Please Help Prevent Seven New Radio Towers on Wixom & Milford Border!

HELP STOP BIRACH BROADCASTING FROM ERECTING SEVEN 200-FOOT TALL TOWERS IN WIXOM & MILFORD!

This is a call to action for Wixom and Milford residents! The Milford Planning Commission has been petitioned by Birach Broadcasting, a large AM radio company with 25 radio stations, to recommend a zoning change to allow Birach to bulldoze dozens of acres of trees and erect 7 199-foot tall radio towers (the pictures of one tower above was provided by Birach in a letter to the City of Wixom – isn’t it awful?!!?!). 199 feet tall is equivalent to a 20 STORY BUILDING!!

The site is just West of Charms Road – it backs right up to our wetlands and will be visible to much of Wixom and Milford (see map, below).   Birach owns the land but it is currently zoned “M-2” which means that while industrial, nothing taller than 50 feet high can be built on the property.  Sima Birach (the sole owner of Birach Broadcasting) wants to change that – and it gets worse -- Birach owns enough property to add many more antennas in the future!   We all bought our homes in a beautiful area with plenty of trees and wildlife, and those amazing qualities of our area are going to be destroyed if this Antenna Farm is built!  What will happen to our property values?

At the last Planning Commissions Meeting, one of the commissioners explicitly stated that Milford would be sued by Birach - at great cost, if they reject this proposal.  Whether the suit gets tossed out eventually doesn’t matter – Birach’s pockets are far deeper than Milford’s and Wixom’s!!

The Mayor of Wixom, Kevin Hinckley, told the Milford Commission at the last Planning Meeting – this will harm hundreds or even thousands of people who bought their homes here when this area was beautify and zoned so that nothing like this could scar the landscape (under the current zoning), and allowing this would have only a single beneficiary – Birach and his Broadcasting Company.

WHY IS THIS BAD FOR LOCAL RESIDENTS?

1. Towers will be very visible to much of Milford and Wixom and an eye-sore.  Property values will likely decrease!
2. Dozens of acres of trees will be plowed down. 
3. Wildlife will be killed or forced to move.
4. The beautiful area in which we live will lose a valuable resource - beautiful trees/plants and wildlife will be removed only to replace with very ugly and large towers.
5. There will be no new jobs created from these towers, so valuable land will be wasted at a high cost!
6. There have been some studies linking possible health risks in individuals living near radio towers.

WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP?

1. PLEASE attend the next Milford Township Planning Committee Meeting and tell your friends and neighbors! It will be held on Thursday, September 27 at 7:30 PM at the following address: Milford Civic Center, 1100 Atlantic, Milford. You don’t need to speak at the meeting, but we need a strong showing of people. You can speak if you would like to – they open the floor up for questions, but even just being there and applauding your fellow citizens would be a great to show that we love where we live and we do not want the landscape scarred for all for the gain of 1 company! (in case you were wondering, the “Antenna Farm” will not have any employees – so it’s not even like anyone gets a job out of this proposal!). 
2. Help distribute flyers in the area to make others aware and spread the word.  Let me know if you want a flyer!
3. Call Milford Township at (248) 685-8731. Let’s flood them with neighborly calls reminding them why we all want to live in this area!

We need to help Milford JUST SAY NO!

Brewery Warehouse Moving to Wixom!

Short's Brewing Company is expanding its microbrew operations into Wixom by establishing its business headquarters there.  Short's Brewery began operations in 2004 and has been been growing successfully since then.  The new warehouse will be located at 28011 Grand Oaks Court near Meijer. 

Happy New Year!

Clipart from cksinfo.com

Wishing You and Your Family a Very Happy New Year!

I also want to apologize for my lack of postings over the last month.  I've had a sick family and have been quite busy with Christmas.  I hope to be more on top of things for 2012!  :)

GM's Chevy Spark EV Pilot Facility in Wixom

General Motor's recently announced that the motor for the Chevrolet Spark EV will be produced domestically at GM's White Marsh, Maryland facility beginning is late 2012.  The development of the permanent magnet and induction motors is being highlighted at a pilot facility right here in Wixom!  The Wixom facility will also validate and test equipment and processes for the White March production.  This means more new business is being brought to out city!

The Chevy Spark EV will be available for sale in 2016 with it's 114-horsepower permanent magnet motor.  Electric motors are currently used in the Chevrolet Volt, Chevrolet Malibu Eco, Chevrolet Silverado Hybrid, Buick Lacrosse eAssist, Buick Regal eAssist, GMC Sierra Hybrid, GMC Yukon and Yukon Denali Hybrids, and Cadillac Escalade Hybrid.

