Detroit Free Press du lieu suivant : Detroit, Michigan • Page 25

-ppw v- Sunday The Detroit News mv JANUARY 17, 1993 PAGE 3C George WEEKS 'Unfortunately, this will not improve our traffic flow' Face-lift: State repairs lift bridge to cope with Charlevoix's downtown heavy daily traffic. i bottleneck "Unfortunately, this will not improve our traffic flow," said Charlevoix City Manager Mike Wiesner. "It's just a matter of refurbishing a 40-year-old bridge." There is no way to get around the bridge and there is no room to widen it, a fact which has frustrated this tourist town for decades. David Pax, an engineer with the state Department of Transportation, said the lift will be operational again by mid-March and that construction crews will be off the bridge before the end of May. By Thomas BeVier THE DETROIT NEWS CHARLEVOIX The most verbally abused bridge in Michigan is getting a face-lift, but that won't improve its performance.

Traffic is down to one-lane this winter as construction workers replace the steel grid surface and sidewalks of the downtown lift bridge over the channel between Lake Michigan and Lake Charlevoix. The job is costing $1.5 million. Can House leaders uncover Bonusgate answers through nonpartisan eyes? Outside, spotlights blaze on the Capitol dome. Underneath, it gets dark and dirty, 'as even its watchdogs run amok, i Such was the outrage of the jwatchdog House Fiscal Agency in giving its chiefs and friends unreported bonuses an action that on Friday was exposed by The Detroit News' Jim Mitzelfeld and quickly branded "inexcusable and intolerable" by Gov. John Engler.

Joining Engler and others in demanding audits and investigations were the House co-speakers Republican Paul Hillegonds and Democrat Curtis Hertel. This will be a real test of the agreement implemented with great friendly fanfare last week to provide for dual control of a House that has a 55-55 party split. It was to his credit that new top Democrat Hertel joined in the call for investigation of bonuses when Democrats had undisputed control of the House under Speaker Lew Dodak. Bonusgate did not happen under Hertel's watch, but he must cope with the Democratic backwash as Republicans use this as yet another example of why they are the ones with the white hats. Not that they always are.

The GOP Senate conspired with the Democratic House to pass the legislative pension sweetener that Engler vetoed after getting a record number of calls from citizen protesters. The pension and bonus flaps most assuredly will be used by Engler in a re-election bid, in which he will portray himself as guardian of the public purse, swinging the ax and blowing the whistle. It's a good bet that the Ross Perot's United We Stand, America watchdog group will jump on the bonus issue as it did pensions. Over the decades, governors have been embarrassed when bureaucrats in the executive branch have run amok. Now, at a time when leadership of the House is fuzzy, it must cope with embarrassing conduct by its own fiscal bureaucracy created, in large part, to keep the executive honest.

So much for fiscal integrity. Engler was able, through his veto, to stop the pension sweetener slipped through in the last day of the Legislature 1992 session. But there's nothing he can do about an unreported legislative staff pay raise quietly implement ed in Dodak's closing hours. It seems that some top level positions got pay cuts, while others got raises. Hertel's office said it appears that the result is an increase of about 3 percent in the payroll.

"Who got raises?" I asked of Hertel's office, which presumably can get to Dodak's records better than Republicans. That was days ago. No Many of those forced to wait are on their way to or from the more northerly resort areas of the state. The Charlevoix bridge took over the title of most verbally abused in the state in 1988 when the new, $134.5 million Zilwaukee Bridge over the Saginaw River was opened, replacing a lift bridge which had been the bane of travelers for decades. r.

Petoskey o- sr" tin- Miles THE DETROIT NEWS the major islands in the big lake. "Dave is really the expert," said Palm, a computer instructor at Northeastern Michigan College. The sport originated in England. "The English set the standard," Kughn said. "They have a lot of rocky shores and that's where the best boats are made." DARREN J.

SHOEGERYAssociated Press In the winter kayakers wear "dry suits," and a skirt around their waists attaches to the rim of the cockpit, making it waterproof. Winter kayakers make waves I wiiaiievuMWj THE DETROIT NEWS In brief Lead in water spurs free tests NORTH MUSKEGON The city has begun offering free drinking water tests after recent samplings of water in five homes found high lead levels. The average lead concentration in water from the houses tested was 39.5 parts per billion, one of the highest levels recorded in Michigan, state health officials said. The results put North Muskegon out of compliance with federal standards. City officials must conduct more testing and inform residents of the high lead levels.

