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No. 4
NEWS YOU CAN USE, NEWS YOU CAN TRUST
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January 26 - February 1, 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
Teachers, administrators
and staff members at St. Mary
Catholic School will be offer-
ing some extracurricular les-
sons this Sunday during an
openhouse and science expo.
See page 3.
The Romulus Public Safety
Department has been award-
ed a $10,000 federal grant to
help promote public safety
within the community.
See page 5.
The Plymouth A.M. Rotary
Club wants to award $500 to a
Plymouth Canton Community
Schools high school senior
whohas overcome adversity.
See page 2.
Girls from Northville Girl
Scout Troops 40010 and 40844
participated in 100 Acts of
Community and complete a
different community service
project.
See page 4.
Belleville Area District
Library Board of Directors
agreed to fund appraisals of
four more properties as the
selection process of a site for
the new facility continues.
See page 5.
Vol. 127, No. 4
Vol. 65, No. 4
Vol. 65, No. 4
Vol. 12, No. 4
Vol. 12, No. 4
Vol. 127, No. 4
Vol. 65, No. 4
Vol. 65, No. 2
A Wayne County Circuit
Court jury found one Inkster
man guilty and another inno-
cent of armed robbery during
trials earlier thismonth.
See page 3.
For home delivery of The Eagle call 734-467-1900.
Brianna Shareff and Maria
Idunate from Westland will be
competing Saturday for schol-
arships
during
the
Distinguished Young Women
ofMichiganProgram.
See page 3.
The misconduct hearing for Inkster 22nd
District Court Chief Judge Sylvia James began
Monday at 20th District Court in Dearborn
Heights.
The hearing is being conducted by Ann
Mattson, a retired district judge from
Washtenaw County, who was appointed by the
Michigan Supreme Court last month to hear
the complaint against James brought by the
Judicial Tenure Commission. James, through
her attorneys Philip Thomas and Sharon
McPhail, filed several motions last week to pre-
vent the hearing, while attorneys for the com-
mission attempted to have McPhail disquali-
fied as James' attorney as they intended to call
her as awitness.
James' attorneys filedmotions, heard byU.S.
District Judge Lawrence Zatkoff, claiming that
the search of her office and seizure of records
from her safe were so unreasonable that her
rightswouldbe jeopardized.
Zatkoff ruled that since no criminal charges
have been filed, James' right to a fair trial was
not an issue. He also said that the public has a
strong interest in discovering whether she was
involved in financial improprieties, as the judi-
cial commission alleges. He did agree to hear
James' request for a preliminary injunction to
strike down the disciplinary complaint against
her on grounds that they were politically moti-
vated and that she was the subject of an illegal
Fathers and daughters can
put on their dancing shoes and
step out together for a
Valentine's event at the
ButterflyBall inCanton.
See page 4.
Seven years
after Plymouth
officials paid
$12 million to
construct a com-
bination township hall and fire
station over the objections of tax-
payers, a plan to disband the fire
department is reportedly inplace.
In August 2004, 30 residents
were invited to get their first look
at a site plan to construct the $12
million complex containing a
38,000 square foot, two-story build-
ing to house township offices and
a new 13,500 square foot building
to house the fire department, com-
plete with a training facility and
living quarters. The host for the
event, and supporter of the con-
struction, was then Township
Supervisor Steve Mann, now a
trustee.
This year, Mann stated at a pub-
lic meeting, “Come early 2012,
there are going to be changes in
the fire department, and the fire-
fighters need to get ready for
that.”
But back in January of 2004,
Mann formed an Advisory
Committee and began moving for-
ward on the new township hall
and fire station construction. He
assigned the head of his building
division, Mark Lewis, to head up
the project, and immediately
sought out bids for project man-
agement. DeMattia Construction,
a local Plymouth firm, was chosen
as the contractor.
