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Man rescued after driving into river
BELLAIRE -- Two men rescued an elderly man after he accidentally drove his vehicle into a river.
The victim, 84, of Bellaire, was parked on Bridge Lane shortly before noon Monday and told police he meant to put his vehicle in reverse, but instead put it in drive. He collided with two trees and landed on a rock in Intermediate River, village police said.
Two men -- a DTE Energy employee and a worker with Trees North Outdoor Services in Bellaire -- helped the victim back to shore, and he suffered no injuries, police said. A wrecker service removed his damaged vehicle from the river.
Police did not issue a traffic ticket, but will issue a driver reexamination through the Secretary of State's office to ensure the victim is safe to drive.
benzie
Man is charged with woman's murder
BEULAH -- Authorities charged a man with murder in the April beating death of a Frankfort woman.
Robert Lester Cheek, 54, was arraigned Thursday in Benzie County on an open count of murder. Police believe he killed his live-in girlfriend, Valerie Smith, 52.
Cheek was returned to and will remain in custody in Manistee County, where he awaits trial on several assault charges tied to the severe beating of a Bear Lake-area man. That incident happened a few days before police discovered Smith's body on April 29, and investigators believe the incidents could be related.
Frankfort Police Chief Keith Redder is glad months of investigation resulted in a murder charge.
"It feels good ... we still have some follow-up to do, but we're pretty glad to be (here)," he said.
GRAND TRAVERSE
Veterans won't forget Pearl Harbor
TRAVERSE CITY-- Joe Salatino still remembers the hectic scene inside his barracks 68 years ago.
"There was a lot of commotion," said Salatino, 89, of Traverse City. "Everybody was running around." Salatino was stationed at New Jersey's Fort Hancock on Dec. 7, 1941, when Japanese crews attacked the U.S. Pacific Fleet based at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, ultimately launching the country into World War II.
Radios echoed the news through Salatino's barracks -- "This is no joke. This is war." The attack on Pearl Harbor resulted in the deaths of more than 2,400 Americans, and nearly 1,200 were wounded, according to U.S. Department of Defense records.
And while the attack occurred thousands of miles away, Salatino said soldiers at Fort Hancock quickly began "preparing for the worst." "They had mentioned there were some German submarines off the coast," said Salatino, who was 21 at the time. "Others were making sure the guns were stocked and ready to go." Fort Hancock avoided a Dec. 7 attack, but the United States declared war on Japan a day later.
Wharton Center to operate Opera House
TRAVERSE CITY -- The show will go on at the City Opera House and a downstate group will raise the curtain.
On Monday, Traverse City leaders unanimously approved a three-year contract between the opera house and the Wharton Center for Performing Arts to manage the facility on Front Street. It's a deal pitched as a way to boost performance offerings and reign in deficit spending at the city-owned historic building.
"They are absolute pros and we look forward to working with them," said Sam Porter, of Porterhouse Productions, a frequent opera house renter who previously voiced concerns about maintaining local access to the facility.
Wharton, an organization based at Michigan State University in East Lansing, will take over operations, finances and bookings for the City Opera House on July 1, but will play an advisory role until then. The opera house will pay Wharton $75,000 a year for three years to manage the downtown Traverse City facility and Wharton will absorb any financial losses during that time, but will not cover the opera house's $250,000 operational debt.
Any earned profits will be split between the opera house and Wharton, with the latter receiving 25 percent. Additionally, annual financial reports will be filed with the city.
Wharton and opera house officials worked on the deal without public input for months and last month brought it to elected officials' attention. The secret negotiations angered some city residents, who attended a Nov. 23 city meeting to complain and express concerns about continued local access.
Committee suggests cuts to TCAPS
TRAVERSE CITY -- To save money, Traverse City's public schools could look first to improve energy efficiency and end meal service at meetings, a committee studying the district's budget recommended.
The 19-member committee spent months generating a list of suggested budget cuts for the 2010-11 school year.
No changes were made to the group's priority list at its final meeting Monday. The recommendation will be sent to the school board for discussion next week.
Action won't be taken until after incoming board members Julie Puckett and Kelly Hall are seated in January.
Participants worked to address an expected deficit for next year in the range of $6 million to $11 million. Administrators have said it could be closer to $8 million.
The district's budget is about $90 million this year. The committee has been planning for cuts that span $2 million to $12 million.
"We have to take this seriously," committee co-chairwoman and school board member Megan Crandall said.
She said the board might not approve it exactly as submitted, but she anticipates members will consider the recommended priorities.
Foundation expecting seamless transition
TRAVERSE CITY -- Debby Oliver knows she can always count on Jeanne Snow.
Oliver assists with an endowment for the Manufacturing Technology Academy, part of the Traverse Bay Area Career-Tech Center, and is helping build a scholarship fund for former Bertha Vos Elementary students.
Both are administered through the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation, the region's largest charitable grant-giving organization. Snow, the foundation's executive director, is always quick to lend a helping hand.
"Any time we've had a question on any issue, she's happy to either give an answer or point us in the direction of the person we should work with instead," Oliver said. "She's been great." Snow, 69, is retiring Jan. 15 after serving 12 years as the foundation's first full-time executive director. She'll continue to work with the organization part-time as a consultant, she said.
