I Are home prices really declining in some of the Pointes? By Chip Chapman home sale pnces have fallen 20 per- For a number of reasons, mamly Staff Writer want the pnces publIshed There'b no m the cIty for a""e"sment purposes, cent m Grosse POInte Farms and 18 pnvacy. home buyers and bellers, longer any pUlpose for not dlbClo"lOg said contI oller Jm1 Nabh Can a""es<;ments In a cIty mcrease percent In Gro"se POinte Shores especially of hIgher-pnced hou<,e", the bale pnce becdu"e It Ib now public dUring the same perIOd home prIces "The .l~;,cb"ed value goeb up to that "In the last couple of years, one- a"k that the sale pnce not be made record due to btate statute" figUIe, but I" capped by Proposal A, In the "ame cIty decrease? third to half of the home sales m the public Enough $1 or "no money" sale" Under Propo"al A. a property trans- Some people who had the March thI'> year It 1" 2 8 pel cent," he saId Shoreb have been listed as $1 or 'no can alter home sale pnce averageb for fer affidaVIt IS required, from buyer to edltlOn of Detroit Monthly In one "When d home sell~, It becomes money' sales," said Tim O'Donnell. a community assessor, to ensure the property IS hand and theIr 1996 assessment In 'uncapped' The new cap Ib based on as"es"or for the Shores and Farms "The problem started when home properly asses"cd the other may have asked that ques- the old a,,,e<,sed value, not the sales "We haven't seen any drop m the sale pnces were published In The The Farms does not keep tl ack of pnce" tIOn Shores smce the early 1980s Smce DetrOit Newb and Free Press," said average home "ale pnces, but when il A home sdJe pllce of $1 would not be A chart In the magazme showed 1991, home pnces have Increased at Forman Johnston, co-owner of Bolton- home sclb, the sale" pnce Ib factOled that between 1991 and 1995, average least 15 percent" Johnston AsSOCIates 'People didn't agamst the sale of comparable home" See HOMES, page 19A Your Community Newspaper "'1 Grosse ,jllt~;Itr....~"'~d" News Vol. 57, No. 13 46 pages Grosse Pointe, Michigan Since 1940 Home Delivery 56cr• Newsstand 75cr March 28, 1996 North lights Parcells MIddle School presents 'The Wizard of Oz." approved by tonight and Friday, March 29, at 7 30 pm in the school audItorium, 20600 Mack, Grosse Pointe Woods A lim- Ited number of tIckets are Woods council avaIlable at the door By Jim Stickford of opportunitieS for school spir- Staff Wnter It and family fun What a dIfference two years Also speak 109 for the I1ghts The Grosse POinte schools' makes The Grosse Pomte was school board treasurer annual elementary art Woods CIty CounCIl Monday GlorIa Konsler and North prIn. enrichment fair concludes night unanimously approved clpal Caryn Wells. today at the Grosse Pomte vanance requests by the North aSSIstant prinCIpal for Woods Community Center Grosse Pomte school system athletIc", Tom Gauerke, then Hours are from 3.30 to 7 30 that will allow the mstallation spoke, saying that many peo- P m The public IS Invited to of permanent hghts around ple put a lot of effort Into get- attend. North's football field tmg the lights He added that The 7-0 vote permlttmg the school had held a number lIghts was the opposite of a of mght games uSing tempo- Sunday, March 31 vote taken by the counCIl m rary lights July 1994 when the council These games, saId Gauerke, Our Lady Star of the Sea PhotAl. by Thoa L Walker voted unanimously to deny a were very successful m terms CatholIc Church, 467 SimIlar request made by the of attendance Fears of rowdy Falrford in Grosse Po1Ote "chool system behavlOr and traffic Jams were Woods presents Bach's "The In order to Install permanent proved to be unfounded The PassIOn of Our Lord lights around the football field, mght games had teachers, par- According to St John" per- the school distrIct reqUIred ents and police on hand to formed by the DeHaven varIances from CIty zOning laws make sure everythmg went Chorale at 7 p m TIckets are concern1Og the plaCing of per- smoothly, which IS what hap- $10 in advance, $12 at the manent structures close to res- pened door Spring into winter? identIal property and the arch- Gauerke saId that the athlet. nances concernmg the height IC department planned to hold Mother Nature tossed a snowball at of permanent structures 12 nIght events durmg the Monday, April 1 MichJgan last Wednesday, the first day ''Two years ago, I voted year There would be 10 events of spring, by dumping four to six Ineh- against the varIance request In the fall, allow1Og the varsIty. es of IIDOW on the winter-weary ground. The Grosse POinte LIbrary for a number of reasons," saId JunIOr varsIty and freshman Making the best