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coverage on 5 and 6-B

■ For all of your event ■ In our special sec- ● Parade honors GM ● Your Heritage Fest

coverage needs including tion, you will find: workers survival guide
video, go to ● Garden tour features ● Festival started with
www.heritage.com local green thumbs Nat Edmunds’ vision

The
See our Heritage Fest
pull-out section Inside

VOL. 16, NO. 33 THURSDAY, AUGUST 19, 2010

Township to put police millage on Nov. ballot Web exclusive stories:

By Adrienne Ziegler
Special Writer
Ypsilanti Township Board of
Trustees voted unanimously
Tuesday night to place a 1.5 mil
levy on the November ballot
in order to pay for police ser-
vices over the next three years
through the Washtenaw County
Sheriff ’s Department.
If approved, the levy will
raise approximately $2,038,000
in the first year to sustain the
services the township cur-
rently has as well as add four
■ Pittsfield arrests driver
with drugs, handguns and
cash
or five additional deputies. For Stumbo. “I really hope it is officers, bringing their current per deputy, including overtime ■ See the latest police
an Ypsilanti Township resident approved because we need total to 31 deputies. pay. reports at heritage.com/
with a $100,000 home, the mill- more police services, but we With the decrease in revenue Washtenaw County origi- blotter
age translates to about $150 per really can’t sustain them with- from foreclosures, a reduced nally quoted the township at a
year in additional out the revenue to tax base, and a proposed 4 percent increase in the cost
taxes through 2012. pay for it.” increase in the cost per deputy per deputy, but the board has
Last year, the town- YPSILANTI At the time the from the Washtenaw County asked the county to reduce that
ship placed a similar TOWNSHIP levy was defeated, Commissioners office, the number, and they are waiting
2.0 levy on the ballot, the township had 38 township faces a dilemma in for the county’s response. If
but it was defeated by 168 votes. deputies on their staff, and esti- how they will continue to pay the cost is reduced and the Check out our video:
“We figured that perhaps mated they would need to cut for police services through the levy passes, the township may ■ Vehicle catches fire in
since it failed by such a close 10 to meet their budget. In the sheriff ’s department. Stumbo be able to hire more than four Pittsfield Township
vote, that maybe if we reduced end, they only ended up cutting said the cost per deputy has deputies. ■ Heritage’s own Sean
it to 1.5 (mils) that more people seven and used money from the increased 92 percent since 2004, “As we get the money to do it, Dalton takes on burger
would vote in favor of it,” said police services fund balance and the township now has to challenge
Township Supervisor Brenda to pay for the remaining three budget approximately $165,000 PLEASE SEE MILLAGE/13-A Check out our blogs:
■ Inside the Newsroom
■ Austen Smith’s “The

Lincoln considers Corner Stool”

■ Martha Toth’s

contracting for Time for “Education Matters”

custodial work Tots Connect with

By Adrienne Ziegler
Special Writer
The Lincoln Consolidated
School Board is considering
outsourcing the district’s custo-
dial work to a private company
and lay-
SCHOOLS ing off 24
custodi-
ans who
currently work in the district.
According to Superintendent
Lynn Cleary, the move would
save Lincoln nearly $500,000 per
year over the next three years.
Originally slated as an action
item on the agenda for Monday
night’s regular board meet-
ing, Cleary decided to delay
the decision at the request of
Executive Director for Human
Resources Sylvester Rowan in
order to continue negotiations
with the custodian’s union,
Lincoln Education Associates
Organization.
Cleary said the district has
put out a request for bids for
custodial services from private
companies, and also gave LEAO
the same parameters, but the
union refused to submit a bid.
Steve Mitchell, lead LEAO
negotiator and head custodian
at Model Elementary, said the
union is just not designed for
that.
“For them to ask us to sub-
mit a bid was something we
couldn’t do, because we don’t
have bookkeepers. We don’t
have the people in place to do it.
We’re not licensed and bonded
as a company,” Mitchell said.
“We don’t work for LEAO, we
work for Lincoln Schools.”
PLEASE SEE LINCOLN/13-A
Yahoo’s Hot Jobs:
Click on the “jobs” tab on
the home page of our Web
site or go directly to http://
jobs.heritage.com.
Join us on Twitter:
Become an Ypsilanti
Courier follower. Click on
the Twitter tab on the home
page of our Web site or go
directly to http://twitter.com/
Photos by Laura Service HeritageNews.
Diane Carman, teacher coordinator for the SOS day care center, is donating her time to
refurbishing the old Ypsilanti home.
SOS to renovate home for day care
By Laura Service
Special Writer

