In mid-Michigan these are economic times which affect every aspect of our lives. Home and business owners are making repairs to their domiciles the best way they can. Smart home and business owners are wise when they conduct a personal property inventory of their belongings before an emergency or peril strikes. Local alarm companies are doing their part by selling window decals, installing interactive alarm systems where ever they can. In Saginaw, a city about 40-miles north on I-75 has went high tech, with a new crime detection system called "Shot Spotter" Technology. "Saginaw Police Chief Gerald H. Cliff said the federal stimulus money could fund crime-fighting technology or manpower." The chief said the department planners have discussed expanding the coming Shot-Spotter gunfire detection system by adding a video camera recording grid that would monitor neighborhoods. Back in Flint, with their being over 25,000 students attending one of the four colleges, Kettering University, Mott Community College, Baker College or the UM -Flint which itself has over 7,000 students, they are gearing up for crime prevention efforts too.
Mel Serow, a former WNEM TV-5 newscaster reports that campus police are matriculating a new 21st Century technology called VIDMIC, a radio outfitted with a video camera and microphone. According the report, the Department of Public Safety is testing the new devices which cost $700 apiece. (http://www.ur.umich.edu/0708/mar31.php). Off campus, in Flint the police have installed security type surveillance cameras, on street corners, which they wisely are not specifying their location. The city like everywhere has been forced to layoff police and the hope is that smart technologies like cameras can give the police a chance to deter and detect crime in areas where their presence has been reduced.
As more and more factory jobs have fallen in the Greater Flint area, from a high in 1978 of 78,000 employed at various General Motors plants here, till today when there is only one plant, Chevrolet Truck Assembly Plant within city limits, and they are being pressured to reduce costs, or face a loss of work. Things are so bad that Powers Catholic High School is seeking to purchase Southwestern Academy, on 12th street and the high school isn't even closed yet, according to a front page article ran in the Wednesday, Flint Journal. A Southwestern Academy parent made a wise observation: "If they're going to buy a building, why not buy a closed one?" said Jody Bradley, who has one child at the school. Perhaps the effort by Powers is tied to a report on Southwestern which gave the school built in 1958, "a mediocre rating by a recent facilities advisory committee charged with analyzing all the Flint schools to make recommendations on potential closures."
As if that were not bad enough, now comes news from the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) that the State of Michigan received a D grade, a decline in its rating. The PRNewswire for Journalist put the rating in perspective by reporting: "Fourteen states improved their grades from 2006 and 12 states fell back including Michigan." There's really enough of this kind of news to go around because that same entity reported that D was the grade for the entire nation. Most of the data for the rating is provided by the states and 65 criteria comprise the survey. "Today, one in four Americans experience mental illness at some point in their lives. The most serious conditions affect 10 million people and twice as many Americans live with schizophrenia as HIV/AIDS. Mental illness is the greatest cause of disability in the nation. As the country faces the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression, state budget shortfalls mean budget cuts to mental health services."
Technology appears to represent hope for the future. Flint is working with various agencies and the nation of Sweden to produce a biogas operation out of its Flint Township wastewater treatment facility, energy would be derived from animal and or human waste. The Swedish Ambassador is Mike Woods who is from the "Vehicle City" which is another name for Flint. His support and the efforts of Kettering University, Governor Jennifer Grandholm of Michigan, and the firm, Swedish Biogas International, and His Majesty, Carl XVI Gustav, King of Sweden are in the process of starting the first Center of Energy Excellence project here. The COEE is to provide funding to the amount of $4 million for the project. This is to be a launch of a waste-to-energy/bio-methane project and what makes it special is the fact that the program will not contribute to the global Green House Effect which is affecting gas emissions. Additionally, where corn and other crops are used a debate over famine is being debated. In Sweden, biogas producers are operating a fleet of city buses. "Sweden has led the world in biogas use for buses and other vehicles since 1996." (http://www.isis.org.uk) "Strong government support is important, it includes 30 percent investment support, zero tax, reduced income tax for company car users, and no congestion fees in the capital city of Stockholm," the report concluded. Journalist William Crockerham reported on Examiner.com under the title of "The Vehicle City now is University City" that a supporter of this project, The Mott Foundation, which was founded by Philanthropist Charles Stewart Mott, who moved to Flint in1906 was very interested in supporting projects which either sought equality and environmental responsibility and that this biogas project was exactly the kind of program he would have through his considerable influence and philanthropy behind.
