January 5
In response to new state election laws, the Oxford Village Council voted to move its regular elections from March every year to September of odd-numbered years. Officials also voted to extend the length of council terms from three to four years.
Oxford High’s varsity wrestling team took first place in its 17th annual Invitational.
Former Addison Township Supervisor and longtime resident Robert Ousnamer passed away at age 80.

January 12
For the first time in nearly three years, Oxford will have a real live groundhog for its annual festival in February. The Oxford Leader secured the weather prognosticating services of ‘Harley the Groundhog? from the Howell Nature Center.
A year after the loss of their Addison home and two loved ones to a devastating fire, the Rivest family has rebuilt a house on the same spot and celebrated a bittersweet homecoming with about 50 family members and friends.
Through raffles, t-shirt sales and penny wars, OHS students are raising money to aid tsunami victims in South Asia.

January 19
Diane Barringer ended her 27-year career with the U.S. Post Office by retiring as Lakeville’s postmaster. She spent 15 years in the position.
Former Oxford Police Chief Gary Ford settled his lawsuit for breach of contract against the Oxford Public Fire and EMS Commission for $1. He was originally seeking approximately $190,000. As part of the settlement, OPFEC also agreed to pay Ford’s attorney bills ($3,255) and the cost of the arbitrator ($6,744). The Ford saga is officially over.
Three new ordinances seeking to reduce juvenile crime and disturbances in downtown Oxford were approved 4-1 by the village council. The ordinances apply only to ‘public places? and prohibit loitering along with skateboarding and other ‘extreme? sports. They also impose curfew hours for unaccompanied minors.

January 26
An 84-year-old Addison woman was killed in a house fire at 2730 Ray Road, east of Hosner Road.The cause of the fire has not yet been determined, but it does not appear suspicious.
More than 300 people attended the grand opening of the new Oxford High School pool. About 250 took a dip in the 108-foot-long, eight-lane pool, the depth of which goes from 3.8 to 13 feet.
Oxford resident William Curtis Everard, 60, a convicted felon, was arrested after Oakland County Sheriff’s deputies found 15 assorted guns and 5,000 rounds of ammunition in his Hummer Lake home.
Oxford Village Councilman Matt Weber submitted his resignation letter effective March 31.

February 2
Harley the Groundhog did not see his shadow in Centennial Park, which means spring is not far away.
Lakeville Elementary received a U.S. flag that flew in Iraq as a thank you from grateful soldiers who appreciated the more than 300 care packages the school mailed them.
The Oxford Public Library turns 80 this year and as a gift to the community it’s beginning construction on a $350,000 expansion of its Teen Area and Adult Technology Area.
Oxford resident Christopher Bobek, 29, was charged with first and second-degree child abuse after he allegedly violently shook his 28-day-old son because he wouldn’t stop crying.
Oxford Elementary students raised more than $6,000 to help the Salvation Army build houses in the tsunami devastated country of Sri Lanka.

February 9
Oakland County Sheriff’s Deputy Tony Martin passed away unexpectedly at the age of 48. Martin, who served as an Oxford Police officer from 1982 to 2000, suffered a fatal heart attack while on duty.
OHS seniors Marty Ball and Christine Fortier were crowned Winterfest’s King and Queen.
Oxford will host its first American Cancer Society Relay for Life May 14-15 at the high school’s quarter-mile track. Plans are in the works.
Oxford, Addison and Orion townships won an ‘Excellence in Township Government? award from the Michigan Townships Association for their creation and operation of the North Oakland Transportation Authority.

