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No. 49
NEWS YOU CAN USE, NEWS YOU CAN TRUST
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December 12 – 18, 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
Wayne Westland Fire Chief
Michael Reddy will add the
administrative duties at the
Inkster Fire Department to his
schedule for the next few
months.
See page 2.
City officials and members
of the community were all on
hand to celebrate the official
grand opening of the newTaco
Bell next to Romulus High
School last week.
See page 3.
The next distribution of
emergency food by Plymouth
Community United Way is
scheduled for Dec. 19 for
Plymouth and Northville resi-
dents.
See page 4.
Ebenezer, a play by
Michigan playwright Joseph
Zettelmaier, comes to Tipping
Point just in time for the holi-
day season.
See page 5.
Members of the Belleville
CityCouncil attended a special
study session this week to dis-
cuss a request from Fire Chief
Brian Loranger to increase
training pay for firefighters.
See page 3.
Vol. 128, No. 49
Vol. 66, No. 49
Vol. 66, No. 49
Vol. 13, No. 49
Vol. 128, No. 49
Vol. 66, No. 49
Vol. 66, No. 49
Project Warm, a coat drive
organized by the Michigan
Metro Chapter of the Top
Ladies of Distinction, Inc. is
collecting new and gently used
clean coats and jackets.
See page 2
.
For home delivery of The Eagle call 734-467-1900.
Westland Mayor Bill Wild,
UAW Vice President Jimmy
Settles and Councilman Bill
Johnson handed out more
than 200 Thanksgiving turkeys
lastmonth.
See page 2.
The
Canton
Police
Department is looking for
businesses or organizations
interested in hosting a session
of its new Coffee with a Cop
program.
See page 5.
Vol. 13, No. 49
The recount of the votes in the
Nov. 5 Romulus City Council elec-
tionhas not changed the outcome.
Wayne County election officials
finished the recount of all the
votes from every precinct last
week and found that there were
some minor changes to some
totals, but that therewere no irreg-
ularities or errors in the election
process.
Aclose vote and concerns about
the process spurred defeated city
council candidate Virginia
Williams to seek the recount.
Williams received two more
votes than originally counted, for a
total of 1,738, which put her in
eighth place among city council
finishers. Sylvia Makowski
received three more votes than
first reports, for a total of 1,751,
defeatingWilliams by 13 votes.
“A lot of my supporters urged
me to do this,” said Williams.
“Sometimes, you just have to fol-
low through and make sure every-
thing is on theup andup.”
Romulus Clerk Ellen Craig
Bragg said the recount took place
a week ago over the course of
Monday and Tuesday. Results
from all city precincts were tabu-
lated Monday, while the absentee
ballots were recounted Tuesday.
Representatives from the Wayne
County Board of Canvassers recer-
tified the results late Tuesday
afternoon.
“It's part of the process and we
are cooperating fully,” saidBragg.
“This was the first recount I
have experienced in 11 elections,”
she said. “We've worked very hard
to make sure we are in compli-
ance with all the rules. The
recount showed that everything is
andwas in order.”
The top seven finishers earned
places on the city council with
John Barden, who earned the
most votes overall with 2,367,
becoming the new council presi-
dent. Former council president
LeroyBurcroff was electedmayor.
Williams said lingering con-
cerns with corruption in the city
also helped her decide to seek the
recount.
“People are losing their faith in
democracy-not just here in
Romulus, but everywhere,” she
said. “You have to make sure you
see things through.”
Craig-Bragg said it was those
allegations of fraud that troubled
her.
“I was confident in my election
workers,” she said. “Everything,
every precinct was recountable.
Our poll books and seals
matched,” she said.
“It was a close election and I
understand the desire to make
sure. Election lawprovides for this
and I don't have a problem with
that,” she said.
“We cooperated completely and
answered all questions. The coun-
ty found no evidence of any errors
or wrongdoing. Everything was in
order,” she said.
“We allowed the process to pro-
ceed as it should.”
The recent death of a City of
Plymouth resident may have been
impacted by a radio problem
which delayed the 911 response
time formore than 25minutes.
