Terrance Dillard
Black America’s secret and stigma
IT evangelist seeking young black talent
See page B-1
See page C-1 POWERED BY REAL TIMES MEDIA
Volume 79 – Number 20
Chemical Financial Corporation to partner with Talmer Bancorp, Inc.
michiganchronicle.com
SAVE MUSIC HALL
Michigan Chronicle Reports
The boards of directors of Chemical Financial Corporation (Nasdaq: CHFC), the holding company for Chemical Bank, and Talmer Bancorp, Inc. (Nasdaq: TLMR), the holding company for Talmer Bank and Trust, announced on Tuesday the execution of a definitive Gary Torgow agreement for Chemical Financial Corporation ("Chemical") to partner with Talmer Bancorp, Inc. ("Talmer") in a cash and common stock merger transaction valued at approximately $1.1 billion. The merger will result in the creation of one of the largest community banks in the Midwest. Based on the companies’ balance sheets as of Dec. 31, 2015, following completion of the transaction, the combined organization will have approximately $16 billion in assets, $12 billion in loans and $13 billion in deposits with 266 locations primarily in Michigan and northeast Ohio. The transaction will also allow the combined company to more effectively and efficiently navigate the challenges and costs associated with becoming a larger banking institution. “This is clearly a transformational merger between two healthy Michigan banks with complementary geographies. We have been impressed by what Gary Torgow, Dave Provost and the Talmer team have accomplished in a relatively short period of time, growing Talmer into one of the region’s leading financial institutions,” said David B. Ramaker, chairman, chief executive officer and President of Chemical Financial Corporation. “Through this partnership, we will make a marked entry into the Southeast Michigan market and expand for the first time beyond our state’s borders.” Upon consummation of the merger, David B. Ramaker will continue to serve as CEO and president of Chemical Financial Corporation and chairman, CEO and president of Chemical Bank. David T. Provost, Talmer’s president and CEO and chairman of Talmer Bank, will join the Chemical Board of Directors. Gary Torgow, Talmer’s chairman, will serve as chairman of the board of the combined entity. To read the complete article, go to michronicle. com
Flint water crisis a long time coming, says former DWSD chief engineer By Keith A. Owens SENIOR EDITOR
Dennis Green is a water man. Everyone needs to drink water to survive, but Green’s passion about H2O, which has essentially been his life’s work and focus for close to half a century, borders on the fanatical — and this is not meant in a bad way. After all, many would say John the Baptist was a fanatic. Retired as of 2010, Green spent virtually his entire professional career working for the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD). His last position held before stepping down was as the head water systems engineer. Green describes himself as some- Dennis Green one for whom water, and all the master feats of engineering that go into providing clean water to households like yours and mine, is not just a job. It is also a hobby because, even in his off hours, Green would amuse himself tinkering with engineering ideas and theories that could potentially improve water delivery.
Vivian Carpenter
By Keith A. Owens Senior Editor
It’s not so much about saving Detroit Music Hall as it is about saving the soul of Detroit, because Detroit’s soul has always been defined by the music. It was the cars that defined our economy and toned the city’s muscles, but Detroit music has always been about the soul.
Alex Parrish
So yes, the man may be a bit obsessed. But the man also knows a thing or two about what makes water work. Which is why what he has been witnessing in recent headlines about the Flint water crisis doesn’t shock or even surprise him. As someone who has been inhabiting the belly of the beast for so many years, Green knows far more than most about what has been transpiring behind the scenes that has helped bring Flint to this point going back many years before Gov. Rick Snyder’s current dilemma. What Green also believes is that the Karegondi Water Authority, currently expected to (hopefully) be operational around July 2016, is far from the solution to the Flint’s water crisis that it has been promoted as being.
And that’s why saving Detroit Music Hall is not just important, it is mandatory. There are certain things that you don’t want to lose, and then there are those things that you simply cannot afford to lose under any set of circumstances. For trustee Vivian Carpenter, it’s more about the kids than it is about the capital campaign currently under way to raise the funds needed to stay open.
“What has motivated me to participate in such a major effort in a major way is the programming that it does for the children in Detroit Public Schools. And a lot of people don’t understand that Music Hall is a not for profit, and it has a music program. In the face of DPS taking the budget cuts that they have, the arts and the music programs, they’ve been decimated,” she said. “The Music Hall has stepped up to the plate and it’s been sending teachers. I mean no other institution is able to send music teachers into the schools to supplement. And they’ve been doing that and most people don’t even know it. And even as MH struggled, it kept up this commitment to the kids to try to keep the music programs going. And to me that is absolutely critical. This is Motown. And you can’t strip music out of the soul of the city. And I’m also a trustee at Hartford Memorial Baptist Church. And I know how important the music programming and the training that the children get in
See FLINT page A-4
Jon Barfield the schools are to feeding our choirs.” A total of $1.7 million must be raised by April 30 to repay a loan that was taken out in 2008 to keep things running. Music Hall is launching a five-year campaign to raise a grand total of $7 million needed not only to retire the debt but to make sure the non-profit remains on stable footing as it moves into the future. Music Hall fell on tough times close to a decade ago when the financial crisis that swept the country swept them up with it and they have been struggling and hanging on by a thread ever since. A fundraiser featuring Chaka
See MUSIC
HALL page A-4
Local judge to receive major honor By Keith A. Owens SENIOR EDITOR
On Thursday, Jan. 28, Judge Denise Page Hood will become Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. As Vice President Joe Biden once remarked to President Obama upon passage of his historic healthcare legislation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, this is a big (expletive deleted) deal.
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Jan. 27 - Feb. 2, 2016
Judge Denise Page Hood
Because during a time when the subject of black people and justice — or the lack thereof – remains front and center in the national headlines, it matters greatly that a
black woman with the stature and credentials of Judge Hood is being placed in this position, which she will hold for the next seven years. Hood was appointed to the federal bench by President Bill Clinton in 1994. Prior to that, she worked as a young attorney for Anna Diggs Taylor in the city’s legal department. Diggs would later become the first black woman appointed to the federal bench for the Eastern District. “When I first came to Detroit she was my supervisor, and she gave me a lot of opportunities and I learned a lot about writing from her,” said Hood.
“When I came over here (to the Theodore Levin United States Courthouse in 1994), it was really a treat to have her as a colleague this time. She was a very good role model for a lot of black women lawyers.” According to the Legal News: “It was while Hood was interviewing judicial candidates for the Detroit NOW PAC in 1980 that someone suggested she run for 36th District Court. Two years later, she ran and won. She served on the district bench for six years before being appointed to Detroit Recorder’s Court by Gov. James
See HOOD page A-4