If there were ever an example of why we are proud to say we are from Dearborn, it is the story of Meghan Marie Salter and how Dearborn officials, firefighters and a growing list of area restaurants are coming to she and her family’s aid.

Dearborn Mayor John B. O’Reilly, Jr. (front row, right); Council President Tom Tafelski (left); and Firefighters Lt. Steve Worden (left) and Brian Keith visit with Meghan Salter at her home while planning a fundraiser with Meagan’s family to help with her medical bills.

Meghan was born a healthy girl in October, 2002.  However, within months of her birth, her health deteriorated.  Now six years old, Meghan has experienced seizures and life-threatening physical illnesses so that she is totally dependent upon medical equipment for life support.

After an untold number of visits to doctors and specialists, even to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota for testing, doctors have been unable to determine the cause for her decline or diagnose her condition.

Dearborn residents, city officials, firefighters and dozens of area businesses are stepping forward to help with her family’s medical bills.  On Saturday, Feb. 21, from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. the Dearborn Firefighters Burn Drive is hosting a fundraiser for Meghan at the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center, 15801 Michigan Ave.

The “Meghan’s Miracles II Benefit” is supported by Dearborn Mayor John B. O’Reilly, Jr., Council President Tom Tafelski, other dignitaries and the City’s firefighters.

The fundraising “strolling dinner” at the Center is provided by a growing list of sponsoring area restaurants, including Andiamo, Levy Restaurants, Ford Field Caterers, Park Place Caterers, Tim Horton’s, Shield’s Pizza, Mexican Fiesta Restaurant, Joe’s Top Dog, LaPita and PM Catering. More restaurants are planning to join in support of Meghan and her family.

“Catholic Connection” radio talk show host and motivational speaker Teresa Tomeo will emcee the event, which includes guest speakers, dancing, a tin can raffle, entertainment and a cash bar.

The cost for tickets is $50 per person.

For more information about the benefit, including how to make reservations, donate money, become a sponsor or donate items for the raffle, please visit Meghan’s website at:  www.meghansmiracles.com.

Checks should be made out to Fr. Patrick O’Kelley KofC #3860—Meghan’s Fund.  Include the bottom portion of the reservation/donation form found on the web and mail to Fr. Patrick O’Kelley Council/Meghan’s Fund, C/O Mary Lockwood, 11836 Tall Tree Dr., Plymouth, MI  48170.  All donations are tax-deductible.

When a tanker truck loaded with 10,000 gallons of fuel overturned last Friday on Telegraph in Dearborn, many of us saw the flashing lights from police and fire crews but what we didn’t see is all of the other behind-the-scene work that took place to ensure residents remained safe.

We thought it would be worth mentioning all of the hard work that took place sight unseen. It’s a good example of teamwork and it shows how our tax dollars are put to good work for proper emergency response and our safety, too. The response teams that jumped into action involved numerous city departments, outside agencies and private firms hired by the City working together. It took a lot of pre-planning and practice to ensure all the right things would be done for such an accident.

 To that we say, well done. Here’s a rundown of who took part in the behind the scenes work:

• Dearborn police officers closed Telegraph and access points from nearby side streets to traffic, and also set up a safety perimeter around the area. The road was immediately closed to traffic. It was soon determined that the tanker was leaking fuel and that it appeared that the gas was entering nearby storm sewers. Homes in a four or five-block area were evacuated as a precaution. (Residents were able to return to their homes early the next morning.)

• The Dearborn Fire Department served as the lead response agency. Battalion Chief John Hay acted as incident commander and issued the calls for all of the resources needed to deal with the incident. 

• Firefighters arriving at the scene attended to the tanker driver’s medical needs, helping the driver at the vehicle despite the extreme hazard of leaking fuel.

• Firefighters sprayed special foam from fire department apparatus to help suppress gasoline vapors.

• The Department of Public Works (DPW) provided road salt and street barricades, and its Water Division provided maps of area sewer lines, so that the flow of fuel that made it into the sewers could be tracked.

• The Dearborn Recreation Department and the City’s emergency management coordinator opened the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center as a shelter in the event any evacuating residents did not have family or friends to stay with.

• Representatives of other City departments stood ready to use Dearborn’s reverse 9-1-1 system if it were needed to quickly advise residents of any public safety messages. A second, Wayne County-wide information system was also on standby if needed. (Neither were.)

