Wind phone to help residents with loss

CLINTON TOWNSHIP — The words don’t always come when someone’s alive.

Wind phones allow you to say those things through a telephone receiver connected to nothing in the living world. Clinton Township is set to get one, which will also be the first in Macomb County. The project was unanimously approved by the Clinton Township Board of Trustees at its Aug. 12 meeting.

Itaru Sasaki installed the first wind phone in Japan following the death of a family member in 2010, according to a Bloomberg News story. Wind phone booths have since popped up around the world.

The booths have no particular religious connotation and are private.

“When I first heard about this, I didn’t quite understand it,” Clinton Township Supervisor Bob Cannon said. “But, when it was explained to me, I liked it.”

Fran Badalamente, who represented the Senior Adult Life Center at the meeting, explained the importance of the phone.

“It is a lovely idea,” Badalamente said. “I really think that it’s something that would add to our center and the people that are going through the process of grief.”

The township’s senior center spearheaded the idea. The Lowe’s home improvement store, near the intersection of Gratiot Avenue and 15 Mile Road, and Dignity Memorial took care of the funding for the booth.

Township Trustee Julie Matuzak said this tribute was more environmentally friendly than things like lantern releases.

“This is the same concept but in a way that is both personal, because you’re talking on the phone, and it is more environmentally friendly,” she said.

Debbie Travis, assistant director for the senior center, said she hopes the community treats the space with respect.

“It should be viewed as a sacred space. It’s owned by everybody,” she said. “We’re all going to go through these feelings in our lifetime.”

Travis hopes the township’s booth normalizes the idea and helps put it in other communities. She said she plans to use the phone when her mom eventually passes.

“I’m guaranteeing her, I will be talking to her through it,” Travis said. “Our relationship will not end.”

 

Township applies to participate in DIA program
The board unanimously approved an application for the Detroit Institute of Arts Inside|Out program at the Aug. 12 meeting. The program puts replicas of famous works of art throughout municipalities that apply. Clinton Township has proposed 10 sites, the maximum allowed in the program, throughout the township.

This year’s proposal aims to get replicas at the Tomlinson Arboretum, Civic Center, the library’s main branch, the library’s south branch, the senior center, George George Park, Joy Boulevard Park, Neil Reid Park, Prince Drewry Park and Normandy Park.

The DIA funds and insures art displayed in the program, which the township has previously participated in. If the application is approved, the art will be displayed in 2025 from May to October.

 

SAD millage for police, fire approved
A public hearing about a proposed special assessment district to fund police and fire departments in the township was held at the Aug. 12 meeting.

No residents commented during the hearing. The SAD was unanimously approved by the Board of Trustees.

The renewed levy on residential properties is expected to be 5 mills (generating a projected total of $18,602,712) for the Clinton Township Police Department and 4 mills ($14,882,170) for the Fire Department.

For industrial facilities, police are set to pull in 2.5 mills ($19,218) and fire will draw 2 mills ($15,375).