Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Welcome to Livonianeighbors.com. We hope you enjoy your visit.


You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free. To ensure your privacy, never use personal information in your screen name or email address ("janedoe@hotmail.com" or "Billysmom" for example).

Join our community!


If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
Anyone following the Halloween story?; guy told to take them down tonight
Topic Started: Oct 24 2007, 04:46 PM (1,738 Views)
Mrs.M
Veteran
http://hometownlife.com/apps/pbcs.dll/arti...0/71026005/1027
Halloween legend’s display gets carved back Oct. 29 to meet city ordinance
by Alex Lundberg

12 photos included in the online version
After years of collecting pieces, working with scrap wood and enlisting the aid of neighbors on both sides of the street, a Livonia man has become a local Halloween legend.

He’s like the Great Pumpkin of Peanuts fame, but more believable. And despite a minor run-in with the city, his annual Halloween display will be a feature of fall in Livonia for years to come.

Michael Kinney, 42, has been decorating the lawn of his house on Howell (south of Five Mile Road and west of Newburgh) for Halloween for 20 years. He caught the bug from his father and has been building his own display piece by piece.

“It’s a friendly, neighborhood display. It’s progressed over the decades,” he said. “I do it for my kids, the kids in the neighborhood and the city of Livonia.”

He’s up to eight electronic components, five interactive elements and scores of smaller pieces purchased at specialty stores and cobbled together from scrap wood. There’s a rack kids can operate and homemade headstones with R.I.P. messages that run from the meaningful (“Peace 9/11/01”) to the parental (“Went out with a Wet Head” and “Didn’t Eat Veggies”).

It’s hard for him to say what he’s spent over the years with any specificity, but it’s somewhere in the neighborhood of $10,000. If audience response is any indicator, it’s all been money well-spent. It hasn’t been without help, though. He Kinney said he gets storage help in the off-season from Total Floors of Livonia and construction help from J&L Glass and Mirror.

The display has drawn more than the attention of the city’s code enforcement officers. Aside from this newspaper, the daily papers and area radio and TV stations, CNN is expected to make a visit to Kinney’s house in the next few days. It’s a popular destination, even in the middle of the afternoon.

“We get about 100 to 200 people showing up every day,” Kinney said. ‘We get between 300 and 500 on the weekends. We’ll probably get something like 1,000 on Halloween night. Parents love to hear their kids scream.”

Which is, not surprisingly, where the city came into the picture. A resident called the city to complain about Kinney’s display reaching into the apron — the area of grass between the sidewalk and the road. There is no fire hydrant issue, but the city’s code officers have visited the site to tell Kinney to drag everything back to the other side of the sidewalk by Monday.

Mayor Jack Engebretson said no one wants to be a grinch, but the city has ordinances for a reason.
“We don’t have them just to hassle people, this is a safety issue,” Engebretson said. “And Halloween is all about children.”

Kinney is OK with that. He said the display is set up in a way that corrals them from one end to the other with their parents on both sides. After Monday, he said he would pull everything back onto his lawn.

Back when Kinney was first putting together his holiday decorations he caught the interest of the boy across the street. Now, 20 years on, he’s got his own display coming together.

“I was 10 when I was first helping Mike put his up,” said neighbor Cameron Chorney. “I think, between lighting, foggers and fog juice, I’ve spent between $2,000 and $3,000. I do it for the kids, but it’s a lot of fun for us too.”
alundberg@hometownlife.com ­| (734) 953-2109
I'd agree with you, but then we'd both be WRONG.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
minniemouse
Newbie
[ * ]
Hi all
If the decorations are on a city easement then they should be taken down. Not all of Livonia celebrates Halloween, and therefore, out of respect to those citizens who do not practice it...he should only have decorations on his property. It sounds like they are allowing him to keep his decorations on his property...just not the easement.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
crazy_cat
Advanced Member
[ *  *  * ]
minniemouse
Oct 27 2007, 09:27 PM
...he should only have decorations on his property. It sounds like they are allowing him to keep his decorations on his property...just not the easement.

Funny how we are required to mow that same property that is not "ours".
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
puppylover6464
Advanced Member
[ *  *  * ]
this is the same excuse used by elementary schools when they say that they dont allow for people to wear their costumes to school on halloween anymore.


i've never, ever met anybody that doesn't celebrate halloween.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Summertime
Advanced Member
[ *  *  * ]
I know of two families that do not believe in Halloween. Both are for religious reasons. One happens to be my brother in law and his family. The other family, I taught their daughters. That one was difficult.

Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
o_O
Space Cadet
[ *  *  * ]
minniemouse
Oct 27 2007, 09:27 PM
Hi all
If the decorations are on a city easement then they should be taken down. Not all of Livonia celebrates Halloween, and therefore, out of respect to those citizens who do not practice it...he should only have decorations on his property. It sounds like they are allowing him to keep his decorations on his property...just not the easement.

I'm confused by this rational.
If there are people that do not celebrate Halloween, then they won't be out there in the first place, so how does this affect them? If the sidewalks are clear, then what does it matter what side the displays are on? Does having displays the additional 4 feet across the sidewalk meet some criteria for this respect?

I understand codes exist for a reason, but I also agree that they are not all enforced, or enforced fairly. I doubt that this once a year display truly disrupts what the codes were intended to enforce. I've gone to this display for years and never found anything "unsafe" about it.

IMO, this is just another reactionary City move since someone with nothing better to do called, and complained about something trivial. :rolleyes:
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Mr.Bean
Member Avatar
Advanced Member
[ *  *  * ]
crazy_cat
Oct 27 2007, 09:43 PM
minniemouse
Oct 27 2007, 09:27 PM
...he should only have decorations on his property. It sounds like they are allowing him to keep his decorations on his property...just not the easement.

Funny how we are required to mow that same property that is not "ours".

Same thing I was thinking. If it's city property, maybe we should all just let it go, and let the city come mow it.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Xena
Advanced Member
[ *  *  * ]
o_O
Oct 28 2007, 10:45 AM
minniemouse
Oct 27 2007, 09:27 PM
Hi all
If the decorations are on a city easement then they should be taken down. Not all of Livonia celebrates Halloween, and therefore, out of respect to those citizens who do not practice it...he should only have decorations on his property. It sounds like they are allowing him to keep his decorations on his property...just not the easement.

I'm confused by this rational.
If there are people that do not celebrate Halloween, then they won't be out there in the first place, so how does this affect them? If the sidewalks are clear, then what does it matter what side the displays are on? Does having displays the additional 4 feet across the sidewalk meet some criteria for this respect?

I understand codes exist for a reason, but I also agree that they are not all enforced, or enforced fairly. I doubt that this once a year display truly disrupts what the codes were intended to enforce. I've gone to this display for years and never found anything "unsafe" about it.

IMO, this is just another reactionary City move since someone with nothing better to do called, and complained about something trivial. :rolleyes:

Are they inforcing this because ONE person called to complain? I believe he has to have the decorations moved from the easement by today? Halloween is in two days you would think they would let him keep them up until Nov1. He now knows not to put anything on the easement for next year.
I wish the school board would of acted as quickly when THOUSANDS of people complained about the decision on Legacy. :blink:
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
« Previous Topic · Livonia Neighbors Forum · Next Topic »
Add Reply