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To the editor:
The cemetery board of trustees
would like to provide some new
information concerning the
RomulusMemorial Cemetery.
In the past, the DPW has always
completely cleaned the cemetery
of all floral decorations between
March 1 and Palm Sunday. This is
being changed. It will now be
March 1 to March 31 depending on
the weather. This year, Palm
Sunday is April 8, so flowers can be
placed afterMarch 31.
Last year, residents placed flow-
ers for Easter and they were mis-
takenly removed. The new date
will allow the residents to start
their spring flowers andEaster hol-
iday flowers without worry of los-
ing their arrangements.
However, please be aware that
during this year's clean up, all
items that do not comply with the
rules will also be removed. If you
have anything that you wish to
keep, please remove these items.
Items that do not comply are
Halloween and holiday decora-
tions, yard ornaments, balloons, fig-
urines, wind chimes, lanterns,
solar lights and shepherd hooks.
After this clean up, if items contin-
ue to be placed, they will be
removedwithout notice.
The board of trustees members
have tried to make maintaining of
A
SSOCIATED
N
EWSPAPERS OF
M
ICHIGAN
P
AGE
6
February 16, 2012
Well, so long buckaroos. It's been
swell, but wehave to say goodbye.
Very soon now, I will beway, way
too busy spending my new fortune
to have time to work every day.
Really, I will be way too busy with
decoratingmy newhouse, choosing
my new car and browsing travel
brochures to be bothered going to
work. I am headed to Easy Street,
amigos.
See, I just got another nice
email from my new friend Mrs.
Faith Duke from Lagos in Nigeria
telling me that she's going to send
me my long overdue payment of
$850,000 which has been held up
due to corrupt bank officials.
All I have to do is send her $300
for the activation of my new ATM
card at her bank and BINGO, I am
$850,000 richer.
She says they can't take the fees
from all my money there in the
bank, but she didn't say why.
Hmmmm. I am an money winner
though but she says that I amnot to
talk to or contact any other lawyers
or credit or security companies or
banks who try to contact me
because they are all crooks and
scammers just out to dupeme. She,
however, is the representative of
Barrister Chima Okoros, and they
are going to take care ofme.
If I just send them all my per-
sonal financial information, and
the $300, Iwill be all set.
What's truly amazing about this
is that my other new best friend,
Mrs. Atayla Otenogo, who also is
from Nigeria, emailed to tell me
she is going to payme about $5mil-
lion for helping her transfer the
money in her late husband's bank
accounts into the U.S. He was,
sadly, kidnapped and executed,
leaving her alone and without the
means to make these transfers her-
self, so all I have to do is send her
$500 to pay some banking fees that
he owed on the account and she's
going to let me keep $5 million of
his $30million fortune.
Gosh, am I lucky or what?
Wonder if I should buy the new
house first or the car? I guess I
could just call a Realtor and get
looking, y'know, like with the travel
agency I'm working with, so I'm all
readywhen the checks arrive.
Really, I am just an incredibly
lucky woman. Especially when you
consider that
only last week I
won a special
lottery prize
from the state and the nice attor-
neys who handle the distribution of
the funds emailed me to explain
that they are going to send me my
portion of the $1 million as soon as
I pay their fees with my credit card
or from my ATM card. I have to
send them all my banking informa-
tion, too, so they can put the money
right into my checking account.
Now that's efficient. Isn't America a
great country?
I am truly just the luckiest
woman alive having won all these
things in the same week. I am hav-
ing a lot of trouble deciding how to
spend all this money that I know
will be coming in the mail or
directly into my account very, very
soon. Maybe a timeshare in the
Caribbean, y'think?
The pictures on the front page of our edition last week
were shocking evidence of the destruction a head-on collision
of two speeding cars leaves behind.
The photos were graphic, with caved in roofs and so much
damage to the front ends of the vehicles it was nearly impossi-
ble to tell the actual makes and models. That members of the
Van Buren Fire Department, with aid from Canton and
Ypsilanti townships, managed to get the two drivers out of
that devastation is deserving of highpraise.
The Van Buren department arrived on the scene first and
it took them only 28 minutes to pry the injured driver from
that crushed vehicle and send him by ambulance for treat-
ment of his critical injuries. The woman in the other vehicle
required even more extensive work to rescue but it took the
expertise and equipment from three departments only 42
minutes to remove her from the remains of the car and load
her into amedical rescue helicopter.
