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No. 47
NEWS YOU CAN USE, NEWS YOU CAN TRUST
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November 26 – December 3, 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
The 39th Annual Holiday
Parade sponsored by the in
Wayne Rotary Club will take
place at 6 p.m. Dec. 5
throughout the downtown
area.
See page 5
.
Romulus has been recog-
nized for its work to foster
entrepreneurial growth and
economic development in
the annual eCities study.
See page 3.
There will be no ethics
investigation of Township
Trustee Bob Doroshewitz,
who is currently facing the
threat of a recall petition
filed by Supervisor Richard
Reaume.
See page 4
.
Northville is the 15th best
suburb inAmerican inwhich
to live according to Business
Insider which evaluated 300
suburbs across the county.
See page 2.
An early morning fire at
the Van Buren Public
Schools bus yard in
Belleville last Thursday
remains under investigation
and an accounting of the
financial loss is still under
way due to the severity of the
damage, according to district
officials.
See page 3.
Vol. 129, No. 47
Vol. 67, No. 47
Vol. 67, No. 47
Vol. 14, No. 47
Vol. 129, No. 47
Vol. 67, No. 47
Vol. 67, No. 47
For home delivery of The Eagle call 734-467-1900.
In an effort to keep dol-
lars in the local economy,
Mayor Bill Wild will give gift
cards to winning residents at
local
businesses
in
Westland's Shop and Dine
District.
See page 5.
Nicholas
Gregory
Schumann, 24, of Canton
Township, will spend 2-10
years in prison for stabbing a
police officer during a
domestic dispute.
See page 2.
Vol. 14, No. 47
The Leanna Hicks Inkster
Public library has planned
several indoor events and
activities for children and
teens as the cold rolls in.
See page 3.
A ruling by Wayne Country
Circuit Court Chief Judge
Robert J. Colombo, Jr. last
Friday has cleared the way for
residents to proceed with a
recall campaign to remove four
Plymouth Township officials
fromoffice.
In a 10-minute hearing,
Colombo tossed out the appeals
of three of the four-targeted
board members, Treasurer Ron
Edwards,
Clerk
Nancy
Conzelman and Trustee Kay
Arnold. Township Supervisor
Richard Reaume conceded the
language on the petitions
against himwas clear and opted
not to appeal the Oct. 6 decision
of the Wayne County Elections
Commission. In dismissing the
three appeals, Colombo said
there was no reason to pursue
further action and validated the
recall petitions. The targeted
officials were represented by
Miller Canfield, law firm often
retained by the township for
official businessmatters.
The three targeted township
official, alleged in their court
motion filed against Wayne
County that the petitions submit-
ted to county elections commis-
sion were flawed as they failed
to list political party affiliation
and did not comply with the
respective law.
Wayne County Assistant
Corporate Counsel Janet
Anderson Davis asked the court
for a summary disposition stat-
ing the appellants exceeded the
statute of limitations for an
allowable appeal, 10 days, and
the secretary of state prescribes
the forms to be used to conduct
elections. The secretary of state
serves as the chief elections offi-
cial for Michigan. The appeal
for the three was filed one day
late through their attorneys.
AndersonDavis argued to the
court in her brief that recall
petitions must be “in a formpre-
scribed by the secretary of
state,” saying, “Neither the
County Clerk nor the Election
Commission has the authority to
include (appellants) political
party affiliation on the recall
petition form…”
“The filings are not timely
and the clerk has no subject
matter jurisdiction, and all
claims are dismissed.” Colombo
said.
Attorney
Christopher
Trebicock appeared on behalf
the
township
officials.
Conzelman appeared near the
end of the hearing and left
immediately.
The activist group now has 60
days in which to collect the sig-
natures of 4,000 registered town-
ship voters before a scheduled
May election canproceed.
Members of the Northville
Public Schools Board of
Education were evenly divided
on a request bymembers of the
Woodside Village subdivision
to join their school district.
Both the Wayne County
Regional Educational Service
Agency (RESA) and the
Plymouth Canton Community
Schools Board of Education
denied the request of residents
of the subdivision to leave the
Plymouth-Canton district for
Northville.
Northville school board
members voted 3-3 on the ques-
tion last week, allowing the res-
idents the opportunity to now
appeal the decision to the state
school board.
The request came from the
115-home neighborhood locat-
ed on the west side of Haggerty
Road, north of Five Mile Road
in Northville Township. The
Northville Public Schools
boundary is on the southeast
corner of the neighborhood
and is adjacent to the atten-
dance areas for Winchester
Elementary School, MeadsMill
Middle School and Northville
High School, although students
living in the subdivision attend
PlymouthCanton schools.
