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Editorial Page 6-A

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INDEX

VOL. 142, NO. 5 THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 201275¢

THE

DEXTER LEADER

Sounds & Sights auditions starting soon

Page 3-B

INSIDEObama talks education affordability at U-M

Page 4-A

INSIDE

Metropark offi cer fi les lawsuit against employerBy Krista GjestlandHeritage Media

A Dexter Township resident and Huron-Clinton Metroparks Authority officer has filed a lawsuit against the organization for race and age discrimina-tion.

Harley Rider, who also serves as Dexter Township clerk, alleges that he was passed over to a promotion for chief of police in 2007 at the metroparks. Rider

is a 62-year-old white man, while the man selected for the position, George Phifer, is a 47-year-old black man.

Rider’s attorney, James Fett of Fett and Fields, PC, argues that Rider was more qualified than Phifer.

“Harley Rider’s a very high credentialed, well-edu-cated law man,” Fett said. “And he’s been a law man a long time. He’s got educa-tion tailored to law enforce-ment. But when they went to hire a chief they went to

a diversity route.”Rider has been with the

HCMA, a special regional parks district covering Wayne, Macomb, Oakland, Washtenaw and Livingston counties, since 1981 as a part-time officer, and was moved to full-time status in 1993. Currently, he is the commander and is second in command only to the chief.

According to Fett, Phifer has had a shaky employ-ment past. After working

for the city of Pontiac for 17 years, he said, he left under “mysterious circum-stances.”

“They hired this black male who doesn’t even fit their required credentials,” Fett said. “They ignored their own internal poli-cies. These white males all have white-male guilt. As a result the entire workforce there has to suffer.”

HCMA lawyer George Steel, of Harvey Kruse PC, said Phifer was qualified

and the circumstances in which he left were not unusual.

“He had an early retire-ment,” he said. “You could look at his entire record at the city of Pontiac, and you won’t find anything that would be considered mys-terious. He left there under the highest regard. He left with the rank of captain.”

Steel also said Phifer came highly recommended

School board chooses new secretary By Krista GjestlandHeritage Media

Dexter’s board of educa-tion chose Chris Gordon to fill the open seat left by for-mer board secretary Kim Covert earlier this month.

Covert resigned after accepting a position as programming coordina-tor at Dexter Community Education.

Nine Dexter residents put their names in to be considered for the vacancy, something unusual, accord-ing to board president Larry Cobler.

The board typically has one or two people apply to fill vacancies, and there have been times that the

board was hard-pressed for appli-cants, Cobler said.

Gordon, 44, has lived in Dexter with his wife and four chil-dren since 2009. Though he and his wife are origi-nally from the Ann Arbor area, the family spent 21 years with the U.S. Navy.

“We’ve been all over, but we’ve always called Michigan home,” he said.

Before joining the Navy as a pilot, Gordon gradu-ated from the University of Michigan with a degree in engineering. Now he’s since retired and is back

at U-M, working in the college of engineering.

The board chose Gordon because of his activity within the school dis-trict. Since mov-ing their family to Dexter, he and

his wife have regularly attended board meetings and public discussions regarding important dis-trict issues such as the recent decision to go to all-day kindergarten.

“We’ve always been active in the schools wher-ever we’ve been,” he said. “Coming back here it was kind of natural. We’ve been

fairly active in the discus-sion at the board meet-ings.”

Gordon’s time with the military, he says, has instilled in him a sense of service and a need to give back which inspired him to apply for the vacancy.

“I thought here’s a good way that I can continue to serve the community,” he said. “I thought that would be a great opportunity to join the board. It’s a good way for me to give back to the community.”

Though only one seat was vacant, the board stressed during their deliberations that all nine

By Sean DaltonHeritage Media

A HAZMAT scene that originated on Zeeb Road and spread to Marshall Road caused backups and restrict-ed traffic Jan. 26 and 27.

At approximately 4 p.m. Thursday, an industrial hauler was attempting to transport an industrial transformer from an undis-closed site in Scio Township, when the driver noticed that the piece of equipment was leaking oil by the gallon onto the street surface.

“When he pulled onto the road, he noticed the oil com-ing off of the tailgate end of the truck,” Scio Township Fire Chief Carl Ferch said, adding that the driver then pulled onto Marshall in a westerly direction, where he pulled over and attempted to right the transformer.

Rather than stop the leak-age, the action worsened the leak, at which time the driver contacted the authorites and Scio fire-fighters arrived on the scene with Wasthtenaw County HAZMAT officials not far behind.

“By the time we arrived, 30 gallons of transformer oil had leaked onto Marshall Road,” Ferch said. The main concern for Scio officials was the potential for PCB contaminants in the oil, which would be carcinogen-ic to the public in the area.

Fortunately the trans-former had been updated by the undisclosed owner, so the oil was benign to the contaminants that were ini-tially a concern.

Scene containment was

Oil spill causes delays on Zeeb, Marshall roads

Hanging out at AwanaPLEASE SEE LAWSUIT/3-A

PLEASE SEE SPILL/3-A

Gordon

PLEASE SEE BOARD/3-A

The winning team of kids at Awana, a Bible-based youth program, eagerly receive candy at the end of the night. The program is found all over the world and provides outreach ministry to get children involved at church.

Photo by Rita Fischer

For more on Awana, see Page 1-B

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