No. 22
NEWS YOU CAN USE, NEWS YOU CAN TRUST
75¢
June 2 – 8, 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
Members of the Wayne
Westland
Community
Schools Board of Education
agreed to table a vote on
closing the Tinkham
Alternative High School
until June 6.
See page 6.
Members of the Northville
City Council and the Canton
Township Board of Trustees
are among those who have
joined a newwater bill assis-
tance program.
See page 7.
Vol. 131, No. 22
Vol. 69, No. 22
Vol. 69, No. 22
Vol. 16, No. 22
Romulus Public Library
now has a unique lending
program which loans seeds
to area residents to help start
gardens across the area.
See page 4.
Vol. 131, No. 22
Vol. 69, No. 22
Vol. 69, No. 22
For home delivery of The Eagle call 734-467-1900.
Drivers on Newburgh
Road this week may be sur-
prised by the curtailed traf-
fic flow north of Ford Road
when a pavement repair
project begins thisweek.
See page 6.
Ten Canton Township res-
idents will vie for the six
four-year terms on the volun-
teer library board during the
election set forNovember.
See page 3.
Vol. 16, No. 24
A bill has been intro-
duced in the state house and
senate which would elimi-
nate the remaining debt of
the dissolved Inkster Public
Schools.
See page 2.
Members of the Plymouth
City Commission unani-
mously approved a 29-cent
per thousand gallon increase
in citywater and sewer rates.
See page 5.
Members of the Van
Buren Board of Education
selected six finalist candi-
dates from 32 applicants to
interview for superintendent
of the school district.
See page 7.
The 2012 decision of
Plymouth Township officials to
cut fire department staffing in
half and close the Lake Pointe
Fire Station has become an
object of heated debate in the
current political campaign.
Last week, incumbent
Township Supervisor Shannon
Price and challenger, State Rep.
Kurt Heise, participated in a
debate of issues at Praise
Baptist Church. One issue the
pair argued was the adequacy
and effective public safety pro-
vided by current staffing at the
fire department. At issue is the
cost to maintain a fully-staffed
department with full-time para-
medics and the re-opening of
the Lake Pointe station which
has been closed for nearly 4
years.
Price told the audience at the
debate that he would not lay off
any firefighters and wanted to
open the Lake Pointe station but
believed “…the board of the
township spoke very loudly in
2012 and rejected the initiative
to open Station 2 by raising
taxes, which is easy for some
people.”
Records show that in 2012,
the trustees refused repeatedly
to place the referenced public
safetymillage on a ballot despite
signed petitions from residents.
Following lawsuits by a grass-
roots public action group, the
board members were ordered
by a circuit court judge to allow
the public to vote on the issue.
In response, board members
increased the requested 1.0mill-
age to 10 mills, an amount even
the activists were forced to vig-
orously oppose at the polls.
Price, who has lived in the
township less than a year, said
he felt there was an alternative
to increasing staffing. He said
Plymouth should “look to
Northville
Township.”
Partnering with Northville
Township “would be the right
move,” Price said. “We're
already working together on
mutual aid.”
Northville TownshipDirector
of Public Safety John Werth
recently confirmed that talks
with Price to temporarily utilize
the shuttered Lake Pointe sta-
tion would come to fruition,
“sometime in June.”
Werth said that with major
road construction work sched-
uled this year for I-275 and Six
Mile Road--the location of the
only fire station in Northville
Township--Price agreed to his
suggestion to rent space and
park an ambulance and fire
engine at the long-shuttered
Since the departmental downsizing,
officials have tried to address
staffing shortages and public criticism.
”
Fire safety is election issue
See
Election,
page 5
Don Howard
Staff Writer
Fire chief, recreation director
facing domestic violence charges
Wayne County Parks millage to be on ballot
Breathe
Canton hosts Yoga in Park
Dan Nevins, a motivational
speaker and nationally recog-
nized Wounded Warrior fea-
tured on NBC News, will be
the featured speaker at Yoga
In The Park beginning at 9
a.m. July 30 at Heritage Park
inCantonTownship.
Nevins is a retired United
States Army Staff Sgt. who
began his military career out
of high school as a paratroop-
er stationed in Germany. In
November of 2004, an IED
(Improvised
Explosive
Device) detonated beneath
his vehicle during a combat
mission in Iraq causing
Nevins to suffer a traumatic
brain injury as well as the loss
of his left leg below the knee.
