‘Year in review’ takes a look back at the last six months of 2014

On Aug. 11 Hamtramck and the tri-county area were hit with a massive rain storm that caused widespread flooding. Thousands of households were forced to throw out sewer-contaminated possessions.

By Charles Sercombe
Welcome back readers to our second half of the Year in Review.
Hamtramck was packed with interesting stories and interesting people. So, without further delay, let’s take a look back at the last six months of the year.
JULY

Like the thought of not having to worry about your basement flooding when it rains heavy?
If so, residents were told to be prepared to pay for it.
After two years of study, city officials heard back from Hennessey Engineering that it would be anywhere from $10 million to $28 million to fix sewers from backing up every time it rains heavily.
John Hennessey, the Vice President of the company, said the cost of the repairs could range anywhere from a $5 to $17 per month increase in water and sewer bills.
That would also rely on the city receiving various grants to help subsidize the work.
Without the repairs, households can expect further basement floodings. Hamtramck experienced two major floodings in 2008 and 2011 that lead to hundreds of residents claiming damages.
Residents filed a class action lawsuit against the city, which then resulted in a temporary property tax increase to pay for a settlement.
The city council unanimously agreed to go ahead with repairs, knowing that it had committed the city to completing the repair work with or without a grant.
Hamtramck previously won a $900,000 grant to perform the engineering study to determine what the problem was and how to fix it.
The first step of the repair project will take three to five years.

For the first time in 30 years, or so, Hamtramck celebrated the Fourth of July holiday with a fireworks show.

Seventeen years ago, there was little to celebrate during the July Fourth holiday.
That’s because in the late afternoon of July 2 in 1997, a tornado — or something like it — ripped through town in a matter of minutes, damaging hundreds of houses and buildings and knocking over at least 500 giant trees.
Fortunately, there were no deaths tied directly to the storm, but one man died of a heart attack while clearing out a fallen tree.
It took weeks to clear out the trees and repair the roofs.
A grassroots organization, Save Our Parks, stepped in to raise money and tap other sources to begin replacing the trees.
The new trees will never grow to the size of those that were lost, namely because those trees should never had been planted in the first place.

Hamtramck may have lost American Axle but it is slowly gaining other companies buying up their plant site.
The latest acquisition came from Metropolitan Baking Co., located on Lumpkin in the city’s southend.
Metropolitan plans to expand its nearly 90,000 square-foot facility another 20,000 to 30,000 feet on property it purchased from American Axle.
That’s a huge leap considering that just 69 years ago, it started from a two-house operation on Lumpkin by George Kordas, a car salesman, and his partners.
From there the company grew and made its first major expansion in the 1980s and then again in the 1990s.
The newest addition will allow the company to shift truck traffic away from the neighborhoods across from the current plant to the St. Aubin side.
The expansion is all part of the company philosophy of “You have to evolve,” said George Kordas, company Vice President of Sales and Marketing, and grandson of the founder.
While the company has kept a low profile in the city, it is one of Hamtramck’s top employers. Some 90 employees keep this plant buzzing six days a week, 20 hours a day.
The expansion will eventually lead to another 10 full-time employees.
“I’m the last of the Mohicans.”
That’s how World War II veteran Frank Stock described himself when he was interviewed by The Review in December of 2011, just before the 70th anniversary of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, and the subsequent start of the war.
Mr. Stock was just one of a few hundred surviving service members from Pearl Harbor when interviewed.
Stock was 90 back then, and obviously survived that day of “infamy” to tell the tale.
Mr. Stock died June 21, a couple of years after his wife, Camille, died.

The July Fourth holiday weekend was extra special this year.
On July 5, thousands of fireworks fans turned out to Hamtramck’s first fireworks show in who knows how many decades.
The event was bankrolled by Destination America, a cable television network, after the Hamtramck Fire Department entered and won an essay contest sponsored by a TV show.
All of the fun was centered in Keyworth Stadium, where kids and adults enjoyed plenty of free activities, such as a petting zoo, pony rides, face paintings, custom-made balloon hats and free hotdogs.
Now that was a real American celebration.

The bills for last winter’s snow plowing kept coming in.
In the most recent three-month financial report submitted by Emergency Manager Cathy Square, Platinum Landscaping, Inc. was paid another $153,015 for snow plowing, salting and cold patching.
The cold patching portion of the company’s latest bills amounted to $47,000.
The company earned a total of $751,752 for snow plowing, street salting and cold patching for the winter of 2014, which included billing from last November to the end of June.
Platinum was contracted to clear and salt only emergency routes, but at one point was told to clear side streets as well. The company cleared only a portion of the city’s side streets.
The company also cleared a few city parking lots during the season.
Last winter was not typical. There was a record amount of snowfall – over 93 inches – and a deep freeze that did not let up for several weeks.

The search was officially on — again — for Hamtramck’s new city manager.
Emergency Manager Cathy Square contracted with the Michigan Municipal League to head hunt for the city for the second time in recent months.
Emergency Manager Cathy Square said the state of Michigan was covering the $10,000 cost for the search.
If the last search was any indication, it was going to take two or three months before the final candidates emerged. During the last search, Square allowed the city council to question the top-two candidates for the job.
The ultimate decision on who gets hired would still be up to Square. Square said she was unable to reach contract terms with either candidate from the previous search. She said they both wanted generous payouts in case they were fired before their contract expired.
In the meantime, Square said she would remain on the job despite her plan to leave by June 30.

