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No. 48
NEWS YOU CAN USE, NEWS YOU CAN TRUST
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Nov. 29 - Dec. 5, 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
Wayne City Council mem-
bers approved a site plan for
the Ford Motor Michigan
Avenue Stamping Plant expan-
sion which will add 78,000
square feet to the facility.
See page 4.
A long-time tradition will
continue Friday, Dec. 7, when
Romulus residents come
together to light the official
Christmas tree and welcome
Santa to the city.
See page 2.
It may have been Black
Friday, but the Salvation Army
bell ringers were hoping that
shoppers only saw the red of
their kettles last week in
downtownPlymouth.
See page 5.
The Northville Art House
will get a new roof although
the board members did not
receive an official operating
agreement with the city.
See page 3.
Former Belleville Police
Chief Gene Taylor is fighting
his demotion to the rank of
corporal as recommended by
the city Civil Service
CommissionOct. 30.
See page 3.
Vol. 127, No. 48
Vol. 65, No. 48
Vol. 65, No. 48
Vol. 12, No. 48
Vol. 12, No. 48
Vol. 127, No. 48
Vol. 65, No. 48
Vol. 65, No. 48
Inkster officers spent more
than six hours attempting to
lure a barricaded gunman
from a home on the 4100 block
of Williams near Pine on
ThanksgivingDay.
See page 4.
For home delivery of The Eagle call 734-467-1900.
Members of the Westland
City Council have agreed to
establish a Commercial
Redevelopment District along
WayneRoad fromGlenwood to
CherryHill Road.
See page 4.
As rumor and conjecture con-
tinue to swirl about a plan to adopt
a Public Safety Officer (PSO) plan
in the City of Plymouth, Police
Chief Al Cox has doubts about the
veracity of those reports.
The plan, currently under con-
sideration in Plymouth Township,
requires police officers to be
trained as first-responder fire
fighters.
Cox, 43, is a veteran police offi-
cer who began his career in a
Plymouth police cruiser 14 years
ago after working in the federal
prison system.
Every two months, Cox sits
down and offers a report during a
meeting of members of the Fire
Advisory Board regarding perti-
nent issues involving a new joint
fire agreement between Plymouth
and theCity ofNorthville.
At the beginning of this year the
City of Plymouth entered into a
joint agreement with the City of
Northville volunteer-on-call fire
department and severed the long-
standing agreement with
Plymouth Township to share fire
protection services. Although the
Northville Fire Department has a
full-time fire chief, it is an on-call
department. The City of Plymouth
no longer has a full-time munici-
pal fire department and stations
are staffed only with Northville
on-call firefighters.
After the meeting this month,
Cox said of the PSO plan, “I can't
see it happening in the foresee-
able future,” referring to the city,
adding “I don't know about the
township.”
Plymouth Township Supervisor
Richard Reaume recently stated
that the township administration
is considering a PSO plan for their
police and fire departments. The
PSO plan is a model that has
proven a failure in many commu-
nities, according to fire depart-
ment officials and firefighters.
During the past months, the
townshiphas laid off all but 13 full-
time firefighters, more than half
the department. The township
also closed one of the three fire
stations that served 28,000 resi-
Students at Canton Charter
Academy raised $500 to make
hand-tied blankets for patients
at TheUniversity of Michigan's
C.S. Mott Children'sHospital.
See page 2.
Operation Ameliorate, an ongo-
ing fundraiser to help the family of
Amelie Strzalkowski, will be joining
forces with the Belleville Winterfest
on Saturday, Dec. 1. Strzalkowski is
the 2-year-old daughter of Jason (Mr.
S) Strzalkowski, a Van Buren Public
Schools social studies teacher at
McBride Middle School and his
wife, Shelley. The couple also has a
5-year-olddaughter, Anya.
Amelie was diagnosed in
September with Medulloblastoma,
an aggressively malignant brain
cancer. She has since undergone
brain surgery, and is in her third
round of chemotherapy at Mott
Children'sHospital inAnnArbor.
