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Plymouth is compared to Redford
To the editor;
The voters of Redford Township
just rejected a ballot issue to save
their full-time police, fire depart-
ment and EMS services. The sce-
nario is close to what has hap-
pened in Plymouth Township and
our fire department, with one
major exception: Redford
Township is broke.
Faced with a real possibility of
necessary layoffs due to their dire
financial position, voters rejected
creating a special assessment dis-
trict (SAD) that would have levied
3.6 mills and cost the average
homeowner with a home valued at
$80,000 about $144 annually. The
formula was created and support-
ed by the township trustees to plug
a $2 million shortfall. They are also
considering cutting the police force
with layoffs to balance the budg-
et.
In our prosperous Plymouth
Township community more than 10
percent of the landowners pushed
hard for a SAD for 1 mill for 5
years. The SAD would have gener-
ated $1.3 million annually; more
than enough to support the over-
stated claims by officials that they
had to make up a budget shortage
caused the by acrimonious ending
of a long-standing joint operation
agreement with the City of
Plymouth for fire service.
Our Plymouth Township offi-
cials, adamantly against the SAD,
and the fire department union rep-
resentatives came up with 2.44
mills as themagic number to plug a
$950,000 shortfall after a long legal
battle with residents and citizens.
The subsequent 10-mill amount
township officials wanted was way
over what might be required,
notwithstanding all the other
viable options they rejected. It was
a convenient way for them to
insure its defeat.
Plymouth Township just hired
six more policemen, with no talk of
layoffs.
The people of our township
want and can sustain a real fire
department andEMS services.
The median household income
A
SSOCIATED
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EWSPAPERS OF
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ICHIGAN
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6
March 22, 2012
Two things I learned recently…I
will do just about anything for love
and home repair projects are for
peoplewho knowhow.
Seriously.
Perhaps I just fell victim to all
those home remodeling shows on
TV, but my last effort at appliance
repair taught me two more valu-
able lessons: I am NOT mechani-
cally inclined and the people who
write these manuals learn English
as a second language (often, not too
well).
This debacle began when my
daughter-in-law went to Florida
recently and I decided that I would
cleanher ovendoor for her. Sounds
simple, right?
The door had been annoying
her for more than a year, because
there is simply no way to clean it. It
has two panes of glass, separated
by about an inch of air, with long,
narrow and very sharp vents in the
stainless steel at the top and bot-
tom.
My son's family lives in a home
with two marauding children, a
very large, hairy, shedding dog and
a mischievous, albeit sweet, cat.
The home, built in the 50s, is a dust
magnet. All that common house-
hold dust and pet hair flies through
the air and some of it manages to
find a way through the grates on
the oven door and attach itself to
the glass inside. My precious
granddaughter, an aspiring novice
cook, also managed to spill some-
thing and splash it onto the inside
of the glass where it baked more
firmly onto the surface every time
the ovenwas used.
It made my daughter-in-law
crazy and she had tried everything
she could think of to clean between
those glass panels, without any suc-
cess.
So, because I love the woman
dearly and think she's the best
thing that has ever happened tomy
family, I knew it would make her
happy if I got the oven door clean
while she was on vacation. First, I
tried using a wire coat hangar bent
to fit into the slot at the top of the
oven door with a piece of sponge
dipped in Windex on it, with mini-
mal success. I made some progress
with Q-Tips soaked in cleaner
attached to the end of a plastic
ruler, until they fell off and got
stuck inside the door, between the
panels. I think they fell in because
by that time everything was slick
with blood, gushing from the sever-
al gashes I had inflicted on my
hands from the vents, each knife
blade sharp.
OK, says me, that's just not going
to work. I gotta get that crap out of
that door before she gets home and
finds out she can't use her oven
because I amsuchan idiot.
Searching diligently, I found the
serial number and make and
model of the
stove, called the
800 number
provided and a
very nice woman who couldn't wait
to be rid of me said she would
email me the instructions for
cleaning the door, which was a
common question received there at
New Delhi or Bangladesh or wher-
ever shemay have been.
Oh boy, now we are on the right
track, thinks me. Now I can get this
done, despite the Band-Aids cover-
ing four of my fingers and the backs
ofmy hands.
