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THURSDAY, JANUARY 3, 2012 Weave the Web:
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VOL. 28, NO. 1

Board OKs $13.6 million budget

Public Works. Salaries for township employees in 2013 range from a high of $90,000 2013 budgets for Van Buren for the public safety director to up Township operations were to $15,000 for part-time township approved unanimously by the Van trustees. Buren Township Board of The General Fund Trustees in their last meetexpense budget for 2013 VAN BUREN will be $13.6 million, 1.5 ing in 2012. The annual budget percent higher than last TWP. allocates funds for each years $13.4 million budget. township department The largest year-over-year including the Board of Trustees, budget increases were seen in the the offices of supervisor, clerk and Building and Grounds Department treasurer, Public Safety, Parks and $317,000 and in the Police Recreation and the Department of Department $287,000.
Special writer

By Jerry LaVaute

The Fire Department showed the largest decrease in funding, a $453,000 drop. Fire Chief Dan Besson said that it was primarily the result of new department efficiencies, partly by eliminating redundancies in communications within the department, and scheduling training during hours for which firefighters are already being paid. The expense budget of $13.6 million was balanced primarily by using the following revenue sources or budget transfers: Property tax revenue of $4.1

million. Revenue from the state of Michigan of $2.1 million. Fines and costs of $970,000. Service revenue of $672,000, including property tax administration for $350,000. All other, including licenses, permits and additional administrative fees, $1.8 million. Total revenue was $9.6 million, and budget transfers filled the $4 million gap, including a $2.9 million transfer from the landfill fund.
PLEASE SEE BUDGET/3-A

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Ofcials explore alternate library location

By Jerry LaVaute
Special writer

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After a meeting in October between officials from the Belleville Area District Library and city of Belleville failed to produce much progress in their search for a solution to a new library within the city, library officials continued to gather facts around an alternative site just outside the city. Located on the east side of Belleville Road just north of the bridge over Belleville Lake leading to town, the property is partly owned by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. In the meeting in October, Belleville Mayor Kerreen Conley said she would prefer to retain or to introduce private retailing stores in the areas favored by library officials. And library officials said that the alternative locations within the city proposed by city officials were too small for the new library. BADL Chairwoman MJ Dawson said that attorney John Day had recently sent an appraisal of the property to the DNR, and was awaiting a response. BADL Building Committee Chairman Michael Boelter said he had received some negative input on the DNR location. He said he had contacted the Wayne County Road Commission and Michigan Department of Transportation about thee traffic flow implications of a library at the site, and awaited a response. Boelter said it was a process that was long and tedious.

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Photo courtesy Rawsonville Elementarys Mary Ellen Vago and Deb Mounsey

Belleville Rotary Club representative Richard Willick and students from Ms. Kaiglers third-grade class at Rawsonville Elementary School show new dictionaries the club annually donates to pupils districtwide.

Donation denes Rotary work

Right before the holiday break, all of the third-grade students at Rawsonville Elementary School received a dictionary, courtesy of the Belleville Rotary Club. We started this distribution six years ago and have given out over 3,600 dictionaries, 440 this year alone, said Rotary Club representative, Richard Willick. We have been working with dictionaryproject.org, a non-profit organization, to provide highquality dictionaries. To date, over 27 million children nationwide have benefited from their support. Karensa Smith, Rawsonville Elementary School principal, said the service clubs gift is much appreciated. Every year, the Belleville Rotary Club donates dictionaries to the Van Buren Public School third-graders. Its wonderful to have community partnerships with organizations that understand the importance of academic success. In addition to Rawsonville, all third-graders at Edgemont, Tyler and Savage will also receive their very own dictionary.

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INDEX
Editorial Calendar Sports Page 4-A Page 3-B Page 1-C

New reghter pact includes more pay

By Jerry LaVaute
Special writer

Van Buren Township labor attorney Andrew Baran announced in the Dec. 11 Board of Trustees meeting that a new labor contract agreement had recently been reached with the Michigan Association of Fire Fighters, which represents firefighters in Van Buren Township. The new contract is retroactive to July 1, 2011, and extends until June 2014. There were minimal changes in PLEASE SEE LIBRARY/3-A the new contract, Baran said. The top

hourly labor rate for paid-on-call firefighters responding to emergencies remained at $18.40, although time spent in training would now be paid at the higher rate, in effect a salary increase, according to former Fire Chief Darwin Loyer, who asked some questions about contract provisions during the meeting. In lieu of a base salary increase, the new contract called for two separate lump sum payments to firefighters: for full-time employees an immediate lump sum payment of $750, followed by a second payment of

$400 after July 1, 2013. There are two full-time firefighters employed by the township: Fire Chief Dan Besson and Fire Inspector Anthony Karver. For paid-on-call firefighters, the two separate lump sum payments would be $500, and $200 next year. Baran said that Karver was required in the new contract to obtain certification levels 1 and 2 in fire inspections, and that Karver was in the process of obtaining the certification. In the new 2013 budget, the
PLEASE SEE FIREFIGHTER/3-A

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