Writing
Juan’s fight for his life
By Ryan Loew
Lansing State Journal — Sunday, April 13, 2008
Rosemary Contreras leans over the edge of the hospital bed and gently suctions saliva from her son’s mouth.
“Sweetie, you can hear Mommy, right?” she whispers to Juan. “Squeeze my hand, baby, come on. Juan, come on, sweetie.”
Twelve-year-old Juan Contreras doesn’t respond.
He may never respond.
He’s been in a coma since he was injured during a March 15 amateur boxing match in Kalamazoo.
According to Rosemary, doctors say a blow to the head caused Juan to suffer a subdural hematoma, a blood clot on the brain. There’s only a small chance he will regain full brain function.
But many are pulling for him. His hospital room walls in Kalamazoo are covered with posters and cards from classmates and other young boxers. They send get-well wishes to the jokester and athlete they miss.
His family keeps vigil by his bedside.
Rosemary prays Juan will still, some day, simply wake up.
“I’ll always have hope,” she says. “I believe that God’s going to bring him back to me.”
AT THE FIGHT
The fight bell sounds the start of round three, and Juan, a member of Lansing’s Crown Boxing Club, sidesteps about the ring in blue trunks and a gold jersey, trading quick jabs with another young fighter.
The match is just the second fight of his fledgling boxing career.
It is a standard three-round fight with one-minute rounds, according to Robert Every, president of Crown Boxing.
Midway through the third round Juan’s opponent, a 13-year-old, lands a flurry of punches.
The referee halts the fight to examine Juan. The boy’s knees buckle. The fight is called. Crown Boxing head coach Ali Easley sits Juan on a stool in the ring and wipes his face with a towel. Easley stands Juan up to leave the ring, and the boy staggers again. Easley lays his young fighter on the mat.
The crowd gasps.
“Oh, my God.”
Juan is taken directly to Kalamazoo’s Bronson Methodist Hospital by ambulance.
Juan’s father, Jose, and his uncle, David Martinez, are ringside, but Rosemary isn’t. She’s in Lansing when sometime between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. she gets a phone call from Martinez.
The message is startling: Juan is hurt, get a ride to Kalamazoo.
Five minutes later, her husband calls back. Juan needs surgery.
“At first, I thought maybe he got the air knocked out of him or maybe people were making it sound worse than it was,” she says.
Rosemary gets a ride from a sister-in-law to Kalamazoo, praying the entire time that it was all a mistake.
“The ironic part about it all is that he’s doing the thing he loves, and the thing he loves jumps up and bites him,” Every says, “and now he’s fighting for his life.”
Rosemary says doctors perform immediate surgery to relieve pressure on Juan’s brain. A piece of skull has to be removed.
Juan remains in a coma with little brain function. A ventilator helps him breathe. He needs a feeding tube for nourishment.
“I signed him up because it was a sport, it was a kids’ sport,” his mother says. “I mean, I never thought I would lose him over this.”
AT THE HOSPITAL
Posters and cards with messages reading “Wat up get well soon,” and “You are in our thoughts and prayers,” lined Juan’s Kalamazoo hospital room before he was moved to Sparrow last week.
Until then, Juan’s family lived at Bronson Hospital, sleeping in a room down the hall from Juan’s bed in the pediatric intensive care unit.
His father slept for a few hours while Rosemary sat with her son.
She kissed Juan’s right hand, which held a rosary.
“Baby … baby, come on, open your eyes,” she said.
Juan lay motionless, although he still has some reflexes. His eyes blink, and his mouth moves slightly.
“I always just sit here and wonder what he’s thinking,” she said, “and if he can hear us.”
Juan’s three sisters and twin brother kept vigil with the family as well. Juan’s sister Nicole adjusted headphones so Juan could listen to Lil Wayne on his MP3 player.
It calms him, they said.
Twin brother Jose talked to Juan at his bedside, filling him in on school projects and two-hand touch football games at recess.
“I just never thought it would happen,” Jose said.
Juan, a seventh-grader on the honor roll at the Mid-Michigan Leadership Academy, is a “bright, articulate, great student” said Superintendent Mark Eitrem.
