Lansing State Journal from Lansing, Michigan • Page 15

GREATER LANSING Sally Trout SuburbanRegional News 377-1040 Lansing State Journato Friday, Aug. 24, 199Q Page 3B Lansing woman will become state hall of fame trailblazer By BARTON DEITERS i 1 'm. 1 I 1 awwi-t I i rHaT31M i 1 i WJ eOT? I nfX Jl Morse Schaub Butterfield Judd Henderson Sinclair Tate Vorhauer Richards tion. Vorhauer, 50, said she was honored by her selection. "I'm very proud that a Hispanic and a handicap-per can be represented." She was appointed to the Commission for the Blind in 1988 by Gov.

James Blanchard. This will be her last term as she and her husband, Bill, plan to move to New Mexico within the next couple of months. "My husband is 50 percent of the equation. I think they should have him in there, too," Vorhauer said. She helped found Mujeres Unidas de Michigan United Women of Michigan which served as a springboard for the service group, Hispanic Women in the Network.

Vorhauer has progressively lost 90 percent of her vision since 1978 and was forced to retire from the Michigan Department of Education in 1988 after kidney failure. She now receives regular dialysis treatment. "It can serve as an example for people who are undergoing a tremendous change in their lives, as I did," Vorhauer said. Vorhauer said her enjoyment of people has kept her going. "You can learn your best lessons from other people." Mary Stokes, executive secretary for the Michigan Commission for the Blind, said Vorhauer is an excellent choice for the hall of fame.

"She's very much an advocate of women's issues," Stokes said. "She's a very thoughtful person. She delights in encouraging people. I think she does a good job." The hall of fame also will have five historic honorees: Emily Helen Butterfield (1884-1958), Michigan's first licensed women architect. Dorothy Leonard Judd (1898-1989), a leader in women's suffrage.

Elba Lila Morse (1882-1975), public health pioneer. Fannie Richards (1840-1922), Detroit's ficst black teacher. Emillia Christine Schaub (born in 1891) first female prosecuting attorney in Michigan. Vorhauer, Henderson, Sinclair and Tate will receive bronze medallions at the banquet. Tickets are $65 for the dinner and an additional $75' for "a reception.

Lansing State Journal Delia Villegas Vorhauer, Michigan Commission for the Blind chairwoman, will be the first Hispanic inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame. Vorhauer of Lansing is one of four women chosen for the honor this year. Others are Erma Henderson, the first black to become Detroit City Council president; Mary Sinclair, an authority on nuclear power and its effect on the environment; and Merze Tate, author on international relations. They will be inducted Oct. 25.

Inductees go through a four-step process in which qualifications are judged by statewide committees made up of community leaders in arts, politics and community affairs, said Gladys Beckwith, hall of fame director. "History is simply 50 percent inaccurate," Beckwith said. "Missing are major contributions made to this world by women of Michigan. Our goal in recognizing these outstanding women is to make up for this omission." She said inductees need to have made distinctive, enduring accomplishments which serve to advance women. Vorhauer is the author of the state Department of Education's first report on minorities in higher educa- Williamston city slate targeted Grand Ledge pair's wildf lowers win reprieve from mower 6 All the work and money we've put into it.

What we have is envi-. ronmentally sound. Linda Parks By JOHN B. ALBRIGHT Lansing State Journal GRAND LEDGE The poppies, black-eyed Susans and sunflowers lovingly cultivated by a Ferguson Street couple have escaped a date with a mowing machine. Gilbert and Linda Parks fought a city order that they cut down the waist-high weeds and wildflowers in their back yard by today.

"It's appalling," said Linda Parks, 42, who received a notice Wednesday that the parcel that slopes to the Grand River shoreline was a field of noxious weeds. "Frankly, I'm in shock. When we got the letter, the first thing I wanted to do was cry. All the work and money we've put into it. What we have is environmentally sound." The Aug.

17 notice that arrived by mail Wednesday indicated that if the Parkses didn't cut the meadow growth, the city would do so and charge them. Gilbert Parks, 47, protested to Gregory Whitlock, an administrative assistant who enforces Grand Ledge's weed ordinance. After a second look Wednesday, Whitlock said the yard could be exempted from the ordinance because most of it was planted with wildflowers. The ordinance exempts land with flowers, he said. "I'm very happy that the little guy won one," Parks said.

Whitlock said he'd sent private mowing contractors to three residential properties this year to enforce the weed ordinance. Tax bills to each of those properties will carry a $100 civil penalty and a $100 charge for the mowing, Whitlock said. The administrative assistant said he drove by the Parks property last week in response to a complaint. "There's an awful lot of grass. And to the untrained eye it By SALLY TROUT Lansing State Journal WILLIAMSTON A group of concerned citizens rallied Thursday night to explain recent recall efforts.

