News outlets across the country are reporting on a parent’s reaction after her 11-year-old son, a student at Strong Middle School, was assigned a mock journal in which students were asked to imagine their lives as slaves in the pre-Civil War South.

District parent Jessica Gibson said the assignment made her bi-racial son, Taylan, feel “embarrassed to be black.”

Gibson said she told her son not to do the assignment and asked for an alternative assignment, which she said they denied.

Melvindale-Northern Allen Park school district officials declined to comment on the assignment.

Photo by Andrea Poteet

By ANDREA POTEET
Sunday Times Newspapers
MELVINDALE — The toy department of Taylor Wal-Mart looks like a war zone.

Teens in Santa hats and excited children occupy every square inch of space. Toys are everywhere and shopping carts have been abandoned because they can’t fit through the cramped aisles.

So for 9-year-old Shelbie Boutin and her Melvindale High School chaperone Alondra Hernandez, 15, it’s the perfect time to hit the beauty aisle for the nail polish and black eyeliner on her Christmas list.

“Now this is a girl’s dream,” Shelbie says as they enter the nearly vacant aisle.

Hundreds of teen volunteers and elementary-aged children from Melvindale-Northern Allen Park School District filled the Taylor Wal-Mart Wednesday as part of the district’s annual Angel Project.

Now in its 18th year, the project uses funds from corporate donations by Ford Motor Co. and Wal-Mart, along with private donations and school fundraisers to give each low-income child from the district $45 to spend on anything they’d like in the store.

Mel-NAP Director of Operations Rick Morley said many students buy only for themselves and others for their families, but the items they choose are as unique as they are.

“It’s everything you could imagine a child buying,” Morley said. “It could be pet food if they have a pet at home that doesn’t have food. It could be cereal if that’s what they wanted.”

Children are nominated for the program by school staff and community members, Morley said, but no one gets turned away. This year 150 shoppers, each with a high school student to assist them, participated in the program – six bus loads in all.

Morley said one of the best gifts for the children is time spent with the teens. Some of them save their own money all year to donate for the trip, others befriend their elementary school shopper and request to be partnered with them again the next year.

“It’s just about the one-on-one time,” Morley said. “For a lot of them, spending time with the high school students makes their day.”

Teen volunteer Bianca Garcia, 15, said she had fun shopping with 10-year-old Tara Framack, even though they couldn’t find the Orbeez, orb-shaped toys that expand in water, that Framack wanted.

“It was something cool to do,” Garcia said. “I thought it would be nice to help people who needed things.”

Hernandez said she was excited to help out this year after volunteering for the trip last year.

“I’m happy to come and help with the kids,” she said. “And the kids are really excited to come.
A lot of them don’t even buy for themselves, they buy for family members.”

Shelbie initially had items for her 18-year-old sister on her list, but that changed when she saw her favorite item of the haul – a deluxe makeup box for $15 – which she quickly added to arms piled full of colored hair extensions, clothes and candy.

“My sister can have the eye liner and nail polish,” Shelbie said, hugging the box against herself. “I won’t use that.”

City Councilwoman Stacy Striz won her bid for mayor over incumbent Valerie Cadez. Striz netted 760 votes to Cadez’s 526.

Incumbent Kally Hess will join five new faces on the council. Hess netted 720 votes to earn a seat along with Carl Louvet (677 votes), Medina Balderas (622 votes), Wheeler Marsee (661 votes), Nicole Barnes (651 votes), and David Cybulski (649 votes).

Unsuccessful challengers were Michael Haftel (478 votes), Jorge Martinez (468 votes), Jeannine Ansley (441 votes), Betty Lindlbauer (428 votes), Lisa Snipes (425 votes) and Renee Buckberrough (422 votes).

In the treasurer race, Karen Lowe beat out Sally Ann Amadio 732 to 468.

Challenger Diana Zarazua will replace incumbent City Clerk Norrine Peeples, winning 761 to 452.