“He’s just an all-around great kid,” he said. “It’s a real tragedy for us. The whole Mid-Michigan Leadership Academy family is struggling with this.”
AT THE GYM
A handful of young fighters at Crown Boxing hustle about the 6,000-square-foot gym, jumping rope and punching heavy bags.
It’s been tough since Juan got injured, coach Easley says:
“It’s devastating.”
He says Juan “fit right in” after his father signed him up about the beginning of February.
Juan has always been interested in boxing. One of his favorite boxers is Oscar De La Hoya.
“Ever since he was little, he’d be playing around with boxing gloves or finding someone to box with him,” Rosemary says.
Easley says his coach-to-boxer conversations centered less around boxing and more on down-to-earth, 12-year-old life: school, the gym, girls.
He says Juan trained daily.
Juan won his first fight in late February, held in St. Clair Shores, with a first-round knockout, Easley says.
“This kid, he wanted to fight,” says Every, Crown Boxing’s president. “He was at his happiest when he was in the gym. … He found something that he was good at.”
USA Boxing provides insurance for its registered fighters in sanctioned fights, Every said. The family has retained a lawyer as medical costs increase.
BY HIS SIDE
If she had to do it all over again Rosemary says she would have gone to the fight. Juan wanted her there.
Juan is up early the morning of the fight, his mother says. He makes breakfast for his sister Selena – reheated pizza – and runs around the block 10 times for a workout. The weigh-in is in the afternoon, and he’s excited to get to Kala- mazoo.
But Rosemary, mother true-to-form, doesn’t want to see anyone hitting her son.
“It just makes me think I could have done something different,” she says.
Juan will stay at Sparrow Hospital until he can be taken to a rehabilitation center or home.
He is being eased off the ventilator, Rosemary says, but will need a feeding tube until he can feed himself.
Rosemary keeps a notebook with directions from nurses on how to take care of Juan if he is released from hospital care:
“Inject medicine for blood clots every 12 hrs.”
“Clean mouth every 4 hrs. to prevent infection.”
“Sanitize mouth every time you suction.”
“I’m going to have to take care of him like he was a baby again,” Rosemary says.
“I have to do what I have to do, though. Nobody can take care of him better than I can, I guess, whether I have medical experience or not.”
Contact Ryan Loew at 377-1206 or rloew@lsj.com.
Delta tragedy traumatic for police, too
By Ryan Loew
Lansing State Journal — – Wednesday, June 10, 2009
DELTA TWP. – When Lt. Jeff Warder of the Eaton County sheriff’s office Delta Patrol was at the scene of the apparent murder-suicide in Delta Township Monday, he said he couldn’t help but think of his own two children.
They’re around the same ages as the victims, he said.
“It made me want to come home and give both my kids a big hug,” Warder said.
When violence happens, community members aren’t the only ones affected. Police are too, said Tom Hendrickson, executive director of the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police.
“I think what law enforcement goes through is somewhat similar to the military, not in the sense of experiencing combat, but experiencing the trauma and aftermath of violence,” Hendrickson said. “It brings an accumulated stress not only for law enforcement officers but in medical personnel, emergency personnel.”
About 10 to 12 sheriff’s office personnel were initially on the scene Monday, Warder said, with about half that number directly involved in the investigation.
Police said Shajimon Thomas came home Monday evening and discovered the bodies of his wife, 40-year-old Brigeethamma Shajimon, and his two sons, Alwin Shajimon Thomas, 10, and Alfred Shajimon Thomas, 5. Police have described the incident as an apparent murder-suicide.
“We’re humans like anybody else,” Eaton County Sheriff Mike Raines said. “And it has the same effect that it would on the general public. However, we’re trained professionals.
“We have avenues available to us.”
The sheriff’s office utilizes an interdepartment trauma/peer support team made up of six deputies who have “extensive” training in dealing with traumatic incidents such as officer-involved shootings or other critical incidents, said Warder, who oversees the team.
Deputies can also receive counseling from a department-contracted psychologist. But as of Tuesday afternoon, no sheriff’s office personnel had sought help related to Monday’s incident, Warder said.
But when it comes to traumatic events such as Monday’s incident, Eaton County sheriff’s deputies aren’t alone out there.
