No. 13
NEWS YOU CAN USE, NEWS YOU CAN TRUST
75¢
March 31 – April 6, 2016
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 County Executive
Warren C. Evans helped
mark the official opening of
the new Wayne Health
Center during a ribbon cut-
ting ceremony last week.
See page 7.
Tipping Point Theatre
will present an evening of
improvisational comedy at 7
p.m. April 17. The off-the-
cuff comedy is in the style of
the television show Whose
Line is it Anyway?
See page 5.
Vol. 131, No. 13
Vol. 69, No. 13
Vol. 69, No. 13
Vol. 16, No. 13
Romulus police have
determined the death of a
22-year-old resident found
dead next to his vehicle last
Thursday morning was a sui-
cide.
See page 6.
Vol. 131, No. 13
Vol. 69, No. 13
Vol. 69, No. 13
For home delivery of The Eagle call 734-467-1900.
Westland police are offer-
ing free reflective vests at no
cost to Norwayne residents
who walk regularly during
night hours, following three
pedestrian deaths in the
area.
See page 7.
Police have issued a
warning to residents after a
Canton Township pet was
attacked and killed by a coy-
ote in the backyard of the
family home last week.
See page 3.
Vol. 16, No. 24
Wayne
County
Commissioner Glenn S.
Anderson, State Rep. Julie
Plawecki, and State Sen.
David Knezek will host a cof-
fee hour event In Inkster
April 11.
See page 4.
The four Plymouth com-
missioners in attendance at
the meeting last week unani-
mously agreed to a brown-
field
plan
for
the
Starkweather School project
inOldVillage.
See page 5.
A new program housed at
the
Wayne
County
Community College Western
Campus in Belleville is
designed to educate students
in the craft brewingmarket.
See page 4.
Westland water lead levels ‘acceptable’
Water samples in Westland
were all below the lead levels
determined as actionable by
The federal Environmental
ProtectionAgency.
Still, the city will circle to
back to the two homes where
the lead levels came close to the
15 parts per billion for lead in
drinkingwater.
Members of theWestlandCity
Council heard a report from
Fred Hoitash of RTI Laboratory
where the testing was per-
formed following allegations last
month of impropriety in the
handling of lead pipes in the city
by an employee of the
Department of Public Services.
Samples were collected from
380 homes in the city and
Hoitash said that more than 90
percent of those samples con-
tained less than the actionable
levels as dictated by the EPA.
He also told the council mem-
bers that the test results at the
independent laboratory corre-
lated with the lead and copper
testing results performed by the
city.
He told the council members
that 237 of the samples tested
had no detectable level of lead
while another 103 samples had
less than 1 part per billion. He
said 31 samples were at from 1
to 5 parts per billion and two
homes had 10-14 parts per bil-
lion.
Mayor William Wild said that
the city would "circle back" to
see if there are repairs or
changes the city could help resi-
dents perform at the two homes
where the levels approached
the actionable level. He suggest-
ed that the problem could be in
the pipes on the residents' prop-
erty or inside the homes. He
said that the city would also
revisit the homes where the
samples had levels more than 5
parts per billion.
The testing, budgeted at
$75,000, took samples from
homes in the area pf Palmer to
Glenwood and Wayne Road to
Wildwood. The Michigan
Department of Environmental
Quality was notified of the test-
ing and requested the city test
four addresses within the speci-
fied area. Those homes showed
results of no detectable lead to
10 parts per billion.
Results were mailed to the
individual property owners.
Romulus police are continu-
ing their investigation into the
armed robbery of the Chase
Bank on Middlebelt Road last
week.
According to police reports,
officers responded to a call of
the bank being robbed at about
9:24 a.m. March 23. Witnesses
told the officers that two men
arrived at the bank in an
unknown type of vehicle. Both
suspects entered through the
front door of the bank, witnesses
said, and one of the men
approached and jumped over
the teller counter while the
other held the other employees
at gunpoint.
Two employees were forced
at gunpoint to open the vault,
witnesses said, and the two sus-
pects then took a large amount
of cash.
The two stole an employee's
car keys and fled the bank driv-
ing her minivan northbound on
Middlebelt Road. The suspects
later abandoned the minivan in
the area of Farnum and Garner
streets where police suspect
they got into a black Dodge
Charger and fled westbound on
SmithRoad.
Both
suspects
were
described by the witnesses as
Teachers in the Plymouth
CantonCommunity Schools have
ratified a new union agreement
that offers no salary increase for
the next two years.
