A
SSOCIATED
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EWSPAPERS OF
M
ICHIGAN
P
AGE
5
June 2, 2016
P
LYMOUTH
Celebrate
Local dancers perform at Comerica Park
Water rates change in city
Members of the Plymouth City
Commission have approved a 29-cent
per thousand gallon increase in city
water and sewer rates.
The unanimous approval will
increase water and sewer rates to $11.63
per thousand gallons of water used. This
the first increase in city rates since July
2014.
Officials said that the rate increase
will translate into a typical water bill in
the city of about $221 quarterly. The rate
increase was based on an increase from
the new Great Lakes Water Authority to
the city of 7.5 percent.
The commissioners did not hike the
monthly cart fee for trash and recy-
clableswhichwill remain at $10.
Those fees are included on water
billings.
Plymouth was well represented before
the Detroit Tigers' game last Friday at
ComericaPark.
Members of the Plymouth Centennial
Dancers helped celebrate the 46th annual
Polish-American Night with a perform-
ance before the game.
“It is very colorful and it gives the
youngest members some experience on
the big stage,” said Barb Martin, director
of the Plymouth Centennial Dancers.
“Our goal is to promote Polish heritage
and culture through music and dance,”
she added.
Longtime coordinator for the event,
Wally Ozog said, “We get all the sponsors
of the dance troupes, the Polish National
Alliance, the Polish Roman Catholic
Union of America and the PolishWomen's
Alliance of America and put on a wonder-
ful show. Everyone is Polish that
evening.”
“We have added a few more groups
this year,” said pre-game emcee
Christopher Ozog. The Wayne State
University Polish Club and the Friends of
Polish Art were represented this year and
the National Polish-American Sports Hall
of Fame has a display on the concourse
near the right-field foul line. A special col-
lector's tee-shirt was also available on
Friday.
The PNA-Plymouth Centennial
Dancers also operate the Polish Kitchen
at the Plymouth Fall Festival every year
and dance in Fourth of July and Labor
Day parades in Plymouth, Northville and
Hamtramck.
Station 2 for six months during the con-
struction time.
Werth said that while this would allevi-
ate Northville Township concerns about
long response times, especially during
rush hour traffic periods, there is no plan
in place for Northville to service Lake
Pointe residents, except in the dire case
of a request formutual aid.
Heise, who is term-limited in the state
Legislature, said he not only wants to per-
manently re-open Lake Pointe, but also
believes the current staffing level of 18
firefighters for a community of 28,000 resi-
dents is “very inadequate for a township
of our size.”
“If I'm elected, I'll re-open Station 2
with full-time firefighters because the
people of Lake Pointe in the northern cor-
ner of the township deserve the same
kind of protection that those on the west
side have,” Heise said during the debate
on the issue.
Heise, a 10-year township resident who
in 2012was not in favor of a dedicated fire
millage, told the audience he now feels
the cuts made in the past few years have
been excessive and he now suspects the
actionmay have been “punitive.”
Heise cited an example of a recent
tragedy in Lake Pointe where he said the
response time was inadequate. Township
Fire Department records obtained with a
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
request show the township rescue squad
arrived at the home of an unresponsive
male within 10 minutes of the first of four
calls to 9-1-1 at the same time as a Huron
ValleyAmbulanceunit arrived.
Few municipal officials actually know
exactly how long their emergency crews
take to reach cardiac arrest victims
because of various methods of reporting
and most are selective about how they
report that performance. On the subject
Lake Pointe rescue, the 10-minute
response time, verified by Fire Chief Dan
Phillips, was ascertained by starting the
clock at theminute and second of the first
call until the minute and second the first
rescue rig pulledup in front of thehome
According to medical experts, a victim
experiencing cardiac arrest, also known
as ventricular fibrillation, has just 6 min-
utes to live. A shock with a defibrillator
within that time usually will restore the
heart's rhythm and a victim can still sur-
vive if qualified paramedics restore his
breathing and administer key drugs, such
as adrenaline, according to highly experi-
encedparamedics.
Most experts agree that four respon-
ders, at least two trained in Advance Life
Support and two trained in Basic Life
Support, are the minimum required to
provide the necessary life saving meas-
ures to cardiac arrest victims. Experts say
two firefighters to provide CPR, one to
prepare the Automated External
Defibrillator (AED) and analyze the
results of an electrocardiogram (ECG)
report, and one to prepare for and initiate
advanced cardiac life support measures,
such as advanced airway management,
I.V. therapy and pharmacological inter-
ventions, are the minimum number
required to provide the necessary care in
a cardiac arrest situation. An important
factor in the survival of the patient,
experts say, is not only how quickly para-
medics arrive at the scene, but also how
quickly they begin administering treat-
ment. Recognized national studies pre-
dicting cardiac arrest survival rates link
response time to the probability of sur-
vival. According to the national model, in
the best-case scenario a cardiac arrest vic-
tim has a 67 percent chance of survival
within the critical first 6minutes.
Price dismissed Heise's claim of the
“inadequate” response time and insisted
the 7-minute time was accurate, despite
the official records, adding that the
patient was transported and expired at
the hospital. Price said he attended the
funeral.
Price offered another example of the
adequacy of fire department staffing, dis-
playing a thank you letter from a resident
who Price said, “…was perished for 30
minutes and he's alive today.”
Examination of the rescue run by The
Eagle and discussion with Phillips
revealed the referenced patient was most
likely still breathing when the fire depart-
ment arrived. Phillips said it was a car-
diac event. “We were oxygenating his
blood and keeping him alive,” Phillips
said, noting it was an extremely unusual
situation.
Township trustee candidate Jack
Dempsey, who has expressed his concern
regarding the fire department staffing lev-
els, said the budget cuts to the fire depart-
ment show little savings since 2011 when
spending was $3.773 million. Dempsey
reports 2014 and 2015 fire budgets were
$3.771 and $3.829 million respectively.
Dempsey said the 2016 budget was not
posted on the townshipwebsite.
Since the departmental downsizing,
officials have tried to address staffing
shortages and public criticism. The inter-
mittent closing of both the Beck Road and
Haggerty Road stations has not beenmiti-
gated. Those station closings are neces-
sary when minimum staffing require-
ments of four firefighters available per
shift can not be met by current staffing
levels. The department employs only 18
firefighters and a shift consists of a cap-
tain, a lieutenant and four firefighters.
This does not include the administrative
staff that includes Phillips, a fire inspec-
tor and a secretary.
Plymouth Centennial Dancers performed before the Tigers' game at Comerica Park last
week.
Photo by Ron Gage
Election
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