After more than 30 surgeries,
Nevins' right leg was also
amputatedbelow the knee.
Nevins credits the practice
of yoga for turning his life
around after losing his legs in
Iraq. This professional speak-
er, who for more than a
decade, has shared an inspi-
rational message of leader-
ship, perseverance, resilience,
and overcoming adversity
with audiences around the
globe, is also a certified
BaptisteYoga instructor.
Nevins believes that yoga
can help everyone, especially
veterans returning home from
service, and encourages all
veterans to try yoga for its
physical and emotional bene-
fits.
“My whole platform is for
you to invite a veteran to yoga,
because it just might save
their life,” said Nevins. “I
became a yoga teacher
because I knew first hand of
the power it has to heal.”
Old Glory Flags and
Flagpoles of Livonia and
Canton Leisure Services have
joined forces to host Yoga In
the Park to benefit the
WoundedWarrior Project.
The fundraising event will
begin with registration at 8:30
John Adams, the newly-hired
parks and recreation director
for the City of Westland and the
former fire chief in the City of
Inkster, spent last Thursday
night in the Canton Township
jail after being arrested at his
home on domestic violence
charges.
According to a report from
the Canton police, Adams was
arrested shortly after officers
responded to an 11:17 p.m. call
about a domestic disturbance at
his home. Responding officers
conducted an investigation at
the scene and interviewed wit-
nesses, which led to the arrest of
Adams, 51, on the domestic
assault charges.
Police said that the charges
were authorized by the office of
the Wayne County prosecutor
following a review of the offi-
cers' investigation. Adams was
charged with two counts of
domestic violence; one count
stemming from the incident May
26 and an earlier incident which
police said was not previously
reported.
Adams was arraigned and
released on bail on Friday. His
next court appearance is set for
June 10.
Adams has been the full-time
parks and recreation director in
Westland for about a month. His
appointment to the job which
pays $78,902 annually was not
without some controversy as res-
idents questioned his ability to
serve as both the Inkster fire
chief, a full-time job, and as a
full-time director in Westland.
Adams' contract in Inkster
expired earlier this week. He
retired with a pension from the
Westland Fire Department in
2014.
At press time, police had not
released any further informa-
tion or namedAdams' accuser.
A continuation of the current
Wayne County parks millage
will appear on the Aug. 2 ballot
primary ballot throughout the
area.
Wayne County Commissioner
Glenn S. Anderson (D-Westland)
appeared before several local
elected officials at the monthly
meeting of the Conference of
Western Wayne (CWW) recently
to announce the ballot question.
The parks millage is levied
for the purpose of supporting
operations and improvements
in the Wayne County Parks sys-
tem. Themillage, whichwas last
approved in 2010, expired in
2015. Since 2009, it has been pol-
icy that 15 percent of themillage
funds are returned to local com-
munities based on how much
each county commission district
raises in property taxes. After
concerns were raised that this
policy might be discontinued,
the CWW approved a resolution
in December 2015 urging
County ExecutiveWarren Evans
and the county commissioners
to continue the practice. The
commissioners voted 11-4 May 5
to approve a resolution that
places the parks millage contin-
uation on the primary ballot, but
with language that ensures the
15 percent return to communi-
ties, or a minimum of $50,000
per commissiondistrict.
Anderson, who made the
motion to approve the resolu-
tion, said, “Due to a possible
interruption of the millage, the
CEO's office asked the commis-
sion to place this on the ballot in
August instead ofNovember.”
The CWW Board, which rep-
resents a consortium of 18 com-
munities throughout western
Wayne County, unanimously
approved a resolution support-
ing the continuation of the parks
millage.
Voters throughout Wayne
County will receive the opportu-
nity on the Aug. 2 primary elec-
tion ballot to continue the mill-
age. The rate is 0.2459 mills, or
about 25 cents per $1,000 of tax-
able property value, and will be
in effective from 2016 to 2020.
For the owner of a house with a
value of $100,000, it would cost
about $12.30 annually.
See
Yoga,
page 3
John Adams
Dan Nevins, yoga instructor, motivational speaker and nationally
recognized Wounded Warrior, travels the globe inspiring audi-
ences while practicing yoga.
