Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • 25

Detroit tfrcc)rc Roadwork 2 Local Express 3 1 Death Notices 4 Thursday, Oct. 20, 2005 Obituaries 5 JlMa-O i wVA.ff-p.(om PROGRESS AND PROBLEMS OF THE RIVER f- DESIREE COOPER -A 1 Helping The river has persevered through abuse, and with the aid of volunteers and nature, it shows great signs of life Hurricane of aid bittersweet ife finally may be coming "up roses for Alvin. Trouble lias followed the 39-year-old resident of Biloxi, most of his life. Alvin was diagnosed with ADHD as a child. Since he was 13, he showed signs of mental illness.

His behavior spawned some entanglements with the law, including a stint in prison for forging checks. In prison, he was taken to a forensic hospital where he was treated for schizophrenia. By the time he got out, his wife had left him and taken their two children. Still, he had hope that with continued treatment, he could reclaim his life. And then Hurricane Katri-na hit.

An avalanche of help Alvin had heeded early evacuation warnings, and eventually ended up in Detroit. But by then, he'd been three weeks without his medication. "People were there at City Airport to do intake when he got here," said Charlene Swann, a managed care clinician at Detroit's New Center Mental Health Associates. "They got him a prescription immediately, and CVS filled it for free. And then they referred him to our agency for more help." Alvin who asked that his last name not be used was doing remarkably well when Swann first saw him on Sept.

21. She easily got him help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Social Security Administration. He's now living with relatives, and a church may be helping him with permanent housing. He hasn't missed any of his appointments. "He had been talking a lot about going back home," said Swann.

"Now he's decided that Detroit is his home." For Swann, Alvin's progress is bittersweet. "I've had more support from other agencies and more An aerial view of the Rouge River. Its mouth is at the Detroit River near Zug Island. It flows through Wayne and Oakland counties. Second of tivo parts ByJOIXTHURTKI.L iri1 wriiir tow barges up and down the Detroit River bobs on one side of Fordson Island.

It's business as usual here, but behind the island is a more disturbing scene: A boat graveyard. The carcass of an old wooden boat lies in the water, its topside exposed. Nearby, an old boath-ouse straddles a junked, partly sunken boat. A cabin cruiser with a weathered wood-plank hull rests on the river bottom, its deck protruding; foam rubber popping out of its upturned seats. Its companion on the bottom: a metal houseboat, superstructure sticking out of the water.

How did they get here? Who should clean them up? You could ask questions like that around almost every bend on the Rouge. You wouldn't find many answers. A concrete channel Upriver, the roar of the blast furnaces soon is replaced by the din of cars and trucks passing About this series Staff writer Joel Thurtell and staff photographer Patricia Beck have collaborated on stories about the Rouge River many times. But they'd never seen so much of it, so close, as when they paddled a canoe 27 miles up the Main Branch, from the mouth at the Detroit River to Southfield, over five days in June. Today, they tell about the trip.

Part one Read their Wednesday report and see an online photo gallery at www.freep.com. Canoe it yourself This weekend, Friends of the Rouge is sponsoring a canoe trip on the Lower Rouge in Wayne. It starts at 10 a.m. Sunday at Wayne City Hall on Wayne Road just north of Michigan Avenue. Rouge River canoeing is for experienced canoeists only.

If you have a canoe, bring it. If you don't, you may rent one by calling Heavnor Canoe Rental before 6 p.m. Saturday at 313-670-9458 anytime. At its mouth, the Rouge River is encased in steel seawalls and wharves where once a vast marsh provided habitat for mammals and fish, birds and insects. Here the river is a servant of industry.

From Zug Island at the Detroit River to Michigan Avenue near the University of Michigan-Dearborn, a 9-mile parade of steel and concrete structures encloses the river, separating it from the land and preventing the natural drainage that once filtered and slowed the river's flow. On Zug Island at the U.S. Steel plant and upstream at Henry Ford's old steel mill, now owned by a Russian firm, piles of slag waste from iron-making lie in the open. Gusts of wind can whip off these mounds and others at the U.S. Gypsum complex, producing a fine, eye-stinging grit.

Two miles upstream from the mouth, a small fleet of tugboats the workhorses that push or See ROUGE, GB students lag nation's sympathy from the community because he a hurricane victim," she said. "That's made a big difference." Homing in on people's needs New Center Mental Health Associates is a 26-year-old private nonprofit that provides comprehensive mental health services to more than 4,000 clients annually. With six locations in Detroit and Highland Park, the staff includes psychiatrists, social workers, nurses and occupational therapists who treat both children and adults with chronic mental illnesses. Despite the breadth of its services, Swann often feels like the stigma attached to mental illness prevents the agency and its clients from getting the wraparound support that's being offered to the victims of the hurricane. "I would like to see this kind of teamwork being made available to our other consumers," Swann lamented.

"We have a big homeless population and many of them are mentally ill. I often wonder if we have to wait for a hurricane here to get help for those Detroiters who need so much." New Center Mental Health Associates is holding its seventh annual fund-raiser from 7 p.m. to midnight Oct. 29, at Detroit's Roostcrtail, 100 Marquette Drive. Tickets are $125, at www.newcenteremhs.org or by calling 313-961-3791.

New Center Mental Health Associates is at Detroit's Grand-Dcx Plaza, 2051 W. Grand Blvd. If you have a mental health concern, cull 313-961-3200. Walk-ins are accepted 9-5 weekdays and until 9 p.m. on Thursdays.

Warren mayor's letter riles critics Low reading scores A sampling of 2005 reading tests given to fourth- and eighth-grade students shows that Michigan's African-American students scored lower in reading than the national average of African-American students. PERCENT OF STUDENT SCORES AT EACH PROFICIENCY LEVEL" Below basic Basic Proficient Advanced aansaBwnsr i i i Black Mich, By PEGGY WALSH SARNF.CKI and CHASTITY PRATT IRf.l PKF.SS KDIICA'IIOS WKIII US Michigan African-American fourth- and eighth-graders scored much worse in reading and math than African-American students in the United States as a whole, according to national test results released Wednesday. The 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress results show significant improvement in math. But the test results show little improvement in reading scores overall since 1992. The gap between Michigan African-American students' progress and progress nationally has grown during the last decade.

"As a parent, that's just sickening," said Rachel Burn- See TEST, 2B A departing aide gets endorsement By DAN CORTF.Z IRH i'Ktsssl Mf WKIII Days before he resigns as Warren's deputy mayor and begins working as a full-time lawyer, Mike Greiner received a going-away present from his boss: A letter of recommendation "from the desk of Mark A. Steenbergh, mayor of Warren." Steenbergh has sent the flyer to about 1,000 Warren residents promoting Greiner's new Warren law practice, Financial Law Group. Greiner created the firm this summer and already has a list Overall score Michigan U.S. White Michigan U.S. Black Michigan U.S.

Poor (Free Lunch) Michigan U.S. Not poor (No free lunch) Michigan U.S. NOTE' Scores itmv not a 100 i1iu to rtHitnlinq Souae: at I Pfogri- 2n i 34 i 30! 10 "91 4- "331 3(T 15 JilZlJLLJn MARTHA Thll KKY; IMiod Deputy Mayor Mike Greiner, left, and his boss for two more days, Mayor Mark Steenbergh, of clients. Friday is his last day as deputy mayor after 10 years. "I can tell you that if I ever need legal help, my first call will be to Michael," Steenbergh said in the letter.

"If you have any legal needs or know someone who does, I know Michael would serve you well." The letter includes contact information for Greiner's firm. WARREN, 5B Contact DESIREE COOPER at 313-222-6625 or cooper freepress.com i.