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No. 26
NEWS YOU CAN USE, NEWS YOU CAN TRUST
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June 28 - July 4, 2012
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
Two Wayne businesses are
planning a free event for the
community July 1 and hope to
see the entire community turn
out for the festival which
includes concerts and games.
See page 5.
After 14 years, Steve
Adams, senior pastor of the
Romulus Wesleyan Church, is
leaving the city behind for a
position in Port Huron, in part
to be closer tohis family.
See page 4.
Art in the Park, the second
largest art festival inMichigan,
returns July 13, 14 and 15, to
downtown Plymouth. Now in
its 33rd year, the event will
hostmore than 400 artists.
See page 3.
At the June 12, regular
meeting, Northville Public
Schools Board of Education
member
unanimously
approved the appointments of
two new administrators for the
2012-2013 school year.
See page 3.
Forward movement on plans
for a gas cogeneration plant in
Van Buren Township were
apparently stalled at ameeting
of the Township Planning
Commission recently.
See page 4.
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Vol. 12, No. 26
Vol. 127, No. 26
Vol. 65, No. 26
Vol. 65, No. 26
The Inkster Post Office,
which was built in 1953 as a
state of the art facility fell to
the wrecking ball last week
and the Michigan Avenue site
is nowvacant land.
See page 5.
For home delivery of The Eagle call 734-467-1900.
Road crews will begin con-
struction on Warren Road,
adjacent to the Westland
Shopping Center, beginning
July 16. The work will be on
Warren Road from Newburgh
Road toWayneRoad.
See page 4.
Despite nearly 2,400 accidents along Ford
Road and the traffic gridlocks that mark nearly
every afternoon rush hour, therewill be no fed-
eral funding this year for improvements to the
Canton roadway.
Federal officials announced last Friday that
the $500 million in road projects funding
through the U.S. Department of Transportation
did not include the $18 million Canton project.
This was the fourth time the municipality had
applied for the Transportation Investment
GeneratingEconomicRecovery (TIGER) grant.
Bill Adams of the department of transporta-
tion said in the announcement that this latest
round of projects ended the grants for this year.
Canton has repeatedly applied in an effort
to ease the traffic congestion and tie ups in the
area between I-275 andCantonCenter Road on
Ford Road in the township. The grant request-
ed about $18 million to add new ramps and a
service drive from Cherry Hill to north of Ford
Road. A total of 2,378 traffic accidents were
reported along that stretch of Ford Road last
year.
The state is also pursuing a solution to the
ongoing traffic problem and has scheduled
hearing and an environmental study in the
area.
The state traffic study includes an area bor-
dered by Warren, Cherry Hill, Sheldon and
Lotz roads, a more comprehensive study than
the smaller area referenced in the federal
grant application.
The federal application had received sup-
port from State Sen. Patrick Colbeck and other
officials along with both the city and township
of Plymouth,Westland andLivonia.
Officials indicated that there will be more
TIGERgrant funding available in 2013.
Tanvi Siri Das, 6, of Canton,
has been chosen as a state
finalist in the National
American Miss Michigan
Pageant which will take place
July 26 at the Hyatt Hotel in
Dearborn.
See page 3.
Ford Road repair grant denied again
U.S. Representative John D.
Dingell joined Starfish Family
Services in Inkster to announce a
$3.6 million grant from the U.S.
Department of Health and Human
Services, which will expand
Starfish Family Services' Early
Head Start program and create
new jobs in the community.
“Starfish effectively serves our
most vulnerable populations and
provides our young childrenwith a
variety of critical programs and
fundamental services to ensure
these youngsters are given the
solid foundation they need and
deserve to be successful in the
future,” said Dingell. “Today's
HHS award could not have come
to fruition without the great pro-
gram Starfish Family Services
already has running and the lead-
ership of their talented and
focused CEO, Ann Kalass. This
substantial amount of money
awarded to Starfish will not only
help our children achieve, it will
also bring much needed jobs to the
area.”
Early Head Start is a federally
funded community-based program
for pregnant women from low-
income families with infants and
toddlers. Health and Human
Services Administration for
Children and Families Region V
issued Starfish Services the discre-
tionary service grant at an annual
base funding level for Early Head
Start operations in the amount of
$3,545,673 for a budget period of
June 2012 until May 2017. The
grant will create more than 50 new
jobs across Starfish's four partner
agencies including early childhood
educators, nutritionists, disabili-
ties specialists, and administrators.
“We're thrilled to have the
opportunity to leverage our experi-
ence to help strengthen Detroit's
capacity for quality early child-
hood services,” said Kalass. “Our
approach became a natural part-
nership between four organiza-
tions who share a passion for help-
ing children and families realize
their full potential. Each partner
brings a unique set of skills and a
strong relationship to the commu-
nity which will ensure our success
in preparing our youngest children
for school,”Kalass said.
Starfish, a private, nonprofit
agency founded in 1963, serves vul-
nerable children and families in
Southeast Michigan. It is a
provider of early childhood devel-
opment and parenting programs,
children's mental health services,
after school programs, and an
emergency shelter for teens and
youth in crisis. It has more than a
dozen programs, 270 employees,
and a $13 million dollar budget
that serves more than 9,000 at-risk
children and families each year.
The Northville Community Foundation is
looking for a ringing endorsement when the
annual Fourthof July parade gets underway.
When the parade begins at 10 a.m.
Wednesday in downtownNorthville, the crowd
can participate, according to Shari Peters,
president of the Northville Community
Foundation.
“Our theme is Let Freedom Ring, so we
hope everyone will bring a bell to help us cele-
brate,” she said.
“We definitely want everyone's help with a
crowd that is estimated at more than 15,000
people,” she said. “It would be so great to have
all those bells ringing.”
She's spreading the word ahead of time for
anyone who plans on attending the parade to
bring bells from home to use themselves or to
This will be the 16th year Fred Hill has
organized the 4th of July Parade in Plymouth
and he is sure this will be “the second best
parade of all time.” This first-best, he said, has-
n't taken place yet, but the event gets bigger
andbetter every year.
This year the parade will begin at the rail-
road tracks onMain Street near Theodore and
travel through downtown Plymouth to
HartsoughStreet.
The parade is sponsored every year by the
Kiwanis Club of Colonial Plymouth, Hill said,
and members help with the organization and
wrangling of the 85-entries in the parade.
In addition, Hill said there are 20 individual
We're thrilled to have the opportunity
to leverage our experience to help strengthen
Detroit's capacity for quality early childhood services.
”
Starfish agency awarded $3.6 million in funding
Plymouth event has
become area tradition
See
Northville,
page 3
See
Plymouth,
page 3
Here come
the parades
Northville event draws
huge, area-wide crowd