Bryan Buzzard he answers the phone with "Buzz" has something big cooked up for the American Culinary Federation Flint/Saginaw Valley's annual Chefs Hot Food Competition and Tasting. On Monday, Jan. 30, about two dozen professional chefs, along with their teams and local culinary students, will close Zehnders Snowfest 2012 with A Culinary Salute to Hawaii, an event that allows guests to wander from station to station sampling their work. And the team that the executive chef from the Saginaw Country Club always credits with winning him top honors for the past three years will launch a triple-threat this time around, three separate teams taking on the competitions three major categories.
Saginaw switched to a 165 per year flat fee last year and will add bi-weekly curbside recycling in April. The city this week released a flier explaining what residents get for their fee, equivilent to 13.75 per month. Prior to the fee change, residents paid 50 per year and a 3-mill property tax levy.
Police are investigating two armed robberies in Saginaw County, officials say. The first robbery happened Wednesday evening at Family Dollar, 1908 S. Michigan in Saginaw, Saginaw County 911 Director Tom McIntyre said Wednesday night. A second robbery happened within about 30 minutes at a Buena Vista Township Domino's Pizza, 3745 Dixie Highway, Saginaw County 911 dispatchers report. Police across the city raced toward the location of a traffic stop on Barnard in Saginaw about 8:45 p.m. Wednesday, McIntyre said.
Saginaw Manager Darnell Earley is making a plea. In a three-page, single-spaced letter addressed to Gov. Rick Snyder, Earley asked the state's head executive to restore Saginaw's state revenue sharing to the fiscal year 2011 level for at least two years. The state recently experienced and unexpected 457 million surplus. Earley projects state funding will decrease 2.12 million this year from the prior, based on the disbursement formula and new population levels. "This is a substantial decrease, especially given the fact that the entire city general fund is approximately 33 million," Earley said in the letter. He said the impact on Saginaw is substantial because of its one-of-a-kind 1979 tax cap that limits property tax revenue to 3.8 million or 7.5 mills.
After 25 years, the name remains Shiver on the River. Even though Float in a Boat may be more apt this year. Monday's rain may have dampened the ice and some spirits, but organizers of the 25th annual Shiver on the River Walleye Contest expect plenty of action during the two-week contest, sponsored by the Saginaw Spirit, Dow Chemical Co. and Gander Mountain. "The rain and lack of ice has happened before," Saginaw Spirit Director of Sales Development Jennifer Wideman said. The turnout might be a little down because of it, but the diehards will still do it.
The Saginaw Spirit and the Ontario Hockey League are in talks about staging an outdoor hockey game sometime during the 2012-13 season. Spirit President Craig Goslin said Wednesday morning that the team and league have had preliminary dialogue on the subject. "We're just having dialogue about this," Goslin said. "Nothing firm yet, but good solid dialogue." Goslin declined to discuss any additional details of the event, citing ongoing negotiations. CTV News in London, Ontario reported Tuesday night that the league would host a Dec. 31 doubleheader at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, with the London Knights playing Saginaw and the Windsor Spitfires playing the Plymouth Whalers as the likely matchups.
A different judge now will preside over the trial for the Buena Vista Township police officer charged with killing the mother of his unborn son. The Saginaw County Circuit Court Administrator's office on Thursday reassigned Kenneth T. Bluew's case from county Chief Circuit Judge Robert L. Kaczmarek to Circuit Judge Darnell Jackson. The case was one of several reassigned from Kaczmarek for "docket control" purposes, court officials said. When the reassignment was issued, Bluews trial date was moved from Feb. 28 to March 6, but that was reversed Friday.
The trial for the Saginaw man charged will killing Francine Conversa-Redburn in April last year has been postponed by a week. Mark A. Abraitis, 25, along with his Saginaw-based attorney Eldor Herrmann, appeared before Saginaw County Chief Circuit Judge Robert L. Kaczmarek this morning for Herrmann's request to adjourn Abraitis trial, which was scheduled for Feb. 7. Herrmann said he would be on vacation for his sons military graduation that week. County Assistant Prosecutor Norm Donker said he would agree to the postponement as long as Abraitis would waive his right to a speedy trial.
There's a home in this city where March 12, 2009, has never ended. By all outward appearances, Tiffanny A. Goodmans life has advanced since that day. Her hair is longer. She studies at a new college. Three out of four of her children continue to grow. Its the absence of that fourth child, that has kept the clock from moving forward for Goodman. Her son, Stevon M. Goodman, was shot and killed nearly three years ago in what police describe as a case of mistaken identity. "Every day to me, it feels like I am trapped in a weird, horrible dream," Tiffanny Goodman says today. Its like Im trapped in time, and its still March 12, 2009. The mothers of whoever killed my son get to see their sons; me, I have to go to the graveyard.
A Buena Vista Township man will spend at least two years in prison for a June robbery in Old Saginaw City. Saginaw County Circuit Judge James T. Borchard on Thursday sentenced Damarcus L. Marlow, 23, to two years and six months to 15 years in prison for assault with intent to commit unarmed robbery and larceny from a person. The judge gave Marlow, who last lived at 332 S. 28th, credit for 177 days, or just under six months, served. Marlow pleaded guilty to the charges in December and in exchange, prosecutors dropped charges of armed robbery, conspiring to commit that crime, assault with intent to commit armed robbery, and carrying a dangerous weapon with unlawful intent.