Stuff the Bus to Employees from a Plymouth manufacturing

company and from SOS Community Services
are teaming up this summer to transform
Join us on
Facebook:
Click on the Facebook

aid local districts an Ypsilanti home into a safe haven for

By Jeremy Allen
Heritage Newspapers
For the third consecutive
year, Washtenaw County has
partnered with the United
Way and is hosting a Stuff the
Bus event for area schools in
need. All Washtenaw County
schools were invited to par-
ticipate and those that have
chosen to are the Ypsilanti,
Manchester, Milan and Lincoln
Consolidated school districts.
The Stuff the Bus event
began August 16 and will
run through August 20 in
the Staples Parking Lot on
FYI
WHAT: Stuff the Bus
WHEN: August 16-20
WHERE: Staples Parking Lot
on Carpenter Road, Ypsilanti
Carpenter Road. in Ypsilanti.
A school bus and volunteers
will be in the parking lot from
8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. collecting
much-needed school supplies
for grades K-5. The goal of this
event is to provide school sup-
PLEASE SEE BUS/13-A
Washtenaw County children in need.
Freudenberg-NOK employees and their
tab on the home page of
our Web site or search
for us on Facebook for
Belleville View/Ypsilanti
family members have been working with SOS Courier
volunteers since July
31 to refurbish a large
YPSILANTI home in Ypsilanti for
use as a daycare center,
doing such work as replacing walls, cleaning,
painting, landscaping and constructing a play-
ground area.
“I’m excited for the kids to have something 1003 W. Michigan Ave. in Ypsilanti is the site The Marketplace:
of the restoration project for SOS Local ads are just a hop
newer and bigger as well as more space to play
outside,” says Nicole Cornacchione, Children’s Community Services’ daycare center. away at the MIcentral.com
marketplace. Check out all
Services Supervisor for SOS.
The daycare center recently moved from the special supplements
plete, she is excited to be able have a safe envi- of JRC newspapers in
Ann Arbor to Ypsilanti, which Cornacchione ronment for the nearly 40 children the facility Michigan. Click on “market-
says has been a positive change because can serve. place” on our Web site or go
the majority of children they serve are in The daycare center is part of the commu- directly to www.marketplace.
Ypsilanti. And when the renovation is com- micentral.com.
PLEASE SEE SOS/13-A

WHAT’S
Classifieds . . . . . . . . 7–13-C NEWS TIP HOTLINE – 429-7380 ONLINE: WWW.HERITAGE.COM E-MAIL: EDITOR@YPSILANTICOURIER.COM
Community Calendar. . 3-B
INSIDE Death Notices . . . . . . .10-A “Why I” feature is a professor of English language will include 1.8 miles of new asphalt from Water
Legals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-C BRIEFLY... and literature. Guess who it is. For these and Street to Scio Church Road. Although local traffic
many other stories, be sure to check out today’s will be allowed to travel on Oak Valley Drive during
■ Focus on EMU- The Web: issue of FOCUS EMU at http://www.emich.edu/ construction, there will be at least a five-day peri-
Printed A professor who is a world-class athlete and focus_emu/ od in mid-October (18 to 22) when the road will
on does triathlons. An administrator who was recent- ■ Oak Valley Driver in Pittsfield Township be completely closed to traffic for the surrounding
recycled ly ordained. A professor who stresses the need to be resurfaced: Oak Valley Drive resurfacing neighborhoods and businesses. Residents in the
paper for language study in today’s competitive business is scheduled from Sept. 7 to Oct. 29th provided area will be asked to use Water Street to enter
climate. Be sure to read interesting features on there are no unforeseen delays. Residents and and exit the subdivisions. For general questions,
professors Derrick Fries and Margrit Zinggeler, businesses located on Oak Valley Drive will be please e-mail the Pittsfield Township Department
and administrator Jackie Kurtz. And this month’s impacted by the road resurfacing project that of Public Safety at publicsafety@pittsfield-mi.gov.

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comes news releases about upcoming events, articles profil-
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What and why: will hold an open house as a benefit fund-
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Where: at the Woodlands of Van Buren
When: from 1 to 3 p.m. Dec. 22
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