Morning Mix

Actions

Morning Buzz: 5 things to know for Jan. 23

Posted at 10:33 AM, Jan 23, 2018
and last updated 2018-01-23 10:34:06-05

1. A new splash pad and other great things are on the way for kids in one West Michigan community thanks to a very generous donation.

Prescription drug manufacturer, Perrigo Company, donated $260,000 at the Allegan City Council meeting on Monday night.

A portion of the money will be used to build a splash pad as part of an ongoing project at downtown Riverfront Park. Another $130,000 will go toward building a learning lab at the Allegan District Library, which is also part of a $6 million library expansion project.

Those library labs are expected to open early next year, and the splash pad is expected to open this summer.

2. A lot more green just went toward a trail project to connect the Lakeshore to Grand Rapids.

Over the weekend, the Ottawa County Parks Foundation announced that it received a $2 million donation from Bill and Bea Idema Foundation for the Grand River Greenway Trail Project. That project now needs a little more than $2 million more to reach a little more than $7 million privately it needs before started a public fundraising campaign.

The Parks Foundation plans to buy almost 700 acres of land to build 27 miles of new trails, running from Kent County's Millennium Park to the Lakeshore.

The project is expected to cost at least $21 million.

3. Another year, another record number of people flying in and out of Ford International Airport. For the 5th year in a row, the airport set a new record for the number of passengers it serves.

In 2017 more than 2.8 million people passed through the airport's gates. That's an increase of about 6 percent from 2016.

Officials say it's partly due to the fact that they added several new airlines over the years, including Allegiant and Frontier. The airport also added a lot of new upgrades as part of their transformation plan.

Since opening the airport has served more than 73 million passengers.

4. Want tickets to Super Bowl LII? This year's tickets are set to be the most expensive ever.

Ticket IQ, which tracks Super Bowl ticket prices, says Monday morning's cheapest available ticket on re-sale markets was more than $43,000. Believe it or not, that price is actually down $500 from Sunday.

Ticket IQ says the average resale ticket on secondary markets is more than $9,000. The company blames the price jump on the falling number of tickets available on secondary markets.

The NFL sell the bulk of Super Bowl tickets through its own ticket broker.

5. A real touchdown with taste buds this year is the "Famous Brown Bread" at the Cheesecake Factory. The restaurant has now decided to sell the bread in grocery stores and on its online store.

It will come in three varieties: wheat dinner rolls, wheat mini baguettes, and wheat sandwich loaf.

Not only will people get to serve their own Brown Bread, but they'll get a look at the mysterious ingredients which reportedly include cream cheese, semi-sweet chocolate chips, and powdered sugar.