'topless' feast for the 'Eyes'

June 24, 1999
Grosse Pointe News News
, Photo by Brad Lmdberg
Farms lakeside lookout
Steven and Kathy Bowler of Grosse Pointe Farms enjoy the Pointe's latest lakewatching
venue at the Farms Pier Park gazebo, Dedication of the structure on
Memorial Day capped extensive repairs and improvements to the lakefront park.
Much of the money and labor to complete the two-year park renovation was donated
by residents and city employees, Farms councilman and chairman of the parks
commlttee Ron Knelser saId. "This gazebo is a testament to the generosity of our
community and the hard work of the Farms Foundation."
Study -will detertnine future
of Hill cOIntnercial district
By Brad Lindberg
Staff Wnter
A study to determlOe the
best use for the HlII business
dIstnct lo Grosse Pointe Farms
should be finIshed lo tIme to
colOclde wIth the December
expIratIOn of a moratonum
prohlbltlOg the alterlOg of
structures Wlthm the commer-
CIal area
The $28,000 study WIll take
place m three steps and
mclude a "retall enhancement
program~ to explore everytlung
from roof pItches and color
schemes for "reVISIons to the
eXlstmg (Farms) master plan
whIch can encourage retal1
land uses," accordmg to contract-wmner
Robert GIbbs,
preSIdent of the Gibbs
PlannlOg Group, a market
research and urban plannIng
firm lo Blrmmgham
"All stake holders on the Hl1l
WIll be asked to partICIpate (m
the study)," saId Farms Mayor
John Danaher
"That's wonderful," SaId
Sandy GIllespIe, owner of
Somethmg SpeCial and
Somethmg SpeCIal Too gIfts
shops on the HIli "A strong
retaIl dlstnct WIll enhance the
commuruty and property values
around It ~
The analySIS WIll examme
the potential growth, changIng
uses, parkmg and utIhzatlOn of
the HIll from FIsher Road
through Cottage HospItal,
IncludIng the Central Branch
of the Grosse PolOte Pubhc
LIbrary and Richard
Elementary School
The analySIS WIll range to
"wherever HIll employees are
hkely to park, mcludmg Side
streets," saId RIchard Solak,
cIty manager of the Farms
Last year at reSIdents' request,
the Farms restncted parkmg
on Mapleton because Hill
employees routmely usurped
on-street parklOg
Gibbs saId the study WIll
examme the "cntIcal Issues~ of
"market potpntIal" and "the
phaslOg of urban shoppmg dlstnct
enhancements for reahstlc
long term growth through
redevelopment"
He saId, "RetaIl uses need to
be umque and entertammg
enough to draw consumers regularly
from the adjacent neIghborhoods,
as well as tounsts
and travelers from a larger
trade area than IS tradItIOnal
for commercIal centers ..
"People want the ambIence
of a malO-street shoppmg dlstnct,"
added GIllespie "They
want to be able to shop locally"
The study and recent moratonum
on renovatmg Hili
bUlldmgs were prompted 10
March when a local builder
tned to replace a one-story
retaIl buslOE=!>sWith a twostory
office bUlldmg Prote~t~
by the commercial dlstnct'..,
dWlndhng supply of retailers
tK1,N'K .'I1~.R:!
at DENNISON'S
PRE-JULY SALE
.0' '. :2.%
, . .
, • OFF
-
,
t
•
ALL
SUMMER
MERCHANDISE
NAME
BRANDS
at MODERATE
PRICES
17037 Kercheval
in-the-Village
881-5060
caused the Farms counctl to
ban 10 May the construction,
razlOg or changmg of structures
lo the Farms three bUSIness
dlstncts
In what many observers saw
as a case of mumclpallegerdemam,
the counCil III a 4-3 deCIsIOn
denIed the office bUIldlOg
scheme because the new facilIty
would have pressured and
already stressed the parkmg
SituatIOn on the HIll
Although the moratorium
applied city-wide, It was targeted
at the Hlll The moratonurn
expIres Dec 6, by whIch
tIme the land use study IS
expected to help solve some of
the area's groWIng palOS If
necessary, the ban can be
extended
Because a full-scale parkIng
analySIS wasn't part of the
Gibbs proposal, the councll
dIrected the plannmg firm to
eIther perform a parklOg study
Itself or dole It out to someone
else
Either way, come December
the counCIl should have enough
data to conSIder amendmg zonmg
ordmances and layout the
first updated bluepnnt for the
HIll smce a land use and marketabIlity
study 10 1983
3A
Fartns delays vote on Cottage
cancer center until Decetnber
By Brad Lindberg
Staff Wnter
The pubhc got a dose of 1Oformatlon
about X-rays thiS week
as executives from Cottage
HospItal addressed the Grosse
Pomte Farms cIty counCIl
about plans to bUIld a cancer
treatment center on the HIli
The counCIl delayed an op1o-
Ion until a newly commiSSIOn
exammation of HIll development
IS completed Dec 1
In pubhc bnefing dunng
wluch Cottage gauged community
support, RIchard Van Lith,
chief executive officer of Bon
Secours Cottage Health
System, said the project needed
state approval but would
"make a chnically excellent
and economically vlable~ treatment
center supported by the
eXIstlOg Cottage patient populatIOn.
