Westend: October 2014

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

SHERIFF BOUCHARD MILITARIZATION, CHANGING ROLE OF LAW ENFORCEMENT

GOING ONLINE FOR EDUCATION PREPARING STUDENTS FOR NOW AND FUTURE

HOUSE PARTIES UNDER CONTROL MUNICIPALITIES ENACT RULES TO FIGHT PROBLEM

ENDNOTE: OUR CHOICES FOR NOVEMBER GENERAL ELECTION ECRWSS Postal Customer PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID ROYAL OAK, MI 48068 PERMIT #792

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westend10.14

13

21 25 Sheriff Bouchard interview

House party laws

Online education

Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard talks about militarization of local police departments and the changing demands on law enforcement.

Local communities have adopted ordinances to bring under control the house parties involving underage drinking.

Local schools are offering more online course choices for students to prepare them for future education and careers.

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

11 CRIME LOCATOR

OCTOBER 2014

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.

37 MUNICIPAL SHERIFF BOUCHARD MILITARIZATION, CHANGING ROLE OF LAW ENFORCEMENT

GOING ONLINE FOR EDUCATION PREPARING STUDENTS FOR NOW AND FUTURE

HOUSE PARTIES UNDER CONTROL MUNICIPALITIES ENACT RULES TO FIGHT PROBLEM

ENDNOTE: OUR CHOICES FOR NOVEMBER GENERAL ELECTION

Commerce Treasurer Susan Gross resigns; township library location still undecided; DDA approves 2015 budget; assisted living facility project for Commerce Towne Place; library Internet use policy changed; Walled Lake backs off on expanding liquor licenses; Commerce picks up large wastewater grant; Wolverine Lake and township enter agreement; and more.

49 BUSINESS MATTERS Lederman Kwartowitz Orthopedics; Summit Place Sears; Peet’s Coffee and Tea; C. Wallace Insurance Agency; Adrian's Collision Center; Loya Organic Middle Eastern Grill.

50 ENDNOTE

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

Our recommendations on candidates and ballot issues appearing on the November General Election ballot, presented early for absentee ballot voters.

THE COVER Kayakers enjoying the end of summer on Wolverine Lake. Westend photo: G. Lynn Barnett

DISTRIBUTION: Mailed monthly at no charge to homes in the Commerce, walled Lake and Union Lake area. Additional free copies are distributed at high foot-traffic locations.

For those not residing in the free mail distribution area, paid subscriptions are available for a $12 annual fee. Go to our website (westendmonthly.com) and click on “subscriptions” in the top index and place your order on-line or scan the QR Code here.

4

FACES 19 Sydney Balzer 35 Dax Shepard 41 Linda Ramsay-Detherage 43 Griffin Miller 48 Tyler Laviolette

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DOwNtOwN • westeND • tHe GUIDe 124 west MAPLe ROAD BIRMINGHAM MI 48009 P: 248.792.6464 downtownpublications.com facebook.com/downtownpublications • twitter.com/downtownpubs

­Publisher:­David Hohendorf Ad­Manager:­Jill Cesarz Ad­Sales:­Heather Marquis Graphics:­G.Lynn Barnett News­Editor:­Lisa Brody

News­Staff/Contributors:­Allison Batdorff, Rachel Bechard, Hillary Brody, Kevin elliott, sally Gerak, Austen Hohendorf, Garrett Hohendorf, Jean Lannen, J. Marsh, Kathleen Meisner, Laurie tennent

WESTeND

INCOMING: we welcome feedback on both our publication and general issues of concern in the Commerce/Union Lake community. the traditional Letters to the editor in westend are published in our Incoming section, and can include traditional letters or electronic communication. Your opinions can be sent to westend@downtownpublications.com; or mailed to Downtown Publications, 124 west Maple Road, Birmingham MI, 48009. Letters must include your full name, address and daytime phone number for verification.

10.14

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FROM THE PUBLISHER

he skirmish in the city of Grosse Pointe Park this past summer over whether to allow the Detroit Metro Times to continue distribution in the Grosse Pointe area and in particular the city library system is something that I have followed with interest.

The alternative newspaper came under attack from a supposed ad hoc group of undetermined size, led by Andrea LaVigne, who started a push against the Metro Times in the late spring. Her contention is that the sex hook-up ads in the back of the publication amounted to “selling human bodies.”

Because LaVigne claimed that the sex ads involved human trafficking, it was not a question of “freedom of speech, it’s a violation of human rights”.

Although the city attorney was asked to review the legality of banning Metro Times from distributing in the city, the board for the library system, which serves the five Grosse Pointes, voted unanimously during the summer to allow Metro Times to still be distributed at the library, although it is now placed behind a counter out of sight and is restricted to only those 18 years of age and older who actually request a copy.

Understand that Metro Times is a free publication, a reported 60,000 copies of which are distributed at high foot traffic locations throughout the metro Detroit area. To read the Metro Times, one must make a conscious decision to go to one of the newsstands or to merchant locations to pick up a copy.

I suspect that when the city attorney finally does give some feedback to council members, it will be along the lines that it’s not really a defensible position to outright ban the distribution of any publication, thanks to the U.S. Constitution. It’s been tried before without much success and I am confident that Metro Times will not be standing in court alone should they decide to challenge any illadvised move to ban the weekly newspaper.

Similar efforts have been tried in other communities over the years, including about 20 years ago in the village of Milford in the western Oakland County area where the issue was not one of publication content but the manner in which newspapers were distributing their weekly and daily newspapers by bagging them and tossing the periodicals in the driveways of residents. This practice of distribution took hold, and continues to this day, because newspaper publications find it difficult in more affluent communities to hire reasonably priced and motivated young carriers to deliver their products, hence the move to motorized delivery carriers.

Local newspapers and the Detroit dailies met with the village manager and legal counsel to bring them up to speed on the court’s history of ruling against moves to stifle freedom of the press and the issue never made it to an agenda for a meeting of village leaders.

I just recently had the opportunity to remind some Oakland County business leaders that the freedom of the press will most certainly win out in any court battle as someone from the group questioned whether the city of Birmingham had to allow for news racks for publication distribution in the city. Birmingham moved to a system of municipally-owned news racks years ago to give a more controlled image for the city’s downtown area, rather than dealing with a hodgepodge of ill-maintained news racks placed intermittently throughout the city by the publications themselves. The problem is news racks age due to Michigan’s environmental conditions and begin to look equally disheveled unless the city maintains the racks with the fees charged to publications to distribute through the municipal system.

The Grosse Pointe skirmish for the Metro Times did bring to mind, however, policies we have adopted at Downtown Publications on certain types of advertising which we do not allow to appear in either Westend serving the lakes area, or Downtown which serves the Birmingham/Bloomfield market.

While our monthly publications are also based on the free business model, we take a different approach when it comes to certain categories of advertising.

For starters, aside from approximately 700 complimentary copies we distribute of Westend through news racks and merchant locations, our monthly newmagazine is mailed for free into homes in Commerce, Walled Lake, Wolverine Lake, and the Union Lake area.

My philosophy is that we have not been invited by local residents into their homes, so there are certain types of advertising – sex hook-up, adult sex toy ads, as well as medical marijuana – that we will not publish in Westend out of respect for those homes in which there are minor children. Although I suspect by the teen years most young people, thanks to the Internet, have discovered these issues on their own, it it not our role to hasten their move to adulthood by profiting from paid ads on these matters.

We know this policy has cost us money, quite possibly $50,000 and probably much more on an annual basis, because we turned down such ads when we first launched Downtown and Westend and have continued to reject such advertisements, including an account from the banned categories in early September that wanted to promote their business in both print and on our website.

Yet, while we don’t accept some of the ads you might see in Metro Times, we still take the position that any attempt to prohibit or severely restrict the distribution of a news product is simply not acceptable, regardless of the reason.

David Hohendorf Publisher DavidHohendorf@downtownpublications.com

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

The Villager Village of Wolverine Lake

Village of Wolverine Lake • Michigan •

Fall 2014 Edition

www.wolverinelake.com Fall Reminders

Yard Waste: The last day for yard waste pick up by Republic Services is Tuesday, November 25th.

Lake Draw Down: The lake draw down will begin on October 1st. By December 1st we expect to reach our winter level at 916.75 Septic Tank Maintenance: If you haven’t had your septic tank pumped out recently (every 2 to 3 years for typical family systems) do it now and avoid backups and looking for your tank covered under snow.

Community Wells: Last day to schedule a purge so that you avoid decreased water pressure levels through the winter is Wednesday, October 15th. Call today 248-624-1710.

Tink Claw—Leaf Collection: Please remember this is a bulk pick up service. Small piles should be placed into recycle bags or cans no larger than 32 gallons marked ‘compost’. The first round of leaf collection will begin when the leaves throughout the Village have fallen approximately 50%. Watch for the orange signs posted at the entrances of your subdivision. The Claw will visit a second time once most of the leaves are down. NOTE*** Leaves should be raked, in one large pile, next to the street on a flat area, void of hazards, ONLY after your subdivision has been posted with signs. Do not mix grass, mulched leaves, debris, branches, etc. with the leaves. Please remember to do your part to help keep the Village beautiful and clean up the residual debris following each pick up.

New Pathways

Support Our Troops

A new pathway extension is currently under construction along the south side of Glengary Road, starting at Palomas and heading east, it will stop just before S. Commerce Road. Another extension will be installed on the west side of S. Commerce Road, beginning at Heron Hills, going south to Glengary Road. The first completed extension happened along the north side of McCoy Road, connecting the Lakeview pathway to the boardwalk on Benstein Road. These new extensions, once done, will bring us one step closer to having a complete pathway circuit around the Village.

Donations are now being accepted Residents from Wolverine Lake, in conjunction with Military Families United of Michigan and K-9 Defender Fund, are hosting a packing party to send items to the military troops and working dogs serving on the battlefield. Visit www.wolverinelake.com or Village Hall for a list of items to donate. Box packing will take place Saturday, October 18th from 9:30 a.m. to Noon at the Shepherd of the Lakes Lutheran Church 2905 S. Commerce Rd. in Wolverine Lake.

26th Village Festival & Corn Roast A good time was had by all who attended the Village Festival & Corn Roast on Saturday, September 6 th. It was a beautiful day to enjoy the inflatables, the music of the band 2XL and the great food! CAYA Smokehouse provided pulled pork sliders and as always there was delicious roasted corn. Many thanks go out to the sponsors and, of course, to our dedicated volunteers, without whom none of these events would be possible!!!

14th Annual Fishing Contest

Bright and early on August 23rd the fishing contestants began their quest to catch the big one! Winners were awarded their prizes at the Village Festival and the results are available on our website. Congrats to all of the participants and many thanks go out to the sponsors and volunteers!

Oakland County Home Improvement Program 100% Deferred and Interest free loans are available to income qualifying residents. Only the principal is to be repaid when you sell or lease your home.

Call: 248-858-5401.

Also available ‘A Step Forward’ Mortgage and/or Tax rescue program is available for residents in need.

Halloween Trick or Treating hours are 6:00 to 8:30 pm Oct. 31st.

Bus Trip to the Auto Show January 19, 2015 $13 tickets at the door. $5.00 refundable pre-registration required. Call #248-624-1710 for info.

Winter Parking is prohibited on

Village Streets November 1st through March 31st between 2 am and 6 am .

Shake Your Mail Box

Complaints of mailbox damage during plowing occur every year. In most cases, it’s the force of the snow being thrown from the roadway that knocks down a loose or weakened mailbox, not actually the plow truck hitting it. Before the ground freezes, check your mailbox to be sure it can weather the upcoming winter by answering the following questions. **Is the wood board your mailbox is setting upon in good condition? **Are the nails to the board loose? **How about the wood post in the ground; is it split or starting to deteriorate? ** A simple check: If you can physically jiggle your mailbox and it ‘gives’ a little, it will give out when the snow removal season is here. **If your mailbox has been in place for any length of time, weather can compromise a good installation.

Remember, the Village DOES NOT repair/replace mailboxes damaged by snow.

Snacks with Santa

Save the date: Dec. 6th Santa will be visiting from 1 pm to 3 pm at the Richardson Center. Pre-registration is required at the Village Hall.

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

Vita Trail Improvements The parking lot at the Vita Trail has been repaved and the trail itself has been freshened up with compacted millings. Also, new exercise equipment has been installed. There are 5 workout stations that allow you to perform about 24 different exercises.

Protect the Huron River Water Shed The Village of Wolverine Lake is part of the Huron River Watershed. Water runoff that flows into storm drains and roadside ditches all goes to the nearest lake, stream, river or wetland without any kind of treatment. To protect water quality, make sure you do your part to keep pollutants off the land.

Pollutants that can impact our waterways includes sediment, nutrients, bacteria, pesticides and hazardous chemicals such as grease and oil. 1. Never dump anything down a storm drain. 2. Minimize soil erosion and sedimentation. 3. Bag it! Pick up pet waste. 4. Get Pumped! Have your septic tank pumped every 3 to 5 years, at a minimum. 5. Wash Right! Use environmentally safe car wash soaps.

6. Properly take care of your lawn. For more environmental information, please visit our website at www.wolverinelake.com and click on the Local Environmental Information page.

Keeping Informed The Village of Wolverine Lake has an email information line available. This hot line keeps everyone up to date on news and events in the Village. There are now 1,495 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.

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I’m inclined to respond to the (September) article in your Westend publication, authored by your news editor (Lisa Brody), about the Ku Klux Klan. Within the article is the following sentence: “There is very real anger and hostility, and it’s driving people to the radical right, whether it’s the Tea Party or other movements.”

The radical right seems to be a general repository for the Left to categorize any other value system or political platform than their own.

Does Ms. Brody really have evidence that KKK members are also Tea Party members? Or that the religious right in any way advocates the KKK beliefs and tactics?! Linking the Tea Party movement to the Ku Klux Klan?! Perhaps your progressive/liberal skirt is showing.

Rather than framed by an editorial piece, Ms. Brody infuses this comment into a report, the implication and inference being the worst type of “journalism”. Would you accept a comparison to “yellow journalism?” She lacks the fortitude to represent what sounds like her political leaning outside this context and you’ve seen fit to allow it’s publication, either without regard to journalistic standards, or because you agree with it. This is “reported opinion”, a dangerous hybrid that blends truth with opinion and is presented as the community service of reporting.

Hopefully, the Tea Party leadership is aware of this and is prepared to address it with your company. While your publication presents itself more like a mass advertising instrument and real estate listing, journalistic standards should apply to any authored articles, reports, or, should you choose to offer them, editorials. Allowing political license like this within a general report is opinion portrayed as fact. Did she even interface with any member of the Tea Party with regard to her intended statement/inference?

My money’s on “no.”

You owe the Tea Party, but mostly your readers, an apology and you owe your profession much better than what this instance represents.

Dr. R. Gordon Ph.D, Commerce

WESTEND

SPEAK OUT We welcome your opinion on issues facing the Commerce, Walled Lake and Union 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 don’t have a specific word limitation, we reserve the right to edit for length.

Protect our resources Would you want to eat apples or cherries that you knew were grown in a field where toxic coal ash, a byproduct of coal-burning power plants, was allowed to be spread?

I wouldn’t. But that’s what Gov. Rick Snyder and Rep. Klint Kesto wanted when they supported a package of bills allowing big oil companies to spread toxic coal ash on our farm fields. We need to hold the governor and Rep. Klint Kesto accountable for putting our families, food and farms at risk to appease big oil companies.

We need people like Sandy Colvin in Lansing who will fight to protect our environment. All Gov. Snyder and Rep. Klint Kesto have done is protect their corporate donors and rich friends.

It’s time our lawmakers got to work ensuring our Great Lakes and natural resources are preserved and protected for generations to come.

Bronte Payne, West Bloomfield

Impact of golf courses After reading the editorial on a “wake up call on water quality” (Endnote/September), I was struck by what were mentioned as causes.

Farmers and fertilizer are always mentioned, but golf courses are given a pass. In order to keep those beautiful greens and fairways, fertilizers are used and run off happens at all golf courses.

