Basic HTML Version
No. 12
NEWS YOU CAN USE, NEWS YOU CAN TRUST
75¢
March 20 – 26, 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
With the recent designation
of Wayne as one of three com-
munities selected to take part
in the Michigan Main Street
program, there is a need for a
MainStreetManager.
See page 2.
Visitors to the Romulus
Athletic Center between noon
and 8 p.m. March 29 will be
able to use the facilities at a
reduced cost and benefit a
local charity, too.
See page 3.
Kirbi Fagan of Plymouth
will be among the authors and
illustrators honored during the
30th Annual L. Ron Hubbard
Achievement Awards next
month.
See page 5.
Northville city officials took
no action regarding a pro-
posed 30,000 to 40,000-square-
foot, four-story building on
Cady Street, just east of Center.
See page 5.
Members of the Van Buren
Public Schools Board of
Education have approved
more than $1.18 million in
improvements to district
schools.
See page 3.
Vol. 129, No. 12
Vol. 67, No. 12
Vol. 67, No. 12
Vol. 14, No. 12
Vol. 129, No. 12
Vol. 67, No. 12
Vol. 67, No. 12
For home delivery of The Eagle call 734-467-1900.
Westland City Council
members approved the reap-
pointments of Arnold Shapero
and Margaret Harlow to the
Downtown Development
Authority.
See page 4
.
The Canton Mom Prom, set
for April 5 at the Summit on
the Park, will benefit the
CantonGoodfellows this year.
See page 4.
Vol. 14, No. 12
Wayne County has launched a 'PotholeBlitz' in
an effort to reduce the threat to both motorists
and vehicles the craters in many local roads
pose.
Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano
announced the new effort last week. He said he
was working with managers at the Wayne County
Department of Public Services (DPS) and the
Wayne County Roads Division to launch the ini-
tiative to accelerate pothole patching throughout
the county.
The brutal winter, coupled with periodic
freeze-thaw cycles, has created menacing pot-
holes and accelerated pavement deterioration,
according to county engineers. In addition, the
pending closure of a 7-mile section of I-96 by the
Michigan Department of Transportation, sched-
uled for April 1, will force tens of thousands of
vehicles onto adjacent surface streets at a time
when road conditions are challenging.
“Even with our fiscal challenges, launching
the Pothole Blitz will help bring additional
resources to combat the pothole epidemic,” said
Ficano. “We've seen during this excruciating win-
ter how our prior investment in the Command
Center, Compass and other technology has
helped the driving public,” Ficano added.
“Tackling the pothole problem is a natural next
step given the unfortunatemix of winter weather
we've had and the pending section closure of I-
96,”Ficano concluded.
One faction of the Pothole Blitz will have
crews' schedules modified to maximize the avail-
ability of personnel to the pothole repair initia-
tive. In addition, Wayne County Department of
Public Service will add 60 seasonal laborers to
the current Roads Division workforce. The tem-
porary laborers will bolster the pothole patching
efforts, according toFicano.
Because of the pending I-96 closure from
Newburgh Road to Telegraph, special emphasis
will be placed on repairing alternate routes,
bounded by I-94 to the south andEightMileRoad
to the north. Maintaining these surface streets is
critical for nearby homeowners and businesses
due to an expected increase in traffic flow over
the next year, Ficano added.
Wayne County Roads Division crews and
supervisory staff will monitor conditions while
working and driving roads countywide. They'll
report potholes in need of service and monitor
progress of repair efforts.
“Local governments and citizens have been
doing an excellent job reporting potholes in need
of repair,” Ficano said. Drivers are encouraged
to report particularly dangerous potholes at 1-
888-ROAD-CREW (1-888-762-3273) or by using a
smart phone, at compass.waynecounty.com.
Wayne County Department of Public
Service will add 60 seasonal laborers
”
County expands pothole patching efforts
Wayne County is offering
free tax services for those with
an annual household income
of less than $50,000 at various
locations in the area, including
several in Inkster.
See page 4.
Plymouth Township officials
failed to follow the instructions of
the state treasury department
regarding new personal property
tax exemptions for small business-
es last month, calling them“sugges-
tions.”
