ANTRIM
Blaze destroys Central Lake eatery
CENTRAL LAKE -- The popular Blue Pelican Restaurant in Central Lake was destroyed by fire Tuesday morning.
Emergency responders were called to the blaze around 9:30 a.m. and found the structure about 80 percent in flames, said Chief Bill Chapman of the Central Lake Township Fire Department.
Firefighters fought the blaze for several hours. Water to douse the fire was trucked into the rural location, several miles west of downtown Central Lake in Antrim County.
Investigators don't yet know what ignited the blaze, which caused several explosions likely from tanks of compressed air used for beverage sales, Chapman said.
No one was injured and the restaurant was vacant when the fire started, Chapman said.
BENZIE
Graceland, Bonney settle lawsuit
TRAVERSE CITY -- Two Benzie County companies have agreed to pay $250,000 plus environmental restoration costs for illegally disposing of liquid blueberry wastes that degraded a stream, state officials said Monday.
The wastes were generated by Graceland Fruit Inc. at its processing facility in Frankfort.
Graceland hired Bonney Brothers Pumping Co. to transport and dispose of the wastes, which were dumped into a gravel pit in 2002.
Candidate involved in 1995 assault
BEULAH -- Jeff Morse had troubles in the past, but believes they'll help him provide well-rounded leadership if elected Benzie County sheriff.
The Lake Ann native and Republican candidate pleaded no contest to a charge of domestic violence in Antrim County after he assaulted his wife in 1995.
Morse also was fired from the White Cloud police department in 1993 following an altercation with the city clerk, the former police chief there said.
Morse acknowledges White Cloud fired him following the run-in with the clerk, but he denies assaulting her.
Morse also said he's ashamed of the 1995 assault on his now ex-wife, but that he learned from the incident.
Morse has been a paraprofessional at the Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District's Career Tech Center for about five years, he said.
He wants to improve the behavior of Benzie sheriff's deputies in the community.
GRAND TRAVERSE
Commission seeks interim manager
Traverse City -- City commissioners hope to find an interim manager by the time City Manager Richard Lewis leaves in September.
Commissioners voted on Monday to advertise for an interim position and start seeking a long-term replacement once the interim is hired.
It will likely take months to conduct a full-scale search for a permanent manager.
Lewis announced his resignation last month after 17 years on the job.
He's leaving to work at international engineering firm CH2M HILL.
Woman charged with embezzlement
TRAVERSE CITY -- Authorities believe a Williamsburg woman embezzled more than $20,000 from a union representing Traverse City Area Public Schools employees.
Karen Rae Paakola, 57, is charged with embezzlement of between $20,000 and $50,000 by an agent or trustee.
Traverse City police arrested her Tuesday.
Paakola was the treasurer of the Traverse City Clerical, Assistants, Paraprofessionals and Secretaries Association.
Police allege she took the money between May 2007 and May 2008 from union accounts she controlled.
Man allegedly stole inflatable raft
TRAVERSE CITY -- A Traverse City man faces a larceny charge for the alleged theft of an inflatable raft from a boat moored in the Boardman River.
Traverse City police arrested a 56-year-old man for allegedly stealing a raft from a boat moored in the river north of Front Street.
The boat owner called police just after 9 p.m. Wednesday after he saw the suspect with the raft and found it missing from his boat, Capt. Steve Morgan said.
The suspect had a shopping cart full of items, which police are investigating as other potentially stolen property, Morgan said.
KALKASKA
Man charged with assault in stabbing
KALKASKA -- A South Boardman man faces a charge of assault with intent to murder.
Kalkaska County authorities charged Michael David Elya, 23, after an incident early last Sunday morning in Kalkaska Township. Police allege Elya repeatedly stabbed a man in the back with a knife after an argument at the victim's home.
The victim, 36, was airlifted to Munson Medical Center. He was treated and has been released.
Elya allegedly fled the scene, but police later arrested him. He is being held in the Kalkaska County Jail on a $500,000 bond.
DeJonge to stand trial for murder
KALKASKA -- Sanchez Ellis told a judge he notified authorities after David DeJonge made some troubling statements during a casual card game in the Oakland County Jail.
Ellis and DeJonge both were housed there shortly before authorities brought DeJonge to Kalkaska County to face charges in the death of Sarah Wilson, 26. DeJonge told Ellis he dismembered Wilson while the two men socialized with other inmates, Ellis testified in a Kalkaska County courtroom on Wednesday.
Ellis was among several witnesses who testified at DeJonge's preliminary examination, where Kalkaska Judge Lynne Buday bound DeJonge over to stand trial on an open count of murder and dismemberment of a body.
Police found Wilson's torso in a swampy area near Mecum Road in Kalkaska County's Oliver Township May 22.
Group works to buy 1,700-acre tract
KALKASKA -- More than 1,700 acres of woods and water in Kalkaska County could soon be off limits from future development and open for public hunting, fishing and other recreation.
The Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy is working with the state to buy the old Flowing Well fish hatchery and surrounding property about eight miles east of Kalkaska.
State natural resources officials are considering the purchase of an approximate $3.4 million conservation and public access easement at the site, much of it bordered by state and federal land.
DNR Director Rebecca Humphries will consider the easement at the Aug. 14 meeting of the Michigan Natural Resources Commission in Lansing, while the conservancy's board will decide on the project at a meeting in September.
LEELANAU
Show goes on for Dunegrass
SUTTONS BAY -- The Sleeping Bear Dunegrass & Blues Festival in Empire went forward as planned this weekend, after a judge denied a request for an injunction to stop the event.
Eric and Ann Arnold, who live across the street from the festival site just off M-22, sought to halt the four-day festival on grounds that it creates a nuisance and discrepancies over zoning matters.
But 13th Circuit Judge Thomas Power denied the couple's request at a hearing Tuesday afternoon, citing potential economic harm to festival organizers, the Village of Empire and vendors, bands and concert-goers.
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