Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 13

www.freep.comnews Call City Desk: 1-313-222-6600 Thursday, March 5, 1998 Section INSIDE OT Detroit police could earn record $12 million in overtime this year. Page 3 Obituaries, Page 2 i nn I I 1 MS Highway work i streamlined IV 8 Mne i DeSana, said the state will try to keep delays down by exerting more control over its contractors. MDOT will require contractors to do work faster, and perform more of it at night and on weekends. It'll reduce the amount of time lanes are closed, especially northbound lanes on Fridays and southbound lanes on Sundays in metro Detroit. More contracts will pay bonuses for work finished early and assess penalties for finishing late.

This weekend, for example, state Please see ROADS, Page 4B I Detroit LOCAL DATELINE Detroit Youngs things wjll be sold Many of the late Mayor Coleman Young's personal belongings will be auctioned off next month. "Well be selling everything from his 1996 red Cadillac to all of his jewelry," said Ernest DuMouchelle, vice president of the1 family-owned art gallery on Jefferson across from the Renaissance Center. PuMouchelle said he's seen cuff links that Henry Ford II gave Young; Montblanc pens; Young's Tuskegee Airmen uniform pin and medal; exercise equipment; China used for lunches at the City-County Building, and leather sofas. Also on the block will be personal pictures, including one of Joe Louis and those of Young with Presidents Ford, Carter and Reagan, another of Dr. Martin Iutjier King Jr.

by former Free Press chief photographer Tony Spina, and caricatures by Detroit News cartoonist Draper Hill. young's gun collection will ahp be auctioned, DuMouchelle said. f'We've even got some of his fishing equipment." The auction will take place at 1 1 a.m. April 18 at the gallery. By Matt Helms Archer, casinos will wage PR war Petition part oj their plan to counter Borden BY BILL MCGRAW Free Press Staff Writer Now, it's war.

After being beat up for months by supporters of spurned casino hopeful Don Barden, Mayor Dennis Archer and the casino groups he chose plan to strike back with a wide-ranging public relations offensive. Among the weap-Dptrnit ons: a petition drive UCU UIL ror a ballot proposal to counter the one filed this week by the pro-Barden Community Coalition, plus more visibility for minority partners in the three casino groups. So far they have been mostly invisible. "The mayor put forward the idea of having the three groups work together for the total project," said Arthur Johnson, former president of the Detroit branch of the NAACP and a member of the MGM Grand group. "Plainly and clearly, we feel what Please see CASINOS, Page 2B Kevorkian aide denies assault claim l-Y BYJEFFGERR1TT Free Press Slaff Writer State highway officials say they'll try to ease traffic snarls for motorists facing the busiest construction season in Michigan's history.

But don't get too happy. With a record $1 billion being spent on roads and bridges this year and double the average miles of roads improved driving on Michigan roads from April to September won't be a breeze. The director of the Michigan Department of Transportation, James If left unchecked, garlic mustard can take over a site. Other plant invaders in Michigan are purple loosestrife and spotted knapweed. Both have HAniitifnl flnuArc but aggressive habits.

Purple loosestrife spreads rampantly through wetlands, making the habitat inhospitable to wildlife. Spotted knapweed changes the soil chemistry, inhibiting other plants from growing nearby. Some of the area's other nonnative invasive plants are the leafy spurge, periwinkle, privet, wintercreeper, autumn olive, glossy buckthorn, crown vetch, round-leaved bittersweet and baby's breath. By Marty Hair hi" BEAUTIFUL 111 v. 3 Outer Dr.

1 "4- PAULINE LUBENSDetroit Free Press garlic mustard leaves. He says campus; now if everywhere. bond monies "being awarded on the basis of relative clout instead of relative risk." Meantime, in a phone interview this week, Dave Dempsey, MEC's policy director, weighed in more pointedly: "This thing has loopholes you could build a cement plant in. And they threaten to turn it into a slush fund for doling out grants to the governor's developer buddies." Response from Engler's front office was predictable. "Dave is letting his political stripes show," said Engler spokesman John Truscott.

"They're coming at this from a political perspective. They don't want us to have a win on this issue, no matter how good it is for the environment." Truscott and others in the administration insist that the proposal is as billed and, if it's approved by voters, that most monies will be used to clean up and enable redevelopment of so-called "brownfield" sites with lesser xa BY BILL LA1TNER Free lcss Staff Writer A close assistant of Dr. Jack Kevorkian said he passed a lie detector lest Wednesday, refuting charges by his former lover, the widow of a Kevorkian suicide patient, that he assaulted her and sexually assaulted a child. Neal Nicol, 58, a Kevorkian associate and medical-supplies salesman from Waterford Township, said news coverage of the A LI A cnares "nas Prooa UdKlSnd bly cost my reputa County tion and my business and everything UfJ Detroit Free Press Foreign plant moves quickly across state, choking out others by Marty hair l'ree IVess Staff Writer alien with the odor of fill garnc is invading Ul Michigan's woodlands, i muscling out some nauve I plants. Garlic mustard is indigenous to Europe and Asia, where it has natural predators.

