BENZIE
New details of Holbrook shooting emerge
BEULAH -- Accused killer Joni Holbrook's son awoke to his mother "yelling at the top of her lungs" that she shot her husband, police reports state.
Holbrook, 47, is held on an open count of murder in the Aug. 10 shooting death of her husband, Michigan State Police Sgt. Melvin Holbrook, of the Traverse City post. Investigators believe she shot him at about 1 a.m. as he slept in the couple's residence on Derby Lane near Benzonia.
Joni Holbrook's son, Chad C. Dilts, 24, told police he was asleep in an upstairs bedroom when he awoke to his mother calling his name and yelling, "I shot him, I killed him, he's dead," according to police reports obtained under the Michigan Freedom of Information Act.
Dilts headed downstairs and saw his mother in the kitchen. Holbrook's service weapon, a Sig Sauer .40 caliber handgun, sat on a kitchen counter next to the sink. Dilts peered into Melvin Holbrook's downstairs bedroom and saw him face down on the bed.
Joni Holbrook called 911 to report the incident and allegedly told dispatcher Nicole Smith she shot Holbrook. Smith asked to speak with Dilts after Holbrook said he was in the residence.
Smith briefly spoke with Dilts while his mother sat on a couch, according to a transcript of the 911 call. Smith told Dilts to get in his truck, drive down to nearby Zimmerman Road and wait in the vehicle until police officers could arrive on scene.
GRAND TRAVERSE
One of coldest summers winds down
TRAVERSE CITY -- Ben Sattler had a "pretty sweet gig" this summer, despite it being one of the coldest on record.
But reality kicked in as Sattler and his fellow Traverse City lifeguards headed back to school and other jobs. They said farewell to summer with Labor Day temperatures in the upper 70s, a balmy day that lured thousands to area beaches.
In the end, few complained about a summer many joked didn't arrive until late.
"It wasn't the best weather and it wasn't the warmest summer, but it didn't stop us from having fun," said Carly Allore, of Traverse City, as she headed for Traverse City's Bryant Park Monday afternoon.
Cool weather definitely cut into Allore's beach time this summer, she said, but it didn't stop her from kayaking and hanging out with friends.
Nick Tanner and Ashley Hickman also made the best of a chilly summer that followed a brief spring and rough winter.
"It was an awesome summer; we went places and had lots of cookouts," Hickman said as she and Tanner tended to chicken and burgers sizzling on a grill at Traverse City's Bryant Park. "Now we're celebrating the last day of summer with a barbecue."
June, July and August tied for the sixth coldest summer since record-keeping began in 1896, said Andy Sullivan, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Gaylord.
The average summer temperature was 64.1 degrees, 3.1 degrees below normal for those months.
Area students head back to school
TRAVERSE CITY -- In the story, nobody would trade lunches with James because his mother packed healthy food -- that is, until the day he brought a new lunch box that changed his vegetables into hot dogs.
Barbara Hoffman's second-graders sat wide-eyed on their classroom floor at Willow Hill Elementary, listening to the first two chapters toward the end of the first day of school Tuesday.
"Why wasn't he feeling very good about this red lunch box?" Hoffman asked her students at the end of the first chapter, when James learned the lunch box was a gift from his uncle. "Can you make a prediction?"
She told them readers make predictions to understand a story. One student thought it was magical, and his classmates were awed when he turned out to be right.
An English lesson on the first day, and they didn't even know it.
Students across the region started classes Tuesday and spent the morning learning procedures, making introductions and getting to work.
At Willow Hill, several children said they looked forward to what a new school year would bring once the first-day jitters were gone.
"I was kind of a little bit nervous because there might not be any people I knew" in class, said Hannah Suski, 9, who filled in details about herself on an introductory worksheet. "Fourth grade turned out to be really neat."
TCAPS board adopts contract for teachers
TRAVERSE CITY -- Teachers in Traverse City's public schools will resume the first week of classes with a new contract in hand after school board members voted to support it.
The seven-member board unanimously voted Tuesday to adopt the two-year deal for the Traverse City Education Association, which represents 640 teachers, counselors, social workers and nurses. It covers this year and is retroactive to last year, and will expire Aug. 31, 2010.
Board members met in closed session to discuss the contract prior to voting and did not ask questions when the open meeting resumed.
The union ratified it last week.
Under the agreement, union members will receive a 2 percent pay raise for both years. The figure aligns with the most recent contracts for other employee groups, including building principals and food service staff.
Teachers who have at least 21 years of experience will receive an additional $200 in longevity payments for last year under the new agreement.
Their medical co-pays will increase, but the district will cover long-term disability benefits -- one of the union's key positions.
"It's very nice that the district is picking that up," said Mary McGee-Cullen, TCEA vice president, who attended Tuesday's meeting.
But, she said, "There are a lot of disappointed people."
Bison takes Sunday stroll to GT Mall
TRAVERSE CITY -- This is why Kathryn Bandstra always carries her camera.
Bandstra, who splits time between Spring Lake and Traverse City, was motoring with her husband Sunday morning along U.S. 31 near South Airport Road when they spied something more than a bit out of the ordinary:
A big, shaggy bison standing in the middle of U.S. 31.
