Lansing State Journal from Lansing, Michigan • Page 15

OCALSTATE Lansing State Journal Sunday, June 2, 1991 Page 1B Lansing area school districts seek to override Headlee Deb Pozega Pierce Metro Editor 377-1053 Election details. 5B 9 seek election to 3 seats on LCC board By CHRIS ANDREWS Lansing State Journal Headlee overrides are a hard sell. Voters are being asked to allow tax bills to climb faster than inflation. And most school districts, relying on a state aid formula, will nevertheless see revenue increases lower than inflation. "It's hard for people to un trict could lose $230,000 as a result of rollbacks the past two years.

Williamston officials are spelling out what's at stake. According to administration recommendations, the elementary school would lose its guidance counselor, and remedial reading, music and physical education would be scaled back. At the high school, tennis, soccer and cheerleading programs are on the line, as is driver education and a teaching position. "We sent a brochure to every home outlining the amount of mill-age being decreased, the changes that are going to occur," Lippe said. Last year, voters in seven of 10 Lansing area districts turned down Headlee overrides.

Statewide, voters approved 65 percent of the requests for millage increases last year but just 43 percent of the Headlee overrides. "Quite often a district will put an increase on the ballot because the people just don't understand what a Headlee is," said Dot VanLooy, a state Department of Education spokesman. LOCAL ELECTIONS ing five from Lansing and one each from Mason, Haslett, East Lansing and Williamston Township. Six are men, three are women and they range in age from 25 to 56. They are: MaryAnn Pierce, 36, of Lansing.

Pierce, a lawyer, teaches tax classes at Cooley Law School and has taught business law at Lansing Community College. She earned her bachelor's degree from Western Michigan University and a law degree from Cooley Law School. Pierce also worked for two years at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek as the taxlegal compliance director. She has two sons.

Joseph Graves 44, of Lansing. Graves is deputy director of family services administration for the Michigan Department of Social Services. He attended LCC and MSU, where he studied urban and metropolitan issues. Graves is a volunteer for the Ingham County Sheriff's Department Citizen Advisory Board and the Greater Lansing Food Bank. He is married and has one daughter.

Dr. Sam Getty, 56, of Mason. Getty is a large-animal veterinarian. He earned his bachelor's, veterinary and master's degrees from Michigan State University. In 1974, he earned a doctorate of education from the University of Southern California.

Getty is a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association. The Detroit native is married and has five daughters. Steven Grulke, 25, of Lansing. Grulke is a reimbursement co-See LCC Page 5B By BETSY MINER Lansing State Journal Voters will have a long list to chose from at the polls next week as they elect three decision-makers for Lansing Community College. Nine candidates including one incumbent are competing for three seats on LCC's Board of Trustees.

The top three vote-getters on June 10 will be elected to six-year terms, which will begin June 30. Board Chairwoman Judith Hollister and trustee Phyllis McKesson are not seeking reelection. Hollister has accepted a job working for Indiana Gov. Evan Bayh. McKesson is leaving her post after three terms 18 years.

Treasurer Sharon Reid is up for re-election. The candidates come from across greater Lansing, includ If voters approve the override, the district will see about a 4 percent increase in funding. If they turn it down, the increase will be 3 to 3.5 percent, Lippe said. The Headlee amendment was enacted by voters in 1978 to keep property tax bills under control, even in the face of soaring assessments. Property tax bills are determined by multiplying the property's assessed value by the millage rate.

If average assessments increase faster than inflation, the millage rate is automatically rolled back. Districts can ask voters to override the Headlee amendment and restore the original millage rate. Headlee rollbacks affect schools harder than local governments because in most cases their funding is based on a formula that combines state and local funding. If the millage is rolled back, so is the state's contribution. In Williamston's case, the dis derstand.

They think, 'Well, my tax bill's going up 7 to 10 percent for my home, and the schools must be pretty flush with said Williamston Schools Superintendent Emmett Lippe. Williamston is one of 11 school districts in the Lansing area where property values have outpaced inflation and officials are seeking to override the Headlee amendment, which has triggered a millage rollback. School elections are June 10. victim ft behind fond memnoirii By JENNIFER ELIZABETH FRANK Lansing State Journal Marvin Kimble brought his mother a dozen roses and a card on Mother's Day. That was the last time she saw him.

i 1 I i if Nbhhbw' c. f4 Kimble, 30, died of a gunshot wound to the head Thursday morning at the East Lansing He was not staying at the motel. Meridian Township Police say they nave taken nu gomery Ward and City Wide Moving Co. "He was a very dedicated young man when his father died," said James Riley, owner of Riley Funeral home. "He stepped in as a man and not a child.

