CHARLEVOIX
Man charged in fatal crash
CHARLEVOIX -- A man faces criminal charges for a Charlevoix County crash that left two children dead.
Charlevoix County Prosecutor John Jarema charged Jeremy Berg, 33, of East Jordan, with two counts of operating while intoxicated causing death, a 15-year felony, and operating a vehicle while intoxicated with occupants less than 16 years of age, a misdemeanor.
Berg was the driver of vehicle that went off the road and smashed into a tree last Sunday. Killed in the crash were Taishaann Moore, 11, and Skyler Moore, 12.
A preliminary examination is set for Dec. 9.
GRAND TRAVERSE
Groups seek control over water
TRAVERSE CITY -- A coalition of environmental groups wants to amend a recently enacted Great Lakes water management compact, contending it has loopholes that could enable water grabs by multinational corporations.
The groups kicked off their campaign last Sunday in Traverse City, led by Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation. Their attorney, Jim Olson, said Congress should reword the pact or enact a bill to make clear that water is a publicly owned resource and not a commercial product.
As ratified by the eight Great Lakes states and Congress, he said, the compact opens the door for outsiders to demand access to the region's waters under international trade laws.
If the effort to clarify the pact fails, the coalition will push for stronger water protections under state law or the Michigan Constitution.
Other analysts contend Olson and his allies are misreading the document and no changes are needed.
Woman files suit against resort
TRAVERSE CITY -- A woman filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against the Grand Traverse Resort & Spa, alleging her supervisor forcefully groped her as she cleaned a condominium.
Amanda McAllister, a housekeeper at the Acme Township resort, seeks at least $25,000 in damages following a Sept. 29 incident in one of the resort's detached condo buildings.
McAllister, in a two-count suit filed recently in 13th Circuit Court, alleges former housekeeping supervisor Milton Cordova grabbed her, forcibly held her, reached underneath her clothes and touched her genitals.
McAllister's suit alleges the resort did nothing after it received a complaint from another female employee of "similar conduct" by Cordova in October 2006. Instead, the resort eventually promoted Cordova to a supervisory position and allowed him to work alone with female employees, the suit alleges.
Cordova, 31, pleaded guilty on Oct. 31 to two counts of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct for the incident involving McAllister.
Department head forced to resign
TRAVERSE CITY -- A department head at Northwestern Michigan College was forced to resign and will receive a 10-week severance package worth about $25,000, but officials won't say why.
Bill Hendry, NMC's executive director of human resources, resigned in October after more than 11 years as a college employee. Neither he nor college officials would say why he was asked to leave.
"We gave him the option to resign, which he did on Oct. 6," said Paul Heaton, NMC director of public relations.
Hendry oversaw human resources functions, such as employee benefits and the search process for new employees, said Cathy Jones, NMC vice president of finance and administration.
Hendry described the situation as a "personal decision to leave." He since has started a human resources consulting firm in Traverse City, Bill Hendry Consulting.
Woman allegedly presents fake check
TRAVERSE CITY -- A Traverse City woman faces a felony charge after police said she presented a counterfeit check to a local bank.
Traci Lynn Lewis, 32, is charged with a count of uttering and publishing.
A woman told police Lewis presented a check for nearly $5,000 for deposit at a local Huntington Bank branch. The woman said she recognized the check was counterfeit and refused to accept it, court records show.
Lewis later went to a different Huntington branch and presented a check for the same amount, police said. The teller accepted that check, and Lewis allegedly withdrew all of the money the following day. The check later was returned to the bank as counterfeit.
Lewis allegedly told investigators she did deposit the check and withdraw the funds, but said the check was legitimate.
Police say man lied about robbery
TRAVERSE CITY -- A man faces charges after police said he concocted a story about an armed robbery.
Michael Wayne Bowen, 28, is charged with making a false report of a felony.
A deputy with the Grand Traverse Sheriff's Department was called to investigate a report of an armed robbery near Hoosier Valley Road in May 2007, court documents show. Bowen allegedly told police he was hit over the head and his money was taken.
Deputies found no evidence of the crime, and Bowen later failed to show up at two meetings with a deputy. Bowen ultimately admitted the incident was a false report, police allege.
Teen allegedly steals from locker room
TRAVERSE CITY -- Police arrested a teen who allegedly stole money from the locker room at the Park Place Hotel.
Traverse City police went to the hotel at about 10:30 p.m. Nov. 14. A man said someone stole almost $200 from his wallet in the locker room. Police identified two young males in the area at the time of the theft.
Officers found the suspects at a residence on Boon Street. The suspect was identified and the money was recovered.
