Nov. 2--To the Department of Natural Resources and Detroit Riverfront Conservancy for renaming Michigan's first urban state park in Detroit for former Gov. William Milliken, of Traverse City, long an advocate of reclaiming industrial land as parkland. The 31-acre park originally opened in 2007. Other plans include: extending a three-mile section of the Detroit RiverWalk five miles east and west of downtown and building a terminal and wharf for water taxis and cruise ships. It's fitting that it be named for Milliken, who had that vision four decades ago.

-- To Ed Moody, of Frankfort, also known as "Pumpkin Ed," a master electrician by trade and a seasonal carver of mammoth squash who last week demonstrated his craft at DeVos Children's Hospital in Grand Rapids, a longtime dream. Moody's travels take him around the region and state; he's gone to Dallas and Chicago courtesy of the Pure Michigan travel campaign.

-- To the Old Mission Historical Society, Boy Scout Troops 31 and 34 of Traverse City and the Old Mission Peninsula Tree Project volunteers, who planted 40 maples along peninsula roads a weekend ago. The planting is part of a project begun in 1999 to replace original maples planted by 19th-Century settlers. Peninsula residents have planted about 300 maples in the last decade.

-- To Gaylord Jowett, owner and funeral director of Jowett Family Funeral Homes in Frankfort, for going the extra mile in finding a horse-drawn hearse last summer for the family of a local horseman. He not only found it but decided to get one for his business.

-- To local inventors Bernard Yantz and Michael Weatherholt II, who want to shield rural mailboxes from county snowplows. Yantz, of East Bay Township, is creator of the "Tip Up Mail Box Kit," which lifts the box seven feet off the ground and swings down with a tug on strap. Weatherholt designed and made the "Alpha Mailbox Protector." The Grand Traverse County Road Commission no longer replaces mangled mailboxes.

-- To the Michigan Groundwater Stewardship Program for sealing an abandoned well off Lettau Road in Benzie County to block contaminants from getting into the groundwater. The well is on 6,000 acres held by the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy. The Benzie well was drilled in 1968 and most likely was used by a farmer to clean cherries.

-- To the Michigan Department of Transportation for finally completing a $3.4 million removal and replacement of the Glen Lake Narrows Bridge on M-22. The bridge was closed last December and reopened Oct. 24, but for residents it seems a lot longer than that.

-- To all the farmers and visitors who made Traverse City's Sara Hardy Downtown Farmers Market a success again this year. The market held its last day of the season on Saturday. The Saturday market is due to return May 9; the Wednesday market June 9.

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