1983 in a class of 400. But he never met a classmate of his named Barack Obama, despite spending plenty of time playing pickup on the basketball court.

“I like my chances against him,” Randolph said. “I think I could back him down.”

Good coaching: Half of the Gryphons’ No. 4 doubles team Anicka Gajar -- the daughter of longtime Greenhills boys tennis coach Eric Gajar.

Quote: “We’ve got some sophomores and we’re going to try and make them fall in love with the game, learn how to be a team and what the value of that is.” -- Coach Mark Randolph

“This is a great day for her to come out here and to learn how to play the game,” Randolph said later.

Randolph recognized the value in the court time for Purohit, who would go on to win the third set and the Gryphons’ only match of the day. The match marked her best tennis of the year, he said.

Randolph has led Greenhills knows getting to the pinnacle of Michigan high school tennis, and he’s knows it will take patience and plenty of practice -- like a third set in already-clinched match -- to get back there.

“There’s a short game and there’s a long game, and we’re going to try to play the long game,” Randolph said. “It took me 12 years to build up a program where we could win the state championship. Life is about cycles. We’re going to have to gear up again.”

Consider the 2013 season the start of the post-Kasey Gardiner cycle. Gardiner won two state titles for the Gryphons in an undefeated high school career, and went off to Wake Forest to play this season.

Her freshman year, Greenhills won its first and only girls tennis state title in 2009.

She’s one of seven players from last year’s team -- which finished third in the state finals -- that have moved on. That includes No. 2 singles state champion Colleen O’Brien, who won a No. 1 singles regional title for Father Gabriel Richard Thursday.

What Randolph was left with was a young lineup and a rebuild on his hands. None of his 2013 singles lineup played singles at the high school level last year: three played varsity doubles, and Purohit entered as a freshman.

Last year’s No. 4 doubles team from last year moved up to play No. 1 doubles this year. Everyone else in doubles is new.

There’s been plenty of instruction this year, and the Gryphons won’t be returning to the state tournament after placing fourth in Thursday’s regional.

“We need experience in every facet of the game and especially in competing well,” Randolph said. “My hope is that this is a step in the direction of learning how to compete. We’ll see if we can build on that next year, that’s our plan at least.”

This year’s lineup features only two seniors -- Rae Schueller at No. 1 singles, Emily Chung at No. 2 singles. In addition, there is one junior, seven sophomores and a freshman.

“It’s a completely new experience for everybody,” Schueller said. “A lot of the girls have never even played doubles before, so it was a completely new experience.”

For the Gryphons, this spring was a bad one to be one of the rainiest and coldest in recent memory, multiple early competitions couldn’t be held.

But the hopes are still high for the future, particularly for the large sophomore class, that it can bring the Gryphons back to the state finals.

“I’m hoping that they’ll step up and they’ll learn the lessons of competition and teamwork and start building something special,” Randolph said. “It’s always up to the athletes to decide how much they want to invest in the activity. If they want to make it special, then it will be special. I can’t make it so for them.”

Kyle Austin covers sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at kyleaustin@annarbor.com or 734-623-2535. Follow him on Twitter @KAustin_AA.

Greenhills No 1 singles player Rae Schueller plays against Saline on Tuesday, May 14.

Daniel Brenner I AnnArbor.com

• Related: Greenhills girls tennis playing the 'long game' in quest for return to state title contention
• Sunday: A year after fall from dorm window, Lexi Pew back supporting Greenhills tennis

The holes were plenty in the Greenhills lineup heading into the 2013 season, with seven players having moved on from a team that finished third at the state finals last year.

That meant some players would have to be making moves up the lineup. Big moves.

None of those moves were bigger than Rae Schueller going to the No. 1 singles spot after three years in doubles. Nevermind that she had won a doubles state title three years ago, been a No. 1 doubles state runner-up last year and never played singles.

It was a tough transition on the court. But her contributions were felt nonetheless.

