Hunter, who serves residents in Dearborn Heights, Inkster and northwest Detroit, is no longer campaigning against 36-year incumbent Raymond Wojtowicz and state Rep. Phil Cavanagh (D-Redford Township) in the Aug. 7 primary election for the treasurer’s seat.

Hunter and Cavanagh filed to run on the ballot before the May 15 deadline.

For more information on the elections go to www.co.wayne.mi.us/clerk_elections_info.htm..

Richard Klee, director of curriculum at Crestwood School District, said the idea on combating drugs use came to fruition because parents expressed their concern to the schools on the growing issue of drugs.

“Even though we haven’t found drugs on campus we recognized it is a growing problem in today’s society,” Klee said.

A panel including city police, a representative from the Wayne County Prosecutor’s office and several representatives from medical agencies and drug treatment organizations will not only speak at the meeting but act as a resource center for parents, Klee said.

Klee said the school has set up random drugs searches and explicit consequences for drugs and drug use.

(Sherri Kolade can be reached at skolade@bewickpublications.com.)

The city council voted for the second time May 8 to fill a council seat vacated by Margaret Van Houten, who stepped down from her position to become a Third Circuit Court judge in March.

Three councilors — Chairman Kenneth Barron and Councilors Margaret Horvath and Ned Apigian — voted for candidate Joseph Kosinski.

Councilwomen Lisa Hicks-Clayton and Janet Badalow voted for candidate Lisa Farrins.

Councilman Tom Berry voted for candidate Brian Pelts.

During the first council vacancy vote April 24, there were not enough councilors present to sway the vote.

Councilors also approved a street lighting proposal from DTE Energy for street lights to be installed in a poorly-lit area where several homes were recently broken into. The installation is scheduled for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1.

“For a while we were having no lights (in that area) and we were having homes getting broken into,” Mayor Daniel Paletko said. “The solution was to bring more lights.”

After further discussion the council approved the proposal with DTE and authorized Paletko to sign the agreement.

Councilors also approved permanent traffic control devices including a “no left turn” sign on 7205 S. Telegraph, and a “no left turn” sign at 25700 Ford Road.

Another segment of the meeting honored longtime former Dearborn Heights Parks and Recreation Director Richard Buckles. Current Dearborn Heights Parks and Recreation Department Director Ken Grybel awarded Buckles with a plaque honoring his three decades of service to the community.

The award was from the Parks and Recreation Commission.

Grybel said he is proud because Buckles is still involved in the Recreation Department.

“He was the first full-time recreation director of Dearborn Heights,” Grybel said. “And here he is all these years later.”

(Sherri Kolade can be reached at skolade@bewickpublications.com.)

By SHERRI KOLADE
Times-Herald Newspapers
HEIGHTS — Lola Bouteiller jumps off of her multicolored bike and looks both ways before crossing the street.

The 7-year-old Dearborn Heights resident wasn’t on a busy street, she was practicing how to ride her bike safely in an obstacle course during the Dearborn Heights Rotary Club annual Bike Safety Rodeo event April 5.

The Rotary Club passed out helmets to promote bicycle safety and to encourage children to wear protective gear while riding their bicycles at the Dearborn Heights Police Department.

A bicycle-safety course was used to give children safety tips on how to ride their bikes on a sidewalk, and the correct way of crossing the streets.

Dearborn Heights Police Cpl. Leonard Stewart said Rotary is trying to promote bike safety throughout Michigan.

“A lot of kids get hit by cars and they can learn to properly cross the street while here,” Stewart said.

A free lunch was included, as well as a free Michigan Child ID program, put on by the Mason’s Olive Branch 542 lodge.

Parents received a Child ID packet containing a CD with the child’s name, age, height, weight, profile, finger prints and dental impression.

The packet can be given to police if a child is missing.

Dearborn Heights Rotary Club President Mike Cutler said the Bike Safety Rodeo began as an initiative with several local insurance companies.

“This is the time of the year where they start getting out there and riding,” Cutler said. “There are so many dangers and a lot of parents appreciate it … hopefully it sticks.”

