Westend: February 2014

PLACES TO EAT: OUR GUIDE TO NEARLY 100 LAKES AREA RESTAURANTS FEBRUARY 2014

WESTENDMONTHLY.COM

WESTEND C O M M E R C E • WA L L E D L A K E • W O LV E R I N E L A K E • U N I O N L A K E

NEW THREAT TO WATER QUALITY PERSONAL HYGIENE PRODUCTS POSING ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT TROUBLED COURT: ANOTHER CONTROVERSY FOR 52-1 DISTRICT JUDGES WHO'S TRACKING YOU: FEDERAL GOVERNMENT NOT THE ONLY ONES

ECRWSS Postal Customer PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID ROYAL OAK, MI 48068 PERMIT #792

425 Glengary Rd. Wolverine Lake, MI 48390 Ph: 248-624-1710 Fx: 248-624-3536

The Villager Village of Wolverine Lake

Winter 2014 Edition

www.wolverinelake.com The 2014 State of the Village -- John Magee, Village President Welcome to our winter newsletter. Here s a quick update on the state of our Village as we enter 2014: Budget With the Village now in solid fiscal shape, the Council has been able to turn our attention to some longoverdue projects to continue improving our Village. The Lake We plan to kick off a pilot laminar aeration project (see below) in the Penny Lake arm of the lake this summer. We also look forward to finally having the new weed harvester on the lake. Parks and Pathways We have increased our investment in our parks. You ll see new equipment coming to the Vita Trail as well as our Village s first neighborhood park on Oak Island. We have also established a Village Pathway Committee to work on creating pathways in difficult places like South Commerce Road.

Roads This year s paving plan includes a substantial repaving of Glengary Road, as well as the replacement of the crumbling culvert at our lake s outlet. Trash We now have a new trash hauler for the Village, Republic Services, Inc (see below). They have done a good job for several of our neighboring communities and we all look forward to lower trash bills in 2014. Panhandle Property After the abandoned Heron Hills property in the panhandle failed to sell at two tax auctions in 2012 we found a very good developer to purchase the property in 2013. Redwood Management Co. specializes in high-end apartments suitable for empty-nesters and retirees. They re a good fit with the Village and the existing Heron Hills development, and I look forward to them joining our community. And that s it. I m out of room! If I tried to mention by name everybody who has made this great progress possible, I d need three times the length of this column. So, let me just close with a big THANK YOU to all of you employees, residents, committee members, volunteers, and my fellow council persons who continue to make the Village a great place to live. THANK YOU!!!

Services Available to Village Residents

Vacation Plans?

Getting away from the cold weather? If so, fill out a Vacation form so the police can keep an eye on your home while you are away.

Forms available online or at Village Hall.

HAVEN Help-Against-Violent-Encounters-Now: The 24-hour crisis and support line is: 248-334-1274 Toll Free: 877-922-1274 LAKES AREA YOUTH ASSISTANCE: Provides counseling to strengthen families. Call 248-956-5070

programs

and

TRANSPORTATION SERVICE: Available for Seniors and the Disabled.

Reservations required. Call 248-698-3994

Laminar Flow Aeration Pilot Project

The Village Now Has A New Waste Collection Company Village Council has awarded the waste collection to Republic Services, Inc. Collection day, container size, etc. will all remain the same. The only change will be that Recycling will now be collected EVERY week rather than every other week. Please remember to follow the procedures and guidelines for waste collection established by Council. All refuse must be set out in proper containers or properly bundled no earlier than noon the day before collection and all refuse containers must be removed from the road edge by 9:00am the day after collection. To review the entire list of rules and regulations please contact Village Hall. Thank you for your cooperation and in helping to keep the Village of Wolverine Lake a beautiful place to live.

Dog License Now available at the Village offices.

Dog Tags are regular prices through June 1.

Proof of current rabies vaccination must be provided.

Michigan State Law requires that all dogs be licensed.

Sewer Connection Village Staff is now collecting names for residents interested in connecting to sewer and developing a Special Assessment District in order to pay most of the costs over 10 years on their Village tax bill. For more information contact Village Hall at 248-624-1710.

Plans are underway to install a pilot laminar flow aeration system in the Penny Lake arm of Wolverine Lake in Spring 2014. The system will be designed to allow one complete turnover of the water within the Penny Lake arm each day, which will aerate the entire water column thereby improving the lakes fishery, reducing available phosphorus and algae blooms, and increasing the rate of muck reduction within the lake. Results will be monitored over the next few years for possible expansion. The system will be installed, operated and maintained by a qualified aeration system vendor, and will cost between $40,000 and $45,000, including a 5-year warranty/maintenance plan. The system will consist of several land based compressor units and a series of selfsinking hoses to numerous air diffusers.

Oakland County Home Improvement Program

Winter Tips

100% Deferred and Interest-free loans, up to $18,000, are available to income qualifying residents. Call: 248-858-5401

Also available A Step Forward

Mortgage and/or Tax rescue program is available for residents in need.

Upcoming Events Bunny Lunch Saturday, April 12, 2014, from 1:00pm to 3:00pm at the Richardson Center.

Eat lunch and visit with the Easter Bunny. Includes pizza, dessert, crafts and an Egg Hunt at 2:00pm! Register at Village Hall or on our Website.

Eastern Market Bus Trip Saturday, May 10, 2014. Depart Clara Miller Park at 8:30am. Spend the morning at the Eastern Market and the afternoon in Greektown. Pre-registration at Village Hall is required. Space is limited and will fill up fast! Call 248-624-1710 for information.

Other Upcoming Events that the Park & Recreation Board are working on include a Bus Trip to a Tigers Game, the 15th Annual Fishing Tournament and the 26th Annual Village Corn Roast Festival.

Get Email Notifications The Village of Wolverine Lake has an email information line available.

This hotline keeps everyone up to date on news and events in the Village. There are now 982 subscribers and the list continues to grow! To join, simply visit the web-site www.wolverinelake.com click on the envelope icon and follow the prompts.

WESTEND

Parking on Village streets is prohibited November 1st through March 31st between 2:00am and 6:00am.

Remember it is illegal to push your driveway snow onto the roadway.

To reduce the amount of snow being pushed back into your driveway, pile snow from your driveway on the downstream side of the drive. If you stand in your driveway facing the street, the downstream side is to your right.

Place trash cans and bags off the road. Plows are required to push snow back to the mailboxes.

When following a salt truck be aware the driver may stop and back up at any time. Remember, if you cannot see the driver s face in the side mirror, they cannot see you. Please give the salt trucks room to work.

Never venture on the lake ice alone.

Remember the ice thickness varies from spot to spot.

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WESTEND02.14

Personal care products are proving to be the latest threat to both surface water and the water residents consume from municipal water supplies.

Trouble in the court

Who's tracking you?

The 52-1 District Court is back in the headlines with allegations about one of the judges, the second time in the past year.

Aside from the federal government monitoring your cell phone usage, local law enforcement has joined the act.

11 CRIME LOCATOR

PLACES TO EAT: OUR GUIDE TO NEARLY 100 LAKES AREA RESTAURANTS FEBRUARY 2014

New source of water contamination

WESTENDMONTHLY.COM

WESTEND

A recap of select categories of crime occurring in the past month in Commerce, Walled Lake, Wolverine Lake and the Union Lake area, presented in map format.

C O M M E R C E • WA L L E D L A K E • W O LV E R I N E L A K E • U N I O N L A K E

33 MUNICIPAL New council member appointed; township DDA board gets new members; parks and recreation plan approved; special assessment for Commerce Crossing roadway; plus more

41 BUSINESS MATTERS Lunch Box Spot, Zealand Spa and Salon, Tim Hortons, Rainbow Child Care Center

NEW THREAT TO WATER QUALITY

42 ENDNOTE

PERSONAL HYGIENE PRODUCTS POSING ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT TROUBLED COURT: ANOTHER CONTROVERSY FOR 52-1 DISTRICT JUDGES WHO'S TRACKING YOU: FEDERAL GOVERNMENT NOT THE ONLY ONES

Avoidable problems at the 52-1 District Court; the future of the Commerce library

ECRWSS Postal Customer PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID ROYAL OAK, MI 48068 PERMIT #792

THE COVER

FACES

Walled Lake Northern High School, 6000 Bogie Lake Road in Commerce, completed in April of 2003 as part of the Walled Lake School District.

Westend photo: Rachel Bechard

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WESTEND

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4 ,

FROM THE PUBLISHER

T

he controversy generated by an article about Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson in the late January issue of The New Yorker, in which he tossed out a couple of what would best be described as insensitive comments about the city of Detroit, begs for some commentary from someone who has known him since the mid-1970's.

The New Yorker article entitled â&#x20AC;&#x153;Drop Dead Detroit! The suburban kingpin who is thriving off the city's declineâ&#x20AC;? was in the final analysis a good personality profile piece on L. Brooks Patterson. The county executive's office, however, contends that they spent several days with the writer of the piece with the understanding that she was doing an article about what made Oakland County a successful municipal enterprise while the city of Detroit was spiraling downward into bankruptcy. The final piece was far from what Patterson's office expected.

What generated the headlines from the magazine article was a couple of quotes that are classic unfiltered Patterson, who has a tendency to offer up frank, blunt and many times entertaining assessments without always considering whether the manner of presentation is politically correct.

The most incendiary part of the piece involved Patterson's resurrection of what has been called a 30-year old quote in which he said that his old prediction about Detroit's decline had come true, likening the city to an Indian reservation where the inhabitants were fenced off and then tossed blankets and corn.

A more acceptable approach would have been to tell the writer that it was predicted that continued poor leadership in the city and flight of the white and then black middle and upper classes from Detroit would leave it, for the most part, with a base population that is less demographically attractive in terms of education, employment, etc., than what is found in Oakland, which is where, along with Macomb and parts of western Wayne County, former Detroiters fled. Framing the issue in this manner would have buffered the county executive from charges that he is a racist, which I personally don't accept.

But then we have come to expect such grating pronouncements from Brooks Patterson, whether the topic is Detroit, the state of affairs in Lansing, or local politicians, as he so ably demonstrated last year in an interview with Downtown.

So I would agree with critics that one of the more iconic and successful leaders in southeast Michigan has to parse his words more carefully, lest his public pronouncements and critics marginalize him at this critical juncture for the region, where the informed, influential and honest opinion of the county executive is needed most.

As for Patterson, he still remains popular in his home county in large part because he has performed to the benefit of his constituents who appreciate the growth of Oakland County into a regional powerhouse that fuels the state of Michigan.

Years ago, as only the second county executive in Oakland, he assembled one of the best government management teams in the country which has allowed him to develop a stable and more secure county, one that leads the region. It is a county that attracts jobs at a quicker rate than surrounding neighboring counties thanks to Patterson's initiatives to develop new emerging business sectors, a county that has set the pace nationally in terms of financial planning with multi-year rolling budgets, and a county that has worked, at Patterson's direction, on behalf of the region on issues like Cobo Hall and the Detroit Zoo while at the same time protecting the interests of his home turf on both those issues and withholding his support on other less deserving regional concepts that have been put forth.

We have Patterson to thank for bringing Oakland to prominence and flexing the county's political muscle on issues beyond our border, making it all the more important that the county executive maintain his and the county's standing as the region moves through some critical issues now on the table, which is best accomplished without the detraction of the side issues created by raw commentary on the city of Detroit.

David Hohendorf Publisher DavidHohendorf@downtownpublications.com

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INCOMING Oakland and Detroit

SIGN UP TODAY Get the latest news online from the leading news organization for the Commerce, Walled Lake, Wolverine Lake and Union Lake area.

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Kevin Elliott's account of the relationship between Oakland County and the city of Detroit regarding the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) passes over its origins (Water-Sewer: Regional control in the Offing?/Westend/December 2013).

Prior to 1956, the then-Detroit Department of Water Supply served only the city of Detroit. As the history of the DWSD puts it, â&#x20AC;&#x153;the Department's conservative management style was radically transformed in 1956 with the arrival of Gerald J. Remus, the new Superintendent and Chief Engineer.â&#x20AC;?

Remus started a policy of expansion to provide water and waste water services to the whole metropolitan area.

The first step in the expansion involved the Farmington Interceptor which extended the supply to Southfield Township, West Bloomfield Township and Bloomfield Township. Financing for these interceptors was not easy. It was accomplished by creation of the Oakland County Department of Public Works. The department entered into a contract with the city of Detroit for water and sewerage service, to be financed by revenue bonds. The department, in turn, entered into a variety of financing schemes with the various political units in the three townships and several cities to be served by the new interceptor. This is all described in an article in the March 1959 issue of Michigan Health entitled â&#x20AC;&#x153;Oakland County Dept. of Public Works Gives Area-Wide Approach to Sewage Problems.â&#x20AC;?

To assure the constitutionality of the new financial scheme, my late father, with myself as his lawyer, sued (Oakland County) in Oakland Circuit Court, claiming the financial scheme was unconstitutional. We lost, as expected. However, on appeal, contrary to what was intended, the supreme court in a 4 to 4 decision, failed to hold the new scheme constitutional. Alternative financial arrangements were made to assure the department's payment to the city of Detroit for water and sewage services would be lawful.

What is significant in all of this is that through the largess of the city of Detroit, Oakland County's farmland could be developed for residential and commercial uses

SPEAK OUT We welcome your opinion on issues facing the Commerce, Walled Lake and Union Lake communities.