I really admired him for it. A lot of young people don't show a lot of responsibility, but he did." Services will be at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Riley Funeral Home. Kimble left behind a girlfriend, Domonique Rivers, and a 7-week-old daughter, Jessica Samantha Kimble. "He adored his daughter," Brown said.

She said her family is still adjusting to Kimble's death. He was very close to his brother, Michael, and sister, Jacqueline, Brown said. "I look at it as a part of life. It hurts, especially the way it happened, but I have to go on," Brown said. Witnesses described a suspicious man who was seen in the hallway of the motel at 2736 E.

Grand River Ave. prior to the shooting. The man described as black, 200 pounds, 30 to 35 years old, with short hair that had stripes cut along the side was last seen running west behind Grand River Avenue stores. Anyone with information about the case is asked to call Meridian Township Police at 332-6526. merous calls Kimble with information in the days since the murder, but investigators have no leads and no suspects.

Jessie Brown said her son's death was the family's fourth within a year. Kimble's father, Leroy, died the day before Thanksgiving. Two cousins also died. Brown said Kimble took care of his father, who was very ill before his death. After his father's death, Kimble became the legal guardian for his 80-year-old aunt, who has Alzheimer's Disease.

His mother said she thinks Kimble had quit his job to care for his aunt full time. Kimble had worked for Mont l. liunu Lansing State JournalMARGIE GARRISON Ingham County Sheriff's Department deputies and paramed- Aurelius and Bond roads in Aurelius Township. A passenger ics assist a woman injured in a two-car accident Saturday at in a second car, Wilda Arnold, 70, of Perry, later died. Two die ddh DUsfl accidlGinis Teen arrested after lonia-to-Lansing chase Perry woman, Morrice man killed in crashes By JENNIFER ELIZABETH FRANK Lansing State Journal Two people died and several were injured in four accidents on mid-Michigan roads Friday night and Saturday.

Wilda Arnold, 70, of Perry, died at Eaton Rapids Hospital on Saturday after the car driven by her husband, Leslie Arnold, was hit broadside by another vehicle just after 3 p.m. Leslie Arnold was transported by ambulance to Ingham Medical Center, where he was in stable condition last night. The driver of the second car, Sherri Lee Smith, 19, was making a left turn onto Bond Road from Aurelius Road in Aurelius Township when her car struck Arnold's southbound car, Ingham County Sheriff's deputies said. Smith's passengers included her daughter, Victoria, 2, Michelle Birdsall, 19, of Lansing and Birdsall's daughter Kaylene, 3. All four were treated at Ingham Medical Center and released.

About 30 minutes later, a motorcyclist was hit by a car turning left into a private driveway on Aurelius Road near Plains Road. That accident was about a quarter mile from the first. The motorcyclist, Ervin Vincent Ottney, 62, of Onondaga Township, was in stable condition at Eaton Rapids Community Hospital with a broken pelvis. Ottney's bike slid under the turning car, which was driven by Daniel Lee Fenby, 38, of Onondaga Township. Livingston County sheriff's deputies are investigating a two-vehicle accident that killed one man Friday.

It occurred at the intersection of Herring-ton and Sherwood roads in Conway Township at 6:46 p.m.. Daniel Fike, 22, of Morrice, died at the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor, where he was flown by Survival Flight. The driver of the other car was James Stan ley of Williamston. His passengers were Tera Young, 16, of Belle Oak, Donna Lang, of Williamston, and Kristen Lang, 7 months old. Kristen Lang was airlifted to Motts Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor.

Stanley, Young and Donna Lang were treated at the scene for minor injuries. Fike was westbound on Sherwood Road and Stanley was northbound on Herrington Road. Gratiot County Sheriffs Department is investigating a one-car accident in Bethany Township. The car was on North County Line Road two-tenths of a mile west of Crapo when it left the roadway and went into a ditch. L.G.

