ANTRIM
Man charged in home invasions
BELLAIRE -- A Cheboygan man is behind bars for two alleged home invasions, and is wanted for a third in Antrim County, court records show.
Steven Wayne Woodruff, 44, was arrested Tuesday in Cheboygan County on charges of first- and second-degree home invasion, safe-breaking and conducting a criminal enterprise, according to the state police Cheboygan post. He also is charged with being a habitual offender.
Woodruff allegedly broke into a home and breached a safe Dec. 8 in the county's Wilmot Township, state police said. Authorities then were able to connect him to an alleged April home invasion in the county's Inverness Township.
He was arraigned Wednesday on the Cheboygan County charges and is held in the county jail. Bond is set at $250,000.
Woman accused of taking car
BELLAIRE -- Antrim County authorities authorized felony charges against an East Jordan woman for allegedly driving away someone else's vehicle.
Prosecutors are seeking to charge Allison Jayne McDonald, 23, with one count of unlawful driving away of a motor vehicle for an alleged August incident, court records show.
She had not been arrested Wednesday.
McDonald allegedly left Antrim County's Jordan Township in the car of someone she knew, records show. It later was found downstate.
Man injured in snowmobile crash
BELLAIRE -- A Bellaire man is in critical condition after a late-night snowmobile crash in Antrim County.
Parker Vansice, 20, apparently was riding a 2003 Arctic Cat snowmobile west on Bellaire Highway near Clam Lake Drive, in the county's Forest Home Township, when the sled left the road about 11:53 p.m. Tuesday and crashed into trees, Antrim County Undersheriff Dave Kopkau said.
A friend was riding on a separate snowmobile and was not involved in the crash, Kopkau said.
Vansice, who was thrown off the sled, was taken to Munson Medical Center in Traverse City. He remains in critical condition, a hospital spokesman said.
Both speed and alcohol are believed to be involved, Kopkau said.
GRAND TRAVERSE
Charges dropped in fatal crash
TRAVERSE CITY -- Prosecutors Monday dropped criminal charges against an East Bay Township woman after authorities determined her prescription medication was not a factor in a fatal traffic crash.
Amber Elizabeth Clous, 23, was charged in October with operating while intoxicated causing death and negligent homicide after she lost control of her vehicle on County Road 633 in Mayfield Township on Jan. 14. Clous crossed the center line and struck a van, killing Karon Sue Black, 66, of Lansing.
Clous had a prescription for the painkiller methadone and police suspected she was abusing it, said Grand Traverse County Prosecutor Alan Schneider.
"After we got her medical records and tracked her purchases of methadone there was nothing to indicate she was abusing it," Schneider said.
Blood samples taken from Clous at the time of the accident showed the level of methadone in her system was at a therapeutic amount.
Man accused of assault, car theft
TRAVERSE CITY -- A Traverse City man allegedly stole two cars and fled the state after assaulting his female roommate.
Police are searching for Cruz Fernando Antuna, 28, on warrants for domestic violence and two counts of unlawful driving away of an automobile. Traverse City Police responded to a domestic assault call at the Bay Hill Apartments on Veterans about 5:30 a.m. last Sunday.
Antuna, who is on parole for a prior offense of breaking into a vehicle, fled the scene. A tracking dog followed him to the nearby Georgetown Apartments, where police discovered a 1982 Oldsmobile Delta 88 had been stolen. Police found the Delta 88 at the Fitzhugh Apartments on U.S. 31 South, shortly after 9 a.m., when responding to a report that a 1988 Cadillac had been stolen.
Michigan State Police recovered the Cadillac by 11 a.m. last Sunday when they found it abandoned, stuck in the median of U.S. 131 in Reed City.
Traverse City Police Capt. Brian Heffner said Antuna later called his girlfriend from Grand Rapids and told her he was heading to Mexico.
Cinema in the works for W. Front
TRAVERSE CITY -- A multi-screen movie theater is in the works for West Front Street.
The cinema will be part of the 140,000-square-foot, mixed-use RiverWest Development at the corner of West Front and Pine streets.
Developer Jerry Snowden's project is expected to create 175 new jobs and generate $33 million in new capital investment. The project could receive $7.2 million in brownfield dollars and state and local tax capture.
Snowden's development is one of 20 projects throughout the state that Gov. Jennifer Granholm's office said will receive brownfield redevelopment dollars or funding through the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. The projects are expected to add 7,350 new jobs and retain 96 jobs.
No consensus on dams decision
TRAVERSE CITY -- The Boardman River Dams Committee failed to reach a consensus Tuesday at a sometimes contentious final meeting in a more than two-year-long process. They were charged with making a recommendation to Traverse City and Grand Traverse County officials about what to do with Union Street, Boardman, Sabin and Brown Bridge dams, but they didn't.
And because they didn't, the decision fell to the much smaller BRDC Implementation Team.
The final recommendation to city and county leaders is to either save all four dams or remove all but Union Street Dam.
