The Morning Sun invited Editorial Board members to meet with Gov. Rick Snyder today. I had anticipated him coming in, giving a speech and taking a few questions. It was a nice surprise when he walked in, introduced himself to each of us and then sat down. When asked what he wanted to talk with us about, he said he had no agenda. He was only there to hear what was on our minds. We fired questions and he took his time explaining his opinion and the background for it. We asked about education, health care, taxes and even the bridge to Canada. He said he wants to get Michigan's problems out on the table, search for solutions by collaborating with experts and citizens to creatively solve problems.

I may not have agreed with all his views, but I found him refreshing and genuine. And I look forward to seeing some of his innovative ideas come to fruition.

You cannot take bags into the stadium at Michigan State. This means all bags, including old used seat cushions that had been taken in for the last two seasons. The old seat cushions have a zipper pocket that is big enough to hold a $3 plastic rain poncho and a rolled up hat, for rain or sun, so they are bags. Any bags you try to take into the stadium will be confiscated. There is no use to argue.

A couple of Spartans went to the first football game of the season and were informed, after a long and heated discussion, that the old seat cushions, now bags, were not allowed in the stadium. It is a long ways to walk to take a bag back to the car so the old spartan green seat cushions were skillfully hidden in the green bushes along the Red Cedar River. Great idea...except that it was a night game and when the Spartans came out of the stadium in the middle of the night it was dark. A hunt in the dark in the bushes along the river yielded a lot of comments but no bags. Oh well, they couldn't be used for seat cushions anyway.
The next week the home game was at noon and the Spartans went to the game in the bright sunshine. A very short search along the Red Cedar was held and there were the bags right where they had been hidden. After the game the bags were retrieved. They were a bit damp but the hat was fine and so were the ponchos.

The story has a moral. Do not take, or attempt to take, any type of bag into Spartan Stadium. If you must hide the bags check the game time before you act.

The Chippewa Watershed Conservancy is working to save land at Halls Lake. The Morning Sun has written a very informative article on the Halls Lake project and supported us in an editorial. To learn more about the CWC go to our website. The website details all of our activities and has a place to click to help us save the lake and other properties in the area.

The Chippewa Watershed Conservancy, with the cooperation of the Bay Area Community Foundation, the Saginaw Bay Watershed Initiative Network, the Isabella County Parks and Recreation Department and the Isabella County Community Development Department has created a new Chippewa River Water Trail Map. The map traces the river from Barryton to Midland. It marks historical points of interests, golf courses, campgrounds, lakes, rivers, and shopping and dining areas. The map also includes danger points.

The free map is being distributed to local businesses that use the river, to parks and recreation departments, and city and county offices. The Saginaw Chippewa Indian Reservation is close to the river and part of the map.

From now through September 24, the digital images on aluminum works of CMU Professor, Al Wildey will be on display at the Art Reach Gallery, 111 East Broadway, in Mt. Pleasant. Included here are a few of these luminous pieces. At the top, Paris; middle,Stairway; at the bottom, America and Harbor Trees.For more information check ArtReachCenter.org.