Basic HTML Version
No. 16
NEWS YOU CAN USE, NEWS YOU CAN TRUST
75¢
April 18 – 24, 2013
w w w . a s s o c i a t e d n e w s p a p e r s . n e t
Three petitions to amend
the Wayne City Charter will
soon be circulating seeking sig-
natures for support of putting
the measures on the
November ballot.
See page 5.
The City of Romulus and
SMART celebrated the addi-
tion of two new buses and one
new van to the fleet of the
Romulus Senior Center during
a ribbon-cutting ceremony last
week.
See page 5.
Plymouth
Township
trustees have approved a
$784,000 bid to extend 1.25
miles of the Ann Arbor Road
streetscape despite the objec-
tions of TrusteeChuckCurmi.
See page 7.
The bus driver who alleged-
ly forced Northville students
off the bus before their regular
stops last Friday has been
placed on leave while the mat-
ter is being investigated.
See page 7.
The Van Buren Township
Police Department has arrest-
ed a suspect in a series of
home invasions and robberies
in theHaggerty subdivision.
See page 3.
Vol. 128, No. 16
Vol. 66, No. 16
Vol. 66, No. 16
Vol. 13, No. 16
Vol. 128, No. 16
Vol. 66, No. 16
Vol. 66, No. 16
The Mayor Hilliard L.
Hampton II Youth Foundation
is now accepting applications
for scholarships to be awarded
to Inkster students graduating
in June.
See page 3.
For home delivery of The Eagle call 734-467-1900.
The $1.6 million purchase
of the former Circuit City prop-
erty near Warren Road and
Central City Parkway has now
closed and the loan documents
signed and approved.
See page 6.
The Ironman Award in the
Canton Township Fire
Department went to Frank
Rehling this year who
responded to 717 calls last
year, more than any other
department firefighter.
See page 3.
Vol. 13, No. 16
Plymouth Canton Community
Schools Superintendent Jeremy
Hughes received a less-than-cor-
dial reception from Plymouth
Township officials during their
regular meeting last Tuesday.
Hughes and school board mem-
bers Adrienne Davis and Sheila
Payton attended the meeting to
promote the May 7, $114 million
bond ballot question in Plymouth
andCantonTownship.
Hughes reiterated the key ele-
ments of district proposal to the
audience at the meeting explain-
ing that it is cost prohibitive to
have to pay for major capital
improvement out of the district
general operating funds, a meas-
ure that the bond proposal would
alleviate.
Hughes said that economically
it is a good time for a bond pro-
posal, especially since the last
successful bond issue was in 2004
and the need is nowcritical.
Hughes explained the need for
facility upgrades, middle school
enhancements,
technology
upgrades, computer labs and new
buses using a series of slides, pie
charts and graphs to explain the
plans of the district to provide a
technology-based curriculum for
students.
His request for an official
endorsement or support of the
ballot question met with resist-
ance from some township board
members.
Township Treasurer Ron
Edwards asked several questions
and told Hughes, “You're (the
school district) the only entity in
Plymouth Township that keeps
getting tax increases.”
“When people vote on bond
issues-they're not voting on mill-
age, they're voting to let the school
district borrow the funds,”
Hughes responded. “Theywill not
increase the tax level more than
4.1mills.”
Edwards offered further ques-
tions after Hughes' comment that
24 cents of every dollar goes into
the Michigan public fund for
teacher pensions, “School
salaries are falling, but your pen-
sion costs have gone up $5 mil-
lion,” he said.
“We'll getting at it at the negoti-
ation table, our teachers have not
had a raise in seven years,”
Hughes said.
“We have to keep our property
values up here,” Edwards contin-
ued. “Take Farrand school; we
had to raise hundreds of thou-
sands for playground equipment
and Starkweather school has
exposed electrical wires and no
hot water. Bond money always
goes southof JoyRoad,” he said.
Hughes explained that the old
Starkweather building now hous-
es only 11 special education stu-
dents.