of an unexpected snow councllmember ErIC Stemer football teams the chance to board will meet at 7.30 pm day off from school, Woods residents 10 the NeIghborhood Club, "Since that time I believe the play under the lIghts There Becky Dennis. Anne Morath and proponents of lIghts have would be two events m the 17150 Waterloo, in the CIty Stephanie Dennis, above, bullt a snow of Grosse POinte taken mto conSIderatIOn the sprmg for the track team The mound, decorated it with artificial concerns of myself and other soccer teams would also playa Dowers and inscribed on it in green councllmembers, and have game under the hghts paint "Welcome Spring." A furry friend adjusted theIr deSIgns as much 'We do not plan on holdmg The Grosse POinte school from the Farms, right, put on his wool- board meets at 8 p m m the as pOSSIble to accommodate any addItIOnal events," saId ly sweater before taking a romp In the them" Gauerke "These 12 events add Wickmg LIbrary at Grosse slush. Pomte South HIgh School, 11 Stemer saId that byagreemg up to just 3 percent of a calen- to reduce light spIllage Into the der year of 365 days" Grosse POinte Boulevard, 10 Grosse POinte Farms surrounding residentIal lots as When the school system much as poSSible, and byalter- went before the Woods plan- 109 the public announcement nmg commission, saId system to reduce nOise, the pro- Gauerke, they were told by the The Grosse Pointe Woods Pointes back Dole in prim.ary ponents of the lIghts had gone commiSSIOn that there were cIty counCIl meets at 7'30 a long way toward meeting the three areas of concern, locatIOn p m. in the mUnicIpal court By Chip Chapman (Steve) Forbes Jr fimshed receIved 61 votes concerns of neIghborhood reSI- of the light poles m the west- room, 20025 Mack Plaza. Staff Writer thIrd WIth 8 percent and StatewIde, Sen Robert Dole, "uncommItted" was fourth With Dole, Buchanan and Keyes dents SIde field, I1ght spillage Into R-Kan , received 51 percent of 3 percent are the only members of the But before the council voted reSidentIal areas and nOIse the vote to commentator nme-candidate field who are on the request, there was five problems INSIDE Patrick Buchanan's 34 percent In somewhat of a surprise, stIll In the race. hours of sometImes heated tes- Mark Pfister of Musco LIghts In MIchigan's RepublIcan pn. Grosse POinte Farms reSIdent tImony by opponents and pro- addressed the questIOn of light ponents of the varIance spillage He showed the counCil Opmwn 6A mary March 19 MaUrice Taylor gathered only There was little variatIOn 10 41 of the 6,549 of total votes the order of fimsh as Dole, request some dIagrams and shde Schools . _ 17A But among Grosse Pomte cast He was beaten by former Buchanan and Forbes finished The first to speak was school demonstrating how, With the board preSIdent Carl Anderson use of a total light control sys- voters, Dole dId better (59 per- state department offiCial Alan 1-2-3 In each of the POlntes cent) whtle Buchanan fared Keyes, who receIved 92 votes, Turnout In the POlntes who saId that money for the tem, I1ght spIllage could be Obztuarzes 21A reduced to less than one candle worse (19 percent) and former Tennessee governor ranged from 13 percent m the lIghts has been donated and and U S secretary of education Shores to 22 percent m the the project WIllcost the taxpay- power of hght at the homeown- Entertamment. .. 8B er's house lme In Grosse Pomte, Malcolm Lamar Alexander, who Woods ers nothmg He also saId that South had Its donated lights Pfister said that by usmg Sports 1C Installed last fall and that North deserves the same kmd Classztied ads 5C See LIGHTS. page 12A I _ Candidate City Farms Park Shores Woods Total Alexander 9 14 16 3 19 61 Buchanan 127 271 260 43 618 1,319 Dole Home: Grosse POinte Park 417 1,044 725 233 1,795 4,214 Family: Husband, Dr Mark Dornan Edelstein, son, Matthew, 3 3 3 1 6 16 daughter, KatIe News can appear one Forbes Claim to fame: MU'ilc day and be gone the 47 124 109 19 238 537 teacher, translated IOtO next But the paper Gramm Engh"h and pubhshed news IS printed on can 3 1 4 1 3 12 five books WrItten by a and should live on Keyes Dutch author Lost year more than 14 19 25 5 29 92 one th'rd of 011U S Lu ar Quote: "There were dlfficul- newsprint wos recycled 7 5 6 0 10 28 tIes (WIth the translation) from Dutch to English And that number IS Taylor growing every day 7 11 8 5 10 41 Some of It had to to WIth Recycling Uncommitted 10 5 112 219 the writer's "tyle With IS the one 39 53 Dutch IdlOm'i I had to make "ure that I kept the woy we con Write-In 0 011give some 0 10 0 0 10 'iame type of language" 0Read thing bock Then hcycle % Turnout 15 19 14 13 22 See story.