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No. 28
NEWS YOU CAN USE, NEWS YOU CAN TRUST
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July 12 - 18, 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
Cornerstone City Church
will host the Wow Jam, a free
party including a huge bar-
beque, games and prizes for
children, and free food distri-
bution, at 4 p.m. July 19.
See page 3.
There is renewed commu-
nity interest in reflective
address markers that help
police and firefighters to find
homes in case of emergency
nowavailable inRomulus.
See page 6.
Plymouth
Township
Supervisor Richard Reaume
has rescinded permission for a
candidates forum in township
hall planned by the League of
WomenVoters.
See page 2.
Construction activities on
downtown Northville project
are moving along on schedule,
according to a report from the
Department of PublicWorks.
See page 6.
Battalion Chief Daniel C.
Besson has been named as
interim replacement chief
with the Van Buren Township
Fire Department after the
abrupt departure of Darwin
Loyer.
See page 5.
Vol. 127, No. 28
Vol. 65, No. 28
Vol. 65, No. 28
Vol. 12, No. 28
Vol. 12, No. 28
Vol. 127, No. 28
Vol. 65, No. 28
Vol. 65, No. 28
The lack of legislative
enforcement regarding state
qualifications for judicial can-
didacy is in need of revamping
to prevent even the appear-
ance of wrongdoing by hope-
fuls.
See page 3.
For home delivery of The Eagle call 734-467-1900.
Westland will celebrate
with Habitat for Humanity
next Monday as the last proj-
ect for the year, the seventh
home completed by the group
in the city, is officially dedicat-
ed.
See page 3.
The City of Detroit has until
March of next year to reclaim a
190-acre parcel of land valued at
up to $16 million from Plymouth
Township or seek monetary dam-
ages.
The 190-acre parcel was includ-
ed in a foreclosure sale of 323
acres by Wayne County to
Plymouth Township for unpaid
taxes last September.
The owner of the land, accord-
ing to Wayne County records, was
Demco 54, and that corporation
had failed to pay taxes on the
property for several years, result-
ing in the foreclosure sale.
Land transfer records, however,
indicate that Demco 54 purchased
only a 133-acre parcel of the prop-
erty in 2006 and the remaining 190
acres was still owned by the City of
Detroit. Official transfer docu-
ments indicate that the assessor's
office in Plymouth Township
failed to divide the parcels of
property by the correct owners at
the time of sale. The township
then sent all tax bills for the entire
323 acres to Demco 54. Detroit did
not receive a tax bill on the por-
tion the city still owned from 2007
forward. Plymouth Township
referred the delinquent taxes to
Wayne County for collection and
the county subsequently fore-
closed on the land. The county
then offered the township the
“right of first refusal” on the land
during the annual sale of fore-
closedproperty for unpaid taxes.
The failure of the township and
the county to notify the correct
owner of the taxes due allows
Detroit the right to seek to reclaim
the property and recover mone-
tary damages up to the actual cur-
rent market value of the land
under Section 211.78L of Michigan
law. The property was on the tax
rolls in 2007 at $29,283,880 true
cash value, but was reduced in
value for unknown reasons in sub-
sequent years. The initial price
for the land approved by the
Plymouth Township Board of
Trustees last year was $287,679,
but when further back taxes were
added, the total price paid to
Wayne County for the entire 323-
acre parcel was $606,000.
“That's quite a bargain for land
valued at between $5.8 and $16
million,” noted Richard Sharland,
a life-long township resident who
has been investigating the situa-
tion for severalmonths.
Sharland's family has owned
land adjacent to this property bor-
dered by Napier, Five Mile, Beck
and Ridge roads for more than a
century. His great-great-grandfa-
ther bought the farmland that
abuts what is commonly referred
to as the Detroit House of
Corrections property in 1854, so he
Byron Nolen, one of the eight
candidates seeking to become the
22nd District Court judge, claims
that three of his opponents do not
actually live in the City of Inkster
and are therefore precluded by
state law fromseeking election.
The bureau of elections in
Lansing however, says they have no
legislative ability to investigate the
charges, or disqualify the candi-
dates should the allegations be cor-
rect.
