Basic HTML Version
No. 6
NEWS YOU CAN USE, NEWS YOU CAN TRUST
75¢
February 9 - 15, 2012
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
Sherrie Brindley will be
joining the Wayne Chamber of
Commerce as the new
Executive Director, after more
than 10 years promoting com-
munities and small businesses.
See page 5.
Officials in the City of
Romulus said they would have
to do the best they canwith the
decreased allotment of
Community Development
Block Grant (CDBG) funds this
year.
See page 4.
The Michigan Philharmo-
nic will present Sunday with
Schubert this Sunday, Feb. 12,
featuring principal clarinetist,
LisaRaschiatore.
See page 4.
Reel Michigan is now
accepting Michigan-made or
Michigan-themed short films
(25 minutes or less, including
credits) as a part of the
Northville Arts and Acts event
planned for June 22-24.
See page 3.
The Belleville Downtown
Development Authority is
accepting bids to convert light-
ing throughout the downtown
to Light Emitting Diode or
LED.
See page 5.
Vol. 127, No. 6
Vol. 65, No. 6
Vol. 65, No. 6
Vol. 12, No. 6
Vol. 12, No. 6
Vol. 127, No. 6
Vol. 65, No. 6
Vol. 65, No. 2
Sylvia James, the chief
judge at the 22nd District
Court, testified at her miscon-
duct hearing that theMichigan
Judicial Tenure Commission
severely hampered her
defense.
See page 2.
For home delivery of The Eagle call 734-467-1900.
Westland Mayor William R.
Wild sent a letter to Gov. Rick
Snyder asking for his consider-
ation to phase in a proposed
tax hike over a period of three
to four years.
See page 5.
A renovation project at
Oakwood Annapolis Hospital in
Wayne will provide more space in
the emergency department,
increase the efficiency of the oper-
ation and reduce the amount of
time patients will spend there,
according to hospital officials, all
without impacting on the level of
service while the renovations take
place.
The Oakwood Healthcare
System is spending $4 million on a
year-long project to redesign and
expand the emergency depart-
ment at the hospital to improve
the overall patient experience,
said Eric Widner, division presi-
dent of OakwoodHealthcare.
“This is the largest renovation
project in our emergency depart-
ment since the hospital opened in
1957,” saidWidner. “It's a continua-
tion of our commitment to provide
the highest level of care to the
community. We are confident that
through these changes we will
improve community access to and
satisfaction with emergency care
services provided at Oakwood
Annapolis.”
Wayne Mayor Al Haidous said
he was pleased to see the invest-
ment in the hospital and the com-
munity.
“I was very excited to see such
a modern way of doing business
here in the City ofWayne,” he said.
“We are happy to have such a facil-
ity in our community.”
The work will be phased in
throughout the year and, through a
collaborative effort between the
hospital and emergency depart-
ment leadership, the architects
and builder, be conducted in away
that will ensure no loss of bed
capacity or reduction in ability to
provide emergency care, Widner
said.
“It won't be business as usual,
but we have a plan,” he said. “We
will be very thoughtful in the exe-
cution of this project to ensure
that patients will continue to
receive the same high level of
care.”
The project involves an expan-
sion of about 1,500 square feet as
well as a renovation of the existing
11,000 square feet in the depart-
ment. The renovationwill result in
a modest increase in bed capacity
and a significant improvement in
design of patient flow, along with
optimized patient privacy,
enhanced geriatric and bariatric
care safety, and greater capacity
for isolation and decontamination.
It will augment the separation
between the pedestrian and
ambulance entrances to promote
Canton Public Safety offi-
cials have issued a warning to
residents about the use of
"frozen" detention ponds for
recreational activities such as
walking or skating.
See page 3.
John “Jack” Armstrong, one of
the best known and most familiar
men in the Plymouth community.
died last week.
Mr. Armstrong, 73, became a
well-known figure during his
career as an advertising consult-
ant with the former Community
Crier newspaper, which served
Plymouth and Canton Township.
In that capacity, Mr. Armstrong
called on businesses throughout
the community, seeking to help
meet their advertising needs for
about 20 years.