Supporting deputies at the scene Monday evening were volunteer victim advocates from the Eaton County Sheriff’s Office Volunteers in Police Service, a local chapter of a national organization designed to assist law enforcement agencies.
“The police are so busy processing the scene at the time that they don’t have the time to be able to give the comfort level to the victims or the victims’ families,” said Randy Carpenter, coordinator of the Eaton County group.
The victim advocates “come in and take that stress off the police,” Carpenter said, by helping trauma victims contact family members, reach out to social services or simply by listening to victims’ stories.
“There’s a lot for (police) to do, and it’s not that they wouldn’t want to help,” Carpenter said. “It’s just that the time constraints and the crisis at hand takes a lot from them.”
Parents anxious over fate of Grand River school
By Ryan Loew
Lansing State Journal — Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Lansing resident Roseta Martinez initially wasn’t going to be able to make it to Monday night’s informational meeting at Grand River Elementary School.
But at the urging of her two sons who attend the school, Martinez pulled some strings at work and made it to the meeting to tell district officials how she feels about the possibility that the Lansing School District could close the school.
She’s opposed to it, and so were a number of people at Monday’s emotional meeting.
“This is a community school,” said Martinez, 26. “It’s very homey to me … the change is going to be hard for them.”
The Lansing School District likely will close two elementary schools in June, according to officials, as the district grapples with issues including declining enrollment, progressively aging facilities and rising operating costs. Three elementary schools – Moores Park, Mt. Hope and Grand River – are being considered.
One principal concern expressed at the meeting included parents’ desires for the children to stay connected with teachers. Another was security of the building should the school close.
About 100 people attended, including parent Keosha Louden, who has three children at Grand River.
“I want them to finish up the rest of their elementary years here,” said Louden, 29. “I’ve gotten really familiar with the teachers, the programs here. I’ve gotten really familiar with the principal here.”
At the meeting, Superintendent T.C. Wallace Jr. stressed that considering school closures is “not an easy process.”
“We believe that relationships are critically important, relationships that develop between teacher and student,” he said. “We say to parents, ‘We are serving you well, we will continue to serve you well, give us the opportunity to serve you well.’ ”
The closings will help balance the school district’s 2009-10 budget, which is about $180 million. Officials expect to come up $13 million to $16 million short in revenue, and the district expects to lose as many as 1,000 of its 14,569 students next year.
The district’s community right-sizing task force recommended earlier this month that Moores Park and another school be closed because of dwindling enrollment. Using separate criteria, an internal school district committee independently recommended last week that the district consider closing Moores Park, Mt. Hope and Grand River, district spokesman Steve Serkaian said.
The district’s internal committee considered several criteria, including student enrollment and building conditions for their recommendation, Serkaian said. Moores Park, Mt. Hope and Grand River ranked the lowest among the district’s 25 elementary schools based on the criteria.
Wallace has said that closing elementary schools would save the district about $300,000 per building.
Bob Mathias, who lives across the street from Grand River, said he’s afraid that if the school did close, it would become a “safe haven” for criminals.
He described the area as a tough neighborhood and that crime in the neighborhood would only increase if the school was closed.
“If they close this school down, then they need to tear it down,” said Mathias, who has lived in the area for six years. “They’ll be moving crack dealers in here left and right.”
Wallace said it is not known at this time what would happen to the building if the school closed, but the district would work with the Lansing Police Department to monitor it.
The Board of Education is expected to consider the school closings at its April 16 meeting.
EMPTY PANTRIES: As need grows, more people seek help from food banks
By Ryan Loew
Lansing State Journal — Friday, March 13, 2009
BATH TWP. – By daybreak Thursday, cars had filled the parking lot at the Bath Charter Township Community Center.
Shopping carts, wagons and baskets in a ragged line wrapped around the rear of the building.
And many of those waiting to receive free groceries from the monthly Clinton County Open Food Distribution Project sat for hours in their cars, before organizers arrived, to secure a good place in line.
It’s an “absolutely common” scenario that doesn’t surprise Mid-Michigan Food Bank Director Dave Karr.
