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No. 33
NEWS YOU CAN USE, NEWS YOU CAN TRUST
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August 16 - 22, 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
Olympic athletes from
throughout the area will gath-
er tomorrow for a special
awards ceremony at the
Wayne Community Center
closing the Wayne County
SeniorOlympics.
See page 3.
Voters in the Romulus
Community School District
approved the continuation of
an operating schoolmillage for
five years by nearly a two-to-
onemargin last Tuesday.
See page 4.
The annual Taste Fest, one
of the favorite attractions of
the Plymouth Fall Festival will
return to Station 885 from 6-8
Sept. 7. Free shuttles will be
available fromdowntown.
See page 8.
The primary election last
Tuesday in Northville elimi-
nated two candidates from the
race for supervisor leaving
Robert R. Nix as the candi-
date.
See page 5.
A Spaghetti Dinner
fundraiser has been planned
on Aug. 25 to aid the Willick
family who lost all their pos-
sessions in a fire at the David
c. Brown Funeral home last
week.
See page 4.
Vol. 127, No. 33
Vol. 65, No. 33
Vol. 65, No. 33
Vol. 12, No. 33
Vol. 12, No. 33
Vol. 127, No. 33
Vol. 65, No. 33
Vol. 65, No. 33
Incumbent Chief Judge
Sylvia James will face chal-
lenger Sabrina Johnson for a
six-year term at the 22nd
District Court in Inkster. James
was the top vote getter with
814 votes.
See page 3.
For home delivery of The Eagle call 734-467-1900.
Westland voters approved a
new millage to support the
William P. Faust Public
Library by 71.36 percent of the
votes cast, or a total of 6,885
votes at the election last
Tuesday.
See page 3.
Results of the Plymouth Township primary
election last week are being challenged by
incumbent clerk Joe Bridgman, who apparent-
ly lost his seat to first-time challenger Nancy
Conzelmanby only eight votes.
A petition seeking a recount of the election
results was served last Friday on Conzelman
and the board of canvassers who will now be
responsible for counting the ballots by hand.
The basis for the recount cited by Bridgman
was "fraud ormistake."
Bridgman garnered 2,238 votes while
Conzelman received 2,246. If the results are
unchanged by recount totals, Conzelman will
be unopposed on theNovember ballot as there
is noDemocratic challenger for the seat.
Conzelman was strongly supported by
Supervisor Richard Reaume who was unchal-
lenged in the primary race. Reaume was
responsible for literature mailed to voters crit-
ical of Bridgman, some containing statements
later proven incorrect.
Conzelman's husband, Steve O'Connor is a
member of the township compensation board
which recently approved raises for the admin-
istration, including Reaume, and the members
of the township board of trustees. Records
indicate that Reaume donated financially to
Conzelman's campaign.
The results announced last week indicated
that Reaume will be challenged by write-in
candidate Richard Sharland in the Nov. 6 gen-
eral election. Sharland, also a Republican, has
Canton Township voters did
just as expected last Tuesday
and returned three incum-
bents and a former township
supervisor to the trustees' bal-
lot inNovember.
See page 5.
See
Recount,
page 5
Members of the U.S. Olympic
Tae Kwan Do Team were among
the hundreds of friends and mar-
tial arts students across the coun-
try mourning the death of fellow
champion and master instructor
EricWayneRose.
Mr. Rose, 27, drowned Aug. 4 in
Belleville Lakewhen he apparent-
ly attempted to save a young
woman from the undertow. A
member of the group of friends at
the lake with Mr. Rose told police
that the group separated and
became disoriented as they
attempted to walk back to the
beach at Van Buren Park from a
sandbar inBellevilleLake.
Rescue divers from Van Buren
Township and Wayne County
recovered Mr. Rose's body in 8
feet of water about 850 feet from
the beach. The body of the young
woman he was attempting to help,
HeatherNicoleHill, was retrieved
from the water about 30 feet from
where he was found. Another
friend called 911 when he realized
the pair was lost in the water and
hewas unable to find themor help
themashore in the dark.
