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No. 42
NEWS YOU CAN USE, NEWS YOU CAN TRUST
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October 23 – 29, 2014
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
Judge
Richard
C.
Hammer of the 21st District
Court in Garden City dis-
missed five of six felony
charges against Christopher
Sanders during a prelimi-
nary hearingMonday.
See page 3.
Former Romulus Police
Chief Michael St. Andre was
sentenced last Friday to 5 to
20 years for his part in the
corruption investigation of
the department.
See page 2.
A 23-year-old Detroit man
has been charged in the stab-
bing of a 12-year-old
Plymouth Township boy in
the early hours of Friday, Oct.
17.
See page 5.
According to a spokesper-
son from Northville Civic
Concern, client numbers
have been steadily increas-
ing as donations are decreas-
ing and help is needed to fill
shelves.
See page 6.
Van Buren Township
Police are continuing to
investigate the disappear-
ance of a 15-year-old
Turiahna Lunday who ha
beenmissing sinceOct. 13.
See page 7.
Vol. 129, No. 42
Vol. 67, No. 42
Vol. 67, No. 42
Vol. 14, No. 42
Vol. 129, No. 42
Vol. 67, No. 42
Vol. 67, No. 42
For home delivery of The Eagle call 734-467-1900.
AWestland man has been
charged with the death of a
woman whose body was dis-
covered in a 55-gallon drum
bolted to a utility trailer in a
Plymouth storage facility.
See page 3.
The Canton Farmers
Market will return with a
pre-Thanksgiving Harvest
Market from 9 a.m. until 1
p.m. Sunday, Nov. 23 in and
around the historic Cady-
BoyerBarn.
See page 6
.
Vol. 14, No. 42
Middlebelt Baptist church
will mark the 57th anniver-
sary of the church with
revival services planned for
Oct. 26 through 28.
See page 3.
Former Romulus Mayor
Beverly McAnally died Oct. 15
after a long battlewith cancer.
Mrs. McAnally, 87, was born
in Kansas City, MS on Jan. 22,
1927, to Paul and Florence
Atchison.
After moving to Romulus in
the early 60s, she dedicated her
life to serving Romulus
Community Schools and resi-
dents of the City of Romulus.
She became a pivotal figure in
the city advocating for a better
tomorrow for citizens. Mrs.
McAnallywas a catalyst in bring-
ing many needed programs to
the children of Romulus, organ-
izing the first PTAs, developing
outreach programs for health
and dental care, creating a hot
lunchprogram, promoting quali-
ty education and child care.
Seeing the need to bring
awareness to the many social
issues and her passion for writ-
ing, she became a writer and a
reporter for The Detroit News
and The Romulus Roman news-
papers. That job sparked her
interest in politics which even-
tually led to her career in public
service.
In 1973, Mrs. McAnally was
voted the ‘Outstanding Woman
of the Year' by the Romulus
Jaycees in recognition of her
outstanding community service.
She was one of the first women
elected to serve on city council,
and served three consecutive
terms in that capacity. She also
served on the city Planning
Commission and the Romulus
Tax Increment Finance
Authority, where she served
until her death.
In 1979, Mrs. McAnally was
elected treasurer of the city of
Romulus and served in that
position for two terms. During
her tenure as treasurer, she was
instrumental inmodernizing the
functions of the finance depart-
ment and the treasurer's office.
She developed investment pro-
cedures which enabled the City
of Romulus to realize dramati-
cally increased investment rev-
enues.
In 1983, Mrs. McAnally was
elected the first woman mayor
in the history of the City of
Romulus. She continued in that
leadership position for 12 years
and during that time, oversaw
many projects, developments
and growth of the community.
One of her initiatives was the
creation of the “Mayor's Drug
TaskForce.
Throughout her career, Mrs.
McAnally was a tireless advo-
cate in the fight for increased
educational opportunities for
youth and the disadvantaged,
senior citizen housing, job train-
ing and child care. The policies
she implemented are often
The question of a three-com-
munity fire authority could cost
local officials some autonomy in
addition to the proposed dedi-
cated operating millage to oper-
ate fire protection and medical
emergency services.
A new Western Wayne Fire
Authority that would initially
include the cities of Wayne,
Westland and Inkster has been
under discussion by officials in
the communities. The Wayne
and Westland fire departments
were merged more than a year
ago in a cost-saving measure.
