Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • 18

2B DETROIT FREE PRESS LOCAL NEWS THURSDAY. JANUARY 4, 2001 PASSES I City bus card flaw strands some students DATELINE SALT I Clear; roads now may cost drivers later and I do offer an apology." It's small comfort to Strait, however. He was late for school again on Wednesday, when the first bus again refused to honor his pass. As a result of his tardies, he's in detention today. began notifying bus drivers Dec.

27 and telling them to allow students on the buses even if the cards did not work, said Dale Goby, the school district's transportation director. "But apparently not everyone saw the notices," Goby said. "It's being re-posted and we're sending notices to all the principals." The worst cases were students who must transfer from one bus to another midway to school. Some were allowed to ride the first bus part way to school, only to be stranded when the second From Page IB ed students. "I'm really afraid for these children's safety." About 6,500 public school children in middle and high schools some of whom are special education students have the passes to ride the city buses instead of yellow school buses.

Prepaid swipe cards are purchased by the school district for these students at a cost of $92 each, per semester. The Department of Transportation realized the problem and bus rejected their pass, Murray said. "I don't understand why one would put anyone off a bus in this weather," said Goby. Both city transportation and Detroit school officials said the problem has been resolved. "We know that it's either gotten resolved or we have gotten word out to our drivers to accept this pass," the transportation department's Bomar Parker said.

"Under no circumstances should children be ejected from buses, For student bus pass problems? call 313-833-7388, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays. Contact PEGGY WALSH-SARNECKI at 313-223-4587 or pwalshfreepress.com. SUBURBAN GROWTH FLINT Judge cuts award in 1-75 accident A Genesee County circuit judge has overturned a $30-million jury verdict awarded to a woman injured in a 1994 pileup on 1-75 during a presidential motorcade.

Mary Curry had sued a truck driver and the truck's owner for injuries sustained in the accident, which killed the other occupant of her car. She won $10 million in compensatory damages and $20 million in exemplary damages. But Judge Geoffrey Neithercut ruled that the jury's award was excessive, based in part on comparisons with settlements and verdicts awarded to other victims in the accident. Neithercut set damages at $3 million. The crash occurred when traffic backed up because President Bill Clinton's motorcade was leaving Flint for Bishop International Airport, and resulted in three deaths.

John Jacobs, who defended truck owner Commercial Carriers said evidence in the case supported Neithercut's decision. By Dawson Bell DETROIT IVial ordered in ex-Tiger's death A driver who allegedly ran a red light and struck and killed former Detroit Tigers third baseman Aurelio Rodriguez was ordered Wednesday to stand trial on a charge of vehicular manslaughter. Carol Escobedo, 40, of Detroit also was ordered to From Page IB making it easier to bond with the pavement. Roach estimates department will spend $1.5 million filling potholes. The City of Mt.

Clemens Public Works Department also broke out the cold patch in an attempt to 1 keep up with potholes. Doug Anderson, superintendent of the de- partment, said the department' has gone through about half of its $118,000 snow removal budget. In Clarkston, high snow-re- i moval costs have bitten into the 1 city's $70,000 street fund which pays for plowing, salt and road resurfacing. That means more patched pot-J holes versus resurfacing roads when the snow thaws, said City Manager Art Pappas. "This has been a real crunch," said Pappas, who did not have specifics on how much of the" street fund had been used up on snow removal this winter.

"We know we'll probably be overbud-'1 get on snow removal. We'll proba-' bly have to make it up on street improvements." Since Dec. 1, Farmington Hills'. public works department has spent $186,823 on salt and sand, operating its trucks and paying workers to clear 300 miles of' As more money is spent I on keeping roads safe in winter, less is available to make repairs later. ti, 1 i "7 iUTP Ptwtos by PATRICIA BECKOetroit Free Press Enid Carson, 93, has lived in White Lake Township for decades.

Her wish to save a tree led to the creation of a government watchdog group. Woman's beliefs inspire neighbors to hold onto their rural way of life FIG HTING CHANG By MATT HELMS FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER road, said department superinten- dent Dan Rponey. If the snow doesn't let up, the city could easily outspend its bud-. get, as it did two years ago. i In western Wayne County, communities struggled to keep up with the number of snowfalls this winter season.

