MI Daily Devotion

Mr. Rick Sollars on

Junior League World Series 2013

This year’s Junior League World Series here in Heritage Park, Taylor, Michigan was fantastic. It is one of the best years we have in terms of representations, the competitiveness with sportsmanship, and the great spirit of volunteerism. We were visited by great players and coaches from North America, and all over the world. Although the scheduled games were interrupted and was delayed by rain showers, it’s good the organizers, the players, and coaches were able to work it out to their comfort and get everything done right on time.

I watched the players from different teams with the same motivation, and determination to win, and step up to the next level. These baseball players could be one of the best Major League players of our generation as they keep on developing their skills, and be serious with their practices, training, and as long as they would be determined to reach their goal and dreams.

During the championship game between the Tennessee and Arizona teams, I had the honor and privileged to interview the Independent candidate for Mayor of Taylor- Mr. Rick Sollars. It was encouraging to be with Mr. Sollars as he shared to me his vision and dreams for Taylor, Michigan. I asked Mr. Sollars about his assessment of this year’s Junior League, and his insight about the future of Taylor, Michigan. The transcript of my interview with Independent Mayoralty Candidate- Rick Sollars.

Ely: Mr. Sollars, What is your personal assessment on this year’s Junior League World Series?

Sollars: I've been out here, the rain hurts us a little bit, the teams seems very competitive. It does seem that the international teams have a bit of advantage this year over the teams of the United States. (There's) some very good teams, some great kids, the Junior League World Series were in our 33rd year, and it's only been held in Taylor which is something where we were extremely proud of... but the overall assessment is that, it has always a very exciting and it's a great opportunity for the city of Taylor to really embrace something special. No one else can say that we've been home to a Little League (type) World Series, other than the city of Taylor for this type of venue.

Ely- Considering that the city of Taylor is just a small city compared to...

Sollars: Yes, like the Williams Sports for example… Williams sports is 12 years old already, they played their Little League World Series, and that’s a much larger community, the city of Taylor is much more smaller, and we do a very good job, and considering that this is all run by volunteers, and there’s very little involvement or actual involvement from the city of Taylor.

Ely: What are the improvement do you think the city of Taylor needs to take to make the Junior League World Series here a World Class venue?

Sollars: It’s my vision that the city of Taylor should be a better partner, you know. We as I just indicated; this is basically run by volunteers, and well, that’s simply amazing that you have this many volunteers come together, and pull something together like this... The city of Taylor really should get behind this in a bigger way. We simply don’t want to lose this opportunity; this is the jewel of the Downriver Community to have… This held in Heritage Park. And while the field looks great from the surface, there are some real challenges coming forward… When Williams Sports comes and grade us every year, and they will look at this and say; “Ok, we have recommendations that needs to be made…” and quiet honest there are some things like the fencing that needs to be addressed; well that’s not the things that you are going to see and notice like a score board. There are things that’s necessary for us to maintain this and keep this in Taylor. And you mention “World Class”; there’s truly is a world class opportunity, but the city of Taylor does need play a bigger part on it. One of the most disappointing things part for me as I came out of here; we did not even have this posted on the marquee out on the Sheridan Center Marquee. That really disappointed me because this venue needs to be, you know… We the city needs to be behind this venue and tell everybody about it. This is an opportunity for Downriver Community all across Downriver to come out and support this. You can hear the crowd cheering in the background, and we need to bring in more people into this venue. We need to really make this a major attraction and we’ll do that moving forward. It will be a big part of… (you know), I want to get behind this… personally, I’ve always supported it through my business, through my own means; but I would like to see the city play a bigger role in it.

Ely: I did not see any welcome sign or banner regarding the World Series on Major roads and Freeways?

Sollars: Yes, those are the kind of things that you would like to see. We have these flags out in Telegraph road that may be, we could do some welcome to the “Home of the Junior League World Series”. We passed the proclamation that this week will be called the “Junior League World Series Week” from here and out… for in the city of Taylor; well that’s great, but if you’re going to be a world class, you got to start doing a lot of things different. We really need to embrace this… This is an opportunity that not a lot of community can say that they have.

Ely: As an Independent candidate for Mayor of Taylor, what do you have in mind if you’ll make it this coming election?

Sollars: Let me take you back there on your “World Class” comment, Taylor is a community that…, we have a lot of amenities to offer that a lot of other cities don’t. We have 2 major thoroughfares that run through the city of Taylor- I- 94 and I- 75. From the business world, that’s a major attraction. We are a couple of miles from a metro airport. We have I- 275, and that’s a few miles down the road. You know, we really need to embrace the business environment, and try to get more businesses coming to Taylor; stimulate the economy, it create jobs, it creates opportunity, and most of all it creates an excitement and energy that (you know), Taylor has some happening things… that some exciting things. And you know, that’s really the initial focus of on the economic development side, (you know) trying to get partners coming to the city of Taylor again. And you know, stabilizing our public safety as well, you know public safety has been just critically affected over the last three and half years, and we really need to stabilize that and start rebuilding our police and fire. The “Are you safe…?” question should never come into play you know if you’re in the city of Taylor. We need to do better than what we have done.

