OTHER SIDE OF THE TRACKS by Peter Jakey: Local residents serve Christmas meals in Windy City

While children across the country were opening presents on Christmas morning, Fred and Joyce Lewis were trying to make the holiday brighter for some less fortunate people. Fred and Joyce, along with their daughter Kelly Lewis, were up and out Christmas morning at 5:45 a.m. to serve breakfast to homeless people and victims of domestic violence, right in the heart of downtown Chicago. The shelter resembles a warehouse, but Joyce said it is a nice facility for people to stay when there is no other place to go. The Lewises were there to serve a hot breakfast, and when I mean a hot breakfast, there was no dry cereal to be found. Fred helped make the pancakes, while Kelly worked on scrambled eggs. Joyce was on the serving line. They were part of a crew of volunteers from Kelly?s church.

?I can?t even tell you how many meals we served,? said Joyce. ?It was so rewarding and it really makes you appreciate your blessings.? She said an afternoon crew from Kelly?s church arrived later in the day to begin preparing a Christmas dinner. The Lewises were not looking for any kind of notoriety. They had told some friends in town of their experience, who in turn told us.

?We were not looking for anybody to pat us on the back,? said Joyce. Understood. It still is a wonderful deed. ?We would do it again,? said Joyce.

?County Development Commission director Bill Valentine has had a busy first month of the year. He started off 2007 by attending Gov. Jennifer Granholm?s Inauguration Ceremony and the subsequent reception at the Lansing Center. ?I had an excellent discussion with Senator Stabenow about some agricultural initiatives in our area,? said Valentine. ?She is on the Senate Agricultural Committee, and the Farm Bill will be reauthorized in the next session. She gave me the name of her staffer in charge of ag issues and I intend to follow up on a number of projects.? He was to attend the Michigan Sheep Breeder?s Annual meeting in Lansing. Also during January, he will be reviewing and revising the economic development strategy plan for Presque Isle County. This was last done in 2000.

?The Presque Isle County Courthouse would seem the last place on earth a criminal would choose to break into, but to my wild surprise, news surfaced over the weekend that a lone subject defied the odds. Not only is the courthouse in the shadow of the sheriff?s department, but in view of the Rogers City Police Department. I cannot imagine an officer sitting at a window at city hall and saying to himself: ?You know, I think I am going to watch the courthouse; you never know when that building is going to be hit.? Never! I would think it would be the last place in th

e county there would be a report of a B & E. If I started a list of places to not break into in Rogers City, City Hall and the sheriff?s department would be number one and number two on the list, followed by the courthouse. An arrest was made later in the morning in front of the sheriff?s department of a subject clothed only in his skivvies. I am not saying this is the person who committed the crime, because the subject will have his day in court, but the fellow was bloody. IUn addition, his pants were found over at the courthouse, I was told. I am curious about a motive, but there really may not be one.

?Am I the only person that enjoys watching the audition portions of ?American Idol,? and then once the contestants get to Hollywood, I stop watching. Speaking of television shows, I have not got caught up in all the ?24? hype. It fits right in the category with ?Seinfield? and Cheers,? as shows I have never seen.

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