The Voice of Downriver ■ North Zone Edition

Southgate, Michigan 48195 Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Downriver

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Wednesday’s Weather Inside The News-HeraldAuto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-BClassified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-BDownriver Life . . . . . . . . . . 1-DDeath Notices. . . . . . . . . . 16-AOpinion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-ASports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-C

5 Sections, 56 Pages©2012, The News-Herald Newspapers

Printed onrecycled paper

By Dave Herndon & David KomerThe News-Herald

JANUARYTrenton dominated the

news in the first part of 2012, but not for any good reasons:

■ Nine-year-old Kathleen Edward died of complica-tions from Huntington’s disease. Edward was known worldwide after a neighbor, Jennifer Petkov, made fun of her in October 2010 by posting pictures on Facebook of Kathleen with a skull and crossbones and her deceased mother being hugged by the Grim Reaper.

The degenerative brain disorder that took the little girl’s life also claimed the lives of her mother, Laura, and her grandfather.

■ Just a few days later, a U.S. Customs and Border

Protection agent assigned to the Detroit office was found dead in a patrol vehicle in a parking lot at Oakwood Southshore Medical Center, 5650 Fort St. The agent had committed suicide while on duty.

■ In Allen Park, the City Council was tasked with cutting nearly $2 million out

of its 2011-12 budget or face a deficit. The council didn’t make the cuts, instead opting for a short-term tax- anticipation note. Despite not missing any payments, the city still officially ended the year in the red, violating state budget laws.

■ A Flat Rock police ser-geant and a Trenton public service employee were arrested on state racketeer-ing charges related to run-ning a betting ring while on city time in both cities.

■ Southgate Mayor Joseph Kuspa announced that the Montgomery Ward shopping center would be torn down to make room for public green space. The demolition started in October.

■ A former Allen Park city administrator, John Zech, announced his resig-nation, only to rescind it a

few days later. He would go on to officially resign at the end of May.

■ The city of Taylor lost an arbitration hearing Dec. 30, 2011, that sent 15 firefighters back to work in January. Despite that, the city switched to using a private ambulance service in February rather than continuing to transport its own sick and injured.

■ Old Country Buffet restaurants in Taylor and Southgate both closed without warning. New restaurants opened in both locations by the end of November.

FEBRUARYTaylor and Allen Park

were in the news in February, as both cash-strapped cities looked for

Year starts with untimely death of 9-year-old girl

By Jim KasubaThe News-Herald

WYANDOTTE — A fire Friday evening in the 100 block of Goddard has displaced a family of five and destroyed all of their Christmas presents.

Police Lt. Todd Scheitz said the dispatch center received an emergency call at 6 p.m., reporting a fire in the base-ment.

“The homeowner heard the smoke detector and when she got downstairs found a large amount of smoke,” Scheitz said.

He added that she and her three children, along with four cats, got out of the house safely.

The woman who resides at the house has been identi-fied as Natalie Kelly. Her children are Rosalie, 8 months; Katelynn, 5; and Jaden, 10. Her boyfriend, Gregory DeRoch, was not home at the time the fire started.

Officials reported that the fire originated in the base-

House fi re displaces area family Collection to replace destroyed Christmas presents under way

Courtesy photo

Santa and Mrs. Claus made a special trip to Allen Park recently for some tasty treats at AP Daily Scoop, 8305 Allen Road. While they were waiting on their ice cream, the jolly couple visited with patrons and paused to take photos with any-one who wanted one. Mrs. Claus even got to wish at least one baby its fi rst-ever Merry Christmas before she and Santa had to hot foot it back to the North Pole to fi nish making preparations for their big day.

First ChristmasFirst ChristmasInside

A special series by The News-Herald and its sis-ter newspapers in Michigan takes a look at the declining membership and changes within ser-vice organizations. ■ Service organizations

see shiny future despite declining memberships

■ Millennial generation still feels call to serve

■ Service organizations turn to social media to make connections

For complete coverage, see Pages 16A-17A.

PLEASE SEE FIRE/2-A

YEAR IN REVIEW

News-Herald fi le photo

Kathleen Edward, 9, died in January 2012 due to complica-tions from Huntington’s disease.

PLEASE SEE REVIEW/2-A

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