INSIDE

INSIDE

U-M professor to speak

on Memorial Day.
Page 9-A

Check out the Dexter

High School Squall.
Page 1-D

THE

Entertainment
U-M presents
humorous
opera
See Page 2-D
VOL. 143, NO. 13

DEXTER LEADER
Andrea Scheffler
Staff Writer

HURSDAY
ARCH

Make sure to click

on www.heritage.com

around the clock for the

most in-depth coverage

of Washtenaw County.

Our Most Viewed story

this week is School

board mulls minimum

class sizes at high

school.
him to come in
(March 18) on U.S. 12 east of Freer
fun. He would always smile and

and have lunch

Road just outside of Chelsea. The
was always having a good time,

and started
accident cut short a promising life
McAuliffe Jr. said. I dont think
that

turning the
his
closest
friends
and loved
I ever
saw him come to the golf

sprinklers on,
ones
can
only
imagine
now.
course in a bad mood, that's for

Kukola said.
picking
up
a golf clubfor
sure.
A lot of kids when they get

After

That still
the first
time at the
tender
age
of
out
on the golf course and dont

CAPUTO:
Michigan,
didnt stop him
7, Marken just kept swinging and
play well they
let it ruin
theirtheday,

Protesters
rally outside
capital building,picketing
against Michigans
Right-to-Work law.
MSUs
Michigan
is now the 24th Right-to-Work
state Sweet 16
wasnt

sometimes. He
playing
until
he
eventually
found
and he
like that.
matchups

would golf, golf

himself
rising through
the
ranks
Marken
was a good teammate,

was his pasof the Dexter High School boys

a hard worker and an asset to the
Marken

sion, he loved
golf team, where he ended his
Dreadnaughts, according to his

golf. He played all sports but golf

senior year as one of the two top
former teammates recollection.
was where he took off at and suc-
players
on
the team,
according
to
His said Markens addition to

ceeded.
former teammate Frank McAuliffe
Concordia University made that

Marken died in a rollover auto-

Jr.
team one to
watch at competitions.
Worker freedom increases
Unions become weaker
mobile crash at 4 a.m. Monday
He always made practice
Click on the jobs tab

PLEASE
SEE
CRASH/3-A
Workers are no longer obligated to pay fees to unions
Union members
less and have fewer ben
on the home
pagemay
ofearn
our

website
h e r or
i t ago
g edirectly
. c o m to

Unions give monetary support to Democrats which creates a

Wages are generally lower in RTW states
http://jobs.heritage.com.
problem if an employee does not support Democrats
Injury rates in RTW states are higher

RTW states generally have higher per capita income growth

Non-RTW states have a higher percentage of empl
than non RTW states
Become
a Dexter
with health
insurance

Attracts large businesses

Leader follower. Click

on the Twitter tab on

75

,M

DHS graduate killed in crash

28, 2013

Weave the Web:

Jordan Marken, 22, had passion for golf, played at college level
By Sean Dalton
Heritage Media

Everyone who knows 22-year-old

Jordan Marken agrees that they
will miss his smile, his enthusiasm
and his sportsmanship on the golf
course which seemed to be his
natural element.
He would golf from morning
until night out there, recalled
Linda Kukola, Markens mother,
who has many fond memories of
her son playing at the golf course
her grandparents owned and operated in Hudson.
They would have to fight to get

Check out our video:

Right-to-Work pros and cons

Supporters say:

Schools halt
superintendent
hiring process
By Sean Dalton
Heritage Media

The Dexter Board of

Education wants more time
before it begins superintendent interviews.
Board members decided
at a special meeting March
21 to take a step back. They
want to look further into
the backgrounds of some
of the candidates presented
by the Michigan Leadership
Institute.
Last week, district officials had planned on beginning the interview process
next week with a series
of tentative time periods
selected for interviews and
tours of the district, which
will now be pushed forward
as the board looks deeper
into the backgrounds of the
35 candidates presented by
MLI.
We decided we needed to
do some more background
checking and so we did not
select anyone to come out
of the pool of candidates,
said Larry Cobler, the board
of education president, on
March 21.
The district hired MLI to
search for candidates last
fall and began receiving
applications from candidates in January. At the
time, Cobler said that the
district would take care
in picking a replacement
for Superintendent Mary
Marshall, who left Dexter to
serve as Pentwater Public
Schools superintendent.
(The board and the
community) want to make
sure it's the right person,
Cobler said previously, at
which time he wanted to
have someone hired by
June or July of this year.
While that hire date may
change, the desire to pick