Opinions can be sent via e-mail to westend@downtownpublications.com or mailed to Downtown Publications, 124 West Maple Road, Birmingham MI 48009.

While we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have a specific word limitation, we reserve the right to edit for length.

with an assured supply of water from the city of Detroit, and an assured place to dump sewage in the city of Detroit.

As I observe the rhetoric over management of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, as well as what a fair charge is for the services it provides the county, the fact is that Oakland County, absent the services of the city of Detroit, would still be rural.

Avern Cohn, United States District Court Judge, Eastern District of Michigan

Enjoy Westend I am a newer resident (18 months) to Commerce Township and I have to say I thoroughly enjoy reading Westend.

The articles that are featured each month actually have meaning and are relative to someone living in this area and I appreciate that. I have been receiving this for some time now but what sparked me to send this e-mail was your note from the publisher about term limits for state house and senate members (Westend/january 2014).

No one could have said it better.

Please continue this great periodical.

Jeremy M. Smith, Commerce Township

Comprehensive story This is one of the most comprehensive stories (Becoming Victims/January 2014/Westend) on human trafficking written.

Very well done. Congratulations.

Jane White, director, Michigan Human Traffic Task Force

Powerful article Read about your article on

WESTEND

Twitter and then read the whole thing (Becoming Victims/January 2014/Westend). Powerful stuff.

Makes you glad your kids are grown up and at least have the skills to make conscious decisions instead of being such unwitting victims, doesn't it? Such an interesting article.

Phyllis Weeks, West Bloomfield

Informed residents Thanks to Westend for letting local residents know what Commerce Township officials are doing.

It is very disappointing for many of us that the golf courses, purchased over seven years ago, have not yet been developed as residents were promised, and questioning the original highdensity zoning plans is not very promising.

As I understand the issue, the bottom line is money.

Residents were told years ago that this land would be developed into a multi-use area, and that this land would generate tax revenue.

Instead, township residents see a lessening of services (Friday township hall closing) because of the need to spend township tax revenue on paying off the debt for the purchase of this land.

This continues to be a very unhappy situation for those of us who pay our taxes.

Thanks again for keeping residents informed.

Sharon Venia, Commerce Township

Informative publication This e-mail is a thank you for an increasingly interesting and informative publication.

I think this surpasses by a mile the Spinal Column in this area. I find the publisher comments at the front and back of the magazine thought-provoking, although, of course, I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t always agree with him.

But I also really appreciate that the reporting includes many diverse opinions and viewpoints, which is the hallmark of good reporting and sadly lacking in todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s world.

I read a lot of these types of publications, scanning for local, important news, and this is the most informative I have come across.

So thank you and keep up the good work.

Susan Bayha, Commerce

Edwards & Chris Kelly Small 248. 924.1375 cedwards@hallandhunter.com

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rushing our teeth each morning and evening is a routine that we all follow without thinking about what is in the toothpaste we buy at the drugstore. We carefully brush, rinse and spit that toothpaste down the drain. More and more of us wash our hands with liquid hand soaps and disinfectants, and care for our skin with facial products that exfoliate and cleanse our faces with tiny beads that remove dead skin cells and reveal a sparkling and refreshed new us. Inside many personal care products that help clean and rejuvenate us are plastic microbeads â&#x20AC;&#x201C;some of the beads are only fractions of a millimeter long â&#x20AC;&#x201C; that provide the friction to clean our teeth and skin.

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2013 Residential Sale Report...for your Neighborhood I am pleased to furnish you with this encouraging local sales information. I hope you will find this data helpful in one way or another.

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They are designed to wash down the drain. Which means they then make their way into the water treatment system and eventually into our lakes and streams where they remain. No one knows for how long. There, they absorb and retain other chemical contaminants.

Because these plastic microbeads are so tiny, to fish and other water creatures, they mimic food organisms, and they eat them.

There, the pellets and the contaminants get passed up the food chain, back to us. But instead of landing on our faces as scrubs and cleansers, they end up on our plates. And they likely are in our drinking water.

For those at risk of health problems, the contaminants add further dangers because they can alter the genetic makeup of aquatic organisms, resulting in either death or deformities. People with weakened immune systems, including children, pregnant women and the elderly, can develop more serious problems both from ingesting contaminated fish as well as water with contaminants.

Researchers have found plastic microbeads from personal care products in all of the Great Lakes, except for Lake Superior, where its remoteness has preserved its water quality, at least for now.

Jon Allan, director of the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) Office of the Great Lakes, said the the issue of microparticles “has emerged very recently. We have to be vigilant with the Great Lakes. It's not something that was around years ago. It's not a static picture and it's changing routinely. We have to make progress on existing particles as well as new emerging contaminants. It's a community effort of state and local health officials' efforts to make sure local residents are drinking safe, healthy water.”

P

lastic microbeads were first discovered in the Great Lakes in 2012 when a New York environmental chemist had a hunch they may be there after numerous studies documented the presence of large amounts of plastic in the world's oceans. “If we find it in the oceans, we're probably going to find it in the Great Lakes,” said Sherri (Sam) Mason, associate professor of chemistry at SUNY Fredonia of her supposition that the particles would be found in these waterways.

Of the plastics collected during their 2012 and 2013 research, about 80 percent of the pieces were less than one millimeter in size, and most of them were spherical, suggesting they were released into the environment as pellets. What's more, Mason said, many of them were the same size and color – including white, blue, green, or orange-red – as the small beads used in a number of personal care products. They are tiny pellets that are not found, or mimicked, anywhere in nature. But to fish and other aquatic creatures, they are small particles that look like food and are easily ingested.

Besides fish from the Great Lakes, which we may enjoy as lunch or dinner, how else is this representative of a possible danger to all of us? Our drinking water comes from Lake Huron and the Detroit River, both of which have shown levels of contamination. The question remains, what comes through our taps after processing at water treatment plants?

Many of us in Oakland County receive water from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, which notes that their drinking water meets or surpasses all federal and state drinking water standards. Residents living in southern Oakland County, including Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills, Bloomfield Township, Beverly Hills, Bingham Farms, Royal Oak, and Southfield, receive water distributed by the Southeastern Oakland County Water Authority (SOCWA), which provides Detroit water through its member distribution systems.

“We test our water at least once a week at 50 different locations,” said Jeff McKeen, general manager of SOCWA. “Detroit (Water and

Sewerage) tests continuously at points of production.”

He noted that there are very small amounts of toothpaste and facial scrubs and other personal care products in our drinking water.

“The EPA and Detroit Water and Sewerage Department have done some testing, but I don't think it's much of a concern.”

The consensus is that our drinking water is contaminated, with trace amounts of chemicals filtering through the Detroit Water and Sewerage wastewater treatment plants, which takes water from the Great Lakes and rivers, as well as sewage, and treats them.

“Chemicals have been in our water for a long time. It's just now that we're able to detect them in extremely small quantities,” noted Mary Lynn Semegen, water quality manager at Detroit Water and Sewerage.

R

ichard Benzie, Community Drinking Water Department director for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, said the EPA has a process where they develop a candidate list of possible dangerous contaminants for future regulatory action. “It's a multi-year process of toxicological studies, where they are researching animal and/or human studies on their exposures. It can take 10 to 15 years from the time it pops up to recognize its dangers and its presence,” he said.

Semegen said that 2007 is the most recent study the department did with the EPA, which was its first phase, and while it was not published, Detroit Water and Sewerage is currently working on phase two.

“The EPA asked us to do samples of contaminants at the southwest water treatment plant in Detroit for raw river water and for treated water,” she said. “They were looking at 85 different chemical compounds, and only found two in the treated water, and in levels that are so small that even if you drank it for a lifetime, you wouldn't have enough for a full dose.”

Semegen said they were looking for personal care products; endocrine disrupters; pharmaceutical products; caffeine; acetaminophen; dilantin, an anti-convulsant drug; warfarin, an anticoagulant; Bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical in certain plastics which has been shown to have hormone-like properties; camphor; and perchlorate, which is found in jet fuel. BPA and camphor, used in some ethnic cooking, perfumes and aromatherapy, medicines, like Vick's Vaporub and anti-itch gels, hairsprays and deodorants were found. Benzie noted that perchlorate has been found, and they're determining if it should be regulated and at what levels.

“Perchlorate is being fast tracked. It's been found a lot in the water near military bases and airports,” Benzie said. “It's also common in some food and in beer. It's not easy to remove from water in treatment because it's voluble. It can be dangerous to the fetus of a pregnant woman and to the development of the thyroid.

It's a difficult decision. When they make a decision to go regulate something, they have two years to determine the regulations.”

“BPA is now ubiquitous in the environment, so it's not surprising (it was detected). But once it went through treatment, it was reduced tenfold,” Semegen said, noting it received no special removal treatment.

BPA was investigated in 2008, and in 2010, the FDA identified it as a possible hazard to fetuses, infants and young children. BPA has been removed from baby bottles, sippy cups and reusable water bottles, but it remains pervasive in the water supply.

Semegen said that BPA was found in the water system at 233 parts per trillion untreated; but at 27 parts per trillion treated.

“That's extremely low levels,” she said. “It's detected in nanograms per liter or parts per trillion. Figure it as one drop in a trillion other drops.”

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For emerging contaminants, which is the classification personal care products falls into, the EPA has placed them in the unregulated contaminant program, which Benzie said is currently in its third round of testing. “They check them every five years or so. They take different contaminants and chemicals, and set standards nationwide,” he explained. “They want to sample them quarterly nationwide, three months apart from water systems, or twice yearly from groundwater, and then determine if it's worth monitoring, or if their presence is ubiquitous.”

Any public water supply with a population greater than 10,000 people has to perform the monitoring, he said.

Benzie also said that individual states have the authority to determine to what extent they want to be involved in testing contaminants. “Michigan makes sure the EPA has the right contacts and the right sampling points identified to oversee all of the other monitoring,” he said.

“Beginning in October 2014, Detroit Water and Sewerage Department is getting ready to do some sampling under the Unregulated Contaminants Monitoring Rule on endocrine disrupters, or hormones, in the water supply,” Semegen said. They will do the monitoring for a year in order to see if there are chemicals present that the EPA may want to regulate in the future.

The EPA uses the Unregulated Contaminants Monitoring Rule program to collect data on chemicals and contaminants that are suspected of being present in drinking water but do not yet have health-based standards set under the Safe Drinking Water Act. So what is in our drinking water, and is it safe to consume?

According to SOCWA, there are limits on the amounts of certain contaminants in the water in all public water systems, but there are some. Drinking water, including bottled water, can contain at least small amounts of some contaminants. “The presence of contaminants does not necessarily indicate that water poses a health risk,” their website states.

The sources of our Oakland County drinking water includes rivers, lakes, streams, ponds, reservoirs, springs and wells. As water travels over the surface of the land or through the ground, it does dissolve some naturally-occurring minerals, SOCWA points out, and can pick up other substances from the presence of animals or from human activity.

C

ontaminants that can be picked up include microbial contaminants, such as viruses and bacteria, which may come from sewage treatment plants, septic systems, agricultural livestock operations and wildlife.

“A big problem comes from failing septic systems,” said Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner Jim Nash.

“Coliform and other things that make you sick can get into the surface water and people who live close to septic systems have issues because of high water tables. When there's a failure, it happens quick.”

Other contaminants, such as salts and minerals, can be naturally occurring or can be the result of urban storm runoff, industrial or domestic wastewater discharges, oil and gas production, mining or farming. Pesticides and herbicides, from agricultural and residential uses, also pose a danger to the water supply. Organic chemical contaminants and radioactive contaminants can be caused naturally or from oil or gas stations, from urban storm water runoff, or from failing septic tanks.

And now, there is the danger of personal care products.

“Most of our sewage and storm water pollutants are pulled out at our water treatment centers,” said Nash. “But tiny granules are another story. Toothpaste can cause buildups that no screenings can prevent. We can get sandbars of granules from toothpaste.”

In terms of the tiny microbeads in surface water in Oakland County, Nash responded, “It happens. It's there.”

T

hat must mean we're ingesting tiny plastic microbeads when we drink tap water. While it's not a reason to stop drinking our municipal water, which is considered some of the best in the country, why it's there and how to get rid of them is something to look at. And that's by examining the pharmaceutical and cosmetic companies, and how and why they are utilizing these products.

In efforts to beautify the public, some contend that the beauty industry has helped pollute the waters of the earth. Some manufacturers use traditional biodegradable exfoliators such as coconut husk. But that product is more costly than plastic, which is cheap, plentiful and cost effective.

It does appear that several personal care product makers are looking to phase out these products after pressure from the Plastic Soup Foundation, a Netherlands-based environmental group that seeks to curb the amount of plastic in the ocean.

“I believe microbeads in things like face scrubs may be banned.

Companies are certainly beginning to remove them,” noted Semegen.

Initially, Johnson & Johnson stated, “To date, the science shows that microbeads from personal care cleansers are removed in wastewater treatment systems.” However, science disproved that, and they recently put out another statement announcing a phaseout of the plastic microbeads from their beauty and baby care products.

“We want our beauty and baby care products to reflect consumers' current and future needs so they will always have complete peace of mind when using our products.” The company has said it is assessing the environmental safety of a “promising alternative” to the tiny beads. They are aiming for a full elimination of microbeads in their products globally no later than 2017.

