The Northville Chamber of Commerce typically holds a “State of the Community” each spring with updates from leaders from the City of Northville, Northville Township and the Northville School District. Who could have ever imagined that this year’s event would be dashed by a pandemic?
As a means of checking in during the COVID-19 health crisis, a Northville Chamber podcast was recorded April 7 at the Hanger (formerly known as The Village Workshop) to gauge the pulse of the greater Northville community.
The co-hosts were Jamie Flanagan, owner of Podcast Detroit, and Matt Fox, his business partner and a communications teacher at Fraser High School. Guests were Township Supervisor Bob Nix; Township Manager Todd Mutchler; Northville School District Superintendent Mary Kay Gallagher; Rebecca Pek, director of Personnel Development and Quality Assurance for the school district; Northville Mayor Brian Turnbull; Northville City Manager Pat Sullivan; and Dave Cole, co-owner of Great Harvest Bread. Several City Council members were also on the call. Nearly everyone called in, so social distancing wasn’t an issue.
The lively and informative program covered a wide range of complex and common problems caused by the pandemic. The conversation touched on policing gatherings in parks, yard waste pick-up, educating students at home, and putting take-out orders in the driver’s trunk to minimize risk of exposure. One community leader said “there has been a huge cooperative effort between the surrounding communities” on ways to deal with the difficulties caused by the pandemic and keep services and programs operating as smoothly as possible.
Northville Chamber Executive Director Jody Humphries managed the podcast, the fifth in a series of topics that impact the business community. Listen to it
here (in solitude).