Author: Tom Travis
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Police, fire budgets to cover new hires; EAB budget cut clarified in budget session shortened by mutes, protest defections
By Tom Travis Councilperson Kate Fields (4th Ward) and chair of the City Council Finance Committee found a way to shorten council business at Tuesday’s telephonic/video budget session. Before the session began and out of earshot of the public and the press, an interaction between Councilpersons Monica Galloway (7th Ward), Eric Mays (1st Ward) and…
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Buses are back: MTA service resumes after almost 50 days, with extra sanitizing and social distancing measures in place
By Tom Travis Since April 1, Flint’s Mass Transportation Authority (MTA) buses have sat silent and unused in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus. As of 6:30 a.m. Monday morning. the buses are back at it, running all primary routes on fixed half-hour schedules. A map and schedule of all Flint MTA primary…
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Council approves $14.7 million pipeline, reservoir contracts; in scolding email, Mayor calls 11-hour meeting “gross lack of leadership”
by Tom Travis City Council passed two big-ticket pieces of legislation that have been on their agendas for months in their Monday video/telephone meeting. Shortly thereafter, Mayor Sheldon Neeley sent an email scolding the council for the staggering 11-hour-long meeting, which ran from Monday night until 4 a.m. Tuesday morning. In the marathon meeting, City…
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Crim Foundation: new CEO faces COVID response, further focus on mindfulness and community health
By Zach Neithercut Once built almost exclusively around an annual 10-mile road race sustained by a small staff, the Crim Foundation has expanded into a major influence in Flint life, with an $8 million budget, more than 50 employees, many year-round events, a city-wide emphasis on mindfulness, and community education programs for 5,000 Flint students.…
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As Atwood COVID testing concludes, Michigan Health Specialists and others continue
By Tom Travis The first location to offer COVID-19 testing in the State of Michigan, Michigan Health Specialists (MHS), has now conducted 200 COVID-19 tests since it began testing March 12. Of the 200 tests performed since then, 50 had positive results and 2 patients have died. MHS and several other locations in Genesee County…
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Crossover food giveaways on Mondays in May among recipients of Urgent Relief Fund
A food giveaway funded by the Community Foundation of Greater Flint is being offered from 11 a.m. until the food runs out Mondays through the end of May at the former Gordon Anthony flower shop at the corner of Grand Traverse Boulevard and W. Court Street. The effort, sponsored by Crossover Downtown Ministries, is supported…
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From porches and dining rooms, local musicians are playing the pandemic blues
By Tom Travis As the coronavirus pandemic ensues it seems to be unifying the human race. There isn’t a person on the face of the earth that can’t somehow relate to it. We drive by empty schools in the middle of the day, empty parking lots at movie theaters and shopping centers. Once busy city…
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City Council postpones secondary water source pipeline decision and reviews amended 2021 budget
By Tom Travis The Flint City Council voted to postpone to May 11 an important resolution to enter into a contract for a secondary water source pipeline and also voted to receive an amended 2021 Flint city budget from city administration. Both items resulted in long discussion among council members and city officials. The council…
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“Still waiting for justice” — Six years in, water warriors remember Flint water crisis
By Tom Travis Remembering the sixth anniversary of the Flint water crisis, several local water activists gathered on the front lawn of City Hall Saturday. Democracy Defense League members Claire McClinton and Claudia Milton-Perkins led the effort to broadcast an online remembrance of what became one of the most notorious and tragic manmade environmental disasters…
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Mayor Neeley reflects on sixth anniversary of Flint’s water crisis, extends curfew to mid-May; Chief Hart says homicides are up. overall crime down
By Tom Travis On the eve of the sixth anniversary of the Flint water crisis, at a Zoom press conference called Friday afternoon, Mayor Sheldon Neeley said, “We still find ourselves working through it” and clarified one outgrowth of it — a secondary water source pipeline which has come up again recently before the Flint…
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