Unilever, whose personal care brands include Vaseline, St. Ives, Pond's, Alberto VO5, and other hair and skincare products, announced it too would phase out the plastic beads used in those products worldwide by 2015. While doing so, they still fought the evidence, saying in a statement, “The amount of plastic in the marine environment thought to originate from the use of plastic scrub beads in personal care products is considered to be limited compared to other sources.”

L'Oreal is another company which has announced they will be phasing out their use of microbeads. For them, it is a public relations necessity – the corporation owns The Body Shop, a brand of personal care products which markets itself as socially and environmentally conscious. Testing has ascertained that microbeads were found in some of The Body Shop products.

L'Oreal said that “it is committed to ensuring that all of our products have the best-in-class environmental profile.” They said they conduct research on the impacts of its items on aquatic ecosystems and said they will not develop any new products using plastic microbeads as exfoliants and “the company favors substituting them in its existing formulae whenever possible.”

When you go to choose a personal care product, how do you know if a product you may want to use has included one of these environmentally toxic beads? Check the ingredient listing. If there is the word “polyethylene”, reject the item for another one with a more natural scrubbing particle, such as coconut husks, ground peach pits, or borax.

So ultimately, can you drink the water in Oakland County? The answer remains yes. It's safe by all standards, is tested weekly at numerous sites throughout the county, as well as by the city of Detroit.

Time to start planning for your spring move.

Call Jennifer for your free market analysis today!

Oakland County's Lakefront Specialist

Jennifer Wrobleski 248-854-3100 Office: 248-360-2900 jwrobleski@kw.com

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FACES

Jemil Metti

A

merican-born author Jemil Metti was two months old when his mother passed away and his father, an Iraqi native, made the difficult decision to move his family back to his homeland.

“We had lived in Long Island, New York. My father loved New York, but the last thing he expected was to lose my mother, and it derailed him completely,” Metti said. “My dad was a merchant in the export/import business, but he was left with four children and friends and relatives were back in Iraq.”

Metti attended private school in Iraq and his diversely rich upbringing provided a bounty of knowledge and unique experiences for his first book, Perception Wars: Iraq From The Outside In. The biography tells of his journey into and out of Iraq, from tragedy to triumph.

“It was quite therapeutic. I wrote a lot of things that even my sisters didn’t know about.”

The Pahlavi Sword, a historical fiction novel Metti released in August 2013, takes place inside Iran’s Evin Prison and focuses on Savak, the notorious secret police.

“It’s about how everyone suffers from the practice of torture and how it negatively impacts their lives and how the perpetrators suffer as well.”

Metti first began writing poetry and plays when he was a young boy, but as an American immigrant living in Iraq, he lived in a constant state of angst.

“In the eyes of the government, I was an American-born Christian. That was always a point of fear for us.”

Eager to return to the U.S., Metti was 20-years-old when he finally moved back.

“I was able to come back because I was an American citizen by birth. The politics of the region tends to dominate the treatment of the people. It wasn’t easy getting out.”

Metti earned his bachelor’s degree from Northern Illinois University. His uncle, an entrepreneur who lived in Chicago, hired Metti and he worked his way through college. Later, Metti moved to Michigan and his fondness for writing led to a career in journalism.

Metti dabbled in radio news at WWWS-FM in Saginaw and he wrote for the Romeo Observer and the Advisor Newspapers. He also co-anchored the first weekly Arabic television program in the U.S. known to Middle Eastern viewers as the Arab Voice of Detroit.

Ultimately, Metti realized his calling was as a teacher, and he earned his teaching degree from Wayne State University.

With his education and strong linguistic skills, he has taught ESL (English as a Second Language) and U.S. government in southeastern Michigan school districts. Currently, he teaches ESL at Walnut Creek Middle School.

He and his wife, Tokiko, reside in Commerce Township where he is working on his next novel, which will take place in the Holy Land. His books are available on Amazon.

He has attained great personal and professional success, but remains cognizant of his roots and is grateful for the freedoms and opportunities afforded to him.

“Because of the hardships I’ve had and been through, I take nothing for granted.”

Story: Katey Meisner

Photo: Ramiz Romaya

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W W W. R O B E R T J H A R R E L L . C O M

NEW QUESTIONS ON 52-1 COURT MACKENZIE, PROSECUTOR SKIRMISH PUTS JUDGES BACK IN HEADLINES

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BY KEVIN ELLIOTT

hen the rumblings in the court room are about the judge, rather than the defendant, it's never a good sign. But that is what appears to be happening in the the 52-1 District Court in Novi, where controversy is swirling over two of its judges and possible malfeasance.

The district court serves the communities of Commerce Township, Highland, Lyon, Milford Village, Novi, South Lyon, Wolverine Lake Village, Walled Lake and Wixom, and has three judges, each of whom is elected to serve 6-year terms. Each judge earns $138,272 in annual salary, which is comprised of $45,724 from Oakland County and $92,548 from the state of Michigan. The 52-1 court is one of four divisions of this particular district court, with divisions serving Brandon Township, Holly, Groveland, Independence Township, Rose Township, Springfield, White Lake, Holly, Clarkston, Ortonville, Addison, Auburn Hills, Oakland Township, Orion, Oxford, Rochester, Rochester Hills, Lake Orion, Leonard, Troy and Clawson.

Like other district courts, the 52-1 District Court is a limited jurisdiction court, meaning that its focus is misdemeanor legal issues, such as traffic violations, civil disputes with money damages less than $25,000, criminal cases involving punishments of not more than a one-year imprisonment, and small claims disputes for the collection of limited amounts of money.

District courts also handle the initial phases of felony cases to determine if there is probable cause that a defendant actually committed a crime and, if so, the cases are remanded to the circuit court for trial and resolution.

It's not too often that any one of the 16 districts courts in Oakland County find themselves the topic of media coverage, although the 52-1 District Court has currently become the exception.

The court made the news last year when Judge Dennis Powers gained attention in the spring of 2013 when Fox 2 WJBK claimed in a story in May that Powers was showing up late to work, and that Powers had been using Oakland County taxpayer funds to pay for golf outings and cell phone bills and other personal items.

The stories, conducted by reporter Rob Wolchek, alleged Powers was taking extended lunch breaks or coming in hours after he was scheduled to be on the bench, leaving attorneys, assistant county prosecuting attorneys, defendants and plaintiffs cooling their heels in the courthouse hallways.

Judge Julie Nicholson, who serves as the chief judge of the 52nd District Court, took action last year regarding financial reimbursement issues that were raised at the 52-1 involving Powers, who first joined the court in 1998 and whose current term expires in 2016.

Powers was reportedly temporarily transferred to another court after the investigation, according to media reports, and he reimbursed the county just over $3,800. The controversy resulted in additional oversight by Nicholson, who required that she see all reimbursement records before being submitted to the county, which technically is the administrator for the court.

Powers said on January 28 that Wolchek's report gave a false light of his court because the report focused on a day when the court docket had been adjourned and Powers was scheduled to take a vacation day in order to attend a golf outing.

"It was an utter, fabricated lie," Powers said about claims that the courtroom was full of people waiting for him to appear. hile Powers admits he may have arrived to court as late as 9:45 on occasion – when the court docket had been scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. – he said prosecutors don't typically arrive until 9 a.m., and case files are rarely available prior to 9:15. He would often arrive at 9 a.m., but denies that he ever caused any delays.

"I never had any complaints," he said, adding that he has since changed his docket to start at 9 a.m., rather than 8:30 a.m. "I'm still upset about the way I was portrayed, and it has caused a lot of grievance."

The latest issue to catapult the 52-1 District Court into the headlines involves Judge Brian MacKenzie.

First appointed to the court in 1988, MacKenzie had early on been an assistant prosecuting attorney in Wayne County, and since taking the bench has a lengthy resume and a list of awards and recognition for the development of court policies relative to drunk driving, domestic violence, violent crime prevention, drug treatment court, along with positions held in a number of state and national attorney and judicial associations.

MacKenzie has meticulously nurtured an image in the media as being an innovative jurist and, at one time, was considered one of the tougher judges when it came to sentencing. But it is his handling of that very issue – sentencing – that has currently brought him into the spotlight, along with suggestions that he may be guilty of conflict of interest involving a paid position held by his wife.

MacKenzie has taken heat in the media for a potential conflict of interest from ties to the Michigan Association of Drug Court Professionals.

The district court judge serves as president of the association and does so without compensation.

However, MacKenzie's wife is employed in a paid position as the association's executive director.

The association receives thousands of dollars from drug and alcohol testing companies.

The harshest criticism against MacKenzie, whose current seat is up for reelection in November 2014, has come from Oakland County

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Prosecutor Jessica Cooper, who in a complaint filed in Oakland County Circuit Court against MacKenzie, is asking the county's circuit court to take superintending control of some of MacKenzie's cases. Cooper not only criticizes what she refers to as MacKenzie's self-imposed brand of justice, but accuses the longstanding judge of ignoring the law altogether by illegally tossing out convictions gained by the prosecutor's office in order to impose new charges and sentences at his own discretion. In order to secure his decisions, the complaint accuses MacKenzie of hiding his actions from the prosecutor's office and the public by classifying the cases as nonpublic without the prosecutor's knowledge.

"Specifically, he has been taking pleas in misdemeanor cases and subsequently setting sentencing dates when no prosecutor is present.

At the sentencing dates, MacKenzie has been violating his clear legal duty to follow Michigan law by granting illegal under-advisement sentences.... ultimately resulting in improper dismissals of convictions that were entered against the defendants," Cooper's office states in the complaint filed on November 26, 2013.

Cooper alleges MacKenzie has established a "pattern of practice" in issuing "secret illegal sentences" that go back to at least 2003. Court documents list nine cases that Cooper highlights in making the claims against MacKenzie, the earliest of which was discovered when a longtime assistant prosecutor recalled a former prosecutor's challenge to MacKenzie's "practice of granting illegal judicial dismissals" that resulted in a 2004 appeal, and a subsequent opinion and order from former Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Steven N. Andrews.

David Gorcyca, the former Republican Oakland County Prosecutor who was in office at the time the 2004 decision was made, said on January 27 that he didn't recall the case until it recently became part of the current complaint.

"I didn't even know we had undertaken that effort," he said.

Gorcyca said he doesn't remember having any specific problems with MacKenzie's rulings in the past.

"Once in a while, we would have issues with judges who would go into the 'gray' area,” Gorcyca said. "Normally, what I did was send my (district court assistant prosecutor) chief to talk to the judge directly and try to work it out.

Sometimes there would be special cases, or if the judge felt (the defendant) was overcharged, we would look at it. If that didn't work, I would go to the chief judge, rather than making it a public fight."

Whether or not Cooper had attempted to take other courses of action to remedy the problems listed in the complaint against MacKenzie isn't known. Multiple calls to Cooper's office regarding the complaint weren't returned.

MacKenzie also declined to comment on the matter, instead referring questions to his attorney John Lynch. Lynch said the complaint seeking superintending control was the first notice MacKenzie received about the issues raised in the complaint.

In regards to an alleged conflict of interest, Lynch said MacKenzie wasn't involved in any discussions at the Michigan Association of Drug Court Professionals relative to the employment of his wife, and left the room when such discussions did occur. Lynch said that MacKenzie abstained from voting on the matter when it was brought up.

On January 28, Lynch filed a motion on MacKenzie's behalf to dismiss the prosecutor's

case. The motion asserts the prosecutor's complaint is inaccurate and misleading. Lynch said in the motion that there were no secret or concealed proceedings or dismissals; that the prosecutor had notice of all hearings; had access to all nonpublic files; and that the office received copies of all pleadings, orders and other filings.

"Because an appeal was available in all nine cases cited by the prosecutor in its pleadings, superintending control is not the appropriate remedy," the motion stated.

Lynch bases the motion to dismiss on several principle points, all of which are used to support his contention that the prosecutor has no right to the relief she has requested in the complaint.

Among the points, Lynch said there were no "secret" or "concealed" meetings, and that the prosecutor had notice to all of the hearings at issue, which were held in open court. The motion states the prosecutor has access to all files made nonpublic by the court, and that all files and pleadings are received by e-filings by the prosecutor's office.

The motion asserts that it's impossible to schedule all hearings for state-law days, and that doing so would give the prosecutor preferential treatment. Further, Lynch asserts that it's the prosecutor's general policy that assistant prosecutors don't attend sentencing hearings, regardless of the days they are scheduled.

Lastly, the motion proclaims that the misstatements of facts and misleading and irrelevant allegations in the complaint "demonstrate the prosecutor failed to properly investigate its claims before publicly filing these sensationalized allegations." The motion further states the false claims in the complaint "violate the applicable standards set forth in the Michigan Rules of Professional Conduct," as they "contain a relentless stream of false, misleading and impertinent hyperbole." ooper's complaint asks the Oakland County Circuit Court to take superintending control of MacKenzie's court in order to ensure Mackenzie stops all actions outlined in the complaint. The complaint also asks the circuit court to order MacKenzie's court to list all cases in the past 10 years in which MacKenzie has granted a delayed sentence and those in which charges were dismissed under one of the several state statutes that allow for delayed sentences. Further, the complaint requests that MacKenzie notify the prosecutor's office in the future of any cases involving that office where he has granted delayed or deferred sentencing, or dismissal of charges.