It’s been a long time since an election for the Hamtramck School Board attracted many candidates.
This year was either an exception or a sign of things to come.
Some 15 candidates were lined up to participate in the November Election. One factor adding to the uptick in candidates was that there were five school board seats under consideration. Because of past resignations from school boardmembers, there were three seats open for a full six-year term, one seat with four years left in its term and another seat with two years left in its term.
The biggest surprise in the election was that School Board President Titus Walters was not seeking re-election. Walters told The Review that he would rather concentrate on his job as city councilmember.
Also not seeking re-election was Boardmember Yvonne Myrick.
The only incumbents running were Alan Shulgon, who was going for a six-year term, Evan Major, who was also seeking a six-year term and Eric Burkman, whole filed for a four-year seat.

For the past three years Platinum Landscaping, Inc. has earned about $3 million maintaining city lots, cutting trees and plowing snow for the city.
For most of that time the person issuing work orders and reviewing invoices of work completed by the company was Steve Shaya, the Director of Public Works.
During that time there had been rumors that Shaya and the owner of Platinum, Omar Nakash, were related.
According to Emergency Manager Cathy Square, Shaya admitted to her that he is Nakash’s uncle.
Square said that Shaya called her saying, “Boss, I just want you to know I’m Omar’s uncle.”
Square said Shaya told her this because he thought The Review was about to print an “expose” on him.
That admission prompted Square to cancel a pending contract with Platinum to continue its services to the city. She began seeking new bid proposals for the work, but with the stipulation that bidders have to say if they are related to anyone employed by the city.
As for Shaya, Square said she did not think he violated the city’s ethics law or city charter.
Square added that “there are no grounds for dismissal” of Shaya in this matter.
Shaya had a pending Whistle Blower’s lawsuit filed against the city and several city employees and past city managers.
A week after the story broke, Square did an about-face and put Shaya on a paid leave. A few months later, Shaya was fired.

First there was a name change, and now at Talmer Bank there was a major makeover inside the bank.
No, they didn’t run into one of those television contractors lurking about Home Depots across the country to offer a lucky someone a free remodeling of their house. Instead, it was just time for a little updating, said Sultana Chowdhury of Talmer.
“We wanted to give a new facelift for the community,” Chowdhury said.
If Chowdhury’s name sounds familiar that’s because she used to work at Peoples State Bank, which was purchased by Talmer (then known as First Michigan Bank) in 2011.
Peoples was forced to close down after becoming critically under-funded. The bank, located at Jos. Campau and Holbrook, had been a financial icon in town, having survived for 102 years.
Many of the employees at Peoples stayed on with the transfer to a new owner.

It was bad news for the future of St. Lad’s.

AUGUST
It was a long time coming for St. Ladislaus Church.
During the past 20 years the city’s Catholic population had rapidly declined, and the city’s three Catholic parishes were forced to tighten their financial belts.
Several years ago St. Lad’s merged with two other Detroit-area parishes and cut services down to twice on the weekend.
In August it was announced that the Detroit Archdiocese was closing St. Lad’s, as it is affectionately known.
Fr. Andrew Wesley said the closing came down to the finances of keeping St. Lad’s open along with the two other churches it was clustered with, known as the St. John Paul II Parish.
“All of these buildings cost too much to keep open,” said Wesley, who is the pastor for the Parish.
As it turned out, though, St. Lad’s remained opened and to this day its fate is not clearly known.
There was certainly no shortage of complaints about Club Aces on Jos. Campau.
But the question was: Did those complaints have the legal weight needed to close it down?
In a public hearing held on whether to seek the revocation of the bar’s license, Police Chief Max Garbarino ticked off a long list of disturbances, including fights, disorderly conduct, thefts and shootings that occurred in connection with the bar.
“We’ve never had an establishment with this many incidents,” Garbarino said.

Hamtramck will likely have some new neighbors over at the American Axle site.
The corporation recently completed razing its plants, but officials there said that future developments were in the works.
There was even good financial news for the company. Its most recent quarterly income was over $52 million — double the amount compared to previous quarterly earnings.
American Axle CEO David Dauch, who had taken over from his recently deceased father, Richard Dauch, announced that a technology development facility will set up in the company’s last remaining plant.
The company will reportedly spend about $20 million to create the center, and plans to employ about 75 people — a far cry from the thousands of employees who once worked there.
As for the Hamtramck portion of the plant site, the company said development was coming.

For about a dozen Hamtramck High School students, it was anything but a typical summer.
The students took part in a special internship program sponsored by GM. The internship program had started the year before, and focused on community service.
This year, the program included community service projects, but also had the kids in classrooms to expand their knowledge.
Students started the internship season by painting the city’s fire hydrants, which had needed new paint jobs for several years.
To cap off the program, the students donated an American flag to replace the tattered one flying in Zussman Park.

It had been called disastrous, horrific, torrential, record-breaking, historic and maybe even biblical.
No matter what, a rainstorm on Aug. 11 was still being felt days after.
Some 4-1/2 inches of rain fell hard and fast within about four hours, almost instantly causing massive street and highway flooding and — something Hamtramckans are long-used to — basement flooding.
Thousands of households in the Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties were forced to throw out sewer-contaminated furniture and prized possessions.
Because of the extent of flooding damage, Gov. Snyder declared the tri-county area a disaster area, which opened the door to federal financial assistance.

A historical marker for the Hamtramck Stadium was unveiled last summer. The stadium once hosted the Detroit Stars from the old Negro League.

