SPORTS

Tigers baseball goes 3-1 on the week See Page 1-B

INSIDE

INSIDE

Museum kicks off Civil War series See Page 5-A

Van Buren joins access network See Page 7-A

The
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VOL. 28, NO. 17 THURSDAY, APRIL 26, 2012 Weave the Web:
Make sure to click on www.heritage.com around the clock for the most in-depth coverage. See most popular stories....Former U-M football player wanted on drug crimes. crimes.

Belleville man dies in car crash

By Ben Baird
Heritage Media

A Belleville man died April 17 after a car accident on southbound I-75 in Monroe Countys Frenchtown Township. John R. Mercurio Sr., 69 of Belleville, was a rear passenger in a pickup truck towing a trailer with a classic car. A silver truck hit the

Summer activites aplenty in Belleville

By Jerry LaVaute
Special Writer

trailer at about 10:35 p.m., according to the Monroe County Sheriff s Office, causing both vehicles to lose control and hit the center median guardrail. The trailer and classic car were separated from Mercurios vehicle, which continued southbound into travel lanes as he was ejected from the vehicle. He was struck by the silver 2010 Dodge Ram driven

by John M. Zabawa, a 56year-old Luna Pier resident. Mercurio was pronounced dead at the scene. Road rage may have been a factor in the accident, according to a report by the Monroe Evening News. Sgt. Brian Angerer told the Monroe Evening News the drivers began having some type of problem with each other on I-275 and continued traveling in the same

direction onto I-75. The driver of the red 2007 Dodge Ram, Mercurios 48-year-old son John R. Mercurio Jr., told investigators he was trying to get away from the silver truck. His mother and the victims wife Laurie A. Mercurio, 66, was the front passenger of the red truck. She suffered minor injuries from the crash and was transported to Mercy

Memorial Hospital in Monroe. Neither driver was injured. Frenchtown Township Fire Department, Monroe Community Ambulance and the Michigan State Police responded to the crash. Southbound I-75 was closed for about four hours while the crash was invesPLEASE SEE CRASH/3-A

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2 for U Weekly police blotter

SCHOOL BOARD APPROVES 29 LAYOFFS

Superintendent: There will be more cuts
By Jerry LaVaute
Special Writer

Click on the jobs tab on the home page of our h e i t go . c o m websiteror a g edirectly to http://jobs.heritage.com.

New Belleville City Council member Tom Smith said it best: Were going to have a lot of events this summer. Its going to be great. Smith was referring to the recent city council meeting in which a variety of spring and summer activities were discussed. Some were approved, whereas some needed a little more work before consideration for formal approval. At one point Mayor Kerreen Conley said on April 28, one could stay busy with activities from 10 a.m. until 8:30 p.m. They are as follows: The Belleville Area Council for the Arts will host an antique appraisal fair at the Grace Baptist Church, from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. An open house for the current Belleville High School will be held from 10 a.m. until noon. From noon until 4 p.m., kite-flying sponsored by the Belleville Parks and Recreation Committee will be held at Village Park. The Van Buren Public Schools Education
PLEASE SEE ACTIVITIES/3-A

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n the Van Buren Public Schools, 29 school classroom teachers and other staff such as paraprofessionals, custodians, food service workers and secretaries will be laid off at the end of the school year. The Board of Education voted to approve the changes recommended by the administration, which included, in addition to the layoffs, retirements and two transfers, including the transfer of an administrator to a teaching unit. These actions were taken at the regular board meeting April 23. Trustees Sherry Frazier, left, and Brent Mikulski listen to Van Buren Public Schools School board president Personnel Director Shonta Langford-Green. Martha Toth said the layoffs were required that day from Van Buren student enrollment numafter saying that the numbecause of 1) the closure Education Association bers for the next school ber of voluntary retireof Haggerty and Elwell representative Susan ments was lower than they year were not yet known. Elementary schools, 2) the Either could produce more Duda-Osborne, the teachhad hoped, that they were elimination of teachers ers collective bargaining layoffs. looking at a $4.2 million who teach elective courses deficit budget next year unit. Trustee Sherry Frazier that are being phased out After the board decision unless significant changes proposed a two-week delay as the state of Michigan to approve the layoffs, in the decision to permit were made. He added, mandates more specific Duda-Osborne rose to say time to understand and punctuating the seriousrequired courses, and 3) that the process that had to agree with the process ness of the issue, that the need to turn a deficit been followed for the last that was used to identify There will be more cuts. budget into a balanced six years was not followed He said that the funding individual employees for budget. this year. Normally, she layoffs. She and other from the U.S. Government Schools Superintendent board members had for Title I teachers had yet Michael Van Tassel said, PLEASE SEE LAYOFFS/3-A received an email earlier been resolved, and that

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INDEX
Editorial Calendar Sports Page 6-A Page 3-C Page 1-B

Constellium Automotive promises 75 jobs for township

By Jerry LaVaute
Special Writer

Death Notices Page 18-A

The Van Buren Township Board VAN BUREN of Trustees and Claire Sheldon, TWP. purchasing manager of Constellium Automotive, were talking some pretty big numbers the other night: 154,000 square

feet in a building on 6331 Schooner Drive that had been empty and unused for six years; $21 million of new investment, including $1 million to rehabilitate the building, and $20 million of new machinery and equipment to manufacture aluminum parts to make vehicles safer; and what may have been the sweetest datum of all, a commitment to provide 75 new salaried

and semi-skilled manufacturing jobs to area residents in exchange for a $102,000 property tax abatement for four years. Property tax abatements are
PLEASE SEE JOBS/3-A

News Tip Hotline: 248-745-4613

Constellium Purchasing Manager Claire Sheldon briefed township ofcials on her company, located in 26 facilities in 11 countries.

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