Those filing complaints against judges have different options in seeking a solution. While the circuit court has authority over the county's district courts, conflicts typically pertain to specific case rulings and involve the appeals process. District court chief judges also have authority to rectify issues that exist in that court.

The Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission is the state's commission which serves to hold judges, magistrates and court referees accountable for misconduct. Complaints, investigations and settlements involving the commission are kept confidential, unless the commission accepts an agreement to settle a complaint.

Whether Cooper has filed a complaint with the commission isn't known. However, a complaint can be made and investigated by the commission concurrently with a legal complaint, said Paul Fischer, executive director of the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission.

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Investigations conducted by the commission, if they include a recommendation for corrective actions, are sent to the Michigan Supreme Court, which can then decide whether or not to take action. The last action against a judge in the 52nd District Court system was at the 52-2 District Court in Clarkston when former district court Judge Dana Fortinberry was publicly censured by the court in 2006 for publicly attacking a judicial candidate in a letter. That action was taken following an investigation and recommendation by the commission.

"The commission can't remove someone," Fischer said. "The commission makes a recommendation, but the supreme court isn't bound by the recommendation, and the supreme court can't act until the investigation and hearing on the formal complaint is over."

In addition to the Judicial Tenure Commission, there are other avenues where corrective actions can be taken or complaints regarding court proceedings can be made. For instance, a court's chief judge may take administrative actions to rectify or clarify proceedings at the court without necessarily taking actions against a specific judge.

Chief Judge Nicholson clarified procedures at the 52nd district court regarding the notification of hearings, specifically in regard to the notification of the prosecutor's office. The letter was offered as part of MacKenzie's response to Cooper's claims that he has purposely kept sentence hearings a secret from the prosecutor's office. tate-law cases – those involving crimes against the state and prosecuted by Cooper's office, rather than infractions of local ordinances, which are typically handled by municipal attorneys – are scheduled on specific days of the week to accommodate assistant prosecutors. The scheduling of state-law case days is a common practice at the district court level so that prosecutors don't run into various scheduling conflicts at different courts.

According to the prosecutor's complaint, MacKenzie scheduled some criminal sentencing to non-state law days, without notifying prosecutors, or to those in which he knew a prosecutor would't be present, in order to change pleadings and enter some defendants into deferred or delayed sentencing programs.

MacKenzie, in his response, denied the claims, stating there were no “secret” proceedings.

"It is the Prosecutor's policy that an assistant prosecutor only appears in court on Wednesdays (and every other Thursday), but the 52-1 District Court conducts business five days a week," MacKenzie's response states. "Judge MacKenzie never held secret judicial proceedings in an attempt to conceal any judicial activity, and any assertion to the contrary is patently false... A public hearing is not rendered 'secret' merely because the prosecutor chooses not to attend."

Nicholson's letter, dated January 7, 2014, states that "while the four divisions of the 52nd District Court make an effort to schedule all the state cases on regularly scheduled state law and/or exam days, it's impossible to do so for these courts that serve multiple jurisdictions.

Consequently, some hearings, such as sentencing, probation violations, arraignments, and show causes may be set on non-state law days.

Therefore, it's incumbent upon the assistant prosecuting attorney to review the notice to appear closely in the event the APA chooses to appear for a hearing that isn't scheduled on a state law or exam day. To eliminate any

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confusion, as well as duplication of employee resources, dockets will be provided to the APAs for non-state law/exam days."

While the letter and motion appears to address the assertions of the judge conducting secret proceedings listed in the prosecutor's complaint, MacKenzie's responses do not address other concerns, including the failure to gain consent from the prosecutor's office and victims required by law to enter defendants into some types of sentencing programs.

Further, the prosecutor's office claims that MacKenzie not only didn't get consent, but that court records were falsified to indicate a prosecutor was present during the sentencing.

The complaint specifically lists seven such cases.

Cooper's office also filed a complaint on December 16, 2013, to the Court Reporting and Recording Board of Review against Paul Ward, the court reporter in MacKenzie's court.

"Mr. Ward has repeatedly and falsely certified that APAs have appeared at sentencing when the APAs weren't in attendance," chief assistant prosecutor Paul Walton wrote in the complaint. "In each of these cases, Paul Ward falsely lists under "appearances" a named APA. In each case, the named APA wasn't at the listed sentencing. In each case, the court ultimately imposed an unlawful and illegal sentence that required this office to file an appeal."

The complaint could be further evidence that the prosecutor's complaint against MacKenzie isn't a political vendetta, but based on the possibility that the judge has overstepped sentencing procedures by ignoring state law. In fact, the complaints against MacKenzie cites a previous opinion and order by the circuit court stating that he disregarded state law and exceeded his authority in a 2004 sentencing, when Gorcyka was still prosecutor. Despite the decision, the prosecutor's complaint alleges MacKenzie continues to disregard the law.

The 2004 case involved a man charged with domestic violence on June 2, 2003, in which he pleaded no contest. The prosecutor's office, at the time run by former prosecutor David Gorcyca, filed an objection in the case to stymie any attempt to have the conviction receiving an "under advisement status." Despite the objection, the sentencing date in the case was scheduled for a day when an assistant prosecutor wasn't scheduled to be in court, and the charge was placed under advisement.

Under advisement status allows first-time criminal offenders to keep some convictions from being entered in the court system by pleading no contest or guilty to a charge, then agreeing to undergo a sentencing program prescribed by the judge. Depending on the type of crime, defendants may be required to enter "guilty" pleas rather than "no contest," and the consent of the prosecutor and victim of the crime are needed before being permitted to receive an under advisement status.

In the 2004 case in question, MacKenzie granted the defendant under advisement status under the Spousal Abuse Act, MCL 769.4a, which allows first-time domestic violence convictions to be taken under advisement during the probationary period. The charge is then dismissed if the defendant successfully completes probation.

The statute requires defendants to plead "guilty" to their crime, and for defendants to receive approval from both the prosecutor's office and the victim.

Following the decision, the prosecutor's office appealed the sentencing decision, noting the

defendant pleaded "no contest" rather than guilty, and that there was no consent from the victim or prosecutor's office. Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Andrews reversed MacKenzie's decision, stating "the district court disregarded the limits set by the legislature and exceeded its authority."

Andrews also advised MacKenzie's court to refrain from such decisions in the future, according to Cooper's complaint. he complaint also lists other cases, including a 2011 case in which a man was charged with reckless driving and assault and battery stemming from a road rage incident where he drove his vehicle at two people.

The defendant pleaded guilty to both counts.

MacKenzie, in his sentencing, dismissed the charges and granted the defendant under advisement status under the Spousal Abuse Act, despite not knowing the victims prior to the crime, much less not having a spousal relationship, nor receiving consent from the prosecutor or victims.

In another case, Cooper states in the complaint, MacKenzie granted under advisement status in a domestic violence case to a defendant for his second offense. State statutes allow the status to be granted only for first offenses.

The complaint alleges that MacKenzie further attempted to hide his actions by ordering the files be classified as "nonpublic" following the their closures. However, MacKenzie, in his response, points out that state statutes that permit some charges be taken under advisement and require the files be made "nonpublic." For instance, MCL 769.4a, which allows for some first offense domestic violence charges to be taken under advisement, the records must be made nonpublic following completion of a case. However, nonpublic records are maintained by the Michigan State Police and are accessible to law enforcement agencies, prosecutors and members of the court, under the law.

In MacKenzie's response, his attorney stated in court records that MacKenzie's court handles more than 17,000 cases each year, and that a total of nine cases listed in the series of complaints filed by the prosecutor's office fails to indicate a "pattern of practice."

"The prosector has identified, at most, nine cases since 2003, seven of which were appealed and all of which could have been appealed," the response states. "Such a paltry return on her investigation doesn't demonstrate a pattern of practice to act in contradiction to the law as required to support an order for superseding control."

Whether the circuit court will agree with MacKenzie's assertion can't yet be ascertained.

However, the cases may simply be the tip of the iceberg, Cooper said in a response filed with the court. Further, even if her argument isn't compelling with the circuit court, higher courts and investigating agencies may agree with the position she states in one of her responses: "The issues raised in Respondent Mackenzie's press release-style responses range from irreverent (and often inaccurate), to tacit admissions that his experience as a judge allows him to ignore the constitutional limitations imposed on sentencing by the Legislative and Executive branches of government, so long as the end result of these illegal sentences is deemed acceptable to Respondent MacKenzie," her office stated in court filings.

Those living in Oakland County and within the boundaries of the 52-1 District Court will have to wait and see whose interpretation of justice will prevail.

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FACES Eric Fischer

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ric Fischer, vocalist and bass guitar player for the local band Troubleman, became a master of music by 17-years-old.

“I started with the drums when I was about 12years-old. I was always playing on a mattress with drumsticks to ‘Dr. Feelgood,’” he said. “I switched over to the acoustic guitar and taught myself how to play bass by 17.”

Coming from a musical family, Fischer gathered encouragement from his mother and father, who also played the guitar.

“They would tell me to turn the drums down, which of course you can’t do,” he said. “But, they actually told me to go for it. My mom liked the music, ‘Except for all the dang cussin’!’”

When four musicians from two local bands merged, Troubleman was born and the high-energy rock-and-roll punk band skyrocketed to early success.

“We played two Warped Tours,” Fischer said.

“We played with (punk bands) AFI, Rancid, Pennywise, NOFX, X ,and opened for some national acts. They play us on Internet radio, (Detroit’s) Radio Opie and they’ve played us on 89X and WRIF. We were on Mitch Albom’s radio show.”

Darren McCarty, former Detroit Red Wing player and lead singer for the band Grinder, heard Troubleman’s sound and sought to financially back their first album.

Fischer and his bandmates befriended the Detroit legend. The group would invite McCarty and other former Red Wings like Bob Probert to their gatherings.

“We were doing so well,” Fischer said. “We were playing and packin’ it out everywhere. I was able to play on the same stage as bands I loved.”

Hearing his music on local radio stations continues to be a surreal experience for Fischer.

“The first time it felt weird. It wasn’t like we were just showing it to friends,” he said. “We were happy to match the success of bands we looked up to, but it puts a whole new pressure on you.”

The band took a hiatus and during that time Fischer fell in love and married his own songbird, Kristina. The two have a son, Liam, and daughter, Kaitlyn. Much like his own childhood home, music is a constant presence in their Walled Lake house.

“Me and (Kristina) have played songs together.

We never put them out, but we do it for fun. I also play at the church we go to,” he said. “Liam’s always asking, ‘what are you playing, Dad?’ He’ll grab his guitar and play with me.”

Fischer is back in the studio with Troubleman and looking forward to debuting their latest album, set for release in 2014.

Fischer is intensely passionate about his craft but family takes priority.

“We live in Walled Lake and we like to go to the Big Boy and I love Nino’s Pizza,” he said. “I love to go fishing at all the lakes around here.

“Family comes first. I work out stuff when (the kids) are napping or when they’re sleeping at night. It’s nice to be blessed to be able to do this, but my family takes center stage.”

Story: Katey Meisner

Photo: Laurie Tennent

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WHO’S TRACKING YOU? EVEN LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT NOW MONITORING PHONE CALLS

By Kevin Elliott

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he technology that Alexander Graham Bell patented with the first phone in 1876 may seem as antiquated today compared to iPhone’s and other smartphones as the piece of string and two cups we used as children to play telephone. Devices that once simply allowed two people to communicate with each other have morphed into wireless supercomputers small enough to fit into our pockets with capabilities once written about in science fiction literature.

Their use today is so ubiquitous that state and local governments have enacted laws to limit their use for our own safety. Yet for all the conveniences that phones, computers, tablets and other mobile devices offer modern society, users give up an ever-increasing amount of personal privacy, often without their knowledge or consent.

The loss of personal privacy from both the government and the private sector has become accepted by much of the general public. It’s simply an accepted invasion by users of modern technology. And, while the constitutional founders of

the United States specifically addressed the public’s right to privacy from the government through the Fourth Amendment, there are few, if any, laws that limit the amount and type of big data collection that is being gathered today by private companies. Nor could it have been imagined in 1776.

Details about the federal government’s surveillance programs are still coming to light in the months following the leak of secret documents made public by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. Those documents led to the federal government’s acknowledgement of the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of data on mobile phone calls, and sparked a number of lawsuits about the program that are still being decided by the federal courts. Other documents leaked by Snowden reveal the government has compelled companies to provide access to private citizen’s data, and indicated it directly paid AT&T to place some employees in drug-fighting units around the country with the DEA. It was called the Hemisphere Project, a previously hidden program in which the government paid AT&T to place employees in units alongside Drug Enforcement Administration agents and local detectives in areas throughout the country. The phone company employees then supplied investigators with phone data from as far back as 1987. The project involved a massive database of call records for every call traveling through the AT&T switch, whether the calls originated from an AT&T phone or another carrier. In a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in a federal drug case in California, about 4 billion records were added to the database each day. oncerns about the government’s access to private data and potential violations of the Fourth Amendment have also been raised about how some local law enforcement agencies are conducting surveillance, including the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office.

