cnelson@thealpenanews.com
News Photo by Crystal Nelson
Margie Haaxma, owner and broker at Banner Realty, recently talks on the phone in her office on Ripley Boulevard.
ALPENA New Alpena County resident Lyn Loheed hopes her new community doesn’t allow too many people like her in town.
An experienced landlord who spent decades renovating old homes in Iowa, Loheed recently purchased a long-vacant Long Lake home with plans to renovate the home and use her spare bedrooms and several cabins on the property as Airbnb rental housing.
Such properties the vacation homes, lake cottages, hunting cabins, and Airbnb properties the U.S. Census Bureau calls “part-time, seasonal, and recreational” homes can be big business for landlords and pump major tourism dollars into a community. Governments also tax such properties at a significantly higher rate than year-round residences, helping fund local schools and infrastructure.
Colorado Springs coffee shop hosts group for deaf and hard-of-hearing
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. A Pikes Peak coffee shop is going above and beyond for a community that says, it often feels left out.
Caffeinated Cow, located on South 8th Street, is all about inclusion. That means the deaf and hard-of-hearing community too which has become a big part of the Caffeinated Cow business, and family. It s all about community, period, Caffeinated Cow owner Jake Norment says of the driving force behind his business.
So when longtime customer Julie Riddle asked if she and those in the deaf community, like herself, could use the coffee shop as a place to gather, Jake immediately said yes. Thus the group, American Sign Language (ASL) Cows, was formed.
jriddle@thealpenanews.com
News Photo by Julie Riddle
Alpena developer Bruce Dietz looks at the oxidized underside of a metal box found inside the cornerstone of the former Catholic Central High School campus in north Alpena last week.
ALPENA A discovery excited workers tearing apart the outer walls of the former Catholic Central High School campus in north Alpena last week.
An oxidized metal box, tucked inside a cement cornerstone, is a time capsule, placed when the school was built in 1950, developer Bruce Dietz believes.
The box isn’t locked, but Dietz hasn’t looked inside.
“It’s a community thing,” Dietz said. “It’s got more significance to the community than to me personally. I don’t want to ruin it.”
sschulwitz@thealpenanews.com
News Photo by Steve Schulwitz
Tom Dihle and his wife, Cecilia, look recently at an Alpena home they considered purchasing. The couple is looking for a home because they are moving to Alpena from the St. Joseph area.
ALPENA A shortage of housing could weaken the local workforce and future development if people wanting to invest money and talent in Alpena can’t find places to live, Northeast Michigan business leaders say.
People trying to move to Alpena sometimes have to wait months to find a place to call their own, with housing demand exceeding supply or high prices for existing homes or new construction pricing some out of the market entirely, The News learned through weeks of research and interviews with homebuyers, sellers, and officials in real estate and economic development.
The only true justice comes after a fair fight.
Our Constitution guarantees every person charged with a crime the right to an attorney who can raise a sound defense in open court. That means the state must pay to hire an attorney to defend those who can’t afford to hire an attorney for himself or herself.
That’s to prevent overzealous governments local, state, or national from prosecuting political enemies or railroading the poor and to make sure we do all we can to keep innocent people out of jail.
But our governments haven’t invested in protecting that right, often leaving poor defendants represented by overworked, underpaid public attorneys who lack the time or resources to give their clients the representation to which they’re entitled.