The museum’s musical showpiece, a 1922 Belgium-built Mortier Dance Hall Organ – 18 feet tall, 30 feet wide and weighing approximately 5,000 pounds – is currently in pieces, undergoing a delicate and time-consuming restoration. And with good reason: It is one of only a few hundred in the world that have survived (most in private collections) – and one of possibly only two that is played regularly during daily public tours. The paint on its hand-carved rosewood façade is also original.

In other words, this is no ordinary organ. So when the time came to make long-overdue repairs to fix missing notes and souring sounds, it was a job for the most qualified, meticulous –and, many would say, extremely patient – caretakers.

Johnny Verbeeck and his son Jeffery arrived in Acme from Belgium last Friday for a three-week stay. Organ building and repairing is in the Verbeecks blood. Johnny and Jeffery are the fourth and fifth generation of the J. Verbeeck company founded in Belgium in 1884. The elder Verbeeck has been working in the business since he was 16 years old, the younger hanging around organs since taking his first steps.

It’s also very possible there is a bit of Verbeeck legend where the Music House organ is concerned. It’s likely that Johnny’s grandfather helped build parts for the musical masterpiece he is now restoring.

On the day The Ticker paid a visit, Johnny was dismantling the organ’s valves – between 400 and 500 in all. He plucks each one out by hand to replace the leather “membrane” so all the notes play, and play the right, ear-pleasing sound. It’s painstaking work and he’s quick to note that it’s best not to keep count of how many more he has to go.

After that, all the pipe work will be cleaned, sections of split wood replaced and plenty of TLC before the organ plays once again.

The company does a lot of repairing of organs in poor shape but also builds new ones in the old style. Last year, the Verbeecks spent more than 4 months in the States alone.

While the 1920s and 30s were the heydays for these organs, Johnny explains, they reached their low point a few decades later. In Europe, organs similar in size to the one at the Music House Museum would travel around to festivals for a “cheap band,” he says. Smaller ones were also found in taverns before being replaced by the jukebox. By the 1960s, the organs had little value and were often burned for firewood.

Today, once the Verbeecks finish their work, Johnny estimates the Music House Museum organ’s value between $400,000 and $500,000.

The Music House Museum launched the $80,000 fundraising campaign for the organ repairs a year and a half ago, says Kelly Curtis, director of marketing and development, and has just surpassed the $70,000 mark. Donations are still being accepted here www.musichouse.org. The organ is expected to be back up and running in June.

To hear a little of the museum’s Dance Hall Organ in action, click here.

That morning, a formal ceremony will mark the passing of the baton at Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City from Joseph Buzzella to Sean Cross, who will become the station’s 39th commanding officer.

The event is one steeped in military history and, with a salute, accountability for safety of the 140-person crew and all of Lake Michigan (including Chicago), Lake Superior, northern Lake Huron, and the Red River in North Dakota. Cross will serve a two-year term.

The job is a big one.

“I felt a burden of command that moment I took over,” recalls Buzzella, “and Sean Cross will feel that weight on his shoulders the day he takes command, I assure you.”

It’s also a great honor. Twenty-six air stations exist, and only 11 are led by officers at Buzzella’s and Cross’ rank. The selection process is highly competitive; Buzella says he and Cross “beat the odds” by being chosen above many other qualified candidates.

“It sounds dramatic, but it’s true,” Buzzella adds about the honor. “Mothers and fathers have trusted us with their most treasured resource and to bring them home safe. That’s the huge responsibility and honor.”

The Ticker chatted with both U.S. Coast Guard Academy graduates last week. The two have known each other since those college days, have been stationed together elsewhere, and their families have grown close.

Buzzella and his family are off to the Washington DC area, where he will study at the National War College and pursue a career in national security strategy.

He says his time in TC was the highlight of his career.

“It’s been something I term ‘out of a storybook.’ I’ve never seen anywhere else like it, and I’ve lived all over,” he reflects, noting that three things really stood out about Traverse City’s people: “the pride the community has, its patriotism, and the level charity and generosity.”

For his part, Cross is ready to take charge. He now serves as the “number two” in Elizabeth City, N.C., and has a distinguished career already with stops in San Diego and Cape Cod, and plenty of hours logged aboard an H-60 helicopter.

When he arrives in Traverse City late next week it will be his first time here.

“I’ve talked to a number of people and I can’t find a single person -- active duty, retired, man or woman – who didn’t love Traverse City. You always have five or ten percent who don’t like where they’re stationed, but to a man they’ve said, ‘if you ask my kids where they’ve lived and want to go back to, they say TC.’