When residents crowded a
board meeting and objected to
this expenditure of taxmoney and
voiced opposition, even threaten-
ing to try to obtain a referendum
from voters, the township zoning
board representative, Harry
Jachym, told them, “All of the
questions have been asked and
they've been answered”
By a 4-3 vote,
over residents'
strong protests,
board members
approved the
purchase of the 9-acre property
froma local car dealer for the new
township facility.
Mann defended the decision to
proceed without putting the issue
in front of voters. He cited other
projects he was involved with
without voter approval; a new fire
station, the DPW building and a
$100 million sewer facility. “Each
was built without a vote…” he
said.
Mann recited the need for
more space, saying the facilities
didn't reflect, “the pride we take
in our community…”
“The (current) fire station does
not have adequate living quarters
for our firefighters who work 24
hours a day, nor do we have prop-
er space for storing and maintain-
ing the equipment they require.
These inadequate and inefficient
conditions hamper the opera-
tions…”
The one dissenting member of
the board at that time, Ron
Griffith, said at a board meeting,
“In a few years this township
board is going to come to you for a
millage to pay for police and fire
because it's more saleable than
millage for a hall,” he said, “It's
going to happen.”
Today, the township hall sits
mostly empty with less than 30 full
and part time employees. The
reception desk has been conspicu-
ously vacant. The primary use of
the building appears to be the
monthly board of trustees meet-
ings, which have lately been
crowded with hundreds of resi-
dents, again protesting decisions
of their elected board representa-
tives.
Today, residents are protesting
a reported plan to close the fire
station which serves the largest
subdivision in the township and
replace the professional firefight-
erswith on-call volunteers.
A citizens group collected 4,000
signatures to place a 1-mill assess-
ment for funding the fire depart-
ment on the ballot, an effort Mann
publicly called “frivolous.” The
board of trustees refused to
acknowledge the petitions and
only placed the question on the
Feb. 28 ballot after losing a court
battle and being ordered to allow
the residents to vote by Circuit
Court JudgeWendyBaxter.
Rather than the 1-mill the peti-
tioners requested, however, board
members hiked the millage ballot
question to 10 mills, a move inter-
preted by many as a legal, but
unseemly, act by boardmembers.
The township has not made
any public announcement of
It's called reshoring.
The move to bring manufactur-
ing plants and jobs back to theU.S.
from China, Mexico and India has
landed squarely in Canton
Township with the announcement
last week that Element
Electronics will manufacture flat
screen TVs in the Lotus
International plant.
The company will sell the TVs,
all to be larger than 46 inches, to
retailers like Wal Mart and Target.
The company is expected to hire
about 100 new workers and will
set up a call center for customer
questions.
Michael O'Shaughnessy, the
president and owner of Element
Electronics, said that theMichigan
made televisions will be competi-
tively priced with those being pro-
duced inChina.
The facility is a 250,000 square
foot warehouse where Lotus
International makes and tests
electronic and electromechanical
parts for the auto and electronics
industries. Production will begin
with one assembly line, but the
space could accommodate as
many as four lines. The hundreds
of parts that comprise TVs will be
shipped from Asia and the fin-
ished products could begin com-
ing from the Canton facility as
early asMarch.
Element partnered with
Tongfang Global last year.
Tongfang makes TVs in Shenyang,
China and will ship parts to
Element for assembly at the
Cantonplant.
Estimates are that the plant
could make up to half a million
TVs, but there is no actual produc-
tion level at this time.
According to O'Shaughnessy,
meeting projected production
numbers is not themainpriority of
the venture. "The most important
thing is running a stable factory."
There was no information as to
anticipated hourly wage rates pro-
vided.
Information about applying for
jobs at the Element Electronic
Canton plant should be available
soon at www.elementelectronics.
com.
Zatkoff ruled that since no criminal
charges have been filed, James'
right to a fair trial was not an issue.
”
See
Judge,
page 7
See
Battle,
page 2
Judge’s misconduct hearing under way
‘Reshoring’ to bring 100 jobs to Canton
Back to the future
Township officials continue
to battle residents, voters
Analysis
Abandoned township office.
Abandoned police station.
Abandoned fire station.