Stewart Nelson

Monday I got the VIP tour of the W.R. Wheeler Service Center on Stone School Road. I had the privilege of being escorted by the most friendly and passionate person in the building Karla Henderson. I told Karla her smile could “light up” a room. We are truly fortunate to have capable managers like Karla that worry constantly about the infinite problems that can and do develop in the maize of streets, copper cable, fiber cable, concrete pipes and other “stuff” that keep our City functioning efficiently. Thanks Karla for a great job!

The high point of the tour was a demonstration by the smartest technician you have never heard of, Kevin Braun. Kevin is the computer genius behind the programmable traffic signals that populate our City. You really need to see how this operates. Kevin could make your commute home 10 minutes shorter if he wanted to. If you get a chance to see this in operation, do yourself a favor and go. It is well worth the time.

There has been a lot of controversy about the cost of the Wheeler Center but if you take the time to go out and meet the staff and watch the operation, you will see it is the type of investment we need to make to keep our City running smoothly and efficiently. This building is one we truly can be proud of, not because it makes a flashy statement of how important Ann Arbor is, but because it shows to the world that we are willing to invest in ourselves. If we won’t invest in our City, why would a potential business want to invest here?