Podcast #1 - Welcome

Sherrilyn is from Holly, Michigan and is passionate about her community. She discusses the lack of media coverage and the need for better planning and infrastructure in Holly. She has been involved in local government for a long time and does thorough research. She promises to provide informative and entertaining content in her podcast, "Sherrilyn's Pearls from Holly." She also criticizes the cancellation of a township meeting and emphasizes the importance of transparency. She thanks the Flint Public Library for providing a space for recording her podcast. Hello, and welcome to Sherrilyn's Pearls from Holly, Holly, Michigan, that is. Located in northwest Oakland County, Holly is a village, it's a township, a school district, and a postal zip code that encompasses 85 square miles. Are you confused? Stay tuned because you are in luck. There is only one Sherrilyn Everly, and she's a third generation Holly-ite, a 1973 graduate of Holly High School, and yes, my 50th class reunion is this summer. It will be the same weekend as the 123rd Holly High School Alumni Banquet on June 6th. And since I'm the secretary of the Alumni Association, just like my mom Charlotte, you can be sure you'll be getting more information in future podcasts about this great community event. My husband is Jim Clark, and although he's nearly eight years older than me, he keeps me young. He introduced me to golf and kayaking 30 years ago. Today we still enjoy golfing with each other, and together we walk and ride e-bikes all over town. We love to travel, and we've been to almost every state, so we always love Michigan the best, and so we take every chance we can to explore. Okay, so why a podcast about, from, regarding Holly? Well, like I said, I've been here forever. Please forgive me if I sound like your opinionated auntie. Expired, expired. But I just can't keep quiet about the current state of Holly and my concerns for its future. We have big challenges and big opportunities in front of us, and people, you need to be paying attention. I give all respect to the administrators Lloyd Bingham and April Brandon for the Facebook group they moderate, Holly, MI, open discussion, backslash, forum, parenthesis, and with 14,000 followers, they are the biggest and best local news outlet we have. Next to them, I get my local news from the Tri-County Times, and they do a pretty decent job considering the areas they cover, like Fenton, Linden, and Argentine. However, that leaves Holly and Rose Township with little to no media spotlighting decisions, especially big money decisions, that are being made on our behalf. Oh, please, let me wax nostalgic for the Holly Herald, the Herald Advertiser, our weekly local newspaper for 87 years, published and printed during my lifetime in Battle Alley by Don Campbell and his son, Alan. They covered and reported on every village council meeting and every township trustee meeting. If there was a hot topic, they'd report from the relevant commission or committee meeting. The paper had not only a calendar of events, but they reported on who attended and what took place at those community happenings and celebrations. There was a sports section with scores, stories, and photos from school and extracurricular sports. There was a weekly police blotter and an article called Holly Heraldings that told of people's trips and vacations and when they had been recognized or honored for something. Gosh, I miss that weekly newspaper. And oh, yeah, letters to the editor. That's where you'd really hear what people were talking about. Dang, I miss that paper. Sherrilyn's Pearls from Holly is my attempt to fill at least some of that void. I will frequently focus on issues of government and community engagement because you guys got to pay attention and get involved somehow. Watching YouTube of the broadcast of the village council meetings is one way to be informed. Holly Township meetings also are broadcast, but folks, the future is here. It's beating on our door and we got to be ready. We know Holly is a wonderful community full of wonderful people, but it's also my firm opinion that we deserve better. We deserve better streets, we deserve better sidewalks and parks, and we certainly deserve better planning for the future. So why should you care what I think? Because I've been paying close attention and speaking truth to local governments for a long time, for a very long time. How long, you ask? Well, how about since my father, Skip Beverly, served as president pro tem of the Holly Village Council in the 1960s? I've been involved since I was president of the Fish Lake Property Owners Association in Rose Township after attending my first meeting in the 1970s. I've been involved since we invested in three homes on Stiff's Mill Pond in the 80s. Two of them we later sold after having them as rentals and we built our forever home on the shores of the mill pond. Since Jim began serving on village council on planning commissions for the village and township and on Holly Board of Review since the 1990s. Full disclosure, Jim and I never had kids in Holly schools, hence we had the time and attention to focus on matters of local government. I appreciate that many of you are focused on family and other matters equally important to you. Another reason to give me a listen is I do my homework. If you hear it here, you can believe it. I look things up, vaccine issues, vaccine issues. Jim and I often use that phrase to guide research and decision making. Vaccine issues, there's a lot of bull crap out there but you won't get it from me. Feel free to fact check me anytime and if you find out that I was wrong and you show me, I will stand corrected and I will even give you credit on this podcast. And finally, I'm pretty fun to listen to, I hope. I'm smart and I've had a lot of unique experiences in life like running the Michigan Renaissance Festival and being the race director for the Cram. I like people and I like stories that inform and entertain and I hope that is what I will be giving you at least once a week. About the title of this podcast, Sherilyn's Pearls, will they be pearls of wisdom? Will they be pearls cast before swine? I guess that will be up to you. Here's my first, just for you Holly Township. Really? You cancel your one trustee meeting of the month because there's no business? No business? With no one sitting in the treasurer's office, no one running Township Parks, property sale pending and a big new development on the drawing board, it seems to me like we have plenty of business brewing. Besides, public comment and reports from departments and trustees should be delivered monthly. Transparency means you keep your obligation to hold a monthly meeting, at least in my opinion. Thank you to the Flint Public Library for giving public access to your graph digital studio where I'm recording this podcast. Stay tuned for weekly drops of Sherilyn's Pearls from Holly.