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No. 26
NEWS YOU CAN USE, NEWS YOU CAN TRUST
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June 26 – July 2, 2014
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
The City of Wayne is now
accepting letters of interest
from residents willing to serve
an unexpired term on the city
council created by the resigna-
tion of Councilman James
Henley.
See page 4.
A series of free summer
evening concerts will continue
from 7-9 p.m. tomorrow at
Romulus Historical Park,
11147Hunt St.
See page 2.
More than 10 members of
the Plymouth Township
Professional Fire Fighters
Association Local 1496 raised
$2,146 during the annual Fill
theBoot drive.
See page 3.
Retired Northville barber
TomArbanas received themil-
itary honors he earned during
his combat service during
WorldWar II, 69 years after his
discharge.
See page 5.
Members of the Belleville
Planning
Commission
approved two of three new
sign requests during their last
meeting.
See page 4.
Vol. 129, No. 26
Vol. 67, No. 26
Vol. 67, No. 26
Vol. 14, No. 26
Vol. 129, No. 26
Vol. 67, No. 26
Vol. 67, No. 26
For home delivery of The Eagle call 734-467-1900.
City of Westland outreach
programs will now be head-
quartered in the unused
Jefferson-Barns Elementary
School
See page 4.
The Village Theater at
Cherry Hill is teaming up with
the Michigan Shakespeare
Festival to bring Shakespeare
toCantonnext year
See page 3.
Vol. 14, No. 26
The former Livernois
Engineering building in Inkster
will soon be occupied by
Zaman International, a non-
profit organization that serves
women and children.
See page 5
.
The City of Inkster must credit residential
water sewer accounts with a total of
$2,559,321.63 by tomorrow by order of the
WayneCountyCircuit Court.
Inkster attorney Byron H. Nolen filed for a
show cause hearing before Circuit Court Judge
Robert L. Ziolkowski which took place June 16.
The hearing, Nolen explained, was to force the
city to explain or show cause as to why the pre-
vious orders of the court to make refunds on
residential water bills had not been performed.
Nolen, who represented Inkster resident
Terrance D. Trahey and a class of similarly sit-
uated persons, sued the city seeking redress of
the exorbitant water rate increases that were
passed along to both residential and business
customers. When new water meters were
installed throughout the community, residents
began receiving bills for as much as $2,000,
including charges for water allegedly used
before the newmeterswere inplace.
Earlier this year, the court determined that
the rates approved by the city council were
unreasonable and thewater and sewer charges
from the newmeters unsupportable. The court
ordered that the city credit each water/sewer
account for the period of July 1, 2012 through
June 30, 2013 $2.68 per unit for water used dur-
ing that period. The court also ordered a credit
to every water customer in the city of $2.41 per
unit of water usedduring the same period.
Each of the current 8,425 water/sewer cus-
tomers in the city is to receive a total credit of
$303.78, by order of Ziolkowski, who also
imposed the June 27 deadline for implementa-
tion of his order.
According to court documents, this is the
final pending claim and will close the case,
unless the city fails to comply with the order.
According to Nolen, should that happen, the
city would face contempt of court charges and
subsequent penalties which could include
fines or even jail time.
“It feels good to finally obtain the relief the
Inkster residents deserve,” Nolen said, but he
did caution residents that the relief may be
temporary.
“Despite the ruling that the current rate of
$15.30 per unit of water was unreasonable pur-
suant to the city charter and that the city was
being unjustly enriched by charging the resi-
dents that amount, as of July 1, the water and
sewer rate will be raised again to $15.52 per
unit of water used,”Nolen said.
“The only recourse the residents have is to
sue the city again challenging the new higher
rate because the Jan. 23 judgment does not
apply to future rates.”
Romulus officials and residents
celebrated the official ribbon-cut-
ting ceremony marking the grand
reopening of Elmer Johnson
Community last Saturday. The
park is located at 9755 Ozga Road
on thewest side of the city.
The 36.6-acre park was among
several parks closed in recent
years due to tough financial times
and budget cuts in the city, offi-
cials said. The city workforce and
several organizations have
worked to restore the premiere
recreation site to “better than
ever.”