Demand for food is on the rise, he said, and it’s not unheard of for needy individuals to arrive hours before, if not the night before, the Mid-Michigan Food Bank rolls out its weekly Mobile Food Pantry, a separate program from the one in Clinton County.
“It’s just the nature of being insecure,” he said. “You need the food, and you want to make sure you get something because your family needs food.”
The number of Clinton County residents coming to the Clinton County Open Food Distribution Project has risen sharply in recent years, said Pete Shannon, director of the Clinton Memorial Hospital Foundation, which leads the program, along with local churches and community groups.
At the beginning of 2007, he said, the project was providing food to about 50 families a month. At the end of 2008, it was feeding a peak of about 150 families a month.
On Thursday, 122 families were served, Shannon said.
“A lot of people lost their jobs,” he said. “A lot of folks coming through are saying ‘You know, I’ve never done anything like this before.’
“There’s just more and more need.”
The demand for food throughout the seven-county network of food pantries the Mid-Michigan Food Bank serves rose 30 percent from 2007 to 2008, Karr said, in part due to rising unemployment rates.
A growing number of states suffered double-digit unemployment rates in January. Michigan’s rate hit 11.6 percent in January, the highest in the country.
In line at the community center Thursday was Russell Mitchell, a 29-year-old St. Johns resident who is well aware of the fact that his situation is one shared by millions of Americans.
He’s out of work, and he needs help.
“Anywhere I can get it,” he said. “I’m a very proud person, but when you need help, you need help.”
St. Johns-area resident John Gillespie said he had waited with his girlfriend, Joyce Nussbaumer, outside the Bath Township center since 5 a.m.
Gillespie, 54, was hurt while working as a truck driver in 2005. He’s now on disability pay – a serious cut from the $2,800 a month he grossed before the accident to the $700 a month he receives now.
“I only get so much money a month,” Gillespie said, “and I gotta stretch it out. This food here covers the difference.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
‘Hero’ saves woman from armed attacker
By Ryan Loew
Lansing State Journal — Tuesday, February 26, 2008
POTTERVILLE – Tim Bates said he made the short drive to Frank’s Party Store in Potterville on Monday morning only for an energy drink and a Pepsi.
But he might have saved a woman’s life while there, and he said he’d do it again if he had to.
“I just can’t let somebody hurt somebody like that,” the 30-year-old Potterville resident said.
At about 6:30 a.m. Monday, a woman getting into her car at the store, located at 117 E. Lansing Road, was assaulted when a man hiding in her back seat grabbed her by the throat and held a handgun to her head, said Van Johnson, chief of Potterville police.
The woman, a 38-year-old Potterville resident, began screaming and honking the car’s horn, Johnson said.
Bates overheard the noise and was able to pull her from her vehicle. She did not need medical treatment, police said.
Bates said the incident and his intervention happened quickly.
“She had that scream, that scream that you hear on TV. That death-defying scream,” he said.
Nichole Mackie, manager of Frank’s Party Store, was at work when the victim, described as a kind-hearted, regular customer, came in around 6:30 a.m. to buy a pack of Marlboros.
“She goes out to her car, and I’m waiting on another customer,” she said.
“And we hear a scream.”
Bates said he went outside and saw the assault in progress.
“I seen her kicking and screaming,” Bates said. “Kicking and thrashing around trying to get out. I heard her scream, ‘Help me, help me, he’s gonna kill me.’ “
Bates said he ran up to the car, which was parked near the building, and reached inside.
“I just hit him in the forehead to get him to let go,” he said, “and as I was pulling her out of the car she screamed, ‘He’s got a gun.’ “
The suspect then fled the scene on foot, and Bates said he followed the man a short distance to “keep an eye on him until the cops took off after him,” he said.
The manhunt involved Potterville police, the Eaton County Sheriff’s Department and Michigan State Police.
Potterville’s middle and high schools were locked down. The elementary school was closed.
Eaton County Undersheriff Fred McPhail commended Bates for his action.
“He’s definitely a hero in my eyes,” he said.
Johnson said that shortly after noon, the suspect, whose identity was not released, was apprehended by the Eaton County Sheriff’s Department south of Potterville, in a field just west of Royston Road.