"I'm really grateful for the opportunity I've had to serve," she said. "It has really been inspiring to work with the board members and leaders that we have here." The foundation chose Allegan native Phil Ellis, 59, to succeed Snow after a nationwide search wrapped about a year ago. Ellis worked for nearly 30 years in various positions at Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services, a Grand Rapids-based organization.
Plans are under way for new library
TRAVERSE CITY -- A local citizens' group remains interested in bringing a library branch to Long Lake Township, but will have to generate more than $400,000 to do so.
Administrators in Traverse City Area Public Schools included a roughly 2,800-square foot library annex in blueprints for a new Long Lake Elementary building, construction of which will begin next summer.
Traverse Area District Library leaders hope a partnership with the school district will bring direct service to the township while lessening the financial burden of construction.
The library system could best operate a branch if it does not have to pay all capital costs, Director Metta Lansdale said. In this case, the school district would own the library space and the library would cover about $688,000 for design, construction and associated costs.
About $235,000 thus far has been raised.
The Long Lake branch of Friends of the Traverse Area District Library will have to quickly come up with the outstanding balance to proceed, since TCAPS administrators don't expect they will be able to stall a decision much longer without delaying the project.
The Long Lake Friends group has applied for $100,000 from Rotary Charities of Traverse City and will seek additional foundation support.
District Judge John D. Foresman to retire
TRAVERSE CITY -- District Judge John D. Foresman will retire after decades in the local judicial system, and several area officials have their eye on his job.
Foresman is chief judge of 86th District Court in Grand Traverse, Leelanau and Antrim counties. He won't seek re-election when his term is up next year, he said this week.Q Foresman, 65, spent more than 30 years as a prosecutor and probate judge before his election to a six-year district court term in November 2004, and he's primed for retirement.
"I'm just ready ... I've been doing this a long time, and I'm looking forward to doing some different things," he said.
Foresman worked as an assistant prosecutor in Wayne County for three years before joining the Grand Traverse County prosecutor's office as an assistant in 1973. He was elected Grand Traverse prosecutor and served from 1977 to 1988.
He ran for probate judge and held that post from 1989 until 2001, then served as tribal prosecutor for the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians before his election to district court.
TC bayfront plans take a step forward
TRAVERSE CITY -- Snow and freezing temperatures are blowing into Traverse City, but some are thinking about sunny beaches, vibrant shoreline trails and a fishing pier.
Traverse City commissioners unanimously approved implementation steps for the city's bayfront plan this week. It includes putting the city's Parks and Recreation Commission at the helm, plans to hire an engineering firm and ways to seek grant funding to overhaul a two-mile swath along West Grand Traverse Bay.
Residents in the city's Slabtown neighborhood -- immediately adjacent to West End Beach -- want to see improvements at the bayfront, particularly additional safe crossings at busy Grandview Parkway, said Mike Gaines, neighborhood vice president.
"It's like Russian roulette trying to cross the parkway," Gaines said.
Additional crosswalks are among conceptual plans for the bayfront, from M-72 stretching east past Clinch Park to the Traverse City Senior Center, said Russell Soyring, city planning director.
"I think we have the potential for it to be an even more attractive bayfront," Soyring said.
More snow expected to fall this week
TRAVERSE CITY -- It's going to snow, snow and snow some more in northern Michigan.
But Dave McGinnis doesn't mind.
"I think it was late in coming and this is northern Michigan weather. It's what we get living here," he said.
McGinnis, of Traverse City, was Christmas shopping in downtown Traverse City on Friday, where continual lake-effect snowfall blanketed parked cars, sidewalks and streets. It's a pattern that will continue into next week, weather officials said.
"It's just going to keep snowing," said Kevin Sullivan, meteorologist at the National Weather Service station in Gaylord.
The white stuff will begin to fall again this morning, Sullivan said.
Today's high temperatures will be in the mid-30s with another two to four inches of snow expected.
Another "fast-moving clipper system" will hit the area as the work week begins Monday, bringing another two to four inches of snow with temperatures in the 30s, Sullivan said.
"It's going to be snowy again Tuesday with some lake effect, especially in the higher-terrain areas, but I'm pretty sure Traverse City will see some snow, too," Sullivan said.
On Wednesday more lake-effect snow is expected to the tune of another six inches or more, he said.
KALKASKA
Suspect jailed; additional charges await
KALKASKA -- A Kalkaska man who allegedly assaulted a local cemetery worker is jailed on unrelated charges.
Kalkaska County deputies arrested Jason Musser, 37, on Dec. 2 after he allegedly visited his ex-wife's house, said Sheriff David Israel.
"She called because he shouldn't have been there," he said.
Musser was charged with trespassing and resisting and obstructing a police officer. He remains in the Kalkaska County Jail.
"He's got a long history here," Israel said. "It's lengthy. Mostly alcohol-related offenses." But Musser also faces aggravated assault and malicious destruction of property charges in Grand Traverse County, said Prosecutor Al Schneider.
The misdemeanor charges stem from a Dec. 1 incident in which Musser allegedly assaulted an Oakwood Cemetery worker, leaving the man with facial injuries.
Musser allegedly was inhaling glue on cemetery grounds when a contractor told him to leave, police said. But once the contractor turned away, Musser allegedly attacked him.