"It's the worst in the nine years, I've been here," said Kurt Giber-son, director of public works for i Dearborn. "We don't have enough salt to get through January." To cope, the city is working on -purchasing more salt from the. 1 state and getting approval for more overtime. The number of times Dearborn streets are salted has increase this winter. On average, streets i there are salted 33 times for the entire season; by the end of De-' cember, they had already been salted 25 times.

"It's the little storms that ge.t -you," said Giberson. "The ones -where you salt and don't plow. Salting a little snow is not that much less than salting a big snow-i 1 i Giberson said the city will probably spend at least $150,000 -more in salt and overtime this -year. The irony is that the city budgeted less for snow removal this season because of the mild winters in recent years. Contact BEN SCHMITT at 810-469-4681 or schmittfreepress.com.

Staff writers Sally Tato, Joel Tlmrtell, Marsha Low, Amy Klein, Kathleen Gray and Niraj Warikoo contributed to this report. 7i stand trial on charges of driving on a suspended license causing death and driving while on a suspended license causing serious injury. On Sept. 23, Escobedo ran a red light and hit three peo- I pie, including Rodriguez, 52, as he stood on a sidewalk near the El Rancho restaurant in southwest Detroit, police said. Rodriguez died at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.

Escobedo lost control of the car after she suffered a seizure, police said. At the preliminary examination Wednesday in 36th District Court in Detroit before Judge Nancy Blount, Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Kenneth King argued that Escobedo should stand trial because her doctor had demanded in 1994 that she not drive because a brain aneurysm had impaired her. King also said the Secretary of State's Office required Escobedo to be retested before her license could be reissued. Escobedo did not come in for retesting, King said. The state also issued a driver's license to a minor so he could drive Escobedo to places she needed to go, King said.

"Despite all this, she went ahead and drove anyway," King said after the court hearing. Blount heard testimony from the two accident survivors, Joyce Weiman and Robert Kapp, who were Rodriguez's friends. Escobedo will be arraigned in Wayne County Circuit Court on Jan. 19 and could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted. She remains free on a $100,000 personal bond.

By Cecil Angel DETROIT Old Newsboys are closing in on goal The Old Newsboys' Goodfellow Fund of Detroit has collected $1,490,987 since Nov. 27 to buy clothes and toys for poor children in Detroit and Highland Park, said spokeswoman Suzanne Rabideau. The group's goal is to raise $1.6 million, which is expected to pay for 40,000 gift packages. This is the Goodfellows' 87th annual fund-raiser. Donations were collected through newspaper sales the first week, but now the organization relies on mailed contributions.

Donations can be sent to the Old Newsboys' Goodfellow Fund of Detroit, P.O. Box 44444, Detroit, 48244. Carson passes a tree in her yard Wednesday. Two summers ago, she planned to chain herself to one. As it snowed Wednesday, 93-year-old Enid Carson sat in the parlor of her timeworn White Lake Township farmhouse and worried about the changes going on around her.

She still cooks on a wood-burning stove, though her arthritis slows her down. Sometimes she wonders whether she'll be able to continue living on her own, caring for stray dogs. Her hearing isn't so good anymore, either. But mostly it's the loss of her rural way of life that concerns her. It's what's made her a township icon and the mother of a political movement that other residents are keeping alive.

In the summer of 1998, Carson, a retired Detroit Public Schools teacher, pledged to chain herself to a walnut tree on Porter Road, a couple of miles north of M-59, to stop the Road Commission for Oakland County from clearing trees. The night before, "someone called me up and said, 'Kit, don't do it. You'll make trouble for Carson recalled. The caller was someone who knew her by her nickname probably a neighbor, she guesses. She decided the stunt wasn't worth the trouble.