Please include golf courses in your research.

Your magazine is well done and I do look forward to its arrival.

Kathy Kennedy, Bloomfield Hills 10.14

Millage renewal needed I have been a parent in the Walled Lake Schools for 9 years and my children have been well served by the teachers, facilities and instructional practices over the years. This is thanks due to a lot of people and a lot of things, but the foresight of those before us to enact this millage has kept our schools at the level I feel they should be.

Without renewal of this operating millage, our schools, our home values, but most importantly, our children, will suffer.

On Tuesday, November 4, I urge you to vote for the renewal of the operating millage for Walled Lake Schools. This operating millage represents $30 million of the district’s $154 million budget, or 20 percent of the district’s total budget.

Most importantly, this millage is the same millage every school district in the state must pass every 10 years to keep their local funding per Proposal A. There is no change to the amount levied – this is to operate our schools.

Thank you for voting on Tuesday, November 4, for our children and community.

Tamara Prechte, Wixom

Support school millage I am writing to urge people to renew the Walled Lake School Millage on November 4. As a parent of a child in the Walled Lake Schools, I know how critical this millage renewal is for all of our children. This renewal allows the Walled Lake Schools to continue to give our children the exceptional education they currently receive.

This is a renewal of the same millage that we have already passed twice in the last 20 years. It has not only aided in our children’s education, but has kept property values strong and growing despite years of a difficult economy. Three local chambers of commerce support this millage because they know the importance of this renewal.

When my family recently moved back to the area, my husband and I purposely found a house in the Walled Lake School District so that our children could receive the exceptional education that I received when I grew up here. Without this millage renewal, our children would westendmonthly.com

lose 20 percent of their educational budget and the state would not make up the difference. Please vote to renew the Walled Lake School millage in November.

Also, if you can’t make it out to the polls, you can always support our children with an absentee vote.

Thank you for continuing to make this a community where our children have the greatest opportunity for growth because of your support of their education.

Whitney Schillack, White Lake

Fall into savings . . .

Your vote counts I feel fortunate to live in a community that values the education of our children. The Walled Lake School District is one of the many reasons we chose Commerce Township as our home almost 20 years ago.

There is a very important millage renewal for Walled Lake Schools on the November 4th ballot. This is not an increase; it is simply the renewal of the commitment our community has made since Proposal A passed in 1995. This millage represents about 20 percent of the district operating budget, so it is absolutely critical to our schools and to our children.

Although there is absolutely no change for taxpayers, this millage is very significant for our children, our property values and the quality of our community. If you would like more details, an informative video is available at the district website, wlcsd.org.

Your vote counts. Please join me in voting yes for Walled Lake Schools on November 4th.

Susan Ebeling, Commerce Township

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Important debates I truly thank you for the energy (David Hohendorf) puts forth in his outstanding editorials “From the Publisher.”

Again, your frank discussion on “Stingray” and surveillance is appreciated. Overreacting in the name of protecting us from ourselves is always an interesting subject. The NSA’s motto remains “we must monitor you in order to protect you from yourselves.”

Fortunately, debates on these subject are important to our country and basic values.

Great magazine.

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OAKLAND SHERIFF BOUCHARD POLICE MILITARIZATION, TERRORISM, CHANGING FACE OF LAW ENFORCEMENT

BY LISA BRODY

akland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard, in office since 1998, fell into law enforcement by accident, but is a passionate supporter of ongoing training and proper deployment of weaponry. In response to the media outcry over the militarization of police, he believes law enforcement has to be as well armed as the criminals they’re facing. His motto, with which he leads his 1,300-member sheriff’s department daily, is: “Hope is not a strategy. Preparation is.”

Westend News Editor Lisa Brody sat down down with Bouchard for a candid one-on-one conversation.

Westend photo: Laurie Tennent

Over time, as things changed in the world...They saw more and more weapons on the street they were facing that were outgunning the police.

WESTEND: For the benefit of our readers, can you give us some of your personal background in law enforcement, including your current participation in some national law enforcement efforts that focus on antiterrorism?

BOUCHARD: My law enforcement career goes back to the ‘70s. I went to the academy in 1976. I was actually sworn in as a police officer at 20 for Beverly Hills. Southfield Township is where I started as a youth officer helping kids, and then Beverly Hills, full-time. Bloomfield Township hired me in 1978 and I worked there for a decade. They loaned me to the state police, to undercover teams and stuff like that. I worked in pretty much every position. I was a motor officer, I was a fatal accident investigator, I was a detective for a time, I was undercover, I was a training officer and a range officer. It’s unusual, and I’m lucky for me to have all those experiences in that 12-year span, and I did, and I enjoyed it. I left law enforcement for a while; I was on Beverly Hills Council simultaneously to being a police officer and got interested in the political world because I saw that everything that happened in the police world was legislated by the political world. I worked on the Oakland County rapist, and I didn’t think the women were getting justice from the system. I thought they were getting victimized again. I wanted to get involved and get some of the laws changed to effect how some of the victims were protected and treated. We protect the defendants’ rights, and it’s very prescribed, but there was no prescription for protecting victims. I found that frustrating.

I never planned to go into police work.

Originally I went to college to be a doctor. I started volunteering on some programs that dealt with suicide and abused kids and couldn’t believe there were things like that happening because I was raised in an “Ozzie and Harriet” loving home. I couldn’t imagine someone not being loving or kind to their kids. Seeing the abuse just drew me in. I started volunteering and met Dr. Jerry Tobias, who was in charge of the Youth Bureau in Southfield Township. He was a professor at U-D, a psychologist, and also a Bloomfield Township trustee. In every respect he was my mentor because I became a police officer, an elected official, pretty much followed what he did. I just thought he was an amazing guy. He drew me into law enforcement. I worked in the youth bureau, and he said, ‘We’ll send you to the academy.” So I went to the Police Academy while I was a full time student at Michigan State. It was a bit of a juggle, but I really enjoyed it. I thought, I’m really interested in doing this, you can really help people who are in trouble and make a difference. So I left college and took a full-time job. My parents were flipping out. They were not happy. But I found my passion. I loved helping people out at the worst

time in their lives. Hopefully, you can help them through that. I did agree to their promise that I would finish and get a degree, and I changed from pre-med to pre-law and I got my degree in police administration and criminal justice from Michigan State, commuting at night whenever I could.

I left Bloomfield Township police sometime in 1988, and was elected to the (state) legislature in 1990, and spent about a decade there. A lot of what I did there was related to law enforcement. I wrote the Sex Offender Registry Act. I wrote laws increasing penalties and tying it with counseling with animal abuse, because we see a lot of serial murders start off with serial abuse of animals. It’s like a step. Most sex offenders or serial offenders start off with a stepped process where they kind of start doing something at a lower level, like a sex offender may start as an indecent exposure. I also owned three small businesses. I owned a small consulting business, where I would analyze other businesses. I had a private investigation/alarm consulting. Then I had a yogurt and ice cream business that was on 13 and Southfield. Beverly Hills Gourmet Yogurt and Ice Cream. I got out of all that when I was elected to the legislature. I was the majority floor leader in the Senate. I left because the Sheriff passed during his term in office and a lot of people asked me to come back into law enforcement and take over the sheriff’s office. I looked at it, and thought it was a good fit, based on my background and the age of our kids. At that point, we had three kids under 8. So I could be home at night. Long days, but I could still tuck them in, generally, be at their games. I’ve loved it.

I’ve been sheriff for 16 years.

WESTEND: After the recent police shooting of the young man in Ferguson, Missouri, and how local police handled the public protests, national attention has started to focus on how public safety departments across the country have become more militarized thanks in large part to a defense department program that moves military-type equipment to police departments. In Michigan, about $43 million of surplus equipment has been transferred to local police departments from 2006 through 2013. In recent news accounts of equipment that has been transferred to departments in Michigan, the surplus equipment ran the range from rifles, night vision goggles, HumVees, grenade launchers, to armored vehicles ranging in price from $300,000 to $658,000. A good deal of equipment was listed as being transferred to Oakland County.

BOUCHARD: When I started, you were given a handgun, and they had a shotgun in the car. The handgun was a revolver and back in the day, we had what was called ‘dump boxes’, so if you had to reload there were six individual bullets and a dump box on your belt so you could dump them loose in

your hand and try to reload. If you’re getting shot at, obviously, that’s a challenging moment.

Over time, as things changed in the world, law enforcement changed with both its training and with its equipment. They saw more and more weapons on the street they were facing that were outgunning the police. There were two seminal moments on the weaponry and a third that really changed police tactics. The two seminal moments on weapons were one in California and one in Florida. The one in California, you had two robbers who went into a bank fully body armored right down to their toes with fully automatic AK-47s. As they’re walking into the bank, a patrol officer sees them walking into the bank and goes, ‘this isn’t good.’ Calls it in. They contain the bank. These guys come out, massive gun fight ensues for 45 minutes. They can’t stop it because the police are so tremendously outgunned. They had to send police officers to a civilian gun store to borrow rifles to keep up with the bad guys because they had handguns and shotguns. For those who don’t understand weaponry, a rifle pretty easily shoots the distance of 300 meters. For a handgun or shotgun, it’s probably 50. Eleven police officers were shot, seven civilians, 18 people shot because these guys controlled the scene for 45 minutes.

Law enforcement was like, wow. We can’t deal with a shotgun and a handgun with somebody who can be across the street hitting us when we can’t hit anything.

The second (seminal moment on weaponry) in Florida, a similar circumstance. You had seven FBI agents trying to arrest two robbers, and the robbers had one rifle, a 223, which is pretty common, what police now have, and the FBI had shotguns and handguns. They killed two FBI agents and wounded five before it was over. That’s when everyone went, ‘Wow, we’re not coming at this with the right kinds of weapons.’

And then the final seminal moment was Columbine. It used to be contain and negotiate.

Something like that is happening, what do you want? How can we end this peacefully? How can we have you come out? It wasn’t like a bank robbery where they wanted cash. It was the first kind of awakenings for Americans, especially law enforcement, that people go into a building with the sole intention of killing as many as they could with no intention of coming out. So you can no longer contain and negotiate.

Our tactics have evolved to insert and neutralize. You have to go and immediately find who is killing the kids and stop them. You can’t wait for SWAT. You can’t wait for special equipment. You have to go in as soon as you possibly can. This past two years, we’ve trained everybody in our department and 1,000 other police officers in Oakland County through a joint training process, if they show up at a school or a church or a mall, if there’s an active shooter,

That's why we have to be able to engage them, and why more and more police departments have sought weapons from the military... they’re all trained the same way, go in right now and find the shooter. Because every click of the clock is another potential dead person. I’m the head of government affairs for Major County Sheriffs of America, past president of the group, government affairs chair for the last decade, so anytime something happens in the world that has relevance, I try to get the head of that to come and give us a classified or an in-depth brief and go through, what exactly happened, what went wrong, and what went right and what would you have done differently. Like in Sandy Hook, the kid went in and the school was in lock down and you had to get buzzed in and had all the security and everything. But what he did was he shot out the big window next to it and walked through the open window. He went all the way to the end of the hall and his plan was to walk all the way back and wipe out all of these classrooms. He got to the end and he started killing. The police got there. He shot out the window at them. Because they got there quick and engaged him, he started shooting at them and engaging them; that prevented him from getting the other classrooms. Had they just staged and tried to contain him, he would have just finished off that whole hallway. It’s still incredibly terrible, but it was all over in less than four minutes. They’re over so fast. If you let it go 20 minutes, imagine how much more in the school.

And that’s what the old contain would have done.

It would have been 20 to 25 minutes before SWAT could have been fully assembled and figured out the situation.

WESTEND: In general, do you think that the criticism about the militarization of local police departments is accurate? Why would some of this military grade equipment be necessary?

BOUCHARD: Then the question goes to, what kinds of things do you need to immediately go in?

In Sandy Hook, he had a 223 rifle. The Colorado theater had a 223 rifle. The 223 rifle is the most sold rifle in America. For hunting, target shooting, estimates are up to 3.7 million are in civilian hands. So you’ve got almost four million out in America, and people are saying we’re getting militarized by getting the same weapons as they have. We have to respond to what we face in the community, and more and more often we’re facing rifles. High-powered rifles, people call them assault rifles; you can call them whatever you’d like, but in any event they’re a rifle. Tactically they have a much longer field of fire. That’s why we have to be able to engage them, and why more and more police departments have sought weapons from the military or have bought them. The question is not do we need them; the question is, are people properly trained on them, and are people properly deployed? The need has become self-evident. This Sunday until 4 a.m. we were surrounded by a barricaded gunman who had a 223 rifle. He put it

to his wife’s head and ordered her to the ground and threatened to kill her and had been drinking.

She managed to distract him and fled the house.

We recovered her under the bush. I was there. We surrounded the house with armored vehicles to contain him so that if he started shooting it wouldn’t hit our folks but with the armored vehicles they could light up the house. It was extremely dark. We didn’t want him to get out into the neighborhood. Then we could talk to him over the PA from the armored vehicles. He had a 223 with multiple magazines, fully loaded, he had handguns, shotguns, all legally obtained. It was a pretty volatile situation. But not uncommon, sadly, for us. We face rifle situations a lot. The West Bloomfield situation, where the West Bloomfield officer was killed, the guy had a fully automated machine gun, high powered rifles, he had shotguns, handguns, knives, long distance binoculars, he had former military experience and he was firing through the walls. We actually used the armored vehicles there to evacuate the neighbors.

WESTEND: Does the transfer of such equipment to local departments signal that the general nature of law enforcement at the local has changed? How much of that equipment has remained with the Oakland County Sheriff’s Department and how much has been passed through to local departments? Were local funds used to acquire this equipment or is most of it transferred from the federal level at no cost or covered by federal grants?

BOUCHARD: Sometimes the military may give it to you in a full auto, meaning fully automatic. Most police departments, including ours, switch it to semi-automatic, which is what you can buy as a civilian right over the counter. You could go buy one today, without any training. If we didn’t get them from the military, we’d be buying them anyway because we believe our folks need to have that as an option. That goes to my point about training and deployment. Before you can carry a patrol rifle you have to be a certified patrol rifle graduate. We put you in a minimum of 40 hours, which is about 70 percent of someone going into the military. And this is our secondary weapon, if your handgun won’t work. Then you have to continually train every year. You can’t carry that unless you’ve had that. A lot of those we’ve gotten from the military. Frankly, we’re about 150 or 200 short.

I dispute the term militarization. If we’re getting what civilians have, that’s not military. Everybody says tanks. No police department has tanks. Tanks are track vehicles. But they’re also offensive vehicles, meaning they have 50 caliber machine guns, they have cannons. They’re meant to blow things up. Our vehicles are big, safe boxes. There is no offensive weaponry mounted on them. The

rhetorical question is why is it OK for this big safe box to pull up next to Kroger to protect the money, but it seems odd if that store got robbed if we showed up in one to protect the people. We would challenge the militarization term.

In the military surplus weaponry, the numbers are between 8 and 14 percent, on any given year.

Other stuff is boots, clothing, and gear. If the military has it in huge warehouses, in the total lifespan of the program, the military has given out about $4 billion to police in the whole country. But they abandoned over $7 billion in Iraq. So which is a bigger waste? Giving it to police departments who would oftentimes have to buy it otherwise or leaving it in a warehouse, I think would be a bigger waste.

Almost everything we’ve acquired we’ve kept.

We once got an airplane, an 8-seater, for free, that we gave to another police department.

Most of the equipment we acquired through federal grant or by surplus. It’s either no cost or very low cost. Some things we’ve bought because it wasn’t available.

WESTEND: Has any of this military-style equipment been employed since you have acquired it? In what types of situations do you envision using some of this equipment, such as the fortified utility vehicles that have been acquired?

BOUCHARD: Sadly, almost all of it. We hope and pray we don’t have to use any of it, but hope is not a strategy in our business. Preparation is. We’ve used the armored vehicles time and time again.