Johnson said Monday the suspect is being held at the Eaton County Jail and likely will face a felonious assault charge.
The suspect is scheduled to be arraigned today in 56th District Court in Charlotte, McPhail said.
The suspect, 29, is believed to have gotten into a vehicle at some point after fleeing the scene, Johnson said.
The victim told investigators that she had been in a dating relationship with the suspect over the past few years.
The district lifted its lockdowns at Potterville’s middle and high school after the suspect was arrested, Potterville Public Schools Superintendent Bill Eis said.
Potterville schools are located about half a mile northeast of the party store, Johnson said.
Eis said no students were injured, and the delay and lockdowns were safety precautions.
“It’s unfortunate,” Eis said. “It is very difficult to try and predict all the things that may happen in our world today, and if there’s any good news today, it’s that our emergency plans worked very well.”
Lisa Shanahan has two children in Potterville schools.
She said she was relieved the suspect was caught before school let out.
She cautioned her 17-year-old daughter, a senior at Potterville High School, before she left for school late on Monday due to illness.
“I just told her to look outside for a bit to make sure things were calm and to check the car before she got in it,” Shanahan said.
Mackie, the Frank’s Party Store manager, said Bates, the victim and the suspect are all regulars at her store.
“It’s just kinda scary that this could happen in such a small town,” she said.
Ingham County Community News Reporter Rachel Greco contributed to this report. Contact Ryan Loew at 377-1206 or rloew@lsj.com.
Recipes for fuel: Oil that fries your food in a restaurant could be what powers your car’s engine
By Ryan Loew
Lansing State Journal — Sunday, August 10, 2008
Parked at the top of green piece of land that stretches 27 acres, Arturo Santa Cruz cranked up the engine of a Kawasaki all-terrain vehicle, bent down, cupped his hand and sniffed the exhaust.
The fumes smelled like tortilla chips.
There’s a reason for that: His fuel came from a deep fryer. “It saves me a whole lot of money, man,” he said.
Santa Cruz is part of a growing number of people who are using biofuels to fill up their tanks in a world of high gas prices and heightened environmental concerns.
Santa Cruz owns the El Azteco restaurants in East Lansing and Lansing. He has the grease from his restaurants converted to biodiesel at his Watertown Township maintenance warehouse, which he then uses in a fleet of vehicles: delivery vans, a truck, a tractor, his own Mercedes-Benz and others. He also uses it as a supplemental energy source in generators powering the warehouse, a tortilla factory and his home.
LOOKING FOR ALTERNATIVES
The use of biodiesel has increased “greatly” over the past five years, dropping off, though, over the past year and a half due to the cost of the plant oil, said Dennis Miller, a professor of chemical engineering at Michigan State University.
Unlike Santa Cruz’s fuel, most biodiesel comes from soybeans, canola and other sources, all of which have increased dramatically in price because of increased demand and speculation on demand, he said.
Locally, there is a “small but passionate group of individuals” running their vehicles on biodiesel, said Maggie Striz Calnin, program coordinator of Greater Lansing Area Clean Cities, a nonprofit coalition of local governments and businesses.
“For one, they see the connection between the environment and public health and alternative fuels,” she said. “They’re also starting to see the benefit of using domestically produced fuel rather than imported fuel, because our lives are so interconnected with transportation.”
Santa Cruz estimates that to fill the 25-gallon tank of his 2004 Dodge Sprinter van with regular diesel fuel, it would cost $125.
But by using 50 percent biodiesel in the van’s tank, he’s only paying half the price, saving him anywhere from $300 to $400 a month on fuel costs.
“I’m a green-feeling person,” Santa Cruz said. “I take this with sincerity: We’re in a real crisis, and I think we need to look at alternative means.”
GOT GREASE?
Biodiesel isn’t the only alternative that’s attracting interest.
Sales have increased for Greasecar Vegetable Fuel Systems, which bills itself as the nation’s largest retailer and manufacturer of vegetable oil kits, said Justin Carven, founder and owner of the company based out of Easthampton, Mass.
The fuel system allows diesel vehicles retrofitted with conversion kits to run on straight vegetable oil, or grease, often obtained from restaurants for free.