Currently in his 9th year teach-
ing in Van Buren Public Schools,
Strzalkowski (or Mr. S. as he's fondly
known by his students) has touched
the lives of thousands of students
through his work as a social studies
teacher, student council advisor and
rolemodel. Operation Ameliorate is
part of an ongoing attempt by stu-
dents and parents to help in this dif-
ficult time, an organizer said.
Early on inAmelie's struggle, Mr.
S. decided that her battle needed a
code name. After a student's sugges-
tion, Amelie's battle was christened
“Operation Ameliorate” (meaning
to change or make better) and the
battle now stretches to nearly every
state in the U.S., Washington D.C.,
and has support on at least three
continents. With friends and sup-
porters all over the world,
“Operation Ameliorate” is a small
way that we can all try to help wage
thiswar, she added.
During the Winterfest in down-
Everyone who knew Geneva
Guenther remembers her as a
kind, bright and gentle soul. Not
many realize that about 10 years
ago, she killed off a local
Plymouth resident. She wasn't
the only one, either, who added to
the trail of corpses in Murder At
The Penniman Deli, a recently
published novel by W. Edward
Wendover.
Wendover, the former publish-
er and owner of The Community
Crier newspaper which served
Canton and Plymouth, said the
book started more than a decade
ago when several local residents,
members of the Plymouth Video
Club, wrote “chapters” in which
they usually offed someone in a
creative manner. The beginning
chapters languished in a box as
Wendover moved from Plymouth
and was occupied with his politi-
cal andmedia consultingwork..
Finally, Wendover said, he
found time about two years ago to
devote his talent to finishing the
project.
“I worked on it in fits and
starts as time allowed,” he said,
“and eventually finished it. Then
I had to find a publisher I could
workwith.”
He chose Blink Twice in
Livonia and the book is now
ready for sale. Wendover will
make what he refers to as “one of
his rare public appearances” and
sign copies from 5-7 p.m. Dec. 12
at E.G. Nick's restaurant in
Plymouth. He expects there will
be a large number of Canton,
Northville and Plymouth resi-
dents onhand to see exactlywhat
he said about them in the “his-
torical fiction murder mys-
tery.”
“There are 500 local people
named. I know Carl Berry is
worried,” Wendover said, “as
he was the chief of police at
the time of these fictional
murders. I think he really wants
to seehowhe is portrayed.
“Carl first arrested me back in
1965, that's how far back we go,”
he said.
Many other local names will
be recognized, too, Wendover
said, like the Pughs, the Mundts,
the Torpes, Joann Osmer, Bruce
Mirto andEllenOdell.
“The Rotary and Kiwanis
clubs will get a good laugh out of
the book,” Wendover said, “Greg
Ash in particular as he is captain
of the troublemakers' table.”
Wendover said that the book
bends several historical events
and incidents people will recog-
nize in away to fit the plot.
The first murder (thank you,
Geneva) takes place at the
Penniman Deli. Since the chap-
ters were initially begun bymem-
bers of the video club which
rotated members' homes for
movies and refreshments, food
also plays an important part in
the book. So important, that
Wendover has included 35
“killer” recipes, some from the
Chef's Club that still meets in
Plymouth.
After the book signing, the
novel will be available exclusive-
ly at Sideways on Forest Avenue
inPlymouth.
Wendover now lives in
Cadillac with his wife, Sally
Repeck. He has two granddaugh-
ters, C.J. and M.L., the offspring
of his daughter and son-in-law,
‘Operation Ameliorate’ at Winterfest will aid Belleville family
Police Chief Al Cox
See
Book,
page 5
See
Benefit,
page 3
See
Plan,
page 5
Murder, he wrote
Local residents will find themselves
on pages of former publisher’s book
If it was to happen,
and I can't
see it happening,
there would
have to be
established duties.
”
Public safety officer plan is ‘doubtful’
Amelie Strzalkowski, 2.
Jason, Shelley, Anya and Amelie Strzalkowski