ANTRIM
Appeals board nixes bid to halt well
ALBA -- Another blow came down the pipe for those opposed to a deep-injection disposal well proposed near Alba in Antrim County's Star Township.
A trio of judges on the Environmental Appeals Board of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently denied each objection raised by a group of local officials and activists who want to block an injection well meant to take leachate from a contamination site in Emmet County.
Petitioners have another chance to halt the project on the federal level before a subsidiary company of CMS Energy begins to drill, officials said.
Alleged dumping may lead to fines
ELK RAPIDS -- A local processing plant allegedly violated state environmental regulations by allowing its wastewater to drain into Elk Lake and surrounding wetlands.
State officials last month cited Burnette Foods of Elk Rapids and said wastewater the company sprayed on fields south of the village drained into nearby surface water.
The company is not permitted to dump wastewater into wetlands or lakes, and state regulators said the amount of liquid Burnette sprayed onto fields exceeds the amount the ground can absorb before more wastewater is discharged, state records show.
Burnette, a fruit and vegetable processing company, may be required to modify its water treatment method and could be fined by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, officials said.
BENZIE
Man faces charges in police scuffle
BEULAH -- A Benzie County man faces criminal charges after he allegedly tangled with police.
Kevin Bonney, 43, is charged with resisting, assaulting or obstructing a police officer and operating a vehicle while intoxicated. He was arrested and arraigned Sept. 13, and a preliminary examination is scheduled for Oct. 16.
Police used a Taser to subdue Bonney after a traffic stop near Benzonia, Benzie County Sheriff's Department Sgt. David Tucker said. Police responded to a Lake Township residence on a report that Bonney violated a restraining order, Tucker said, but he was gone from the residence by the time police arrived.
They stopped his vehicle a short time later, and he allegedly grew physically combative, Tucker said. Police twice used the Taser on him.
GRAND TRAVERSE
Principal resigns following arrest
TRAVERSE CITY -- The principal of a local charter high school who was removed and reinstated nearly two weeks ago has resigned, in part because of a drunken driving arrest, he said.
Cameron Owens, former school leader at the year-old Traverse City College Preparatory Academy in East Bay Township, submitted his letter of resignation. His last day was Oct. 3.
Owens, 48, was arrested Sept. 25 on suspicion of drunken driving, according to court records. He faces a misdemeanor count of operating while intoxicated, his second offense.
He was convicted in 2005 of a drunken driving charge in Ann Arbor.
No charges against lollipop man
TRAVERSE CITY -- Police said they've determined a man who approached several children last month did nothing criminal.
The man, 41, was arrested on an outstanding Friend of the Court warrant Monday. He was identified as the man who rode around on a bicycle speaking to young children in the Glenn Loomis neighborhood of Traverse City on multiple instances in early September, police said.
Police at the time deemed the incidents suspicious and asked for the public's help in identifying the man.
The man gave lollipops to children and adults, and he told police he was doing it to "brighten up" people's days, according to a police statement. He allowed officers to search his residence, and no evidence of criminal activity was found.
Alleged fraud in welfare case
TRAVERSE CITY -- A Buckley woman faces felony fraud charges stemming from a welfare case.
Tonya Lynae Kiel, 42, was charged with two counts of fraud after a state Department of Human Services investigation. She hadn't been arrested Tuesday morning.
From August to November 2006, Kiel applied for and received nearly $800 in food stamps and about $1,600 in cash assistance, court records show. During that time, Kiel allegedly failed to inform DHS that she was employed.
Had DHS known she was employed, she would have received only $64 in food stamps and about $140 in cash assistance, investigators said.
Woman charged with drunken driving
TRAVERSE CITY -- A Traverse City woman faces a felony drunken driving charge.
Jackie Lynn Judson, 36, is charged with third-offense drunken driving and second-offense operating with a suspended license. She was scheduled to be arraigned last week.
A Traverse City police officer stopped Judson's vehicle on Eighth Street after she allegedly weaved in her lane, court records show. Police said Judson smelled of alcohol and had slurred speech.
Judson previously was convicted of operating while intoxicated in 1991, 1995 and 2004, records show.
Head Start moves, consolidates
TRAVERSE CITY -- The Head Start preschool program for Grand Traverse County moved some classrooms and consolidated others as the result of rising rents and flat funding levels.
Head Start, a federally funded program that provides free preschool classes to low-income and at-risk children, opened two classrooms this fall at the Traverse Bay Area Career-Tech Center on Parsons Road.
There are 147 Head Start students enrolled throughout the county.
The one-year agreement came as Head Start administrators sought to find a new site before the lease expired on their main building near Chum's Corner in Blair Township.
Costs to rent the space at the Career-Tech Center, known as the Discovery Children's Center, run $540 per month or $6,550 per year, Head Start director Kathy Kundrat said.
The program also kept three classrooms in its Chum's Corner location, since the building's owner agreed to lease half the space -- which, in essence, is half the cost, Kundrat said.
Man charged with drug possession
TRAVERSE CITY -- An Elk Rapids man faces drug possession charges.
