Playscape dream becoming a reality, A6 Thursday & September 11, 1997 Ultestlanft (Dbseruer Putting You In Touch With Your World VOLUME 33 NUMBER 28 WESTLAND, MICHIGAN • 76 PAGES • http://observer-eccentric.com SEVENTY-FIVE CENTS O 1897 HomeTbwn Communication! Network, Inc. - ifca* IN THE PAPER WESTIAND'S San, 9 PRIMARY f %<&*< ELECTION Thomas, Mehl win race RESULTS TODAY Mayor Robert Thomas and challenger Ken­ ers bothered to vote, marking a paltry MAYOR neth Mehl will face off Nov. 4 in the general 10.7 percent turnout. (Top two will move on to Nov. 4 general election) One week after his 47th birthday, a election following Tuesday's primary elec­ • Dixie Johnson McNa - 375 jubilant Thomas celebrated victory • Kenneth Mehl-1.502 Information, please: Infor­ tion in Westland. Candidate Dixie Johnson Tuesday as more than 200 supporters mation Central, from the McNa was defeated in Tuesday's voting. poured into his election-night head­ • Robert Thomae <incumt»nt) • 4,002 BY DARRELL CLEM manded 67.3 percent of vote totals to quarters at the senior citizen Friend­ William P. Faust Public ship Center on Newburgh. STAFF WRITER emerge unmistakably as a front-runner executive secretary to purchasing Library of Westland, for another four-year term. "I feel good about this," he told the Incumbent Westland Mayor Robert Observer. "I think it shows that people agent and raising her salary by several offers details on library Thomas, winning the top spot in Tues­ Mehl, a former 12-year council mem- thousand dollars. ber, ^survived the primary with a mere wanted to vote for me because they programs. /A4 day's primary by a landslide, proved think I am doing a good job as mayor, Even so, Thomas garnered 4,002 that challenger Kenneth Mehl faces an 25.3 percent of vote totals, while politi­ votes - more than twice the combined cal newcomer Dixie Johnson McNa and I think they ignored all of the neg­ uphill battle to close a popularity gap ative rhetoric." totals for Mehl (1,502) and McNa (375). before the Nov. 4 general election. faced elimination by garnering only 6.3 Although Mehl survived the primary, percent of ballots cast. Thomas came under fire from McNa, OPINION Thomas, seeking an unprecedented 53, and Mehl, 50, for promoting his he failed to muster a close race despite third term as Westland mayor, com­ Only 5,945 of Westland's 55,401 vot- live-in companion, Jill Runkle, from Please see RACE, A6 Say hello: New area codes are among the changes Seeking relief facing telephone users in this high-tech age./A14 COMMUNITY LIFE Celebration time: Starting Over, a grief support group for young men and women, has plenty to cele­ brate on Saturday. For its 10th anniversary, current and former members are gathering for a picnic Saturday at May bury State Park. /Bl AT HOME Home style: The special look of a Plymouth store's new area of home fur* nishings makes customers feel at home./OS ENTERTAINMENT Theater: The theme of this year's Meadow Brook Theatre season, which begins Sept. 17 with "Over the Tavern," is "family." /El STAIT PHOTOS BY JM JAGDFEU) Aftermath: Sandy Belisle surveys items stored in her family garage on Merritt Drive. Community theater: A family atmosphere where Taking mea­ everyone works together to sures: Mary present good shows is the Lou Marenda Sewer damage puts reason Lisa Andres and put cardboard down on her other residents belong to basement floor the Players Guild of'Dear­ to help avoid born. /El tracking a tar­ inmisery like substance BY DARRELL CLEM "I have no living room," Belisle said. through her STAFF WRITER REAL ESTATE home. Her In a dining area off to the side, com­ andy Belisle's family has puters crowd a table that Belisle once once-finished endured 29 weeks of misery used to entertain her ailing mother Government takes less: basement is a since their Westland home was and other family guests on holidays. S "I missed Easter, the Fourth of July The federal government shell of its for­ flooded by raw sewage. offers a helping hand in mer self. Sadly, Belisle sees no end to the and Labor Day," she said. "I can't despair that arose at her Merritt entertain in this house." the form of tax breaks to Drive home when rains pounded her homeowners who will sell neighborhood Feb. 20-21. The storm Basement damage theirhouses. /Fl caused a faulty new sewer system to Belisle's basement, once a fully fur­ back up into her basement and more nished, comforting place she enjoyed than 400 others. with her husband, Dan, and their two Crates of books that she used to teenage children, is an empty shell. In keep in her basement sit on the living the aftermath of 12-inch floodwaters, INDEX room floor. A sofa is turned up on its