We try to prepare for everything. We don’t want the public to worry about it, but it’s our job to worry about it. For example, our Dream Cruise was one of the first major national events after the Boston Marathon bombing. A lot of us had a lot of stomach guessing about that event. Right after 9/11, we had one of the largest national events, so we’ve been on the ‘Oh my gosh, I hope we’re not next’ position more than once. But that’s the world we live in.

We have 1,300 people in the department, and not everyone is trained in everything. Some things, only the SWAT team is trained on. If you have a piece of equipment, you’re trained on it.

WESTEND: Your department and the acquisition of a portable cell phone tracking device (Hailstorm or Stingray) has been the focus of a number of media reports. What can you tell us about this device and how it is employed?

BOUCHARD: There’s been mostly false information put forth by aspiring politicians. The equipment that we acquire and have is focused two-fold. It could be techniques and equipment to build a case, or you can use the techniques and equipment to find someone. Very different missions. The pieces of equipment you’re talking

Probably our biggest fear is that these folks come back and do what is really not a grand scale attack, but it's still a terrifying attack to our public. about we use to find someone. It’s not surveillance. It doesn’t data mine. It never listens to anyone’s phone calls. Ever. It doesn’t gather anyone’s information about anyone, ever. It’s used to find a person, and when we use it to find a person, we get a warrant.

WESTEND: Are there specific written department guidelines on the use of the Hailstorm device? Are there command officers that are specifically assigned to manage the use of this device and review how it is used by your officers? Can the device be used without a court warrant?

BOUCHARD: Most of what you see on TV is more than what we can do, to be honest. When I’m watching a TV show, and they track someone or CSI-that, I go, I wish we could do that. I’m not going to be specific in how we find people. We can’t listen to any phone calls, not even the person we’re looking for. It’s very specific for the person we’re looking for. It doesn’t even listen to the bad guy’s phone calls. It doesn’t even data mine the bad guy’s information. It’s very specific. We go before a judge and say this is what we’re going to do, what we need, and the judge says, ‘That’s reasonable, he’s wanted for rape, go find him.’

We’re very strict about staying inside the lines.

There’s literally a couple people who are trained in the use of these and they report to command officers. And its use is extremely limited because that means that other avenues to find that person have not been productive.

WESTEND: There are also reports that the sheriff’s department has acquired a drone that can be used for surveillance. Are the reports accurate and what can you tell us about the use of the drone or drones?

BOUCHARD: (Laughter) Some of the same people who have portrayed the same information have never taken the time to call us or to learn the state of the reality as it pertains to the use of unmanned aerial craft. You can go down to a hobby store and buy one and fly one over your neighbor’s property and spy and record, and may have some civil litigation; the law hasn’t really caught up criminally. For law enforcement, we’ve actually been trying to get fully certified on unmanned aerial observation for two years. The way this started, when we were at the West Bloomfield shooting, the man who shot the West Bloomfield officer was barricaded we thought, but we couldn’t really tell and we couldn’t get close enough because he kept shooting at us, up in a third-story window. Tactically he was shooting down, in a much better position, raining down fire on our folks.

I asked one of our lieutenants to go to Brookstone and get one of those little drones, you see them flying in the malls, and we’ll see if we can pop it up and look in the windows to see which room he’s in, because I didn’t want to bring our helicopter low enough because he would have shot it down.

After that, I said we need to get something that we’re trained on and we could get eyes on if we had an emergency situation. We’ve been at this for two years now. We’ve been trying to get our hands on one, and the process to get from point A to point B is unbelievably bureaucratic. Our people who fly this have to be trained as pilots, so I actually had to send them to ground school to become certified. The FAA restrictions on a law enforcement agency to fly one of these, first you have to train for months and months and months, away from anyone and anything, and anytime you fly one it has to be under 400 feet and in your line of sight. So in regards to your question of surveillance, if we can see it, anyone can see it.

Everyone is thinking of the military, with it flying at 20,000 feet for a couple of hours and it can see you in your backyard. This thing is under 400 feet and is going BRRR. This is not a surveillance device at all.

WESTEND: The New York City Police Department is beginning to equip a small number of its officers with wearable video cameras in an effort towards greater accountability. Do you see that as an effective monitoring device? Can you see implementing your deputies with wearable video cameras?

BOUCHARD: We have been looking at those for a couple of years. There are a couple of very challenging issues with those. As the technology has evolved, it’s gotten better. When we first started looking at it, it really wasn’t good quality. It was costly. Our priority has been upgrading all of our in-car video to digital. It also captures audio, so even if they’re not on camera it captures what they’re saying. We have that in all of our patrol cars as a priority. We have been looking at body cameras for a while, but it runs into a number of issues. First, is privacy – you’ve got a camera on police recording everything. When people are at their worst moments and it’s FOIAble. So now you have all of this footage in these very raw moments that becomes public, from an agency point of view, that’s a concern. For us, the people we’re trying to protect – that could be a reality TV show.

Can it potentially help with police accountability? Absolutely. It’s a double-edge sword. How long is it kept? It comes with some challenges for us. Am I interested? Absolutely. I’m exploring it. Also, for us to implement it, today, without the training, is $1.5 million. You have to not just have the camera, you have to have the transmission and the download and the system and the data. Plus the overtime to train everyone, because you have to pull them off the road to train them.

The federal government says they’re going to mandate it, but who’s going to pay for it, and they haven’t paid for our bulletproof vests for the last two years. We haven’t received a penny. The very same people who are saying you have to buy all this equipment haven’t even pitched in to buy

bulletproof vests, and everyone knows that statistically, ambushes on cops are up in a stunning way. As of today, 72 officers have died in the line of duty in the country. It’s about one in every 58 hours. That is about 30 more than have died in combat in the military this year.

WESTEND: Relative to your involvement with national law enforcement groups that focus on terrorism, we are hearing more reports about some Americans heading off to war zones to fight on behalf of terrorist organizations. How involved is the sheriff’s department with national officials in terms of awareness of such individuals should they return to the United States after they have spent time fighting overseas?

BOUCHARD: That’s a huge concern. I’m very involved in counterterrorism. I was syndicate director of a counterterrorist group and I sit on a joint counterterrorism task force. That’s a very real fear. They estimate publicly well over 100 Americans are fighting with ISIS, so it doesn’t stretch the imagination to imagine the light bulb is going to go off for ISIS to have people with a valid passport come home. The state department and all of these agencies are doing everything they can to track if somebody goes there and becomes a foreign fighter, or if they’re trying to go there – there was one arrested from here recently trying to go there. But it’s an imperfect system because a lot of these folks fly to England, and then maybe they fly to Turkey, and then they sneak across the border, so it never shows up on their passport. Is it a real possibility they could come back? Sure.

Absolutely.

Probably our biggest fear is that these folks come back and do what is really not a grand scale attack, but it’s still a terrifying attack to our public – think about Mumbai. You had a small group of people with small arms. Imagine if you had two or three people in two or three cities go into schools or shopping centers. That keeps us up at night.

In Mumbai, it took them days to get control of the city. We can’t afford to go days to take control of a terrorist situation here. And for the public, it’s days before the federal government can insert itself with any resources. For at least 24 or 48 hours, it’s going to be your local police departments.

I say it every day. I hope and pray we never have to use our training and equipment, but in my business, hope is not a strategy, preparation is.

That’s why any time I can get my folks equipment and training, I say, get it. If it sits in a warehouse, better here than some Scan for audio Pentagon warehouse Sheriff Mike Bouchard where it will never respond interview. to an emergency.

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PRESENTED BY THE FRIENDS OF THE COMMERCE TOWNSHIP COMMUNITY LIBRARY

FALL USED BOOK

SALE October 16-19th, 2014

Thursday, October 16th 10 a.m. - 8 p.m.

Friday & Saturday October 17th and 18th 10 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

SATURDAY ONLY

FILL-A-BAG FOR $5 Bags provided for Fill a Bag by Hillerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

EVERYTHING MUST GO ON SUNDAY!

Please Support Dave Trott for Congress

All unsold items will be free on Sunday October 19th 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Bring own boxes and bags for "Free Sunday"

VOTE TUESDAY NOVEMBER 4th

Sale held at

Commcere Township Community Library 2869 N. Pontiac Trail, Commerce Twp. Phone the Friends at:

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248-438-5239

Paid for by Trott for Congress, Inc. WESTEND

10.14

FACES

Sydney Balzer en-year-old Sydney Balzer has battled leukemia for four years, and the tenacious young lady founded Colors for Cancer Kids to help other children get through the challenges of chemotherapy.

“It’s a little boring,” Sydney said of the transfusion room where children go for chemotherapy at Children’s Hospital of Michigan.

“Some kids spend four to eight hours in the transfusion room,” said Stacy Balzer, Sydney’s mother. “We saw a kid that was bored and didn’t have anything to do. We gave him crayons and a coloring book.”

From that instance, an idea was born. To date, Sydney has collected and donated nearly 600 coloring packets to Children’s Hospital of Michigan, and she continues to make monthly donations.

“We take coloring books and either crayons or markers at least once a month,” Stacy said. “We’ve gotten donations through Commerce Township offices, local businesses and local schools.”

As a result of her service to other children, Sydney has received a $1,000 scholarship from Kohl’s Department Store. The award was given to 182 regional winners nationwide for their dedication to making their communities a better place to live. “(I was) really, really happy,” Sydney said of winning the award.

Stacy and her husband, Jason, were very proud to see Sydney acknowledged for striving to help other children, even in her most difficult times. “It’s really great to see companies reach out to these kids,” Stacy said.

“We were so excited to see her win the regional scholarship.”

Sydney, a Commerce Elementary student, was diagnosed at the age of six.

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She started this difficult journey as a first-grader with long hair. She has lost her hair five times in four years.

“She really handled it pretty well,” said Stacy. “She rocked that bald head.”Her health improved from treatments, but she relapsed and was given a bone marrow transplant in January 2014.

“We’ve had multiple donor registration drives,” Stacy said. “We had two different drives at Walled Lake Central and Total Soccer in Wixom, and we got almost 2,000 people swabbed and registered. You don’t always know what kind of community you’re in until you need them. I have lived in Commerce for about nine years. I can’t say enough about what an awesome community we have; organizing meals and coming over and cleaning the house.”

Sydney’s 13-year-old brother, Jeremy, has remained supportive while continuing to maintain a typical sibling relationship.

“Obviously, this has been very hard on him, but he’s been very good.”

When Sydney is not occupied with her schooling, her charity and maintaining her health, she loves to go to the Red Robin in Commerce. “(I like their) macaroni and cheese,” she said.

In the meantime, her mom is hoping she remains healthy and is in awe of her daughter’s accomplishments.

“I hope that she can do whatever she chooses to do and continue to be kind and caring and successful,” Stacy said. “I think she’s absolutely the bravest person that I know. I couldn’t be more proud of her.”

Story: Katey Meisner

Photo: Laurie Tennent

BRINGING THE HOUSE PARTIES UNDER CONTROL HOLDING THE PARENTS ACCOUNTABLE

BY KEVIN ELLIOTT

hether it’s a way of seeking popularity or a way of rebelling against parents, the teenage house party has been viewed as almost a rite of passage for high school students for decades. But a tougher stance on underage drinking and the possible risks associated with such gatherings could spell trouble for students and their parents in Oakland County, who condone or take part in such actions.

In the past, the term “house party” may have conjured scenes from a 1980’s John Hughes’ movie where hundreds of rowdy teens flock to a fellow student’s home and proceeded to drink and party to excess. Stained carpets, damaged furniture and trampled lawns were the best case scenario. At worst, someone could be injured in a fight, suffer alcohol poisoning, or even be killed in a car crash after leaving the party.

Looking to cut down on such scenarios, many law enforcement agencies and municipal leaders have pushed for and enacted local ordinances targeting house parties, and parents who permit them, in order to hold them accountable under criminal laws.

“Having gone through the process of being charged with Open House Party in today’s world, my recommendation to parents is to not take the risk of letting your children have supervised parties in your home,” Bloomfield Hills parent Kimberly DelGrosso said in a statement through her attorney, Shawn Patrick Smith. “Even if you are unaware that the kids in your home are drinking, drunk or using any other type of substances, and even if the other kids bring these items into your home without your knowledge, you will still be charged with Open House Party and/or Contributing to the Delinquency of Minors.”

DelGrosso first experienced the repercussions of the Bloomfield Hills ordinance in 2013 when police received a 911 call about a teenaged girl passed out at the home. By the time police arrived at the home, the girl had already been picked up by her mother, and most of the other kids at the home had slipped out before police entered. Once inside, police officers found obvious signs of a party, including another girl who appeared to be under the influence, according to a September 8, 2013 police report.

DelGrosso told Bloomfield Hill police that she was aware her son was having friends over, but was unaware they were drinking any form of alcohol. She also told police she checked on the kids and provided them pizza, but didn’t notice any signs of them drinking. She further told police that when her son has parties, she normally collects the keys from kids and administers breath tests before they leave to make sure they haven’t been drinking. espite the claims, DelGrosso was cited for open house party and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. She pleaded no contest to the house party charge, and the contributing to the delinquency of a minor was dropped. She was the placed on probation for six months, according to court records.

Although that incident should have been the end of the issue for DelGrosso, she found herself on the defense again in June 2014, when Bloomfield Hills police were again called to her home on a report of minors drinking alcohol at her home.

According to the police report, a friend of one of her sons’ had come to the home on May 30 instead of attending swim practice. The student brought his own alcohol, which he drank prior to DelGrosso coming home, according to Smith, who represented DelGrosso during a trial at the 48th District Court, where she was found not guilty of violating the house party ordinance and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Police had sought to have DelGrosso charged with a harsher felony crime of child neglect, but the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office rejected such a charge, thus allowing her to be charged under the local house party ordinance. She was found not guilty in a jury trial.

“When push came to shove and (the child) was going to get into trouble, he blamed her,” Smith said about the trial. “Maybe they couldn’t trust the story.”

Smith said the teen caught drinking at the home had acquired his own alcohol without

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DelGrosso knowing, and had drunk it prior to her coming home. However, he said the law was attempting to hold DelGrosso responsible.

“We presented a case that said, just because some parents are doing their job, we don’t have to be parents for every kid that comes over to the house,” Smith said. “Every kid who disregards parents, or lies to them and goes to someone else’s house and does what they were told not to do – then we are responsible? That’s not what the law is set up to do.” he Bloomfield Hills ordinance that regulates the use of alcoholic beverages at open house parties carries the same penalty as most local ordinances addressing house parties and underage drinking, which includes a fine not exceeding $500 or imprisonment in the county jail for a term not to exceed 30 days, or both. A subsequent violation, also a misdemeanor, is punishable by a fine of up to $500 and/or a jail term not to exceed 90 days.

The majority of municipal ordinances in Oakland County prescribe a maximum fine of $500, while Michigan’s social hosting laws cap the total at $1,000, with up to 30 days imprisonment for a first offense and 90 days for a subsequent offense.

Commerce Township addresses house parties under the social gatherings subsection of its ordinances pertaining to offenses pertaining to underage persons. Specifically, the ordinance states that “any person having control over any premises, residence or other real property who shall allow an open house party to take place ... where the person knew or reasonably should have known that an alcoholic liquor or controlled substance was in the possession or being consumed by a minor ... shall be guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment for not more than 30 days or a fine of not more than $500, or both imprisonment and fine.”

While the Commerce Township ordinance doesn’t address subsequent violations, the township’s ordinances also address underage drinking in its parental responsibility ordinance.

Such ordinances are often used to address truancy, however, the Commerce Township ordinance goes considerably further to address theft, alcohol, controlled substances, curfew and other criminal offenses for which a parent may be held responsible. Specifically, the ordinance states it is unlawful to “knowingly permit the minor to possess alcoholic liquors, unlawful controlled substances, or substances which the parent has reason to believe are alcoholic liquors or controlled substances.”