Teachers were split about 60-
40 in favor of acceptance of the
new contract when they voted
March 19 and 21. The only pay
increase included in the new
contract is a $75 per year
increase in longevity pay, due
those with the most seniority in
the district. There are no step or
salary increases in the first year
but a one step increase in senior-
ity during the second year.
Teachers also accepted a
decrease in their annual class-
room allowance, from $100 to
$50.
Plymouth Canton teachers
have received no wage increase
since the 2006-2007 school year
when a 2-percent raise was dic-
tated by their contract. In 2008-
2009, those at the top of the step
program received a 2-percent
increase.
BobWilliams, president of the
Plymouth Canton Education
Association, the union that rep-
resents the teachers, said that
themembership is not happy. He
described the contract as “con-
cessionary” and said that this is
still a wage freeze. Teachers
rejected a tentative contract in
December which included many
of the same provisions accepted
on this vote.
Teachers in the district are on
a 14-step seniority plan, changed
from an 11-step plan five years
ago. Teachers on the first step
are paid a base salary of $39,954
Roksana Sikorski, the
Plymouth Township teen
charged as an adult in a plot to
murder her family was sen-
tenced to serve from 10 to 20
years in prison Tuesday in
WayneCountyCircuit Court.
Sikorski accepted a plea
arrangement with prosecutors
and entered a guilty plea to the
attack in which she slashed the
throat of her the 12-year-old
brother in October of 2014. In
exchange for the guilty plea to
one count of assault with intent
to murder, six other felony
charges against her, including
conspiracy to murder, were
droppedby prosecutors.
The attack, according to pros-
ecutors, was part of a plot
Sikorski, then 15, and her
boyfriend, Michael Rivera, 22 at
the time, devised to murder her
entire family as they slept so the
two could run away together.
Prosecutors said the two were
exchanging text messages as
Sikorski got a knife from the
kitchen to slash the throats of
her two siblings and parents.
The explicit messages, including
instructions and anatomical dia-
grams, were found by police
investigators as they pursued
Sikorski and Rivera to his
Detroit apartment where the
pair was arrested the morning
after the attack. Both have
remained in police custody
since their arrest.
Rivera, now 24, is serving a
life sentence after his conviction
on seven felony counts by a jury.
Sikorski accepted the plea deal
from prosecutors Feb. 22.
According to police reports,
Sikorski entered her brother's
room, placed her hand over his
mouth and held the knife at his
throat. He awoke and his throat
was slashed as he ran screaming
from his sister, according to
investigators. His scream awoke
his parents. Sikorski dropped
the knife and she and Rivera
fled the area as her parents
called for emergency help.
All three of the children were
adopted from a polish orphan-
age about 11 years ago. Her par-
ents said Roksana Sikorski suf-
fered psychological problems
from the early-childhood abuse
and that Rivera was the instiga-
tor of the attemptedmurder plot.
Her parents have protested
the plea deal. They have
claimed that she was coerced
into the sexual relationship and
themurder plot byRivera.
Rivera's attorney claimed that
Sikorski initiated the plot in an
effort to help Rivera avoid a
statutory rape complaint her
parents filed in an attempt to
end the ongoing sexual relation-
shipbetween the pair.
Prosecutors said Sikorski was
charged as an adult due to the
nature of the crime and the
graphic instructional text and
phone messages presented by
investigators.
See
Suspects,
page 6
See
Contract,
page 8
Still, the city will circle to back to the two homes
where the lead levels came close to the 15 parts per
billion for lead in drinking water.
”
Teen sentenced to
prison in murder plot
New teachers’ pact
offers no pay increase
Armed robbery suspects sought
Having a ball
Romulus Mayor Leroy Burcroff and Belleville Mayor Kerreen
Conley were the hosts of the Mayor's Ball last month. The
event is a fundraiser for the Boys and Girls Clubs that serves
the two communities. “We had record attendance, we had
record revenue,” said Burcroff. “It was a great event.” The
third annual event was a sold-out affair, according to event
organizer Rob MacLachlan, with 250 attending. He said more
than $25,000 had been raised through donors and sponsors.
“The cool thing is all those proceeds will go to help kids out,”
said Burcroff. Also last month, a euchre tournament fundrais-
er generated more than $2,000 to help pay for a new gate at
the Romulus Cemetery. Jan Lemmon, a member of the
cemetery board, said all 100 tickets were sold for the
fundraiser. The total raised was $2,040-which included half of
the winnings the highest scorer, Romulus Treasurer Stacy
Paige, donated back to the event.
