New Fire Station To Be Named After Mindy Kerr, AA's First Female Fire Fighter

Morning, Ann Arbor! Holland’s Tulip Time Festival starts this weekend. If you’ve ever thought, man I wish there was a live stream so I could track the tulips’ blooms, you’re in luck.

Time to dust off those wooden clogs.

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👩‍🚒 Station 4: Last week, the city announced Fire Station 4 would be renamed after Mindy Kerr, who broke barriers in 1980 as Ann Arbor’s first female firefighter and served for 25 years. The $12-million project will replace the aging 1966 structure at 2415 S. Huron Parkway with Michigan’s first net-zero, carbon-neutral fire station, featuring geothermal heating/cooling, rooftop solar, and gender-inclusive bunk rooms and showers. Construction is expected to begin this spring and finish next fall.

🏠 Local Squatter Case: Last December, an Ann Arbor couple returned from vacation to find their locks changed and a woman and her father living in their home. Investigators learned the woman had once worked at the assisted-living facility where the home’s previous owner spent her final years (knowledge she used to invent a story that the late resident had willed the house to her). Armed with a falsified ID, she hired a locksmith, switched the locks, registered to vote there, and even set up a bogus notary LLC in the deceased owner’s name. She now faces felony charges for home invasion, ID fraud, and voter fraud, while her father, named as a co-defendant, remains at large.

🌹 Golden Bachelor: Last week, ABC announced the next Golden Bachelor would be a former U of M linebacker. Detroit-native Mel Owens was an All-Big Ten linebacker for U of M in the late ‘70s and was the No. 9 pick in the 1981 NFL Draft. Now 66 and a sports-injury lawyer in Orange County, Owens will headline season 2 of the senior Bachelor spin-off.

TODAY’S SPONSOR: Community Pest Solutions

🐜 Community Pest Solutions: Community Pest Solutions is a family-owned, Ann Arbor-based local business. Delivering peace of mind for home and business owners facing nuisance wildlife and insect problems, Community is the only area pest control company to maintain an authentic Five-Star Rating on Google. Schedule an inspection at pestfreemi.com

🌲 Motor City Sequoias: Last week, two nonprofits planted dozens of giant sequoia saplings on four vacant lots on Detroit’s east side. The nonprofit Archangel Ancient Tree Archive donated the trees, Arboretum Detroit will tend them and run “tree-school” programs so neighborhood kids learn to steward the potentially 300-foot-tall trees. If the saplings take, Detroit could one day boast its own miniature redwood forest.

🏟️ Cosm Detroit: It’s not the Vegas Sphere, but it’s close. Construction is underway on Cosm Detroit, a 70,000-sq-ft “shared-reality” venue at Monroe St. and Campus Martius. Slated to open mid-2026, the site will seat 1,500 (700 inside an 87-ft LED dome) and stream Lions, Tigers, Pistons, and Red Wings games in ultra-bright 360° detail. Here’s a taste of the immersive experience of Cosm (ignore the fact that U of M gets scored on in this clip).

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That's all for now! Have a great week in Tree Town!

- Andrew

P. P. S. - U of M commencement is this weekend. Good luck getting a last-minute dinner reservation.

P. P. P. S. - Local Domino’s pizza cutters, you good?

P. P. P. P. S. - Thanks to Community Pest Solutions for sponsoring this week’s Michigander.

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