Former owner and publisher of
the Crier, Ed Wendover, described
Mr. Armstrong as “a natural born
salesman.”
“Newspapers all over the state
are now using what I call the Jack
Armstrong sales approach,”
Wendover said.
Staff members who worked
with Mr. Armstrong at the Crier
could never figure out how he got
every newbusiness in town as one
of his accounts and called on the
owners before the rest of us even
knew about them,” Wendover
recalled.
“After years of this, he finally
confessed that he would take a
six-pack to the local locksmiths
every few weeks, along with his
business cards, and when new
owners came in, the locksmiths
would hand out Jack's cards and
then tell Jack who to contact. It
was brilliant,” Wendover said. “I
spoke about it at newspaper semi-
nars and people are using Jack's
techniques all over now. It was
genius.”
Upon his retirement some
years ago, Mr. Armstrong became
the doorman at Hermann's Old
Town Grill in Old Village, where
he had a ready smile and warm
greeting for every patron.
Nick Hermann, owner of Old
Town Grille, said that Mr.
Hospital plans $4 million makeover
Drivers critically injured in head-on, high speed crash
Both drivers remain in criti-
cal condition following an early-
morning, high-speed, head-on
collision in Van Buren Township
last Saturday.
The drivers, a 25-year-old
Detroit man and a 24-year-old
Ypsilanti woman, were trapped
inside the crushed vehicles,
according to fire department
reports of the incident, and
required extensive efforts to
remove them from the wreckage
of their respective cars.
The Van Buren Fire
Department was dispatched to
the area of Ecorse Road west of
Beck Road at 4:05 a.m. Feb. 4.
Crews from both the North and
South stations in Engine 2 and 1
responded. The extent of the
drivers' injuries and damage to
the vehicles necessitated a
request for additional help from
on-call personnel and both
Canton Township and Ypsilanti
departments also responded to
the call.
A Medical Helicopter was
requested by Battalion Chief
Ron Folks, the Incident
Commander, due to the antici-
pated long extrication times.
Survival Flight was dispatched
from the University of Michigan
TraumaCenter.
The Detroit man was trapped
inside the older model Lincoln
Continental he had been driving.
He suffered from major leg and
moderate head injuries. Fire
personnel had to remove the dri-
ver's door, roll the dash board off
of the patient, place him secure-
ly on a back board to prevent fur-
ther injuries, and help load him
in an awaiting Huron Valley
Ambulance (HVA), according to
fire reports.
It took 28 minutes, from the
time of impact, to have the
patient loaded in the ambulance
which transported him to St.
Joseph Mercy Trauma Center in
Ypsilanti, where his condition
was assessed as critical.
The driver of the second vehi-
cle, a newer Pontiac Grand Prix,
was a 24-year-old Ypsilanti
woman. She was wearing her
seat belt at the time of crash and
complaining of head, chest, and
abdominal injuries.
The heavy damage caused by
the crash indicated additional
equipment was going to be need-
ed to help free her from the
wreckage, which prompted the
calls to the Canton Township
and Ypsilanti Township depart-
ments. Both neighboring depart-
ments responded with equip-
ment and manpower and aided
in the removal of the driver's
door, the windshield, and the
roof of the vehicle in order to
safely secure her to a backboard
and into thewaiting helicopter.
The extrication took 43 min-
utes, from the time the crashwas
discovered, to remove her from
the car, according to official
reports. She was flown, in criti-
cal condition, to theUniversity of
Michigan Trauma Center in Ann
Arbor.
Investigators at the scene
reported that the vehicles
appeared to have struck each
other head-on, at a high rate of
speed, in the west bound lane of
Ecorse Road. The cause of the
crash remains under investiga-
tion by the Van Buren Police
Department Accident Investiga-
tionTeam.
Jack was one of the strongest,
bravest, kindest and most
sincere men I have ever known.
”
Area mourns death of Jack Armstrong
See
Death,
page 4
See
Annapolis,
page 5
Extensive damage to two vehicles involved in a head-on collision last
Saturday led to a 28-minute and 42-minute extrication effort by Van
Buren, Canton and Ypsilanti firefighters at the scene.