The hot weather did not stop huge crowds from turning out for this year's Strawberryfest! I created another photo album; click here to view it.
Photos from this year's Civil War Days on Memorial Day Weekend have now been posted to the Civil War Days website. Click here to view them. Dickman Yee says, "On behalf of the 2010 Civil War Committee we wish to say a
The much-talked-about Downtown Coldwater beautification project is underway (see picture at right). The main part of the project is the "bump outs" that will extend the curb farther into the street which it is believed will make street crossing safer. Amazingly, this simple project requires a large crew of workers and equipment, a whole new drainage system, over a month to complete, and almost $300,000 (with the State of Michigan contributing about a third of that). All this for some simple bump outs. With lane closures downtown, everyone is anxious for the project to be done, and hopefully it will achieve the goals and be worth the investment.
On tax day (April 15, 2010), it was proved that the Branch County Tea Party is here to stay. First held a year ago to protest excessive government spending, this event was actually the fifth tea party held in Coldwater. At least 130 people participated in the event. A group called the Common Sense Patriots of Branch County has been formed which meets monthly. Interestingly, the participants of the tea party and the Patriots are not of any one particular political party, but rather are common, concerned citizens. Originally focused on excessive government spending, these citizens are especially concerned about our elected officials ignoring the majority will of the people and hastily voting in legislation that the people don't want, such as the health care bill. The call to action was to gather support to vote in replacements to these officials in November. As further proof that the Tea Party is not something that Washington can ignore and will go away, an anti-Tea Party group was also present, calling themselves the "Pizza Party" (see bottom of picture at right). The mere existence of such groups protesting the protesters indicates that they now see the Tea Party as a viable threat. Never in recent history have common citizens come together in such numbers in a unified protest against government, so it will be interesting to see how this will affect the election in November, our government, and ultimately, our laws and way of life.
Many states have a solid green light with "left turn yield on green" sign; Michigan has for years had it's blinking red in the left turn lane. Now the Michigan Department of Transportation is seeking to replace these traffic signals with a new "flashing yellow arrow" type signal as part of a larger nationwide standardization initiative. Though my wife grew up in Coldwater, we lived in Brighton for several years, and it was a big deal there when they got their first flashing yellow arrow signals roughly three years ago. Here in Coldwater, though, it seems to have quietly slipped in. Our first flashing yellow arrow signal has been installed at Chicago St. (US-12) & Willowbrook Rd. For more information about this interesting new signal, click here.