For the Melvindale-Northern Allen Park School District race, Jim McGuckin and Matthew Rader ran unopposed, earning 1,593 votes and 1,304 votes, respectively.

Incumbent Norine Peeples has served as city clerk for the past year. She also works as a motivational speaker, ordained minister and business consultant and has lived in the city for about six years.

When she took the office, she made history as the first black resident elected to a city office, a designation she said is close to her heart.

She said her love for the city and its residents led to her decision to run again.

Challenger Diana Zarazua said she hopes to use her 15 years of administrative experience to serve residents of the city where she has lived for 10 years.

She works part-time as an administrative manager and bookkeeper at an architectural firm in Detroit and raises three children under 10. She is currently attending Wayne State University to earn a bachelor’s degree in accounting.

Jeannine Prohownick Ansley served on the council for eight years until 2007. She has worked for the Environmental Protection Agency and was the executive director of Friends of the Detroit River.

She said win or lose, she plans to continue to work to better the community, including luring new businesses to the city, and marketing the city’s boat launch and civic arena during their off-seasons.

“We can take this town and revitalize it,” she said. “I think there’s a lot of little things we can do to make life better.”

Carl Louvet is a 26-year resident of the city who serves as a parks and recreation commissioner and launched an unsuccessful campaign for city council in the last election. He is a league representative for Melvindale Junior Football and is president of the Melvindale Athletic Club. He works as an artifact rigger.

If elected, he said he would work to enhance transparency and comunication in city government.

“We need some change,” he said. “And I’m heavily involved in the community and I think I can do some good.”

Michael Haftel is a 21-year resident of the city launching his third campaign for a city council seat. He is a navy veteran and has sat on the city’s planning commission and currently works as an IT product manager for a consulting firm. He said he hopes to use his experience to improve his community, especially in fighting urban blight.

“I’m not coming into this as just any old person who decided I wanted to get invoplved,” he said. “I do have some skill that I’m bringing to the table.”

Candidates Nicole Barnes and Kalley Hess did not respond to emails seeking comment by press time.

Current phone numbers could not be located for candidates Lisa Snipes, Renee Buckerrough, Betty Lindlbauer, Medina Balderas, Jorge Martinez, Wheeler Marsee, and David Cybulski.

Jim McGuckin and Matthew Rader are running uncontested for two school board seats.

Mayor Valerie Cadez faces off against current council member Stacy Striz for the position.

Cadez has served as mayor for the past four years, and has also served as city clerk and on the city council. She also is chairwoman of the Downriver Community Council. She has been married to Police Chief Rick Cadez for 38 years.

She said she chose to run again because she feels the city needs experienced and informed leadership in challenging financial times.

“I have a passion and pride for the city of Melvindale and will keep working hard to further the progress that has already been made,” Cadez said.

If re-elected, she said she would focus on maintaining a strong police force, keeping the city clean with continued ordinance enforcement, and seeking grants to improve the parks and recreation program.

“I believe that integrity is the most important quality that a leader can possess,” Cadez said. “I will not compromise this and will continue to provide strong, mature and honest leadership at all times.”

Striz has worked at Dearborn Public Schools for the last 11 years and coaches Melvindale Little League Baseball. She is also cheerleading director for the Melvindale Junior Football Club and serves on the city’s finance committee. She also attends the University of Michigan-Dearborn, where she is pursuing a degree in Elementary Education.

Striz did not respond to emails and phone calls seeking comment to this story by press time.

Incumbent Treasurer John K. Kessey is not seeking re-election.

Karen Lowe has lived in the city for the majority of her 57 years. A former employee of an accounting firm, she said she ran for the office to see the city move in a different direction.

She said her goal as treasurer would be to maintain the integrity of the office. To do that, she said she would check all expenditures to see how they are being paid.

If elected, she vows to serve the office under the tenants of accountability, believability and integrity.

She said residents should vote for her because of her knowledge of the city and experience in accounting.

“I care about the city,” she said. “It’s my home.”

Sally Ann Amadio, 55, said she decided to run for the office after receiving a vote of confidence from current Mayor Valerie Cadez.