Later that summer, the road commission tore down that big walnut tree and several others to widen and improve drainage on Porter Road, not far from the home Carson has lived in for 60 years. Her concern about trees attracted a group of township residents who keep an eye on their leaders. The group is working to become a registered nonprofit watchdog and environmental-education group. In many once-rural metro Detroit communities, growth has brought people out of their neighborhoods in recent years to get involved in local government. In many of these places, the level of involvement is something new, though they still rarely approach the rancorous politics of older suburbs such as Warren, Fern-dale or Dearborn.

That summer two years ago, Carson and several neighbors gathered petitions and researched ways to get Porter and several other township roads designated as "nattjrnl hpaut.v roads," which affords protections before trees can be clear-cut. That band of neighbors became an organized citizens group called White Lake Residents CARE, for Concerned About our Rural Environment. Township residents have come out before over various controversies, but, said Township Supervisor Bonnie Elliott, "not an organized group like this." CARE has had mixed success. Road Commission spokesman Craig Bryson said officials are still studying whether Porter Road should get the beauty designation. CARE members regularly attend township meetings.

The group has held educational seminars on environmental issues; Elliott said she attended one. But CARE lost its most visible fight last August. Voters narrowly rejected an attempt to overturn a township board decision that let Meijer Inc. build a new store on M-59 at Bogie Lake Road. CARE said the store would increase traffic and strain police and other services.

But Elliott said the township had no choice because Meijer met all of its requirements. The battle was tough, but Elliott said there are no hard feelings toward CARE. "Whatever thev hive to sav. we'll listen to it," Elliott said. "We're all in it for the benefit of the community, and that's what it's all about." Fay Hansen-Smith of White Lake, a CARE organizer and Oakland University biologist, said CARE's 40 regular members are regrouping.

She said the group aims to be proactive and educational to help White Lake-retain its rural character. "Most of us who are involved here have lived here 10 years or more, and we don't mind not having the conveniences next door," she said recently. She acknowledges that newcomers may not share the sentiment as shown by the approval of the Meijer store. But CARE will continue to watch meetings to make sure growth is "more in tune with the environment around it," Hansen-Smith said. Fights such as the Meijer case are what tend to drive people to pay attention to suburban government, said Richard Fogle-song, a politics professor at Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla.

"Suburbs are about private life," said Foglesong, who studies the impact of growth on communities. "You find your own private park in your own backyard, where von don't have tnvsharp with people and don't have to get involved in the conflicts that come with sharing facilities. Moving to the suburbs is kind of an escape from politics, but then people find out it doesn't quite work." Even so, suburbanites tend to pay less attention to their local leaders in part because they expect not to need to do so, said former Novi City Councilwoman Kathy Mutch. She lost her seat in 1999 because voters were angry, largely because of the city's loss of a lawsuit brought by developer Sandstone Associates, who accused the city of sabotaging its housing and business project. The city now faces a $53-million damage award in the case.

"More affluent suburban communities hire city managers to run government," Mutch said. "Their expectation is you're paying a professional to get the job done. And when it doesn't, you hear from them." Carson said she won't hesitate to let people know what's on her mind even though her health has forced her to slow down. "They have a hard time keeping me off my soapbox," Carson said. Contact MATT HELMS at 248-586-2618 or hplw.ua freenrpssmm.

J. Officials advise beating rush on 34-cent stamps Buy stamps now to avoid the rush after new postage rates take-' effect on Sunday, postal officials -advise. Stamps for first-class let' ters will cost an extra penny. The 34-cent stamps have been. on sale at post offices since 15, as have penny stamps for use with 33-cent stamps.

After Saturday, letters with 33-cent postage will be returned to senders. I The last postage-price hike' came in 1999, from 32 cents to 33; cents. U.S. Postal Service officials; estimate that the increase will add; 15 cents to the monthly mailing' expenses of an average To avoid standing in line stamps are available on the Web; at www.usps.gov and at vending; machines in post offices. "People have historically wait-! ed until the last minute to pur-J chase their stamps, so the lines; get a little long," said Ed; I Moore, spokesman for the postal! service's Detroit district.

"We en4 courage people to buy theiri stamps now instead." Kv Dnrlp.