New Company (Hexagon Metrology) Relocating to Wixom

Hexagon Metrology recently announced the relocating of it's Michigan Precision Center to a state-of-the-art facility in Wixom, Michigan.  Hexagon's 26,000 square-foot facility will include an office area and a distribution warehouse with a spacious calibration lab and enhanced portable metrology training facilities.  The Precision Center currently employs about 50 employees with an additional 110 service engineers working in satellite offices.

The center will be located within the Wixom Technology Park.
48443 Alpha Drive, Suite 100
Wixom, MI  48393.

Hexagon Metrology is the world's largest supplier of metrology equipment and software.   They provide customers worldwide who have high precision measurement and inspection needs.  For more information, please visit their website at: www.hexagon.com.

We are happy to have Hexagon Metrology in Wixom - Welcome!

Household Hazardous Waste Drop-Off Tomorrow (10/8)

Image from blogs.trb.com

What: Household Hazardous Waste Drop-Off
When: Saturday, October 8th
Time: 9:00am - 2:00pm
Where: Novi Civic Center, 45175 W. 10 Mile Rd., Novi, MI (map)
Who: Residents of the RRRASOC Member Communities (Farmington, Farmington Hills, Novi, Southfield, South Lyon, Walled Lake and Wixom)
Cost: Free

If you have any hazardous waste items you need to get rid of, you can drop them off at the Novi Civic Center (click here for map) tomorrow between 9am and 2pm.  Household Hazardous Waste items includes a variety of common household items such as cleaners, paints, herbicides, insecticides, and solvents.  Please visit the RRASOC website here for more information on all the acceptable items you can drop off.

People living in these cities can participate: Farmington, Farmington Hills, Novi, Southfield, South Lyon, Walled Lake and Wixom.

Wixom Water Tower Maintenance (October, 2011)

The City of Wixom will be completing some preventative maintenance on the large water tower near I-96 between Beck and Wixom Roads.  The maintenance will begin in early October and should last up to seven weeks.  The tank is needed during times of high water demands (like during summer droughts when lawn watering peaks) and also allows the city to purchase water at very low costs during non-peak times from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department.

The maintenance will require the tank to be drained and repainted both inside and out, thus the water reserve for the city of Wixom will be absent for these 6-7 weeks.  It is important for all residents and businesses in Wixom to make sure to use as little water as possible during this time.  Limit non-essential water usage such as watering lawns, leaving taps or hoses running.  The water tank should be back online by Thanksgiving.

Two Walled Lake Schools Closing Next Year

It has been announced that two Walled Lake Consolidated Schools will be closing at the end of the current (2011-2012) school year: Maple Elementary School and Twin Beach Elementary School. Both of these schools are located in West Bloomfield Township. The district will be establishing new school boundaries, so that the children currently attending these schools will be assigned to one of the other elementary schools before the 2012-2013 school year.

The district hired Plante Moran CRESA to complete a Facilities Utilization Study. It was determined that many Walled Lake elementary schools are being underutilized due to lack to students in the schools. It was also projected that many families will be moving out of the area over the next several years, therefore even more children will be leaving the schools. More information regarding the study by Plante Moran can be found here.

Although this is unfortunate for the parents, students and teachers involved, it is a necessary action to ensure there is adequate funding for the remaining schools to meet the academic needs of our students.

What's Happening with the Wixom Assembly Plant?

Photo Credit: detnews.com

It has been four years since the Wixom Ford Assembly Plant closed down and two years since energy companies proposed to purchase the plant and convert it into a renewable energy plant.  You and many other Wixom Residents might be wondering why all this time has passed and the same plant still sits there, untouched. 

The Old Plan (2009)
As you may know, the two energy companies that proposed to buy the Wixom Assembly plant, Xtreme Power of Texas and Clairvoyant Energy of California were denied government loans back in 2009 (based on loan terms) to help fund the new renewable-energy park.  Not a whole lot has happened since then, until now.

The New Plan
On Monday (August 22) Ford proposed a refurbished plan to City of Wixom officials to open up the energy park to a wider range of tenants.  Instead of only energy companies, Ford hopes to market the space to a wide variety of industries.  The 320-acre plot of land was previously approved by the government as a tax-free Renaissance Zone and to receive brownfields tax credits for energy companies XP and CE.  Ford is hoping to get these tax credits approved again for the new plan, which would be great incentives for enticing prospective new tenants.

What's Next
Next month (September 2011), the City of Wixom and Oakland County need to approve the new plan proposed by Ford.  If all goes well, the City of Wixom will hold a public hearing in October.  The State of Michigan and Oakland County will then need to approve the tax incentives sometime in November.

If all goes well, the new business park would offer thousands of new jobs for local residents and also could possibly help to lower Wixom residents' taxes.