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Photo by William Zilke
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Ray Pokerwinski presents retiring executive director of the Belleville Area Chamber of Commerce Janet Millard with flowers.
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The end of an era will come to an end tonight as Janet Millard of the Belleville Area Chamber of Commerce retires from a job she has defined for 19 years.
There will be a party held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Douglas Carpet, 240 Main Street.
In her capacity as executive director of the Belleville Area Chamber of Commerce, there is little Millard hasn't done for the city of Belleville and their events.
As the unofficial greeter for the area and official liaison, director, secretary, receptionist and just about everything under the sun, Millard was a fixture on Main street and at every Belleville event imaginable.
"She is a legend. It is a little intimidating stepping into her shoes," new executive director Kelly Boelter said.
Millard's duties put her in the literal center of the beehive of Belleville's activities.
There are few people who haven't had some contact with Millard over the years, from the press, developers, all of the city's non- profits, artists, politicians from the local to national levels, Millard has seen it all.
"I tell people I live in Belleville and sleep in Ypsilanti," she said of the precious few hours of private time she isn't at work.
In 19 years, a lot has changed.
"Before I took the job here, I wasn't exactly sure what the job entailed. I came in cold," she said. "Leona Van Buhler had already gone. We didn't have a computer.
"It was totally on the job training and the Strawberry Festival was coming up."
Back in 1989, the Strawberry Festival was different too.
"It only ran from Third to Fifth Street on Main Street and we had people who volunteered to clean up afterwards still sweeping the streets at 11 p.m.," she recalled with a smile and the unique laugh all reporters have come to love over the years.
"I have enjoyed working with the Festival board and directors over the years," Millard said. "Mary Strope is wonderful and Ralph Nodwell is great."
Millard was a major organizer of Belleville's National Strawberry Festival and Christmas Parades back in the early 90s.
"It was a lot doing the parades, so the city said they'd take over the Strawberry Festival Parade but a lot of the work has been farmed out since then," she said.
Millard said she is still on the Strawberry Festival Board and will still volunteer her services during the festival.
Back when she started, the Belleville Chamber of Commerce office was in the old Van Buren Township Hall, the site of the current Belleville Area Historical Museum.
The Central Business Community was under the Chamber then but it had just started in January of '89," she said.
One of the first indications Millard had that her job would be a lot more high profile than she anticipated was when the old Ypsilanti Press interviewed her as the new director of the Chamber.
"It was a shock. I thought, "Why are they interviewing me?"
Millard worked for Eastern Michigan University for over 12 years and was puzzled when her local paper was so interested in her new job in Belleville.
"But back then, the Ypsilanti Press covered Belleville heavily, as much as our local paper did," she said.
Local politicians may relish the thought that the tri- community only had one local newspaper then.
Twenty years ago, Belleville was "the sticks" and much of it was still affordable, largely rural living.
"I remember when they said they were asking $100,000 as the price for a new house in Belleville," she said. "There was nothing out on Savage Road past Savage School."
Tickets for tonight's party are $10, they are available at the Chamber of Commerce office, The View office (159 Main Street) and a number of other local businesses on Main Street.
While tonight may mark the end of an era when the Belleville area went from a bedroom community to a densely populated suburb of both Detroit and Ann Arbor, it is a new beginning for Millard.
While she is retiring as the Chamber's director, Millard is looking for a part time, or even full time, job.
"I'd like to be one of those front desk people," she said, followed with her trademark laugh.
Contact Staff Writer William Zilke at 697-8255 or at wzilke@heritage.com.
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