Osborne, 20, of Breckenridge, was transported to Gratiot Community Hospital then airlifted to Butterworth Hospital in Grand Rapids where he was in critical condition Saturday night. According to the Sheriffs Department, Osborne was thought to have been riding on top of the car when he was injured. The accident is under investigation. The driver's name was not released. She was being held in the Ionia County Jail.

Saturday's chase was the third major chase in the Lansing area this week and the fourth statewide. The Michigan Legislature is considering a bill that would regulate when police can execute high speed chases. The others chases: A man and a woman led Lansing Police and 'Ingham County sheriffs deputies on a 32-minute chase early Thursday before stopping their van near Perry. A man accused of armed robbery of a Haslett convenience store led police on a high-speed chase Sunday night through Meridian Township, East Lansing and Lansing. The fleeing car ultimately slammed into another vehicle- By JENNIFER ELIZABETH FRANK Lansing State Journal IONIA Michigan State Police chased a car from Ionia to west Lansing early Saturday morning at speeds exceeding 100 mph.

Ionia Department of Public Safety officers pursued the car on suspicion that the driver was drunk. They requested help from state police from the Ionia post at a.m. The chase moved from southbound M-66 to eastbound on 1-96. Officers stopped the car on West Saginaw Street in Lansing near the 'Buick-Olds-Cadillac plant. Police arrested Shannon Marie Schwab, 17, of Ionia.

She was charged with drunken driving and fleeing and eluding police officers. There's a lot of character to be found in chores of childhood But the most dramatic sign of progress featured our 11 -year-old apprentice lawn mower. In the second year of on-the-job training, he's been daunted by his inability to start the machine. He just hasn't had the strength. But one day about two weeks ago we witnessed the perfect convergence of maturity and instruction.

Finally, all those groceries and all that tutoring came together. He gave the cord a mighty pull. The mower roared to life. He smiled as broadly as if he had hit a home run. It's conceivable that one of these days he'll do the entire job from starting the mower to dumping the clippings on his own.

Maybe he'll even remember to do it on his own and I'll be able to wipe lawn mowing entirely out of my mind. A man can dream. Meanwhile, I'll keep cracking the whip tending to chores. JOHN rSr SCHNEIDER Panic. Ultimately, a descent into a life of crime.

Save your kids. Give them tasks. Some day, when they're prosperous and not incarcerated, they'll thank you. The question is, will we ever thank them? Not at first. In the beginning, getting the jobs done is a job in itself.

It takes a lot of time and energy to get this kind of help. You'll plead and prod; you'll threaten and bribe. Most of all, you'll redo. You've heard the saying about firewood that it warms you twice, once when you chop it and again when you burn it. You'll also get doubly hot promoting industrious-ness among your kids once when you try to get them to do some work and again when you end up having to do it yourself anyway.

Be patient. Down the road, it pays off. For example, I've noticed lately that most of our trash is actually ending up in the trash bins, instead of on the garage floor. Also, after years of instruction in the clearing of dirty supper dishes, the stack no longer sways on the kitchen counter like a tree in the wind. At our house, there are no chickens to feed, no cows to milk, no barns to muck out, but there are no free rides, either.

Free rides, like free lunches, cost too much. We have trash that must be hauled from the kitchen to the garage and then outdoors. We have tables that must be set and cleared, a dishwasher to be loaded and unloaded. Leaves to rake. Beds to make.

Recyclables to take to the street. There are pets to be fed and bedroom clutter to be be stuffed into drawers or otherwise concealed. Our child laborers know their responsibilities, more or less, and fulfill them, more or less. I wouldn't call them exemplary load-sharers. I've never heard them whistle while they work.

And they're overly aggressive in trying to tie their participation in the operation of the household it's their household, too, you know to the size of their weekly stipends. What's more, they've never actually thanked my wife and in so many words, for the job we're doing on their character. No matter. Work is good for them and maybe some day they'll appreciate that fact. Maybe not.

Either way, they're bound to benefit from it. What happens to a kid who is reared like a prince or princess and then, at age 18 or 21, is expected to pick up a shovel or a briefcase and go to work? Bewilderment. Confusion. John Schneider is a Lansing State Journal staff writer. His telephone number is 377-1175..