The ordinance goes on to state that “it shall be presumed that a parent has knowledge of any of the above acts of a minor if the act was committed during the hours of curfew when the minor was required to be at his residence under the care, custody and control of the parent.” Curfew for minors 16 and 17 are between midnight and 6:30 a.m., except Friday and Saturday nights, when it is 1- 6:30 a.m. For minors from 11- to 15-years old, the curfew is from 11 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. Violation of the ordinance is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to $500 and/or 90 days in jail.

According to the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office, which provides patrols for Commerce Township, the township sees relatively few such parties, with one or two likely being the average.

In addition to criminal and civil lawsuits, teens caught at underage house parties may face other problems.

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“The prosecutor makes it a point to go to area schools – this year already we have been presenting every other day – and that’s one of the things she talks about,” said Oakland County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Paul Walton, referring to Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Coooper.

“There are consequences to parties, sexting, making threats online and underage drinking. Even if you don’t go to jail, there are serious consequences that can result. In Michigan, the rates for scholarships and college admissions are very competitive. Administrators now run background checks, so if you have two students applying and one has a record, you can have realistic consequences.”

While Walton said there are some parents who think it’s all right for older teens to drink under their supervision so that they don’t drive or leave afterwards, he said it’s often those parents who end up in trouble or visiting their children in jail in later years.

“We get a lot of parents saying ‘we aren’t the cool parents,’ and the ones down the street have all these underage kids over,” he said. “We tell them that if they think something is going on, report it. Do you really want the Department of Human Services to come in and do an investigation to see if you’re a fit parent or not?”

While ordinances vary from community to community, the enforcement policies of open house party ordinances may also vary in each community.

For instance, while the city of Walled Lake’s open house party ordinance mirrors that of most other communities, enforcement typically comes with a warning first.

Walton said some communities may be more lenient in enforcement because they might be shorthanded with police. For instance, police officials in the city of Walled Lake and Village of Wolverine Lake said they often issue warnings at a party prior to issuing any citations.

“Most of the time, we ask people to go inside.

It’s usually a loud music issue, and we tell them not to drive, and it’s usually over from there,” said Walled Lake Police Chief Paul Shakinas, who said the department has only issued one house party violation in three years. “If they are not cooperating, that’s when we issue a house party violation.” owever, part of a department’s response may also be determined by the size and structure of a department. With less than a handful of officers on duty most nights, breaking up a large house party may prove to be difficult to do in communities such as Walled Lake or Wolverine Lake.

Shakinas said he also prefers to have parents deal with such problems, rather than issuing citations and entering a teen or parent into the court system, if possible.

“I prefer to call the parents and have them pick them up, and let the families deal with the situation,” he said. “I’m not a big fan of seeing underage kids catching charges. If the family can deal with it and it corrects the issue without having to drag them into the court system for something a lot of people did when they were kids, that’s what we try to do.

“Every blue moon (we issue citations). I’m not a fan of it. Most of the time the parents aren’t home and there are times we are willing to work with people. But if they aren’t responsive and aren’t making sure people are, that’s when we get involved to a much more deeper extent.”

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Walled Lake’s house party ordinance carries the standard misdemeanor penalty, which is a fine not exceeding $500 and/or 30 days imprisonment for the first offense, and up to 90 days for subsequent offenses. The ordinance specifically states that “no adult having control of any residence or premises shall allow an open house party to take place at the residence or premises if any alcoholic beverage or drug is possessed or consumed at the residence or premises by any minor where the adult knows or reasonably should have known that any alcoholic beverage or drug was in possession of or being consumed by a minor ... and where the adult failed to take reasonable steps to prevent the possession or consumption of the alcoholic beverage or drug.”

The Walled Lake ordinance, as with the majority of house party ordinances, defines “residence or premises” as including a home, apartment or condominium, as well as other places, such as a motel or hotel room, hall or other places of assembly, whether it be occupied temporarily or permanently.

Other communities, such as the city of Troy, take a zero tolerance stance to underage drinking and house parties.

“If we get a call on a complaint, we go knocking on the door, and then we take appropriate actions,” said Troy Police Capt. Robert Redmond. “On occasion, they don’t answer the door or have tried to barricade themselves inside. We have even gotten search warrants.” hile Redmond said the department takes a zero tolerance stance on underage drinking and house party violations, he said it’s not an issue that is very common. On average, he said there are probably two or three instances a year that come to the department’s attention, and usually include multiple citations for minor in possession of alcohol. He said parents will be cited on occasion, if the department can show the parent was involved in the party or furnishing alcohol.

“It doesn’t happen very often in Troy,” he said.

In Birmingham, it specifically states the purpose and reason behind the ordinance.

“The city determines that alcohol and controlled substance use by persons under 21 should be regulated,” the ordinance reads. “Unregulated use creates serious social problems, including but not limited to injury and harm to persons and property caused by vehicles operated by persons less than 21 years of age under the influence of alcohol or controlled substances, disturbances of the peace, and other devastating effects upon minor and the public at large.

“It is further determined that the regulation of house parties involving alcohol and controlled substance use by persons less than 21 from attending such parties will significantly reduce the incidence of problems attributed to alcohol and controlled substance use by persons less than 21 years of age.”

“Criminally, you have to have knowledge of it,” Birmingham Police Commander Terry Kiernan said about criminal liability under the local ordinance.

“Criminally, they can’t be charged if they aren’t aware. But civilly, they are responsible for their child, so they are still responsible. There is some vicarious liability attached there. If their kid has a party, and something tragic occurs, (the parent) is going to be held responsible civilly.”

In other words, a parent may not be criminally

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liable for allowing a party if a child hosts it without their permission. However, they may be responsible in a civil lawsuit resulting from a party. nder Michigan law, a person who sells or furnishes alcohol to a minor may be held accountable for damages that occur as a result of that alcohol. The law, also known as the Dram Shop Act, is the same civil law that allows bartenders or shop owners to be held liable for serving an already intoxicated person if they inflict damages to another person as a result of the purchase, legal or not.

“We don’t really run across too much of that anymore,” Kiernan said of large house parties. “I think people have become educated about that, and people who own houses have been educated about the liability, both criminally and civilly.

“Back when I was hired on in the 1980s, the first couple of years there would be parties with 300 to 500 kids at a house. We would have to call the department for backup. It would be wild. Whoever owned the house, I always felt sorry for them. It would be trashed.”

Kiernan said the opportunity today for parties to grow out of control is even greater, as teens are better connected to each other with social media and cell phones. Through such channels, he said, it’s easy for word of a party to spread and quickly get out of control. Despite the technology, he said it appears such parties have decreased.

“Little Jimmy’s parents would go out of town, and then he would have a party,” Kiernan said.

“Word of mouth traveled, and there would be more than 100 people. Now it’s usually about 20 to 25 people when we see them. We had maybe one in the past few years where an adult was there and knew there was alcohol.

According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), about 10.8 million young people, or about 28.3 percent, ages 12 to 20, reported drinking alcohol in the past month, according to a 2006 study. About 19 percent admitted to binge drinking, and 6.2 percent reported being heavy drinkers.

Those numbers, according to MADD, have stayed about the same since 2002. MADD also states that adolescent drinkers perform worse in school, are more likely to fall behind and have increased social problems, depression and suicidal thoughts. Yet, the organization states parents are the most common supplier of alcohol to those under 21, and parents are the primary influencer of teens.

When parents do get involved with hosting a party where alcohol is being furnished to minors, Kiernan said most police department’s typically aren’t aware of them because they are probably kept under tighter control.

“If you’re a parent and stupid enough to do that, I hope you’re smart enough to contain it in your house,” he said. “The only time we come across it is if someone calls and complains. They are crazy to do it. As a parent, I don’t think you can take that responsibility of another child. If your kid makes a dumb mistake, you are going to pay for it. If you allow them to drink in your house, and they sneak out and get hit by a car and killed – who do you think it is going to come back on?”

Farmington Hills Police Chief Chuck Nebus said the municipality enacted its open house party ordinance about 30 years ago when the department would respond to an average of 30 or more parties on an average Friday or Saturday night. Now, he said, the department is called to only one or two each year.

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“What we found was that police runs would back up, and we would go to the next party and see the same kids. They would go from one location to another,” Nebus said. “I do give the ordinance a lot of credit, and enforcement.”

The Farmington Hills ordinance, which was first adopted in 1985, includes wording nearly identical to the Walled Lake ordinance, and carries the same penalties. Nebus said the department also uses the ordinance to educate parents and teens about the legal consequences of holding house parties.

“It may be that the party trend may have faded, and parents and kids learned that too frequently they got out of hand. I think parents today are less likely to allow them to have a party, and keep a more careful watch,” he said. “Back when they were at their height, we had to put an overtime detail together just to make parties a priority.”

To assist parents, the Michigan state legislature has issued a guide for parental party hosting that offers tips to avoid alcohol and keeping it out of the hands of party guests. ccording to the guide, parents should be at home and visible during a party. By doing so, it may stop their teen from being put in a vulnerable position of being taken advantage of by friends. Being present also provides parents the opportunity to meet their teens’ friends. Additional tips include not offering alcohol to guests under 21, and to be alert to the signs of alcohol or drugs. Guests who try to bring alcohol into a home should be asked to leave, as allowing them to stay may open the parent and child up to criminal and civil consequences. Be sure to set ground rules with teens prior to a party in order to voice concerns and expectations.

Always have plenty of food and non-alcoholic beverages on hand, and plan activities for the party with your teen prior to the party.

It’s important to not allow guests who leave to return to the party. Be sure to limit the party’s attendance times, and to know who is expected at the party. Notify police when planning a large party, as it will protect you and your guests, as well as neighbors. Discuss with police an agreeable plan for guest parking.

In addition to tips for hosts, the guide recommends that parents with children attending a party know how they will get there and back home, and to discuss the possible situations when a teen might need to call home.

Still, despite knowledge of the law and tips to avoid trouble, the potential for trouble at a party may still be too much for some parents, and they may choose to avoid such parties altogether, as is the advice DelGrosso now gives, following her incidents.

“The laws are very strict today, especially and uniquely in Oakland County, where a lot of revenue is being generated by these types of charges,” she said. “Today is unlike the days when I was a teen and our parents would be able to allow us to have friends over. Back then, should things happen to get out of hand, the parents would be the ones to handle the disciplining. Now, the police and the court system are the parents.

“You actually are considered guilty and have to prove your innocence. It is extremely costly to go to trial and pay the fines and court costs involved, as well as time consuming. Jail time is a possible outcome for allowing kids to use your home to socialize. I advise against any type of parties in your homes.”

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OPENING THE ONLINE WORLD TO STUDENTS TEACHING ON THEIR TERMS TO PREPARE FOR INCREASED LEARNING AND CAREERS

BY LISA BRODY

arents and teachers, at least those over 30, tend to be in universal agreement over one thing: our children know way more about computers and technology, by and large, than we do. As the technological landscape continues to evolve and metamorphose into new and interesting ways, so too do the opportunities to educate our kids that will allow them to operate, both educationally and in their future workplaces, in the landscape of the 21st century.

With hardly a student left who doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t spend most of their time on a computer, tablet or smartphone, schools are looking at ways of teaching them on their terms. Yet while they can text, play games and connect with one another on their devices, theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not necessarily utilizing technology in manners that allow them to effectively communicate, research, effectively write for school and an ultimate career, nor to link with others though virtual groups, which can lead to unique teamwork and collaborative skills. Online education can, and does, offer these opportunities. It can open up the world to some students in ways a traditional classroom may not.

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While every educator and administrator will emphasize that the most effective way for most children to learn is between students, their fellow students and an excellent teacher, they also acknowledge that not every pupil learns the same way. Some students need more than what is available in a traditional classroom. Others kids have trouble sitting still in a formal setting and need the freedom of flexible learning. There are some students who have part time jobs, others with heavy extracurriculars, who cannot take a full course load, even in high school. And there are some children who are felled by illness who have to be out of school for a lengthy period of time, or parents who may be home schooling their children, but are seeking outside stimulation. For all of these students and those interested in a new way of learning, there are now online learning opportunities. he Michigan Department of Education in 2006 developed an online learning requirement consistent with a core requirement in the U.S. Department of Education’s 2005 National Education Technology Plan.

According to the plan, schools must “provide every student access to e-learning.”

In the 2006 plan, a part of the Michigan Merit Curriculum guidelines, for online experience emphasizes, “It is clearly an opportunity for Michigan high schools to effectively use technologies in ways that provide successful ‘online learning experiences’ that truly prepare learners for the future. Online learning should include a combination of technologies to create an experience that replicates real world data gathering and application required in business and industry; thus preparing students with the skills needed for learning in the 21st century.

“The goal for educators and policy makers is to provide high quality integrated online learning experiences that will engage and challenge today’s high school students.

Today, technology plays an integral role in the workplace and at home. It is important that students in grades K-12 and state-approved career and technical education programs must have experiences where the teacher makes extensive use of available online resources and communication strategies. To support these state guidelines, local educational agencies are encouraged to develop local standards and legal and ethical guidelines by working collaboratively with parents, students, educators and community groups. In addition, school districts should provide support systems, policy, and knowledgeable professional educators to guide students through an online learning experience.”

To achieve these goals, the Michigan state legislature, from a total $15 billion education budget, allocated $5 million out of its

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education omnibus appropriations budget to create the Michigan Virtual University for online learning and support. The legislation, Public Act 60 of 2013, allows students in grades 5 through 12 who are enrolled in a Michigan public district or public school academy, but not a full-time cyber academy, to take up to two online courses per academic term with the consent of their parent or guardian.

Updated state legislation of the State School Aid Act of 1979, amended effective October 1, 2014, allocates $9.4 million to Michigan Virtual University. The goal, the legislation’s language states, is to support and accelerate innovation in education through testing, evaluating and the recommendation of appropriate new technology-based instructional tools and resources. School districts are also required to research, design and recommend digital education delivery models for use by pupils and teachers that include age-appropriate multimedia instructional content, as well as research, design and recommend competency-based online assessments.

Cyber schools and online course providers must be monitored and evaluated annually to meet department criteria, as well as to ensure a quality education for students, according to the legislation. Further, based on pupil completion and performance data reported to the state, there must be an analysis of the effectiveness of the online course providers operating in Michigan to determine how well they are preparing students for college and career-readiness. Districts are encouraged to share their information with the intermediate school districts, the governor and the legislature. The legislation requires the report to be submitted to the responsible state departments no later than December 1, 2014.

An ultimate goal is to research and establish an Internet-based platform that educators can use to create student-centric learning tools and resources and facilitate a user network that will help educators across the state in using the network.

The Michigan Merit Curriculum defined online learning as “a structured learning activity that utilizes technology with Intranet/ Internet-based tools and resources as the delivery method for instruction, research, assessment and communication.”

How different school districts and independent schools interpret the mandate to provide online opportunities vary across the state, as well as across Oakland County, from offering the ability to access a few classes online in Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills, to full digital learning academies in Ferndale and Oxford. Some private schools have limited offerings, while others, such as Cranbrook Schools, are a pioneer in online education.

“Our philosophy is that we believe what is best for kids is to be with our teachers in our classrooms, learning with us and with their

peers,” said Dr. Joe Hoffman, assistant superintendent for instruction for Birmingham Public Schools. “However, we understand that kids have access to many resources and learn in many ways with many tools. We have many opportunities for online learning and online competencies.”

A key way Birmingham Schools is implementing online learning is via blended learning. Traditional blended learning is where students are in class part of the time and then other time is blended with some outside learning, perhaps with time spent at other resources.

“In Birmingham, we approach learning in class part of the time blended with learning outside of class, where some of that learning might be online; some may be collaborating with groups of other students, or with community members. It’s just a bit of a broader definition of blended learning,” Hoffman said.

