No. 9
NEWS YOU CAN USE, NEWS YOU CAN TRUST
75¢
March 2 – 8, 2017
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
Wayne officials received
some good news from
Michigan State Police Lt.
Mike Shaw last week when
he reported on the experi-
ences of troopers patrolling
in the city.
See page 2.
The
Northville
Educational Foundation
awarded 41 teachers and 20
projects
across
the
Northville Public Schools
district with grants totaling
$30,224 last year.
See page 3.
Vol. 132, No. 9
Vol. 70, No. 9
Vol. 70, No. 9
Vol. 17, No. 9
March is Reading Month
and the Romulus Public
Library has several special
programs planned to interest
readers of all ages.
See page 5.
Vol. 132, No. 9
Vol. 70, No. 9
Vol. 70, No. 9
For home delivery of The Eagle call 734-467-1900.
Westland Mayor William
Wildwill seek a third termat
the helm of the 11th largest
city in the state filing his
paperwork accompanied by
his family earlier thismonth.
See page 2.
The Big Bad Wolf and the
Wicked Witch will each
stand trial for their villain-
ous actions during the
Spotlight Youth Players pro-
duction of Fairy Tale
CourtroomMarch 9-12.
See page 3.
Vol. 17, No. 9
Donna Sherrill, new
director at the Leanna Hicks
Public Library of Inkster will
be honored at a public
reception Wednesday, March
8 at the library.
See page 4.
The creators of some of
the most popular books for
both children and adults will
be on hand to talk to readers
during the Author Fair at the
PlymouthDistrict Library.
See page 4.
The Belleville Historical
Museum will host the Third
Thursday Lecture Series
again this spring beginning
March 16 with the story of
theDodgeBrothers.
See page 5.
A lot can change in five years.
Officials in the City of Romulus
want to make sure that they're
able to plan for and react to
those trends in their latest ver-
sion of the Romulus Master
Plan.
Members of the city council
unanimously adopted the docu-
ment last week that will set
future land use and design stan-
dards for development through-
out the city. The original master
plan was developed more than
12 years ago and the State of
Michigan requires it to be
updated every five years.
“We were ripe for a five-year
amendment,” said Brad Strader
of LSL planning. “There were
changes to zoning ordinances
that needed to be supported by
the master plan. There have
also been some changes in the
market conditions and needs,
just looking at the state econo-
my and other things going on in
the region, that needed to be
reflected in themaster plan.”
The document is essentially
a blueprint for future land uses.
It suggested changes in several
areas of the city, but left two
important ones alone, for now:
the downtown and the Vining
Road district. The city council
met with the planning commis-
sion on those areas but decided
not to make any changes at the
time, opting instead to do fur-
ther study on them and make
amendments to the new master
plan either this year or next
year.
“It'll give the planning com-
mission and your staff to talk to
some of the property owners,
get a better understanding of
what some of the potential busi-
nesses are that would be appro-
priate there and how to deal
with the truck traffic that many
of you brought up as a concern,”
Strader said of the Vining Road
areas. Strader said the
Downtown
Development
Authority (DDA) is also updat-
ing the downtown plan, and it
made sense to combine those
changes into themaster plan.
The plan marks a few devel-
opment trends, such as less
manufacturing and fewer cor-
porate offices, as well as the
intermingling of residential
areas with home businesses,
auto repair and demand for
trucking and other logistics
businesses. He said there was a
need to diversify housing
options, too, to retain and
attract young people and appeal
to the older population.
Some key changes include
expanding the light industrial
areas on the east side of the air-
port, keeping the small amount
of commercial suggested on the
south of the airport, east of I-
275-but allowing for additional
trucking/logistics and other
types of industry there, as well
as allowing for additional flexi-
bility of businesses in the city's
See
Plan,
page 5
The municipal finance sys-
tem in Michigan is broken and
the difficulties facing local
municipalities are threatening
the overall fiscal health of the
state itself.
That was the message Tony
Minghine, chief operating offi-
cer and associate executive
director of the Michigan
Municipal League (MML),
brought to a meeting of local
area officials last week.
Minghine and Frank Audia,
group managing partner for
Plante Moran, have been travel-
ing throughout the state inform-
ing officials-and the public-of
the difficulties local govern-
ments have faced for the past
eight years.
“We have built a system that
simply does not work,”
Minghine told the crowd of
elected and appointed officials
from southeastern Michigan
who met in Romulus. “It's affect-
ing your ability to attract and
retain talent. This is going on
across the state. We all have the
same issues.”
Local government finance is
in trouble primarily because of
the correlation between
Proposal A, approved by voters
in the mid-90s, and the Headlee
Amendment which put a cap on
the increase of property taxes
each year. When the housing
and economic crisis hit around
2008, the drop inproperty values
was so severe that, with the
given funding mechanisms, it
still hasn't recovered-and proba-
bly never will, the municipal
finance experts said.
Property values throughout
the state dropped about 30 per-
cent, on average, throughout
that time, and Headlee and
Proposal A only allow for an
increase of 3 percent or the rate
of inflation-whichever is smaller.
Even worse, the state lawmak-
ers have systematically reduced
the amount of state shared rev-
enue distributed to cities and
townships, essentially plugging
It's affecting your ability
to attract and retain talent.
This is going on across the state.
We all have the same issues.
”
Officials cautioned about state finance
See
Finance,
page 5
Westland OK’s
New $700,000
open air pavilion
Construction of a new, $700,000 open-air
pavilion has been approved by Westland
officials.
Members of the Westland Downtown
Development Authority (DDA) approved a
plan to construct the 3,000-square-foot,
open-air pavilion which will complement
the existing Farmers Market Pavilion and
share several of the design elements and
building materials. The new structure, to
be called the Lions Pavilion, will accom-
modate the growing popularity of the
Westland Farmers and Artisans
Marketplace aswell as the other amenities
at TattanPark, officials said.
“The Westland Lions are excited to
have the reconstruction of the Lions'
Pavilion,” commentedKen Sharp, director
of the Westland Lions Club. “It (the origi-
nal pavilion) was originally financed and
built by the Lions in the late 70s and was
later removed due to the remediation of
the park,” he said.
“We are excited to work with the City of
Westland and contribute to the cost of the
rebuilding and installation at the Farmers
Market.”
The project will also include the reloca-
tion of the All Service Memorial which is
currently installed on the former city hall
site on Ford Road. The All Service
Memorial was dedicated in 1969 to all who
have served, are serving and will serve in
any of theU.S. military services.
“I am very excited to see this project
move forward at what I consider the city's
crown jewel, Tattan Park.” commented
DDA chairman Mike Londeau. “I believe
it will really complement our existing
facilities, helping to expand our program-
ming, as well as the needs of our ever-
growing Farmers and Artisans
Marketplace.”
“I appreciate the contributions that the
Westland DDA continues to make to the
renaissance of Westland,” commented
Mayor William R. Wild. “This will be
another extremely high quality asset in the
city's parks portfolio.”
The DDA approved a budget that is not
to exceed $715,000. The project will be put
out for competitive bid themonth and con-
struction is expected to be complete in
2017.
There were changes
to zoning ordinances
that needed to be supported
by the master plan.
”
Romulus adopts upgraded master plan for development
Artists' renderings of the new Lions Pavilion in Westland were presented to members of
the Downtown Development Authority last week.