The suspect, 17, of Traverse City, was jailed on larceny charges.
Cherry Festival hires new director
TRAVERSE CITY -- The National Cherry Festival Board of Governors will roll the dice with a former gambling industry executive to lead it into its 83rd year and beyond.
Timothy Hinkley, 53, former president and chief operating officer of Isle of Capri Casinos Inc., was named Tuesday night as the festival's fifth executive director. Hinkley will go from having oversight of 10,000 employees at 18 casino and hotel properties to a staff of seven.
A Michigan native, Hinkley grew up in Clarkston and became familiar with the Grand Traverse area after his sister moved to Interlochen. He and his wife built a home in Leelanau County's Solon Township in 2003 and made it their permanent home after he left Isle of Capri in July 2007.
Hinkley agreed to a three-year contract with a first-year salary of $81,500.
Hotel owner sentenced to probation
TRAVERSE CITY -- A corporate boss who outraged local environmental groups will now take direction from one of them as punishment for the destruction of protected Great Lakes bottomlands.
Eighty-Sixth District Judge Michael Haley sentenced Joseph Moffa to one year of probation on Tuesday. Moffa, an owner of the Cherry Tree Inn on U.S. 31 North in East Bay Township, had a bulldozer drive more than 120 feet into the bay behind the hotel in November 2006.
Haley also ordered Moffa to complete 30 days of community service with the Grand Traverse Conservation District, a government organization that manages public lands and promotes environmental protection through education and volunteerism.
Moffa was convicted on two misdemeanors. Haley said jail time would send a "definitive and emphatic" message, but community service would serve a better purpose.
Man faces domestic violence charge
TRAVERSE CITY -- An Interlochen man is charged with domestic violence.
Brock Lee Combs, 21, is charged with second-offense domestic violence and interfering with electronic communications. The Grand Traverse Sheriff's Department arrested him Nov. 11.
A woman told police Combs hit her, then took and broke her cell phone when she tried to call police, court records show.
Combs has a 2005 domestic violence conviction.
Man allegedly drove drunk
TRAVERSE CITY -- A man who police said drove drunk and ran from an officer faces multiple criminal charges.
Jeffrey Lee Lohner, 28, is charged with third-offense drunken driving, resisting or obstructing a police officer and operating a vehicle with a suspended license. He hadn't been arrested Wednesday morning.
A Traverse City police officer tried to stop a gray sport-utility vehicle on Lake Street for speeding Nov. 7. The driver allegedly stopped the vehicle and ran away.
The officer later found Lohner at his Ninth Street residence, and he allegedly appeared intoxicated. Police later identified him as the driver of the SUV, according to court records.
Lohner admitted to drinking that evening but denied driving a vehicle, police said.
Boys & Girls Club selects director
TRAVERSE CITY -- A local Boys & Girls Club chapter is working to open a third site in 2009 under new leadership, following the retirement of its prior director.
Sara Weatherholt, a former child care coordinator for Traverse City Area Public Schools, became executive director of the Boys & Girls Club of Grand Traverse in early September.
She replaces Pat Lewallen, who had worked in the position a year before retiring.
Weatherholt was a member of the nonprofit's board of directors before assuming her current role, and previously worked with children at Grand Traverse Pavilions and Head Start.
The club has programs at Traverse City West Middle School and in Peshawbestown in Leelanau County. Both sites reopened in 2007 after a lack of funding forced them to close for about a year.
Lewallen said in the spring that staff wanted to open a program this fall at what is now East Middle School, but funding ultimately wasn't secured. The goal now is 2009.
Work begins on vacant lot
TRAVERSE CITY -- Five stories of retail, office space and penthouses will fill the long-vacant and well-known "hole" at the corner of Front and Park streets.
Initial work is already under way, and developer Thom Darga expects his project will be complete by the end of 2009.
Crews worked last week at 101 N. Park St. to clean up the site in preparation of construction. Darga, of Suttons Bay-based Big Olives LLC, plans to hold a ground-breaking ceremony next month, followed by foundation improvement work. Actual construction should begin in February.
The site's former landowner and would-be developer Roy Henderson sold the property, foundations, building drawings, designs, permits and construction materials to Darga.
Henderson erected foundations and fenced the property, but the poor economy and disputes over architecture and building height left the site vacant since 2001.
Nelson may get vacation payouts
TRAVERSE CITY -- Northwestern Michigan College trustees could approve contract changes for the college president that include big payouts for unused vacation time.