Uh huh. Well the instructions,
which came in about 30 seconds,
were emphatic that the only way to
clean the glass was to take the oven
door off, “There are six screws
being along the side of one side
and four across the upper top,
removing these with a Phillips
head screwdriver, being most care-
ful not to let the handle fall off the
door.” Really? Really?
OK, I got it apart, no thanks to
the Roget scholar who wrote those
School shouldbe a safehaven for children.
It should be a place where everybody obeys a very clear
set of rules and the consequences for disobedience are con-
sistent and swift.
Unfortunately, in this newworld inwhichwe live, that isn't
the case.
Children are threatened, almost daily, at the earliest
stages of their educational tenure by peer pressure, bullying,
uncaring educators and far too often, even by weapons
brought to school by their classmates.
It isn't easy being a child these days. Nor is it easy being a
parent or an educator, all of whomare faced, daily, with situa-
tions that have the potential to threaten the psychological
and evenphysical safety of the young people in their charge.
When we read of weapons being brandished in Detroit
schools, we sigh, shake our heads and continuewhat wewere
doing. But when weapons are brought to class in a district
like Northville, we all need to pay some serious attention to
the potential threats our children, and their educators, face.
The weapon in Northville was a knife with a blade more
than 3-inches long, brought to school by a student, it is
rumored, who felt threatened somehow by others there.
Other students told adults in the building and immediate
action was taken to secure the safety of everybody con-
cerned, especially the student who brought the weapon to
school.
Educators stress the importance of parents teaching their
children that there is a difference between tattling and
informing. Informing an adult in an effort to keep others safe
is the right and correct thing for all students to do and should
be considered the only appropriate action when a weapon is
involved. School officials in every district attempt to enlist
parental aid in teaching this distinction to children.
Which brings us, again, to the reason this child may have
felt it necessary to bring aweapon to school: Bullying.
We think, as do many child psychologists and professional
educators, that bullying is as much of a threat to the safety of
children as aweaponmight be. Like a gun or a knife, bullying
can leave permanent scars and actually cripple a child psy-
chologically. The recent effort to legislate bullying and crimi-
nalize it are fine, in theory, but toomany adults seem to think
it is nomore than a rite of passage and a normal part of child-
hood.
It isn't and it shouldn't be.
School, as we said, should be a safe place for children.
They should be as safe from bullies, both physical and psy-
chological, as they are from other, immediately lethal
weapons.
We applaud the efforts of our local school districts who
take bullying as seriously as other threats to the safety and
well-being of the future generation. It is a difficult, and often
perilous, responsibility.
A man who
made a
difference
Now I can get this done,
despite the Band-Aids covering
four of my fingers and the backs of my hands.
”
Another of the things we do for love
”
Schools should be safe havens for children
They should be as safe from bullies, both
physical and psychological, as they are from
other, immediately lethal weapons.
The end of an era is about to
come toNorthvilleTownship.
Township Supervisor Mark
Abbo, who has served on the board
of trustees for 20 years, formally
announced last week that he will
not seek reelection. He plans
instead to spend additional time
withhis family.
“It's time for a new chapter in
my life,” Abbo told the audience at
the last townshipmeeting.
Hehas earned it.
Twenty years is a long time to
spend doing anything, let alone
working through the occasionally
tricky minefield of local politics.
That Abbo managed so long and
helped improve his community in
the meantime is a feat in and of
itself.
It is safe to say that he has left a
lasting mark on the community,
too. He's made it a better place.
There is more parkland now that
therewas when he took office, new
facilities, more financial stability,
more partnerships with neighbor-
ing communities and other units of
government-such as the Northville
Public School District. Through a
commitment to keep taxes low, he
and the township board even man-
aged to navigate the difficult finan-
cial waters of the current recession
with only a minimal reduction in
services-when township employ-
ees take mandated furlough days
everymonth.
Northville Township is, as he
said, on a very firmfoundation.
Abbo agrees there have been
some disappointments along the
way, but the positives far outweigh
them. He is also quick to point out
that he hasn't done everything on
his own. He's had the support of
the staff, his colleagues on the
board…it's been a teameffort.
And that is true, of course. But
Abbo has been the one steering the
ship. He's been a voice of fiscal
sensibility, making sure that the
township not only has the funds to
develop parks and the ability to
See
Letters,
page 7
See
Love,
page 7
See
Abbo,
page 7
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