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SSOCIATED
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EWSPAPERS OF
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ICHIGAN
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AGE
5
October 17, 2013
I
NKSTER
- N
ORTHVILLE
Northville Township Fire
Department members had almost
as much fun as did the several hun-
dred visitors to the annual open
house last Saturday.
The purpose of the event, part of
National Fire Prevention Week,
was fire safety education.
Firefighters, paramedics, training
coordinators, inspectors and EMS
personnel provided live demon-
strations for residents, visitors and
children, who seemed most inter-
ested in the fire truck tours, games
and entertainment.
The event included a display of
more than a dozen fire apparatus,
ambulances, equipment, tools and
Sparky the fire departmentmascot.
The event, publicized in the
area schools and community cen-
ters, was the work of the Northville
Township Fire Department
Prevention Division and part of a
three-tiered program made up of
training and emergency medical
co-coordinators along with
Township Fire Inspector Tom
Hughes, a 9-year veteran firefight-
er-paramedic.
"I couldn't be happier with the
weather and the turnout," said a
smilingHughes during the event.
Township Fire Department hosts open house
State Rep. David Knezek (D-
Dearborn Heights) formally
requested an opinion concerning
the legality of the recent dissolu-
tion of Inkster Public Schools from
AttorneyGeneral Bill Schuette last
week. The inquiry asks the attor-
ney general to weigh in on
whether the dissolution and the
statute that allowed such action to
take place violates the Michigan
Constitution or any otherMichigan
laws.
“It's unfortunate that we've got-
ten to this point,” Knezek said.
“There are school districts across
this state in danger of becoming
insolvent, and we need to know
now, before more districts are dis-
solved, whether or not this action
was legal. If not, we need to have
an immediate conversation as to
howwe can keep our district doors
open. Here at home, we need to
know if our students can once
again call Inkster Public Schools
their home.”
Public Acts 96 and 97 of 2013
were approved in the Michigan
House of Representatives earlier
this summer with little public
input. In less than two weeks, the
legislation went from introduction
to passage in the House. The
effects were immediately felt by
the Inkster andBuenaVista school
districts, both of which were dis-
solved under the procedures and
criteria laid out in the public act.
“I'm hoping this effort lends
some clarity to the situation, but
regardless of Attorney General
Schuette's official opinion, I still
feel that this dissolution failed to
take into account the needs of our
students and our community.”
Knezek pointed to the consoli-
dation of other school districts as a
framework forwhat couldwork.
“The consolidation of Ypsilanti
and Willow Run School Districts
took place over a period of two
years and included tremendous
amounts of public input. More so,
the process was aided in $6 mil-
lion dollars from the State of
Michigan,” Knezek said. “The
financial problems in districts like
Inkster andBuenaVista happened
over a period of many years, even
decades. We can't possibly hope to
solve those problems in a mean-
ingful way over a period of weeks.”
We can't possibly
hope to solve
those problems
in a meaningful way
over a period of weeks.
”
Legislator asks for legal opinion regarding district closure