On Wednesday, Debbie Ball Cornell of Concerned Citizens for Better Government filed recall petition language calling for the ouster of Mayor William McManaman and five of the six city council members. A petition also was filed to close down the Economic Development Corp. in Williamston. About 50 people met Thursday at McCormick Park to discuss the reasons for the recall. Cornell said.

Some of the petition charges against McManaman cite him for verbal abuse, intimidation and disregard for the people's right to know, their right to speak and their right to responsible and open government. Council members Jane Benke, Harriette Dunckel, Patricia Hogg, Wilbur La Rue and Milton Steffes are charged with condoning the mayor's actions by way of non-intervention. Delores Parker is the only member not named. The Ingham County election commission will meet Sept. 4 to review the wording of recall petitions.

Steffes, who has served on the council off and on since 1957 and is now mayor pro tern, is in the dark as to reasons behind the recall action. "It appears the current area of irritation is the proposed new tax increment financing district proposals," Steffes said. "We held a public hearing on the plans last week for citizen input but will not act on the resolutions until next Monday." Cornell said recent decisions to close the city pool and stop garbage service and a proposal to make the city's waste-water treatment plant privately owned sparked the recall drive. "There is only one person sitting on the council who questions things," Cornell said. "And we did not file a petition against her." Hogg thinks those behind the recall are ones who show up at every council meeting to cover the same subjects over and over.

"I understand their main squawk is that the council doesn't pay any attention to them and that's just not true," she said. "They seem to be a group of people who don't want any answers, have their own agenda This group comes right back with the same questions again and again." Benke, LaRue, Hogg and Parker took office in January. Parker thinks the whole issue began with verbal abuse by council members toward citizens who were just trying to get information. "We may not always agree with the citizens, but the least we can do is respect them for their interest." The election commission, made up of Ingham County Treasurer Donald Moore, Clerk Lingg Brewer and Chief Probate Judge Donald Owens, will convene at 8:30 a.m. Sept.

4. If they determine the petition wording is understandable and clear, the petitions can be circulated. looks like a big grass patch," Whitlock said. Linda Parks, 42, a nurse in St. Lawrence Hospital's mental health unit, and Gilbert Parks, 47, a teacher at Elmhurst Elementary School in Lansing, have been cultivating wildflowers on the lot since they moved there in 1988.

They've consulted wildflower expert Harry Dochne of Portland and bought seed from a specialty producer at Charlotte, Vt. "Our goal in five years is a fully-' developed wildflower Linda Parks said. "As we plant', more and more seeds, the wildflower should push out the weeds. "We don't like to look at the Queen Anne's Lace and it's pretty profuse. My husband's been pick-1 ing that out.

Poppies are ours favorite." Whitlock said he's never had anyone protest a weed-cutting order on the basis of cultivated wildflowers. "This is a first," he said. 1 In 1988, Meridian Township offi-. cials looked into a complaint that a couple on Creekwood Drive in Has- lett had planted wildflowers instead of green lawn in their front yafd. Richard Harlow, the township's director of development control said the wildflower tract was ex-? empted from the township's weed ordinance under a provision that allows "vegetation planted for or-namental purposes." If, Lansing State JournalTERRY CLARK Gilbert and Linda Parks of Grand Ledge successfully fought a city order that they cut down the waist-high weeds and wildflowers in their back yard.

Grand paddlers facing dirty water Gangs From IB To place the recall questions on the ballot, each petition would have to have signatures from 222 registered city electors 25 percent of the Williamston votes cast in the 1986 gubernatorial election. ans, Boy Scouts and Camp Fire Girls in 55 canoes ends Saturday in Grand Haven. By analyzing water samples in about 50 spots along the river, scientists from Grand Valley State and Michigan State universities have found the water quality fairly good, except for some areas around Lansing, Jackson and Grand Rapids. Due to heavy rainfall last weekend, 12 million gallons of rainwater-diluted raw sewage overflowed into the river at Grand Rapids, prompting downstream Ottawa County to issue the seven-day Associated Press GRAND RAPIDS As 120 canoeists inspecting water quality along the Grand River entered the final leg of their trip Thursday, they faced a health warning against contact with the sewage-laden river. The irony is not lost on members of Grand River Expedition '90, who have found trash from motorcycles to shopping carts floating along the 260 miles.

The 13-day trip by environmentalists, scientists, agricultural experts, histori Sunshine expected to replace gray skies STATE DIGEST health advisory. The survey of Michigan's longest river is designed to build awareness of both the pollution and the beauty of the river. Dave Cusack, a hardware store owner, stood by his display of discoveries along the way: empty bottles, baby bathtubs and other garbage small enough to haul into his canoe. "In one day we counted 52 shopping carts around Lansing. In some spots, it's been really bad.

