What happened in East Lansing this week?

Happy Saturday! Start your weekend by catching up with the ELi team’s reporting from the past week. 

A century well spent: Irv Nichols reflects on life after celebrating his 100th birthday. 

When Irv Nichols first moved to East Lansing, people were still riding horses on some of the neighborhood streets. Now, 67 years later Nichols reflects on his life and the changes he’s seen (and help make) within East Lansing. Read Reporter Mark Pontoni’s story on Irv, and hear from Irv himself in a couple of videos within the article. 

Voting in the general election has started. 

While Election Day is still more than a month away, the first ballots in Michigan have officially been cast! Thursday (Sept. 26) marked the first day absentee ballots could be obtained from a clerk’s office. Read Managing Editor Luke Day’s story about recent changes to election laws in Michigan, and why City Clerk Marie Wicks is optimistic lines will be short at Michigan State University on Election Day. 

ELPL celebrates intellectual freedom. 

This week, the East Lansing Public Library (ELPL) celebrated Freedom to Read Week. Library Director Kevin King talked about how there has been an increase in banned books nationwide recently, and how many of the books targeted feature marginalized voices. Read Report Nico Bradford’s story about Freedom to Read Week here. 

An organizational update from ELi. 

With summer coming to a close and an important election coming this fall, we thought it was a good time to give some organizational updates on ELi. Read Luke and Executive Director Beth Peck’s column on our new hires, recent grant funding and more here. 

October kicks off with a busy meeting week. 

Next week will feature some important city meetings. Tuesday (Oct. 1) City Council and the Downtown Management Board each meet. Wednesday (Oct. 2) the Arts Selection Panel and Independent Police Oversight Commission convene. Then on Thursday (Oct. 2) there is a Housing Commission meeting. Once meeting agendas are posted, they can be found here. 

Additionally, there is a special meeting scheduled for Monday (Sept. 30) that will explore reviving Folk Festival in East Lansing. Previously, the Great Lakes Folk Festival brought people from all over the region to East Lansing for a three-day event. However the festival has not been held since 2017. Now, the city wants to hear from residents about what a new version of Folk Fest could look like. The meeting will be held at the Hannah Community Center, starting at 5:30 p.m. Find out more from the city’s press release here. 

Got questions about Proposal One? Ask them here. 

Next week, ELi and the Lansing Area League of Women Voters will be recording a program about Proposal One, which is to be decided on at the Nov. 5 general election. The proposed amendment to the city charter would impact East Lansing’s housing and rental regulations, and our hope is the program helps voters make an informed decision at the ballot box. Readers are encouraged to help shape the questions asked to participants by letting us know what you are wondering with this Google Form. 

Michigan State Basketball season tips off with Midnight Madness next week. 

College basketball season is at the doorstep, as Michigan State University will hold its annual season kickoff “Midnight Madness” event Friday, Oct. 4. The event typically showcases new and returning players participating in a practice and scrimmage. Famously, men’s basketball head coach Tom Izzo is known to arrive in some sort of costume for the event. 

Midnight Madness will be held at the Breslin Center on MSU’s campus. Doors open at 6 p.m. and the event is free to attend. 

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ELi is a nonprofit news service that is able to operate due to the generosity of our readers. To support our work, consider subscribing to an East Lansing Insider membership. Subscribers have stories emailed directly to them even before they are published to our website. Here is a list of ways you can help ELi continue our work.