City Manager Dennis Stepke said the problem stemmed from lead pipes and solder used in homes built before 1987. He said the city has no lead-pipe water mains and never has found lead in the water system before. Stepke said that to curb residents' fears, the city will provide free water tests to residents with pre-1987 homes that have lead pipes or copper pipes with lead solder. Tree-planting furor GRAND RAPIDS A student tree-planting campaign may be pruned due to complaints from local tree retailers. Aart de Wit, a local nurseryman and executive secretary of the Grand Rapids Nursery and Landscape Association, said the Trees Corp program is hurting tree sales by providing free trees for children to plant in their back yards.

The program's major wholesale supplier, J. Frank Schmidt Son Co. of Boring, has responded by saying it wants assurances that its trees will be planted only on public property. Last year, about 5,000 of the 8- to 12-foot trees distributed under the program were taken home by students from Kent County schools. An additional 1 ,000 were planted in public places, organizers say.

Mine to be sealed MARQUETTE A defunct Upper Peninsula gold mine will be closed and sealed and an adjacent processing site studied for contamination under an agreement between state officials and the Callahan Mining Co. Natural Resources Director Roland Harmes said last week that Callahan, purchased by Coeur d'A-lene Mines Corp. in 1991, agreed to a settlement payment of $100,000 and to a timetable for the correction of problems linked to its operation of the Ropes Mine and Humboldt Mill in western Marquette County. CSX to clean up spill ST. JOSEPH An Amtrak passenger train that derailed Dec.

30 spilled an estimated 1,500 gallons of diesel fuel 10 times the amount first reported by officials. CSX Transportation owner of the track, has hired a company to clean up the spill, which poses no immediate danger, local officials said. Sex abuse sentence GAYLORD A Traverse City man has been sentenced to 18 to 27 years in prison for sexually abusing his two daughters in 1991. John Vincent Hyland 63, was convicted in October of two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct. He was tried separately on each count in Petoskey and in West Branch.

Grand Traverse County Prosecutor Dennis LaBelle said he planned to dismiss a third charge pending against Hyland in that county. "With that significant a sentence, we probably won't proceed with our case here because it won't add any additional prison time," LaBelle said. Hearings on deer MARQUETTE The Department of Natural Resources next week will begin public hearings about management of the Upper Peninsula's deer herd. The first meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday at the U.S.

Forest Service office in St. Ignace. A second is set for Feb. 17 in Ishpeming. Compiled from Detroit News staff and wire reports 1 1 vM' 1 DttrortV The bridge has a foul reputation with thousands of tourists for holding up traffic on US-31 when the roadway is lifted to let boats pass under it.

The longest waits, during which traffic is backed up for a couple of miles from each end, invariably occur during the most sweltering days when boat and vehicular traffic is the greatest. vCO more than $2,000 each on the side, said there are about 40 hard-core enthusiasts in the area. He estimates there are several hundred statewide. "A few years back there were only five of us up here," he said. Most who have taken up the sport are in their 30s and 40s, as are Ide and the others who welcomed an opportunity to demonstrate what they can do on two-foot waves.

"If this were summer this wouldn't be a fun day," said Ide, who has a national reputation as a sea kayaker. "A fun day is when storm warnings are out." To listen to Ide, who in his calmer moments is a systems technician with Michigan Bell, you'd think there is no place a sea kayak can't go. In 1989, he crossed the 85 miles of Lake Michigan to Wisconsin. "It took 30 hours, but it was worth it," he said. He averages between 750 and 1,000 miles a year in his kayak and has won a number of races.

He's made excursions on all of the Great Lakes and the south coast of the Atlantic. His favorite kayaking domain is the north shore of Lake Superior and he has paddled to all shock. Yet officials worry that some students have recovered all too well. For every Jodi Gould who insists on an escort after sunset, another young woman trudges alone across campus or a quiet street. "Young people tend to take chances," said Police Chief Ralph H.

Raf-faelli, who has led the fruitless search for Watts' killer. "When you're 19 years old, you're invincible, immortal." The school's idyllic setting in the Keweenaw Peninsula hardly inspires paranoia. Its brick buildings and tree-lined campus are a short walk from downtown Houghton, a postcard village by a canal that flows into Lake Superior. Most of the 7,500 residents of Houghton and next-door Hancock are affiliated with the university. Until recently, people felt little need to lock doors.

