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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