February 16
Oxford Schools will ask voters in the May 3 election to approve a two-year, 2.3549-mill tax increase on non-homestead properties to bring the total levy up to the maximum 18 mills.
Centennial Park will be the site of an American G.I. statue to honor all those Oxford residents who gave their lives serving their country from the Civil War to Vietnam. The $4,000 to $5,000 statue is being paid for by American Legion Post 108, AMVETS Post 108, American Legion Auxiliary Unit 108 and Sons of the American Legion Squadron 108.
Connie Miller will be honored as the Oxford Public Library Friends ?2005 Friend of the Year? at the 9th Annual Storybook Gala May 13. This year’s Gala theme is Science Fiction.
Oxford residents Kathleen Roberts, 19, and Theresa Miner, 18, saved the loves of two small children they were baby-sitting during a house fire in Lake Orion.
Addison officials will ask voters to increase the township’s operating millage by 0.3164-mill to restore it to the original 1.41-mill rate approved by voters decades ago.
Thieves rob the Elks Club on Pond Road in Addison, stealing an undetermined amount of cash and causing more than $3,000 in damage to the building.

February 23
Oxford Township officials approved placing two millage requests and two bond proposals ? totalling 2.77 mills ? for the Oxford Fire Department on the May 3 ballot.
OHS Performing Arts Center will host the Drama Club’s production of Neil Simon’s classic comedic play The Odd Couple. Danny Inman will play Felix Unger while Darren Johnston will portray Oscar Madison.
Leonard Elementary fifth-graders in teacher Marcie Bensman’s class got a personal letter from President George W. Bush after they wrote to him with suggestions on how they can help ‘make America great.?

March 2
Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Wendy Potts ordered OPFEC be dissolved and ‘any further disputes? between Oxford Village and Township, ‘including the distribution of assets, shall be determined by binding arbitration.?
Oxford Township voted to raise its tap fees (the cost for new connection to the municipal water system) from $3,800 to $4,800 to help pay for more than $16 million in planned improvements to its water system.
Daniel Axford Elementary custodian Barbara Berlinger is nominated for the Oakland County Betty Campion Distinguished Support Service Award.

March 9
Oxford Middle School’s Drama Club will present the play Twinderella, the story of Cinderella’s long lost twin brother Bob.
Bestselling children’s author Tim Smith, creator of the popular ‘Buck Wilder? book series, visited Daniel Axford and Oxford elementaries as part of ‘March is Reading Month.?
Longtime Oxford Village resident Tom Benner was appointed to fill the council seat vacated by Matt Weber as of March 31. He previously served on council from 1995 to 1998.

March 16
Demolition began on the 28,000-square-foot building at the northeast corner of Drahner and M-24, which used to house the short-lived Mike’s All World Market and Foodtown from 1970 to 1999. The Oxford Towne Center will be built on the site and consist of an 11,180-square-foot Rite Aid Pharmacy and 17,822-square-foot retail shopping center.
Longtime Leonard residents Eugene and Marlene Mallia are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary.
Oxford resident and 1992 OHS graduate Kelly Warnke-Senger will be singing soprano as a chorus member in the world premiere of ‘Margaret Garner,? a new American opera playing at the Detroit Opera House in May.
Oxford Elementary and Daniel Axford students raised a combined $13,829 to help the Salvation Army build houses in the tsunami devasted country of Sri Lanka.

March 23
Amanda Cassidy, of Berkley, has been hired as the new executive director of the Oxford Community Development Authority at a salary of $44,000 a year plus benefits.
Oxford Village will play host to the first annual Hot Blues and BBQ event featuring 10 blues acts, barbecue food and a beer garden June 25.

March 30
Biltmore Properties, of Troy, and Ivanhoe-Huntley Homes, of West Bloomfield, has secured an option to purchase the nearly 1,200-acre Koenig Sand & Gravel property along Lakeville Road. A joint township board/planning commission meeting has been set for April 6 to meet with the potential developers.
Five businesses inside the Kingswood Plaza on Rochester Road in Addison Township were burglarized in one night. A 33-year-old Warren man named Leon Skube was arrested for the crimes.
Oxford Township approved a $17.725 million contract with Oakland County for improvements to the municipal water system including a new 1-million gallon elevated water storage tank on N. Oxford Road, up to four treatment plants to remove arsenic and iron from the groundwater, and eight water main projects.