Jonathan Weinberg, a professor at Wayne State University’s Law School who studies technology in relation to the law, said whether the federal surveillance programs have violated the Fourth Amendment is still being decided by federal courts. The United States Supreme Court announced on January 17, 2014, that it will decide in two cases whether police need a warrant to search the cellphones of people they have arrested. The cases will be argued in April and decided by late June.

However, he said laws restricting the amount and types of data collected in the private sector are much more lenient and unlikely to change.

“Whether you like it or not, we are subject to a tremendous amount of surveillance and data collection in our everyday lives,” Weinberg said. “If you’re like most people, when you visit various sites on the web, DoubleClick — which is owned by Google — will keep notes on which sites you visited and what you looked at. DoubleClick will then talk to Nielsen and Experian, who have collected other information about you.

“In Europe and the EU (European Union), they have stronger laws limiting the collection of data that is available for monitoring people, and we have never done that. It’s hard to see politics making any substantial move in that direction. I think that we don’t have a national political process where I see that happening. The United States business community would strongly oppose such a law.”

Data collected by DoubleClick, Nielsen, Experian, a credit reporting company, and other Internet advertising, marketing and data companies can sell consumer information to and about customers, which includes both businesses and federal government agencies, such as the NSA. Investigative agencies can then use the data they purchased in conjunction with other information acquired by wireless providers and other sources. The agencies then analyze that data for their investigations.

“One of the things the NSA does is just buy a lot of privately collected information,” Weinberg said. “They buy it from DoubleClick. The NSA is just one of their customers.”

In addition to Internet activity, data stored by smartphone applications is available to the makers of those applications, often referred to as apps.

Further information can be gathered by businesses using sensors to track customers and build shopper profiles through location data accessed through WiFi-enabled phones. Recently, the Wall Street Journal indicated a few new companies have installed tracking sensors at their clients’ businesses to follow people where they live, work and shop.

“The one thing you may find comforting is that, unless you are really unusual, there are no people who know anything about you – there are

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only computers,” Weinberg said about Internet tracking data. “All of this is stored in a computer somewhere, and the computer has an algorithm to show you whatever it is you might want to buy. It isn’t a person; the computer is spitting out things that try to get you to buy something. Does that make it better? It depends on the individual reaction.” akland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said while the department takes precautions to ensure investigations adhere to Fourth Amendment and Michigan’s own privacy laws, the amount of personal information being gathered by private companies dwarfs surveillance actions and data collection done by local law enforcement.

“In the world of technology there’s almost nothing that is private, and most of the time it’s not the government. We try to put out warnings about it,” Bouchard said. “E-mails are scanned, including the headers and contents, oftentimes by the company that is providing the e-mail service.

If you put a picture on Facebook, it uses geo-facial positioning, which tags every picture you take, directly pinpointing location information. Some social media redacts that information, but it doesn’t mean they don’t retain it. Who knows what they do with that information.”

Bouchard said his department must follow state and federal laws during the course of an investigation in order to ensure evidence is obtained legally and is admissible in court. He said the private sector isn’t forced to follow the same “legal or moral compass.”

Technological advances at the sheriff’s office have raised concerns locally for its ethical and legal usage. Reports in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and the Detroit Free Press have indicated the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office has obtained a device known as a “Stingray.”

“Stingray” is the name for the Harris Corporation’s line of “cell site stimulator” devices, also called IMSI catchers, in reference to the unique identifier, or international mobile subscriber identity, of wireless devices, according to an amicus brief filed in federal court by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Wireless carriers provide coverage through a network of base stations that connect wireless devices to the network, and an IMSI catcher masquerades as a wireless carrier’s base station, prompting the device to communicate with it. When it does, a Stingray may collect data associated with the mobile device, collecting that information and pinpointing their location within about two meters.

However, the ACLU claims that the use of Stingrays violates the Fourth Amendment rights of third parities by indiscriminately collecting data from unintentional targets connecting to the Stingray; and that government agencies using Stingray devices typically fail to include the extent and capabilities of Stingray devices to magistrates when requesting a search warrant or court order authorizing its use.

Oakland County Undersheriff Michael McCabe declined to comment on the reports of their department’s possible usage of Stingrays. The Department of Homeland Security, in assisting local law enforcement agencies with grants to obtain Stingray devices, requires participating departments to enter into a nondisclosure agreement.

“When it comes to investigative techniques, you have to hold them close to the vest,” McCabe said. “We follow the law, and the law is always evolving as court decisions come down all the time, especially as related to technology. We have no problem following the rules, and they are what they are.”

An ACLU Freedom of Information Act Request dated August 3, 2011, regarding cell phone record investigations at the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office was denied by the department. Among items included in the request were those relating to the acquisition of cell phone location records; policy procedures and practices to obtain such records; data detention policies; the use of cell phone records to identify targets; probable cause; statistics of use and additional items was denied, as the office stated “no such records exist” in some cases and that the request “doesn’t sufficiently describe the record requested” as required under the law.

“Location data can be huge,” Bouchard said, regarding its value to an investigation. “We do that in the restraints of the law and court opinions.

But the private sector doesn’t do that.”

Bouchard said keeping up with technology is always a challenge when it comes to investigative techniques. Additionally, he said investigators must make sure to stay within the restraints of the law so that procedures don’t jeopardize a case in court. And while some surveillance activity may be capable on the physical level, it isn’t permitted under state law.

“We aren’t allowed, even with a court order, to do wiretaps,” he said.

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“We can’t get content wiretaps placed in terms of hard wires or cell phones.

For us, if we do something outside the law, then the evidence isn’t usable.

We want to make sure we do a case right, and we don’t want someone getting off because the process was deemed inappropriate.”

Bloomfield Township Police Chief Geof Gaudard said currently it’s legal for investigators to search the contents of a cell phone or computer if a suspect has been arrested. However, Bouchard said there are efforts at the state and federal level to change that law and restrict the search of mobile devices without a warrant. The Supreme Court’s ruling on the two cases could well impact local law enforcement searches.

“The law continues to evolve and change with regards to cell phones and being able to obtain information from a cell phone,” Gaudard said. “We have to go through a legal process to do that, but we still have to pursue it because everyone has a cell phone, and everyone conducts business, legal or not, on a cell phone. If we weren’t looking at that, we would be negligent in our job. But we have to follow the law when we do that. Decisions from the court are constantly changing as technology changes. There is always a battle of protecting someone’s privacy, and when courts rule on new technology we often call the prosecutor for advice in that area. It’s ever changing because technology is ever changing.”

Gaudard said there are misconceptions regarding the law and capabilities of law enforcement. For instance, he said there are exceptions to the search warrant rule such as the ability to search a person and their personal effects at the time of arrest. And, while placing a tracking device on someone’s vehicle or mobile device requires a court order, having an officer physically follow a suspect doesn’t require authorization from the court. nother misconception relates to the capability of some technology and whether it is used by law enforcement agencies. Thus is the case regarding a wireless network system that had been operated by the Road Commission for Oakland County dubbed MOTOMESH, said undersheriff McCabe, who asserted local law enforcement never participated in the road network system.

“There is no such thing as MOTOMESH in Oakland County law enforcement,” he said. “Big lie.”

The system, as explained by the sheriff’s office, was a product offered by Motorola in 2006. The RCOC used a similar system, he said in an e-mail, in utilizing its video feature to track the flow of traffic through intersections.

The system also had the ability to track MAC addresses of cell phones of people in passing vehicles, which are essentially a device’s equipment number. The system would then see how the phone moved to determine the flow through a predetermined area. Once the phone exited the area, its tracking was dropped.

The sheriff’s office said Oakland County didn’t use the tracking feature.

An e-mail provided by McCabe indicated the RCOC used the system as a demo, and that it was placed in different areas to remotely watch how traffic was flowing. It could also be used during a catastrophe as a “self-healing” mobile local area network (LAN) to allow video to be compiled in a specific area if required, such as a major explosion. All the video could then be sent to a remote secure area to review.

The sheriff’s office said the RCOC removed the system in 2009, and that the equipment is currently stored in the attic of the RCOC. McCabe did not say why it was not used by law enforcement.

Aside from misconceptions, Bouchard said the department must – and does – stay within the confines of the law when conducting investigations using new technologies.

“We philosophically guard the rights afforded to our community; that’s our job, to follow the letter of the law. That’s what makes us truly free,” Bouchard said. “The scariest part for me, having grown up and read George Orwell – the private sector is already there. And that’s who taps into that information is the biggest concern that I can see.”

Indeed the comparison’s to Orwell’s 1949 description of a dystopian future, described in his book “Nineteen Eighty-Four”, have been made by critics of the NSA’s bulk data collection program, as well as at least one federal judge who found the program violated the Fourth Amendment. Yet, another federal district court judge found the NSA’s program was legal and didn’t violate the Fourth Amendment.

While United States District Court Judge William Pauley III found in his opinion of a federal case filed in New York, ACLU v James Clapper, that the NSA’s program doesn’t violate citizens’ Fourth Amendment rights, United States District Court Judge Richard Leon stated in similar case filed in Washington DC that the program indeed violates the Fourth Amendment. In each of the cases, the judges’ interpretation of a 1979 US Supreme Court decision differed in how it is applied to the two parallel cases filed in 2013.

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In the case filed in New York, the plaintiff, the American Civil Liberties Union, claimed that their telephone records could be used to identify those who contact the ACLU, such as journalists, clients, legislators and members of the public, and is likely to have “a chilling effect.” Further, the ACLU claims the NSA’s metadata collection exceeds the authority granted to it by FISA and violates the First and Fourth Amendments.

“The right to be free from searches and seizures is fundamental, but not absolute,” Judge Pauley wrote in his opinion. “Every day people voluntarily surrender personal and seemingly-private information to transnational corporations which exploit that data for profit. Few think about it twice, even though it is far more intrusive than bulk telephone metadata collection.” he Supreme Court found in 1979 that individuals have no “legitimate expectation of privacy” regarding the phone numbers they dial because they knowingly give that information to telephone companies when they dial a number. That case involved the use by law enforcement of a pen register device, which is an electronic device that records all numbers called from a particular telephone line. While the technology of the telephone has changed since the ruling, the type of data collected, Pauley found, was essentially the same in the 1979 case as it is under the NSA’s program.

“All the government sees is that telephone number A called telephone number B,” Pauley wrote. “It doesn’t know who subscribes to telephone number A or B. Further, the government repudiates any notion that it conducts the type of data mining the ACLU warns about in its parade of horribles.”

A separate ruling in the District of Columbia by US District Court Judge Leon found the NSA’s program does violate the Fourth Amendment.

“The court in 1979 couldn’t have ever imagined how the citizens of 2013 would interact with their phones,” Leon wrote. “For the many reasons discussed below, I am convinced that the surveillance program now before me is so different from a simple pen register that Smith is of little value in assessing whether the Bulk Telephony Metadata Program constitutes a Fourth Amendment Search. To the contrary, for the following reasons, I believe that bulk telephone metadata collection and analysis almost certainly does violate a reasonable expectation of privacy.”

While Leon recognized that people expect phone companies may occasionally provide information to law enforcement, he said it’s very different to suggest citizens expect all phone companies to operate what’s effectively a “joint intelligence-gathering operation with the government.”

Which decision is right? Can the NSA continue its snooping practices on both U.S citizens and others around the globe? A final decision on the program will be determined in a higher court, and President Barack Obama has announced plans to overhaul the NSA’s phone data collection program.

Through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the government is able to store vast amounts of telephone metadata, which is information that includes telephone numbers, as well as the time, length and date of a call. Metadata doesn’t include any content of calls, the name, address or financial information of the parties included in the calls. Through the leaked documents and subsequent admission by the NSA, the government acknowledged it has collected metadata since May 2006 for basically every telephone call in the United States, including calls made to and from numbers outside of the country, as well as calls placed entirely within the United States.

Though metadata for all calls is collected, there are restrictions on how and when it may be accessed and reviewed. The NSA may access the metadata to further a terrorism investigation by searching a database for a number associated with a terrorist organization. That information is used to determine which results are likely to contain information that would be of value to counterterrorism investigations.

“The almost-Orwellian technology that enables the government to store and analyze the phone metadata of every telephone user in the United States is unlike anything that could have been conceived in 1979,” Leon said. “The notion that the government could collect similar data on hundreds of millions of people and retain that data for a five-year period, updating it with new data every day in perpetuity, was at best, in 1979, the stuff of science fiction.”

In reaching his conclusion, Leon evoked the Founding Fathers of the United States, stating that the NSA’s program infringes on the degree of privacy to such an extent that Leon “indeed has little doubt that the author of our Constitution, James Madison, who cautioned us to beware of the ‘abridgment of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power,’ would be aghast.”

We’ll all see by late June if the current Supreme Court agrees.

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FACES

Dan Gheesling

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an Gheesling is a life coach, author and a reality TV star who first came on the scene after winning Season 10 of the CBS hit reality show, “Big Brother.”

“I went through a lot of rejection before ultimately being on the show in 2008. I had spent five years coming up with the best interview video.”

Gheesling was eventually cast and spent 71 days in isolation with 12 other contestants, surviving weekly evictions of his fellow contenders. He credits his victory to maintaining composure, even as some let the stress of isolation overwhelm them.

“It’s very difficult to control your emotions. Those that don’t, end up getting voted off. It definitely taught me a lot about myself. You learn you are capable of so much more in terms of being tested and pushing yourself.”