Carven said slightly more than 5,000 kits have been sold in the last eight years, most of which were sold in the last two years.
As fuel prices climb, he said, so has interest in the system.
“There’s not too many places for people to turn, and this is a relatively straightforward and affordable way to go,” Carven said.
In 2007, he said, Greasecar sold just fewer than 1,000 kits. Carven expects 2,000 kits to be sold by the end of this year.
CONVERSION KITS
Laingsburg resident Randall Webber, 47, has been installing vegetable oil conversion kits as a side job for seven years, he said.
He currently drives a 1997 Ford F350 truck outfitted with a conversion kit, he said. Using grease he collects for free from restaurants in the Upper Peninsula saves him about $300 a month on fuel expenses.
Benjamin Calnin, 27, of Lansing, began converting his 1984 Mercedes-Benz 300SD with a self-designed vegetable oil kit a couple months ago.
“I thought it’d be an interesting project,” said Calnin, who is Maggie Striz Calnin’s husband.
“I’ve always been concerned about the environment, and yeah, it seemed like a fun thing to do.”
He expects the car to be on the road in coming weeks, and as of right now, he’s researching Web sites and local restaurants that can provide grease.
Greasecar kits range in price from under $1,000 up to $3,000, depending on the vehicle. Customers can install the kits on their own or they can pay about $1,000 to have the kit installed by a professional, Carven said.
With the vegetable oil system, all existing diesel fueling equipment stays in the vehicle, so a converted car is actually duel-fuel, he said.
Typically there is no difference in fuel economy between diesel and vegetable oil, according to the company.
The vehicle still needs to be started on regular diesel, however, Webber said. That’s to get the engine up to proper temperature so that the vegetable oil will heat and thin so that it can be burned as fuel.
The system either automatically switches over to vegetable oil or the operator can manually switch it.
In the winter, a passenger vehicle such as a Volkswagen Jetta typically switches over after driving about 8 miles, while trucks about take about 14 miles, Webber said.
That’s the primary reason why Santa Cruz uses biodiesel, which needs no heating time.
The fuel economy of an engine running on biodiesel is typically about the same as one running on regular diesel, Miller said.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
Biodiesel burns more cleanly and emits less greenhouse gases than regular diesel, Miller said.
Using biodiesel and straight vegetable oil emits anywhere from 90 to 75 percent less greenhouse gases than regular diesel, he added.
Still, Miller said, an alternative fuel such as biodiesel is “one of many solutions that we need to come up with to gain independence from petroleum.”
“We need many different solutions, so you hear about ethanol, you hear about electric cars, fuel cell cars, wind, solar, nuclear, all of those together are going to be solutions that are going to relieve our energy problem.”
Police say homicides likely were drug-related
By Ryan Loew
Lansing State Journal — Saturday, May 24, 2008
James Edward Jones III, and Miranda Marie Garza, both 25, were engaged to be married, family and friends say.
He popped the question last year.
They had been together for about 12 years, since they were in school together at Gardner Middle School and Everett High School.
They were supposed to be together for the rest of their lives, said Venino Bermudez, Garza’s 39-year-old second cousin.
“You couldn’t pull them two apart,” he said.
But now they’re gone, the victims of a double homicide police believe was drug-related, according to Lt. David Nosotti.
The couple were found dead Wednesday night after a friend of Garza’s went to the house at 1112 Prospect St. shortly before 9 p.m. to check on them and “saw that something happened in there that was obviously wrong,” Lansing police Lt. Noel Garcia has said.
That friend, whom police did not identify, called 911 from a cell phone, Garcia said.
Investigators do not believe the double homicide of the Lansing couple was a “random act,” Nosotti said.
Autopsies of the two were completed Thursday, police said.
“We’re confident that we have an accurate cause of death,” Ingham County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Dean Sienko said.
The Ingham County Prosecutor’s Office had asked him not to reveal information regarding the cause of death because the investigation into the homicides is ongoing, Sienko said.
Police would not say whether the couple had been targeted.
Neighbors expressed suspicion of drug activity at the house, said North Precinct Capt. Ray Hall, “and this just confirms their suspicions,” he said.