According to 911 recordings,
the victim's husband called for
help at 1:37 a.m. telling the dis-
patcher that he was unable to
wake his wife, who was breathing
but unresponsive. The dispatch
operator, based in Plymouth
Township, transferred the call to
the Huron Valley Ambulance
(HVA) call center in Ypsilanti
where the frantic husband repeat-
ed the details of the emergency sit-
uation. The local dispatcher
logged in the priority-one call and
sent an electronic emergency tone
to summon the 55 City of
Northville paid on-call firefight-
ers. He also used a radio to broad-
cast to Station 2 monitors to
respond. The City of Northville
Fire Department was notified as
that department provides emer-
gency response in the City of
Plymouth since the services of the
two communities were merged
last January.
The two Northville on-call fire-
fighters manning the downtown
Plymouth station should have
responded to the emergency tone
with the city-owned ambulance
from the garage at Main and
Church streets to the home of the
caller, a distance of about a half
mile.
First to arrive on the scene,
however, were two City of
Plymouth police cruisers and the
responding officers immediately
began CPR in an attempt to save
the woman, apparently in serious
cardiac distress. The Huron
Valley Ambulance rig arrived with
two paramedics at 1:43 a.m., six
minutes after the initial 911 call,
and those responders began to
administer aid to the woman. The
tapes reveal that it became imme-
diately obvious that necessary and
recommended medical proce-
dures required more help to han-
dle equipment, perform tasks, con-
tinue the intubation and begin an
intravenous line to provide need-
ed medication to the 60-year-old
woman.
After 18 minutes with only two
paramedics and two police offi-
See
Death,
page 4
We've worked very hard
to make sure we are
in compliance with all the rules.
”
We weren't notified.
When they toned it out, no tones
went out to the fire department.
”
Ballot recount shows only minor changes
Radio ‘malfunction’ suspected in 911 response delay
The staff at Oakwood
Annapolis Hospital took the con-
cept of a tornado drill to the ulti-
mate extreme last Wednesday.
With the help of dozens of volun-
teers and cooperation with the
Wayne/Westland
Fire
Department, staff tested the abili-
ty of the hospital to handle a
large-scale emergency that could
be caused if a tornado touched
downwithin the community.
"As the only certified Level III
Trauma Center in western
Wayne County, we have to be pre-
pared for any and all emergen-
cies," said Eric Widner, division
president of Oakwood Annapolis
Hospital. "Obviously, this is some-
thing we hope we never have to
experience, but it is important
for us to ensure our staff is ready
and that we can take care of
patients and serve the communi-
ty no matter what type of crisis
we face."
Under the drill scenario, the
tornado destroyed several homes
and sent dozens to the emer-
gency department to seek care.
The drill also factored in possi-
bilities that the hospital itself
may be damaged and that
patients may need to be evacuat-
ed fromany-or all-floors.
More than 80 volunteers took
part, including 60 mock victims
who volunteered from four dif-
ferent nursing programs.
Firefighters from the Wayne-
Westland Fire Association simu-
lated a rooftop evacuation with a
120-foot ladder truck.
"It was important to get as
many people involved in this
exercise as possible," said John
Cargill, trauma and emergency
management coordinator at
Oakwood Annapolis Hospital,
who coordinated the disaster
drill. "We wanted to test our
emergency management proce-
dures as realistically as we could
and determine how we would
respond if wewere pushed to our
limits-andbeyond."
Afterward, Oakwood and
emergency response staff mem-
bers met to discuss what went
right and look for opportunities
for improvement.
"We learned a lot during this
exercise," said Widner. "Overall, I
think our staff and the communi-
ty worked well together. It was
gratifying to see that the skills
and values we practice every day
provided an excellent foundation
for us during this 'crisis.' We hope
that something like this never
happens in our community but if
it does, we'll be prepared for it."
Emergency drill
Hospital prepares for catastrophic event
Douglas Grucz, MD, and Jennifer Rivera, RN, evaluate mock patient
RoseAnn Dubke during a tornado response drill at Oakwood
Annapolis Hospital on Wednesday. About 60 volunteer 'victims' were
treated during the exercise, which was designed to test the hospital's
ability to respond to a large scale community emergency.
Northville Fire Chief Jim Allen
Lt. Dave Wyl ie prepares the
Wayne-Westland 125-foot ladder
truck for a roof evacuation exer-
cise.