On September 16, 2008, Gheesling escaped the final elimination and the 25-year-old took home $500,000.

“I won a significant amount of money at a young age and didn’t want to be one of those people who squandered it. I wanted to make the most of the opportunity and I got a tremendous financial education after I won.”

Gheesling did some research and, with the help of a friend, made some real estate investments. “It’s all about timing and opportunity. It was a scary time, but I learned a lot.”

In 2012, Gheesling was invited back to participate in Season 14 of “Big Brother” and he took home $50,000 as runner-up.

During his experiences on “Big Brother,” Gheesling’s family rooted him on from home.

“Throughout the show, they were extremely supportive. Every week, they’d have parties and be just as nervous as I was or maybe more.”

After his second stint on the show, doors opened for Gheesling to do some motivational speaking.

“The second time I played, colleges called. Rider University and Northwestern University asked me to talk to their students about leadership and influences. Those speaking engagements blossomed into more.”

Gheesling now travels the country motivating and coaching others. He has authored How to Get on Reality TV: The Complete Step-by-Step Guide, Clean Your Own Mirror, and How to Get on Reality TV: How a Normal Guy Got Cast on Reality TV. All of his works are available on Amazon and on his personal website.

He lives in West Bloomfield with his wife, Chelsea, and the two revel in their little nook of Oakland County.

“Chelsea and I love spending time together. We love going to It’s a Matter of Taste ( in Commerce) and Daniel’s Pizza Bistro (in Commerce).

Those are our favorite local places.”

At just 30-years-old, Gheesling has become a life coach, won a lifechanging amount of money and become a nationally-recognized reality TV star; but he says his greatest accomplishment is finding his wife, Chelsea.

“I’m very fortunate to have found the person I’m supposed to spend the rest of my life with. To have the support of my wife is really what allows me to experience the success that I’ve had.”

Story: Katey Meisner

Photo: Jean Lannen

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MUNICIPAL Commerce parkland, millage discussed

By Kevin Elliott

The future of 518 acres of parkland along Wise Road in Commerce Township that was formerly owned by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR), as well as the need to renew a special parks millage that made the purchase of the land available, was the main topic of discussion at a Tuesday, January 28, joint meeting between the Commerce Township Board of Trustees and members of the Parks and Recreation Committee.

Board members approved spending up to $13,900 to develop a concept plan for the Wise Road property, which consists of about 518 acres of natural parkland. The plan will be developed by livingLab design studio and should be completed within eight to 12 weeks.

Commerce Parks and Recreation Director Emily England said the commission felt it was a good time to look into the future of the property, with many questions raised at the meeting about the future use of the land, what types of recreational activities will be available there, and what uses are restricted under the deed as accepted from the DNR. Township attorney Phil Adkison said about 75 acres of land on the south side of Wise Road, which includes the former site of a decommissioned Nike missile base, could be used for active recreation, such as soccer fields, tennis courts, baseball diamonds and other uses.

Under the purchase agreement with the DNR, land on the opposite side of the road is restricted to open space uses, such as pathways, parkland, fishing and other uses.

The concept plan will be used to develop a master plan for the park in the future.

Discussion about the property's future spurred subsequent discussion about language being developed for a millage proposal, which is expected to be put before township residents later this year. That millage is likely to include some form of renewal of the park improvement and creation and acquisition of open space millage that was approved by township voters in 2004.

The millage, which collected about $7.25 million over 10 years, expired on December 31, 2013, with about $1 million in revenues remaining in the

Township approves parks master plan A five-year master plan to guide the management of more than 1,100 acres of parkland in Commerce Township was approved on Tuesday, January 14, by the township's board of trustees at their monthly meeting.

The plan will serve as a guide for the township's parks and recreation committee and staff, which is responsible for the oversight of 1,130 acres of parkland. The plan, which will next be filed with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) and the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG), also makes the department eligible for additional grants from the state to help meet goals and objectives.

The committee, which is overseen by the township board of trustees, also receives funding through the township's general fund and the parks improvement and open space millage, which was approved by Commerce Township voters in November 2004.

Parks and recreation staff told trustees that approval of the plan doesn't necessarily equate to approval of each project in the plan, but instead provides a larger framework for the next five years. Inclusion of a project in the plan, however, may help increase the likelihood that grant applications for township parks and recreation projects will be successful when reviewed by the MDNR. The plan includes more than $2.5 million in parks and recreation improvements over the next five years, with additional long-term projects. Among the capital improvements in the plan are a warming hut and lighting at Snowy Ridge Park; the development of a township wide, non-motorized master plan and implementation of the Commerce-Walled Lake-Wixom Trail using the former rail corridor within the next two years; conducting a parks and recreational organizational structure feasibility study; and implementing plans for a soccer complex.

Additional projects are included in the plan as well. They consist of spending between $800,000 and $1.1 million to be used to implement improvements at Hickory Glen Park, including ingress/egress and circulation issues; implementation of a two-phase plan at Maple Glen Park to address ingress/egress; parking, trails, signage and a softball field totaling between $1.1 million and $1.8 million. Also included is the development of a master plan for Bicentennial Park to incorporate the reuse of the tennis area, soccer improvements, lighting upgrades, connectivity to the surrounding neighborhood and general updates totaling between $5,000 and $10,000, as well as upgrades at Ralph C. Richardson Park/Center, including between $50,000 and $100,000 to provide overflow parking with grass pavers, and fitness trails with stations; between $40,000 and $100,000 for pickleball courts; and between $2,000 and $5,000 for a drinking fountain.

Also in the plan are funding of between $8,000 and $10,000 for revamping viewing docks at Robert H. Long Nature Park, as well as spending between $5,000 and $10,000 to update the park's concept master plan, and an unknown amount to provide a connection to the M5 Trail, as well as designs to spend between $10,000 and $15,000 to develop a concept master plan for the Wise Road Property/Park.

fund. Monies from the millage are designated for recreational capital improvements and acquisitions, along with related expenses. Significant expenditures from the fund included the purchase of the Wise Road property, which totaled nearly $4 million, and major renovations at Dodge Park No. 5 park in the township.

Trustee Rick Sovel said a renewal of the millage may have difficulty passing, as some people associated the millage's passage with the

purchase of the Wise Road property, which the state had originally tried to sell for about $14 million.

"I know people that don't want a renewal," Sovel said. "They want the park to stay the way it is."

Zoner said the Wise Road property became available at some point after or during the initial millage discussions, but wasn't created specifically for the purchase of that property. The millage, which failed to pass in the August 2004 primary, was passed by voters in November 2004,

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as discussions about purchasing the Wise Road property began.

"Some people think (the millage) passed because the state land was on the table," he said. "I don't agree. The land didn't come up for sale until after the August primary in 2004."

Revenues for parks and recreation provisions totaled $627,958 in 2012; $813,882 in 2011; and $721,311 in 2010. Expenditures totaled $384,659 in 2010; $2.3 million in 2011; and $2 million in 2012. Expenditures were considerably higher in 2011 and 2012 due to the purchase of the Wise Road property, additional bike paths along S. Commerce Road and capital purchases, including play structures at Bicentennial Park and Maple Glen Park.

Language for a new millage or renewal of the previous one is still being written, but is expected to be completed and approved in time to be placed on the ballot in August 2014.

Council member named to fill vacancy

By Kevin Elliott

Walled Lake City Council members at a special meeting on Wednesday, January 15, appointed resident Tamara Loch to serve on the council for the next two years to fill a vacant seat left open following the 2013 general election.

Loch is one of three residents who applied to fill the vacancy, which occurred when former council member Linda Ackley resigned from the seat after being elected as the city's mayor in November. Ackley was two years into a four-year council term when she was elected mayor, replacing former mayor William Roberts.

"For 32 years, I sat here and wondered why (Bill) Roberts took so long to make decisions, or didn't make one," Ackley said about the time she spent deciding who to nominate for the council opening. "I found out why.

"I've done a lot of interviewing in my day to hire people. Normally, when you interview them and you don't pick them for a job, they leave and you never see them again. It doesn't work that way with city council."

Ackley said she ultimately based her nomination on who she felt would be able to receive a majority vote from other council members.

Council approved the

appointment by a vote of five to one, with council member Dennis Yezbick voting against the appointment.

Council members Robert Robertson and John Owsinek said all of the applicants had a strong potential to serve on the council, with two of them already serving on other boards and committees in the city. That fact, they said, also played into their consideration, as they didn't want those boards or committees to potentially lose a member because they were moved to city council. Yezbick said he disagreed with that line of thought.

"You can't punish someone because they are doing a good job in their current position," he said. "If they aren't happy because they didn't get picked for council, they may want to leave their committee."

Downtown Development Authority board member Bennett Lublin, who applied for the city council position, said he was disappointed with the council's decision, as he planned to continue with his current committee and board roles if he were to be appointed to council.

City council, in making the appointment, was able to avoid footing the cost of a special election.

Failure by the council to make an appointment would have forced the decision to be made by a public vote through special election under state law.

Council members are paid $35 per meeting, with two scheduled each month. However, council has been limiting meetings to once a month since mid-2013.

Management plan for Wolverine Lake

By Kevin Elliott

Consultants hired to study weeds and water quality in Wolverine Lake recommended to the village council at its January meeting that current measures to control aquatic plants in the lake be maintained in 2014 as the village's water management board looks for ways to bolster fishing opportunities.

The annual report, which was prepared by Progressive AE and accepted by the village council on January 7, found Wolverine Lake has a strong diversity of natural fish and plant species that can support warm and cool water fish species.

However, the growth of non-native

Commerce makes DDA appointment

By Kevin Elliott

The Commerce Township Board of Trustees on Tuesday, January 14, approved appointing resident Susan Spelker to the township's Downtown Development Authority (DDA) board.

Spelker was one of six people who applied for the open position left on the board following former board member Patrick Dohany's resignation from the DDA in October. She will complete his term, which will expire on March 31, 2015.

"I want to be a member of the DDA because as a citizen of the community, with a strong interest, a master's in Public Administration, acquired business acumen, and having served local government in the past, I feel I have much to offer," Spelker wrote in her application to township supervisor Tom Zoner. "I am an astute, critical and creative thinker."

Spelker is an assistant bookstore manager at Oakland Community College where she teaches professional development training courses. She was also a committee member on the Walled Lake DDA's Downtown Development promotion team from 2000 to 2003.

"I feel that development that increases the tax base, improves the quality of life, and supports the mission of the DDA is desirable," she said.

"I do not come to you with a personal agenda, but rather an open mind and a willingness to bring my talents and abilities to the board."

The purpose of the DDA is to promote economic development projects by utilizing funds generated from property taxes within the DDA area. The township's objective in forming the DDA was to help finance the development of sewer and water service to specific areas of the township.

That goal was broadened to create and develop a downtown area north of M-5 and Pontiac Trail, between Welch and Haggerty roads, as well as to ensure the construction of Martin Parkway.

The DDA board meets at noon on the third Tuesday of each month.

Meetings last between one and two hours. Board members serve an initial term of one year, followed by potential reappointments of three years.

Members serve on the board without pay.

Dohany, who served as the township's treasurer from 1976 to 1993 and as Oakland County treasurer and the county's chief deputy treasurer for 10 years, served on the DDA board for four years. Dohany left the DDA board, saying that since he and his wife are retired, they would like to "free ourselves of commitments keeping us from doing things that other people work all their lives for and never get the chance to do and enjoy."

plant species in the lake will require additional treatment measures in 2014 in order to maintain recreational uses, as well as the growth of some fish species.

In November, the village council rejected a motion to introduce channel catfish into the lake, which some people had thought might help increase the size of some of the lake's smaller bluegill population.

However, Jeff Braunsheidel, a fisheries biologist with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, told council members that the abundance of starry stonewort in the lake was more likely responsible for the stunted growth of bluegill.

Starry stonewort is one of three exotic plant species lake consultants found in the lake, according to the annual report. Exotic species are those plant species found outside

their natural range. many of which don't have any natural predators outside of their native area. Once a lake is infested with exotic invasive species, the weeds can quickly outgrow native plants and upset a lake's ecosystem. The goal of the lake's plant control program is to selectively control exotic invasive species without significantly impacting beneficial native plants in the lake.

The two exotic species that are of main concern in Wolverine Lake are Eurasian milfoil and starry stonewort. Eurasian milfoil, if allowed to grow uncontrolled, forms a canopy of vegetation on the top of the water that crowds out other species and interferes with recreational activities, such as swimming or boating. Starry stonewort, which looks like a rooted

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plant, is actually an algae that looks similar to chara, a native plant.

However, starry stonewort can grow to form thick mats of material several feet thick on the top of the water. The study also found small amounts of purple loosetrife and phragmites along the shoreline of Wolverine Lake.

The report recommends the village continue to focus on the control of exotic plants in Wolverine Lake while preserving native plants.

In addition to herbicide treatments, mechanical harvesting of plants, other than Eurasian milfoil, should be conducted on an as-needed basis.

In addition to herbicide treatments and harvesting, a pilot aeration/bio-augmentation project is being contemplated for 2014.

The report describes several water quality indicators, including dissolved oxygen levels, phosphorus concentration, Chlorophyll-a levels and PH levels. Dissolved oxygen levels in the lake, which help support aquatic life, are sufficient to support warm and cool-water fish, such as bass, pike, sunfish and walleye, but are too low in the lake's deeper areas to support cold-water fish, such as trout. Additional tests indicate while plant growth is high, the lake is "a well-buffered system with clear water that isn't susceptible to acid rain."