NMC President Tim Nelson will receive $164,035 in salary this year and could get an extra check for $13,251, if college trustees approve his draft contract Monday evening. It's a potential windfall intended to decrease his 71 accrued vacation days to 50, a number that would become the new maximum for annual vacation carryover.
If Nelson doesn't take his allotted vacation time each year, he'd be paid for days he did not take off, though the payout would reflect a reduced rate of his salary.
Nelson contends he doesn't have enough time to use his annual vacation days.
Nelson annually earns 25 vacation days and his balance of 71 days accumulated during his seven-plus years at the community college.
KALKASKA
Gaylord woman killed in accident
KALKASKA -- A Gaylord woman died in a Kalkaska County traffic crash and two others remained hospitalized.
Mary Ann Harrier, 62, died in a Nov. 14 crash on M-72 near Rapid City Road.
A vehicle driven by Sheri Lynn Chaffee, 44, of Kalkaska, was traveling east on M-72 when it crossed the center line and struck a vehicle driven Deane Ray Harrier, 69, of Gaylord. Mary Ann Harrier was a passenger in that vehicle, and she later died from her injuries at Munson Medical Center.
Chaffee was in fair condition last Sunday at Munson, where Deane Harrier was in serious condition, a nursing supervisor said.
The crash remains under investigation, county Sheriff William Artress said.
Charges filed in cyclist's death
KALKASKA -- Bicyclist Carl John Ray died nearly four months ago when a truck struck him from behind as he peddled along Rapid City Road in Kalkaska County.
The driver who hit him now faces criminal charges for the collision.
Kalkaska County Prosecutor Brian Donnelly charged the driver, whom he wouldn't identify pending an arraignment, with operating under the influence causing death and negligent homicide. The driver, 50, is expected to be arrested and arraigned shortly.
Donnelly waited for several months for the results of blood tests sent to the Michigan State Police crime lab. Those results allegedly showed the driver, of Rapid City, was under the influence of methamphetamine at the time of the incident.
Ray worked for the U.S. Postal Service as a rural route mail carrier in Fife Lake. He also spent spare time as a photographer, bicyclist, private pilot, sailor and taught wood carving for 4-H, according to obituary information.
2 plead guilty in toddler's death
KALKASKA -- A man accused of beating a toddler to death in a Kalkaska apartment is scheduled to stand trial early next year, and two others tied to the incident pleaded guilty.
Sheldon McDonald faces an open count of murder in the August death of Cody Cross, 3. Cody was unconscious and had a head injury when authorities arrived Aug. 1 at the downtown Kalkaska apartment where McDonald lived with the boy's mother, Pamela Buning. He died Aug. 3.
Investigators allege McDonald repeatedly beat Cody over a prolonged period as a "misguided form of discipline," and Buning, 24, did nothing to stop it.
Buning initially was charged with first-degree child abuse, conspiracy to obstruct justice and obstructing justice, but on Nov. 4 pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge and an added count of involuntary manslaughter. The obstruction and child abuse charges were dismissed.
Buning was charged with manslaughter because she failed to protect Cody from McDonald, Kalkaska County Prosecutor Brian Donnelly said.
Heather Batchelor, a friend of McDonald and Buning, also was charged.
Batchelor pleaded guilty Nov. 5 to conspiracy to obstruct justice.
LEELANAU
Bailey ready to assume post
PESHAWBESTOWN -- Derek Bailey could soon become tribal chairman of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, putting an end to a half-year election process involving several challenges, court hearings and a special second election.
Bailey, 35, won a September special election, months after tribal voters initially backed two-term incumbent Robert Kewaygoshkum, 57, in a May election that a tribal court subsequently overturned.
But it didn't end there. Several people filed challenges to the September special election, and others filed motions in court.
The band's election board dismissed challenges, and the tribal court last week denied requests from two tribal elected officials to put off certification of the special election results.
Bailey hopes to soon accept the tribal chairman's position.
OTSEGO
Pigeon River dam may be removed
VANDERBILT -- State regulators and conservationists may get their wish to remove a dam on the Pigeon River where a sediment release this summer decimated fish populations in the blue-ribbon trout stream.
The Michigan Departments of Natural Resources and Environmental Quality completed their field investigations into a discharge of sediment June 22 and 23 that clogged the river with silt, killing fish for miles downstream. The dam is owned by the Song of the Morning Ranch, a private yoga retreat east of Vanderbilt in the Pigeon River Country State Forest.
It was the third time a sediment release at the dam damaged the river over the past five decades.
Dam owners consulted with experts at Huron Pines, a nonprofit conservation group that specializes in river restoration. It recommended the dam be removed, said Brad Jensen, agency executive director.