Jesse David Probert, 27, is charged as a habitual offender with possession of less than 25 grams of cocaine. Traverse City police arrested him Oct. 4.
A police officer arrested Probert for a bond violation at 86th District Court, records show. After the arrest, the officer allegedly found a bag of cocaine in Probert's pocket.
Three appointed to DDA board
Traverse City -- The Downtown Development Authority has three new board members.
City commissioners last week appointed Nathan Elkins, Charles Judson and T. Michael Jackson to four-year terms on the DDA board of directors.
Elkins is a landscape architect and chairman of the city's Parks and Recreation Commission. Judson is an attorney and served on the DDA board for nearly 16 years until his second term as chairman ended about six years ago. Jackson works in public relations and is a former city commissioner. He was on the DDA board for more than two years before stepping down to serve on the city commission.
They were chosen from seven applicants, including incumbent Richard Crowe. The new members will take over spots held by Crowe, Terry Beia and Jack Boynton, whose terms expired last month.
Student charged in alleged racial assault
TRAVERSE CITY -- A local teen faces a criminal charge after police said he assaulted a minority youth in what's alleged to be a racially charged altercation.
The suspect, 15, was charged as a juvenile last week with a felony count of ethnic intimidation after a Sept. 26 incident on Traverse City Central High School property.
Police said he spat racial slurs at a black student, also 15, and assaulted him.
Police called it an "isolated incident" involving two local students, but a witness said a large group of young males descended upon and assaulted the black student after singling him out near the high school's "F" building.
Christine Adams, who was at the school to pick up her child, said several males beat and kicked the black student. Another adult witness told police the victim was "bleeding profusely" after the attack, according to a police report.
"This was race-related, and several of us believe it was gang-related," Adams said. "It was a group ... most of them were wearing the same colors."
The suspect has no local criminal history, a court spokeswoman said.
Police don't believe the alleged assault was gang-related, nor do they think the school has a gang problem.
Police seek info on stolen vehicles
TRAVERSE CITY -- Police are looking for two stolen vehicles.
Two Kubota RTV 1100s were stolen Oct. 4 from Ginop Sales on M-72 in Williamsburg. The vehicles have enclosed cabs; one is orange and one is camouflage. The camouflage vehicle should have front-end damage and is missing its windshield. The vehicles were driven from the scene.
Anyone with information is asked to call Silent Observer at 947-TIPS or the Grand Traverse Sheriff's Department at 995-5000.
All TCAPS buses pass inspection
TRAVERSE CITY -- All 118 buses in Traverse City Area Public Schools passed inspection during the last school year, according to an annual state police audit.
The district joins 383 others with a perfect passing rate, according to inspection results released last week. Roughly 10 percent of public and private school buses throughout the state failed the tests.
Along with Traverse City schools, districts in the five-county region that received 100 percent pass ratings include Bellaire, Glen Lake, Elk Rapids, Ellsworth, Frankfort-Elberta, Kalkaska, Kingsley, Leland, Northport and Suttons Bay.
Benzie County Central Schools had 24 of 31, or 77 percent, of its buses pass. Grand Traverse Area Catholic Schools had all but four of its 80 buses pass, and earned a 95 percent rating.
KALKASKA
Library may find home in Kaliseum
KALKASKA -- There may be a move in the future for the Kalkaska County Library.
The small library building -- fewer than 5,000 square feet -- currently is in downtown Kalkaska, where the shelves are packed, the media center bulges and there's virtually no space for patrons to sit and read a book. That's why a feasibility study is under way to determine whether a move to the second floor of the county's Kaliseum complex would make financial and logistical sense.
An architect was hired to study whether the Kaliseum's second level floor will hold heavy stacks of books and whether its roughly 10,000 square feet could effectively be used as library space.
A plan should be finished within a couple of weeks for library officials to review and then seek public input, said Traverse City architect Michael Fitzhugh.
Man killed in work accident
KALKASKA -- An Otter Lake man died in a Kalkaska County work accident.
DeWayne A. Barber, 34, was pronounced dead at Munson Medical Center following an incident last Sunday in Clearwater Township. Barber worked for Iron Mountain-based M.J. Electric LLC.
Barber was struck by a pole while on a crew working to replace wood power poles with metal poles, according to a police statement.
The incident remains under investigation.
WEXFORD
Blast destroys fruit processing plant
Buckley -- An explosion at Leelanau Fruit Company's cherry processing plant destroyed most of the facility but left workers unscathed.
The roughly 10,000-square-foot plant on M-37 in Buckley was set ablaze at about 4:40 p.m. Monday, and was still smoldering five hours later.
Company owner Glenn LaCross suspects the blast occurred from the combustion of hot bleaches used in the processing of sweet cherries into maraschino cherries.
Two employees were in the plant mixing solutions for bleaching cherries when cans of chemicals ignited. Both workers were able to get out unharmed.
The company's main warehouse is in Suttons Bay. LaCross opened the Buckely plant in 2001.
Maraschino cherry production accounts for about 70 percent of the company's business, and most of that work is done in Buckley.
LaCross said he plans to rent warehouses and turn some of his Suttons Bay facility into production space in order to keep operating.
Print this story
E-mail this story