Formed in the 1920s by damming the outflow of several smaller lakes, Wolverine Lake consists of about 295 acres of water and reaches approximately 57 feet at its deepest point. The average depth of the lake is 7 feet. The village first treated the lake for weeds in the 1970s using chemicals, but quickly began using mechanical weed harvesting. Both are used today.

Expanded study area at Commerce library Tutors and students using the Commerce Township Library to study will have additional space in the future, as the township board of trustees approved converting a former administrative office into a study area.

Library director Connie Jo Ozinga told trustees on Tuesday, January 14, that one study room is currently available on a first-come, first-serve basis. However, tables in the study

room are sometimes filled by tutors and students using the room for meetings. Ozinga said library staff has been concerned about the lack of additional study space, and that the need for more space is part of the library's long-range plans.

Ozinga said additional study space can be made by converting the former director's office into a small study room, which would include moving one of the doors and adding a window in the room. The cost of the project is estimated at $6,543. Ozinga requested spending no more than $7,500 for the project, which would allow for potential issues that could drive up the cost.

The project, which has been approved by the township's library board, must receive approval from the township board of trustees before it can move forward.

Board members expressed concern about spending money to improve the current library facility, as long-range township plans include relocating the library to a new building in the future. The current library location, which is located inside the Commerce Downtown Development Authority's (DDA) property between M-5 and Richardson Road, is intended to be sold at a later date to potential developers. A new library would then be constructed at a new location.

"If activity in the DDA is as anticipated, it may not be too long before we move that facility," said trustee Robert Long. "Keep that in mind. I hope you are able to live with the current facility until that happens. Obviously, this isn't a break-the-bank plan."

Trustee David Law said he agreed with Long, in that he doesn't want to "throw money at something that may be torn down." However, he said when the library will be relocated still isn't known, but has been talked about for about six years.

Ozinga said she understands the issue and doesn't want to spend money on unnecessary things, but that she "doesn't want to stand still" with current operations at the library. Ozinga said the parking lot at the library is in need of repairs, which could cost about $50,000.

"It sounds like you're going to plan to do whatever, regardless if its going to be torn down or not," Long said.

Board members approved the study room project by a unanimous vote. Board member Robert Berkheiser wasn't in attendance.

Dispensaries back on council agenda

LIMITED TIME OFFER

By Kevin Elliott

Walled Lake officials said at their meeting on Tuesday, January 7, that recently approved legislation at the state level regarding medical marijuana facilities will force the city to wash its hands of such businesses in the future.

"We aren't in the marijuana facility or dispensary business anymore," said Walled Lake City Manager Dennis Whitt. "That's all over with."

City council members in August approved placing a 120-day moratorium on the city's ordinance that permitted the licensing of medical marijuana dispensaries, which expired in late December.

That decision came after Whitt suggested the city do something to address the issue following a raid on a Walled Lake dispensary.

There are two medical marijuana dispensaries in the city, both of which were unable to renew their business licenses under the city's moratorium. Under the city's ordinance, medical marijuana facilities must be licensed by the city in order to operate. Council in August indicated it would likely renew the moratorium after it expired, however, Whitt said the action wouldn't be necessary under the state's new law.

In November 2008, voters in Michigan approved the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act by a 63 percent vote in order to allow for the legal use and dispensation of medical marijuana. Licensing of medical marijuana dispensaries became questionable in February 2013, when the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that state law didn't provide for person-to-person sales of medical marijuana, which is often what takes place at a dispensary, and upheld a lower court ruling that a dispensary can be considered a public nuisance.

Under Public Act 268, which went into effect on Dec. 30, 2013, local ordinances regarding pharmaceutical-grade cannabis would be preempted by regulations set forth in the act, with exception to the number of facilities allowed and reasonable zoning regulations.

Licensing of such facilities is overseen by the state's department of community health, under the new law.

City attorney Val Vanerian said he still needs to review the new law, but that if it does preempt the local regulation of marijuana dispensaries, the city could regulate their locations through zoning ordinances.

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5:30 Â&#x2013; 7:00 P.M. Parents interested in enrolling their 3 Â&#x2013; 5 year old child in Preschool for the 2014 Â&#x2013; 2015 school year should attend. www.wlcsd.org/ webpages/preschool

As we enter into our 10th year, we look forward to celebrating our special anniversary with you at our new location just across the street from our current location.

With a move date of Early Spring, construction is well underway at our new space. Details will be posted at our website Ristorantevolare.com ~ Dino

PLACES TO EAT The Places To Eat for Westend is a quick reference source to establishments offering a place for dining, either breakfast, lunch or dinner. The complete Places To Eat is available at westendmonthly.com and in an optimized format for your smart phone (westendmonthly.com/mobile), where you can actually map out locations and automatically dial a restaurant from our Places To Eat.

Amazing House Chinese Restaurant: Chinese. Lunch & Dinner, Mondayâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;Friday, 3-10 p.m. No reservations. 1130 E. West Maple Road, Walled Lake, 48390.

248.669.8896.

Anaamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Palate: Middle Eastern. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 2534 Union Lake Road, Commerce Township, 48382. 248.242.6326.

Applebees Neighborhood Grill: American.

Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations.

Liquor. 9100 Highland Road, White Lake, 48386. 248.698.0901.

Backyard Coney Island: American.

Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 49378 Pontiac Trail, Wixom, 48393. 248.926.9508.

Bayside Sports Grille: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 142 E. Walled Lake Drive, Walled Lake, 48390.

248.669.3322.

Biffs Coney Island: American. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations.

3050 Union Lake Road, Commerce Township, 48382. 248.366.7400.

Big Boy Restaurant: American. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations.

Beer & Wine. 5834 Highland Road, Waterford, 48328. 248.674.4631.

Big Boy Restaurant: American. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations.

800 N. Pontiac Trail, Walled Lake, 48390. 248.624.2323.

Big Boy Restaurant: American. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations.

Beer & Wine. 7726 Cooley Lake Road, Waterford, 48327. 248.363.1573.

Billyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Tip N Inn: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 6707 Highland Road, White Lake Township, 48383. 248.889.7885.

Blu Nectar: American. Lunch & Dinner, Monday - Saturday. Reservations. Liquor.

1050 Benstein Road, Walled Lake, 48390. 248.859.5506.

Boon Kai Restaurant: Chinese. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 1257 S. Commerce Road, Commerce, 48390.

248.624.5353.

Buffalo Wild Wings: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor.

5223 Highland Road, Waterford, 48327.

248.674.9464.

Carinoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Italian Restaurant: Italian. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 500 Loop Road, Commerce Township, 48390.

248.926.5300.

Carrie Leeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s of Waterford: Chinese. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor.

7890 Highland Road, Waterford, 48327.

248.666.9045.

Caseyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Sports Pub & Grill: Deli. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 1003 E West Maple Road, Walled Lake, 48390.

248.669.5200.

CAYA Smokehouse Grille: Barbeque.

Dinner, Tuesday - Sunday. No reservations. Liquor. 1403 S. Commerce Road, Wolverine Lake, 48390. 248.438.6741.

China Garden: Chinese. Lunch & Dinner daily. No reservations. 49414 Pontiac Trail, Wixom, 48393. 248.960.8877.

China House: Chinese. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 901 Nordic Drive, White Lake Township, 48386.

248.889.2880.

China King: Chinese. Lunch & Dinner, daily.

No reservations. 4785 Carroll Lake Road, Commerce Township, 48390.

248.363.9966.

China Queen: Chinese. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 1130 E. Maple Road, Walled Lake, 48390.

248.669.8896.

CJâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Brewing Company: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor.

8115 Richardson Road, Commerce Township, 48390. 248.366.7979.

Coffee Time CafĂŠ: American. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations.

1001 Welch Road, Commerce Township, 48390. 248.624.0097.

Coyote Grille: American. Lunch, MondayFriday; Dinner, Monday-Sunday. No reservations. Liquor. 1990 Hiller Road, West Bloomfield, 48324. 248.681.6195.

Dairy Queen: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 10531 Highland Road, White Lake, 48386.

248.698.2899.

Danielâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Pizza Bistro: Pizza. Lunch & Dinner,

10

daily. No reservations. 2510 Union Lake Road, Commerce Township, 48382.

248.363.7000.

Dave and Amyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s: American. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations.

9595 Highland Road, White Lake, 48386. 248.698.2010.

Daveâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Coney Island: American. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No Reservations.

901 Nordick Drive, White Lake, 48383.

248.889.3600.

Dickeyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Barbecue Pit: Barbecue. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 4825 Carroll Lake Road, Commerce Township,

5

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48382. 248.360.4055.

Dobskiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s: American, Polish. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 6565 Cooley Lake Road, Waterford, 48327.

248.363.6565.

Eddieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Coney Island: American. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations.

1749 Haggerty Road, Commerce Township, 48390. 248.960.1430.

El Nibble Nook: Mexican. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations for 6 or more. Liquor.

2750 Haggerty Road, West Bloomfield, 48323. 248.669.3344.

El Patio Mexican Restaurant: Mexican.

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$ Total Bill Dinner Your 10 Coneys Total Bill 3050 Union Lake Rd. Commerce, MI 48382

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Union Lake Rd @ Commerce Rd, in the Hillerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Plaza

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248.792.6464

Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations.

7622 Highland Road, Waterford, 48327.

248.666.5231.

Five Guys Burgers & Fries: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 5134 Highland Road, 48327. 248.673.5557.

Gest Omelets: American. Breakfast & Lunch, daily until 4 p.m. No reservations.

39560 W. 14 Mile Road, Commerce Township, 48390. 248.926.0717.

Golden Chop Sticks: Chinese. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 47516 Pontiac Trail, Wixom, 48393.

248.960.3888.

Grand Aztecha: Mexican. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 6041 Haggerty Road, West Bloomfield, 48322.

248.669.7555.

Greek Jalapeno: Greek, Mexican. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations.

6636 Cooley Lake Road, Waterford, 48327. 248.363.3322.

Green Apple Restaurant: American.

Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 7156 Cooley Lake Road, Waterford, 48327. 248.366.9100.

Haang's Bistro: Chinese/Thai. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. 225 E. Walled Lake Drive, Walled Lake, 48390.

248.926.1100.

Highland Grille: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 7265 Highland Road, Waterford, 48327.

248.666.8830.

Highland House: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 2630 E. Highland Road, Highland, 48356.

248.887.4161.

Highland House Café: American, Pizza.

Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations.

10719 Highland Road, White Lake, 48386. 248.698.4100.

Hong Kong Express: Chinese. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 5158 Highland Road, Waterford, 48327.

248.673.7200.

It’s a Matter of Taste: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 2323 Union Lake Road, Commerce, 48390.

248.360.4150.

Jennifer’s Café: Middle Eastern. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 4052 Haggerty Road, Commerce Township, 48390. 248.360.0190.

Jenny’s Restaurant: American. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations.

1186 E. West Maple Road, Walled Lake, 48390. 248.669.8240.

Kennedy’s Irish Pub: Irish/American.

Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations.

Liquor. 1055 W. Huron Street, Waterford, 48328. 248.681.1050.

L George’s: American. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 1203 S. Commerce Road, Walled Lake, 48390.

248.960.5700.

Leo’s Coney Island: American/Greek.

Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 6845 Highland Road, White Lake, 484386. 248.889.5361.

Leo’s Coney Island: American/Greek.

Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 4895 Carroll Lake Road, Commerce Township, 48382.

248.366.8360.

Leo’s Coney Island: American/Greek.

Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No

reservations. 2210 Teggerdine, White Lake, 48386. 248.779.7085.

Leon’s Food & Spirits: American.

Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 29710 S. Wixom Road, Wixom, 48393. 248.926.5880.

Lion’s Den: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily.

Reservations. Liquor. 4444 Highland Road, Waterford, 48328.

248.674.2251.

Lulu’s Coney Island: Greek. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations.

1001 Welch Road, Walled Lake, 48390.

248.669.1937.

Maria’s Restaurant: Italian. Dinner, daily.

Reservations. Liquor. 2080 Walnut Lake Road, West Bloomfield, 48323.

248.851.2500.

Mexico Lindo: Mexican. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 6225 Highland Road, Waterford, 48327.

248.666.3460.

Mezza Mediterranean Grille: Mediterranean. Lunch & Dinner, daily.

No reservations. 1001 Welch Road, Commerce Township, 48390.

248.926.2190.

Moonlight Mediterranean Cuisine: Mediterranean. Lunch & Dinner, daily.

No reservations. 1123 E. West Maple Road, Walled Lake, 48390.

248.859.5352.

Nick & Toney’s: American. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, Monday-Saturday; Sunday until 3 p.m. No reservations. 9260 Cooley Lake Road, White Lake, 48386.

248.363.1162.

North Szechuan Empire: Chinese. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 39450 W. 14 Mile Road, Commerce Township, 48390. 248.960.7666.

On The Waterfront: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 8635 Cooley Lake Road, Commerce Township, 48382. 248.363.9469.

Panera Bread: Bakery, Deli. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations.

5175 Highland Road, Waterford, 48327. 248.618.0617.

Pepino’s Restaurant & Lounge: Italian.