Hamtramck Stadium was one step closer to hitting a home run.
On a sunny afternoon city and state officials gathered near the stadium with a host of other dignitaries to celebrate the installation of a historical marker.
The ballpark was once home to the Detroit Stars, one of a dozen teams in the famed Negro Baseball League.
Among those attending was Rosilyn Stearnes-Brown, daughter of Norman “Turkey” Stearnes — one of the most famous players in the league.
The event was hosted by the Friends of Historic Hamtramck Stadium, who were also responsible for getting state-recognition of the park. This was the first step in seeking grant monies to renovate the stadium into a functioning ballpark and tourist destination.
The stadium is one of a few structures remaining from the Negro League era, which started out in the 1920s and ended when Major League Baseball finally became fully integrated in the 1950s and 1960s.
Hamtramck Stadium was built in 1930 and was home to the Detroit Stars. Not only did Stearnes play here, but also the legendary Satchel Page, perhaps the greatest pitcher ever.
The stadium was acquired by the City of Hamtramck in 1940 and renovated in 1941 by the Wayne County Road Commission using Work Projects Administration or WPA funds.
The stadium was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.

State, county and city officials continued urging residents from all over the metro area to file flood damage reports for a couple of reasons.
The county needed the information to determine how extensive the damage was and to apply for federal assistance to repair infrastructure and pay for emergency repairs.
At this time about 300 Hamtramck households submitted damage claims to the city. It was unknown how many dwellings in total were flooded, but judging from past floods, it was likely just about every house. That’s about 7,000 dwellings.

For the third year in a row, the Hamtramck Police Department had boasting rights over the city’s Fire Department.
At the annual Public Safety Day, the two departments once again squared off in a tug-of-war. Police officers out-muscled their counterparts, but maybe with a little help from some kids who couldn’t resist joining in.
If you called Walter’s Shopping Place a party store, you were seriously short-changing yourself.
This was indeed a shopping place — in fact make that a one-stop shopping destination.
There were 14 services the Conant-Carpenter store provided, including postal service, money transfers, utility payments, food stamps, even legal documents like deeds and wills.
You could now add one more service: Laundromat.
“We took a survey to see what people needed, and laundromat was the top request,” said store owner Frank Ayar.

The gloves were off.
It took just a little over a year for city councilmembers to unload on Emergency Manager Cathy Square.
Square had been in charge of the city for 14 months after being appointed by Gov. Snyder and had at most, by law, four more months before she had to leave. Councilmembers had been — for the most part — reserved about their opinion of Square’s job performance.
It wasn’t until a city council meeting where the monthly report on city finances changed their public attitude about Square.
Although the city boasted a $2 million surplus compared to this time last year, councilmembers were peeved.
But not because of the city’s improved financial situation.
Councilmember Anam Miah was the first to unload.
“This is great,” he said about the controller’s monthly report, the first of which the council had received since Square took office. “At least it’s something we can look at. But this is not giving us any information.”
Mayor Karen Majewski, who had been the most outspoken about Square — though she usually reserved her comments for her Facebook page — questioned the cost of the search for a permanent city manager.
She said Square hired a private company for $34,000 to find candidates for the job but had yet to produce anything after almost two months. Majewski also said that the same service could have been done by the Michigan Municipal League for no cost.
“This is appalling,” Majewski said.
SEPTEMBER
Not again.
That was the sentiment heard echoing throughout town after yet another heavy rain caused widespread basement flooding.
The city was first hit with a record-breaking rainfall on Aug. 11 that also caused massive flooding throughout the metro area.
Another storm hit soon after, although not as heavy, but it still caused a limited amount of flooding.
And then on a very heavy rainstorm swept through the area, causing dozens of basements here to backup once again with foul sewer water.
Stanley Dyksinski was looking for someone or something to blame for the most recent flood.
“My basement is stinking,” he said. “It’s the city’s fault.”
To a certain degree he was right. The city failed to connect to a super-sized sewer line that runs along Conant back in the 1950s. But that, technically, was the fault of voters who rejected a special tax to make that connection.
While Hamtramck has always had flooding issues, Mayor Karen Majewski raised a concern about the increasing number of floods.
“Hamtramck basements have flooded since at least the 1950s, but in my experience it was never this bad before,” Majewski said on her Facebook page. “We used to get some water every few years, not too high. Now it just keeps getting worse and worse and more and more common.”

Hamtramck’s annual Labor Day Festival had all the ingredients of enjoying another successful year.
A great band line-up.
Plenty of good food and cold beer.
An eclectic and funky selection of vendors.
Carnival rides for the kids.
And the Polish Day Parade.
What the festival didn’t have going for it was absolutely perfect weather and the usual huge number of people coming together for one more summer hurrah.
The downside of all this was that the low attendance put a dent on sales and earnings for the festival.
“We might get by, by the skin of our teeth,” said Co-organizer Shannon Lowell about being able to pay all the festival bills.
Lowell and fellow organizer Konrad Maziarz didn’t waste time figuring out how to attract more people to the festival next year and ways to shore up finances for unexpected drops in revenue.

For some parents, the new school year began on a confusing note.
Just before the first day of school, many parents in the metro area received a letter from the Education Achievement Authority, a state-created school district in Detroit that takes in students from failing schools in the metro area.
In the letter sent out to thousands of households in the area, it said that the student of the house has been “assigned” to the district.
Hamtramck Public Schools Superintendent Tom Niczay was not happy about parents in his district being mislead.
“I’m furious,” he said. “I’m outraged because it (the letter) says your child has been ‘assigned’ – meaning they are already enrolled.”

Apparently following the lead of a fellow defendant, three Hamtramck men changed their minds about fighting a felony charge of illegally handling absentee ballots in the primary election from the previous year.
Salim Ahmed, 50, Armani Asad, 33 and Russell Mohammed, 32, abruptly agreed to plead guilty to one count of illegally handling absentee ballots instead of heading to trial.
They were originally charged with collectively handing in a total of 41 absentee ballots in that primary election from voters who were either not related to them or were not from their household.
They had originally planned to fight the charge but backed down after Wayne County Judge Timothy Kenny threw out their defense arguments, which included arguing that the law itself was unconstitutional and that the City Clerk’s office unfairly enforced the law.
Their guilty plea followed the path of Mohammed Rahmon, 61, who handed in six ballots for the November election last year from voters not related to him or residents of his house.