Ely: So what’s your first priority when you become the Mayor of the city of Taylor?

Sollars: The first thing that I need to do is to find out how quickly we can (you know)… see if there’s an extension for the safer grant, you know, we’ve missed some valuable opportunities once that grant was awarded, and we really need to see if we can get an extension to really capitalize on the two opportunities within the Fire Department. Then, we need to look at… possibly hiring some new PSO or some new Police Officers in the police department, and we need to get those numbers up. On any given Friday or Saturday nights, we only have 4 patrolmen that patrol the entire city of Taylor; that’s not safe for anybody including the residents or the officers themselves. So the public safety is the immediate focus, we have to hone in on that. And then, we are going to grow into economic development. And (you know), looking at some volunteerism opportunities, (you know) I think that looking at, at what we’ve done with the Taylor Reading Core, and how we’ve gone into the Taylor schools, and produced this Tutor opportunities where we’re tutoring kids pre- school to 3^rd grade. Those are things, and programs that we need to continuously expand out. Farmers market, Taylor conservatory- those are great things that cost almost nothing, and they’re really a benefit for the residence of this community.

Ely: We are doing great on education, Is there any plans on sports?

Sollars: Taylor is always been- it’s strength in athletics is always been baseball; we have four Little Leagues in this community, and we have roughly 2,000 kids that participate in those four Little Leagues. We don’t really have… what we have like the Sports Flex currently, and its home for Hockey and Soccer. But, we really try to create some opportunities, and may be do some baseball types of program in there. At one point of time few years ago, Jeff Jones who is the pitching coach for the Detroit Tigers, and Steve Avery who is a former Taylor resident, and a former Major League professional baseball pitcher; they all have the interest in bringing a baseball training facilities into the Sport Flex. Those are the programs that we really need to pursue. Because while the Sports Flex are great, there’s only about 200 hockey families in the city of Taylor, and we spent 26 million dollars on that facility. We need to find a way to allow more residents to benefit from that, and (you know) we can do that through some of the baseball, and expanding in through some other opportunities. So, I love to continue to see the athletic drive, and I like to see some of the football programs come back, and even today, we don’t even have Taylor hockey anymore. We need to bring that program back, and find some ways to continue to grow.

Ely: Last election, you have a big margin against your opponents…

Sollars: You know, I think the current Mayor, he captured 38% of the vote, and the other opponent he got roughly 17% and I secured the remaining amount. I think, what that tells me is that the residents of this community are ready for change. You know, I’m not big on making excuses, and you know I understand exactly what it is that it takes to be a leader. And we’ve heard over the last three and a half years that it always somebody else’s fault. You know, quiet honestly, sometimes when you’re blaming or pointing the finger, you need to stand in the mirror, because it really as a leader you have to accept the responsibility that we’re going to fix it, we’re going to solve it. You know, we have to be a positive type group, and we have to find solutions and not excuses. And quiet honestly, I think that the margin tells me that any incumbent that only get 38% of the vote it tells me that the residents are ready for a change. I’m thrilled, and honored, and humbled that I was the highest vote getter. And I will continue to work, and take nothing for granted. And between now and general election, I’ll still (you know) maintain that hard work environment and go out knock doors, and engage with the residents. You know, my strength is sitting down and talking to people. And you know that’s something that I do truly enjoy doing as well so we have more of that for the next three months.

Ely: Any words for the winner of the 2013 Junior League World Series?

Sollars: You know for the winners, (you know) obviously it’s something that they simply have to be extremely proud of. You know they come out on top of an International venue like this where you’re playing all the best athletes in this age brackets, it’s amazing. But more importantly, to the teams that weren’t victorious or weren’t successful; (you know) they have to maintain a level of pride as well; they made it here. This is the highest stage in their category, and they should not hang (down) their head. They should leave here with their head held high and proud of their accomplishments. And (the) Michael Jordan the famous basketball player; he attributes his success to his many failures. You know, you simply as young athletes, they have to learn from this, (you know) build on it. And quiet honestly though, it’s a great experience, and again they’ve played in the biggest stage in this age group, they should be proud of that, and win or lose, they should absolutely be proud of that.

Ely: Thank you so much for your time Mr. Rick Sollars.

Sollars: No! Thank you very much for the opportunity, again were really excited about the upcoming election and there’s a lot of good things that are going (to) start happening in the city of Taylor. Thank you!