Dearborn Heights parent Angela Tomaine brought her son and neighbor to the Bike Safety Rodeo, and said the event was informational and a lot of fun.

“They learned that the bike has to have more safety procedures than just jumping on and riding it,” Tomaine said. “They learned they have to check the helmet, tires and walk the bikes across the street.”

(Sherri Kolade can be reached at skolade@bewickpublications.com.)

According to police reports, 19-year-old Inkster resident Robert Lee Curtis Perkins took a .38-caliber revolver to Crestwood High School May 7. After showing his gun to two classmates in separate classes, one of the students told a teacher, who reported the incident to administration, Dearborn Heights Detective Phil Wengrowski said.

“He told one student he had a gun and lifted his shirt and showed it to him,” Wengrowski said. After officials were notified, the school instituted a lockdown, which started at 10:30 a.m. and lasted for about 30 minutes.

Perkins, who attends the school for morning courses, later went to Caroline Kennedy Library for a tutoring session where he was arrested about 11 a.m., Library Director Michael McCaffery said.

“He was surprised but it was pretty uneventful,” McCafferty said.

Perkins was arraigned May 8 and charged in 20th District Court before Judge Mark Plawecki for carrying a concealed weapon, which carries up to five years; possesing a weapon in a weapon-free school zone, a 93-day misdemeanor; and felony firearm, a two-year mandatory consecutive sentence, Wayne County Prosecutor Spokesperson Maria Miller said.

Perkins is being held at Wayne County Jail on a $130,000 bond. His preliminary examination is scheduled for 9 a.m. Wednesday in 20th District Court.

A statement from the Crestwood High School website said “the student with the pistol did not threaten or harm any of the students or personel.”

No statement was made from the Crestwood School District by press time.

(Sherri Kolade can be reached at skolade@bewickpublications.com.)

Natalie Hassan, 23, will face a judge at 9 a.m. May 30 in 20th District Court on several charges and she is currently being held in the Wayne County Jail on a $250,000 bond, Police Det. Steven Gurka said.

Hassan is charged with assault with an intent to murder, assault with intent to do great bodily harm, reckless driving causing serious impairment of a bodily function, and two counts of felonious assault.

Hassan is alleged to have hit Nancy Faraj, 27, of Dearborn Heights and Hanan Achkar, 21, of Dearborn, with her Chevy Malibu, in a fit of rage because Achkar is friends with Hassan’s ex-husband.

Achkar was in critical condition at Oakwood Hopsital and Medical Center as of press time. Oakwood Hospital representatives were unable to comment by press time on Achkar’s current condicondition.

Faraj suffered minor injuries.

The fight allegedly took place outside the house of Achkar’s friend, Faraj, who Hassan reportedly didn’t like for talking to her former husband. After Faraj went outside to help her friend after the altercation, Hassan allegedly got into her car, revved the engine and allegedly ran into both women.

Witnesses said she reversed and ran into them again. Hassan fled the scene but was apprehended at her mother’s house by Dearborn Heights police, according to reports. Faraj suffered minor injuries and was treated and released. Police said they believe Achkar’s head was struck on the ground after she was hit by the car. She was taken to the hospital where she underwent surgery to relieve pressure from brain swelling which left her in a coma, police said.

Through the Clean Michigan Initiative Grant for the North Branch of Ecorse Creek, $489,000 in state funds will go to the center, 5400 McKinley St., which is undergoing construction in the front parking lot, Dan Brooks said, a city engineer and administrator of construction with Michigan-based Wade Trim and Associates.

The grant called for the city to demonstrate storm water controls, which included rain gardens and porous pavement for a parking lot.

The center was chosen as part of the grant process by Wayne County and the city.

The nearly 20-year-old parking lot’s current asphalt is being gutted out and will be replaced with a different asphalt mix that is more porous, allowing rain water to seep through and drain more efficiently.

The previous asphalt was comparable to concrete, impermeable to water and vulnerable to cracks when frozen, Dale Lentz, owner of the Michigan-based Antler Construction company, said.