If you were looking for some bargains in housing, Hamtramck was the place to go.
The Wayne County Treasurer’s Office began auctioning 52 Hamtramck properties that had been forfeited for back taxes.
Hamtramck properties on the auction block included vacant lots and properties in various conditions — all for dirt cheap.

When it came to confidence, rookie Cosmos varsity football Head Coach Donnie Scott was brimming with it.
The fact that the Cosmos went 0-9 last year was no deterrent. According to Scott, he and his new staff and team were ready to transform Hamtramck into a town of proud football fanatics.
“I know most little cities all across America are huge football towns,” Scott said. “Friday night, the stores should be closed. … I just want to change the way people talk about Hamtramck football, because there’s a lot of talent out there.”

Many in Hamtramck knew him as Al Ulman, or maybe professionally as “Al the Only.”
Ulman now had another moniker: “Al the Respect Guy.”
That’s the name by which thousands of school kids across the country, and here in Hamtramck, came to know him.
When Ulman was not presenting his mix of humor and magic to corporate parties and at nightclubs, he was spreading his word about respecting one another to school kids.
He calls this program R.O.A.R. – Respect Others Act Responsibly.
Ulman presented his educational message to several elementary classes in the Hamtramck Public School District. The Review caught up with him at Dickinson East Elementary School where students piled into the school gym for Ulman’s presentation.
Ulman’s message was two-fold: If you want respect you have to show it, and if you come face-to-face with a bully, walk away and speak out to a trusted adult.
Ulman said the program came about several years ago when a teacher friend suggested he come up with a program as a companion to another one about positive behavior.
“That was the birth of the show,” he said.

Area hipsters’ favorite second-hand clothing store abruptly announced its closing in Hamtramck.
Three years ago a collective cheer went up when Value World announced it was locating in Hamtramck, next to Glory Market on Jos. Campau.
But that goodwill didn’t translate into profits for the used clothing chain.
“It was a slow store,” said Brian Kose, a manager for the chain, about the store’s earnings.
There were no longer lots of empty lots for sale in Hamtramck.
During the past year the city sold 122 vacant lots and 10 other properties through auctions that raised over $353,000.
For decades the city had been unable to offload the growing number of lots because of a housing discrimination lawsuit filed against the city.
Settlement terms of that lawsuit required the city to set aside vacant lots for housing development. When a majority of the housing had been built, the federal judge overseeing the case finally allowed the city to get rid of the unused lots it had accumulated over a 30-year period.
The last auction of city lots netted the city $6,000.
What was left over was still to be determined because of some confusion over who owned the remaining lots. Some of the lots also owed property taxes and unpaid water service charges.

There appeared to be no shortage of flooding in Hamtramck.
First the city experienced a series of heavy rains in the summer, but then it became a matter of water main breaks gushing out water.
Pete Maley of Prescott noticed a water main break one Saturday in front of his residence in the 3800 block of Prescott. He left messages with the city during the weekend, but city offices were closed Saturday and Sunday.
On Monday the city got back to him and said repairs would have to wait because there were two other breaks in the city.
In the meantime, gallons and gallons of water were gushing out, and Maley became worried about a sinkhole forming and swallowing up a car.
“Is this the kind of city we need?” Maley said. “We need better response for something like this.”
Emergency Manager Cathy Square said the city moved as fast as it could.
“This is an old city and infrastructure,” she said. “It’s the nature of the beast. I don’t think anything is dropping through the cracks.”

A new look was coming to Pope Park.
Talk of renovating the park had been in motion for over a year, as well as fundraising.
The city council got a preview of what the park’s new design would look like, thanks to the city’s longtime engineering consultant, Hennessey Engineering.
The company created the new design for free.
It included removing the iron gating that the city received from the old Dodge Main plant that was torn down in the early 1980s.
Kathy Angerer, the city’s Director of Community & Economic Development, recently handed out copies of the new look to the council. She said it would take about $100,000 to complete the project, of which the city can tap into $30,000 from a state-funded development grant the city receives each year.
The iron gating wasn’t the only thing going away. The distinctive red bricks will be torn up and replaced with more decorative pavers. More landscaping also will be included.
Pope Park was created in 1982 in celebration of Cardinal Karol Wojtyla being appointed as the first-ever Polish Pope. Although it is not customary to create a statue of a living person, such was the overwhelming pride of local Poles.
The Pope actually got to see the monument, designed by the late Bruno Nowicki, when he motorcaded past it during his visit to Hamtramck in 1987.
Pope John Paul II went on to deliver a speech at Jos. Campau and Holbrook, which was then an empty field. A giant stage had been built just for the occasion.
The park had been privately owned until several years ago when it was donated to the city. It continues to be a major attraction for visitors.

The city took the first step toward plugging basement flooding.
Thanks to an $11.5 million grant from the state’s Department of Environmental Quality, Hamtramck began the first part of sewer line repairs that will ultimately cost upwards of $40 million.
The only catch was the city had to figure out a way to pay back the grant, said Emergency Manager Cathy Square.
“We want the full amount but we have to come up with a way to pay it off,” Square said.
Guess who will likely pay back that loan?
If you guessed Hamtramck water users, you guessed correctly.
Square said although there might be some other state or federal funding sources to tap into, there will probably be a service fee added to water and sewer bills in the near future.
There was also a likely possibility that the city was eligible for a newly created state grant designed for distressed cities that are under the care of an emergency manager.
You could have said the grant was tailor-made for Hamtramck. That one-time only grant was worth $2 million.