Bandstra scrambled to the back seat for her camera as the animal slowly made its way behind MC Sports and into the Macy's parking lot.
Bandstra told her husband to follow the beast so she could snap a few pictures.
"He was just kind of looking around and strolling through the lot," she said. "He didn't seem scared, didn't seem concerned that there were cars around."
The bison ambled off from its home on the Oleson's Food Stores farm on the Great Wolf Lodge property earlier that day. Oleson's officials said their fences are intact, and they're not quite sure how the animal escaped.
"Normally we can figure it out and plug the hole, but this one somehow got out and we don't know how," Oleson's Vice President D.J. Oleson said.
Bison are capable of high jumps, Oleson said, and it's possible the animal scaled a fence.
TC to appeal decision on swim areas
TRAVERSE CITY -- A judge will decide how much control Traverse City can have over its waterfront.
The city commission this week voted 5 to 2 to appeal the state's denial of a city request to expand its swim areas. The city wants to more than double the amount of beach area roped off for swimmers and limit use of the Open Space shoreline by boaters.
"It's about separating and making room for two uses that are incompatible with each other, and in my mind we haven't done our job until we've done everything we can to effectuate that," said city Commissioner Chris Bzdok.
Some city residents, though, told commissioners shoreline sharing between swimmers, sunbathers and boaters is far from incompatible. Over the Labor Day weekend, the boat-lined beach area hosted more people than did the designated swim areas.
"It's a unique situation where you get people together, having a good time, socializing, that I haven't seen anywhere else in the state," said resident Greg Pash. "These people are really enjoying themselves, and it's not a problem between the boaters and swimmers, as far as I can see."
Commissioner Barbara Budros said plenty of people who don't like boats also voiced their thoughts, the reason city officials 18 months ago asked the state Department of Natural Resources for permission to expand the swim area.
GT County board's prayer is questioned
TRAVERSE CITY -- Commissioner Beth Friend thanks her "Heavenly Father" and asks for His continued guidance in decisions made by Grand Traverse County commissioners.
"We pray in your name, Amen," Friend said as she concluded a prayer to open a recent county board meeting.
A prayer has served as the opener for county board meetings for years -- Commissioner Larry Inman said an invocation has led off board sessions for at least the 17 years he's been in office -- and no one ever questioned that religious offering.
Until now. The county recently received an e-mail whose writer objected to the "Christian prayers."
"Being Jewish ... I am somewhat offended by offering a prayer at the start of your monthly meeting," the e-mail writer said. "I understand that Christianity is the predominant faith in Grand Traverse County, but perhaps government needs to be more sensitive to those of us who do not worship the same power."
Friend said she sees value in the opening prayer.
"Asking a higher being for guidance and compassion for the community and each other, I don't see anything but good coming from that," Friend said.
Residents reflect on 9/11 terrorist attacks
TRAVERSE CITY -- Cynthia Russell vividly recalls the news stand in Belfast, Ireland, and headlines the day after the world changed.
"Holocaust USA: Thousands entombed in New York mass grave," wrote the Belfast Telegraph. "World holds breath as America grieves."
Then the headline in a Sept. 12, 2001 British tabloid that further shocked Russell: "America goes to war!"
Russell sat in her downtown Traverse City business this week, surrounded by British newspapers she collected, publications she now realizes are akin to the reading material that adorns grocery store check out lanes. But she didn't know what to think eight years ago as she led a group of Americans on a tour of Ireland.
"They didn't have CNN or all-night television," Russell said. "We were scared, to be out of our own country, not at home, and not with our families. We didn't know what we would be coming home to, or if it would even be safe to fly."
On Sept. 11, 2001, Islamic terrorists hijacked four jetliners and flew two into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City and another into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. The fourth jet crashed in a Pennsylvania field when passengers stormed and fought the hijackers.
LEELANAU
Hazardous waste collection to take oil
PESHAWBESTOWN -- Oil will be accepted for the first time during Leelanau County's household hazardous waste and electronics collection.
Motor, lubricating and hydraulic oils will be accepted in sealed containers, along with other hazardous waste items, on Oct. 3 in Peshawbestown. A 55-gallon oil drum is the largest container that will be accepted.
Reservations are required.
Additional items to be collected include aerosols, antifreeze, art paints, automobile paint, oil-based paint, herbicides, insecticides, kerosene, gasoline, moth balls, pesticides, rodent poison, smoke detectors, televisions, varnish, syringes and all prescription and over-the-counter medications.
A complete list of accepted items is available online at www.leelanau.cc, or by calling 256-9812. Call that phone number to make a reservation.
Officials mull charges in death
SUTTONS BAY -- Authorities aren't yet sure if they will seek charges against a Leelanau County man who struck and killed another man with his car.
James Arthur Mackin, 73, of Lake Leelanau, had begun to walk across S. Lake Leelanau Drive at about 5:45 p.m. Friday when he was struck and killed by a vehicle driven north by William Sutton Miller, 80, also of Lake Leelanau.
Leelanau County Undersheriff Scott Wooters said police continue to piece together details of the crash.
They aren't sure how fast Miller was driving or how quickly Mackin entered the roadway, details that could help determine if charges are warranted.
"The things that might be factors are the speed of the driver and the vehicle's mechanical ability to stop," Wooters said.
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