Etcetera

AGENDA is interested in receiving items from you for etcetera. Press clippings, press releases, summaries of local events and any other ideas or suggestions are welcome. Just mail them to: Etcetera Editor, AGENDA, 220 S. Main St, Ann Arbor, MI 48104.

Turn Up The Heat If your rental unit is too cold, it may be time for you to turn up the heat on your landlord in order to enforce your rights regarding heating and weatherization.

State law requires your landlord to provide a heating system which is capable of heating every room to 68 degrees, three feet above the floor when the outside temperature is as low as 10 degrees Fahrenheit. If your home is too cold, you may take the same actions you would take for any other repair problem, including withholding your rent.

For more information, call an Ann Arbor Tenants Union counselor at 763-6876. - from "The Tenants' Voice, " a publication of the A2 Tenants Union, Year-End 1994.

Creative Ways to Support A2CDC The Ann Arbor Community Development Corporation, a non-profit organization working to improve economic conditions for all citizens, asks for your support in the following ways:

Designate all or a portion of your United Way contribution to go to A2CDC. Contact United way to find out how to go about it.

Honor Martin Luther King Day! Buy any books, music or gift certificates at Borders Books on the weekend of Jan. 13-15 and mention that you would like a portion of your purchase to go to the A2CDC.

On Jan. 15, the Woodland Plaza location of Yogurt & Sandwich will donate 10% of sales to A2CDC. Eat at 2264 S. Main, Ann Arbor that day and help support CDC!

Eyewitness Cuba Reports Ypsilanti residents Lee and Phil Booth will present two reports on their recent trip to Cuba in January. They were participants in the fourth "Friendshipment" humanitarian aid caravan, organized by Pastors for Peace, in November.

The first talk, sponsored by Interfaith Council for Peace & Justice, will be held on Tuesday, Jan. 10 at 7:30 pm at the 1st Baptist Church, 512 E. Huron. Call 663-1870 for more information.

The second talk, entitled "Cuba: The Current Crisis," will be held Wednesday, Jan. 11 from 7:30-9:30 pm in the Koessler Library on the third floor of the Michigan League. In this event, sponsored by the Latin American Solidarity Committee and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, the Booths will be joined by U-M professors Ivette Perfecto and Frank Thompson. Perfecto and Thompson will address the need to end the economic blockade on Cuba. For more information, call 761- 4233.

Military Lets Gay Ruling Stand The government isn't challenging a court ruling that says the military can't bar gays for merely "coming out," the first time the Clinton administration has not appealed an unfavorable ruling in the case. The Pentagon and the Justice Department allowed a deadline for challenging an appeals court decision to expire.

The case involves Navy sonar operator Keith Meinhold who carne out on national TV in 1992. Meinhold had been discharged under old military regulations but a district court ordered his reinstatement three months later.

- from Parents, Families and Friends ofLesbians and Gays (PFLAG) Newsletter, Dec, 1994.

Holiday Evergreen Tree Collection The City of Ann Arbor will collect holiday evergreen trees from the curbside on the normal refuse days from Monday, Jan. 9, through Friday, Jan. 20. Please have all trees out at the curb by 7 am on your refuse day. Remove all stands, ornaments, tinsel and plastic bags.

Holiday trees from Ann Arbor residents may also be left at Swift Run Park, located at E. Ellsworth and Platt Roads, throughout January. After January , residents must take their trees to the City of Ann Arbor Compost Center, 41 20 Platt Rd., south of E. Ellsworth Rd., 994-2723.

The collected trees are chipped into mulch or composted. Evergreen mulch will be available at no charge from the City's Compost Center, on a self-load, first-come basis while the supply lasts. For more information, 994-2807.

Ann Arbor MRF on Schedule Next year, all recyclables and solid waste collected in the city of Ann Arbor and from UM will be processed at the City's new Materials Recovery Facility (MRF). The $5.1 million MRF will have a two-phase opening with recyclables accepted in July and all other solid waste added by September.

"We are particularly pleased because the MRF will allow greater recovery of our waste stream and reduce the city's cost of solid waste processing and disposal," says Bryan Weinert, Ann Arbor's manager of resource recovery and waste reduction. "After we recover everything possible from the trash, the remainder will be compacted and shipped in semi-trailers to Browning Ferris Industries' Arbor Hills landfill. This is much more efficient and cost effective than individual trucks making runs to the landfill." Ann Arbor will own the facility and Resource Recovery, Inc. from Essex, Connecticut will operate it. For more information contact Weinert at Ann Arbor's Solid Waste Department, 994-2807.

-from "Trash Wrap," the quarterly publication of the Washtenaw County Division of Public Works, Nov., 1994.