First the Police Department celebrated its 100th anniversary, and then it became the Fire Department’s turn.
“It’s going to be a very exciting night for us,” John Dropchuk said of the celebration. “We consider ourselves a good part of a great community, and we’re going to have a great time.”
The lead organizer for the event and 15-year veteran Hamtramck firefighter and motor engineer said the current crew of firefighters expected to shake hands with many former Hamtramck firefighters at the gala event, held at PNA hall.
Among those expected to attend, Dropchuk said, was retired 30-year veteran firefighter Lt. Mike Kostiuk, who not only fought fires in Hamtramck, but was also known for being the “oldest living Lion.”
The former Detroit Lions’ offensive and defensive tackle was then 94 years old.

It’s a subject the media had been talking a lot about during the past few months.
Police militarization.
Following a recent clash between the public and the Ferguson Police Department in Missouri, the subject had become hotly debated.
In some communities officers dressed in what looked like combat gear, carrying military grade assault rifles and riding in Humvees and other Defense Department hand-me-downs.
In Hamtramck, the department received two Humvees leftover from the Iraq War, and prior to that the city partnered with other cities to share an assault vehicle.
Our department also has a SWAT team that dresses in full protective outfits.
But in general, our officers wear regular uniforms, and the Humvees are mostly for show.
Police Chief Max Garbarino was defensive about the subject, saying wearing protective gear, no matter what it makes the force look like, is needed to save officers’ lives.
“When you respond to a riot and you are getting rocks and bottles thrown at you, what are you supposed to do?” Garbarino said.

Hamtramck Police Chief Garbarino also made news by going half way around the world to better get to know the city’s growing Bangladeshi community.
Garbarino and a Hamtramck officer assigned with the DEA were set to visit Bangladesh in a U.S. State Department-funded trip designed to increase cultural sensitivity and swap police expertise.
Garbarino said he hoped to come away from the experience with “a better understanding of Bengali customs.”
Garbarino said he also hoped that more Hamtramck officers would be able to undergo cultural training with visits to Bangladesh.

City code enforcers, armed with an updated ordinance, began cracking down.
And, predictably, not everyone was welcoming that.
Take longtime business owner Shimpu Barua, who received two tickets for allowing weeds and trash to collect behind her building at 9350 Jos. Campau.
“For 15 years I’ve been in business, and I’ve never received a ticket,” she said.
She marched into city hall demanding to know what was going on.
The city’s new code ordinance bans noxious weeds — just the kind that grew out of the concrete cracks behind her building. On top of that there were pieces of thick plastic piled up, which she said must have blown over from somewhere else.
Over the years, the code enforcement message to the community had been mixed.
Kathy Angerer, who is in charge of code enforcement, said she was serious about enforcing the codes.
“Our goal is for a safe and clean Hamtramck. We’re encouraging people to take care of their surroundings,” she said.
“I’m going after this big time.”

On a Tuesday morning, federal investigators raided and later charged six Hamtramck markets with food stamp fraud.
Raids were also conducted at other markets in Warren and Detroit. In total, authorities said the markets defrauded the government of $12.5 million over the past six months.
The U.S. Attorney for the Detroit office, Barbara McQuade, said in a press release:
“Taxpayers in Michigan fund food stamp programs to provide food for the needy, not to create a commodity to be traded for profit. We hope today’s charges will deter other merchants to ensure that food assistance programs are not abused.”
Here is how the scam worked: Market owners or employees would offer to give back cash to customers through their Bridge cards or other food stamp cards, but at a cost. The stores would also charge a fee on the card for themselves.
In some instances, authorities said, that surcharge was as much as what customers received. For example, a customer might ask for $50 in cash, but the store would then charge an additional $50 to the customer’s card and keep that amount for themselves.
The following markets and individuals were charged in federal court:
Al Amin Supermarket, 11920 Conant, owner Moklasur Mukul, age 36, of Hamtramck.
Bengal American Grocery, 9800 Jos. Campau, manager Mohamed Ali, age 38, resident of Detroit.
Deshi Bazar, 12045 Conant, owners Ali Ahmed, age 31, and Nazir Ahmed, age 32, and employee Mustak Ahmed, age 34, all residents of Detroit.
Maloncho Greens House, 12133 Conant, owner Azizur Ullah, age 37, of Hamtramck, and employees Mohammed Chadek, age 44, Mohammed Miah, age 38, and Mohammed Amin, age 38, residents of Hamtramck.
New Al-Madeena Grocery, 2220-2222 Caniff, owner Dilshad Chowdhury, age 34, resident of Hamtramck.
Pay-Less Foods, 11350 Jos. Campau, owner Mohamed Ahmed, age 58, resident of Hamtramck.

Hamtramck houses became a hot item.
According to a Wayne County tax sale on forfeited Hamtramck houses, 22 out of 52 properties up for bid brought in almost $600,000.
The 30 pieces of properties that did not receive bids were scheduled for auction one more time a few weeks later.
Most of the leftover properties were vacant lots, including one on Jos. Campau.
Only one property, at 9629 Jos. Campau, had been pulled from the auction. Apparently the owner paid the $31,700 owed in delinquent taxes to avoid losing the building.
One of the highest bids went for a house at 2202 Florian for $50,500.