the best candidate remains

the same.
Of the 35 candidates,
maybe 10 or so were sitting
superintendents, which
is what we were looking
for, Cobler said this week.
Some of them werent the
right fit (and/or) hadnt
been working for awhile. We
just needed to check on a
few more of those who had
been in the superintendent
pool and do a little looking
around.
We will delay the process at this point until we
can do that.
The district is in the
midst of dealing with financial concerns that have
been a snowballing problem
for a number of years and
have manifested recently
in the form of a $1.9-million deficit that needs to be
addressed this school year
and another more than
$2-million deficit in the
coming school/fiscal year.
District projections show
the district running out of
money in its general fund
bank account in only a few
years time.
Interim Superintendent
Dennis Desmarais was
tasked today to brainstorm
with his administrative
team to come up with ways
to trim an additional $1.2
million to 1.3 million from
this years budget.
Whoever is in Desmarais
shoes this time next year
will likely be given a similar task to further forestall
the insolvency of the
district's general fund.
Staff Writer Sean Dalton
can be reached at 734-4297380 or sdalton@heritage.
com. Follow him on Twitter
@seankdalton.

Detractors say:

Join
Easter
fun!

Junior Jeff Wicks hits a jump at one of the many slopes in Colorado.

Join us on Twitter:
the home page of our
website or go directly
to http://twitter.com/
ChelseaDexter.

Join us

Easter is this weekend

on Facebook:
Click on the Facebook
and area groups in
tab on the home page of
Chelsea and Dexter
our website or search for
have egg hunts and
us on Facebook.
fun things to do for
children. Area churchGet breaking news:
es also have services
To receive breaking
planned to mark Good
news alerts, text
Friday and Easter
HERNews to 22700
Sunday. See a roundup
of events on page 3-D.
Sophomore Sam Ketzner
File photo

skids to a halt at the

bottom of a Mt. Brighton

The Marketplace:

Business gets SPARK support

Local ads are just a

hop away at the MIcentral.
com marketplace. While
you can

you are there,

Kenzie
Mader
check out all
the special
storage space
to
offices.
The
entire
building
By Sean
Dalton

Staff Writer
supplements
of Journal
Heritage Media
is 22,000 square
feet with GeekNet having

Register Co.
newspapers

lease on 4,300
square feet of it.

in Michigan.

hired

Top
officials
at Ann
Arbor
SPARK
came
Last year
MedHub,
five
new

Click on marketplace

out in support of a Dexter business.

employees and plans to create eight new
on
the home
page of our

It
happened Monday before the villages
positions
in
Dexter
in
2013,
while
bringing
website
directly
to

or go

approval
of Medhub Inc.s request for a 50
seven existing
www.marketplace.micentral.
employees who are working

percent
abatement on nearly $1.43 million
in other locations
ortelecommuting
all
com/ROP/Categories.aspx.

roof

in real
and$250,000
on personal
same
historic
of the
112-year
property

under
the

property,
which company owner Peter Orr
old structure.

counted
on when decided to convert the
Orr thanked
the village council for their

INDEX

DexterMill
building
into
renovated
office.
support,
and voiced disagreement with the

We are extremely happy with what Peter concept of

IFTEs
in most
cases.

Editorial
Page 4-A

company

is doing
withhis
given
the type
I want
to
address
the
often
controver

of industry
that hes in, said Bonner, Ann
sial nature of abatements some people
Calendar
Page 3-D

Arbor
SPARK's
Vice
President
of Business
crazy about them ... I know Paul

arent
too

Development.
(Cousins) back in March voiced his concern

Death Notices
Page
10-A

The
growth that hes undertaken the last about providing
these, but I think in this

few years is fairly significant and for a comparticular case this one is a little bit differSports
Page
1-E

pany
of his size to grow to a point where
ent for a
number of different reasons, Orr

they can
actually make a million and a half
said. I am one of those people who reads
Community
Page 1-D

dollar
investment
to be able to come to the
these articles
in the paper the next day and

point
of consideration for tax abatement is
say Thats
corporate welfare ... why should
News Tip Hotline: 475-1371
pretty siginficant in and of itself, Bonner
a company get any money from the comadded.
munity? And in a lot of cases I dont think
We are looking forward to working with
they should.
Peters company in the future and watching
The three things that distinguish the
them grow and continue to add high wage
Medhub abatement are: Medhubs expanhigh tech jobs to the community and we cer- sion puts a property back on the tax rolls;
tainly support the investment and we hope
the companys designation of the site as its
that council looks highly favorably on this
headquarters has required the restoration
investment and opportunity as well.
and renovation of the historic Dexter Mill
The project outlined in the application
Building; and the relocation of eight jobs to
Printed on
consists of converting 6,000 square feet of
Dexter with the promise of 12 more.
recycled paper