“It lets the water through and goes through stone as well and it dries itself out or if there is excess it goes to the storm system,” Lentz said.

The parking lot construction began April 23 and is expected to be finished by May 19, Lentz said.

“The parking lot will be usable probably the following week,” he added.

Brooks estimates the project should be done by the middle of June.

There are plans to install three rain gardens after the parking lot is completed. One will be installed in the front of the center and two in the back of the center.

The rain gardens will become mini ponds that collect water from the building’s roof.

“You collect all the water on sight rather than putting it in the storm system where it goes to the county or city drains,” Lentz said. “This way all the rain that collects on the roof will go to these rain gardens and where it will sit in these little ponds and any excess does go to county.”

Michelle LaJoice, receptionist for the center, said the project is beneficial for the city.

“I think it is a good thing for the city,” LaJoice said. “I think it is a good thing for us, I think anything that is more energy efficient or helps the environment is great and that is what (the parking lot and rain gardens) are supposed to do.”

(Sherri Kolade can be reached at skolade@bewickpublications.com.)

Vincent Sheridan was accused of driving drunk March 11, causing the death of a woman and short-term hospitalization of a man while they were stopped at a red light.

Police reports said Sheridan’s blood-alcohol content was at 0.24 percent (three times the legal limit of 0.08 in Michigan) when he hit the back of Dearborn Heights resident Denise Kechego’s Ford Mustang at 50 mph near Telegraph and Van Born where they were stopped.

Kechego, 46, died, and her passenger, Michael Eberline, also of Dearborn Heights, was hospitalized for a few days after the collision, according to published reports.

Sheridan was not injured in the fatal crash. He will now go through Wayne County Circuit Court for the rest of the case.

Sheridan faces charges of operating while intoxicated causing death, reckless driving causing death, reckless driving causing serious injury and operating while intoxicated, second offense.

Sheridan is out on bond and his next court date is at 9 a.m. May 16 at the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice.

For the past three years, through the DIA’s Inside-Out program, 80 reproductions of art from the museum’s collection have been in parks, on bike trail posts, playgrounds and other sites in the southeastern area of Michigan-and that is only the beginning.

DIA’s Community Relations Manager Kathryn Dimond spoke to a small crowd at the Caroline Kennedy Library May 2 about the importance of community outreach initiatives.

The Inside-Out program is displaying art in 12 communities within three counties in the area including Eastpointe, Roseville, Farmington, Farmington Hills, Wyandotte, Wayne, and Taylor.

This summer works in several cities will be unveiled as part of the latest Inside-Out program.

The program beganwhen DIA Director Graham Beal visited London in 2007, and he was inspired by works of art hanging around the city. The opportunity came three years later for the DIA to display their own works of art in different communities.

“The technology was not available to make reproductions until about 2010,” Dimond said.

The paintings are vinyl reproductions on aluminum backing; they are weather-resistant and stay up for about three months.

The program started in 2010 as a way to commemorate the DIA’s 125th anniversary.

Before the art was installed in the communities, residents asked the DIA if the art would be safe on the streets.

Dimond said in all 180 art locations, only two incidences of damage to the reproductions were reported.

“There was one stolen in Oxford and one was vandalized,” she said.

She added that a lot of people take them very seriously and the DIA often has a hard time removing the art because the community has fallen in love with the pieces.

Caroline Kennedy Librarian Rob Butler said the DIA art program is an important initiative.

“It shows what goes on at the DIA and gives people an opportunity to become more interested (in art),” Butler said.

Emmy J. Peck, president of the Friends of the Dearborn Heights Libraries, said she thinks art is something innate in people.

“It doesn’t matter if (people) are looking at art from ancient time to contemporary- art connects people and they become overall a smarter person who looks at world with a different eye,” she said.

Free DIA tours are available to communities where art is featured. For more information on the DIA’s Inside-Out program or to bring art to a community go to dia.org

(Sherri Kolade can be reached at skolade@bewickpublications.com.)