OCTOBER
The Hamtramck Neighborhood Arts Festival continued to grow in reputation and size.
The annual festival was held on several streets throughout the city where artists held performances and displayed their works. Thousands of visitors turned out for the day-long affair.
It appeared Hamtramck soccer fans would have their game upped in the near future.
At the monthly Hamtramck Public School Board meeting, the Detroit City Football Club proposed moving its league from Cass Technical High School in Detroit to Keyworth Stadium.
Todd Kropp, Chief Operating Officer of the group, asked for permission to begin a structural assessment of the stadium’s grandstands at no cost to the district. That project, he said, would cost the organization $10,000.
In exchange, he asked the board to apply for a grant to perform an environmental survey of the stadium’s grounds.
The board agreed after a brief round of questions. The leading concern was whether the district would be held liable if the environmental study showed there was contamination.
The district’s attorney, George Butler, said it was unlikely anything would be found since the site had been a stadium for many decades.
The potential for redevelopment for the stadium was staggering. Kropp said if everything appeared to be sound, his group would perform a major renovation. One of the changes would be to tear up the artificial turf and replace it with natural grass, which Kropp estimated would cost $1 million.

There had been many Masses held at St. Florian Church, but not like this one.
On a recent Sunday the “Mass Mob” movement swarmed into St. Florian, bringing along about 1,800 people. Although the church is one of the largest in the Detroit area, seating 1,500, it was still busting at the seams with worshipers.
The “Mass Mob” movement had visited several inner-city parishes during the summer, each attracting more and more people.
What was normally a one-hour Mass stretched to two hours to accommodate all who wanted to participate in communion.
Organizers of the “Mass Mob” said the added worshipers also meant, on average, a donation of $10-$15 from each participant, which meant a financial windfall for the parish.
Those who visited came from far and wide and of different religious persuasions.
“I’m not Catholic but I want to support the churches in the area,” said Karen Greenwald of Northville, who was accompanied by her medical service dog, “Clyde.”
“What an opportunity to worship with other people in such a beautiful space,” she added. “They just don’t build them like they used to.”
The party was over at Club Aces.
The state’s Liquor Control Commission agreed to the city’s request to have the bar’s license revoked based on a long list of complaints filed by the police department.
There had been numerous fights and shootings stemming from the bar, located on Jos. Campau, just north of Caniff.
The attorney for the bar, Gary Moitke, vigorously objected, saying all of the incidents cited by the city actually happened outside of the bar. Moitke argued that the bar can’t be held responsible for the actions of patrons once they leave the club.

Hamtramck has its share of ceremonial street signs.
There is a street named for Polish Solidarity leader Lech Walesa, former Mayor Robert Kozaren, the Rev. Joseph Jordan and a sign on Conant in honor of the Bangladesh community.
But that wasn’t enough for four local Bangladeshi political groups who wanted to add two more names, one on Caniff and another one on Jos. Campau.
But it got complicated. The groups appeared to be competing with each other over who gets the streets renamed and in honor of whom.
Mayor Karen Majewski said the multiple requests had more to do with competing political factions in the Bengali community.
“I think the city is being used,” she said.
What used to house the old Kowalski Deli on Jos. Campau came back to life.
Hamtramck welcomed its newest eatery, Bear’s Deli. The deli offered a wide variety of lunch meats and cheeses, soups and salads, breads, hot coffee, donuts, cakes and other deli staples.
The owner of the deli, Ted “Bear” Justus, said he saw his deli as filling an important function that might not be filled by a new and trendy restaurant, night club, or art gallery.
“It builds a community,” Justus said. “Jos. Campau is ripe right now. If this works out the way I want it to, I would like to open more stores here.”
And the initial flow of customers that came into the newly-remodeled deli seemed to think so, too, judging by reactions.
“The community seems to be supportive,” Justus said. “They’ve let us know they’re glad somebody brought it back.”
Michelle Trzin agreed.
“I’m glad to get soup again,” she said. ‘It’s like the old Kowalski’s.”

What’s the best way to fight blight?
Find out where it is and make a map.
And that’s just what the Motor City Mapping Project planned to do.
The group presented its proposal to the city council. The best part was, there was no cost to the city.
There are about 7,000 properties in Hamtramck, and this map was going to give a description of each one and which ones were blighted. The project was being funded through the Kresge Foundation and Skillman Foundation.
It was going to take volunteers a week to take photos of each property in the city.
Kathy Angerer, the city’s Director of Community & Economic Development, welcomed the project, saying it was “one more tool that can be used by the city of Hamtramck in our continuing plan to fight blight and to meet our goal of a safe and clean Hamtramck.”
There are motivational speakers, and then there is attorney Richard Bernstein.
Yes, that Richard Bernstein you see in television ads. Bernstein met with Hamtramck Public Schools students in the community center, and talked about the challenges in his life, as well as the universal challenges we all face.
“You come to realize the tremendous power within you,” he said.
Bernstein knows a thing or two about tapping into that “power within.”
He was not dealt a fair hand in life, being born blind, but you’d never know it was much of an obstacle for him to succeed and become a lawyer and practice law in federal court.
Speaking in dramatic — and heartfelt — tones, students sat in rapt attention as Bernstein talked about overcoming his many obstacles. At the end of the talk, the students gave him a thunderous applause.
For many Hamtramck students, who are immigrants trying to cope with fitting in with American customs and society, Bernstein’s message rang home.
“It’s through challenge and hardship,” he said, “you can achieve what is great.”

Hamtramck was one of several cities in the state invited to apply for a grant to tear down blighted houses and buildings.
The $75 million grant that the cities competed for came with a lot of strings attached.
Kathy Angerer, the city’s Director of Community & Economic Development, was optimistic despite the requirements to get the loan.
“I think we can make it happen,” Angerer said.
By the end of the year, she did just that. The city was awarded with a nearly $1 million grant.

