3
NEWS

Thursday, May 30, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

The city of Ann Arbor, 
in partnership with the 
University 
of 
Michigan’s 
Students for Clean Energy 
group, are in the process of 
planning 
a 
volunteer-led 
installation of solar panels 
on Ann Arbor’s Fire Station 
Six. The installation, previ-
ously scheduled for May 27, 
has been tentatively pushed 
back to mid-June or July.
Engineering senior Grant 
Dukus, director of research 
and development for Stu-
dents for Clean Energy, said 
the project team is working 
through the “nitty-gritty 
details” and anticipates the 
installation will be very 
soon.
Dukus said Students for 
Clean Energy turned to Ann 
Arbor with the idea for the 
installation, having expe-
rienced trouble getting the 
University to commit to a 
similar project.
“We found that it is very 
tough for these projects to 
get done in a timely manner 
on campus just because of 
all of the hoops you have to 
jump through,” Dukus said.
Missy Stults, sustainabil-
ity and innovations manager 
for the city of Ann Arbor, 
said the city is working with 
its legal department to con-
firm safety precautions and 
financial considerations of 
the installation. Stults said 
these finalizations should 
take time.
“I’m not so focused on the 
actual installation date as I 
am on making it right, and 
we can replicate it, because 

that’s the most important 
thing,” Stults said. “So, if 
we do this really well, and 
people are comfortable with 
it, it means the next one will 
be faster.”
Stults said there was a 
large learning curve with 
the fire station solar instal-
lation because it is the first 
project of its kind undertak-
en by the new Department 
of Sustainability, which is 
only about 10 months old. 
Housed by the city admin-
istrator’s office — the execu-
tive office of the city — Stults 
said the Department of 
Sustainability’s 
existence 
proves Ann Arbor’s commit-
ment to environmentalism.
“What’s really significant 
about the creation of the 
office is that it really formal-
ized and drew attention to 
the importance of the prior-
ity the city has around sus-
tainability,” Stults said.
LSA senior Taylor Lind, 
research and development 
team chair for Students 
for Clean Energy, said she 
believes Ann Arbor does an 
exceptional job of encourag-
ing sustainable practices.
“They have a fairly thor-
ough climate action plan in 
process, and I believe that 
they are going through a lot 
of different planning to meet 
those goals. So, I think they 
are definitely in the right 
place and have a lot more 
progress made than other 
cities in the state, and I’d say 
even in the country,” Lind 
said.

City defers 
installation of 
solar panels 
on fire station

Despite 
light 
drizzle 
throughout the day, hun-
dreds of local residents 
and visitors to Ann Arbor 
visited Kerrytown for the 
second annual Flower Day. 
Sponsored by the Sunday 
Artisan Market and the 
Ann Arbor Farmers Mar-
ket, the event featured a 
variety of flower selections 
and artisan wares for sale 
as well as food trucks, kids 
arts and crafts and face 
painting.
The 
Sunday 
Artisan 
Market is a weekly arts 
and crafts market open 
April through December. 
The artisans at the market 
make all the products they 
sell, according to the Man-
ager of the Sunday Artisan 
Market, Deb Dursi.
Flower Day is the only 
day of the year where the 
Artisan Market combines 
with the Farmers Market. 
This collaboration attracts 
customers who may not 
usually frequent the Arti-
sans 
Market, 
explained 
Shanita Richards, owner 
of Motor City Spreads, a 
gourmet jam and jelly busi-
ness.
“These 
vendors 
sell 
beautiful things, but you 
wouldn’t know it unless 
they had a market to go to,” 
Richards said. “It’s nice 
because you get all the peo-

ple that normally buy flow-
ers, they get to come and 
see what the Sunday Mar-
ket has to offer. It’s one of 
those treasures that people 
don’t often realize is here.”
Ann 
Arbor 
resident 
Samantha Daly said she 
likes coming to the Arti-
sans Market with her fam-
ily.
“We enjoy coming down 
and walking around,” Daly 
said. “There’s a variety 
of different vendors and 
there’s always things for 
the kids too.”
Rackham student Linda 
Gong said her brother and 
his girlfriend were visiting 
Ann Arbor, so she brought 
them to the Artisans Mar-
ket as part of showing 
them around the city.
“I like how it is a great 
collection of local vendors 
with a variety of goods,” 
Gong said. “The flowers 
are really pretty. Even 
though it’s raining, it’s 
been really nice.”
Lynn Mullin, a visitor to 
Ann Arbor from Pennsyl-
vania, said she noticed the 
Artisans Market is a com-
munity.
“Even as I was walk-
ing through, I saw people 
who were greeting each 
other, vendors who knew 
their clients,” Mullin said. 
“I feel like it shows how 
artistic the community is; 
how ecologically-minded 
the community is.”

Dursi 
explained 
the 
Artisan 
Market 
was 
founded in 1991 by arti-
sans who had trouble get-
ting spaces at the Farmers 
Market. Since 2006, the 
Artisans Market has been 
separate from the city of 
Ann Arbor. Self-governed 
and self-run, the member 
artisans elect their own 
board and hire their own 
manager.
“It’s a good group of 
people, very much a team,” 
Dursi said. “They look out 
for each other. It’s very 
unique in that it’s like a 
family.”
Several vendors echoed 
Dursi’s 
sentiments, 
including Diane Sheffrey, 
owner of Baubles, a glass 
and fiber art business.
“The Artisans Market is 
a nice, comfortable venue,” 
Sheffrey said. “It’s one 
of my favorite places to 
sell because the vendors 
become like family.”
Richards 
explained 
she is new to the area and 
decided to become a ven-
dor at the Artisans Mar-
ket to have a “family” in 
the same spot every week. 
According to Daren Otis 
— president of the Arti-
sans Market and owner of 
Lightweight Travel Totes, 
a totes and purses business 
— the Market’s affordable 
artisan fee attracts both 
longtime and amateur ven-
dors.

“For a new person … 
we’re a place where they 
can get started and learn 
the ropes and learn from 
other vendors,” Otis said. 
“We help each other.”
Otis has been selling 
at the Artisans Market 
almost 
since 
it 
began. 
Compared to art shows, 
Otis explained the Arti-
sans Market helps her 
build 
stronger 
relation-
ships with her customers.
“I like the fact that I can 
develop a customer base 
because I’m here every 
week,” Otis said. “People 
who like my product come 
back, and they bring their 
friends. … It’s really grati-
fying.”
Dursi 
expressed 
she 
was pleased with Flower 
Day’s turnout, both from 
vendors and the local 
community.
“The crowd is really 
strong today, and that, to 
me, is really indicative 
of a positive community 
response,” 
Dursi 
said. 
“We have more vendors 
this year than last year for 
Flower Day, which tells 
me they did well enough 
last year to come back and 
give it another go.”
Sheffrey 
said 
the 
Artisans 
Market 
is 
a 
significant 
downtown 
attraction.
“It brings a lot of peo-
ple downtown,” she said. 
“There’s a vibrancy to it.”

Visitors enjoy family activities, art and flowers for sale at Sunday market

Student organization led efforts to 
move station toward ‘net-zero energy’

ALEC COHEN/Daily

Read more at michigandaily.com

Second annual Flower Day 
takes place in Kerrytown

MELANIE TAYLOR
Summer News Editor

CLAIRE HAO
Summer News Editor

