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him on his long career. He was active in civic organizations, too, including the Z-PAC boosters and theWayneGoodfellows, lending his voice to their annual No Child Without A Christmas auction fundraisers.

“Everything he did was from the heart; it was with the best inten-tions,” saidhis daughter, Shannon. A testament to his impact on the

community took place last week, during a quickly-organized can-dlelit vigil that took place on the field of Wayne Memorial, attended by hundreds of friends, acquain-tances, former students and loved ones-young and old alike.

“We always knew we shared him-we realized that growing up-but we really had no idea just how many people we did share him with,” said his daughter, who is also a teacher. “He left a different piece of himself witheveryone.” He is survived by his compan-ion, Gerry Rowden; daughters, Laurie (Michael) Cole, Shannon

(Kyle) Clarke and Megan Diana Brooks; stepdaughter, Alisa (Jeff) Morche; a daughter of the heart, Heather Mettettal Barlow; a sister, Nancy (Chuck) Runta; grandsons, William Rex Brooks Cole and Kevin Nicholas George Cole; a granddaughter, Madeline Diana Clarke; step-granddaughters, Christina (John) Arabadjis, Shannon Cole, Alison Morche, and MacKenzie Barlow; step-grand-sons, Michael (Cassie) Cole, Spenser Nowosielski and Connor Barlow, and several step-great-grandsons and great- granddaugh-ters.

It's pretty hard to improve on perfection, but next week, mem-bers of The Summer Fest Committee in Inkster will meet to try.

The event last weekend drew about 15,000 visitors, according to Inkster Mayor Pro Tem Patrick Wimberly and was a complete suc-cess. He said there were no police incidents and the family-friendly

event kept people out on Inkster Road until nearly 1 a.m. enjoying the goodwill and fellowship of neighbors.

Wimberly also serves as the treasurer for the Summer Fest Committee of about 10-15 members who meet and work all year to ensure the success of the event. Wimberly said, however, one of the contributing factors to the success

is the cadre of loyal volunteers. “We have about 70-80 volunteers who manned the welcome center, work in the children's zone, just do all kinds of tasks to make sure things run smoothly,” Wimberly said. “We couldn't do this without them.”

He said the sponsors of the event also deserved credit for help-ing fund the line-up of first class

music, entertainment and fire-works visitors enjoyed.

“During the fireworks Saturday, the Deon Vokes musicians just kept on playing right through the dis-play----it was like they were playing to the fireworks. People just loved it,”Wimberly said.

The 12-year-old event has grown froma small street fair, he said. “It has really taken on a life of its

own. The first year we might have had 3,000 people, and this year, we had 15,000,” he added.

Wimberly said the city budgets about $38,000 for the event, to pay for entertainment and services. This year he estimated that spon-sorships and vendor fees generated about $42,000, which will give the all-volunteer committee a head start for next year.

A budget that includes a deficit of nearly $500 per student was recently adopted by mem-bers of the Van Buren Public SchoolsBoard of Education. Last month, the board accept-ed the 2011-2012 budget which shoes a deficit of $2,725,266, or about $496 per student.

The state now requires the district to submit a planwithin 30 days to reduce the budget deficit. The Michigan Department of Education also requires the dis-

trict to submit a monthly moni-toring report of revenue and expenses. The reports must show progress toward deficit reduction and the deficit must be eliminat-ed within two years, as required by state law.

Failure to comply could result in the appointment of an emer-gency financial manager by the governor to ensure the financial stability of the schools.

Superintendent of Schools Thomas Riutta told the board

that the adopted budget is not final and that the district will continue to work toward elimi-nating the deficit throughout the fiscal year. Originally, officials predicted that the deficit could be asmore than $5million. The deficit was precipitated by a $2,580,000 cut in per pupil funding from the state, approved by the governor earlier this year. That loss accounts, officials said, for 95 percent of the deficit the district now faces.

Officials in the City of Romulus will host a grand re-opening of the Romulus PublicLibrary next week. The library, which had faced clo-sure due to budget cuts and the fail-ure of two millage requests, will be open to public on a part-time basis, said City Council President Leroy Burcroff.

“The service level is not what it was in years past, but they're hop-ing to get to that point,” said Burcroff. “It was a good effort all around.”

City officials had warned of the possible closure of the library as they educated residents about the need for a millage both last August and this May. Due to a combination of factors-but primarily because of decreasing property values and increasing costs-the city faced a severe budget shortfall that threat-ened many city services. The parks and recreation department was also closed, and many parks are open today only because they were adopted by volunteers or the Downtown Development Authority

(DDA).

Sylvia Makowski, president of the Friends of the Library organiza-tion, along with other volunteers put together a plan to wean the library from the Wayne County Library system, reducing the costs to run it while providing more local control over hiring decisions. The idea is to open it on a part-time basis and gradually increase the hours as more funding becomes available. Removing it from the Wayne County Library systemsaves about $60,000 annually.

“The millage rate has stayed the same,” saidBurcroff.

The Friends are hosting a grand re-opening celebration from 2-5 p.m. on July 18 during which they will be signing youngsters up for summer programs among other activities.

Burcroff said he was glad a solu-tion couldbe found.

“The library is a critical function in the community,” he said. “Nobody wanted to lose the library.”