The Personal Property Tax
Exemption Bill signed by Gov. Rick
Snyder last December provides tax
exemptions for personal property
in an effort, according to a state
spokesperson, to spur economic
growth. The new tax rules are sup-
posed to help small business own-
ers and bring more business into
the state by offering exemptions for
items such as office furniture, com-
puters, shelving, machinery and
any property owned or leased by a
business that is not considered
attached to the land. Known as the
“small taxpayers exemption,” it is
only for commercial and industrial
personal property.
Local taxing units were
required to give notice, informa-
tion and instructions about the
exemption to business owners in a
mailing before Jan. 10. The City of
Plymouth and Canton Township,
among many others, followed state
recommended
guidelines.
Assessors in most area communi-
ties mailed the required “Affidavit
of Owner of Eligible Personal
Property ClaimingExemption from
Collection of Taxes.” and sent the
City of Wayne staff members
were expected to meet for the sec-
ond time with representatives of
the Michigan Office of Fiscal
Responsibility on Tuesday fol-
lowed by a second closed session
meeting of members of the city
council Tuesday evening.
The meetings with the state
have been described as a step
before receivership, a state-
appointed Emergency Financial
Manager in the city or a financial
consent agreement with the state.
The involvement of the state
office was recommended to city
officials by budget consultant
Vince Pastue who told them that
the financial situation in Wayne is
dire and that he does not expect
any increase in revenue from
property taxes in the near future.
Pastue, the Farmington city man-
ager, told officials and the council
members that the severe drop in
property values in the city result-
ed in the critical drop in tax rev-
enue, a situation, he said, that is
not expected to change in the very
near future. He advised seeking
statehelpwith the financial crisis.
Wayne is expected to have a
deficit budget of more than $1 mil-
lion by June 30 with an even more
Small taxpayers exemption, it is only for
commercial and industrial personal property.
”
Township businesses may be paying exempted tax
See
Taxes,
page 5
See
Deficit,
page 2
When the results of the
“Surprise Surprise” category
were announced at the Great
Lakes Floral Expo two weeks
ago, Victor West was one of the
most 'surprised” members of the
crowd to learn he was named the
first-placewinner.
Many of his peers, he said, will
also be surprised to find out that
the guy they have been seeking
business and financial advice
from for years is also an award-
winning floral designer.
West and his wife, Jill, are the
owners of Vanessa's Flowers on
Ann Arbor Road in Plymouth, a
shop they purchased about 22
years ago. With West's back-
ground in finance and produc-
tion along with his accounting
and business education, they
worked to modernize the shop
which is known for being pro-
gressive in both design and busi-
ness practices. Vanessa's was one
of the first small shops to intro-
duce computers into the floral
industry and it is a beta or test
shop for Teleflora shop software.
West's business expertise helped
moveVanessa's into the top 500 of
the Teleflora 16,000 shop mem-
bership.
Fellow floral shop owners
have been coming to West for
years, he said, for advice as he is
known as a “numbers guy” and
helping other shop owners to
understand the business side of
the industry.
“Most of my peers had no clue
that I even could design, let alone
well enough to win a competition
of this caliber,”West said.
After years of “encourage-
ment” from friends and family
members who knew of his skill,
West reluctantly agreed this year
to enter the professional design
competition. He usually attends
the annual convention sanc-
tioned by the Michigan Floral
Association, to participate in net-
working with vendors and to talk
with other florists around the
state.
“My main focus in attending
has always been for the educa-
tional aspects, the business and
marketing information and to
learn new and different ways to
makeVanessa's better,” he said.
After much prodding, he
entered two of the four design
categories at the Devos Center in
Grand Rapids. “The two that
required not as much pre-event
preparation, but the two when
you needed to show up and par-
ticipate,” he saidwitha smile.
“We were each given a bucket
of flowers, some containers and
20 minutes in which to complete
eacharrangement,”West said.
The awards were not
announced until the Saturday
night banquet and West admitted
that he was disappointed when
the second and third place win-
nerswere announced.
“I hadhoped to at least place,”
he said. “Then the big surprise
came and Iwon.”
West shouldn't have been
quite so surprised, as he has
been a Certified Florist since
2004, one of the first to earn the
designation when the program
began.
West wasn't eligible for the
Designer of the Year award this
See
Surprise,
page 5
Surprise win
Local florist takes top honor
State office advised of $1 million Wayne deficit
Victor West of Plymouth displays his first-place winning floral
arrangement.