“A lot of stuff has led to that but Rae has been a real trooper,” Greenhills coach Mark Randolph said of moving her to No. 1 singles. “She has been a great asset to the program.”

Schueller was one of two Greenhills players who finished their careers at Tuesday’s regional meet, along with senior Emily Chung.

Schueller and Chung and sophomore Pallavi Prabhu all made the same transition from last year's doubles lineup to this year's singles lineup..

For Schueller, one of the biggest changes was on the mental side.

“Everybody says it’s a mental game, and you have to be able to come back,” Schueller said. “Say you’re down 4-0, you have to be able to say ‘Well I can still get in this,’ and you have to keep your mindset right, otherwise it’s downhill from there.”

As a freshman, Schueller won the state title at No. 4 doubles. After the Gryphons missed the state tournament in 2011, she was scheduled to play No. 2 doubles as a junior last year.

But that was before the team had to do without Lexi Pew, who missed the tennis season after suffering serious injuries in a fall from a Michigan State dorm room window.

Schueller was called on late to move up to No. 1 doubles alongside senior Sarah McIntosh. It was an unlikely pairing.

“Her and I together are fun and goofy, and that’s why we could never picture each other being serious about tennis,” Schueller said.

And the expectations were decidedly low.

“We weren’t expecting to win or anything,” Schueller said. “But we just went out there and we went ahead and we just kept at it.”

But the two kept winning, and capped off the year with a state semifinal win over a team from Pontiac Notre Dame Prep that Randolph called “brilliant.”

Little did Schueller know then that the match marked the end of a successful doubles career. She might rather be playing her senior year vying for another doubles state title, instead of getting her first taste of singles in a gauntlet of multiple Division 1 opponents and four state-ranked Division 4 teams on the Gryphons’ schedule.

But helping out a younger team gearing for the future isn’t bad either.

“She’s had a great career here, and she’ll be long-remembered for her contributions,” Randolph said. “And it’s been nice to have her passing that on to the kids this year.

“She wanted to lead the team, and she’s doing a great job.”

Kyle Austin covers sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at kyleaustin@annarbor.com or 734-623-2535. Follow him on Twitter @KAustin_AA.

One of University of Michigan's largest and most-used entertainment venues will be getting a $1.5 million renovation soon.

U-M photo

The Power Center hasn't had a major improvement since it was built in 1971, said U-M Chief Financial Officer Timothy Slottow.

"It will feel very new," Slottow said during a public board meeting on Thursday held at U-M's Dearborn campus. Slottow expects the project to be completed in spring 2015. The 45,100-square-foot Power Center has nearly 1,370 seats and is home to most U-M theater performances.

Kellie Woodhouse covers higher education for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at kelliewoodhouse@annarbor.com or 734-623-4602 and follow her on twitter.

Science fairs are often nerve-wracking affairs for middle schoolers. But Friday night at Ann Arbor’s Hands-On Museum, the students will get a chance relax and enjoy a reverse science fair where local companies will present their own science and technology projects.

The TechTwilight event will showcase displays from approximately 30 local companies who will “compete” for the attention of attendees and “prizes from celebrity judges.

Participants try out one of the displays at last year's TechTwilight event.

Courtesy Hands-On Museum

Event chairwoman Megan Torrance, who is also the owner of Chelsea-based online training company TorranceLearning, has brought her company to the event every year since it began five years ago.

“It’s one of the most fun things we do as a team,” she said.

“We all get together, we put together the display and try to explain what we do in regular terms that kids and their parents can understand. And then it’s great for us because we get to see how real people interact with what we’re making.”

The event challenges companies that normally make complex products to make their innovations accessible for a younger audience.

“My company taught Dow Chemical employees how to do marketing, but that’s pretty boring for a middle schooler,” Torrance said.

“So what we’re bringing is an electric composter we have in our office and a fun e-learning course we developed on how to use it.”

The night is aimed toward the younger crowd, but Torrance said that doesn’t stop the tech companies from networking and having a good time themselves.