Hoffman said the district’s definition was derived by getting a group of teachers from Seaholm and Groves high schools together with central administrators “in order to develop our district’s definition of online learning. Online learning means different things to different people.” Another way they’re experimenting with online learning is by “flipping” classrooms. It’s not a physical flip, but a way of flipping the instructional and homework portions of the day for students. “We’re experimenting with this with some Algebra 1 classes at Seaholm,” Hoffman said. “What we mean by that is students are viewing lessons created by their teachers online, but instead of doing this in class, they’re learning it online at home. Then, when they’re inside their classroom, they’re working on their homework, getting questions answered by their teachers. Teachers and students are solving problems together in class.” Hoffman said this format of “flipping” a classroom meets the state’s criteria of online learning because students receive information online prepackaged by their teacher. irmingham Groves Principal Cathy Hurley said that for the past five years the district has also offered online classes through the Michigan Virtual Academy for students needing credit recovery. “In Birmingham, students need 28 credit hours to graduate. Some students struggle to understand the seriousness of school, and sometimes in the ninth and tenth grade years, they don’t pass their courses,” she said. “We’ve used credit recovery for them. For example, we’ll do Algebra 1 with them (online) to recover that credit because it’s a (state) required course to graduate.”

Hurley said that some highly academic students also have chosen to take a course from the state catalogue. “Some high level single section classes are only offered once a

B

ince our conversion to Sotheby’s 8 years ago SKBK has realized steady growth in our market share throughout the area.

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Currently SKBK markets and sells significantly more homes over $1.5 million than our competitors. As the price rises so does our market share – we sold 38% of the homes over $3 million so far this year – that is three times our closest competitor.

Luxury real estate is just not local – homes must be marketed to include the global consumer. Nearly half of all the visits to the Sotheby’s International website are from outside the US. Here are a few key points about our marketing – our results demonstrate the success of this approach.

Global Media – Our 2014 global media plan will generate 800 million impressions through hand-selected media powerhouses whose innovation, experience and international impact help drive awareness for the extraordinary properties our network represents.

Global Reach – Innovation, Experience, International Exposure: With over 14,000 sales associates in approximately 720 offices and 52 countries and territories, our network members utilize all that is current to present a home in a unique way.

SothebysRealty.com – attracts more consumers to search, view and inquire than any other luxury real estate website.

• 10,000,000 visits yearly • 12 focused minutes per visit

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Aerial photography – we provide aerial videos of every home we market over $500,000 – scan the adjacent QR code to see a sample video.

Again – we use all available tools to market our properties and to position them as best possible in the market.

Thank you again – Scan QR code to see a sample video of our Aerial photography

Douglas H. Hardy, MD Chairman

Market Share | By Dollars SKBK MarKetS More Homes Over $1.5 Million 25.75%

8.60%

7.78% 5.79% 3.65%

SKBK Sotheby’s International

Max Broock Birmingham

Hall & Hunter Birmingham

Higbie Maxon Agney

Cranbrook Realtors

2.89%

2.84%

2.70%

2.67%

2.50%

Max Broock Bloomfield

Shain Park Realtors

Berkshire HWWB

RE/MAX New Trend

CB Weir Manuel Birmingham

*Current Active Listings provided by Realcomp II Ltd. 8.1.14

SKBK SellS More Homes Over $1.5 Million 21.48%

13.70%

13.05% 10.68%

5.87%

5.37% 3.77%

SKBK Sotheby’s International

Max Broock Birmingham

Hall & Hunter Birmingham

CB Weir Manuel Birmingham

Max Broock Bloomfield

Shain Park Realtors

Berkshire HWWB

3.19%

Cranbrook Realtors

2.50%

Keller Williams Troy

1.90% RE/MAX New Trend

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day, and they may conflict, such as Japanese 5 and AP Physics. So they take it through the state catalogue through Michigan Virtual University,” she said. The virtual university has proven to be an ideal option for medically fragile students “who can’t handle a full day of classes but want to graduate on time. It’s very individualized. They will sit down with their counselors to choose their classes based on fulfilling their graduation requirements.” The ability to work on their own time schedule is another bonus. et, out of a school district with 1,300 students, Hurley said that only 12 to 20 students a year are taking advantage of the opportunities available with online courses. “It’s very insignificant here right now, because people want their students to be in our classes with our teachers,” Hurley stated. “Birmingham Schools allows students to take 15 classes a year because we’re on trimesters, which allows for more choices, so I think there’s less need for online options.”

Bloomfield Hills Schools has a similar approach to Birmingham Schools, where, according to district spokesperson Shira Good, they don’t have their own online school, “but allow students to take classes that are teacher-led and available through the state catalog. We use the catalog at micourses.org to choose course for our students. Many of these courses are through the Michigan Virtual High School (Academy),” she said.

West Bloomfield Schools began a pilot program the second semester of last year’s school year of teaching hybrid classes for some Advanced Placement (AP) classes, where each course requires a portion of the class to be online.

“We do not offer solely online classes.

Instead we offer students a sampling of hybrid classes,” said West Bloomfield High School social studies teacher Katherine Law, who is teaching a hybrid AP world history class. “In our hybrid model, we have mandatory class on Mondays, and then ‘hybrid’ classes on our block days. During mandatory Mondays, teachers touch base with the whole class in a traditional group setting. Often teachers will use this time to engage in group discussions, give tests, conduct labs and assign essays.”

She further explained, “During a hybrid day, students may elect not to attend class and instead do their work at home. Students who need remediation are required to attend hybrid days at the teacher’s discretion, alongside students who choose to attend to get one-onone help.”

West Bloomfield piloted their hybrid program with five classes last year; finding success, they have grown the program to nine this year, with classes including AP chemistry, AP biology, AP government, AP engineering, AP music theory and AP world literature. To permit greater student scheduling flexibility, the classes are at either the beginning or end

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of the day, letting the students either arrive late or leave early.

“Students are expected to use this time off to work on their hybrid assignments, however, realistically they can work on their hybrid assignments at any time, day or night,” Law noted. “And this flexibility is really a major advantage to our students.”

The Walled Lake Consolidated School District was an early adopter of online classes, or as Mark Hess, executive director of instruction, technology and assessment, said, “We were one of the first. A lot of districts looked at us like guinea pigs. We’ve been at this online stuff for about 12 years.”

While Hess noted that they originally didn’t have a huge offering of online courses, which has expanded, “It absolutely fills the needs for certain students. Some people need that faceto-face interactive class time. Others do better independently, online. Not everyone works well 8 to 3. Some high school students have jobs, or want to take classes that we don’t offer, like Mandarin Chinese, or biomedical engineering, that we cannot fill. But we want to offer the opportunity for enrichment.”

Walled Lake Schools offers online courses predominately through Edgenuity’s E-2020 program, as well as some through Michigan Virtual University.

There are other students, as well, who benefit from online classes, Hess said. “Maybe they took Algebra II, and failed it or got a D,” he said. Online classes, he said, are essential for credit recovery. “Many students want to graduate on time, but they struggled a semester, so they retake it online. Then, often the kids are very successful. Maybe they’re in a better place.”

Hess said the district feels it is part of their goal in educating all students in their quest for success. “We feel it’s our obligation to provide opportunities for all kinds of learners.

Not every student will be successful, but we keep trying things out to try to help all kids.

Whatever it takes, whether it’s brick and mortar seats, online classes, working with families, counseling. It’s constant. We don’t want anyone to fall through the cracks.”

During the school year, online courses are free to enrolled students. Students can take up to five hours of classes, with course offerings rotating as they finish a course. During the summer, there is a fee of $100 for a student to take an online course, in order to pay for the licensing of the software and to bring in a teacher, Hess explained. “Our system does not leave them alone. We require them to come in a couple of times a week to meet with a teacher. There are checkpoints along the way, where they have to review with a teacher a couple of hours a week. Same during the year.

They review their work and their test scores.”

Enrolled students are offered time in the computer lab in the school in order to work independently. “It’s part of the schedule,” Hess said.

Ferndale Schools has gone a different route,

opening three years ago an alternative high school, called the Digital Learning Center, that is open to any high school student in any county for no cost. “It’s an open school,” said district spokesperson Bill Good.

“It follows the traditional school calendar to a degree,” he said, in that students come in during the first few weeks of the school year and end in June. “Once they show that they’re responsible, we issue them a laptop and an air card (which goes inside a laptop in order to access 4G wireless Internet), in order to allow them to access the Internet anywhere.” Good said that they provide many of their students with these tools, as many come from more disadvantaged backgrounds.

Unlike a traditional high school, the Digital Learning Center doesn’t have traditional semesters. “They go at their own pace, fast or slow,” Good said. “Because as an alternative high school, we try to remove any barriers you traditionally have to learning. We’re trying to make it as easy as possible for these students to learn.” nlike many other school districts which depend upon courses offered from the state catalog of courses, the Digital Learning Center’s entire curriculum was developed by Ferndale Schools staff, other than their physical education courses, which they acquired from Brigham Young University. They currently offer 26 courses, with everything a high school student requires to graduate, other than foreign language classes. Students are offered five classes at a time for them to check out, and once they finish those, no matter how quickly or how long it takes them, they can choose another five. Academic pace managers, similar to a traditional teacher, work with students on any problems they may encounter, in the format the student prefers, whether in person, by e-mail, or by cell phone.

Good said that many do come into the brick and mortar building, which is located in a separate building from the district’s high school.

“We don’t have any foreign language classes, but we will honor those if they’re taken somewhere else,” Good said. “When a student finishes with the program at the Digital Learning Center, they graduate with a high school diploma from Ferndale Schools, not a GED, and that’s a huge draw.”

High school students are not the only ones who have options for online education.

Oakland Schools, the county’s intermediate school district, has worked to develop a consortium of 57 school districts across Oakland, Wayne, Lapeer, Washtenaw, Livingston and Genesee counties participating in a virtual learning academy for K-8 students.

In Oakland County, 22 of 28 districts participate, including Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills, Royal Oak, Troy, Rochester, Southfield,

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Huron Valley, Walled Lake, Waterford, and West Bloomfield, all at no cost to students or their family.

“Students enroll in their home district or partner district, if their home district is not a participant,” said Carol Klenow, program administrator for Oakland Schools’ Virtual Learning Academy. “From that point on, their district sends them to us and we provide them with a Calvert curriculum, which provides them with a computer and Internet access, if needed, so no child is not able to participate. We provide a Michigan certified teacher throughout the year as a mentor, and the parent (or guardian) is a critical participant as a learning guide on site, providing guidance on site overseeing their education.” ore than half of those utilizing the Virtual Learning Academy are students being home schooled. “The idea (for Virtual Learning Academy) originally came from a group of superintendents who knew that they had families home schooling their children who needed guidance and lessons,” Klenow said. There are also a number of students who are training to be elite athletes, and traditional classrooms don’t fit their schedules. “Day-to-day lessons are so well planned that they can work this into their day. They don’t miss any of their grade standards.”

Other students utilizing the online academy are for health-related reasons “who cannot attend school every day. They can maintain their curriculum with the needed flexibility as to when the learning takes place.”

Currently, about 325 students are enrolled, which begins through their website in April through late August. “Some parents home school their children all through high school. Other students transition back to traditional schools,” Klenow said.

She said teachers communicate with students by phone, e-mail or live webinars, but never live classroom delivery of lessons. Together, teachers and parents help students learn and access the digital content. “There are instructions and games, and assessments along the way. Teachers monitor check points along the way. Student performance is checked as assessments at various points,” Klenow said.

In order to develop appropriate curriculums, Oakland Schools worked with district providers to determine what is being taught at area neighborhood schools. “Parents can be assured standards are being maintained,” Klenow said.

Some private schools have also gotten into the online class game.

Cranbrook Schools in Bloomfield Hills was a founding member school, along with The Dalton School in New York, Sidwell Friends School in Washington DC, and Head-Royce School in Oakland, CA, in creating Global Online Academy four years ago, which offers world-class online classes to independent schools students worldwide taught by faculty within the consortium.

“It’s a way to broaden the curriculum and offer more, for us as well as our students,” said Laurie Pullen, coordinator for connected learning at Cranbrook.

“More and more students at an upper level, they will take some online course work, which is just growing. It’s why we need to think about it if we’re a college preparatory school. In a global world, it’s not enough to use technology in the classroom. It’s how you use technology in a work environment. By teaching students now, we’re helping them for college and beyond in using technology.”

Global Online Academy focuses on a range of elective courses, supporting the core curriculum, and are taught by faculty members at various member independent schools, of which there are currently about 50 participating.

Currently, a Cranbrook teacher is teaching an English course and another is offering a professional development course. Courses cover the spectrum, from the graphic novel and game theory to bioethics, from abnormal psychology and medical problem solving to app design. Approximately 20 courses are offered each semester.

Because Cranbrook is part of the consortium, students receive a letter grade and credit posted to their transcripts.

“One of the benefits is that students participate on their own timetable,” Pullen said. “It allows them time in the day to be flexible, and they can manage their own time. Also, all of the courses require group projects, so they are working with students from around the world, and they find that really, really cool.”

“For the right student, online classes are a useful tool for learning,” noted Birmingham Schools’ Hoffman. “As students are going on to higher education, more and more are learning the importance of an online component for skill development.”

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Conveniently located near the GM Proving Grounds, Kensington Metro Park, The Village Of Milford, & will give you easy commuting. Tucked into a cul-de-sac for privacy, opulent master suite. Walk-out lower level.

Commerce Township | $369,900 Lowest priced home for sale in the Hills Bogie Lake! Stylish, functional, open floor plan home with a 1st floor master suite. Inside you’ll find tasteful touches. Desirable north/south facing.

Highland Township | $329,900 Beautiful 4 bedroom home in one of Oakland County’s most desirable private golf communities - Prestwick Village. Fabulous floor plan with a first floor master suite. Soaring ceilings .

West Bloomfield | $299,900 LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION! Here is the home and lot you have been looking for.

Premium 1.26 acre, cul-du-sac lot in one of West Bloomfield’s most desirable neighborhoods.

Waterford Township | $185,000 This sprawling traditional brick ranch is located on a deep 1 acre lot. The expansive living room w/ natural fireplace. Updated kitchen. This May Be The Home You’ve Been Looking For!

White Lake Township | $139,900 Clean and updated ranch style home backing up to canal off Round Lake. Kayak or canoe out to Round Lake from your backyard. 3 bedroom, one bath delightfully finished. Large deck.

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Spacious great room with vaulted ceiling and gas fireplace. Home warranty included!

Celebrating Home 248-694-9371 | cbwm.com Locally Owned and Operated Since 1950.

WEIR MANUEL

FACES Dax Shepard ctor Dax Shepard once walked the halls of Walled Lake Central High School. Today, he is one of the hottest stars walking Hollywood red carpets.

First known for his side-splitting appearances on the hit show “Punk’d” with Ashton Kutcher, Shepard continues to entertain fans in the role of Crosby Braverman on the popular NBC hit show “Parenthood”.

The actor, who transitions effortlessly from television to the silver screen, was a Spring Mills Elementary School student in the rural township of Highland. He suffered from dyslexia, a reading disorder, but thenelementary school teacher Rick Wood drew out Shepard’s finest academic attributes. Initially labeled a special education student, Shepard was later accepted into advanced placement math courses.

In 1993, Shepard graduated from Walled Lake Central and moved to California. Before long, the middle class Midwestern young man became a smashing Hollywood success.

Shepard’s breakout role on the series “Punk’d” earned him recurring appearances in the real-life comedy. The boy whose family often lived under difficult financial circumstances soon catapulted to fame.

“I remember I went for a bike ride one day and people were yelling out my name,” Shepard said.

“Parenthood” earned him an even larger and broader fan base. With a tasteful comedic twist, the show tackles serious topics such as Asperger’s, divorce, infidelity, and single parenting.

“I think what makes the show unique and appealing is the level of reality,” he said. “We have the freedom to interact with each other. It feels like you’re spying on (the cast). It feels real.”

Shepard will star in the upcoming screen version of the 1970’s TV series “Chips”. He also has a role in “This is Where I Leave You”. The star-studded comedydrama began playing in theaters in September.

Also hitting theaters is “The Judge”, which stars Shepard, Robert Downey Jr., Robert Duvall, and Vera Farmiga. “The Judge” recently premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and will be in theaters October 2014.

