jump,” George Stefanakis, 68, said. The
family agreed that they have never had
any of these experiences at any of their
other restaurants, “not ever.”
The mysteries continued, however,
even after the priests' visit prompting the
family to enlist the aid of the otherworldly
professionals last week. Ghost Hunting
Sisters, Kelly McDonald and Lisa Ganocy,
whose business is based in Farmington
Hills, agreed to take a look, along with
Shelly Paull fromWestland, the co-owner
of Illuminate Your Spirit on Wing Street
in Plymouth. Paull is no stranger to psy-
chic phenomena, having had her first
such experiences with channeling and
communicatingwith spirits at the age of 4.
“The ability always scared me, until I
learned to understand it,” she said. “We
respect spirits and try to help them if they
may be stuck here. We do not provoke
them, but rather try to help,” Paull said.
Diane Galindo, a reader at the psychic
reading and healing shop, was also on
hand for the pursuit of the elusive spirits.
Paull said after an earlier visit that she
sensed several spiritual entities in the
restaurant, the strongest being that of a
young boy or child. She said that she
sensed no animosity from him, but rather
more of a playful energy. Paull suggested
the Ghost Hunting Sisters with whom she
has worked before in the search for the
paranormal take a look.
The women agreed with Paull that
there was certainly some psychic or spirit
energy in the restaurant.
Ganocy andMcDonald brought a truck-
ful of equipment with them for the Friday
night experiment, including Electro
Magnetic Frequency (EMF) readers of
various types, dousing rods, digital voice
recorders, antennas, thermal imaging gog-
gles, laser grids and other assorted para-
normal-finding devices.
They attempted to communicate with
spirits upstairs in the dining area, but
were unable to make more than a tenta-
tive, instinctual contact. While the EMF
readers did blink repeatedly, the sisters
agreed that the spirit, or spirits, were
moving through the area, not communi-
cating or staying, but rather traveling
playfully through the room.
Ganocy, McDonald and Paull were
then eager to take onwhatever theymight
find in the basement, while the Stefanakis
family was just as willing to wait upstairs,
hoping that the psychic experts wouldn't
meet anyone fromthe great beyond.
Hours of painstaking equipment instal-
lation and attempts at channeling and
communication later, and after a number
of forays into other areas with possible
other spirits, the women made contact,
they believe, with a long-deceased spirit
who simply has not yet crossed over into
whatever awaits on the opposite side of
life.
They determined the spirit was a
Native Indian who died violently more
than a century ago at the hands of a group
of women who stoned him to death after
he was accused of committing a heinous
crime against either an early female set-
tler or a woman of his tribe. He has
remained near his former tribal grounds
and he has been happy there, Paull
believed, until the female restaurant
employees arrived in what he considers
his space. The spirit's fascination with the
dishwashing sink in the building could be
traced to the nearby location of the Rouge
River andTonquishCreekwhere his tribe
would have established their camp cen-
turies ago to be nearwater.
“He does not like women at all,” con-
firmed Paull, who seemed intuitive to the
spirit during repeated attempts to com-
municate.
Determining that this particular spirit
would only respect the authority of anoth-
er man, or chief, and that he has been
enjoying pestering the female employees,
the ghost hunters called on George
Stefanakis to confront him. Stefanakis fol-
lowed their instructions and repeated
what the experts told him to say to the
spirit, forcefully ordering him to behave
and stop his tricks or Stefanakis would
force him to leave the building. According
to Galindo, the entity communicated his
agreement to those terms and an uneasy
pact between the building occupants has
been reached.
Stefan Stefanakis said he and his fami-
ly are waiting to see if the spiritualists'
efforts pay off.
“I don't know,” he said. “Only time will
tell. “I will say that my family and I
thought it was a great experience,
though.”
A
SSOCIATED
N
EWSPAPERS OF
M
ICHIGAN
P
AGE
5
March 17, 2016
P
LYMOUTH
Commission to add an additional liquor license
Psychics
FROM PAGE 1
It will take amendments to
both the alcohol management
and zoning ordinances, but an
additional liquor license is being
considered by members of the
PlymouthCity Commission.
The raise on the cap of 14
licenses in the downtown area
has been a contested issue for
years, with commissioners stead-
fastly refusing to lift the limit.
Another 10 licenses are allowed
in the city outside the downtown
area. During their regular meet-
ing last week, commissioners
approved adding another license
by a 4-3 vote.
Commissioner Colleen Pobur,
who formerly worked for the
Liquor Control Commission,
voted in favor of lifting the cap
along with Commissioners Joe
Valenti, Mike Wright and Oliver
Wolcott. Mayor Dan Dwyer and
Commissioners Suzi Deal and
Dan Dalton voted no on the pro-
posal.
Pobur said after the meeting
that it has been 13 years since the
commission has made any
changes.
“Both the current licensees
and our police department have
done an excellent job. In the past
two years there have been no
problems. Things have gotten
considerably better,” she said.
“For the first time since 2007
there have been no complaints to
the Liquor Control Commission.
This didn't happen by accident.
The police and the businesses
have been great partners. The
fact that people act in a good and
responsible way is laudable,” she
said.
During the meeting, Valenti
said that Plymouth was a busi-
ness community and the commis-
sion members needed to be
responsive.
Past critics of allowing more
licenses have said Plymouth will
become a 'destination' for
drinkers and compared it to
Royal Oak.
Pobur said she felt the city was
already a destination, “But I
think it's the very best kind of des-
tination. I worked for the state
Liquor Control Commission for
four years and my job was to con-
duct hearings-and I never heard
of a hearing fromRoyal Oak.” she
said.
Pobur said that the city is
going to create an evaluation cri-
teria, draw from the city ordi-
nances, weigh the factors, get a
request(s) for qualification and
evaluate the entire request
before granting an additional
license.
The issue of parking was also
cited by Dwyer during discussion
at the meeting. Pobur said that
the city has added 45 spaces and
is working with the Downtown
Development Authority on the
Saxtonproperty to addmore.
“I think when people come to
Plymouth they realize that have
to look for a parking spot. Parking
will be a significant consideration
in any future licenses,” she said.
Dwyer was also concerned, he
said, about the two licenses cur-
rently held in escrow for closed
establishments. While the license
for Bamboo is within the down-
town area, the escrowed license
for Plymouth Crossing is outside
the downtown limit the commis-
sion has established. That license
may not be approved by the city
commissioners as the current
owners owe more than $86,000 in
back taxes. The owners told the
commission that the arrears were
caused by massive bills for
repairs and renovations to the
historic Markham Building
where the restaurant is located.
They said that the break of a
water pipe in the building caused
extensive damage. They have
until the end of April, according
to officials, to pay the arrears.
Staff Writer Don Howard con-
tributed to this story.
Some of the equipment the ghost hunters used in their search for activity at Greek
Islands last week.
Photo by Dave Willett
About time
Scott LaRiche is all smiles as he finally receives the Adult Spelling Bee trophy from
Debbie Cortellini, president of the Plymouth Canton Community Literacy Council.
LaRiche sponsored the winning team last year and each of the team members
has already had the opportunity to display the trophy. The Adult Spelling Bee will
take place this year with a preliminary round and refreshments at 6 p.m. and the
official competition beginning at 7 p.m. March 23 in the Liberty Middle School
auditorium. There will be 10 or 11 teams of two or three spellers competing this
year, sponsored by various community businesses. The event is open to the pub-
lic. The school is located at 46250 Cherry Hill in Canton Township.
Photo by David Willett
