Looking at the sun for the first time: reflections from the eclipse’s path of totality

“Those fleeting but utterly magical moments where the sun is completely obscured are truly transcendent. I actually teared up as I removed my safety glasses and looked directly at the sun, for the first time in my life, safely. The moon holding court, center stage, a protector for those mere minutes,” wrote Cedar resident Ellen Fred, who traveled to the path of totality yesterday in Ohio. “The last fingernail of sunlight still bright, (as y’all saw in Leelanau), too bright for the naked eye, but after the diamond ring when it becomes a total eclipse, its like a switch was flicked, its dark, you can see several planets either side of the perfect black circle of the moon, and the sun’s corona is a bright white braided swirl of dancing light that gobsmacks the birds, dogs, and people staring at it repeating ‘Wow!! Amazing!’ wrote Norm Wheeler, who traveled to view it from Indianapolis.

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April Fools Day: Leelanau to solve housing/workforce crisis by housing workers at Sugar Loaf encampment

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Leelanau County businesses have found an innovative solution to the region’s vexing affordable housing and workforce recruitment crisis. County government, chambers of commerce, and local businesses will team up to build a vast tent encampment at the vacant and abandoned Sugar Loaf property, which was once a cherished ski resort and Leelanau’s biggest year-round employer before gangsters, con-men and real estate tycoons closed it for good nearly 25 years ago. “We had the same housing and workforce crisis in the metropolis of Traverse City,” said Rikardo Liko, former Traverse City chancellor and Leelanau’s current interim county administrator. “But the tent encampment in the pines in the Grand Traverse Commons solved all that. We found that hardworking people who can’t afford to pay $3,000 per month for rent in northern Michigan, and can’t afford a $1 million home on the water, could instead live in tents in the woods and keep our tourism and service economics afloat.”

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Montessori diploma course first of its kind in Michigan

The first internationally recognized Montessori Diploma Course in Michigan will begin this June, with Leelanau Montessori Public School Academy in Lake Leelanau co-hosting the renowned program alongside The Children’s House in Traverse City. Offered in conjunction with Washington Montessori Institute, the one-year accreditation course will train future Montessori teachers to help guide and support the development of children 3–6 years old. A Montessori diploma in early childhood is equivalent to a master’s degree and qualifies graduates to work as “Level Two” professionals, or Lead Instructors, in a childcare setting. Leelanau joins Atlanta and Charlotte as the only national locations to host the WMI program, and it could help address the shortage of prepared early childhood educators and professionals in our area.

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Glen Arbor Arts Center names Scott Bouma new executive director

Scott Bouma, a resident of Cedar, is the Glen Arbor Arts Center’s (GAAC) new executive director, as announced last week in a media release. Bouma joined the GAAC staff in 2013 as an office manager and rose to the position of operations manager. He replaces Sarah Kime, who served as GAAC’s executive director from 2019 until this month. Kime leaves the GAAC to join the staff of North Carolina Outward Bound School as director of advancement.

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Glen Arbor Sun wins seven awards from Michigan Press Association’s 2023 Better Newspaper Contest

The Glen Arbor Sun won seven awards in four different categories from the Michigan Press Association’s 2023 Better Newspaper Contest among local news media for stories published between August 1, 2022, and July 31, 2023. The Sun won two awards in Best Opinion, three awards in Business/Agriculture News, and one award each in Feature Story and Spot News. Winners included Abby Chatfield, Katie Dunn, Alexandra Dailey, Jacob Wheeler and Julie Zapoli.

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Work in Leelanau this summer: local employers hiring

Want to work in beautiful Leelanau County this summer? This is your chance. The Glen Lake Chamber of Commerce has posted an Area Jobs board which matches local retail and food businesses with employees who want to get paid to spend their summer in this pleasant peninsula. Those employers include: Coastal, the Cyclery and Crystal River Outfitters, Laker Shakes, Grocer’s Daughter Chocolate, Cottonseed Apparel, Broomstack Kitchen & Taphouse, M22 Glen Arbor, Anderson’s Market, the Glen Lake Association, Riverside Canoe, Cherry Republic, La Becasse, Preserve Historic Sleeping Bear, LeBear, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Bay Wear, Inn & Trail, Indigo Bluffs, Blu, Art’s, Good Harbor Grill, Leelanau Coffee Roasters, Western Avenue Grill, and The Homestead. Click here for more.

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National Lakeshore closes Old Indian Trail due to invasive hemlock

The Old Indian Trail and surrounding area in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is closed due to invasive hemlock woolly adelgid, the Park reported in a March 1 press release. Surveys this January and February found a large infestation on the southern boundary of the National Lakeshore, along and around the area of the Old Indian Trail. This infestation has prompted an area closure to slow the spread and allow for treatment. Plans are in development to reopen the trail by the fall of 2024.

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Republican votes rise, Democratic votes fall in Leelanau in 2024 Michigan Primary

Significantly more Leelanau County residents voted on the Republican than on the Democratic side of the ballot in yesterday’s Michigan presidential primary election — the opposite of the results from the 2020 primary election. Voter turnout yesterday in Leelanau was 35 percent of eligible voters, compared to 39 percent in 2020. That being said, Biden won more votes (2,803) than Trump (2,567) yesterday, which could prove instructive once the campaign eventually becomes a two-way race. It’s unclear how many votes for Haley yesterday were Democratic-leaning voters who switched ballots in order to vote against Trump.

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Martha’s Leelanau Table offers culinary inspiration

While she might favor a beret, Martha Ryan actually wears many hats: Chef, restaurateur, cooking instructor, tour guide. They’re all based around Martha’s Leelanau Table, her popular Suttons Bay restaurant. Many of her regular customers accompany Martha on tours of Europe. “People like to travel with me,” she says, noting that while the trips are not billed as culinary tours, they invariably include stays in hotels with and stops at various restaurants, cafes and the like.

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Homes still pricey as Leelanau inventory remains tight

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Steady and tight. Perhaps those are the bywords to describe the real estate market in 2023 in Leelanau County. Overall, the market continued to slow down from the pace of 2020 and 2021. While residential real estate sales in Leelanau County for 2023 bested those of 2022, those totals lag behind the number of homes sold at the height of the pandemic. There were 377 sales for a total volume of $273,320,611 in 2023. That topped the previous year’s 358 for $268,182,620, though the average sale price dropped slightly, at $724,988 last year from $749,113 for 2022. Those numbers tell a different story than those of the peak years of 2020, 2021 and 2022.

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