Unfortunately, we kind of expected it." Two honored for aiding poor Lansing State Journal Two Lansing women were recognized Thursday for helping feed the poor. Ruth Amos and Bea Allen have teamed up since the 1970s to harvest excess food at area farms and give it to the Greater Lansing Food Bank. They were honored by the Greater Lansing Africa Prize Committee at Lansing Community College. "Bea and Ruth are always ready to work at a moment's notice," said Jan Ryan, self-help garden coordinator. The local awards are an offshoot of the international Africa Prize for Leadership program organized by the Hunger Project.

This year's international Africa Prize went to Esther Ocloo of Ghana and General Olusegun Obasango of Nigeria. Ocloo is an entrepreneur in food preservation, and Obasango is the former military leader in Nigeria who retired to begin farming. "We have gangs in Lansing and we're monitoring them," Fox said. "But I don't think everyone should be worried that the city is being ravaged by gangs when it's not." Martin said he doesn't have any information that makes him think this was a personal disagreement. "This has all the outward appearances of being both drug related and gang related, according to the best information available to us," he said.

Gang war site or not, on Thursday afternoon peace reigned on the 1000 block of West Genesee. Residents sat on their front porches, and children rode bikes up and down the street. Still, fear plays a part in their lives. Many people reported that there have been bottles and rocks thrown; few would give their names. One who did was Mandie Bran-'; don, who has lived on the block; since 1984.

She said she's heard gunshots several mornings. this! week, and thought at first that, Tuesday's shooting was like the others. .1 "But then my son peeked his" head out the window and said somebody was lying in the street," she said. Brandon said that several years ago, drug sales made the streets unsafe. After police cleared out one house, things got quiet.

This is something new, she Still, she doesn't consider' a personal threat. "No, I stay in the house," Brandon said. "When I get bacK from church, I go in the house and Stay there." bicycle, he had no idea whose life was spared through his quick action. It was his 8-year-old daughter, Sarah. As a result of the split-second maneuver, Hazell, 35, lost control of the Jay's potato chip truck he was driving Tuesday, sending it down an embankment to the shores of Gourdneck Lake.

He suffered facial lacerations and was treated at an emergency care facility. "I was tossed around a lot when it went rolling down the hill toward the lake But all I wanted to do after I got out of the truck and crawled up the hill was to see what happened to the kid," Hazell said. "And who do I see? My daughter." Police said the girl apparently couldn't stop her bike and rode into the streeL Mechanic dies after explosion HAMILTON A 20-year-old mechanic has died of head injuries after a truck tire he was inflating exploded. Michael Krommendyk of Hamilton was taken to Holland Community Hospital and transferred to Butterworth Hospital in Grand Rapids where he died Tuesday, said Allegan County Sheriffs deputies. Compiled from wire reports.

By KIMBERLY M. GAUDIN Lansing State Journal An unfamiliar face is expected to peek through the clouds today and end a four-day stretch of gloom. The sun should wink out today, bringing temperatures into the low 80s. Clouds that have clogged the skies since Saturday will thin but not disappear. No matter.

Any glimpse of light will be welcomed. On Thursday, city finance director Steve Duarte scanned the dreary clouds from a 10th floor window of City Hall. "When is this going to end?" he moaned. Today, predicts National Weather Service meteorologist David Sheets. He forecasts a break in the cloudy weather, and temperatures in the 80s through Sunday at least.

But he can't promise how long the sun will stay out. "It could turn around and we might end up with higher than average temperatures," Sheets said. "It's to say." Lansing resident Jim Sory plans to push open windows and enjoy the sun while it lasts. "It's been like fall," Sory said. "Gloomy, cloudy, wet.

It's just depressing." Area golf courses are expecting a little extra business compliments of Mother Nature. "We've been slow during the rain," said Gillian Reed of Four Winds Golf Course. "But people will play as long as it's not lightening." AT THE CAPITOL Agency: State faces deficit Michigan faces a $454 million budget deficit in the fiscal year starting OcL 1, a combination of revenue shortages and under-funding in the new $7.6 billion budget, the Senate Fiscal Agency said Thursday. "We have a budget problem which is the most severe we've had in eight years," said Douglas Roberts, director of the agency. State Budget Director Shelby Solomon said he disagreed with several assumptions.

He said the corrective budget language can be used to balance the books, along with several vetoes that Gov. James Blanchard imposed on budget bills. MICHIGAN Driver's action saves daughter KALAMAZOO When John Alfred Ha-zell swerved his truck to miss a girl on a.