At their April 24 meeting, school board members approved an application to qualify for bonds from the state treasury, the first step in getting a proposal on the ballot.

The 30-year proposal is slightly different from a similar one that failed in February, and has been slimmed down from $43 million to $32 million.

The new proposal eliminates several projects including the construction of a new cafeteria and additional gym at Riverview High School and an addition to the cafeteria at Seitz Middle School.

Technology upgrades, roof and window replacements and security improvements are still included in the package.

At the meeting, several residents complained that a survey the district sent out did not reach them. District representatives said the surveys were sent to a random sample of 400 residents.

They also said they will not put the issue on the November ballot should it fail in August.

Supt. Russell Pickell did not return phone calls seeking comment by press time.

Workman said the city has received no complaints about odor from an explosion at the city’s methane recovery facility.

“The odor is just gonna start building up,” Workman said. “It doesn’t happen right away.”

Workman said he received a call about 5 a.m. that day that one of two turbines at the facility — part of Riverview Land Preserve but owned and operated by Riverview Energy Systems, owned in part by DTE Energy — had exploded.

But after a search across the country, a larger flare, used to eliminate waste gas, was located in Findlay, Ohio. Once installed, a process that takes a few days, Workman said the flare should alleviate any gas smell caused by the explosion.

The facility’s current flare was only capable of burning about 40 percent of the methane, Workman said.

The facility is computer operated. No one was inside at the time of the explosion.

The city receives a royalty for for letting DTE extract methane from its landfill.

Workman said the turbine will have to be rebuilt, a process that could take months.

The cause of the explosion is still under investigation.

By SUE SUCHYTA
Times-Herald Newspapers
RIVERVIEW – Students at Memorial Elementary School were surprised to learn that sometimes it’s good to be disobedient – at least for service animals.

“They have to stop (blind) people because they can get hurt,” Anna, 9, a student in Susan Keathley’s fourth grade class, said.

Third, fourth and fifth grade students at Riverview’s Memorial Elementary School, 13425 Colvin, learned March 21 how Leader Dogs for the Blind are trained and how they help visually impaired people become more independent from volunteer dog trainers Becky Wynn and Patrick Clemens, and from his wife, Donna Clemens, who is legally blind and a leader dog client.

Leader Dogs for the Blind, a non-profit organization in Rochester Hills, was founded by three Detroit-area Lion Club members in 1939 and offers free guide dogs and training to blind and visually impaired adults to provide independence, mobility and an improved quality of life.

Patrick Clemens, who brought Wade, a six-month old black Labrador retriever he is training, to the school, introduced the students and staff to Juno, a 3-month old German shepherd she is training, and to his wife Donna Clemens and her 10-year-old black Labrador retriever Katie.

Wynn said Juno is the third puppy she has trained and that a puppy will be with her for almost 12 months.

As a volunteer puppy raiser, Wynn gets them when they are seven weeks old — that is when they “start school.”

Wynn said the puppy they are training goes everywhere with them – to school, grocery stores, concerts, church and restaurants.

“They have to learn their manners just like you have to learn,” Wynn said. “They have to learn to go into a restaurant or a grocery store and they have to learn to be quiet, and they’re not supposed to be moving around. When they’re very young puppies they’re just like your kindergarteners here. They don’t know everything yet.”

When a dog is 14 months old they will start their special training at the Leader Dog facility in Rochester Hills to become a leader dog.

Wynn said the initial training lasts 6 to 8 months before they decide if an animal is leader dog material.

Wynn said they teach the dog obedience: to sit down, follow, or lead somebody. Another phase of their formal training is called disobedience.

“Did you know they have to learn not to obey, too?” Wynn said. “These special dogs have to learn how to think and say to themselves ‘I can’t take my blind person out into the street’ because it’s not safe. So these dogs have to think.”

Fourth grader Destiny, 9, said she likes how the dogs can stop people from getting hurt.

Her classmate Samantha, 9, said she was amazed by how the dogs help the people get around.

Donna Clemens told the students how her dog Katie tried to prevent her from walking off the end of a dock at a lake in northern Michigan when they were first paired up.

“That was my fault,” she said. “I should have listened to the dog.”

Fourth grader Hunter, 9, said what stood out the most following the presentation was how each dog becomes a part of the person’s life.

“I learned that the dogs are so special to the people and they care about them,” he said.

Patrick Clemens said that there is no guarantee that dogs he raises will be partnered with a blind person. Instead, they may be partnered with a police or fire department.

