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Safety first, Sgt. Brent MDOT measures trafflc Shopper h z n MayvUle
Woodward tells students volunle i cass city
n praises Cass City stores
Page 4 Page 12 Page 16
VOLUME 92, NUMBER 27 MI 49w, SEPTEMBER 30, 1998 FIFTY CENTS I6 PAGES PLUS ONE SUPPLEMENT
$1 million fund balance
Suspect arson
in Gagetown School finances
building blaze
Elm w ood-Gagc t o w n Fire
Chief Paul Lopez has chased
away from the scene, but the
building was already “pretty
well gone” when fire fight-
in great shape
As expected, the Cass City the park.
cation.
-
kids away from the former
Donna’s Restaurant building ers arrived, according to School District ended the fis- The school’s healthy finan- .The Board also gave rec-
in Gagetown a number of Lopez. cal year in excellent financial cial condition is expected to ognition to several students
times, fearing someone “It (building) was in pretty shape as total revenues continue i n the current who were published in the
would get hurt in the old, di- bad shape. It’s been vacant swelled to $9,278.980 and school year and in 1999 as 1998 edition of the lhscola
lapidated building. probahly at least 15 years,” total expenditures werc much as $300,000 may be Intermediate School District
That won’t be problem any- he said. $9,106.201. available for more capital Mosaic booklet. They in-
more, as fire leveled thc The building next door is The district added $172,779 improvements. cluded: Galen Ponder,
structure, locatedjust east of also vacant and flames to its $932,592 fund balance For the next couple of years Chelsa McCullum, Jenna
the Gagetown I n n , early Sat- spread t o portions of that swelling the fund to over a the money is earmarked for Timko, Tara Powell, Adam
urday night. building’s roof’ and some million dollars for the first improvements at Campbell Haag, Deanna Newby,
w i n d o w sills. However, time. The balance of Elementary School. Needs at Deidre Deering, Danielle
The cause of the fire re- Gagctow n fi rcmen, assisted $1,096.371 is 11 1 2 percent
1 the building, Micklash said, Laming, Jessica Metzger,
mains under investigation, by fire fighters from of the school budget which include a library-media ex- Trey Helwig, Lisa Glaza,
but officials believe i t was Owcndale and Cass City, is well within the recom- pansion, roof replacement, Erin McMahan, Jordan
intentionally set. Lopez re- moved quickly to limit the mended amount for the dis- locker refinishing and a Glaza, Tracy Talaski and Jes-
ported witnesses saw some damage. trict, Gary Anderson, of change in the heating system. sica Apel-Mifsud.
kids leaving the building be- Lopez identitied the owner Anderson, Tuckey, To get the project under @Set parenuteacher confer-
fore the blaze was reported. of‘the destroyed structure as Bernhardt & Doran, P.C., motion, Micklash asked that ence for Tuesday, Oct. 20th.
“Right now, it looks like Charles Peyerk of who presented the report ex- a committee of teachers pri- .Elected Beverley Auten
kids playing with matches.” Marysville, Mich. It’s uncer- plained. oritize the needs at the school and Marilyn Peters for the
the fire chief said, adding no tain if’ thc building was in- and report back by Oct. 23.
one was injured. district’s M.A.S.B delegates
sured, hut the fire chief de- After approving the state- who will attend the Nov. 5th
The fire was reported scribed thc dollar value of the ment the board voted a new Turning to other business,
FIRE FIGHTERS work to prevent an adjoining, vacant build- assembly.
shortly after 6 p.m. The loss as rnininial. 3-year contract for the ac- the Board also heard from
Elmwood Gagetown Fire Firemen remained at the Amy Schuette, Computer *Adopted Durant Fund
ing from going up in flames Saturday in Gagetown. counting firm with a 2.5 per- resolution for the issuance
Hall is just a stone’s throw scene tor about 2 hours. cent increase in each of the 3 Clubhouse Project Coordina-
and sale of Durant bonds.
years. tor and Technical Support
Specialist. Schuette provided .Hired Dave Dorland to re-
Sign rules irk some businesses In addition to adding to the
surplus the school was able
to spend sonic $244,000 on
capital improvements that
included paving a parking
information relating to a
Community Computer Club-
house grant which is slated
to be in operation in late No-
vember. Cass City is just one
place Norbert Rheel who re-
signed as high school night
custodian.
@Adopteda tax deferred
payment resolution that will
council to gct tough with vio- to deal with blight and junk lot, remodeling the annex for of 9 schools to receive the allow employees to purchase
Cass City officials spent 10w .” TEMPORARY the Early Childhood Center grant, over $250,000, from
lators by taking enforcemcnt ordinance violations. service credit fhrough a pay-
months putting some teeth in Retherford said he has seen and resurfacing the track at the U.S. Department of Edu- roll deduction process.
a revised ordinance designed very few businesses comply The sign ordinance, revised action as soon as possible, Please turn to back page.
to limit use of banners and
other temporary signs in the
w i t h the new ordinance.
