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EWSPAPERS OF
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AGE
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January 24, 2013
B
ELLEVILLE
- P
LYMOUTH
School board chooses new president, 4-3
Good Samaritans
Volunteers relocate wandering swans
It took 30 minutes of sometimes
heated discussion and two ballots,
but the Van Buren Public Schools
Board of Education has chosen a
newpresident by a 4-3 vote.
BrentMikulski was elected to the
position after the secondballot.
He replaces long-time board
president Martha Toth for whom
three of the members voted on both
the first and secondballots.
Scott Russell nominated
Mikulski as president and was sup-
ported by Mikulski and Kelly Owen.
Toth nominated herself for the posi-
tion and was supported by Kevin
EnglishandKathyKovach.
Sherry Frazier did not support
either candidates' nomination and
abstained from the first vote, creat-
ing the 3-3 tie. Her actions were crit-
icized strongly by Russell who
claimed that her actions violated
the bylaws of the board. He said,
during the discussion between the
first and second votes, that he was
ready to recess the meeting and
seek a legal opinion regarding her
actions. At one point Frazier sug-
gested that Frazier tone down his
comments which had become some-
what heated.
Both Mikulski and Toth spoke to
their fellow board members regard-
ing their qualifications for the posi-
tion of president and their goals, if
elected.
Mikulski said he supported new
educational programs in the schools
and wanted to move from the status
quo. He pointedly said that the
board president must unify the
board. He also said that his support
for the school employees and super-
intendent would be complete as it
hadnot always been in the past.
Toth, obviously the target of
Mikulski's remarks, said that she
believed his characterization of dis-
cord was amatter of open discourse
and that her primary goal was pro-
viding quality education to the com-
munity.
She said her 35 years of experi-
ence, keeping current with theories
of effective education, were impor-
tant to the board. She also men-
tioned her time as a volunteer in
classrooms in the district.
After the tie vote, Frazier said
she abstained because she felt the
vote was potentially divisive among
board members. After the discus-
sion, she cast her vote for Mikulski
on the second ballot, breaking the
tie inhis favor.
Toth was elected as vice-presi-
dent, English will return as secre-
tary of the board and Frazier was
chosen as treasurer.
They made quite a sight as they waddled
across busy roads and expressways without a
thought to the danger they presented to
themselves and unsuspecting motorists who
had to stop for, or swerve around, them.
'They' are a pair of large, immature trum-
peter swans who were nonchalantly wad-
dling through the area looking for just the
right nesting place. Flight is not yet possible
for the birds as theirwings remainunformed.
The two were seen traveling throughout
Plymouth Township on foot and somehow
they managed to escape injury despite the
perilous paths they often seemed to choose.
No more. A group of volunteers, headed
by former Plymouth Township Park Ranger
Tim Smith, managed to net the swans and
transport them to a safe reserve in Howell
recently.
It was no easy task, however.
The birds were first spotted and tracked
on Ridge Road by Smith who immediately
realized the young birds needed protection
from harm. The pair of determined travelers
didn't make protecting them easy for Smith
or other volunteers concerned about the
birds' welfare, however. The birds traversed
easterly though two heavily-traveled industri-
al parks, crossed busy Beck Road on foot and
were seen heading east toward M14 through
another industrial complex where employ-
ees from the human resources department at
IsuzuMotors' Diesel Test facility also realized
the pair needed some human intervention to
remain safe.
Smith first attempted to borrow a turkey
cage from Richard Sharland, a local farmer,
to try and trap the pair to take them to safety.
Those cages were too small for 4-foot tall
extant waterfowl with 6-foot wingspans, so
Terry Bennett, the owner of Specialty Pets in
Plymouth, provided a large-dog sized cage to
help in the rescue efforts.
The volunteer group and Smith discov-
ered the swans attempting to build a nest
next to a small stream near the Isuzu offices,
where the employees had grown increasingly
concerned about the birds and offered to
help capture and relocate them.
Success occurred two weeks ago and the
birds are now relocated at the reserve where
they will be safe and off the local highways,
much to the relief of Smith, the Isuzu
employees anddrivers throughout the area.
The immature trum-
peter
swans,
encountered by
many motorists as
the pair nonchalant-
ly waddled along
local highways,
have now been relo-
cated to a reserve in
Howell by local vol-
unteers concerned
for the welfare of the
juvenile waterfowl.