Nolen provided copied of writ-
ten complaints he sent to David
Foster of theBureau of Elections in
Lansing dated May 25 alleging that
Darryl Eason, Jo A. Irby andRobyn
Brazeal Liddell do not actually ful-
fill the legal definition of residence
prescribed by state law and are,
therefore, not legitimate candi-
dates for the judicial position.
The law (MCL 38.412a, Sec. 467.)
states that a person shall not be eli-
gible for the office of judge of the
district court unless the person is a
registered and qualified elector of
the judicial district and election
division in which election is sought
by the filing deadline or the date
the person files the affidavit of can-
didacy, is licensed to practice law
in this state and, at the time of elec-
tion or appointment, is less than 70
years of age.
The statute (MCLS 168.11)
defines residence as the place at
which a person habitually sleeps,
keeps his or her personal effects
andhas a regular place of lodging.
Nolen claims that Darryl Eason,
on the ballot as D. Eason, pur-
chased the Inkster home he listed
as his principal residence as a
rental property in October of 2006.
Nolen claims the home, on
Meadowlane, has been vacant for
about a year and filed an affidavit
from a neighbor attesting to the
lack of furniture in the home and
the state of disrepair of thehome.
From now until early fall,
Canton Leisure Services is
offering its first Community
Veggie Tray, a no-cost fruit and
vegetable exchange for pro-
duce surplus.
See page 6
See
Land,
page 2
Plymouth welcomes 33rd Art in the Park
Will Detroit reclaim $16 million property?
Land Plymouth purchased may
still belong to City of Detroit
Plymouth Township resident Richard Sharland has spent several weeks
attempting to unravel documents surrounding the ownership of 190-
acres of land sold to the township by Wayne County.
Residency of judicial candidates questioned
The small white tents are
already going up throughout
downtown as Plymouth prepares
for the 33rd annual Art in the Park
event which begins tomorrow and
continues throughSunday.
For more than three decades,
founder Dianne Quinn has been at
the helm of the event she started
as a small gathering of artists in
Kellogg Park. Now, her daughter,
Raychel Rork, who has been at the
event since she was a toddler, is
her partner in the event and is
president of Art in thePark.
From30 or so artists in 1980, the
event will bring more than 400
exhibitors to Plymouth again this
year with thousands of original
pieces of art including paintings,
sculpture, ceramics, jewelry, fiber,
fine glass, woodwork, mixed
media, photography, and folk art.
The artists travel to Plymouth
from around the United States for
what has been rated as one of the
top art events in the country and
the single largest art festival in
Michigan.
This year, Rork and Quinn have
brought back many of the most
popular features of the event and
added some new attractions. The
goal, they agreed, is to provide
something for everyone and
ensure that everyone has a good
time.
Among the attractions this year
is the Living Art Mural painted by
Kristen Dillenbeck-Anderson of
New York. The professional artist,
formerly of Canton, incorporates
canvas, paint and live human fig-
ures into a three dimensional
mural. This is her fourth consecu-
tive year at the event which turns
heads all weekend. The living art
mural will be awork in progress at
the intersection ofMainStreet and
AnnArbor Trail.
Dillenbeck-Anderson's sister,
Erin Dillenbeck, a realistic por-
trait artist, will also return to the
festival this weekend to create a
reproduction of A Bar at the
Folies-Bergere by Édouard Manet
from 1882, on the street at the
intersection on Main and
Penniman. The street art demon-
stration will be sketched with
chalk onto the pavement and will
be inprogress all weekend.
Another attraction expected to
draw a crowd is a visit from the
BigTasteGrill, the largest portable
grill in the world. Weighing in at
53,000 pounds and measuring 65
feet long, 20 feet high and 6 feet in
diameter, the Johnsonville Big
Taste Grill will be stationed on
Penniman Avenue at the corner of
Main Street all weekend. It has
the ability to hold up to 10 grillers,
preparing 750 brats at a time -
that's 2,500 brats an hour. The Big
Taste Grill travels year-round
throughout North America,
grilling brats and helping raise
money for deserving organiza-
tions.
My Adventure Theater will
offer three or four interactive fam-
See
Festival,
page 2
1575 Meadowlane, Inkster 47442 Madison, Canton Township
26412 Kitch, Inkster
7540 W. Seven Mile, Detroit
See
Candidates,
page 3