• The Wayne County Hazardous Materials Response Team was called to the scene. Dearborn helps fund the team and contributes firefighters as team members. The team conducted monitoring of the air and sewers in the area, identified the five leak points on the tanker, plugged them and created the tap needed to pump the tanker’s fuel into another tanker for transport away from the scene.

• The Wayne County Airport Authority (which operates Detroit Metro Airport) brought one of their specialized vehicles to the scene. The vehicle carries high-volume expansion foam, which would have been available to suppress any fuel fire that might have occurred.

• State Farm Insurance agent Bob Zakar volunteered the all-night use of his Telegraph Road office to help first responders.

• The Salvation Army provided food and other support to response personnel.

• Representatives of the U.S. Coast Guard monitored the situation, in the event that leaking fuel had made it from the sewers into the Rouge, and from there to the Detroit River.

• Representatives of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality were also alerted, and monitored the response.

• Also alerted and ready to respond were a variety of other agencies such as Wayne County roads and water system officials, the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department and the Michigan State Police.

• The City also contracted with private firms to provide assistance:  VacAll Service of Taylor cleaned up the spilled fuel and J&M Towing of Dearborn righted the overturned tanker and towed it away, allowing Telegraph Road to reopen to traffic.

• City officials also acknowledged the cooperation of the owner of the company that owned the overturned tanker – Fuels Transportation, Inc., of Woodhaven – indicating that the owner stayed at the scene until the incident was resolved.

For those of you who may have missed it, the Detroit Free Press on Sunday ran a front page story about our decaying Michigan roads. That’s hardly breaking news for those of us who do any amount of travel around our city. With record snowfall, record cold and road crews running through record amounts of salt to keep our roads clear, it’s no wonder our streets are crumbling at a record pace.

But Michigan isn’t the only state that gets snow and cold. Yet, our roads seem to deteriorate at a much faster rate. Might the poor condition of our roads be partially a result of Michigan having the highest truck weight limits allowed in the Midwest? 

Potholes along Michigan Avenue in West Dearborn are making the daily commute a painful one.

Travel along the quilted patchwork of asphalt and concrete that now makes up Michigan Avenue between Outer Drive and Brady in Dearborn and it’s as if the repairs done just before winter never occurred. Making matters worse, repairs to the first repairs won’t be coming anytime soon. So this could get ugly . . . and fast, particularly since we have two more months of winter left.

When you combine those high weight truck limits with thawing and freezing, along with the poor upkeep of our roads, you get the surfaces we have today. Drive along roads where heavy trucks don’t travel and the roads are typically in better condition.

Yet, road commissioners from Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties in the Detroit Free Press article all point to the weather as the main culprit.

• “It’s not a very good situation,” Lorenzo Blount, Wayne County roads division director, said last week. “It’s been a very cold winter. If it gets warm really quickly, you get that freeze-thaw, and it gets ugly.”
• “It’s just been so cold so long,” Bob Hoepfner, highway engineer for the Road Commission of Macomb County said. “When the ground thaws, that’s really when we’re going to see the breakup of our roadways.”
• Craig Bryson, spokesman for the Road Commission for Oakland County, said a series of wicked freeze-thaw cycles could make the pothole situation worse than last year’s prodigious crop.

Declining gas-tax revenues means Michigan’s funding for construction and maintenance of expressways and major state roads has dwindled to about $900 million in 2009, from highs of around $1.5 billion earlier this decade, according to the Free Press.

County and local road agencies also are falling farther behind because their primary sources of road funding – state fuel taxes and vehicle registration fees – have been steadily declining for several years. 

A task force appointed by Gov. Jennifer Granholm concluded last fall that the state needs an additional $3 billion a year to get all state and local roads into good shape. That’s about double what’s currently being spent statewide.

And we can forget about our state roads getting relief from President Barack Obama’s new stimulus package. As it stands now, the money can’t be used for routine maintenance like pothole patching.

Strap in. Our daily drives unfortunately are going to get a lot worse before we see any real road repairs.

The Relay For Life of Dearborn Kick-off Celebration kicks off Wednesday, Feb. 4., at the Ford Community and Performing Arts Center, Studio A.

Registration begins at 6:00 p.m. and the program will run from 6:30-7:30 p.m. 

Whether you want to learn more about enrolling in Cancer Prevention or are a returning team or are thinking about starting a team, organizers say you will want to be a part of this award-winning event.

Dinner will be provided by Salsarita’s.

Please RSVP by contacting Staff Partner, Anna Agustin, at 248.663.3411 or annalisa.agustin@cancer.org

In addition, the American Cancer Society is bringing the opportunity for Dearborn to be part of an historic research effort, Cancer Prevention Study-3, to the Relay for Life of Dearborn.

