rosse Pointe ~ws VOl. 45-No 27 Grosse POinte, Michigan Thursday. July 5, 1984 30 cents 36 Page~ lor your information• Car theft: Big business is fighting back H;. Harnet ~olal1 are groups of mdlvlduals who may follo\\ In thelt vulnerability tl'lbuliollS, also has a task force worth of recovered \ ('}.IC:I('., and made up of offIcers from the they're prObdbl) hoJdJOg the l'pl' Cdr theft IS on the mcrease na- be legltlmate busmess owners and front for theft rmgs " Greleckl says 30 to 40 percent MIChigan State Pollee Intelligence demlc of duto tht'ft ucm n bc(<!u.,e t 1011\\ Ide and If \ ou think thiS are never recovered and the FBI Unit and officers from Washtenaw, of their effort~," h(' add., doesn tailed ) au guess agalll By Tom Greenwood He sa}s prelirninar.y crime 10- focuses IIlvel>hgatlve efforts on m- Tavlor, Dearborn and Macomb od I d "h StatistIc!> l'ele<l....ed by POinte police dex figures for 1983 mdlcate 67,287 terstate theft rmgs, profes!>lOnal County DetrOIt polIce, while not :\1 e e after [ e \,IlIIJ!\dl \uto departments 1l1dlcate vehicle thefts vehicles were stolen stateWide last thieves who are III the busme!>s of aSSigned to the task force, work Thefl Hu:cJU ,Jnd >~lIn1Jdr pm. IJ1credsed here by 18 percent In 1983 Edit credit year, up 9 8 percent over 1982 Of stealing, choppmg and transport- closely on ca ....es With the LIVOnia grdm ....optrdtlOg In f enn,,) I\,lnld 0\ er 1982 figures ThiS combmed that group almost 46,000 were mg cars over the state hne on a based group Mcls ....achu ....ctt..... \Cv. \ lJrk .\e\o\- Let s talk about editors All \\ Ith nahondl IIlsurance estimates reported stolen m Wayne County contmumg baSIS. < Jersey <llld Hou.,lon. Int'm!xors ne\\ spapers large and sma II. 111- that one Cd!' IS stolen every 30 and 35,288 came from the DetrOIt "Their miSSIOn IS to target chop regularl} meet for think t.lOk ' cludmg thiS one, have them Re- seconds makes your set of wl1eels a area HIS department works With the shops, auto theft rmgs and areas of se.slon ....finding '.\a)., to IIlcrea!>e porters and editors have ana. prune candidate for piCkings that Anti Car Theft (ACT) CommIttee, insurance fraud" savs Conrad publiC a ....arenf ..,... of lhp orobJ~ tural lovel hate relatiOnShip \\ ould put a buzzard to shame a coalition of Insurance compames, Golemba, ACT member and l>uper- and help tal,\ enforcemellt ager'<:let NatIOnal figures indicate 26 5 ThiS translates to the reporter bankmg and lendmg institutIOns, visor of the auto theft UflI{ at do their Jobs bt'tler. al'cordmg to 'We re talkmg orgamzed cnme, percent were taken from the car rental agencies and police Automobile ASSOCIation of Amen- Frank Skmner, ....tate lhalrman of lovmg hiS wrltmg and hatmg to but not \\ hat people thlllk of as rUll owner's driveway, while 192 per- see It cut up The echtor loves to departments which formed about ca (AAA} ACT and claIm:. marldger tor State by the mafia," says Steve Gre. cent disappeared from off the five years ago Farm Insurance Company edit that golden prose and hates leckl, w1th the Federal Bureau of street Shopping malls, stadiums "Since its inception, the task to stop cuttmg It up Investigation 10 DetrOit "These and other public parkmg areas ACT, funded primarily by con. force has recouped $6.5 million «('ontinu(>(i on Pa~r 1-1 \ l Reporters only see thmgs that are right III front of them, lU1llt 109 the1r 'i1Slon to whatever story they're involved WIth. Edi- How cities tors, on the other hand, see the overall view of the storv as It fits in the grand design of the nev.spa per. stack up Each oC us IS convlOced that we're the ship and the other IS but a barnacle along for the nde. on taxes The truth IS\\-e need each other. By Susan McDonald but we're not crazy about It ~ My edItor here at the Grosse The annual sprmg budget. POinte News ISSue :\lcDonald. crunch 109 season IS over All fIve Because we're such a small Grosse POinte city councils have set their tax rates for the new 1984- paper, Sue lS In a umque posi. 85 fiscal year And the notices went Pow! ooooh! hon She's a Cellowreporter, our out thiS week ' boss and our friend Sort of a cr61SSbetween den mother, capo Guess ~'ho's on top? dl tutti capo and cattle prod It's Grosse Pointe City with a tax 418/'1 She's constantly walking be- rate of 17 42 mIlls, A mill equals $1 hind us, pIcking non sequiturs, for every $1,000 of state equalized run on senteoces