“It’s great team building for companies because we get work together on a project and then go out and present it and see what a lot of other cool companies in the area are doing,” she said.

“And we get to goof off in a science museum at night which is really fun.”

The event also helps create a sense of community between two pillars of Ann Arbor’s ecosystem, local technology companies and the non-profit community.

“We call it a ‘friendraiser,’” Torrance said. “It’s a way of connecting companies to the museum and the Ann Arbor community in a way that wouldn’t otherwise occur to us in the business community. Once we’re connected, then we end up doing really cool things.”

One past participant, SRT Solutions, built educational video games to donate to the museum and Google donated a “liquid galaxy” exhibit that the company had previously been primarily displaying at internal offices and technology conferences.

The event also helps to bring students back to the museum who may have “graduated” and not visited in a while. Torrance said Hands-On is often looked at as a place for early elementary school students or toddlers, and some middle and high schoolers might think they’ve grown out of the exhibits.

“It’s great for them to reconnect with science and see things that really engage them again,” she said.

In addition to the company displays, science clubs from local high schools will display some of their most eye-catching projects at the event.

TechTwilight will take place from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Friday night May 17 at the Hands On Museum on East Ann Street. Participants are asked to register in advance at www.techtwilight.org. The event costs $10 per person.

Ben Freed covers business for AnnArbor.com. You can sign up here to receive Business Review updates every week. Reach out to Ben at 734-623-2528 or email him at benfreed@annarbor.com. Follow him on twitter @BFreedinA2.

The B-17 World War 2 Bomber, which is part of Yankee Air Museum's collection.

Chelsea Hoedl | AnnArbor.com

The Yankee Air Museum Thursday night launched a $5 million fundraising campaign that it hopes will end in saving a portion of the historic Willow Run Bomber Plant from the wrecking ball.

The museum, which suffered a devastating fire at its original location in 2004, hopes to acquire and renovate approximately 150,000 square feet of the World War II-era factory, which was later the GM Powertrain facility. The bomber plant manufactured B-24 Liberator bombers during World War II.

Revitalizing Automotive Communities Environmental Response (RACER), current owner of the property, has agreed to give Yankee Air Museum, now located at Willow Run Airport, and the Michigan Aerospace Foundation until August first to come up with the $8 million necessary to purchase the land and begin renovations. Thursday evening’s event was held to jump start a three month intensive fundraising program. RACER is a trust established to sell the property and other former General Motors facilities.

Michael Montgomery, fundraising consultant, said that about $5 million has already been raised through the Michigan Aerospace Foundation and about $1/2 million has already been raised by Yankee Air Museum. Roughly $3 million of funds already raised will go towards the final $8 million needed, leaving $5 million left to be raised Norton said.

“The campaign going forward from here has three primary elements,” Montgomery said. “A classic large gifts, large donors campaign that we’re going to look to for about 60% of the money. Then we’re going to look in the middle range to get about another 20%. ... Then there is the broad-based effort; the community support. Really tying in to the geographic communities of this region, but also the communities of interest: the aviation community, the history community. We’ll be looking to them for the last 20%.”

The museum and Michigan Aerospace Foundation also launched their fundraising website earlier Thursday.

Museum Chairman Ray Hunter announced the possibility of obtaining a Ford built B-24 to be displayed at the museum. The museum has been in contact with the National Museum of the United States Air Force regarding the possible acquisition, but no final arrangement has been made.

Speakers discussed the importance of obtaining the Willow Run Powertrain Plant and what it would do for both the museum and the community.

“What’s it going to do for us? We’ll have access to the airport for a flyable aircraft. Everybody’s going to be under one roof, and we’ll have a true museum that’s once again open to the public,” Hunter said. “It’s a historic building that is worth saving and for local folks, we would have the capacity to do a convention with over 1,000 people.”

MAF President Dennis Norton said the project will have educational benefits for the community and the renovation and a potential increase in tourist traffic could create jobs.

Speakers asked those attending to help in any way they can. Those interested in making a contribution can visit the website.