‘TROUBLE AREAS’
Occasionally a house in the neighborhood will attract crime, but he still described it as a “stable neighborhood.”
“People here know each other,” said Hall, who walked along Prospect Street on Friday afternoon talking with residents about the murders.
One such resident was Lori Lopez, 47, who just days ago watched from her second-floor balcony as police investigated the homicide scene across the street.
“For the most part, it’s been a very nice neighborhood to live in, especially with new families moving into the area,” she said Friday, “but there were still a couple of trouble areas.”
That trouble, she said, includes drug dealers and prostitution.
“I don’t think there’s been a lot of shock,” Hall said regarding neighbors’ reaction to the news that the killings were drug-related. “No one has said that that’s been surprising. It’s very tragic.”
BIBLE OPEN TO PSALM 23
On Friday, the police tape around the house was gone, replaced with small shrines of flowers, candles and incense.
A Bible was laid open to Psalm 23.
“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou are with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”
Throughout the day, mourners filed out of cars and approached the flowers and candles to cry, pray and say goodbye. They knelt to look at a photo of the two from a wedding they had attended earlier this month.
In the photo, Jones, stocky and more than 6 feet tall, towers over Garza, who stood at just under 5 feet tall, family said.
Friends described Jones as a “respectable person.”
“He was just trying to turn his life around,” said friend Rolando Gray, 28.
Jones, Michigan Department of Corrections records show, had a criminal record dating to 2003.
100-PLUS PAIRS OF SHOES
Garza’s 21-year-old brother Ernesto Garza, Jr., said he lived with Jones and Garza, along with another roommate at the two-story house.
Each had their own room in the four-bedroom, two-bathroom home, he said.
And downstairs, Garza had a room full of more than 100 pairs of shoes.
“That was her thing,” Ernesto said as he sat on the house’s front lawn Friday with his sister Maylynn Garza, 19, of Eaton Rapids.
Ernesto said he was not home at the time the two were murdered.
He found out about the homicides Wednesday night.
Ernesto described his sister as a motherly figure with the occasional goofy side.
“She kept my head on my shoulders,” Ernesto said.
“She kept me in a straight line. She was the only woman I would listen to.
“She would make the worst situation the best situation with her laughter.”
Contact Ryan Loew at 377-1206 or rloew@lsj.com.
CATA at the Crossroads: Transit system facing rougher financial ride
By Ryan Loew
Lansing State Journal — Sunday, February 17, 2008
At 11:05 a.m. on a merciless January day, Lansing resident Keith Cohen stepped on a Route 1 CATA bus heading westbound toward home from the Frandor Shopping Center.
Cohen, 37, has poor eyesight, so much so that he must wear thick glasses and he holds the business section of his newspaper inches from his face as he reads. It’s also why he uses Lansing’s Capital Area Transportation Authority – he can’t drive a car.
“Without CATA, I’d be in a world of hurt,” he said.
Other riders share Cohen’s point of view, and it’s a point of pride for the publicly funded transportation authority.
But when voters defeated a proposed tax hike for the bus system in November, some leaving the polls reasoned that if they don’t use it, they shouldn’t pay for it.
That left officials struggling to figure out what to do next without the additional $1.9 million in revenue the new taxes would have produced this year alone.
CATA officials say the cost of the “no” vote is a step backward for the riders who took 10.7 million trips in the system last year.
Since then, CATA has put expansion plans on hold and is considering a handful of options, including raising fares, reducing services and going back to voters.
STATE AID ESSENTIALLY FLAT
CATA needs the additional tax money to help pay for rising costs – fuel costs, for example, rose 146 percent from 2003 to 2008 – officials say. The only way the system currently raises money is through fares or taxes. The rest of its major funding comes through state subsidies, which have been essentially flat the last few years.
CATA’s $34.2 million in revenues last year included $12.8 million in millage funds, $9.3 million in state subsidies and $4.2 million in urban fares.
Randy Schaetzl, a CATA rider and professor of geography at Michigan State University, voted for the CATA millage in November and said he would vote for it again. But he thinks CATA should seek other revenue sources as well, such as advertising.