Union Street and Brown Bridge dams are owned by the city, while Sabin and Boardman belong to Grand Traverse County. Union Street Dam was the only one never used to generate hydroelectricity and was not considered for removal because it serves as a barrier for invasive sea lampreys.
School board pleased with Feil
TRAVERSE CITY -- School board members in Traverse City believe their superintendent is leading the district in the right direction, according to his annual performance review released this week.
With Superintendent James Feil, "there is a general attitude of optimism and confidence which will facilitate meeting the many challenges that the district is facing," the report states.
It is the end result of a review process that lasted three weeks and more than five hours behind closed doors. The superintendent is evaluated each year.
Feil will earn $159,832 this year under a three-year contract that will expire in 2010.
In the report, the board is pleased with the district's fiscal management, recent parent surveys at elementary school conferences and inviting high school Student Senate members to participate in board meetings.
Decision on festival move delayed
TRAVERSE CITY -- City officials delayed a decision on a proposed contract to allow the National Cherry Festival to move its headquarters to the Con Foster building in the Open Space.
Traverse City commissioners were scheduled to consider the one-year agreement Monday, but then learned that no new contracts can be made with an organization that has outstanding bills to the city.
The festival is on a deferred payment plan for money owed from past events, but there's no formal plan for paying outstanding bills from the 2008 festival. City officials expect to sort things out and bring the Con Foster agreement back for a decision next month.
City commissioners also postponed consideration of an agreement for the festival's use of city services and facilities for the 2009 event.
Outcry dooms East Bay noise law
TRAVERSE CITY -- Calling the dog, playing a piano, or watching television after 11 p.m. might have earned East Bay Township residents a trip to jail, under a proposed noise ordinance shouted down by some residents.
The law would have made it a crime to yell or take part in other boisterous behavior between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m., a misdemeanor punishable by up to 90 days in jail. Playing a musical instrument, listening to the radio or watching television carried a similar penalty if the sound was "clearly audible" beyond the property line.
The proposed law failed by a tie vote at the township board's Dec. 7 meeting, so for now a noise violation in East Bay remains a civil infraction punishable by a fine.
But an ordinance that criminalizes certain noises could have opened the door to warrantless searches of vehicles or houses by police, critics contend.
School district adjusts budget
TRAVERSE CITY -- Administrators in the region's largest school district created a "three-point plan" to address an impending $3 million deficit, a strategy that will include revenue building and budget cuts.
Early financial projections show Traverse City Area Public Schools will fall short next school year, the result of declining enrollment, limited state funding and a challenging economy.
Administrators plan to draw $1 million from the district's fund balance and cut about $2 million elsewhere in an attempt to balance the books.
Superintendent James Feil and school board members maintain that all nonessential expenses have been eliminated. The district will seek revenue by working with community partners, applying for additional grant funding and continue pushing for equitable state funding.
Cuts are expected to total about $2.1 million from such areas as instruction and support, operations, special education and administration.
KALKASKA
Woman sentenced in child's death
KALKASKA -- A Kalkaska woman will spend the next five to 15 years in prison on charges connected to her son's death.
Pamela Buning, 24, was sentenced Monday for involuntary manslaughter and conspiracy to obstruct justice, Kalkaska County Prosecutor Brian Donnelly said.
Buning's son, Cody Cross, 3, died in August from an alleged beating by a man who lived with Buning.
Sheldon McDonald will stand trial beginning Jan. 12 on an open count of murder. Cody was unconscious and had a head injury when authorities arrived Aug. 1 at the downtown Kalkaska apartment where McDonald lived with Buning. He died Aug. 3.
Investigators allege McDonald repeatedly beat Cody over a prolonged period as a "misguided form of discipline," and Buning did nothing to stop it.
Heather Batchelor, a friend of McDonald and Buning, also was charged.
Batchelor had a lengthy criminal record and was on parole at the time of the incident, Donnelly said. She was sentenced Dec. 3 to four years, nine months to 10 years for conspiracy to obstruct justice.
Underground gas storage expanding
KALKASKA -- Underground storage of natural gas is on the rise in Kalkaska County.
The ANR Pipeline Company, a subsidiary of TransCanada, recently expanded its gas storage capacity by 14 billion cubic feet in Blue Lake Township. The company for years has used the area's underground rock formations to store natural gas, and expansion involves an additional 13 acres with six new wells.
Growth in the industrial field in northeastern Kalkaska County is expected to bring more tax dollars to the township and county, along with a handful of additional jobs.
The company will pay about $1.2 million in local taxes this year, rising to more than $2 million by 2009, said Lee Hobbs company president.
OTSEGO
Snowmobiler killed in crash
GAYLORD -- A Gaylord man died and his female passenger was hospitalized in critical condition after their snowmobile crashed into a utility pole.
Michigan State Police said speed and alcohol were contributing factors in a collision at about 1:45 a.m. last Sunday. The crash occurred on the groomed snowmobile trail along Old U.S. 27 just south of the city limits. The snowmobile driver, Eric Inman, 31, was pronounced dead at the scene. His passenger, a 28-year-old woman, was transferred to Otsego Memorial Hospital. The crash remains under investigation.