Buzzella says his friend is too humble to do so, so he relays a story about Cross’ valor in action while serving in San Diego.

A man aboard a container ship hundreds of miles off the California coast had fallen down a flight of stairs and opened a bad wound on his head.; the Coast Guard was summoned for a rescue, though the distance was far out of a helicopter’s range. It was 1am, and Cross was called to find a solution. He reached out to the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln and asked them to position the carrier at a point 300 miles off the coast. Cross and his crew flew to the carrier, landed for refueling, flew another 300 miles into the night, evacuated the injured civilian, and flew back to the carrier. The event earned him a rare “air medal.”

“Traverse City needs to know it’s receiving a very experienced commander with demonstrated performance,” says Buzzella.

Cross is more matter-of-fact about the event.

“A former admiral used to say that the intersection of competence and opportunity equals success. I think that’s what happened.”

Anything about the move to Traverse City making Cross anxious?

“Not really, though I did marry a southern California girl, so she and my kids [son, 11 and daughter, 8] are a little apprehensive about the snow!”

Want to attend the change of command ceremony? It’s at 10am on Friday, June 7 at Air Station Traverse City, near the former Cherry Capital Airport off Airport Access Road.
 

bigLITTLE Wines, owned by brothers Mike and Pete Laing, has opened its tasting room at 4519 S. Elm Valley Road in Suttons Bay on the Leelanau Peninsula Wine Trail. It will offer one complimentary pour of the featured wine of the day. Visitors can also purchase a flight of wines for $5 or a full glass for $7. The tasting room is open Thursdays through Saturdays throughout the year from noon to 6 p.m. Read more about the wine and its makers here.

WaterFire Vineyards, one of the first wineries to emerge from Antrim County, is releasing its first wines this month. The 9-acre vineyard on the slopes above Torch Lake in Kewadin is entering its 5th season of grape growing and is owned by growers and partners Chantal Lefebvre and Michael Newman. WaterFire's focus is on under-represented European varietals Sauvignon Blanc and Gruner Veltliner. The owners also grow Riesling grapes for vintner Bryan Ulbrich of Traverse City's Left Foot Charley. Ulbrich is also their winemaker.

They are:
Traverse City Convention & Visitors Bureau: Best Convention & Visitors Bureau
National Cherry Festival: Best Event
Events North: Best Event Planning Company
Grand Traverse Resort & Spa: Best Hotel with Meeting Space (200+ rooms)
Celtic Tours: Best Transportation
Shanty Creek Resorts & Crystal Mountain Resort (tie): Best Wintertime Venue

Also, Meghan Gamelin, event design manager for Grand Traverse Resort & Spa was inducted into the magazine's 2013 Hall of Fame as Best Up-and-Coming Special Events Planner.

Several local nominees were also runners-up in a number of categories: Hagerty Conference Center, Shanty Creek Resorts, Grandview Catering, Aerie Restaurant & Lounge, G.J. Rental, Park Place Hotel, Traverse City Wine & Art Festival and The Floral Underground.

DAVE CLARK, School Psychologist, TBAISD
DON FREED, School Counselor, TC Central
MARGE GATZKE, Kindergarten Teacher, Interlochen Elementary
SHANE HARRISON, Science Teacher, Pathfinder School
MONIQUE MANSFIELD, Occupational Therapist, TBAISD
GINNY NEWMAN, School Counselor, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Middle School
MARCI PERTHES, School Counselor, TC East Middle School
KIM PRISK, Business and Accounting Teacher, TC West Senior High School
MARGIE TROPF, Kindergarten Teacher, Northport Public School
FRED WILLE, Teacher Consultant, Suttons Bay Public Schools

They will be honored during the 29th annual Outstanding Educator Award ceremony on Wed., June 5, 7 p.m., at the City Opera House in Traverse City.

The first, located at the northeast corner of Washington and Cass (behind City Centre Plaza), will be the four-story, 18-unit Washington Place. The development, led by Passageways Travel’s Tom and Sheila McIntyre, will have retail and office space on the ground floor. They hope to start construction this fall.

“It’s going to be our primary residence,” says Sheila McIntyre. With their kids grown, the couple wants to be able to walk downtown to the shops, restaurants and the State Theatre.

Realtors from Real Estate One and Coldwell Banker Schmidt are representing Washington Place; ten units are already spoken for.

The units will range between $180,000 to $670,000, each with 800-2,000 square feet of living space. The higher-priced units will include an indoor parking space.