Mayor Karen Majewski had long urged retailers to open up a business in Hamtramck.
You could say Majewski put her money where her mouth was, by opening a store specializing in vintage apparel.
She called the store Tekla Vintage. Why that name?
Majewski said “Tekla” is a distinguished name attached to many Polish women in the 19th century, but no longer heard very often and was ripe for revival.
“It’s got balls,” Majewski said about the name. “It’s got weight. It’s old fashioned and it’s not prissy. It expresses the store.”
The new store at 9600 Jos. Campau offers a wide selection of vintage clothes, hats, and accessories for women and men picked out especially by one of Hamtramck’s most distinguished women, namely the mayor.
For Majewski, locating a second-hand vintage clothing store in the town she governs reflects the way she feels about Hamtramck as much as her long-held interest in vintage clothing.
“It is all about seeing the beauty and the value in things that other people have thrown out and discarded,” said Majewski — who grew up in Chicago where she chose her mother’s vintage clothes over the fashions of the day — about her dual mission of opening a quality vintage clothing boutique and boosting Hamtramck.
“The beauty is undervalued, and frequently overlooked or discarded,” she said.

Hamtramck firefighters were about to become a lot busier.
The Hamtramck Fire Department came up with a new mutual aid support program with Highland Park and Detroit.
The new plan called for Hamtramck to respond to any fire call within one mile of the city. Fire Chief Paul Wilk said that he would send three or four firefighters to assist another department when a fire breaks out, and Hamtramck, in turn, will receive an equal helping hand when a fire occurs here.
The goal was that instead of just six firefighters showing up, about 15 will be on hand with two additional fire trucks.
“This has been a year in the making,” Wilk said.

Two Hamtramck School Board candidates were found to be leading dual lives, at least according to an investigation by The Review into property and voter records.
The two candidates in question claimed residences in Warren and in Hamtramck.
According to the Warren Assessor’s Office, and Macomb County records, Mohammad Huda and Nasir Sabuj owned and occupied houses in Warren where they claimed a 100-percent Homestead tax exemption.
To make a Homestead claim, one has to own and live in the house, according to state law.
The penalty for wrongly claiming a Homestead exemption is that the community can seek back taxes up to the past three years that were not paid, plus penalties and fees.
The Warren Assessor’s Office said it would be looking into Huda’s and Sabuj’s Homestead exemption claims. The office also said that if Sabuj is indeed renting the house, as he said he was, he has to register as a landlord and undergo yearly housing inspections.
As it turned out, out of the two, only Huda won election.

NOVEMBER
Hamtramck voters remained true to their Democratic roots and overwhelmingly supported Democratic candidates.
Unfortunately for Democrats in the state and nationwide, it wasn’t a good election day for them.
Many Democratic candidates were knocked out of office or failed to topple incumbent Republicans.
In Michigan, Republicans gained seats in both the Senate and House of Representatives.
Hamtramck voters also came out in droves. Some 3,702 voters participated, more than in any other mid-term election held in Hamtramck in recent memory.
One reason why there might have been an uptick in voters here in Hamtramck is that 15 candidates were running for five seats on Hamtramck’s School Board. After the polls closed, Hamtramck City Hall was packed with supporters of school candidates, eagerly awaiting election results.
The School Board election results brought in some new faces, but also resulted in the loss of two sitting members.
In the regular six-year term, the three top winners, in order, were: Evan Major, Mohammad Huda and Dennis Lukas.
Incumbents Alan Shulgon and Eric Burkman were knocked out of the race.
The search is off for a new contractor to perform snow plowing service and lot maintenance.
Emergency Manager Cathy Square said that “it’s too late in the season” to look for a contractor to take over snow plowing and street salting.
Last year Platinum Landscaping, Inc. charged the city about $800,000 to plow and salt about 12 major streets.
Platinum also took care of lot maintenance and pothole repairs, and over the past few years the company has earned over $2 million.
The company’s contract, which had no expiration date, came under review when the former Director of Public Works, Steve Shaya, revealed he was the uncle of the owner of Platinum.
Square fired Shaya shortly after that admission.
Restaurants that specialize in Bangladeshi dishes may be adding up in Hamtramck, but Kabob House and Banquet may be the first one that can almost feed an army.
Opened on July 20 and enjoying an increase in business, the Kabob House boasted of a newly-created kitchen that can produce meals for 2,500 people, and while there are not that many seats in the house, there is still an impressive amount when the dining room and the restaurant’s two banquet halls combine to seat 350 people in 8,000 square feet of space.
“There are other restaurants that serve similar food in Hamtramck, but we want to provide the party rooms for the special occasions, like graduations and weddings and anniversaries,” Kabob House Owner Shaker Sadeak said. “We also serve American food, and Middle Eastern food, and that gives our customers wide-open options.”
The financial picture for Hamtramck Public Schools continued to improve.
That was the news at the monthly school board meeting from the district’s auditor, Thomas Monteleon of the Yeo & Yeo CPA firm.
Last year the district was facing a $3.4 million deficit, which has since been whittled down to $1 million. There’s been a steady decline in the deficit from a few years ago when the district posted a $5 million deficit.
Monteleon said the financial outlook this year was “considerably better.”
Since last year, the district slashed expenses by contracting out custodial work and bus driving services.
Teachers also took a hit by having to kick in money for health coverage and a reduction in yearly raises.
While the district managed to reduce its deficit, at the same time it was posting a budget surplus of $2.3 million.
“That’s remarkable,” said Monteleon. “There was a huge reduction in the deficit.”
Catholic Mass Mob organizers were hoping to work their magic in Hamtramck once again this time at Our Lady Queen of Apostles Church, and so were representatives of the church.
“The other (Mass Mob) events have drawn from 1,500 to 2,000 people,” said Our Lady Queen of Apostles church secretary Carrie Miesik. “We’re expecting a lot of people from the suburbs who used to attend the grade school, and their family members.”
Mass Mob liaison Our Lady of Apostles Council Member Debbie Warren said that she would be overwhelmed if an overflow crowd turned out at the Church, which has a capacity of just over 800.
“I am thinking about 600 to 800,” Warren said. “It’s like throwing a party and not knowing who is going to come.”
The results were in from the citywide mapping project.
And there was good news, blight-wise speaking.
Out of a total of 6,170 properties recorded, 5,491 are structures. Out of those structures, only 25 were described as being in poor condition.
The survey, conducted by the Motor City Mapping Project, found 679 lots, out of which only 21 had debris dumped on them.
The project, funded by grants from the Knight and Kresge foundations, allowed the city to map out its own blight fighting plan. The city was currently seeking a slice of a $75 million grant to begin that fight.
Kathy Angerer, the city’s Director of Community & Economic Development, said the plan came just at the right time. The results, she said, would be included in the city’s application for a blight grant.
Hamtramck school officials planned once again ask voters to approve a tax.
Except this time around it was not a new tax. The public school district will be seeking the renewal of an 18-mill tax used for general operation expenses.
The tax produces $1.88 million a year. The current tax will expire in December of 2015, and was last approved in 2005.
Voters will be asked to OK another 10-year extension on Feb. 24.
This tax is unique in that only non-residents who own property in Hamtramck pay it. That means Hamtramck homeowners who receive a Homestead tax exemption, get a pass on this tax.
“It’s no cost to Hamtramck homeowners,” said School District Superintendent Tom Niczay.

