Governor Granholm held a ceremonial bill signing ceremony for the Complete Streets legislation today.  In recognition of the League's efforts in helping to shape the bills over the last year and advocating for passage, League Board President Jeff Jenks and Chris Hackbarth, from the League's Lansing staff, were invited to the ceremony and thanked by the Governor and the legislative sponsors for our involvement.  The League was joined at the ceremony by a host of other groups that supported the legislation, including the Michigan Environmental Council, AARP, SEMCOG and the League of Michigan Bicyclists.  Please contact the League for more information on this legislation.

View more photos from the bill signing here on the Michigan Municipal League's flickr page.

Chris Hackbarth handles tarnsportation policy for the Michigan Municipal League.  Chris can be reached at 517-908-0303, or by email at chackbarth@mml.org.

The League's first webinar proved to be a huge success as over 75 participants from around the state gathered to hear about the State Shared Services Initiative.

The initiative is a collaborative project between the state of Michigan, the League, other statewide local government associations and the school community. The goal is help facilitate shared service projects. 

The webinar was the first one ever done by the League and gave us the opportunity to present information to members near and far in a very efficient and effective manner. 

Arnold Weinfeld is Director of Strategic Initiatives for the League and also serves as President of the Michigan Municipal League Foundation. He can be reached at 517-908-0304 or by e-mail.

Where is rail transportation headed in Michigan? What role does rail freight play in our state's economy? When and how will high speed rail become a viable option for passenger travel in our Great Lakes State?

MDOT is asking for the public to weigh in on these questions and any other issues that warrant consideration as part of the development of the Michigan State Rail Plan.  Required as a part of the federal government's passage of the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008, this rail plan will hopefully create a vision for how the State manages and invests in  rail infrastructure, a vision which is desperately needed and has been sorely lacking in recent years.

To ensure that there is broad public input, the series of public forums being conducted by the League's partners within the Michigan By Rail group, are designed to engage the forum attendees in a similar vision-setting process and comments collected from the attendees will be submitted to the department as part of MDOT's rail plan process.

Please take a few minutes to review the State Rail Plan website and submit your comments online, or plan on attending one of the upcoming Michigan By Rail forums (September 8th in St. Joseph and September 15th in Dearborn) and share your thoughts on what Michigan should be doing to leverage passenger, freight, commuter and light rail opportunities to boost economic development and quality of life.

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/mdot/MDOT-MiRailPlanOverview_330876_7.pdf

Chris Hackbarth handles transportation issues for the Michigan Municipal League.  Chris can be reached at 517-908-0303, or by email at chackbarth@mml.org.

Amtrak announced this afternoon that it would offer five separate east-bound and west-bound trains between Chicago and Kalamazoo over the Labor Day holiday.  From September 2 through September 7, Amtrak will offer five different daily schedule options for Kalamazoo, Niles and New Buffalo, and three trains per day stopping in Dowagiac.  Amtrak is  experiencing record ridership levels on its three Michigan lines and has been selling out its trains between Chicago and Detroit on weekends this year.  Hopefully, the signs of increasing ridership and the success of an experiment like this will lead Amtrak to increase train frequency year round in Michigan.

Amtrak West Michigan Labor Day Specials.pdf (102.75 kb)

Chris Hackbarth handles transportation issues for the Michigan Municipal Leaue. Chris can be reached at 517-908-0303, or by email at chackbarth@mml.org.