and chches of( valuatIOn <SEV) of property, the newsroom floor. She SitS In her office and yells at us I'm al- The City may have the highest ways hearing things like "Tom, tax rate m the Pointe, but It's not Fireworks look up Budapest You spelled it far ahead of Grosse Pointe Shores three different ways in your whose tax rate rose to 16,25 mIlls story," or "How many times do thiS year, In part to payoff a bond I have to tell you? There's only Issue used to renovate city offices one 'z' in the word 'IS'I" return And Just a pinch behmd the One of Sue's jobs ISto really Shores IS last year's number one edIt our copy That IS. cut the fat taxer, Grosse Pointe Park, WIth a After an eight.year absence, the fire- rate of 16 23 mills The Farms. and leave the lean Like most works r811n1e4 to Gl'05se Pointe Sunda\'. editors, she believes she v.lelds which IS one of the few CIties in 6,. a scaipel like a great surgeon MICh1gan Wlth no bonded ~t. to crow~ .u.na&ed. at e"er strong ~ ........ II diaplay riiOBt rep6rters, I believe payoff, IlJ m nwuheJ feat po&ltiun-- .ae she's a Llule Borden who lear- this year with a rate oI13..2.aMH1. l.tMl ~... e.uau,- au, ned to type The WGOds is bappUy last, =- by *' GriIMe ........ ill.. AsNdadea collecting only 11 358 mms aiMI PNleu .. a. 01 Mull On more than one occasIOn Avaae. I've handed m pages of snowy In plain dollars and cents, those The St. Clair Sbores S)'mpbony Ordl"lra copy only to see it returned so rates translate somewhat dif. marked With red Ithought some- entertained with shew tunes and popular ferently from city.to-city and classJcs as pknickers tossed Irisbfo.es, m'un- one had hemorrhaged ,on it Ar- home-to-home, dependmg upon ehetl OIl popcorn became reacquainted guments ensue, because a how the property IS assessed, and parent always fights for Its Sometlmt's CitIes llldlvidually with long-lost frJends and neighbors. child I usually lose evaluate the value of each home, or The popular ...vent was diseunlinuE'd t>ight years ago, but the busint"Ss group hopt'~ to So far, I've resisted the urge to groups of homes, 10 the communi- scrawl "REDRUM" on her of- ty Oftentimes they apply a factor make the fireworks an annual affair onet' fice door, but the day draws reflectmg average sales prices to again. The group rl"ported shortt} twrort" near She'd probably Just cor- eIther upgrade or cut SEVs. tb... first blast went orr tbat it had mt"t ib fund.ra1aing goal with contributions from rect my punctuatIOn anyway The results can be disparate In Grosi>e Pomte City, for example, a bundrech 01 local buslness('s and As an editor, Sue IS probably ladi viduals. hardest to face on a Thursday house on Lll'lcoln Road that sold for morning after the paper hits the $100,000 durmg 1983 WIJ)owe the Cl' Fw mve photos see page 6.\. street That's when she ap- ty only $623 65 thiS year. But another Ptoo1<> lI'f T_ ~ proaches us mdlVlduall~, and m home on Roosevelt that sold for the front of the others, asks those same price \\ III pay $858 46 words \\e dread to hear In the Park, two more $100,000 Petitions oppose center's bid for liquor "Whatchagotgom? .. salcs dUring 198.1 re!>ulted III equal- has Translated. thiS means what I) dl!>slmllar tax bill" The home on By Susan McDonald center already JnspJrl~d a peti- dent Lee Wulfmler The petition until:! do m . v. hll'h 1:-< dllo't\ t'1.t undt.-r stones are we developmg for the Bedford Will pay $1,027, while one They haven't even apphed, yet tIOn drive In oppo!>itlOn claim:. granting of !.be license state Liquor Control Commu.~ ..on on Buckingham 1,\1)] be billed for next edItion? If you don't have But news that the War MemOrial l'nslgned petitiOns were mailed would increase traffiC problems rulel> But a nothE-r Cl'nter offiCIal. anythmg cooking on Thursday. may seek a Class r liquor license 111 and aggravate Grosse Pomte's John R!ekel, !>a~ s the ct'ntt"r has (COI,tillucd on Pa~t' 14A) to .,e\eral home!> the area under It earns) ou a steady stare and for its Lakeshore Road commuOlty a cover letter from Lakeshore rt>Sl- "most acute drug problem" - no mte-ntlon ot ch.ingmg It~ pre- some story suggestIOns leendge drlOkang M"nl pollclt's II dO!ot.'l'o at 1\ .".1P m and liquor ....uuld onl) bt> :-.er\t'\i to War :\.1emorlal offiCials say noth If nothmg's breWing by Fn thaiit' lltll"ndUlK pre- ~l'hNu1t"d IIlg could be further from the truth day, the stare become., a :>(1,000 event:.