The Cottage plan comes at a
time when St John HospItal
and MedIcal Center on Mack 10
DetrOit IS planning ItS own
cancer treatment center
LIke St John, Cottage has
apphed to the state for a
Certificate of Need to Justify
the expense of estabhslung a
new treatment center
Opponents of the Cottage
proposal lIkened the concept to
a hlstorlcally benl/{Il small
town hospItal expandIng needlessly
to the detnment of the
local comm'inIty it was founded
to serve
Some reSidents were concerned
about how the new
faclhty would affect traffic and
parkmg on and near the Hlll,
whl1e others worned If X-rays
could escape mto the neighborhood
"We don't need a bIg, gargantuan
hospItal lo the Farms,~
saId Peter Kross, a Farms reSIdent
and property owner on the
Hill
"Cottage used to be a small
commumty hospltal,~ said
Farms reSident Ken Harle
"HospItals get larger, not
smaller, (and on the Hdn,
there's only Just so much
room ~
George Negn III, a reSIdent
hVlng near Cottage who has
already gone on record agamst
the proJect, asked, "Is tIus the
opemng of a floodgate?~
Van LIth answered, "We
don't have plans to create a
massIve cancer center"
About 80 percent of Cottage-
Bon Secours patients come
from the Grosse Pomtes,
Harper Woods, St ClaIr
Shores and the eastSIde of
DetrOIt, saId Van Lith Data
shOWIng how many Cottage
patients hve 10 the Farms WIll
be forthcommg, he added
Because the hospItal's plan
10cludes cooperative efforts
WIth large cancer research
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edmund t. AHEE Jewel.,.
20139 Mack Avenue • Between 1and 8 Mile Roads
Grosse Pointe Woods, MI48236
1-800-981-AHEE (2433) 1-313-886-4600 Fax 1-313-886-2120
www ahee-Iewelers com
mstltutlOns, ~uch a!> Henry
Ford HospItal an'd die
Umverslty of MichIgan,
"patIent.. can be dlagnl,lsed
elsewhere and treated locally,~
saId Van LIth "Access IS everythmg"
)
Stili, Kross saId, "Farms re ..-
Idents are some ofthe best educated
and wealthiest m the
country I bl.'heve that our reSIdents
WIll choose thmr cancer
center based on expertise
rather than how convemently
located It IS ~
The faclhty WIllbe constructed
around a hnear accelerator
that zaps tumors WIth concentrated
non-nuclear X-rays The
umt can treat up to 35 patIents
per day, accordlOg to Ray
Carlson, a medIcal nuclear and
dIagnostic phYSICiSt
To keep the rays contained,
the faclhty w111 have "overshIelded
walls~ made of high
denSIty concrete eight feet
thIck that exceed state standards,
saId Carlson, who was
hired by Cottage to make sure
the treatment center IS
deSIgned properly and sealed
tight
The concrete walls are the
protectIve eqUIvalent of 12
lOches of lead, whIch because It
IS a soft yet extremely dense
metal, would buckle under ItS
own weight If fashIOned m such
dImenSIOns, said Carlson By
companson, normal X-ray
machmes are shIelded by lead
only Vl6-lOch thick
Although Van LIth saId,
"There aren't elans to use
(nuclear equIpment) currently,"
he dIdn't rule out usmg
breakthrough cancer-fightlOg
eqUIpment as It becomes avaIlable
Carlson said the accelerator
machme doesn't use nuclear
matenal, Just X-rays
"You turn the maclune on
and off There's nothlOg reSIdual,"
said the phySICIst
BeSIdes, he said, Cottage and
Bon Secours "already have
departments of nuclear medlclOe,
yet nothmg - none - IS
released lOto the envIronment"
"Flghtmg cancer WIth
machmes that don't leak IS
wonderful," saId Sarah MarchI,
who lives a block away from
Cottage, "but I'm concerned
~--
Name
Belt time to caU
"
- A4us~ be IS -
about traffic People are
whlzzmg by (my house) all the
time ~
A ho~pltal.sponsored traffic
study conducted by Dr Tappan
Datta of Wayne State
Umver~lty concluded that traffic
won't be a problem Even If
traffic Increases 5 percent
beyond proJectIOns, It WIll sttll
"be operatlOg at acceptable levels,"
~ald Datta, who recently
concluded a study of Grosse
Pomte Boulevard on behalf of
the Farms
Farms Mayor John Danaher,
an employee of Cottage's parent
company, Henry Ford
Health System, recused hImself
from the proceedlOgs and
saId he will do so whenever a
Cottage-Bon Secours Issue
enters the councIl's pUrVIew
Mayor pro tern Ed Gaffney,
chamng the meetmg as
Danaher watched nearby ("I'm
sIttlOg on the sldelines,~ said
Danaher), adVised delaymg a
council deCISion on the hospItal
untIl the Farms learns the
findIngs of a $28,000 land-use
study of the Hl1l
"It's appropnate that we
know what to do With the HIll
before we vote on thiS proposal,"
saId Gaffney
Man dies in fall
Grosse PolOte Park public
safety officers were called to a
home lo the 1200 block of
Maryland at about 3.15 pm on
Thursday, June 17, to help rescue
a man who had Just fallen
off a scaffold
Accordmg to pohce the VICtim,
Andre J PlavlJamch, 35,
of Grosse PolOte Park, was
pamtlOg restmg on an extensIOn
ladder that on was a scaffold
over 35 feet above the
ground Apparently the scaffold
fell away from the apartment
and he fell to the ground
An InvestlgatlOn by Park
public safety officers revealed
that the scaffold was not properly
secured agamst the bUlld-
109 and that the PlavljanIch's
weIght on the ladder moved the
structure away from the buIldmg,
causlOg the aCCIdent
--------
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Phone lopdHo!) Work Phone lopllou1)
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