damaged walls and floor tiles have end to provide more space. An end been ripped out and discarded along • Obituaries A4 table hemmed in a corner hasn't been with a washer and dryer, a sofa, a • Classified Index F5 dusted in months. Please see DAMAGE, A3 Real Estate F5 Crossword F6 Jobs GIO Most MEAP scores rise Autos H8 The scores below show the percentage Home & Service Jl MEAP results please local educators of students who earned a proficient • Calendar A12 rating on the Michigan Educational BY DARRELL CLEM office. By comparison just one year earlier, Assessment Program test. Taking the I Opinion A14-15 test were fifth- and eighth-graders. U Entertainment E STAFF WRITER New scores show how fifth- and only 66percent of Wayne-Westland L i eighth-grade students fared on science students received a proficient rating, I Real Estate Fl Wayne-Weatland students posted gains in three of four categories on and writing scores based on tests falling short of the 69.1 percent state Writing newly released state test scores, administered in March. average, although their marks still lagged Kuckel noted that, for the first time "We are thrilled with our eighth- Grade 5 Grade 8 Grade 8 Qr*d« 8 HOW TO REACH US behind most statewide averages. in recent memory, local students actu­ grade MEAP scores," Kuckel said. Area 1996 1997 1996 1997 Due to curriculum improvement ally beat their statewide counterparts Patricia McAllister, district testing in one category, eightlvgrade writing, coordinator, put it this way: "We'ro District 52.4 68.S 66.0 79.7 Newsroom: 313-953-2104 measures, however, Wnyne-Westland State 55.6 73.4 69.1 77.0 school officials are optimistic of closing That's a big deal," she said, adding improving at a faster rate than the Newsroom Fax: 313-591-7279 all gaps between local and state scored that local students had lagged 13 per­ state." E-mail: new8roomOoe6nline.com on tho'Michigan Educational Assess­ cent to 17 percent below state averages In other eighth-grade scores, stu­ Science Nlghtline/Sport* 313-953-2104 ment Program (MEAP) tests. just a few years ago. dents locally and statewide fared *We have a commitment that our Eighth-grade writing results showed much worse on science scores than on Reader Comment Line: 313-953-2042 that 79.7 percent of Wayne-Wostland writing scores. Grade 5 Grade 5 I Grade 8 Grade 8 students will be at the state average or Area 1996 1997 1996 1997 Classified Advertising: 31^591-0900 above within the next three years," students earned a proficient, or pass­ Only 9.8 percent of Wayne-West­ Display Advertising: 313-591-2300 Jane Kuckel, assistant superintendent ing, score, compared to 77 percent of all land eighth-graders earned a profi- District 13.0 22.8 12.5 9.8 Michigan pupils, State 26.9 36.8 21.5 17.8 Home Delivery: 313-591-0500 of instruction, said Tuesday in her Plcaso sec MEAP, A2 A2(W) The Observer/THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1997 Mvonia results are improved PUCES & FACES So far, the new emphasis on bringing hands-on their own- For both years, their score barely science to each student's desk in the Livonia Public budged, staying around 24 percent. Schools appears to be working. Administrators in Livonia are pleased with Youth aid police Ribbons abound Scores for fifth-graders who took the science scores on the 1997 MEAP writing test for the two Starting this week, Police Explorers from Westland resident Walter Warren is a frequent Michigan Educational Assessment Program took a grades. All scores went up. Westland will assist police by going to stores that contributor of letters to the editor of the Observ­ big!jump forward, from 34.5 percent in 1996 to Fifth-graders taking the writing test in 1996 sell liquor and tobacco "in an attempt to curtail er. He also spends his time in the garden, and 43.9 in 1997. scored 75 percent; in 1997, 76.3 percent. In 1996, the problems we're having," said Officer Mark won 33 ribbons in the vegetable category at this And, despite a drop in eighth-grade science the eighth-graders scored 79.3 percent; in 1997, Engstrom, Drug Abuse Resistance Education year's Michigan State Fair. scores statewide, Livonia's eighth-graders held 86.3 percent. program officer. Warren's ribbons included one best of show Police are seeking to end sales of liquor and award for the best peck basket display. He tobacco to minors, Engstrom said. Some young received five other blue ribbons in categories people get liquor or tobacco from older siblings. such as best scallop squash, best buttercup MEAP from page Al "We can't obviously control that." squash, best paste tomatoes and best Hungarian Police want to work with local businesses to peppers.