Looking at the photos of the vehicles, it is difficult to
believe that both drivers did not lose their lives at the scene.
The efforts of the fire department personnel in extricating
these injured deserves high praise indeed. They arrivedwith-
in minutes of the report a little after 4 in the morning and
immediately began extrication efforts while at the same time
calling for more personnel and equipment from the other
departments and sending for the medical helicopter to
ensure the fastest transport to the University of Michigan
TraumaCenter possible.
These young people, one 24 and one only 25 years of age,
owe a great debt to these firefighters who took such decisive
and effective action at the scene. Had they had to wait longer
or if they were unable to respond, both these young lives
wouldhave been lost.
Public safety is almost always the highest cost of any com-
munity budget. It takes a lot of tax revenue to fund keeping
police officers and firefighters on hand 24-hours a day, seven
days a week. Paying these men to be there when their expert-
ise and courage is needed isn't a small expense, by anymeans.
Because of the cost, this is the department that ismost usually
looked at for cuts in spending when tax revenues diminish
and the economy falters.
It is when incidents like this, or the three recent house
fires in Canton Township, or the myriad of other calls that
flood the public safety dispatch phones take place that the
reality of these services surfaces.
We've said it before. Public safety is one of the most basic
services that any municipality provides to the residents. It is
an expensive service and an easy target for criticism when
economic times get tough.
But when these rescue, fire and police services are needed
by the public, and they are needed every hour of every single
day by someone, there is no price too high to pay to save a life,
save a home or protect the public.
This rescue effort in Van Buren is proof, once again, of the
value and necessity of public safety departments in every
community. These men did a tremendous job under some
pretty daunting conditions andmanaged to save two lives.
There can't be a price too high for that kind of expertise,
courage anddedication.
Attitude
adjustment
is needed
Not to keep harping on the
same broken strings, but what in
the world is going on in our local
governments these days?
We're simply aghast at the overt
disregard of many public officials
for the welfare and concerns of the
public. Sure, we know being in
municipal government isn't an easy
job. How many times can one per-
son listen to the same complaint
about garbage men being too noisy
or skateboarders on private prop-
erty? Let's face it, whenever some-
thing untoward happens in a com-
munity, there is a wide segment of
residents who assume it is the
mayor or city manager's responsi-
bility to correct the situation,
whether it is a churlishDPWwork-
er or a neighbor's incontinent dog--
--people expect action when the
problem hits home. And the per-
son they seek action from may
have a line of people outside their
door asking for OKs to get a
$100,000 piece of city equipment
repaired or needing to develop a
plan to prevent an outbreak of
infectious disease in the communi-
ty.
We know, these people at the
tophavemuchbigger fish to fry.
But.
When citizens have legitimate
questions and complaints, they do
not deserve to be brushed off like
annoying gnats. They do not merit
condescension and disingenuous-
ness. They deserve courtesy, no
matter how mundane or boring
their complaint. They deserve
respect and civility, even if their
request or complaint cannot possi-
bly be the responsibility of or with-
in the pervue of community gov-
ernment. And by that, we do not
mean the platitudes and false
promises or misdirection that have
been foisted on a few area citizens
seeking answers at city and town-
ship halls recently. Andwe certain-
ly do not condone the rewriting of
history offered to at least one res-
dident who questioned the current
situation inhis neighborhood.
We've come to the conclusion,
watching the peremptory, ill-man-
nered, mean spirited actions in
one community, along with the out-
and-out inappropriate and self-
serving ethical breeches in anoth-
er, that the respect for the taxpay-
ers and residents which were, long
ago it appears, one of the criteria
for public service, are nowvoid.
The newpolicy in some commu-
nities seems to be any action that
shuts the resident up, gets he or
she off the phone or away from the
desk as quickly as possible.
We know, the economy has left
municipal offices short staffed and
on furlough days. There aren't
enough hours in the day to get all
the work done and there aren't
enough staff people to take care of
See
Attitude,
page 7
See
Letters,
page 7
See
Lucky,
page 7
These young people, one 24
and one only 25 years of age, owe a great
debt to these firefighters who took such
decisive and effective action at the scene.
”
All I have to do is send her $300
for the activation of my new ATM card
at her bank and BINGO,
I am $850,000 richer.
”
Hasta la vista baby–my ship has come in
Fire fighters’ actions saved drivers’ lives
Letters