“I just wanted to be in (The Judge),” Shepard said. “I would’ve played a waiter in one scene.”

Shepard has appeared in several comedies on the big screen, including “Hit and Run”.

“I’m most proud of ‘Hit and Run’ because I wrote and directed it and my wife is in it,” he said. “Nothing compares to that.”

Shepard’s wife, the gorgeous actress Kristen Bell, played the voice of Princess Anna in the film “Frozen”.

The two have a daughter named Lincoln. Above all the success, Shepard has never lost sight of the importance of family. “I was a mama’s boy. I was blindly in love with my mom,” he said. “I guess I still am.”

Shepard has earned extraordinary professional acclaim, but looks no further than his job as husband and father for his ultimate happiness.

“It’s a 10-inch layer of frosting on top of it,” he said of parenting alongside Bell. “It really made my life ten times more fun. I had no idea how much joy I was missing out on. It’s just a very fulfilling experience.”

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Story: Katey Meisner

MUNICIPAL Location for library not yet resolved

By Kevin Elliott

While discussions about the future location of the Commerce Township Library have yet to determine a final location for the building, members of the township’s board of trustees appear to have narrowed down the possibilities to two locations.

A 3.9-acre site near township hall, inside the Downtown Development Authority’s (DDA) project area, along Martin Parkway, north of M-5 and Pontiac Trail, would be able to house a two-story, 35,000 square-foot building, according to engineering consultant Chuck Kummer, who presented rough, exterior layout plans for the two locations during a Tuesday, September 9, board of trustees meeting.

The thought of constructing a sort of civic center location for the library had previously been nixed, but Kummer said the location would work if the township is able to secure an additional 1.9 acres of land from the DDA, which board members indicated is possible.

The DDA location would provide for about 135 parking spaces for the future library, and could include landscaping and a possible fountain to obscure the parking area and provide a more attractive ambiance to patrons and motorists. Kummer said the biggest drawback of the Martin Parkway site would be its limited space for future expansions.

“It’s a good site,” he said. “It’s certainly workable with the additional (1.9 acres) space down there. You wouldn’t have to cut many trees. The problem is, if you do an addition.”

Additionally, he said parking in some of the areas would be up to 300 feet from the building, which is slightly farther from the building than is idea for patrons. Likewise, there would be some added expense and some loss of usable space by making a two-story building, as an elevator and stairs could take up additional room and raise the construction cost by up to $300,000.

The township’s current library, which is a 20,000-square-foot golf clubhouse that was converted into a library building, was established with the understanding that it would one day be relocated to a new space.

Trustees earlier this year agreed to begin moving forward on planning for a new library, as improvement and maintenance costs for the existing sealibrary continue to rise. westendmonthly.com

Commerce searching for new treasurer

By Kevin Elliott

he Commerce Township Board of Trustees on Tuesday, September 9, agreed to accept the resignation of current township treasurer Susan Gross, and to move forward with the process of finding a replacement.

Board members thanked Gross for her more than 40 years of service with the township, and asked that she help provide a description of her current duties and activities in an effort to find a replacement. The board approved posting the opening and beginning a search for a new treasurer.

Gross’s resignation will be effective December 21, 2014.

Gross began working for the township in 1973 as deputy treasurer, and was appointed to the township treasurer post in January of 1993.

She was elected in November 1993, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012.

She is a Certified Professional Finance Administrator from the Municipal Treasurers Association of the United States and Canada, and was the first deputy treasurer in the state to become certified by the organization in 1996.

“It has been an honor to have served the residents of Commerce Township for nearly 42 years – 22 of those as the township treasurer,” Gross wrote in a brief resignation letter. “I wish you continued success.”

The township board of trustees will have 45 days from the date of the effective resignation to appoint a new treasurer. If the board fails to appoint someone to the position by the end of the 45 days, the township must hold a special election.

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Township trustees on August 19 approved hiring Ann Arbor-based Penchansky Whisler to design a future library. However, the township board has yet to finalize a location for the library. Initially, board members said they believed the library would be in the DDA area, near township hall. However, in April, the board unofficially agreed to move forward with the project using a location in Dodge Park 5 because the township already owns the property.

Commerce Township Supervisor Tom Zoner said while there has been talk that having the library in the DDA area would have economic benefits, he said the DDA already has its own devices it can use to stimulate the economy of the DDA area, but that positioning the library at the Dodge Park 5 site would benefit the overall township immensely.

Kummer said the Dodge Park 5 location would require the removal of several trees, possibly as many as 50 or more. However, he said many valuable trees, which were planted in 1933 by the federal Conservation Corps., could be identified and saved, while still opening up the park and making the library more visible and the park more attractive. Kummer also suggested redeveloping some of the marshland at the property and creating a stone feature wall and a concrete bridge inside the park. Such additions, he said, would make the

location more attractive and visible to motorists. It could also help to lighten up the park, which some residents may currently feel skittish about visiting after dark, he said.

The park location would facilitate a 40,000-square-foot, one-story building, as well as some outdoor use space. The location could also include a shared parking space with other locations in the park, such as athletic fields.

Trustee Rob Long said he would favor the Dodge Park 5 location if the building could be moved closer to the road, so that it would be in the view of passing motorists. “That would be a sell for me,” he said.

Zoner said he felt either location would be good, but felt the Dodge Park 5 location would be better suited for the future site of the library.

“I think either would be good, but Dodge Park 5 has more opportunities for expansion at a later date,” he said.

“I could have been swayed either way, but I think the DDA has enough on their own.”

Trustee Robert Berkheiser said the library’s long-term plan states that increased visibility and the ability to attract more people to the library would benefit the facility, which seems to favor the DDA area.

However, librarian Connie Jo Ozinga has said that she feels the park location would be a better fit for the library.

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One resident on Tuesday also spoke in favor of locating the library at the Dodge Park 5 location. She said the location is a more centralized location in the township, and that many people, such as herself, don’t like navigating traffic and roundabouts on Martin Parkway.

Trustee David Law said he was pleased that the board is discussing the library location.

“Just because we are in this position where we hired the architects, that shouldn’t push us forward to move on the (building) spot,” he said. “I want to make sure that we consider all possible spots and find one that we feel, as a majority, is the best for the township, because it will be here for a long time.”

The board scheduled a joint meeting for Sept. 30 to discuss the library location with members of the township's planning commission, DDA board, parks and recreation committee, the library advisory committee and the architect. A final decision on the location is expected to be made at the board's Oct. 14 meeting.

Speed increased along Decker Road Traffic along Decker Road between Maple and Pontiac Trail in Walled Lake will be moving a little faster, as the Walled Lake City Council on Tuesday, September 16, approved increasing the speed limit from 25 mph to 35 mph at their city council meeting.

Walled Lake Police Chief Paul Shakinas said last fall he requested that the Traffic Improvement Association conduct a traffic study in the area in May of 2014, following the completion of road improvements along Decker Road. Those improvements included adding curbing and upgrading intersections to meet current traffic standards.

“What we are looking for is the 85th percentile of speeds, that is what 85 percent of people travel Decker Road,” he said. “Setting the speed limit too low or high both carry risks to drivers. During the speed study, the 85th percentile was 36.29 mph, which makes the appropriate speed limit 35 mph.”

Shakinas said the speed limit on Decker Road between Pontiac Trail and S. Commerce Road, near Mary Helen Guest Elementary School, will remain at 25 mph.

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Commerce DDA submits new budget

By Kevin Elliott

A proposed 2015 operating budget that includes more than $2.7 million in contributions from the township was approved by the Commerce Township Downtown Development Authority (DDA) on Tuesday, September 16, and will now await township board approval.

The proposed budget, which was approved by DDA board members and will go to the Commerce Township Board of Trustees for final approval in October, includes more than $5.3 million in total expenditures, including about $4.9 million to pay for debt service related to bond debt.

DDA board member Mark Stacey, who heads the board’s finance committee, said the proposed budget is based on the DDA not having any land sales during the year. He said a second proposed budget includes about $10.1 million in land sales, bringing the total revenues from $1.2 million to $11.4 million. The secondary budget that includes land sales doesn’t include any advances to the DDA from the township.

“We will present this to the township board, but there will be some more fine tuning,” said DDA Director Kathleen Jackson. “This won’t be the exact budget, but within reason. I will send the exact budget that goes to the township board as well, but we want to get it to the board so they can include it in their budget process for their October meeting.”

Both versions of the proposed budget include an additional $7,800 for an administrative assistant for the DDA Director, as well as about $75,000 more than the previous year for legal services, as additional sales and legal work are expected in 2015.

Debt owed by the DDA includes interest and principal on bonds used for the $10 million purchase of the former El Dorado Country Club in 2004, and $14 million spent to purchase the Links of Pinewood golf course in 2006 and 2007, as well as 50 acres of Huron Clinton Metropolitan land and contiguous parcels. The goal of the project, north of M-5 between Welch and Haggerty roads, was to enhance the economic stability of the township, to allow for the preservation of open space, and to alleviate traffic congestion with the creation of the Martin Parkway.

Key to repaying the DDA’s debt is 38

DDA approves administrative assistant The Commerce Township Downtown Development Authority (DDA) board at a special meeting on Wednesday, August 27, authorized contracting with an independent contractor to assist DDA Director Kathleen Jackson.

Jackson, who is contracted to serve as the part-time DDA director as well as the township’s planning consultant, told DDA members in June that she would like to hire an administrative assistant for herself. The assistant, she said, would be able to help scheduling meetings, take minutes and other administrative work.

“I spend a lot of time making copies and setting up meetings, which I don’t feel is a valuable use of my time,” Jackson told the board.

Board members at the time instructed Jackson to explore the idea more and to determine what specifically the position would entail, and whether it would be a part-time or full-time position.

Jackson said on August 27 she hadn’t come up with a job description or posted the position, but that she would like to contract with Deb Watson for an unspecified number of hours each week. Watson has worked with Jackson in the planning department and the zoning board of appeals, and also does work for the township’s parks and recreation commission.

“I didn’t publish a job notification. I went to Deb initially and asked her,” Jackson said. “She would be my first pick and she could help cut through some stuff that I’m doing.”

Downtown Development Authority board member Brian Winkler noted that Watson takes minutes for the township’s planning commission and that she hasn’t missed a meeting in seven years.

The DDA board approved contracting with Watson at the rate of $20 per hour. The funds for the position will be taken from the DDA director’s budget. Jackson said she believes the position will be needed for about a year.

Commerce Township treasurer Susan Gross instructed Jackson to provide both the DDA board and the township’s board of trustees a job description for the position. the development of a mixed use area that includes commercial and residential developments, named Commerce Towne Place. In 2013, the DDA accepted the first two purchases for portions of the land from developers, including a $5.15 million purchase agreement between the DDA and M. Shapiro Development Company. The DDA accepted an agreement in August 2013 from Hunter Pasteur Homes of Novi to purchase 14.9 acres for about $1.04 million for a residential housing development. In August of this year, the DDA approved a $3 million purchase agreement with The Grange Group of Wyoming, Michigan, to construct a three-phase assisted living development. On September16, the DDA approved a second purchase agreement with Hunter Pasteur for $2.65 million for about 43 acres of land at the northwest corner of Pontiac Trail and Haggerty Road for the proposed construction of about 100 homes ranging from 1,500 to 2,400 square feet, as well as a 7-acre park, which will include walking trails, a pond, fountain and children’s play area.

While the purchase agreements have been accepted, the final closings and full payments will not be made to the DDA until due diligence by the developers is completed.

Hunter Pasteur closed on its first development, Wyncliff, in August.

However, those funds must be held for a year for the next principal debt payment, under the DDA’s letter of credit agreement.

Trustees reject idea of advisory panel A pitch to the Commerce Township Board of Trustees to form an advisory committee under the Commerce Township Downtown Development Authority (DDA) was rejected during a Tuesday, September 9, board meeting.

“We are working with several developers to sell the DDA property, and we had some meetings and a discussion to have an advisory committee to answer to the DDA, planning committee and this full board (of trustees), with members from each,” DDA Director and

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Planning Director Kathleen Jackson told trustees.

Jackson said the purpose of the committee would be to review initial development proposals with respect to site plan issues, architectural items, circulation, uses and other items. The committee would meet at the discretion of the DDA director on an “as needed” basis, and would aim to give insight to the developer.

Jackson said no formal actions would be taken by the committee, and the developer would be advised that the input from the committee should not be relied upon as any kind of approval.

“I have spoken with several people regarding their interest in serving, and thus far (planning committee Chair) Larry Haber, (trustee) David Law, (planning committee member) Brian Winkler, (DDA president) Jim Gotts and (DDA member) Tim Hoy have said they would consider serving,” Jackson said. “I’d be more than happy to consider any recommendations you may have for other committee members. This does not require a motion on the part of a board, but rather direction on whether or not the board feels this would be a useful step in facilitating development with the DDA area.”

Trustees questioned the necessity and purpose of such a proposed board, and voiced concerns about the formation of such.

“It sounds like another layer, and it could allow for developers to have a better chance to be misled, as this board may come up with something that no other board agrees on,” said trustee Rick Sovel. “I see more negatives than positives.”

Treasurer Susan Gross said such a committee seems dangerous, as the board rarely agrees on everything that has been proposed in the DDA, making it unlikely for such a committee to give an accurate opinion of what a full board may feel about specific site plans or proposals.

Trustee Robert Berkheiser asked Jackson what she was trying to accomplish with the committee.

“What is going to be brought to them that you or (community development director) Terry (Carroll) don’t handle?

You go to these meetings, you should have an idea of what we feel about these things. That is what you are supposed to do.”

Jackson said the idea was also to give the committee information so that it can be taken back to the respective boards. “I’ve been at this for 27 years and I never second guess a planning commission or a township 10.14

Liquor license expansion halted

By Kevin Elliott

or city board,” she said. “That is what I tell developers.”

Trustee Robert Long said he was concerned that such a board could result in some members advocating for certain projects or developers, and that information brought back to the respective boards could be filtered in a biased way.

Treasurer Susan Gross agreed, saying it would be difficult for anyone to accurately describe the desires of the board.

“I don’t know how anybody, as disjointed as this board is, would even know what to say to a developer,” Gross said.

Jackson ended the discussion by withdrawing her request and nixing the idea for an advisory committee.

$3 million purchase of land approved A $3 million land purchase agreement with a west Michigan development group seeking to build a series of assisted living developments in the Commerce Towne Place area was approved by the Commerce Township Downtown Development Authority(DDA) on Wednesday, August 27.

The Granger Group, of Wyoming, Michigan, is proposing plans for a continuum of care and assisted living facility, consisting of about 100 units focused on providing assisted living, memory care and Alzheimer’s services. The project would also include another 60-units for independent living condominiums, as well as about 11 duplex-style cottages. Jason Granger, of the Granger Group, said the project would be done in multiple phases.

The parcel, which consists of about 15 acres of land, is near a potential retail development in the DDA project area, north of M-5, between Pontiac Trail and Richardson roads, and Welch and Haggerty roads. However, details about the retail portion aren’t currently known, as the DDA approved a nondisclosure agreement with a potential developer interested in the land. The DDA board on August 19 voted unanimously to extend that nondisclosure agreement for another 60 days.

The agreement with Granger includes the possibility of extending the due diligence period, allowing the closing of the deal to be put off for up to eight months. However, the agreement also allows for an accelerated time frame.

DDA attorney Thomas Rauch said Granger is hoping to officially close on the agreement before the end of the year in order to meet a 180-day deadline the company is under due to a 10-31 Tax Exchange, which allows the business to defer income tax consequence from the sale of another property.

“It’s possible, and likely, as long as the developer supplies the information, that we could be ready to close by Thanksgiving,” Rauch said.

Home developer acquires 43 acres The Commerce Township Downtown Development Authority (DDA) on Tuesday, September 16, approved a $2.65 million purchase agreement with Hunter Pasteur Homes of Novi, for about 43 acres of land.