Fourth grader Javem, 10, who was impressed by how the dogs help blind people get around, was also impressed by how the dogs can find another way to serve if they aren’t service dogs.

“The thing that amazed me was that if the dogs didn’t make it they had a career change,” Javem said.

Donna Clemens said Katie is her second leader dog. Her first, a black lab, retired after 14 years of service and then she got Katie in 2003. She got Katie when she 15 months old. She’s ten years old now.

“She works great for me,” Donna Clemens said. “She gives me my independence. We walk to the mailbox, we walk to the hairdresser, and you know what? The most important thing: she keeps me very safe.”

The proposal failed 2,177 votes to 1,027 votes in Riverview and 47 votes to 17 votes in Trenton, where some students attend the district’s schools.

About 38 percent of registered Riverview voters turned out for the election and about 19 percent of Trenton voters filled out ballots.

It would have increased the tax rate by 7.32 mils for 30 years to pay for safety and technology upgrades to all district buildings as well as new wings for the high school and expansions to Seitz Middle School.

The improvements, scaled down from a 2007 facilities assessment recommendation that called for $93 million in repairs, were the first planned for the district in nearly 20 years.

The proposal would increase the tax rate by 7.32 mills for 30 years. A homeowner of a house with a taxable value of $50,000 would see a yearly increase of about $366.

The planned improvements, scaled down from a 2007 facilities assessment recommendation of repairs totaling $93 million, are to include new roofs, security entrances and devices and technology upgrades to all district buildings as well as a new classroom wing, cafeteria, kitchen and gymnasium for the high school, and a new main office and various expansions for Seitz Middle School.

A parking expansion, window replacement and a “loop” for picking up and dropping off students at Forest, Huntington and Memorial elementary schools also are planned.

The district has made no major improvements to its buildings in nearly 20 years, according to district literature about the proposal, which also states the millage could net more than 200 skilled trade and fabrication jobs.

Photo courtesy of Cheryl Knapp

By SUE SUCHYTA and ANDREA POTEET
Sunday Times Newspapers
RIVERVIEW – For Jim Lyons, a school club is not just something to put on a college transcript.

It’s a way to help people down the street and across the globe.

A Gabriel Richard High School sophomore, Lyons volunteers through the school’s Interact service club. Sponsored by local Rotary clubs, the groups, comprising teens, completes service projects with local and international focuses.

Lyons said his commitment to the club’s mission of service was strengthened during a recent food drive.

“Last year, when the lady from the food pantry came up with her truck and we were loading all the food in… that just felt really good. This isn’t just service hours… it’s helping others,” Lyons, a Wyandotte resident, said.

According to its web site, Interact also tries to teach its teen members leadership skills, respect for others and the value of individual responsibility and hard work.

Jim Lyons said his father, Mark Lyons, a Wyandotte Rotarian, approached Gabriel Richard officials to start a local Interact Club when his son was a freshman.

He said the club provides students with many opportunities to earn service hours, which are required by Gabriel Richard High School. Freshmen must earn six service hours their second semester, and sophomores, juniors and seniors must fulfill 12 service hours a year.

In addition to fulfilling her service hour requirement, senior Terni Fiorelli of Flat Rock said that she likes helping out in the community, and she hopes her volunteer work will look good on her college applications.

She said many of her classmates joined Interact when the local club formed last year to earn service hours as well.

Campus ministry director and adult moderator Cheryl Knapp said that during their first school year as a club they had about 60 members and met twice a month.

This school year, with about 100 members, they communicate through email updates and morning announcements at the school and hold project committee meetings as needed.

During their first local service project in 2010, they collected canned food for the Downriver Community Food Pantry just before Thanksgiving.

Their first international project raised $679 for Haitian relief through a lunchtime ice cream sundae sale and a jean day, which let students make a monetary donation to wear jeans to school instead of the school uniform. The funds raised went directly to a nurse with local ties working in Haiti with the relief effort.

This school year the students worked with Volunteers of America to supply three local families in need (one from Riverview and two from Wyandotte) with Christmas food and gifts.

Fiorelli said that when she helped purchase gifts for the families it became less of a chore on her holiday to-do list and more of an emotionally satisfying experience.

“When I was buying for the families… it was just like another thing that I had to do,” Fiorelli said. “But then after it was all over and I had bought everything it felt good knowing that you’re helping someone who can’t afford Christmas for their family.”

