Ask ELi to Investigate

Image: Courtesy City of East Lansing

The question this week: Who funded Nathan Triplett’s campaign?

Image: Courtesy City of East Lansing

The question this week: Who funded Ruth Beier’s campaign?

Image of Susan Woods is courtesy City of East Lansing

A reader asks: Who funded Susan Woods’ campaign?

Some background: The reader who asked this question did so because he was frustrated with Susan Woods’ voting record on major redevelopment projects that have come before City Council since she was elected on November 4, 2013. A resident of the Bailey neighborhood and the Director of the East Lansing Film Festival, Woods has consistently voted in support of developers.

Image: The author’s children on the Grand River near Grand Ledge

This week’s reader question: Where are good places around here to canoe or kayak?

There are many river options in the area.

Red Cedar River:

These options are all doable with a return by bike or car:

A reader asks: What’s up with all the posters on trees in front of the East Lansing Public Library?

Eli answers: The “posters” are actually poems, part of the most recent Poetry Attack executed by members of The East Lansing Street Arts Commission (ELSAC).

Eli spoke with Carolyn White, a founder of both ELSAC and East Lansing’s Poetry Attacks. White is a professional story teller, the world’s foremost expert on leprechauns, and a children’s book author.

“Ask Eli” is usually a response to reader questions. This week, we decided to turn the tables and ask the questions instead of answering them.

We asked random people on Grand River Avenue these three questions:

1. Where do you like to eat in East Lansing?
2. What do you think about the EL restaurant scene? Anything you’d change?

Megan and Danielle.

Image: From the first page of the "redevelopment ready" properties list

A reader asks: “The City of East Lansing is listed on the MEDC website as a Redevelopment Ready Community.  What properties in East Lansing are considered ‘Redevelopment Ready’?”

Above: The author now has seedlings under glass and also exposed in his East Lansing backyard

A gardening reader asks: What is the chance of a frost yet this spring in East Lansing?

Yard waste collection will begin on Monday, April 6, so this week we bring you answers to common and environmentally-oriented questions about yard waste.

What counts as yard waste? According to the City, “Yard waste includes leaves, plant materials, grass clippings and brush/limbs.”

How does it have to be packaged for pick-up? There are three ways to package your yard-waste for pick-up:

This week in Council Capsule we reported on remarks made to City Council by Brian Shaughnessy, principal and superintendent of the Cole Academy, a Lansing charter school. Shaughnessy told Council that Cole Academy wants to open a new school in East Lansing, with about 200 students, and that they are interested in the Bailey Community Center building (formerly the Bailey School).

Image: Neighborhoods 1st's Jim Anderson and Don Power.

Neighborhoods 1^st, a political action committee (PAC), was very controversial in the November 2014 elections for its involvement in the land sale ballot question and the school board elections. An ELi reader recently asked ELi to find out whether Neighborhoods 1^st is going to be involved in the May 2015 election and what we can know about them.

Image: Lori Strom, MSU’s Family Resource Center Coordinator

Before Council voted 3 to 2 to close the daycare at the Bailey Community Center, parents of that daycare's children and their allies said that this would have a detrimental effect on families who live and work downtown and on campus. To try to find out what the effect has been in some quantitative terms, I talked to Lori Strom, MSU’s Family Resource Center Coordinator.

Image: asbestos fibers

Editor's note: This week's "Ask ELi" connects to our ongoing series, The Mercurial Trail, which traces what happened during and after about 1 to 1.5 pounds of mercury were spilled at the East Lansing Wastewater Treatment Plant in November 2013. This column addresses a question we've been getting in response to the series.

The question asked of ELi this week is: Could 1.5 pounds of mercury hurt a person?