Enrollment will take place on May 2, 2009 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Relay For Life event.

To learn more about CPS-3, Debbie Malyn, Cancer Prevention Study-3 Chair, Relay For Life of Dearborn at 313.683.2573 or visit www.relayforlife.org/dearbornmi or www.cancer.org/cps3

The driver of a gasoline tanker that overturned near Telegraph and Wilson in Dearborn appears to have been trying to avoid another motorist who lost control after hitting a patch of ice in the right lane of northbound traffic, Dearborn police said Saturday.

Police tell DeepSaidWhat.com that they are trying to piece together the exact cause of the crash and are asking for anyone that may have witnessed the crash to call the department’s Accident Investigation Bureau at 313-943-2245.  No one was seriously injured in the crash.

The gasoline tanker was hauling about 10,000 gallons of fuel when it overturned about 9:30 p.m. Friday. Police said between 2,500 and 3,000 gallons spilled out of the hauler and into the road.  Hazmat crews were able to get the spill cleaned up, including vacuuming fuel that spilled into nearby sewers.  The northbound lanes were reopened about 2 p.m., police said.

The driver of the car that apparently trigged the chain of events spun out of control after hitting a patch of ice in the roadway that police believe was caused from a recent water main break near Wilson and Telegraph and not the water main break near Einstein Brothers Bagels.

Dearborn police Friday night shut down northbound Telegraph Road at Cherry Hill after a gasoline tanker rolled over about 9:00 p.m. Roads were not expected to reopen until early Saturday so crews could clean up spilled fuel.

A resident quoted on (click wxyz for video) WXYZ TV said it appeared the tanker lost control after hitting a patch of ice on Telegraph where a broken water main still needs to be repaired. Those of us who frequent Einstein Brothers Bagels know that the right lane of northbound Telegraph has been filled with ice buildup for several weeks now, making driving a bit dicey in that area during peak travel times.

It wasn’t yet clear if there were any injuries or what caused the rollover but Dearborn police did evacuate nearby shops because the tanker was leaking fuel onto Telegraph. Police also closed southbound Telegraph at Ford Road. Fumes from the gasoline tanker filled the night air on the patch of Telegraph between Cherry Hill and Ford Road even late Friday night.

The City of Dearborn is suspending the parking rules for Public Service Days until the week of April 6-10.

That means residents will not be required to remove their parked vehicles from the street on their designated Public Service Days until the week of April 6-10.

The parking rules are being suspended because of the season’s heavy snowfall, which has made it difficult for residents to find alternative places to park on their Public Service Days.  For instance, residents who usually park in nearby alleys may not be able to do so because snow has piled up in those alleys.

The parking rules are suspended for Public Service Days that occur the week of Feb. 2-6, the week of Feb. 16-20, the week of March 2-6 and the week of March 16-20. 

Parking enforcement will begin again the week of April 6-10.

Residents are still encouraged to remove their parked vehicles from the street if possible on those weeks. Removing parked vehicles allows city crews to perform services, such as supplemental snow plowing, more efficiently, because crews can reach curb to curb.

We’ve received quite a few notes from readers that live in the Dearborn Hills area who, like us, are upset about the possible removal of the traffic signal at the intersection of Fordson and Telegraph. Those same people have contacted the Taylor office of the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), the office that is conducting the actual study on whether to keep the traffic signal or remove it. So we thought we might provide an update on the study now underway.

The study on whether to keep the signal was triggered by the state office of the Federal Highway Administration, whose ultimate role is to keep our roads safe. MDOT is working with the federal agency to deliver on that objective by studying traffic flow at this intersection.

Dearborn Hills residents want the traffic signal at Fordson and Telegraph to remain.

As MDOT describes it, any time a traffic signal (or stop sign) is installed it actually increases traffic accidents. Eliminate the signal and that section of roadway would see fewer rear end and side swipe accidents, according to MDOT.

While it sounds counterintuitive, MDOT says data shows that any time a motorist has to stop there is a high risk of vehicle “conflict.”

The city of Livonia, working with the Traffic Improvement Association (TIA), recently removed some 100 stop signs and traffic signals in its city as a way to reduce traffic accident and improve vehicle flow. The TIA has approached Dearborn, too, hoping to sell its services here.

The signal at Fordson was switched to a flashing signal on Dec. 5 and will continue through March 5, totaling 90 days in all. After that MDOT will finalize its study, working with Dearborn Police, and submit its findings to the Federal Highway Administration who will then make the determination on whether to remove the signal.

