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To take advantage of our services, call the Trust Bank directly at the following number, or contact a Financial Consultant at one of the following local Merrill Lynch offices: .1-800-727-MLTB (6582) Merrill Lynch Trust Bank of Michigan 1577 North Woodward Avenue, Suite 130 Bloomfield Hills, MI 48304 810-475-1000 810-647-3300 313-594-9200 . 313-446-1111 Farmington Hills 810-737-4680 Flint 810-768-7600 Laurel Park 313-953-6450 Merrill Lynch A tradition of trust. MAH JONG TOURNAMENT Temple Emanu-El Sisterhood F. 47 ""11 ■ 11 • MAH /ONG TOURNAMENT 1996-97 Thursday, October 17th 7:00 p.m. 0 0 DAY DAY DNS Bring your sets and Mah Jong cards. $15.00 per person $18.00 at the in advance door Door Prizes • Cash Prizes • Refreshments For information call: Temple Office (810) 9 6 7 4020 - REFRESHMENTS F41 . m Th e Amedc an Legion says. Still another nearby resident is bothered by the possible ground- water contamination that could be caused by the proposed sub- station. Attorney Tali Wendrow and her neighbors on Wimbley Lane are served by wells. "This isn't a not-in-my-back- yard kind of thing. Most of the time these things are built in in- dustrial areas. This is in the mid- dle of a residential area," Ms. Wendrow says. After meeting with the West Bloomfield Township Planning Commission, the Wetlands Re- view Board and a group of con- cerned residents last August, Edison decided to review and re- search nine alternate sites for the substation. "At this time, we do not plan on building the substation at its cur- rent site if we can find another site," says regional manager Car- la Gribbs. The amount of wetlands that would be affected at the original site, however, would be much less than at others, she notes. And the substation would be tied into ad- jacent 120,000-volt power lines that run alongside the COE rail- road tracks that bisect West Bloomfield, making it an ideal lo- cation. Edison called a meeting for last Wednesday at the Maple-Drake Jewish Community Center to talk to residents about their concerns, but Ms. Swimmer felt it was a cynical strategy to head off protests at a session scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 8. Beginning at 7 p.m., residents will meet with the township's planning commission, wetlands review board and Edi- son officials at the township hall on Walnut Lake Road. No vote is scheduled. Ms. Swimmer, a nursing stu- dent, is angered at what she char- acterizes as the back-door approach Edison took to getting township approval. She says the utility notified only seven people who live with- in 300 feet of the proposed sub- station of the August meeting. "The school had no idea, none of the neighborhoods knew. I lit- erally went door to door talking to people," she says. Since then, she and a commit- tee of eight or nine residents of Shenandoah, Woodland Ridge subdivision and Wimbley Lane have kicked off a letter-writing campaign to the area's state rep- resentatives. "We will get signatures from everyone who will sign and then bombard lawmakers with them," Ms. Swimmer says.' When she and her husband Joel moved to West Bloomfield from Oak Park seven years ago, they were assured that the land behind them was a protected wet- lands. And while the power lines were already there, she says, "we were stupid. We were young. We nev- er looked into it. We were so in awe of the beauty of the wet- lands." Detroit Edison bought the prop- erty, which is east of Halsted and north of Walnut Lake Road, 23 years ago. Since then, the area has grown to 40,000 residences and businesses in West Bloomfield, Orchard Lake, Sylvan Lake and Keego Harbor. "There's a problem with volt- age, and it will continue to be an issue," she says. "I believe in the past 20 years, the population has grown 70 percent and that places more demands on our electric fa- cilities, and we're responsible for providing good power quality and good reliable power. "One way to do that is add sub- stations closer to the residences they're going to serve." Edison already received a wet- lands permit from the state's De- partment of Environmental Quality to clear the site, but must also obtain a township permit. Should Edison locate the sub- station at another site, it would be required to go through the state permit process again. Ms. Gribbs says Edison oper- ates 800 stations and substations in southeast Michigan, almost half of them in residential areas. The nearest station to the pro- posed substation is on Haggerty Road, about a mile away. "Ultimately, you try to make sure a substation is within a mile of the first customer it serves," Ms. Gribbs says. Whether or not power stations generate dangerous electromag- netic fields is a question the com- pany does not address. "There is information on both sides of the spectrum. There are studies that say there is absolutely no link to health problems and studies that say there are. We are in the middle. We aren't here to take a position on whether there are health risks but to operate safe systems," Ms. Gribbs says. However, she explains, there will be no increase in emfs outside of the property line if the substa- - lion is built at the site, and there would be a 25 percent reduction in emfs generated by the power lines. Aside from abiding by nation- al and state safety codes, Edison would erect a 6-foot fence with barbed wire around the site and safety signs, Ms. Gribbs says. Edison planned to complete the substation construction by the end of 1997, but has postponed plans because of residents' concerns. "And with the assumption well go to another site, additional work will have to be done on the design and we'll have to go through all the permitting processes. That will take six months to a year, or longer," Ms. Gribbs says. 'We are really committed to hearing what local residents have to say and working out a workable site." ❑