“They don’t agree with it.
last fall, requires permits for
temporary signs which,
Other council mcnibcrs
agrccd, but some questioned sch>ools
villagc.
Now the village is gearing
up to clamp down on busi-
nesses in violation of the law,
They’re very unhappy about
it,” he said.
Retherford suggested a
meeting should have been
along with banners, rriay be
displayed only for a limited
number of days.
Village Manager Jane
whether thc village has tht:
manpower and resources to
tackle every sort ot‘violation
at one time.
State okays ‘bonus’ for
and some business owners callcd to discuss the sign or- Downing said letters outlin- The Legislature also ap- lowance would receive up to
Downing noted she has uti- Michigan schools received ing individual districts a one-
are not happy about it. dinance with local busi- ing current violations of the an early Christmas present proved a school aid budget a $380 per pupil increase to
lized local police officers to time per-pupil bonus of up to
Two business owners in at- nesses. revised ordinance were re- last wcek in the fonn of leg- $102. for the 1999-2000 school their foundation allowances.
Village President L.E. assist with the task of noti-
tendance at a monthly meet- cently hand-delivered to 6 or fying violators, but they can islation promising a funding year that provides an in- Cass City Schools is slated
ing of the Village Council Althaver responded. saying 7 businesses by a Cass City only devote so much time to “bonus” this year and an in- For Cass City Schools, the crease of $371 million in to receive $5,562.52 per pu-
Monday - Jim Luth of village officials adopted the police officer. The letter
the effort. Codc enforcement crease in foundation grants in “bonus” translates into an school aid fund revenue over pil in 1999-2000, an increase
McDonald’s and Ralph revised ordinance with the stated business owners must 1999-2000. award of $92 per pupil, or thc 1998-99school year. of $374.87,or 7.23 percent
could be a full-time job, she
Retherford of Fort’s goal of’cleaning up and im- comply with the law by Oct. State legislators Thursday $154,000 based on a current The basic foundation allow- over 1998-99.
2 or face a citation. said.
Confectionary Store - proving the downtown dis- overwhelmingly approved a enrollment of 1,674 students. ance would increase by 3.5 A chart outlining what other
called the revised sign ordi- rrict. The key, Downing added, is $91.4 million supplemental ‘The money will come in 7 percent or 9;190 per pupil to area districts will receive this
nance “contusing”. And, he added, businesses At the same time, Downing to treat thc ordinance and appropriation for schools in payments beginning in Feb- $5,652. Those districts un- school year and next accom-
Luth said he discussed busi- were asked to participate in emphasized, businesses with enforcement with as much the 1998-99school year, giv- ruary. der the basic foundation al- panies this story.
ness signage with village of- the process a number of illegal signs have been en- consistency as possiblc.
ficials when his restaurant times by attending planning couraged to call the village
Village workers in all de-
was built, and he doesn’t un- commission, council and office and sit down with of-
partments are being asked to
FY 1999 FY 1999
derstand why a portable sign other meetings as well as ficials to discuss possible Foundation Onetime FY 2000 Increase
that was allowed a few ycars sign alternatives for their spe- do more today than ever, and Foundation Over FY 1999 Percent
public hearings on the sign School (Per PUPW payment
ago now represents a viola- cific location and zoning dis- once you start writing tick-
ordinance over the past sev- ets and appearing in court,
District Grant iB4uRw Grarnt l32mwhm-
tion. eral months. In addition, trict.
Retherford said the revised Althaver cmcurred. “We’re the time involved adds up, $5,187.65 $5,562.5 2 $374.87 7.23%
copies of the proposed Cass City $92
ordinance is hurting local more than willing to work Althaver said. He suggested $27 1.95 5.05%
changes and drafts of the or- Caro $5,380.05 $63 $5,652.00
businesses, many of which with people, but we fully ex- that the council consider SS629.72 $347.37 6.58%
dinance wcre sent to indi- Kingston $5,282.35 $78
are already struggling. pect businesses to comply looking at staffing levels 0wen-Gage $5,865.20 $6,055.20 $190 3.24%
vidual businesses. when preparing next year’s $5 1
“The Cass City business with the new ordinance.” U blv S5.17O.OO $102 $5.550.00 S380 7.35%
districr is n o t what i t used to But in the end, Althaver In a related matter, Trustee budget. ~. ~~
be,” he said. While busi- said, there was little response Matt Prieskorn presented Althaver suggested that the
except from a few business
nesses are trying to make
things better. he added, the owners who wanted to see an
some photos depicting vari-
ous examples of blight and
village concentrate on the
sign ordinance issue over the Establish scho ,arshipfund
village is threatening thein end to long-term use of ban- junk ordinance violations in next month, and at the same
Residents voice concerns
with citations. ”That’s pretty ners and temporary signs. the village, and urged the time prepare a separate plan
County boy Three district residents not be adopted so that the inci- adopted. parked nearby.