Raffaelli, 53, who has spent most of his life in the area, said there hadn't been a murder in Houghton County for a century until June 1991. Daredevils: 'A fun day is when storm warnings are off Petoskey. By Thomas BeVier THE DETROIT NEWS PETOSKEY The temperature was 20 degrees and there was skim ice on Little Traverse Bay, but Dave Ide and his buddies chose a blustery day last week to perfect their kayaking skills. "Let's roll," shouted Ide, as he flipped his 17-foot, whisper-thin craft over and came up on the other side. Welcome to the world of winter kayaking, a growing sport in the land of the free and the foolish where guys like Ide, Bob Kughn and Joe Palm take a dip in the frigid waters of Lake Michigan and then go cross-country skiing to warm up.

Petoskey is the hot spot or, rather, cold spot for trie sport in northern Michigan. Kughn, who works for a log home building company and sells sea kayaks at Almost all the boats in Petoskey are one-person crafts and are made of Fiberglas or Kevlar. They weigh about 60 pounds. "They make two-man kayaks, but it's like the difference between a station wagon and a sports car," Ide said. "Who wants a station wagon when they can have a sports car?" The cockpit of the sea kayak has a small opening, barely big enough for an average-sized man.

In the winter, kayakers wear "dry suits" that fit snugly around the wrists, ankles and neck. Underneath they wear synthetic pile clothing that holds heat even if it gets wet. They wear neoprene helmets, gloves and stockings. A skirt around the waist attaches to the rim of the cockpit, making it waterproof. "You are actually a part of the boat," Palm said.

The boats are amazingly agile, riding easily over waves. The kayakers spoke of the closeness they feel with the water. "You really have a sense of freedom," said Ide, as he and his buddies stood at the base of the breakwall, picking the ice out of their beards and mustaches. "Is this fun or what?" i he FBI, state police and investigators from nearby K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base joined forces to find the murderer.

But after checking more than 500 leads, they've arrested no one. The FBI developed a profile of the culprit as a physically strong local resident who hates women. Meanwhile, shop windows and campus bulletin boards display handbills offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the killer's arrest. The university is offering self-defense classes. Last November, its governing board voted to arm campus public safety officers.

A candlelight vigil will be held Thursday night, the anniversary of Jodi Watts' death. Participants will walk from the campus to Good Shepherd Lutheran Church. Her parents and brother are still active there, pastor Chris Heavner said. "Their faith has made a difference, has helped them cope," Heavner said. "They've actually done very well." Hillegonds, who is the current speaker of the month, said he had "concern" about the Dodak-im-plemented raises, and will pursue the matter with Hertel.

Hillegonds said long ago that he wanted full disclosure of who gets what in the Legislature's budget. Hertel said he agrees. Will they deliver? Let's see if the Capitol stands not only for Hertel and Hillegonds, but also hypocrisy. Unreported bonuses. Unreported pay raises.

Vetoed pensions. What tasty dishes law-t makers have set before King s. John. "I The bright light of public scru-V" tiny must probe under the dome, Brutal '92 slaying haunts Michigan Tech campus That month, Kathryn Nankervis of nearby L'Anse was found slain near town. The case remains unsolved.

Seven months later, Watts, a 19-year-old sophomore, went out for a post-midnight jog. A passerby found her on a sidewalk. She was naked and had been beaten, raped and stabbed. Her clothing was found in a nearby municipal parking deck. Police believe she was assaulted there, stumbled to the sidewalk and collapsed.

The brazenness of the crime stunned investigators. The parking deck is next door to police headquarters. "About a hundred feet from my desk," Raffaelli said, standing at the murder site. Shannon Hannon, 22, a Tech student and jogger, fought back tears as she recalled learning of her high school friend's death. "I just cried and cried, and thought, 'Why and how it must have felt.

If I ever found the person that did it, I would probably kill them." By John Flesher ASSOCIATED PRESS HOUGHTON Darkness has settled over Michigan Technological University's snow-covered campus. In the student union, senior Jodi Gould glances toward the door. "It's only six o'clock, but I called my boyfriend for a ride," the 22-year-old Grand Rapids native said. "You won't catch me walking by myself after dark pened." Watts: Victim of woman hater after what hap- On another frigid night Jan. 21, 1992 Michigan Tech student Jodi Lynne Watts was slain.

It was so gruesome, so inexplicable, that a year later some say this close-knit community hasn't recovered from the just as the spotlights blaze atop it. Veto power Democratic Atty. Gen. Frank Kelley issued an opinion last week reaffirming a governor's power in line-item vetoes. Kelley said, "The exercise of this power may not be abridged by the Legislature." Kelley noted that the power first appeared in the Michigan tT Constitution of 1908 as a response to "pork-barrel" legislation.

He also said the U.S. Supreme TV Court in 1937 said the power was needed to "safeguard the public treasury against the pernicious ef-i feet (of) unnecessary or even fensible items." Weeks' column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays in The Detroit News..