“It is not a foregone conclusion it will be removed,” said MDOT’s Michael Budai who is conducting the study. “We are working with the City of Dearborn, Dearborn Police and a very active neighborhood association. We are carefully studying the impact the flashing signal is having on traffic flow for that stretch of road.”

Dearborn Police have expressed concern to MDOT that the flashing signal has now caused vehicles to congest in the turnaround lane trying to head north on Telegraph from Rockford Street each morning and evening during peak business times. That isn’t safe.

Even so, the highway administration has a set of eight “signal rules” in its Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) handbook that it uses to determine whether to install or keep an existing traffic signal. Of course, the rules aren’t ironclad as city government, local police departments and neighborhood associations can have huge influences on placement of a signal should an intersection fail to meet the any of the eight signal rules.

One requirement in the MUTCD is that a traffic signal needs to have a vehicle flow of 400 vehicles per hour. Clearly, the number of vehicles exiting Fordson to the northbound lanes of Telegraph has never in its more than two decades in existence approached that level.

While people do cross at this interaction, it is not and was not designed as a crossing area, MDOT officials say. According to the MUTCD, to have a proper traffic walk signal installed for pedestrians there would require 150 crossings per hour. 

As much as we would want to have the traffic signal remain in operation, when you step back and look at the facts from MDOT, it appears the only way the light might stay is through a request or resolution by Dearborn city leaders. This is likely how the light was installed at this intersection more than 20 years ago – through city intervention on behalf of residents – as the intersection has likely never met the minimum traffic requirements set by the Federal Highway Administration in the first place.

“Everyone assumes it is going out but we are going to continue to evaluate it for the next 60 days,” Budai said. “It is by no means a foregone conclusion.”

Concerned residents can contact Mike Budai at MDOT at 313-375-2400 to make clear why the traffic signal should remain. Callers should be prepared to explain why the signal should remain in operation.

The Dearborn Public Schools System is overstaffed, has more administrator positions than it needs and pays more per mile to bus students than similarly sized schools in Michigan, according to the results of a four-month benchmarking study released Tuesday by the school district. 

The study, however, also points out that across most cost categories, Dearborn’s costs as a percentage of expenditures are less than the overall average for other similarly sized districts used in the study. 

(For full copy of study click here:  dearborn-benchmarking-study)

 

Dearborn Schools Benchmarking Study

While the findings in the report may be uncomfortable for some to read, Whiston deserves credit for requesting it as a way to cut costs and improve efficiencies in our school district, which is facing a $10.5 million deficit for the 2009-10 school year. 

The idea of having a third party come into the district for four months and study key areas of the Dearborn School District will help our school administrators more quickly identify the district’s successes along with the areas that need work and determine ways to improve them. School officials tell DeepSaidWhat.com that the next step for the district will be to examine what can be done to improve the areas identified in the report or determine if the reported costs are due to other factors not captured in the study. There were some anomalies in the raw data and the district says that could be attributed to how the numbers were reported

“This is only phase one in the process,” Whiston said. “The next phase will be to find out why the numbers look the way they do and, if needed, how can the district make improvements. The report has provided us with good information that will allow the district to make the types of changes needed to cut costs, improve efficiencies and implement a better reporting system.”

The study cost the district about $40,000, an amount some may question. However, when you consider the potential hundreds of thousands the district can save by implementing some of the recommendations, then long term it would be money well spent.

The benchmarking study, which covered the 2005/06 and 2006/07 school years, identified four areas for the district to consider to reduce costs and increase efficiencies. The areas included District Cost Metrics, Staffing Levels, Administrator and Professional Staffing Levels and Operational Metrics — Facilities & Transportation.

Plante Moran gathered information from eight districts, including: Farmingtion, Wayne-Westland, Rochester, Chippewa Valley, Walled Lake Consolidated Schools, Flint City School District, Ann Arbor Public Schools and Plymouth Canton Community Schools. It should be noted that of the districts mentioned above, Dearborn has the most students, more than 18,000. The only other districts that were close are Rochester (14,700 students) and Walled Lake (15,700).

The overall observations from the study show that for staffing levels, Dearborn is “higher than the average of the eight districts that participated in the survey.” The same was true for the Administrator and Professional Staffing Levels.

On the Transportation, the study revealed that Dearborn cost per mile for regular education was higher than similarly sized Oakland County districts. Dearborn paid $6.13 per mile in the 2006/07 year compared to $5.41 for comparable districts and its cost per rider was $1,033 compared to $675 for other districts.  