The Canton Public Library was
awarded the top $10,000 prize in
the LibaryAware Community
Award program recently. The
award is based on the ability of
the facility to make the communi-
ty aware of library programs and
resources and demonstrate an
engagement with the community.
The Canton facility bested
more than 100 libraries from
across the county for the honor.
“We were very, very excited
about it,” Community Relations
Director Laurie Golden said.
“There's a lot of libraries all over
the country that are bigger than
us, that probably have better
name recognition and that are
well known in the industry for
doing really great things. For us to
beat out some of those types of
librarieswas great.”
The award was sponsored by
Library Journal which awarded
the honor based on the 1,086 pro-
grams offered in 2012 that were
attended by about 35,000 people,
Golden said.
The library serves about 2,000
visitors every day and has more
than 84,000 library cardholders.
Of the three finalists for the
award, the Canton library had the
lowest budget, Golden added.
“We have several initiatives
we've been talking about here that
we haven't been able to do
because we didn't have the fund-
ing to get them off the ground,”
Golden said. “So it's possible we
could use the money to get some-
thing like that going. Or, we've
been in such a budget crunch
here the last four of five years
there are plenty of things we can
dowith $10,000.”
A celebration is planned at the
library for May 10 during which
the facility will receive the award
plaque and grand prize. The pub-
lic is invited to attend the event
although no time has been deter-
mined yet.
For more information, call the
library at (734) 397-0999.
Fire chiefs from Canton Township, Livonia
and Northville Township say their depart-
ments will no longer subsidize Plymouth
Township Fire Department emergency med-
ical calls.
This week the three public safety profes-
sionals sent written notice to Plymouth
Township Fire Chief Mark Wendel stating that
effective immediately their departments will
no longer respond to requests for back up
when the township has already dispatched any
private company to the scene.
Calling the EMS mutual aid dispatch
requests a waste of resources that leaves their
communities at risk, the chiefs are ending a
long-standing verbal agreement within the sur-
rounding departments to help the Plymouth
Township Department which has been
reduced to a skeleton crewby layoffs.
In the letter the chiefs stated, “While we are
willing to providemutual aid, we do not believe
it is necessary to respond when you have
already dispatched a private ambulance to the
emergency. As you know, our three communi-
ties provide full serviceEMS anddo not rely on
private ambulance companies as part of our
response. As such, we will not subsidize the
response to EMS calls any differently than we
do in our own communities.”
The three public safety leaders said that
they could not in good conscience continue to
subsidize a private ambulance company, short-
See
AID,
page 6
See
Bond,
page 6
You're (the school district) the
only entity in Plymouth Township
that keeps getting tax increases.
”
Emergency medical support curtailed
Bond proposal receives poor reception from township
Canton Public Library awarded $10,000 prize
Northville Township EMTs are routinely called
to respond to calls for medical aid in Plymouth
Township like this accident on Five Mile Road
last summer.
Ten hut
The Wayne Memorial High School
JROTC Drill Team was among only
42 teams nationwide selected to
compete at the National
Championship in Louisville recent-
ly. Wayne placed 13th overall and
the Zebra Battalion finished in the
top 20 in all four events. Cadets
Isabel le Letts and Stephanie
Rainey finished in the top 10 out of
the more than 1,000 cadets
entered in the individual drill com-
petitions. Cadet Command Sgt.
Major Stephanie Hyams essay,
"Why did I enroll in JROTC" was
selected to compete at the national
level. Hyams also has received a 3-
year ROTC scholarship to Eastern
Michigan University where she will
receive a commission as an officer.
Thirty cadets were also honored
last week for their accomplish-
ments over the past year with a
special tribute signed by Gov. Rick
Snyder, Sen. Hoon Yung
Hopgood, and State Rep. Robert
Kosowski. Cadet Battal ion
Commander Dionte Burton also
was given the opportunity to
address the Senate.