Dinner, Tuesday-Sunday. No reservations. Liquor. 118 W. Walled Lake Drive, Walled Lake, 48390. 248.624.1033.

Red Lobster: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 479 N. Telegraph Road, Waterford, 48328.

248.682.5146.

Red Robin: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 3003 Commerce Crossing, Commerce Township, 48390. 248.926.2990.

Root Restaurant & Bar: American. Lunch & Dinner, Monday-Saturday. No reservations. Liquor. 340 Town Center Blvd., White Lake, 48386. 248.698.2400.

Rudy’s Waffle House: American.

Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 674 N. Pontiac Trail, Walled Lake, 48390. 248.669.7550.

Samuri Steakhouse: Japanese. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 7390 Haggerty Road, West Bloomfield, 48322. 248.661.8898.

Shark Club: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor. 6665 Highland Road, Waterford, 48327.

248.666.4161.

WESTEND

SIAM Fushion: Thai. Lunch & Dinner, daily.

No reservations. Liquor. 6845 Highland Road, White Lake Township, 48386.

248.887.1300.

Siegel’s Deli: Deli. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 3426 E. West Maple Road, Commerce Township, 48390. 248.926.9555.

Sizzl in Subs & Salads: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 2051 N. Wixom Road, Wixom, 48393.

248.960.0009.

Swasdee Thai Restaurant: Thai. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 6175 Haggerty Road, West Bloomfield, 48322. 248.926.1012.

Sweet Water Bar & Grille: American.

Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations.

Liquor. 7760 Cooley Lake Road, Waterford, 48327. 248.363.0400.

Taqueria La Casita: Mexican. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 49070 Pontiac Trail, Wixom, 48393.

248.926.1980.

Thai Kitchen: Thai. Lunch & Dinner, daily.

No reservations. 7108 Highland Road, Waterford, 48327. 248.886.0397.

The Lake’s Bar & Grill: American. Lunch, Tuesday - Sunday; Dinner daily.

Reservations. Liquor. 2528 Union Lake Road, Commerce Township, 48382.

248.366.3311.

The Library Pub: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor.

6363 Haggerty Road, West Bloomfield, 48322. 248.896.0333.

TJ’s Sushi & Chinese Restaurant: Japanese. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 8143 Commerce Road, Commerce Township, 48382.

248.363.3388.

Town Lake Family Restaurant: American.

Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner daily. No reservations. 1186 E. West Maple Road, Walled Lake, 48390. 248.669.7550.

Uptown Grill: American. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor.

3100 West Maple Road, Commerce Township, 48382. 248.960.3344.

Village Grill: American. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor.

1243 N. Commerce Road, Commerce Township, 48382. 248.366.3290.

Volare Risorante: Italian. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 49115 Pontiac Trail, Wixom, 48393.

248.960.7771.

VR Famous Fried Chicken: American, Cajun. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 47520 Pontiac Trail, Wixom, 48393. 248.926.6620.

White Palace: Mediterranean. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 6123 Haggerty Restaurant, West Bloomfield, 48322. 248.313.9656.

Wilson’s Pub n Grill: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor.

2256 Union Lake Road, Commerce Township, 48382. 248.363.1849.

Wonton Palace: Chinese. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 5562 Cooley Lake Road, Waterford, 48327. 248.683.5073.

Woody’s Café: American. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 235 N. Pontiac Trail, Walled Lake, 48390.

248.624.4379.

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Lunch Box Spot Slow roasted beef, corned beef brisket and other gourmet deli specialties will be prepared in-house and available in February when the Lunch Box Spot, 7095 Cooley Lake Road, West Bloomfield is expected to open for business, said owner Lynette Younggren. “It will be gourmet deli food – corned beef, roast beef, pastrami, ham, chicken-corn chili, fresh salads and a fresh bakery – no frozen foods,” she said. “The menu will change a bit seasonally, and we’ll be using a lot of local, Michigan products.” Younggren said construction work started in May 2012 to revamp the former Fred’s Diner, a Union Lake staple that was opened by her parents in 1994. The new Lunch Box Spot is expected to be ready to open in February, and will feature vintage lunch boxes on display with a bit of a 50’s theme. “We are trying to be very unique,” she said. “We gutted the entire building. We kept the neon and glass, but everything else is brand new.

It’s a major process.” Younggren said using fresh foods in-house will allow the restaurant to cut down on costs and taste better than frozen foods. And using local food products will help to guide some offerings by their seasonal availability. The changing menu will also mean Younggren is forgoing a traditional website and will offer diners the ability to create orders through a mobile phone app, which will be available through Apple’s iTunes store and Google Play this year.

Commerce Tim Hortons Coffee, donuts, muffins and more are available at a new Tim Hortons in Commerce Township at 2201 Haggerty Road. The popular cafe and bake shop opened late last year. The restaurant, which features a drive-thru, is located on Haggerty Road at N. Pontiac Trail.

The new location is open 24 hours a day. First opened in Hamilton, Ontario, the Canadian-based cafe and bake shop chain opened it’s first US store in 1984. The Haggerty Road location is the fifth store opened by Brighton resident Jon Stewart.

BlastPain Center Kathy Groman said she had been coping with sciatic nerve pain for about four years when she learned while listening to the radio about a laser treatment technique that may offer her relief. The treatment, she said, worked so well that she opened three treatment center locations of her own under the franchise that helped her, including a recently opened BlastPain Center at 1801 Haggerty Road in Commerce Township. “It was a struggle to get out of bed every morning,” Groman said. “I tried different therapies and nothing seemed to work. I went in for a series of westendmonthly.com

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treatments, and I pretty much got my life back. I was so impressed, and learned they were looking for people to open offices, that I opened three.”

BlastPain offers drug-free pain relief treatment through non-invasive, nonaddictive and a non-surgical laser therapy process. According to BlastPain’s website, blastpain.com, the therapy can be used to treat achilles tendonitis, fibromyalgia, heel spurs, knee pain, migraines, shin splints, tennis elbow, back pain and other conditions. Groman said the first initial treatment is offered free of charge.

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Zealand Spa/Salon Who is wearing Zealand? Larenne Faithfull-Clark, owner-operator of the new Zealand Spa and Salon located at 1001 Welch Road, Suite 112 in Commerce Township, is, that’s who.

“It’s our catchphrase,” Clark said about the question, which the salon owner posts on the business’s Facebook page with before and after photos of happy clients. A soft opening of the spa and salon has been ongoing since December and a grand opening was held in early January. An esthetician by training, Clark said she is excited to work alongside her daughter, who is a cosmetologist. The business offers various hair and makeup services, skin treatments, makeup, waxes and spa services. “We are focusing on hair, but we have a spa room, and have a spa feel to the salon,” Clark said of her first business venture. Borrowing the name from her homeland, Zealand will offer clients the best customer service available, she said. “We treat people like royalty,” the Commerce Township resident said.

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New child care center New child care options are available in west Oakland County, as a Rainbow Child Care Center, 2755 Haggerty, in Commerce Township, opened its doors on January 13. The center offers child care programs for children from six weeks old to 12 years-old, for before school, after school, part-time, full-time and half-day programs. Founded in Hillsborough, New Jersey, the first Rainbow Child Care Center opened in 1986 with a focus on offering a state-ofthe-art facility for young children that focused on education and enrichment.

The Commerce location’s enrichment programs include zoophonics, baby signs, language immersion, movement and sports. The facility includes agespecific playgrounds, a commercial kitchen and a gymnasium.

Twice as nice . . .

When you insure both your car and home through Auto-Owners Insurance, we’ll save you money!

Business Matters for the west Oakland area are reported by Kevin Elliott. Send items for consideration to KevinElliott@downtownpublications.com. Items should be received three weeks prior to publication.

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ENDNOTE

Provide oversight for court at ballot box

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ontroversy that initially began swirling last year involving a pair of Oakland County district court judges has reached a whirlwind at the 52-1 District Court in Novi, where Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper is asking the county's circuit court to take superintending control of judge Brian MacKenzie's courtroom, alleging he is sentencing defendants without noticing prosecutors, and even changing agreed upon charges.

MacKenzie, who for decades was considered one of southeast Michigan's legal media darlings for his tough but flexible sentences involving defendants struggling with drugs and alcohol addiction, is now on the defense. Among the allegations made in a complaint filed in November at the Oakland County Circuit Court is that MacKenzie's penchant for alternative sentences led him to illegally dismiss convictions against some defendants and that he entered new charges and sentences without the knowledge of the prosecutor or victims. Cooper's office contends MacKenzie did so in secret and was aided by his court reporter, who the office claims, falsified court transcripts.

MacKenzie, who responded through his attorney John Lynch, denies the claims, insisting all decisions were made in open court and filed in accordance with the state's laws.

How the circuit court will decide the case remains to be seen, but it's no secret that

MacKenzie had, at least in the past, set some of his own procedures on how cases were going to be handled, as evidenced by a 2004 circuit court ruling which reversed one of MacKenzie's sentences. In reaching its decision, the higher court found MacKenzie indeed acted outside the limits of the state's sentencing guidelines.

Beyond the issues involving MacKenzie, another judge at the court, Dennis Powers, has been targeted in an investigation by WJBK Fox 2 News claiming that Powers has kept his own court schedule and often arrived late to court, leaving defendants, lawyers, and witnesses waiting. While Powers said he sometimes arrived in the courtroom after the docket was scheduled to begin, he alleges the media's portrayal is inaccurate. Regardless of docket times, however, it also became known last year that Powers was reimbursed by the county for personal expenses. A county official said he repaid the money, which amounted to almost $4,000, and 52nd District Chief Judge Julie Nicholson subsequently cracked down on financial requests for reimbursements.

Considering the controversy surrounding the court, the question must be asked: who is responsible for overseeing the court and its judges?

And, what action can be taken if it is determined a judge runs his or her court as their own personal fiefdom?

Typically, complaints follow a court's chain of

command, which involves the district court's presiding judge and chief judge. Other matters can be taken up with the State Court Administrative Office or the state's Judicial Tenure Commission.

However, only the Michigan Supreme Court, if it so determines, has the authority to remove a sitting judge, and only after an investigation by the Judicial Tenure Commission, and only for serious misconduct. The last judge to be unseated during an election was former 52-2 District Court Judge Dana Fortinberry, who lost after being caught removing her opponents campaign signs in 2008, and was publicly censured by the supreme court in 2006 for her conduct off the bench.

It's a rare occurrence for a sitting judge to lose an election once they are elected to the bench.

That is because voter participation is shown to drop off by the time voters get to the bottom of the ballot, where judges usually come to rest. The other reason is often the sitting judge is the only name voters recognize. But district and circuit court judges do not receive lifetime appointments – they work for us, and ultimately, are responsible to us.

As the third branch of the government, judges have an obligation to not only act in accordance with the law, but to uphold it and act as standard bearers for the community. If they transgress, voters must act as they do with any other politician – and replace them with worthier candidates.

Plan now for future Commerce library

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ommerce Township trustees recently approved a modest expenditure at the Commerce Township Community Library to convert a former director's office into a small study room, briefly satisfying a need for more study space at the popular library. But the real issue facing the library, and the community, is what to do with the library itself and where it should be located to best service the residents.

The Commerce Township Community Library, located at 2869 N. Pontiac Trail, inside the township's Downtown Development Authority's (DDA) property, could be accused of being a victim of its own success. The library building was converted from a former golf course clubhouse that used to be on the land, with the intention of it being a temporary facility.

Two years ago, according to library director Connie Ozinga, the township spent $400,000 on a renovation of the library, turning a former clubhouse store into usable library space with the approval of the library board of advisors and the township's board of trustees. “But it was done with the intention that we would be moving in the next five years or so,” Ozinga

said. While Ozinga said she is grateful for the newly-approved study space, during the summer she said they could utilize more similar space.

At 20,000 square feet, the Commerce Township library is about half the size it needs to be to adequately service the roughly 40,000 residents of Commerce, township supervisor Tom Zoner acknowledges, and while it operates remarkably efficiently, the township is growing, and so too are the demands for an efficient, technologically-advanced library. Ozinga said the library's board of advisors is finishing a three-to-five year strategic plan that she will present to the board of trustees at their February 11 meeting, as they look at long-range planning ideas.

“We're talking a roughly 40,000 square foot building. The first thing we need to do, if our strategic plan were approved, is to work with an architect/planner towards developing a program that incorporates all our space needs, from collections, growth sides, offices, space needs and wishes, and then we get a written description of how it would lay out,” Ozinga explained.

Key questions remain over where a new

library would go and how much it would cost.

Ozinga said they currently have almost $7 million in their coffers set aside for a new building, from two library millages, one which is set to expire this year, another in two years.

Realistically, construction and operating costs for a new library put a new building at $275$300 a square foot, meaning the township needs another $5 million.

The library is currently located on DDA land that is being marketed for redevelopment and, if sold, would necessitate a move sooner than later. But where to put a new library is something that should be determined soon, either in the strategic plan, or by township staff, before it becomes a reactionary activity. Zoner pointed out that there is a 3-acre parcel by township hall, on the municipal campus, which has advantages from a shared parking point of view. Some residents have been requesting a more central location that is easier to access.

While the library has been on the conceptual board for years, it's time to really examine what the community needs and wants, what can afford to be spent, and prioritize and plan. The time has come.

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