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No. 35
NEWS YOU CAN USE, NEWS YOU CAN TRUST
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August 29 – September 4, 2013
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
More than 2000 people
attended the Annual Wayne
County Health and Safety Fun
Fest last Thursday on the facil-
ity grounds on Van Born at
VenoyRoad inWayne.
See page 4
.
The owner of Jake's Auto
and TruckRepair purchased a
new refrigerator and freezer
for the Romulus Helping
Hands and received thanks
fromthe city council recently.
See page 2.
Prompted by a letter writ-
ten by a neighbor, one
Plymouth Township resident
questioned the board of
trustees' fiscal responsibility
with the $1.9 planned bond
sale.
See page 3.
A Northville photographer
has put the beauty of Michigan
on display at the prestigious
ArtPrize 2013 competition in
GrandRapids.
See page 5.
The City Wide Garage Sale
in Belleville will take place
Sept. 5-8 and John Juriga is
accepting donations of goods
to aid the Belleville Area
Museum.
See page 2.
Vol. 128, No. 35
Vol. 66, No. 35
Vol. 66, No. 35
Vol. 13, No. 35
Vol. 128, No. 35
Vol. 66, No. 35
Vol. 66, No. 35
Janie Grosse celebrated her
100th birthday this week with
a family reception at the
Inkster Recreational Complex.
Grosse only recently moved
fromher home in Inkster.
See page 3.
For home delivery of The Eagle call 734-467-1900.
Westland City Council
members voted to pledge the
full faith and credit of the city
to insure the sale of $16.5 mil-
lion in bonds for new munici-
pal constructionprojects.
See page 4.
The Canton Farmers
Market now doubles the value
of Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program benefits,
known as SNAP or food
stamps.
See page 5.
Vol. 13, No. 35
The Plymouth Township Board of Trustees'
vote last week to sell bonds to fund $1.9 million
in recreation projects came with a few surpris-
es for some township officials.
The Michigan Planning Enabling Act MCL
125.3861 of 2008 requires that any such
improvement project be approved by the town-
ship planning commission before any construc-
tion can begin. The project had not yet been
presented to the Plymouth Township Planning
Commission at the time of the vote on Aug. 20,
according to official minutes of the planning
body.
During discussion of the bond issue Tuesday,
Trustee Chuck Curmi questioned the legality of
moving forward with the vote without prior
approval from the planning commission. He
pointed out to Supervisor RichardReaume and
Treasurer Ron Edwards that such an approval
prior to any construction was required by state
law.
Edwards said he was not aware of any such
requirement and Reaume then called for the
vote on the sale of the bonds.
The bond sale was approved by a 4-3 vote of
the board members. Curmi, Trustees Bob
Doroshewitz and Mike Kelly voted no on the
question. There was nomotionmade to present
the plan to the planning commission.
Curmi had previously vocalized his opposi-
tion to the borrowing of funds for the project to
the boardmembers.
“Just because interest rates are cheap does-
n't mean you have to borrow money,” he said at
themeeting.
The planning commissionwas not scheduled
to meet again until the day after the board of
trustees approved the sale of the bonds on
Tuesday.
While the planwas not on the posted agenda
for that Wednesday, Aug. 21 meeting, it was
added at the beginning of the meeting and
See
Wayne,
page 3
Wayne City Council members
will search for a new citymanager
using a committee.
Mayor Al Haidous had suggest-
ed using the Michigan Municipal
League to find a replacement for
City Manager Robert English who
announced his resignation earlier
this month. English said he will
stay on the jobuntil Dec. 27.
Haidous' suggestion was over-
ruled when council President Pro
TemPamela Dobrowolski suggest-
ed creating a council committee to
place the advertising and search
for viable candidates for the job.
She suggested using the
International
City/County
Management Association to
advertise the position. She said
that an ad with the association
cost $400 to $600 and will remain
active for 60 days. She said the ad
can also be renewed at no cost.
English said the fee to use the
resources of the Michigan
Municipal League for a national
search would be based on 10 per-
cent of the annual salary of the
employee being recruited.
English estimated that cost at
$12,750, based on an annual salary
of $95,000.
That fee would include adver-
tising nationally for the position,
background investigations and the
cost of travel and related expens-
es for the search facilitator from
Michigan Municipal League. The
service usually provides a mini-
mum of five candidates for the
councilmembers to interview.