Recently, Westland council
members expressed their con-
cern regarding any future inter-
governmental agreement with
the financially strapped City of
Wayne or Inkster, which is under
a financial debt reduction con-
sent agreement with the State of
Michigan. That agreement was
made in a last-ditch effort by
Inkster officials to avoid the
appointment of an emergency
financialmanager by the state.
The proposed authority
board would have to place a
millage question on the ballot in
every community served by the
new entity. That millage, if
approved by a majority of voters
in the combined areas, would be
levied and used to finance oper-
ations of the intergovernmental
authority. The current proposal
indicates that a new millage of
6.24 or 4.65 mills might be
requested from voters in May
and the new authority begin to
operate in July, 2015. Retired
Westland Fire Chief Michael
Reddy, Jr., who now serves as
chief of the Wayne-Westland
Fire Department, would head
the new authority. Reddy also
served as interim fire chief in
Inkster before retired Westland
Assistant FireChief JohnAdams
was hired in that community.
Themillage question, and the
loss of individual municipal
autonomy, was discussed by
members of the Westland City
Council, along with the financial
condition of the other two pro-
posed members of the authority.
City attorney James Fausone
explained that voters in one sin-
gle community could not defeat
a millage proposal to fund the
authority, but rather, the
approval or defeat would be by a
majority of all the voters in all
the affected communities.
Each community would be
responsible for debt payments
on current buildings and equip-
ment, including vehicles. Wayne
is still making payments on two
fire trucks and the fire station.
Westland is currently building a
new fire station using Tax
Increment Financing funds.
Wayne officials expressed
some concern about the status of
their community in such a pro-
posed plan. The new authority
board would be formed based
on population and financial con-
tributions, and currently,
Westland would be the largest
member by both criteria.
Currently, Wayne has only 12
full-time firefighters while
Inkster has only nine full-time
firemen on staff. Each of those
communities would bring their
fire staff to 18 under the provi-
sions of the proposed authority.
Westland currently has 54 fire-
fighters which is the minimum
national standard based on the
size andpopulation of the city.
Wayne Mayor Al Haidous,
who will leave in January to
become the Wayne County
Commissioner from the 11th
District, said that he favors the
authority plan and feels it would
provide better, more compre-
hensive fire safety and medical
emergency service to the
involved communities at a cost
savings to the individual munici-
palities. He said that while
Wayne might have to pay for 18
firefighters, the community
would, in fact, be served by
The authority takes
the cost structure for
the fire department out of the budget.
”
See
Vote,
page 3
Proposed 3-city fire authority may go to voters
See
Mayor,
page 2
Doomsday drill
Wayne hospital prepares
for infectious disease control
Last Wednesday, an overseas traveler
who became ill on an inbound flight to
Detroit Metro Airport and 20 people who
may have had direct contact with him
were transported to the Wayne Oakwood
Hospital emergency department for isola-
tion, observation and treatment.
Fortunately, it was part of a system-
wide Ebola preparedness plan Oakwood
Healthcare has undertaken in the unlike-
ly event that a patient exposed to or show-
ing symptoms of the disease is transported
to one of its hospitals. As part of that plan,
Oakwood Hospital - Wayne conducted the
emergency preparedness drill Wednesday
designed to test the staff's ability to pre-
pare, educate and train for a potential
Ebola exposure.
“It's about continual training,” said
Martin Levesque, manager of infection
prevention for Oakwood Healthcare. “Our
longstanding partnership and relationship
with Detroit Metro airport means we
never knowwhen something will occur, so
we conduct these drills to better prepare
our staff to handle any kind of emer-
gency.”
Detroit Metro airport is one of 12 aerial
entry ways in to the United States from
overseas. As the clos-
est hospital to the
airport, Oakwood
Wayne must be pre-
pared to handle a
variety of potential
health issues in addi-
tion to traditional
trauma and emer-
gent cases. Oakwood
is working with the
Center for Disease
Control (CDC) to per-
City mourns death of former mayor
Beverly McAnally
The outside set-up of Oakwood Hospital-Wayne as they prepare to receive mock
patients from Detroit Metro Airport for the Ebola Preparedness Drill.
Mock patient John Brevoort, of Southgate, receives instructions
before entering the decontamination tent.
See
Drill,
page 4