The Interact Club’s international project this year will help the Nicaraguan Children of the Dump make a better life for themselves and their families.

“They live in a dump, literally,” Lyons said. “They have to go around and they find wallpaper. They wrap them up into these little beads and make bracelets out of them.”

Lyons said the Gabriel Richard Interact club gets boxes with 100 bracelets each to sell. The proceeds help provide the Nicaraguan Children of the Dump and their families with shelter and basic needs.

In addition to the hands-on service aspect of their local Interact club, senior Nicole Jakubik of Brownstown Township said she enjoys attending Rotary Youth Leadership Awards conferences, which bring together Interact club members from different schools.

She said the conference sessions provide her with inspiration and ideas for the Gabriel Richard Interact club. Local conferences were held at Schoolcraft College in Livonia during November for the past two years.

The conferences remind her how much of an opportunity she has to make a difference in the lives of others through Interact club service projects, she said.

“When I went there I just kind of realized after listening to everyone talk about their experiences with Interact… that I had the potential to make more of a difference,” Jakubik said.

She added that she learned a lot of leadership skills as well.

“After coming back from that I felt that I really did have the power to make a difference in the school and the community,” Jakubik said.

Lyons agreed, and has been able to convince some of his friends of the group’s ability to make a difference.

“A lot of my friends if they need help with their service hours I tell them to join this,” Lyons said. “And they’re like ‘Eh, it doesn’t seem like it does much,’” Lyons said. “But it really does so much and I try to convince them of that… it definitely helps a lot.”

Incumbent Mayor Tim Durand beat challenger Billy J. Towle, earning 1,801 votes to Towle’s 749.

Elmer Trombley, Lynn Blanchette and Thomas Coffey earned 1,624 votes, 1,606 votes, and 1,529 votes, respectively, to win seats on the City Council. Challengers David Ryan and William J. Prucknic Sr. netted 969 and 747 votes, respectively. Voters cast 2,601 votes.

In the school board race, Gary O’Brien earned 1,011 votes to earn a seat alongside incumbent Amy Laura-Frazier, who earned 1,150 votes. James Makowski netted 677 votes. The terms are four years.

Incumbent Robyn Vitale ran unopposed for her seat and earned 1,467 votes. Her term is for two years. Voters cast 2,632 votes.

Durand, a 50-year resident of the city, has served as mayor since 1995 and before that as a city councilor since 1987. He also serves as a procurement counselor for the Downriver Community Conference.

He said as mayor, he has worked to combat reduced revenues by reducing staff by 25 percent since 2007 and sharing services such as Department of Public Works purchasing, recreation programs, and fire equipment with other cities.

Durand initially chose not to run for office and Councilman James Trombley filed to run against Towle, but Trombley withdrew from the race and Durand filed shortly before the deadline.

“I decided to run because of my desire to see Riverview continue to be a great city to live in and have children educated in,” Durand said. “I am not running with an ax to grind, but to make Riverview a better place.”

Towle, a frequent critic of Durand and the council, said he chose to run to combat the “deep trouble” – financial and otherwise – he sees the city heading toward under the current administration.

If elected, he pledges to be a “constant and vocal catalyst for change.”

“We need action now, not later,” Towle said.

Towle, who is employed with DCX labor, has lived in the city for more than 30 years. He graduated from Lincoln Park High School in 1964.

In addition to addressing the city’s budget and health care costs, Towle said he would abolish the “bully environment,” he sees among the current administration.

“Citizens are to be served with respect, courtesy and transparency,” he said.

Incumbents Lynn Blanchette, Thomas Coffey and Elmer Trombley are seeking their current seats. Challenging them are William Prucknic and David Ryan.

Prucknic, a 35-year resident of the city, has owned his own construction company for the past 30 years. He said he ran because he felt the city needed new, fresh ideas from political newcomers.

He said if elected, he would work to re-evaluate the current budget, combine city services and seek additional quotes for current services.

“I will listen to people and welcome fresh ideas,” he said. “I’m different than the other candidates because I can handle criticism.”

Ryan, a former aerospace engineer, said he ran for office because he felt the current administration was not listening to the concerns of many residents.

Coffey, Trombley and Blanchette did not respond to emails seeking comment for this story by press time.

In the school board race, incumbents Amy Laura-Frazier and Robyn Vitale are running against James Joseph Makowski, Vernon Lee Dunn Jr. and Gary Richard O’Brien Jr. for two four-year terms and one two-year term.