But in North America, where it is an introduced or exotic species, it has no enemies. And its population is exploding, especially in southern Michigan. "It's absolutely amazing how widespread this plant is," says Mike Penskar, state botanist with the Michigan Natural Features Inventory. Garlic mustard can "virtually choke out other things that normally should be in the woodland," says Tony Reznicek, a University of Michigan botanist. The plant is moving through the Great Lakes area like a powerful wave.

Biologist Orin Gelderloos says that in 1970, when he joined the University of Michigan Dearborn faculty, garlic mustard grew in just a few isolated spots. Now it pervades the campus. He and other scientists are watching the spread of garlic mustard or Alliaria petiolata, a prolific seed producer observed on the East Coast in the 1800s. Through the years it spread north, west and south and is now in more than 30 states and Canada. Please see INVADERS, Page 4B amounts earmarked for improving water quality, state parks, etc.

Truscott also says the administration welcomes responsible input from MEC or anyone else. Bennett, whose goal is to get the Engler package enacted in time to make the November ballot (i.e., prior to the Legislature's summer recess), says he will insist that "the emphasis be on orphan sites," a reference to cleaning up contaminated sites for which no responsible party can be found. "And cleanups will have to be on sites that will make a difference, not just cosmetics," he says. Bennett concedes that the proposal has limitations. "If we did everything everyone wants us to do, the tally would be $3 billion," he said.

"And we haven't heard from everybody yet." So? So, let's stand and applaud and welcome the noisy debate. Environmental types, based on U-M Dearborn biologist Orin Gelderloos holds that in 1 970, the plant grew only in patches on Brian Ognjan Statewide Hunters' kin offer reward Relatives of two metro Detroit hunters who have been missing since 1985 hope a $100,000 regard will pry loose information that 13 years of investigation has -failed to unearth. longtime buddies David Tyll of Troy and Brian Ognjan of St. Clair Shores vanished with the 1980 Ford Bronco truck they were driving during a weekend hunting trip in 1985. suspect they wtjre killed, possibly after an argument in a northern Michigan bar, and their vehicle destroyed.

JCathy Tyll, David's mother, announced the reward offer Wednesday. Anonymity is guaranteed through the Crime Stoppers program. Anyone with information should call Halleck at 1-517-345-6961 or Detective Sgt. Alison King of the State Police at 1-734-384-5327, anytime. Hugh McDiarmid Jr.

Areawide Antigay crime up, group says Violent acts against gays and lesbians in metro Detroit increased by 12 percent in 1997, according to a study released Tuesday by the Triangle Foundation, a Detroit gay rights group. According to the foundation, 134 people in Michigan were victims of antigay violence last year. Jeffrey Montgomery, foundation president, said the increase may be due to more gays and lesbians reporting crimes. But, he said, many viclims still don't come forward. For its data, the Triangle Foundation relies heavily on information from gay men and women who consider themselves victims of antigay hate crimes.

The foundation's staff often looks into allegations brought forth by victims but has no strong means of verifying them. By Lekan Oguntoyinbo David Tyll i i State's newest environmentalist may clean up votes, that is else." Nicol took a lie detector test arranged by his lawyer to rebutt charges in court papers filed Tuesday by Heidi Hernandez, 39, who was seeking a personal protection order against him. Nicol's lawyer, Michael Odette, said the woman's filing points up problems with a new Michigan law intended to fight cases of domestic violence. The state last year approved a simpler way to request personal-protection orders. But the system Please see NlCOL, Page 4B Engler's pre-1998 record, have every reason to be skeptical about his Clean Michigan Initiative.

And they should be clamoring to ensure that, when and if the Legislature sends it to the ballot, it is what it says it is. And Engler deserves at least some credit for his environmental conversion even if it's temporary and for his $500-million bond proposal even if, as some have suggested, it's not enough and more than a little late. My guess is that when all is said and done, critics and voters will buy it. After all, something's better than nothing, right? FOOTNOTE Sadly, the administration excluded representatives of Michigan's vast environmental community from any preannouncement planning or policy discussions on its Clean Michigan Initiative. Oh, well, at least it's consistent in this regard.

surprise? TI .11. Ill I naraiy. (J I reference 's to continuing sKepiiLism even cynicism about Gov. John Engler's miraculous election-year conversion from Jack the Ripper to Eagle Scout on matters environmental. Predictably, the caution extends to the centerpiece of the Engler administration's newfound religion the $500-million bond issue proposal that the governor has labeled the Clean Michigan Initiative, which he introduced during his Jan.

29 State of the State address. This week, in fact, Lana Pollack, president of the Michigan Environmental Council no slouch as an Engler critic complained in letters to Michigan newspaper editors that the proposal, in its current form, "is not primarily an environmental program but an economic development with Minn fl MCDIARMID Politics few ground rules for how the state will pick winners and losers." And she implied that MEC won't support it until and unless it's tightened up. The letter was a condensed version of a broader critique that Pollack, a former Democratic state senator, sent last week to state Sen. Loren Bennett, R-Canton Township. Bennett's Senate Natural Resources Committee is considering legislation that would, if approved by two-thirds votes in the House and Senate, submit the bond issue to voters in the November election.

In her critique, Pollack complained that loose language could lead to.