The McIntyres already own one of the two parking lots now occupying the lot, and have a purchase option for the other from the City of Traverse City.

Just two blocks west on State Street past the post office, developers Tim Burden and Mike Wills are partnering to create Uptown. The $6 million project will overlook the Boardman River and Hannah Park across the water.

“I’ve really been interested in this property for fifteen years and things have just recently come together,” says Burden.

The duo has been working with city, county and brownfield development officials on the project; the site was an edge-of-town dumpsite decades ago, leaving contamination underground.

Burden also developed River’s Edge apartments and Midtown condominiums further upstream on the Boardman. Both projects utilized brownfield redevelopment funds.

Uptown will be brick, townhouse style; each unit will feature three bedrooms and a two-car garage. Prices will range between $500,000 to $700,000.

Burden hopes to have some units sold and occupied by spring 2014, with the entire project finished and occupied the following year.
 

Britten started his learning career at NMC as a nine-year-old taking pottery classes, preparing him for an eventual career in commercial art. Today, Britten's TC-based company is a provider of creative production services, event signage and large-format digital printing. Britten says one-third of Britten's 220 employees are current or former NMC students.

Jonkhoff graduated from NMC in 1976 and later earned a master's degree from Ferris State University through the University Center. She also taught for five years in NMC's business division. "NMC enabled me to further my education yet continue to live, work and play in this area I am blessed to call home," says Jonkhoff. "To see NMC's evolution over time is most impressive."

"We want to tell the story of local products transported by sail and how this can contribute to a more resilient economy and a sustainable future", says Jan Barlow, trade route coordinator for the new venture. "To drive a truck from the tip of Leelanau to Charlevoix is a distance of 79 miles, yet it’s only 17 miles by water.”

The company is currently seeking local merchants, community groups and individuals to support its 2013 pilot project with Aquilo, a 1936 wooden sailboat. An informational gathering about the new initiative will be held this Sun., May 26, at 2 p.m. at Brew North in Northport. More info can be found on Facebook.

For many local courses, last year brought the first signs of a turnaround.

“We have to give a nod to Mother Nature,” says Kate Morris, executive director of the Michigan Golf Course Owners Association, referring to the early arrival of warm weather in 2012. “More buying confidence and an amazing, long season had a huge economic impact.”

Rodger Jabara, general manager of Bay Meadows Golf Course, also credits the weather and an unusually high number of out-of-state visitors in 2012. “When I was able to have a conversation with them [about how they decided to visit], most times Pure Michigan was mentioned,” he says.

This year’s longer winter means a more typical start to the season, but the heavier and later snowfall also means better turf conditions, notes Tom McGee, Director of Golf Operations at the Grand Traverse Resort. He believes that, combined with a predicted strong tourism season, “Northern Michigan golf courses are in a good position to have a good season.”

Boasting a $4.2 billion golfing economy, Michigan leads the nation in public courses. But is the state “over golf coursed?” Nobody knows for sure, and locals point to two key areas for survival: differentiation in the marketplace and price integrity.

“Every golf course will have to pick its own path to appeal to its market,” says Brent Maitland of LochenHeath, which reopened in 2011 after closing operations for a few years.

Many courses and clubs have tried to diversify beyond the traditional golf enthusiasts or emphasize a certain niche. Grand Traverse Resort has seen an increase in golf and resort packages for groups of 12 or more players coming into town. LochenHeath is positioning itself to those seeking a club that preserves some afternoon tee times just for members, with an ambition to someday become private again, while Bay Meadows plays-up the family golf experience.

Morris says courses statewide are also struggling with the proliferation of discount deals, particularly among courses in desperate situations to fill rounds, which “ultimately erode the real price point.” Because maintenance costs remain the same or increase each year, Jabara worries about the long-term effect on the quality of the actual courses, while Maitland asserts that in the long term, such aggressive discounting is just bad for business.

Still, with a relatively high per capita rate of golfers in Michigan and numbers strong in junior golf tournaments and high school events, the future of the state’s “green” industry looks healthy.

Perhaps its best asset? Golfers’ enthusiasm.

“Michigan golfers are hearty participants,” says Morris. “I’ve traveled all over and have never seen the determination and love of the game that our golfers have.”
 

We’re also proud to announce that yours truly will be the publisher of the Official Program of the 2013 Traverse City Film Festival. We’ll be producing a high-quality, collectible publication that will be given to all filmgoers and will be the only place you’ll find the final/official film schedule. Limited advertising positions are available; email us here for more information.