Those high figures are likely a direct result of Dearborn’s low bus ridership levels, which shouldn’t come as a surprise as the Dearborn district was set up in the beginning as a walk-to-school district. There were few, if any buses, in the district in the 1980s.  Today, just 17 percent of Dearborn’s regular education students are bused, which is low compared to Oakland County, which ranged from a minimum of 46 percent up to 80 percent in 2006/07, according to the report. But, again, Dearborn has always prided itself on having neighborhood schools, something this report doesn’t capture.

Dearborn’s Facilities costs (including custodial and maintenance) also were higher than average. While Dearborn’s electricity costs were comparable to other participating districts, Dearborn’s natural gas costs were much higher on both a per student basis (about $140 for Dearborn vs. $65 for other districts) and a square footage basis ($0.80 cents for Dearborn vs. $0.39 cents for other districts). 

The report also indicated that Dearborn’s number of full-time custodial and maintenance positions is higher than the overall median number reported by other districts. 

Supt. Whiston made it clear from the beginning that the study is by no means a way for the district to begin privatizing services. Instead, he said the study will be used to further investigate how the district can save money and resources.

The recommendations for the District to consider to reduce costs and increase efficiencies include: 

District Cost Metrics: The study recommended the district investigate ways to reduce its natural gas costs, which were higher than similarly sized Oakland County districts.

Staffing Levels (compared to similarly sized Michigan districts):  The study recommended the district perform a detailed organizational assessment of staffing requirements in areas with potential for improvement, including non-classroom teachers, secretarial/clerical staff at the buildings.

Administrator and Professional Staffing Levels (compared to national benchmarks): The study recommended the district perform a detailed organizational assessment of staffing requirements in areas with potential for improvement, such as Central Office, Special Education and Technology.

Operational Metrics — Facilities & Transportation:On the facility side, the study recommended the district consider conducting an operational/organizational study to find ways to increase efficiencies and reduce costs. While on the transportation side, the study recommended an operational analysis of transportation to determine cost-savings that might be achieved using either smaller, more fuel-efficient buses or eliminating some routes altogether.

Generating this report was a good first step for Dearborn. But now comes the hard part, trying to implement the recommendations outlined in it.

After nearly six years of serving fresh Japanese food at their O’Sushi restaurant in Canton, Sophia Kang and her husband, Shawn, thought it was time to branch out and open a second restaurant. They chose Dearborn.

“We love Dearborn and we love Ford Motor Company,” said Shawn Kang. “We have been looking at coming here for a long time.”

Dearborn's new O'Sushi restaurant serves fresh food at attractive prices.

The couple’s Dearborn restaurant, 22431 Michigan Ave., opened Jan. 5 in the building owned by Norm Newman near Michigan and Military, just across the street from Sacred Heart Church.

With an American flag and colorful triangle banners flying outside the building along with two large window banners that proudly tell passersby that O’Sushi “Loves Dearborn” and “We love Ford Motor”, the restaurant stands out.  Those looking to drink saki with their food will have to wait a bit longer as the family works to obtain a liquor license.

Inside, the decor is authentic Japanese and nicely decorated. The Dearborn location is much more modern and fresh inside than the Korean couple’s Canton restaurant. But both locations serve excellent fresh food at an attractive price with all the hot green tea you can drink for free.

The most popular entrees — which include miso soup, house salad and rice — are the Bibimbab (beef and vegetables over rice) for $9.99, Shrimp Tempura (deep fried battered shrimp and vegetables) $15.99 and Salmon Teriyaki (grilled salmon with teriyaki sauce) $16.99.  

Of course, as the name on the building states, there are plenty of fresh sushi offerings and daily lunch specials, too. Regular sushi rolls are made fresh while you wait and are the least expensive on Michigan Avenue compared to the recently-opened Kabuki at Michigan and Howard and even Westborn Market. A six piece Spicy California roll costs $4.45 while a Spicy Tuna Roll Avocado costs just $4.75.  The restaurant also serves an assortment of fresh Nigiri sushi and sashimi pieces over rice.

The host/servers (Irene, Tiffany, Aaron and Rocky) are a friendly group who know the menu and overall do a nice job making guests feel welcome.

O’Sushi is open seven days a week. Hours are Mon.-Thursday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday 11 a.m. – 10:30 p.m.; Saturday noon – 10:30 p.m. and Sunday 1 p.m. – 9 p.m.  For more information call the restaurant at 313-562-4166.