In August, board members had heard presentations from three developers who expressed interest in purchasing the land. They recommended working with Hunter Pasteur, as they said the size and scope of the development appeared to be more in tune to what the township board had been favoring in the development of the DDA project area.

Hunter Pasteur is proposing to build about 100 homes, ranging in size from 1,500 to 2,400 square feet, which would sell for between $350,000 and $450,000. There are also plans for a 7-acre park within the development, which would include walking trails, a pond, fountain and children’s play area. The project included the lowest housing density of the projects proposed on the parcel, referred to parcels D & E, west of Martin Parkway and adjacent to Haggerty Road.

Board members unanimously approved the purchase agreement, with member Sue Spelker absent.

Cedar Island Road closed for repairs Cedar Island Road, from Oxbow Lake Road to Bogie Lake Road, in White Lake Township, is closed for emergency repairs following a discovery that part of the road was collapsing over a culvert carrying the Huron River under the road, the Road Commission for Oakland County (RCOC) said.

Plans to expand the availability of liquor licenses in Walled Lake have been halted under an ordinance amendment approved by city council on Tuesday, September 16.

Council members voted unanimously to approve the second reading of an amendment to the city’s ordinance pertaining to alcoholic liquors. The amendment clarifies the process for applying for a liquor license from the city, as well as some of the requirements and background checks that are required of retail liquor sales, including sales at bars, restaurants and convenience stores. The amendment doesn’t make any changes to where liquor licenses are currently permitted.

City council had initially planned to expand the availability of liquor licenses to businesses located in the C3 Business District, which are currently ineligible under the ordinance for liquor licenses.

However, council members in August decided to nix the expanded zoning for the first reading of the ordinance. Board members on September16 accepted some changes to the language of the amendment, which still restricted liquor licenses in the C3 district.

The amendment raised questions from at least one member of the public at the meeting, who inquired about efforts a year ago to allow for redevelopment liquor licenses in the city.

“The issue hasn’t been received with a lot of enthusiasm by council, and I’m not sure that is what a lot of people want to bring into the city,” Walled Lake Mayor Linda Ackley said. “I don’t think it was suitable for Walled Lake. I’m not sure what my colleagues think.”

Redevelopment liquor licenses allow for additional liquor licenses in a community beyond Class C liquor licenses issued by the Michigan Liquor Control Commission, which limits a community to one for every 1,500 of population in a municipality. Redevelopment liquor licenses, on the other hand, are granted as an economic tool.

As such, they require a minimum investment or redevelopment or rehabilitation efforts in a community’s business district or redevelopment area. Additionally, municipalities where redevelopment liquor licenses are issued receive a portion of the licensing fees paid to the MLCC. Under state law, applicants for redevelopment liquor licenses must be a business engaged in dining, entertainment or recreation that is open to the general public, and have a seating capacity for at least 25 people. In terms of investment, the state’s liquor control commission requires the applicant to have spent at least $75,000 on improvements in the building where the license will be housed. The fee for a redevelopment liquor license is $20,000. The licenses, if granted, are then tied to a specific location, rather than an owner, meaning the licenses can’t be transferred to another person in a different location, as can be done with Class C liquor licenses.

The idea of using redevelopment liquor licenses to spur economic development in the city’s downtown area was raised in May of 2013.

The licenses were championed by Walled Lake resident Valerie Kemp, who volunteers on the city’s urban development committee and reached out to Walled Lake City Council members after seeing how the licenses were used in other communities. In August of 2013, city council directed the city manager to work with the Downtown Development Authority to form a committee and explore the potential impacts of allowing the city to issue the redevelopment liquor licenses. However, the issue hadn’t returned to city council until this meeting.

“I’m not saying it’s dead, but we haven’t seen it,” Ackley said.

Councilman Robert Robertson said the businesses that could benefit from redevelopment liquor licenses are located in the C3 business district, which prohibits businesses from obtaining liquor licenses.

Craig Bryson, spokesman for the RCOC, said it isn’t known how long the road will be closed, but said it will be closed through the winter while the RCOC and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources determine how to address the problem.

“No time soon,” he responded as to when the road will be open.

During the closure, motorists are advised to use Bogie Lake Road to Cooley Lake Road to Oxbow Lake and back to Cedar Island, and vice versa, for the detour.

Meanwhile, Bryson said crews have completed the resurfacing of Pontiac Lake Road, from M-59 to Cass Lake Road, in Waterford Township. All lanes are now open.

Commerce receives $1 million DEQ grant

By Kevin Elliott

Commerce Township will receive nearly $1 million in grant money this October from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) for stormwater, wastewater and asset management work to be done.

Township engineering consultant Jason Mayer, of Giffels Webster, proposed to the township in November of 2013 that the township submit a grant proposal to the DEQ for a series of five projects totaling $1.1 million. The DEQ announced on Sept. 3, 2014 that it would provide $989,496 through January 2017 through its Stormwater, Asset Management and Wastewater (SAW) Grant program to Commerce Township. The program requires the township match $109,944 of the total amount.

The projects include the development of an asset management plan for the wastewater collection and treatment system, design engineering costs related to the abandonment of the Welch Road, Haggerty Road and Commerce Towne Center Pump Stations. Specific Projects include: • Abandonment of the Towne Center Pump Station at a cost not to exceed $60,000. The township board of trustees in May 2013 approved moving forward with the engineering design for the project. The SAW grant will cover 90 percent of the engineering design costs to take the project through preparation of construction bid documents.

• Abandonment of the Haggerty Road Pump Station, with the total 40

Commerce library revises Internet policy

By Kevin Elliott

The Commerce Township Board of Trustees on Tuesday, September 9, approved a change to the Commerce Township Community Library’s Internet use policy in order to restrict explicit sexual content; file sharing programs, such as Bit Torrent; and massively multiplayer online games, or MMOs. Currently, the library’s Internet use policy filters some computers used by children and young adults, but provides unfettered access on adult computers, said Commerce Township Library Director Connie Jo Ozinga.

She said the new policy would add additional filters, but that such filters could be removed for adults at their request.

“We’ve always had issues, but it’s gotten to where it is too troublesome,” Ozinga said about Internet use at the library.

The library currently has three levels of filtering, based on the location of the computers. The adult public computers are unfiltered. Young adult public computers are filtered to remove the most objectionable speech.

Children’s computers are more highly filtered, Ozinga said. Adults who wish to have filtered access to the Internet may indicate this to the library staff and use computers normally reserved for children or young adults.

Internet computers may be used by any library patron. Children under 12 years of age must use the computers in the children’s section of the library. Patrons aged 12 to 17 must use the young adult computers, and adults are to use the computers in the adult area except when supervising a minor’s use.

Patrons who wish to request a change to the library’s Internet use policy can do so by putting a request in writing to the library director. The director will then respond with a decision and explanation. If the patron isn’t satisfied, the decision may be appealed to the Commerce Library Advisory Board, with subsequent appeals made to the Commerce Township Board of Trustees, whose decision on the matter is final.

The board unanimously approved the policy change. cost not to exceed $100,000. The project allows the township to abandon the pump station located along Haggerty Road and direct the gravity sewer flow to the newly extended Martin Parkway sanitary sewer. The ultimate gravity sewer extension will flow through Unit 3 and Unit 4 of the Commerce Downtown Development Authority (DDA) property. The grant will cover 90 percent of the engineering costs to take it through preparation of construction bid documents.

• Abandonment of the Welch Road pump station near Golfview Lake Estates and directing the gravity sewer flow to the newly extended Martin Parkway. The ultimate gravity sewer extension will flow through Unit 5 of the DDA property. The grant will cover 90 percent of the engineering design costs. The cost of the project is not to exceed $100,000.

The grant will also help to fund the development of a sanitary sewer system asset management plan.

Giffels Webster will work with the Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner Jim Nash to develop the plan, which will help to better project future repairs and plan for capital improvements within the system. The cost of developing the

plan isn’t to exceed $575,000.

The grant also will help fund a wastewater treatment plan, which isn’t to exceed $250,000. That plan, as with the sewer system plan, will be done by Giffels Webster and Nash.

The plan will be based on completing a digital inventory and assessing the condition of the assets in the system.

Development of the plan will also allow the township to move from reactive maintenance to predictive maintenance and minimize the risk of failure of critical components.

Village, township reach agreement Commerce Township agreed on Tuesday, August 19, to increase waste water treatment capacity from the Village of Wolverine Lake to accommodate plans to build a 110unit apartment project near South Commerce and Oakley Park roads, across from Walled Lake Central High School.

The agreement increases the total wastewater capacity from the village from 535,000 gallons per day to 727,650 gallons per day, and allows the village to accommodate the sewerage needs of the new

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apartments being built by Redwood Management.

Redwood, of Beachwood, Ohio, is responsible for the Four Seasons development on Union Lake Road, in Commerce Township. The development company specializes in single-story buildings with attached garages for one or two tenants. Rents at the new project are expected to range from $1,300 to $1,400 per month.

Redwood purchased the property from the Wolverine Lake Village in June of 2013 and had the 13-acre parcel rezoned from commercial use to multiple-family residential use. The property, which was acquired by the village through a tax foreclosure, was sold to Redwood for $473,000.

The company’s proposed project in Wolverine Lake had already received approval from the village council for a 176-unit project, but discovered the inter-governmental agreement for sewer service between the two communities restricted the density of the development to less than what was approved.

The two municipalities agreed to amend their inter-governmental waste water treatment agreement to change how development density is delineated on the former ER Thomas parcel, where the Redwood development is planned. The overall density on the parcel, however, remains the same under the agreement.

A completion date for the development wasn’t immediately available. In February, Redwood extended its due diligence period to develop conceptual plans, preliminary analyses, cost estimates and other routine pre-development work.

However, issues regarding the property’s master deed and title have taken longer than expected.

The increase in total capacity of waste water for the village was part of an unrelated “housekeeping” issue that Wolverine Lake Village Administrator Sharon Miller said needed to be cleaned up.

“The (waste water treatment) agreement shows that the village only has 1,700 REU of capacity in the treatment plant, however, Commerce and the village agreed to transfer 610 REU from the southern district into the treatment plant from the Benstein Road district. This changes the total capacity allocated for the village from 1,700 REU (or 535,000 gallon per day) to 2,310 REU (or 727,650 gallon per day),” Miller said in an explanation of the issue to Commerce Township Supervisor Tom Zoner .

10.14

FACES

Linda Ramsay-Detherage ward-winning playwright and actress Linda Ramsay-Detherage is charming audiences with her latest work entitled “Sugarhill”, and only just uncovered this remarkable talent four years ago.

“I’ve never taken more than three days to write a play, and they go straight through from the first draft,” she said. “I put earphones in and turn on Hawaiian music on Pandora. The (figurative) curtain comes up and I just watch it. It’s literally like taking dictation. I’m truly grateful for whatever force decided to give me this gift at my age.”

“Sugarhill”, which will premiere at the JET in West Bloomfield on April 15, 2015, and close May 10, 2015, was inspired by a real-life story about a black man who escaped life in the Jim Crow south.

“I was listening to this story on NPR in 2010 about a guy named Lanier Phillips. He joined the navy to escape southern oppression.”

Sugarhill is a tender family drama and though it has little to do with the story of Phillips, the setting takes place during a well-known time period.

“Everyone compares Sugarhill to (the films) ‘A Field of Dreams’ and ‘It’s a Wonderful Life.’ It’s very entertaining. Sugarhill is about kindness and tolerance.

It’s totally magical and it comes from someplace else. It’s been really exciting and interesting to watch what happens in this.”

Ramsay-Detherage has proven herself as a talented playwright but her artistic abilities reach beyond writing and acting. “Anything on that side of the brain, I’ve always been able to do. I can sculpt. I can paint. I can write. I can draw. None of it is very practical, but my family has always been very artistic.

We’ve always been a show biz kind of family.”

A

The playwright calls her mother a “remarkable role model”.

“My mother taught theater at Michigan State University,” she said. Prior to teaching, Ramsay-Detherage’s mother, Joyce Ramsay, was a Hollywood starlet and a minor celebrity.

“She was in television,” Ramsay-Detherage explained. “For a long time, she was the voice of Channel 50. She was always working the auto shows. (My mother) is very proud of the work I’m doing.”

“Sugarhill” is just one of four successful plays Ramsay-Detherage has penned.

“The Sunday Punch”, nominated for the Best New Play of 2011 in Michigan, was her first play and it premiered at the Planet Ant Theatre in Detroit.

She completed “Old Bones” in 2013 and received the Viewer’s Choice Award for the December 2014 Fireside Festival of New Plays at the Performance Network Theatre in Ann Arbor. The play is slated for professional production for the 2015-2016 season.

“The Big Story of Lazarus Small” was completed in 2014 and was on stage at the Planet Ant Theatre from September 5 to September 27.

Theater has also brought love to Ramsay-Detherage. She met her husband, Stephen Detherage, through acting. The pair has lived in Commerce for 10 years with their two daughters.

“My husband is my biggest fan. He and I will look at each other and say, ‘Man, we have an interesting life.’”

Story: Katey Meisner

Photo: Laurie Tennent

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FACES

Griffin Miller ven though Griffin Miller was born without sight, that has never kept him from using every other ability he has to thrive socially and academically.

At the age of 12, the multi-lingual mathematician won the 2014 National Braille Challenge held in Los Angeles.

“I’ve been in the finals for five years,” Miller said. “I was excited for the competition. Los Angeles was pretty nice. There were 50-something other blind people who were there. I was in a hotel with all the other contestants.

The nice thing was they had Braille in the rooms and on the elevator buttons.”

Miller conquered all the portions of the competition, including spelling, speed and accuracy, proofreading, comprehension, and interpreting charts and graphs.

“By the time they got to (announcing) first place I was so nervous. The grand prize was $1,500 and a BrailleNote (akin to a computer for the visually impaired). I was really proud of myself.”

Miller was three-months-old when doctors determined he was visually impaired.

“He has light perception,” said Miller’s mother, Rachel Miller. “He can tell something is in front of him, but he wouldn’t be able to tell if it was an object or a person.”

After the initial shock wore off, Rachel and her husband got Griffin into an early intervention program. “It was extremely good to have that support.”

By the time Griffin was a toddler, his parents had begun teaching him Braille.

“We knew it was going to be part of his life, so we Brailled books, bowls,” said Rachel. “We knew he was bright. He knew his alphabet before

E

he got into preschool. We made it something cool and fun from the beginning.”

Griffin didn’t stop there. Over the years he learned additional languages.

“I speak Spanish, German and Chinese. That’s all I can do for now, but I might learn some more.”

Also a mathematician, Griffin has memorized 450 digits of pi.

“I think I was six (when I started to memorize pi). It was this one cd I had. I was listening to the cd and at one point they were talking about pi. I wanted to learn more about that.”

While living in West Bloomfield and attending Orchard Lake Middle School, Griffin took pre-calculus courses for high school credit. He would also assist visually impaired students at West Bloomfield High School with their technology questions.

“The people at the school would call me professor sometimes,” Griffin said.

In 2013, Griffin won the President’s Education Award for Outstanding Academic Excellence.

Also musically inclined, Griffin plays the guitar and the piano. When he considers a career, he said he’d like to find something that incorporates either mathematics or his music.

Rachel said she and her husband are extremely proud of everything Griffin has accomplished.

“He definitely keeps things interesting,” she said. “He’s been on the news for pi day to recite pi. It’s good to have him get out there and talk and for people to see he doesn’t let anything hold him back.”

Story: Katey Meisner

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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.

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S. Wixom Rd

Anaam’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.

Billy’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.

Carino’s Italian Restaurant: Italian. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 500 Loop Road, Commerce Township, 48390.

248.926.5300.

Carrie Lee’s of Waterford: Chinese. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor.

7890 Highland Road, Waterford, 48327.

248.666.9045.

Casey’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.

CJ’s Brewing Company: American. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. Liquor.

8115 Richardson Road, Commerce Township, 48390. 248.366.7979.

Coffee Time Café: 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.