on the official agenda ap- dent could not be repeated Robinson also said that she School authorities said that
hit twice, peared hef‘ore the Cass City
School Board at its regular
with other children. The
board agreed that changes
heard that there were
troubles with the 2 baseball
as far as they knew there was
no trouble with the fields and
killed session Monday night. Two
of them were seeking
will be made and already
copies of consent cards are
being made available where
fields in the way they were
laid out and also expressed
concern that foul balls could
it was thought that the height
of the backstop fence was
changes in school procedures sufficient to protect the
and the third presented a the athletes are playing. be a hazard for the buses buses.
A Millington Township boy
check to the school for In addition, the entire way
was killcd Sunday evening that injuries are handled will
$69,28 1 .SS.
when he was struck by 2 ve-
hicles while riding his bike
near his homc.
The check was presented to
the district to establish a
scholarship for deserving
be reviewed and presented to
the board at the next meet-
ing . Meanwhile, super in ten-
Enrollment boost
Tuscola Counry Sheriff’s
De part in c n t de p u t i e s re -
ported the accident occurred
Cass City students. Details
on how the grants will be pre-
sented have yet to be deter-
dent Ken Micklash said, it
will definitely be the respon-
sibility of thc coaches to see
means more cash
at about 7 : 5 2 p.m. on
Murphy Lake Road west of mined. that injuries are taken care of State funding for schools is 520 in grades 9- 12.
Fulmer Road. The money is part of properly. frozen this year at 1997-98 Cass City School Supt. Ken
Millington pol ice ident i tied $2 13,174 from the estate of The third special request levels, but Cass City School Micklash noted this year’s
the victim a s Evan Paul the late Fred A. McEachern before the hoard was pre- officials are looking forward high school enrollment is up
Johnson. 12, of Millington. and the scholarship will be in sented by Joan Helwig and to an extra chunk of change by 30 students over 1997-98,
According to reports, the his name and his son, Rob- Sheila Robinson. They - more than $130,000 - and up by a whopping 50 stu-
boy W ~ s t t ~ ~ k ~1 west-
S by ert. wanted the same procedure thanks to a hefty boost in dents compared to 2 years
bound cardriven by Matthew The board reviewed a com- followed for the posting of enrollment. ago.
Mays. 17, Millington, then plaint by Marnie Hacker over jobs in the district’s non- School officials statewide Michigan schools receive
by ii pickup truck driven by the way a broken arm suf- union positions as is fol- counted heads last Wednes- the lion’s share of their fund-
Joshua Long, 17, also of A PICKUP TRUCK slammed into a trailer hauling heavy fered by her daughter was lowed on union employees. day as part o f a twice-annual ing in the form of a state
Mil I ingt on. handled while she was play- Micklash explained that stiidcnt count. foundation allowance, which
The accident remains under
equipment Monday afternoon in northern Greenleaf Town- ing junior high basketball at candidates were selected In Cass City, the numbers is applied to the number of
investigation by Mi 1 I i ngton ship, sending the driver to St. Mary’s Medical Center with Sandusky. from applications on hand brc-ught good news in the students enrolled in each dis-
trict, The enrollment is de-
policc, who notcd an autopsy She was taken to the and the jobs filled after in- i’orm ot’ a combined K- I2
was scheduled to be per- leg, chest and head injuries. The accident occurred at the Sandusky Hospital by private terviews were held. enrollnicnt of 1,680 students, termined by “blending” 2
carrier instead of an ambu- He said that there is no rea- the highcst number in 15 separate counts; one con-
foriiied eiir-ly this weck. corner of Thomas and Bay-City-Forestville Roads. The name lance and was refused treat- son that jobs couldn’t bc an- years. Broken down, the ducted in September and the
Village police wcrc assisted
by sheriff’s deputies and of the driver and details of the crash were not available at ment until her mother arrived nounced as they are for union Scpt. 23 count revealed 655 other conducted the previous
troopers from the Michigan to give consent. job openings. It’s probable students in grades K-4, 505
Statc Police post in Caro.
press time. She asked that regulations that the change will be students in grades 5-8 and Please turn to back page.