Mr. Rose, a fifth-degree black
belt, was well known throughout
the community as a master
instructor at Kick's Tae Kwan Do
Studio in Wayne, which is owned
by his family.
“Hewas just awonderful young
man,” his mother, Christine Rose
said. “We are getting messages
Former U.S. Congressman
Thaddeus McCotter has refused
comment regarding the criminal
charges of election fraud filed
against four of his staffmembers.
Following a 10-week investiga-
tion, Michigan State Attorney
General Bill Schuette announced
felony and misdemeanor charges
last week against the four who
worked in McCotter's Livonia
office.
According to the state investiga-
tor's report, the four prepared
false nominating petitions which
were submitted to the Secretary of
State's office on May 15. McCotter
needed to submit a minimum of
1,000 valid signatures on a petition
supporting his candidacy. Of the
136 petitions filed, containing
more than 1,800 signatures, only
It was 25 years ago today that
one of the worst air disasters in
the United States occurred over
Metro Airport in Romulus and
the mystery surrounding Flight
255 remains as compelling today
as it was a quarter of a century
ago.
After being in the air for only
14 seconds, the Northwest
Airlines Flight was unable to
gain altitude and struck a build-
ing, flipped upside down and
then crashed to the ground,
killing 148 passengers and six
crewmembers. The only survivor
was a 4-year-old girl, Cecilia
Cichan, discovered still strapped
in her airplane seat among the
smoldering wreckage by a rookie
firefighter fromRomulus.
That firefighter, John Thiede,
is still with the Romulus depart-
ment and is one of the people
Plymouth resident Don Howard
and Westland author Del Reddy
interviewed for a book about the
miracles, horror and mystery of
that August night. Reddy, an
experienced author who has
already co-written two books,
and Howard, a retired GM
employee, also interviewed for-
mer Wayne County Medical
Examiner Werner Spitz, whose
life was forever changed by
Flight 255. Howard has also done
hundreds of hours of meticulous
research on the event and all the
factors surrounding the crash.
“I can't even talk about that
night, even now, 25 years later,
without becoming emotional,”
Howard said. In 1987, Howard
was working at General Motors
as were many of the passengers
onFlight 255, something that has-
n't beenwell publicized.
“We (GM) had two proving
grounds, one in Milford and one
in Mesa, Arizona and the engi-
neers would fly back and forth
from Detroit to Phoenix to
inspect and test vehicles,”
Howard said. “When I realized
how many people I knew on that
plane, I still get pretty emotion-
al,” he said.
Their book, tentatively titled
“Only 14 Seconds” has hit some
snags along the way, but Reddy
said that he and Howard hope to
resurrect the project because of
the tremendous amount of
human interest in the accident.
“There were so many factors,
so many details. Things you just
did not expect,” he said. Howard
is also determined to finish the
work and find a publisher.
“I'll tell you, after the inter-
view with Werner Spitz, a man
who has seen everything, to see
how moved and how shaken he
was by this, it is a story that needs
to be told,”Howard said.
“We've discovered that family
members, friends, firefighters,
rescue workers, police officers
and even morticians still carry
the emotional scars of the event,
grieve and relive their experi-
ences of that night,” Howard
said.
They interviewed Thiede who
was only 20 years old the night of
Aug. 16, 1987. He had always
wanted to be a firefighter, he told
Howard and Reddy, and was
working as a volunteer on-call for
Bridgman garnered 2,238
votes while Conzelman
received 2,246.
”
Hundreds mourn death of Eric Rose
4 on congressman’s staff facing fraud charges
Miracle and mystery
Flight 255 crash is topic
of local authors’ research
See
Flight,
page 7
See
Death,
page 3
See
Charges,
page 2
Recount requested in Plymouth election
Eric Wayne Rose
Cecilia Cichan 25 years ago.
Romulus Firefighter John Thiede, left, meets with authors Don Howard
and Del Reddy.