“I would hope that they would be strongly considering that (advertising) along with other revenue sources they’ll have to tap,” he said.
But CATA has a policy against using advertising on its buses and shelters, said Board Chairwoman Patricia Munshaw. The thinking behind the policy is to “maintain a positive image for the organization,” she said.
But CATA may take another look at advertising given its current situation, Peter Kuhnmuench, vice chair of CATA’s board of directors, said.
“Obviously, it’s something we may want to reconsider,” he said.
Still, advertising isn’t a boon for some public transit systems in Michigan. A similar-sized system in Grand Rapids – the Rapid – had riders who took 8.1 million trips last year. It has sold advertising for at least 10 years. But the ad revenue is nominal.
Jennifer Kalczuk, a spokeswoman for the Grand Rapids bus system, said for its 2006-07 fiscal year, advertising on the exterior and interior of the buses generated $131,000, a fraction of its $28.1 million budget.
POSSIBLE FARE INCREASE, CUTS
Within a month of the failed millage, CATA officials unveiled a proposed fare increase of up to 25 percent for cash riders. If approved by the CATA board, it could take effect this year.
Michigan State University sophomore Katie Symanow, 19, stopped by a public hearing on the CATA rate hike proposal on campus Feb. 7. She said she’s less concerned about the increase and more concerned that CATA’s service be dependable. She has a heart condition and can’t walk long distances.
“I’m fine with it as long as it keeps the buses running as efficiently as possible,” she said about the proposed increases.
The transportation authority is proposing increases on all cash fares and all pass and ride cards, said Sandy Draggoo, CATA’s chief executive officer and executive director.
Still, such fare increases would only generate an additional $400,000 to $500,000 if implemented over a year, CATA Assistant Executive Director Debbie Alexander said. That’s about a quarter of the money the millage would have raised in the same time.
And fare increases are a balancing act, said Kuhnmuench. Raise fares too much, and riders stop riding.
Some riders say they’ll just have to live with any price increases. For many, CATA is their only way to get around.
Mike Borek, store director at the Meijer on West Saginaw Highway, said CATA buses drop off handfuls of employees there at a time. He estimated that about 30 to 40 of his 350 staff members ride CATA to work. Plenty of customers ride the bus, too.
Without CATA, “I’m certain there are some customers who just couldn’t shop here otherwise,” he said. “And there are certainly team members and employees who wouldn’t be able to work here.”
Since raising the price to ride would not be enough to cover costs, Kuhn-muench said, CATA still might cut services or take money out of its reserves.
Altering services presents CATA with more tough choices, officials said, as any reduction would impact riders. Cuts would be made after examining slow routes or slow times of day.
Another option for CATA might be work force reductions, Alexander said.
Each year, CATA typically loses about 10 to 15 drivers by the spring and replaces them in the summer to be prepared for Michigan State resuming classes in the fall. CATA currently has about 190 drivers. CATA could look at positions lost and decide whether they would be replaced, Alexander said.
Paul McConaughy, 61, of Lansing, said he doesn’t use CATA, and he voted against the tax increase in November.
“If we’re getting to the point where how much progress we make is measured by how much money we put into it, then we’re in trouble,” he said. “If CATA can’t be the best in the nation without a few less dollars, then we’re in trouble.”
CATA, which has gone to voters nine times since its first millage passed in 1981, was expecting success as it has always had, Kuhnmuench said. But November’s election was CATA’s first failed millage effort. He said it likely resulted from a combination of economic uncertainty, complicated ballot language and poor promotion.
LOOKING FORWARD
Now CATA may go back to voters to increase its current 2.2 mill assessment, Kuhnmuench said.
CATA rider Dorothy Hopper, 53, said she isn’t sure how she would vote if the issue was put back on the ballot. She voted against it in November. “The taxes right now are such a problem for people in Lansing,” she said. “It’s just a burden.”
Hopper said she could weather a fare increase, but if service were to change, she, like many riders, is unsure how it could affect her life.
“It would depend on how they alter it,” she said while riding a crowded Route 1 bus toward Frandor Shopping Center, “but at that time, I might have to consider getting my car going.”
Contact Ryan Loew at 377-1206 or rloew@lsj.com.