English told the council mem-
bers that the $95,000 salary num-
ber was based on a Conference of
Western Wayne salary survey
which reported the average salary
for a city manager at $108,130. He
said that offering a salary range of
$90-$100,000 would attract good
candidates for his job.
He added that his department
budget would need to be amend-
ed to include an additional
$135,682, the difference between
the current $78,000 salary he is
paid and projected costs, includ-
ing health care, retirement contri-
butions and Social Security
deductions.
Three candidates have filed
petitions to appear on the Nov. 5
ballot for three positions in
Northville.
Incumbent Mayor Chris Johnson
will apparently run unopposed for
re-election to a 2-year term. Two
expiring 4-year seats on the city
council will apparently be filled by
incumbent Mayor Pro Tem Jim
Allen and candidateSamEkong.
Johnson has served as mayor of
the city since 1987 and served on
the Northville Board of Education
from1976 through 1987.
Allen has served on the city
council since 2005 after serving on
the planning commission for the
city for 13 years.
Ekong has not served previously
and is expected to fill the seat of
Council woman Michele Fecht who
optednot to seek re-election. Ekong
is a member of the Northville
Democratic Club and is a member-
at-large of the 11th District of the
MichiganDemocraticParty.
Absentee ballots for the election
will be available by Sept. 22, The
last day to vote by absentee ballot
by mail is Nov. 2 or at city hall Nov.
4.
Applications for absentee bal-
lots for the Nov. 5 General Election
are now available on the city web-
site.
The bond sale was
approved by a 4-3 vote
of the board members.
”
”
The 58th Annual Plymouth
Fall Festival will mix the tradi-
tional and popular attractions
with a few improvements this
year.
The festival, which begins the
weekend after Labor Day every
year, will continue many of the
favorite attractions that thou-
sands of visitors have come to
anticipate, along with some
changes and additions, all under
the watchful eye of new Fall
Festival President Eric Joy.
Joy isn't new to the three-day
event which will run Sept. 6,7 and
8, as he has been involved on the
Fall Festival Board of Directors
for several years, serving and
vice-president until taking on the
presidency this year. He's been
working at the festival in some
capacity, however, for about two
decades.
"One of my goals for the event
is to have more community
involvement," Joy said, "and to do
that, we have to make it more
financially stable."
He said he hasn't made many
changes this year but has some
plans that will see more groups
able to afford to participate more
in the event.
One of the changes this year is
the Car Show downtown where
the Vietnam Veterans of America
grouphas taken on the display.
According to member John
Fleming, the veterans group has
been an active participant at the
festival for about 25 years. They
have members from throughout
the area including Flat Rock,
Dearborn, Garden City, Lincoln
Park, Canton Township and of
course, Plymouth, where the
group meets the second Monday
of the month at the VFW Hall on
Mill Street.
"This is the first year for the car
show for us," Fleming said. "We
will still also have our booth
where we sell corn on the cob," he
added. The car show will fill one
end of town on Saturday and
Sunday when owners spend $10
for one day or $15 for two-day
passes to showoff their vehicles.
Another change this year is the
move of the A.M. Rotary Club
Spaghetti Dinner from the corner
of Kellogg Park to the Party Tent
behind E.G. Nick's restaurant on
Forest Street. The tent drive
through set up for the dinners can
be accessed offHarvey Street.
Organizer Kate Rosevear said
this changewill allow the group to
cut waiting time for dinners down
as the groupwill be using the E.G.
Nick's kitchen and have all the
supplies and food right on hand
rather than blocks away. She
hopes folks will come and stay for
the Michigan Notre Dame foot-
ball game which will be shown on
a 12-foot screen outside the party
He said that offering a salary range of $90-$100,000
would attract good candidates for his job.
Refining tradition
New president makes some
changes to Fall Festival
The traditional Rotary Chicken Barbeque will take place Sunday,
Sept.8. Tickets are now available from Rotary Club members.
The Civitans Taste Fest is set for 6-8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 6 at Station
885 in Old Town Plymouth. This year, more than 20 restaurants will
serve samples of their best dishes for a $15 donation to the Civitans.
Planning commission OK’s $1.9 million project
New Wayne city manager to be selected by committee
3 candidates file for 3 terms in Northville
See
Festival,
page 3