Daniel’s Pizza Bistro: Pizza. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 2510 Union Lake Road, Commerce Township, 48382.

248.363.7000.

Dave and Amy’s: American. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations.

9595 Highland Road, White Lake, 48386.

248.698.2010.

Dave’s Coney Island: American. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No Reservations.

901 Nordick Drive, White Lake, 48383.

248.889.3600.

Dickey’s Barbecue Pit: Barbecue. Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations. 4825 Carroll Lake Road, Commerce Township, 48382. 248.360.4055.

Dobski’s: American, Polish. Lunch & Dinner, daily. Reservations. Liquor. 6565 Cooley Lake Road, Waterford, 48327.

248.363.6565.

Eddie’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.

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.

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The west Oakland area is filled with discriminating diners and an array of dining establishments. Make sure the message for your restaurant reaches the right market in the right publication—Westend.

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O: 248.792.6464 Ext. 601 C: 248.515.8044 MatthewSwigart@downtownpublications.com

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248.792.6464

46

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.

Jenni1’s Restaurant: American. Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations.

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

Jeff's Kitchen: Asian. Lunch & Dinner daily.

Reservations. 1130 E. West Maple Road, Walled Lake, 48390.

248.669.8896.

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.

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,

WESTEND

48390. 248.926.9555.

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

248.960.0009.

Socialight Cigar Bar & Bistro: American.

Lunch & Dinner daily. Reservations.

Liquor. 6139 Haggerty Road, West Bloomfield, 48322. 248.669.0777.

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.

Ultimate Sports Bar Grille: American.

Lunch & Dinner, daily. No reservations.

Liquor. 47528 Pontiac Trail, Wixom, 48393. 248.859.2851.

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.

09.14

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Tyler Laviolette wenty-one-year-old entrepreneur Tyler Laviolette has battled cerebral palsy and autism, but the one thing the owner of Tyler’s Bottle Service has never suffered from is a dismal disposition.

“I have a positive can-do attitude that is much appreciated,” he said. “(The bottle service) is something no one else has done and I have a friendly attitude that people like.”

Laviolette travels to the homes of clients and collects their bottles and cans. He counts the recyclables onsite and offers the customer half the payout in cash. He then returns them and keeps the other half for his business.

The idea came to his mother, Rhonda Gelstein, after recognizing that the pesky household chore could be a means of employment for Laviolette.

“I was consuming a Mike’s Hard Lemonade and I thought, ‘Here’s another one for Tyler to return,’” she said. “We thought about how to make a profit with a 10-cent product. I had no vision that things would explode for him the way they have.”

After a year in business, Laviolette has expanded from servicing his own neighborhood to all of Oakland County.

“I work about 20 to 25 hours a week,” he said. “I have a driver, Kari Prena. It’s nice to have someone who can help me get from place to place.”

Laviolette and his mother make his schedule each week. He then coordinates many of his pickups on his Tyler’s Bottle Service Facebook account.

“He counts the bottles and cans himself,” Gelstein said. “He is out there through snow, ice and rain. He never complains. He loves doing it.”

The White Lake native and Lakeland High School alumnus attended the Michigan Career and Technical Institute, a residential trade school for individuals with disabilities.

“It is run by the state of Michigan,” Gelstein said. “It’s one of the great things our tax dollars do. It’s like going to college. They live in a dorm and it showed Tyler he has the ability to be selfsufficient.”

Gelstein said she feels everyone needs “a reason to get up in the morning” and she would never allow her child’s medical obstacles to prevent him from succeeding.

“Any child born at 24 weeks is going to have issues,” she said.

“When you’re pregnant, you picture the Gerber baby and it is a loss of an ideal. It’s overwhelming and it was a lot of years with a lot of work, but we are blessed with the outcome.”

Like a lot of guys his age, Laviolette is an avid fan of the Detroit Lions, Tigers, Red Wings and especially NASCAR. “(My favorite is) Jeff Gordon, driver of the number 24 car.”

Laviolette is looking to expand his business and even get other young people with special needs to take on other counties in the state.

“God gave Mom the idea (for the company) and it has opened many doors. The community has helped out and embraced the idea. Everyone says that helping your fellow man is gone. Well, I’m not seeing it that way.”

T

Story: Katey Meisner

Photo: Jean Lannen

BUSINESS MATTERS Medical staff increased The staff at Lederman Kwartowitz Orthopedics, 2300 Haggerty Road in West Bloomfield, has added Jennifer Georgia, PA-C to the medical staff.

Georgia, a graduate of Eastern Michigan University and Samuel Merrit University, in Oakland, California, worked as a physician assistant in Sacramento for three years before returning to Michigan.

“We are pleased Jennifer decided to return to Michigan and join our practice,” Ron Lederman, founder of the practice, said. “She brings a level of competency and a passion for patient care that our patients have come to expect from us.” Lederman Kwartowitz Center for Orthopedics and Sports Medicine provides comprehensive orthopedic care for all ages, and specializes in treatment for fractures, athletic injuries and chronic conditions.

C. Wallace agency C. Wallace Insurance Agency recently held its first official open house after opening early this year at 1805 Haggerty in Commerce Township. The AAA-member agency offers auto insurance, home insurance, as well as motorcycle and boat insurance. The office, which is located between Maple and Pontiac Trail, also offers AAA’s 24-hour Roadside Assistance.

Summit Place closing The last business operating at the 51year-old Summit Place Mall will leave in early December when Sears and the Sears Auto Center, at 435 N. Telegraph, Waterford Township, closes its doors for good. Howard Riefs, director of corporate communications for Sears Holdings, said the store began its liquidation sale on September 26. “Store closures are part of a series of actions we’re taking to reduce on-going expenses, adjust our asset base and accelerate the transformation of our business model,” he said. Riefs said the store and auto center have a combined 75 employees.

New collision center The former Dick Morris car dealership, 2199 Haggerty Road in Commerce Township, has vehicles moving through its bay doors once again as Adrian’s Collision Center has moved into the location. Adrian’s moved from 3055 E. West Maple, in Commerce. Adrian’s Collision Centers has been offering auto repair services in southeast Michigan for more than 30 years. The Commerce location is westendmonthly.com

one of five in southeast Michigan, with other locations in Southfield, Northville, Dearborn, Marysville and Farmington Hills.

Healthy middle-east fare Moiz Habib was working as a financial analyst on Wall Street when he realized he was in the midst of a deteriorating culture of people and personal health. But a trip back to his homeland of Pakistan rejuvenated his health and spirit, and led him to open Loya Organic Middle Eastern Grill, 4284 Orchard Lake Road, in West Bloomfield. “It made me realize a lot of things about food and nutrition, and earlier generations and how they used to eat,” Habib said. “It really changed me, and how I viewed organic and the organic lifestyle. I quit my career on Wall Street.” Habib and his brother, also a financial analyst, left their Wall Street careers behind in a New York minute and embraced a healthier lifestyle, opening their first restaurant together. With family in the West Bloomfield area already, Habib said locating to west Oakland County was as natural as the foods they make at Loya. So, far, he said the reception has been good, and family recipes passed down from his grandmother and others are some popular items.

Items like the Eggplant Sizzler and the Chicken Garlic Kebab are some of the most ordered items, Habib said.

The restaurant focuses on organic items, although since all of the foods are sourced in Michigan, he said it’s not always possible to go 100 percent organic.

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Peet’s Coffee closes Less than a year after opening, Peet’s Coffee and Tea, 2220 Union Lake Road, has closed its Commerce Township location. The store was one of several former Caribou Coffee locations that closed and reopened in November as Peet’s Coffee and Tea. In all, five metro Detroit Peet’s locations were closed in August, with two southeast Michigan locations remaining open, in Grosse Pointe and Ann Arbor. Founded in 1966 in Berkeley, California, Peet’s had partnered with local food providers to expand their in-store offerings. Frank Monaghan, of Farmington Hills-based Monaghan & Co., which is offering the vacant property, said there is considerable interest in the property.

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.

WESTEND

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ENDNOTE

Our choices for the November election T uesday, November 4, voters in Commerce Township, Walled Lake, and Wolverine Lake are being asked to decide the future of a number of public offices, along with a millage request for the Walled Lake School district.

This is a general election, which means you are not restricted to voting for candidates in only one political party.

We offer our endorsements on this page, reached after careful deliberation on returned questionnaires, candidate conversations and editorial research.

Visit westendmonthly.com for full the candidates answers and biographies.

U.S. CONGRESS 11th District Commerce Township, Walled Lake, Wolverine Lake, Waterford, West Bloomfield, White Lake This has been one of the tougher races to call in terms of an endorsement.

We supported David Trott for the GOP August primary election in which he trounced a one-term Tea Party Republican incumbent. And we like Trott personally, a self-made businessman who some of us have known since high school.

That said, we are just not convinced Trott’s views are representative of the majority of district residents.

We think his conservative and inflexible position on many issues borders on the far right, including his attacks on the departments of education and energy, along with the Environmental Protection Agency. And we are not convinced he has taken the time to talk to those in the district’s trenches as opposed to just espousing talking points that appeal to a GOP minority faction, such as his flat-out opposition to Common Core educational standards which most school superintendents in the 11th District support, for example.

We feel very strongly that we elect people to congress to represent the views of district constituents, not their own, so we are going with Democrat BOBBY MCKENZIE, an advisor on national security and terrorism who no doubt has an uphill battle in this Republican-leaning district with a wellheeled opponent.

Like Trott, he has much to learn and we don’t agree with him on all the issues, but we sense more of a willingness to listen and not just push, unabated, his personal opinion.

We think he understands the issues facing this district and the nation just as well as his opponent, but his views are more in sync with local residents in this sprawling district, be it a woman’s right to determine her own reproductive health care, national educational standards that allow for local initiative in terms of reaching goals, or the necessity of reaching across the aisle to get things done and break the current Washington logjam created by the extreme factions in both political parties.

MICHIGAN SENATE 15th District Commerce Township, Walled Lake, Wolverine Lake, West Bloomfield, White Lake MIKE KOWALL, the Republican incumbent in this race, has distinguished himself in his first term in the state Senate, after years as a state representative and White Lake supervisor. His lengthy political career provides him with not only a great deal of knowledge on how to get things done in Lansing, but also an indepth local perspective second to none. A fiscal conservative, Kowall understands how critical it is for the Michigan Senate to address financing for roads and believes that a new road funding act must be created that dedicates revenues to roads, as well as recognizing the need to address mass transit. Like us, he realizes the educational value in Common Core. He views himself as a problem solver who knows how to get things done. We agree.

MICHIGAN HOUSE 38th District Walled Lake Republican Hugh Crawford is term-limited out of this job; however, his wife, KATHY CRAWFORD, a two-term Republican Oakland County Commissioner and former Novi City Council member, is ready for her close up. We do not believe in nepotism; we endorse Crawford because she knows the district, has worked hard for many years in Oakland County government, and will provide a local perspective for her constituents in Lansing if elected to the House. Her priorities are roads, education and health care.

MICHIGAN HOUSE 39th District Commerce Township, Wolverine Lake, West Bloomfield In his first term, Rep. KLINT KESTO has distinguished himself among the Republican pack as a thoughtful, hard-working legislator, and we gladly endorse him for a second term. He works with his local school districts, getting to know the superintendents, listening, learning and understanding Common Core. Because his superintendents and local school boards support Common Core, he believes it is an important educational tool. He has been an advocate for young teens against sex trafficking, and understands the value that immigrants can bring to a community. Jobs remain his number one priority.

MICHIGAN HOUSE 44th District Waterford, White Lake A three-term Oakland County commissioner, Republican JIM RUNESTAD has lived and worked in Waterford and White Lake for years, and will bring his knowledge of the community to the state House. His priorities are fixing infrastructure, business recruitment and retention, and reducing the level of taxation and regulation.

OAKLAND COUNTY Board of Commissioners District 5 Waterford, West Bloomfield Republican JOHN SCOTT is an institution in the lakes area – he has been representing the district at the county for 12 years and he does it well. He chairs four board committees, is vice chair of another, and sits on the finance committee as well. A fiscal conservative, Scott is an independent thinker who has worked hard to create jobs in Oakland County, made sure the new terminal at Oakland County International Airport utilized green technology, and has long believed we need a regional water and sewer system.

District 6 White Lake, Waterford Republican EILEEN KOWALL, term limited as a representative in the Michigan House for this area, actually is very familiar with the Oakland Board of Commissioners, because prior to her service in Lansing, she was a county commissioner in District 6.

She showed then she was a diligent and hard worker, placing her constituents first. Now, as she seeks to return to the county board, she brings with her the wisdom, knowledge and leadership gleaned from six years in Lansing.

District 7 Commerce Township, Wolverine Lake, Walled Lake, West Bloomfield Voters in this district first elected Republican CHRISTINE LONG to the Oakland County Board of Commissioners 12 years ago, in 2002. She proves time and again that she is a dedicated public servant.

Going forward, she would seek to encourage legislation that could be drafted to help provide more federal and state road funding back to the county, and will continue to work to keep taxes low while providing quality service within a tight budget.

District 13 West Bloomfield Democrat MARCIA GERSHENSON has been the county commissioner for this district since 2004, and is passionate for her constituents, as well as senior and youth services in Oakland County. She would like to see county commissioners increase their share of TriParty road funding for local road projects as well as work with local communities to find solutions for the deteriorating infrastructure; increase access for seniors to programs to encourage independent living in their homes; and more job retraining programs for the local workforce.

52-1 DISTRICT COURT Commerce Township, Walled Lake, Wolverine Lake As we stated for the August primary, there simply is no way we can recommend incumbent Judge Brian Mackenzie be returned to office. Part of MacKenzie’s docket is currently being supervised by the circuit court due to serious violations in state sentencing guidelines in a number of cases, and we think he has bordered on arrogance in his handling of the controversy in which he has become embroiled. We are also not impressed by the parade of endorsements from officials supposedly backing the judge, some of whom have shared their regret in lending their name to his election effort. We acknowledge Mackenzie was a court innovator in his time, but sadly, his time is up, and unlike fellow 52-1 Judge Dennis Powers who chose to step down amidst his own problems on the bench, it is up to voters to let MacKenzie know it’s time to go.

TRAVIS M. REEDS would be the better candidate to fill the position, as Reeds has a strong understanding of how courts should function and what is wrong in MacKenzie’s courtroom as well as its negative impact on the community. He also understands that specialty programs and specialty courts can be self-fulfilling, and are overdue for review for the value they bring, as well as who should be placed into those specialized programs. Further, we believe Reeds will bring dignity back to the 52-1 District Court, which it sorely needs.

WOLVERINE LAKE VILLAGE Five candidates, including three incumbents and a former councilman, are competing for four open seats on the Wolverine Lake Village Council this November.

The top three vote-getters will serve four-year terms and the fourth highest vote-getter will serve a twoyear term.

Residents would be well served by re-electing incumbents RON CUMBO, JOHN MAGEE and ED SIENKIEWICZ, who bring several decades of experience on council amongst them, as well as a solid understand of issues facing the village’s most important asset: the lake. We also feel voters would be wise to elect MICHAEL STACK, who previously served on village council for eight years. While we like the idea of bringing fresh faces to the village council, we believe newcomer Mike Duff would be wise to seek a position on another recommending board – as each of the other candidates have previously done – to get a better understanding of some issues in the village before being elected to the governing body.

WALLED LAKE SCHOOLS Operating Millage Renewal Proposal Voters in the Walled Lake School district are being asked to renew a 3.9-mill school operating millage for ten years, which will run from January 1, 2016 through December 31, 2025. Currently, voters are only taxed 2.1971 mills of the potential 3.9 mills, and school administrators point out that this millage, which was first levied in 1995, has never reached more than 2.5 mills.

For the Walled Lake Schools, this is a critical millage which provides 20 percent of the operating budget, or $30 million annually. Administrators point out this is not a millage increase, but a renewal, to maintain the strong school district. We agree, and encourage a YES vote on this important ballot proposal.

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 www.MichiganHomeMarketPlace.com

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