Dear Friends...

From CEO, Joe Richert, Spring 2012 Special Edition

I hope you’re enjoying spring as much as I enjoyed our mild winter! It made for excellent construction conditions as our crew renovated and retro-fitted a significant portion of our old NeuroCare Center into a 15 bed program, which we will hopefully open in mid-July. The general contractor on the job is a long time friend of mine, Mike Zaborowski. I worked for Mike over 30 years ago as a carpenter, my first job just after our wedding! I saw him on a Saturday recently in the area that he and I added onto in 1982 and I told him that at least in our lifetimes, this will be the last time we’re going to be reworking that area.

In other expansion news, we recently purchased a six bed community residence in a very nice part of Southfield. We’re also excited that Advantage Mobility Outfitters is finally going to have a location on a main road. We were able to purchase a former Mitsubishi dealership on Michigan Avenue, across from Mark Chevrolet, in Wayne.

Finally, construction wise, Jim Richert and I are now focusing on further developing the exterior elements of our NeuroCare Campus, which will include a greenhouse, a pedestrian plaza and other exciting features. Both staff and clients will have even more opportunities to enjoy the beautiful wetlands surrounding the Campus.

Still waiting for official word from the CARF recertification team who came to Special Tree on April 26th and 27th, but I can confidently report that they were very impessed, especially with how well the staff interacted with eachother and with our clients.   As one surveyor said to me, "You can't fake that!"

On the Auto No-Fault front, no legislation has passed, however we are anticipating a push at the end of April. If nothing happens by then, it appears that we will be in the high political season and campaign mode so probably no further action until the fall. Special Tree will be well reprepresented in Lansing on May 16th for “Capital Day” which is sponsored by the BIAMI and the Michigan Brain Injury Provider Council. Special Tree leaders will be meeting with a number of members of the House of Representatives and State Senators to express concerns about legislation that would negatively impact our Auto No-Fault system. Regretfully, the Motorcycle Helmet Repeal Bill passed and was signed into law by the Governor. I have seen the statistics in other states, for example, Florida, where the repeal law was passed and sadly enough, the fatalities were up very significantly. Let’s hope most folks choose to continue to wear a helmet.

That’s it for me for now. Go Wings! Go Tigers!

Sincerely,

Joe