Only RESA, which denied
the request last Wednesday
morning, has the authority to
grant the school border change.
The two local districts involved
are considered informational
and have no authority to make
the actual change fromone dis-
trict to another.
Acting School Board
President Ken Roth, Secretary
Cyndy Jankowski and Trustee
Ann Kalass voted to oppose the
transfer into the Northville dis-
trict while acting Vice
President Scott Craig,
Treasurer Matt Wilk and
Trustee Adam Phelps support-
ed the move. Board President
Jim Mazurek was not at the
meeting but expressed his
opposition to the transfer in a
statement read to the board by
Roth.
Northville school adminis-
trators did not support the
transfer of students into the
district, either.
In a statement from school
administrators presented to
the board of education mem-
bers prior to the vote they said,
“Given the elementary capaci-
ty considerations across the
district, the messaging to the
Northville community of the
boundary adjustment, the
opportunity for greater control
of available space that could be
exercised through limited
Schools of Choice if necessary,
as well as the potential impact
on future property transfer
requests and neighboring
school districts, it is
Administration's recommenda-
tions that it is not in the best
interests of Northville Public
Schools to act in support of the
PropertyTransfer request.”
Northville
currently
receives a per-pupil allotment
of about $8,100 fromthe state.
Wayne
RESA
Superintendent Chris Wigent
said the denial was “based on
the legal factors that we were
required to consider, as well as
the results of the Plymouth
Canton Board of Education's
position of unanimously not
supporting the request and the
Northville Board of Education
not taking a formal position on
the request.”
A spokesman for the resi-
dents making the request said
the group will appeal the deci-
sion to the Michigan State
Superintendent of Schools
within the 10-day window
allowedby law.
Members of the Plymouth
Township
Planning
Commission last week unani-
mously approved a plan for an
18,000 square-footmosque.
The approval of the plan
came as hundreds of support-
ers, many of them Muslims,
along with supporters from
other religious groups crowd-
ed Plymouth Township Hall
for the required land use hear-
ing on the project. The Rayyan
Center mosque is planned for
12 acres of vacant land south of
Five Mile Road and east of
Pilot Drive. The property is
currently zoned for industrial
use, requiring a special land
use permit from the township
for the construction of any
building outside that designat-
eduse.
“Look around the room,
what you see are your neigh-
bors, doctors, lawyers, my kid's
basketball coach,” said one
man at the meeting. “The
Muslim community is here
already and that's a good
thing.”
Another resident who said
he lives in the area told the
commissioners, “Traffic on
FiveMile, when you try to turn
left right now, is horrendous
and it's not going to get any bet-
ter after this.”
Public comment lasted 90
minutes before the official vote
of the commissioners.
Plymouth Township ordi-
nances and building regula-
tions require approval of the
planning commission special
landuse for the construction of
the proposedmosque.
“Once we have the center, I
think you'll see that we have
thriving community that can
contribute to the area,” said a
Muslimwoman at themeeting.
Yellow pages.com lists 29
Detroit area mosques, the
nearest inCantonTownship.
The developers must now
submit a site plan which will
ultimately go before the
Plymouth Township Board of
Trustees for consideration.
Proposed state legislation to
put an end to speculative invest-
ments in a controversial haz-
ardous waste injection well
facility in Romulus is now being
considered in the state senate
Senate Bill 1105, sponsored
by Senator Hoon-Yung Hopgood
(D-Taylor), introduced the legis-
lation in response to the grave
environmental and health risks
associated with injecting haz-
ardous waste underground,
according to a prepared state-
ment. The Romulus facility has
been at the center of a failed
investment scheme involving
the Detroit Police and Fire
Retirement System.
“Misguided investments in
this dangerous project have
jeopardized the financial stabili-
ty of many local workers and
retirees, and that's simply
shameful,” Hopgood said. “We
must take action to prevent this
type of harm from occurring in
the future, and I ampleased that
my colleagues in the Senate took
a step in that direction today by
supporting this important piece
of legislation.”
The Romulus facility, previ-
ously owned by Environmental
Disposal Systems (EDS), began
injecting hazardous waste into
See
Well,
page 3
”
Only RESA, which denied the request
last Wednesday morning,
has the authority to grant the school border change.
”
We must take action to prevent
this type of harm from
occurring in the future...
Waste well investors could be limited by law
Board denies school boundary change
Land use permit OK’d for new mosque
Don Howard
Staff Writer
Appeals dismissed, 6 of 7 to face recall