“We are excited to bring sum-
mer recreation back to Romulus
starting with the grand reopening
of Elmer Johnson Park,” said
Mayor LeRoyD. Burcroff, who has
made restoring the park to its for-
mer glory a priority in his first
year asmayor.
“Recreation is so important to a
community,” he added. “We've got
a jewel in Elmer Johnson Park
and I'm happy to say it's shining
again.”
Saturday's ribbon cutting coin-
cided with the announcement of a
variety of recreation programming
that is returning to the city this
summer. Three of the programs -
cheerleading classes, youth and
adult softball - will take place at
Elmer JohnsonPark.
The park is named for Elmer
Johnson, a retired Kelsey-Hayes
tool and die maker, who was the
first and only president of the
Romulus Progressive Club for
nearly 40 years. The Progressive
Club donated $5,000 to the then-
Romulus Township Parks and
Recreation Commission for the
park's development onFeb.6, 1967.
The park features a basketball
court, a softball field, children's
play areas, a large picnic shelter
area with barbecue grills, two
sand volleyball courts, horseshoe
pits, an inline hockey court, chil-
dren's play areas, restroom facili-
ties andmore.
Burcroff's plan called for a joint
public/private partnership of city
employee members of Teamster
Union Local 214, a professional
landscape design company, the
Romulus celebrates reopening of city park
”
City faces court deadline on water credits
The only recourse
the residents have
is to sue the city again...
See
Park,
page 2
Romulus Fire Department mascot Firepup entertains children on a
bridge of one of the playscapes during the reopening of Elmer Johnson
Park last weekend.
Photo by Roger Kadau
Four local officers were
among the 20 police personnel
who encountered wounded vic-
tims lying on a school hallway
floor last week as police
exchanged gunfire with sus-
pects. As shots rang out, the
school principal shouted emer-
gency instructions through the
loudspeaker systemwhile police
commands were heard over the
sounds of fired rounds booming
as shell casings bounced off
cement blockwalls.
While it wasn't the real thing,
the noise and chaos provided
law enforcement officers includ-
ing City of Plymouth Police Sgt.
Chris Voorheis, and Sgt. Paul
Sumner, Off. Matthew McKenzie
andOff. DanMacArthur, all from
the Northville Township force,
some real time experience in
dealing with a school shooting
scenario. The training exercise
took place last week at
Dickenson School in Livonia,
where officers re-enacted sever-
al school emergency situations.
The training was provided by
the Wayne County Department
of Homeland Security using fed-
eral grant funding to offer spe-
cialized training to more than
1,000 police officers in 43 sur-
rounding communities.
This was the second in a
series of intensive three-day
training exercises patterned to
help local law enforcement offi-
cers prepare for an active school
shooter emergency in a reality
setting. The scenario-based
training exercise labeled
“Practical Day” was taught by
veteran law enforcement offi-
cers.
A Homeland Security
Emergency Management mobile
command post was set up in the
school parking lot loaded with
hi-tech visual, video and
infrared cameras plus state-of
the-art satellite communications
and radio equipment capable of
reaching hundreds ofmiles.
There have been at least 74
school related shootings in the
U.S. since the 2012 Sandy Hook
School tragedy, according to
national statistics. The latest
occurred earlier this month at
Seattle Pacific University in
Seattle when a 26-year-old man
killed one andwounded two oth-
ers before being tackled by a
security guard.
The former protocol waiting
for SWAT (Special Weapons and
Tactics), wasn't working,” said
Capt. Ron Taig, the 26-year
Livonia police veteran in charge
of the training exercise. “The
safety of our schools is our top
priority and all officers inWayne
Countywill be trained.”
“We want to make sure our
patrol officers are given the
equipment and the training. In
this day and age, every second
counts. We teach them the right-
way, the wrong-way and correc-
tions.” Taig said.
The program consists of lec-
tures, demonstrations, isolation
drills and scenario develop-
ment.
The $45,000 federal grant was
prepared by the office of Wayne
County Executive Robert
Ficano, a strong supporter of the
training.
“No Wayne County general
fund money was used…” Ficano
said.
Crisis
Local police
participate
in training
Don Howard
Staff Writer
A squad of four police officers undergoing specialized training last week approach a mock downed
shooter at Dickenson School in Livonia. At left is Plymouth City Police Department Sgt. Chris Voorheis.