“The mayor approached me and she seemed to have a lot of confidence in me,” Amadio said. “I talked to several family members and they said they thought it might be a good thing for me to try.”

She said if elected, she would generally stick to the policies of the current treasurer, with a few possible updates.

“I see nothing wrong with what he’s done,” she said of Kessey, “but there’s always room for improvement and change.”

The lifelong resident has a liberal arts degree from Henry Ford Community College and a state Library Technology Assistant certificate. She has worked in the library of the Veterans’ Affairs Hospital in Allen Park and is now employed in the office of Mary Magdalene Catholic Church in Melvindale.

If elected, she said she would promote honesty in the office.

“I would go into the job with an open mind and I would hear both sides of the issues first before I made a decision,” she said.

Representatives from both cities and their fire departments met to discuss the possibility of a fire authority between the two cities in a meeting two weeks ago, Allen Park city officials said Tuesday.

The move would create a fire authority, similar to ones in Howell and Brighton, under which both departments would retain their fire stations but serve under one chief and deputy chief.

“We want to maintain or increase services to citizens of both cities but at the same time save money,” Allen Park Fire Chief Douglas LaFond said. “That’s kind of the whole point.”

LaFond said the biggest cost savings would come from the reduction in overhead costs and overtime, as the two departments could send firefighters to either station when it is short staffed and share training costs. He said he expects the merger would not create layoffs, and any reductions necessary would be made through attrition.

LaFond said sharing services also would help the cities’ existing mutual aid agreement, by reducing response times when the departments work together.

“The way we currently operate, if we call Melvindale, they are going to send their team with a (firefighter),” LaFond said. “Now he’s got to interface with my (firefighter), who is in charge of the scene, which all takes time. This would bring everything under one command.”

Melvindale Fire Chief Dan Wilhelm said Thursday the merger would help increase response time, as his fire department could respond to calls from the highly trafficked Fairlane Green shopping center in Allen Park, just blocks from the Melvindale Fire Station but across the city from Allen Park’s station.

He said though the discussions are on the “ground level,” the move would be a great way for both departments to save money and keep up with trends in the industry.

“I truly believe the merging of the departments is a thing of the future,” Wilhelm said. “Better to be the driving force behind this than on the tail end.”

Allen Park City Administrator John Zech, who introduced the proposal at Allen Park’s city council meeting Tuesday, said maintaining full staffs at each fire station would ensure that response time did not suffer.

He also said firefighters from each department would work under the same contract, but the arrangement would not obligate either department to cover any debt incurred by the other.

“Their debt is their debt, and our debt is our debt,” Zech said. “We would keep that separate.”

Contracts for Allen Park firefighters end June 2013, while Melvindale firefighters have been working a month-to-month basis since their contract expired in 2009. Existing contracts must be honored before the authority could be created.

“This would have to be negotiations with both of these bargaining groups to work these very serious issues through and to come to a good result for both communities,” Zech said.

Leonard and Rose Marie De Nard

Rose Marie and Leonard De Nard of Melvindale celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary Sept. 8.

The couple married on Rose’s birthday, Sept. 8, 1950, at All Saint’s Catholic Church in Detroit.

They have four children, one of whom is deceased.

Leonard works for the city of Dearborn Department of Public Works in its Central Garage. His wife had worked at Kmart and Sears and is now a homemaker.

Leonard has volunteered with the U.S. Naval Sea Cadets for the past 31 years and is the commander of the U.S. Navy League Cadet Corps Training Ship Bristol Bay Unit and the Knights of Columbus Robert Jones Council Color Corp in Lincoln Park.

The couple often jokes that their long-lasting marriage is credited to Leonard’s involvement in the groups, as they often keep him away from home.

Leonard tells it differently, saying they got married after Rose told him she had money put away to pay for the wedding.

“It’s been 60 years and I haven’t found the money and Rose it too old to remember where she hid it,” Leonard said. “That is what’s keeping us together.”