 
DECEMBER
Hamtramck got a new city manager.
As expected, Katrina Powell was hired out of a field of four candidates. Her contract was set for two-and-a-half years.
Powell started just as Emergency Manager Cathy Square prepared to leave her position on Dec. 18.
While Square had the final say-so in hiring Powell, she told The Review she followed the advice of city council and Mayor Karen Majewski.
“The mayor and council liked her, and I wanted somebody they wanted to work with,” Square said. “I hope they have a better relationship than they did with some of the other city managers.”
Prior to Square taking control of the city 18 months prior, the city went through five city managers in about a two-month span.
Powell comes from Florida, where she was last city manager for the city of Longwood from 2009-2011.
She was also city manager for Fort Meade and an assistant to the city manager for Deltona. Her background also includes 20 years with the military. For the past three years she has operated a fleet service that leases cars for undercover operations.
Lately there had been a lot of discussion about the city’s water bills.
For a recent two-month stretch the city fell behind in sending out monthly water bills. When the city finally did get bills out, some homeowners were outraged over how much they were being charged.
To make matters more confusing, in order to catch up, the city sent another round of bills out during the same month. Some thought they were being double-billed.
And then to add even more misery, some of the bills were miscalculated, using a wrong formula, and were much higher than they should have been. The city’s new Director of Public Works, Mark Ragsdale, promised to get on top of the problem.
It had been several months in the making, and finally Metropolitan Baking Co. was ready to begin its expansion.
The expansion required city approval to close part of the Lumpkin alley behind the plant. The city council unanimously agreed to the request.
Was American Axle back into local auto production?
For a second, it appeared that way, when a few hundred Ford F-150 pickup trucks mysteriously began to appear on the lot where a former American Axle plant once operated on Holbrook.
But, alas, American Axle wasn’t back in the auto manufacturing game, at least here in Michigan.
According to Kathy Angerer, the city’s Director of Community & Economic Development, the site, now owned by a California-based company, Industrial Realty Group LLC, was being leased out to Ford to park its overflow of trucks.
For those who were keeping tabs, City Councilmember Titus Walters had missed a lot of meetings in recent months.
Since the beginning of his term in January 2014, he missed seven meetings, most of them occurring in the last couple of months.
Rumors heated up that Walters might step down due to ongoing health issues.
Not so, Walters told The Review.
“I’m not resigning,” Walters said. “I feel good, and I’m getting stronger every day.”
Walters declined to comment on his health issue, but those who knew him said it has to do with his heart.
What was at stake was whether his absences had been excused. According to the City Charter, a councilmember who has five unexcused absences in a row, or has accumulated 10 unexcused absences within one year, can no longer serve on council.
City Clerk August Gitschlag said to his knowledge Walters’ absences were, indeed, excused.

Did someone wish for a new Hamtramck Secretary of State office for the holidays?
If so, that wish came true.
With little advance notice, the office closed down and relocated to 9001 Jos. Campau on Dec. 15. The new office offers a 24-hour service.
Hamtramck’s financial emergency was declared over.
Gov. Rick Snyder made the announcement as Emergency Manager Cathy Square finished up her last day on the job.
Snyder said there will be a Transition Advisory Board to continue overseeing Hamtramck finances.
“I am very pleased to accept Cathy Square’s recommendation that the financial emergency in Hamtramck has been sufficiently addressed so we can begin the process of transitioning back to local control,” Snyder said in a press release.
“I know members of the Receivership Transition Advisory Board will work with local leaders to ensure that the city of Hamtramck remains on solid financial footing.”
Christmas came early to Hamtramck.
It was announced that the city will receive nearly $1 million from a federal grant to fight blight.
The city applied for the grant a few months ago, and Kathy Angerer, the city’s Director of Community & Economic Development, said she got “exactly what we planned for.”
“It’s a great day for Hamtramck,” she added.
Angerer, who applied for the grant, said the money will be used to tear down 64 dilapidated houses.
Emergency Manager Cathy Square was named “Newsmaker of the Year” by The Review.
Square took control of the city in July of 2013 and finished her 18-month stay on Dec. 18. She initially planned to be here only 12 months, but a search for a city manager and a delay in securing a state emergency loan took longer than expected, requiring Square to remain the maximum time allowed by state law.
Although she purposely stayed away from the limelight and declined to join in on community events and celebrations, Square’s job here will be felt for years to come.
Well, that wraps up the year 2014, and oh what a year it was. Here’s looking forward to a brand new year.