Eight-hour Flint City Council meeting, recessed for second time, covers COVID effects on trash pickup, accounting costs.
By Tom Travis At an eight-hour long meeting Monday night, the Flint City Council was updated by the city’s accounting firm requesting a greater reimbursement, heard from the city’s trash collector about COVID effects on yard waste pick-up, and received a follow-up about the September fire which destroyed the Pierce Park community center. City’s accounting firm requests a change order and says “year end...
Meet Cassandra Washington, Flint Schools’ HR director, who settled contracts with all three employee unions in first year on job
By Harold Ford Editor’s Note: East Village Magazine’s Education Beat writer, Harold C. Ford, submitted a list of 20 questions to Cassandra Washington, Flint Community Schools’ executive director of human relations. Washington responded to about half of the questions in her online reply. Her responses are provided below in a Q & A format. Cassandra Washington, a resident of Detroit, was hired as the Flint Community Schools’ (FCS)...
Land Bank reprioritizing demolitions as federal funds dry up, FNU members told
By Coner Segren Federal “Hardest Hit Fund” dollars appropriated to Flint expired this year, leaving the Genesee County Land Bank without a large source of funds. These funds were key to demolitions in Flint, the Land Bank’s Christina Kelly told participants in a November Zoom meeting of Flint Neighborhoods United (FNU). Kelly, the Land Bank’s director of planning and neighborhood revitalization, reported that...
After $36.5 million renovation of century-old downtown landmark, Hilton Garden Inn opens with two new restaurants, COVID-19 protocols
By Tom Travis The first guests have checked into their rooms and reservations have been made for the weeks and months to come, according to the new Hilton Garden Inn staff. A historic century-old building that sat vacant for two decades has been renovated into a new 101-guest room hotel in the heart of Flint’s downtown and is launching with several levels of COVID-19 protections. Towering over downtown Flint, the 11-story...
Commentary: Biden wins — What does it all mean? Ten takeaways from the 2020 election
By Paul Rozycki In a year of pandemics, racial division, economic crisis, and the most divisive election in the last century, it’s a challenge to uncover the things that really matter in this year’s presidential election. In the last weeks, we’ve all had wall-to-wall coverage and analysis of this year’s presidential contest. It may be months, or years, before we fully unravel the full impact and the meaning of the Trump presidency and...
Three newcomers elected make an all-female Flint school board; host of challenges await
By Harold C. Ford The Flint Community Schools (FCS) Board of Education will have a new look in 2021. Joyce Ellis-McNeal, (9.13 percent/9,409 votes), Anita M. Moore (8.78 percent/9,053 votes), and Laura Gillespie MacIntyre (6.09 percent/6,277 votes) were elected to six-year terms that begin Jan.1, 2021 and end in 2026. (Note: Percentages and votes are from the “Unofficial Results” posted at the website of the Genesee County Clerk’s...
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