April 6
Oxford Village officials approved sending a letter to the Michigan Department of Transportation requesting large trucks be prohibited from making right turns onto E. Burdick St. off M-24; a M-24 northbound truck route be designated from Broadway to Glaspie to E. Burdick/Lakeville; a traffic signal be installed at the intersection of Broadway and M-24.
A combination of alcohol and speed are suspected factors in a single-vehicle crash on Secord Lake Road, which claimed the life of 37-year-old Jerrious Wilburn Wright III, of Leonard.

April 13
Repairs are underway after an upper portion of the historic Leonard Country Mill (at the corner of E. Elmwood and Division streets) collapsed and posed a potential safety hazard. Built sometime in the late 1880s, the mill is currently unoccupied and has been owned by Bruce Township resident Ed Knight since December 1994.
Representatives from the Main Street Oakland County program visited downtown Oxford to perform a ‘needs assessment? in order to help the area’s revitalization efforts.
Talk of density and possible annexation by the village dominated the first meeting regarding the potential development of the approximately 1,160-acre Koenig Sand & Gravel in Oxford Township. A density of three residential units per acre was suggested by the developers.

April 20
Oxford School officials unveiled two plans calling for $600,000 to $1.3 million in budgets cuts. Which plan is adopted will depend on if a proposed two-year, 2.3549-mill increase in the non-homestead property tax is approved by voters May 3. Both plans include the elimination of boys and girls varsity and junior varsity golf.
After a nearly 10-month hiatus due to vandalism, the disc golf course at Seymour Lake Township Park has been reopened.
The Leonard Country Mill has new owners. Steve Bivens, Larry Hoffman and Jerry Hoffman have purchased the structure, but other than making some necessary repairs, they have no definite plans at this time regarding the old mill’s fate.
Residents showed up en masse at an Oxford Village Council meeting to overwhelmingly oppose the suggestion of turning Broadway Street into a truck route.
Oxford Township hired the $295-per-hour attorney William K. Fahey to handle any future issues arising from the village’s efforts to become a city.

April 27
Eric Ghiaciuc, a 2000 OHS graduate, was drafted to play professional football for the Cinncinnati Bengals. Dave Rayner, a 2001 OHS graduate, was drafted by the Indianapolis Colts.
Old Man Winter dumped approximately 9? inches of snow on the Oxford area from April 23-25. Fortunately, temperatures reached the 50s immediately following the winter storm, melting almost all the snow right away.
Oxford High School senior Nathaniel Kiplinger won the $200 Marce Cyrowski Scholarship for his art work.

May 4
Oxford voters approve the two millages for fire operations and Advanced Life Support (a total of 2.5 mills), but reject the two fire bond proposals for a new pumper truck and addition to the main station.
School district voters approve the 2.3549-mill increase to the non-homestead tax rate by a margin of 2,583 to 1,645. They also re-elect Lee Barclay to the Board of Education and elect Pam Phelps. Anthony Giannola loses his bid for re-election.
By a margin of 2-1, Addison voters reject raising their township’s operating millage by 0.3164 mill for 10 years.
After 25 years at OHS and 40 years in public education, Counselor Lew Wilson is retiring.
Conceptual plans for a roughly 100,000-square-foot shopping center with an outdoor promenade were presented to the Oxford Township Planning Commission. It would be located on the east side of M-24 on an 11.47-acre parcel adjacent to Meijer on the south side.
Oxford Township authorized the purchase of 14 acres of land off Coats Road to be added to Seymour Lake Park for $225,000 plus development costs.

May 11
OHS students Shana Jones and Chelsea McIntosh took first place in the General Market Research category at the 59th annual international DECA competition in Anaheim, California. Their project was on Victoria’s Delights in downtown Oxford.
Final site plan approval was given by the Oxford Township Planning Commission for the 424-unit (condos and townshomes) Terraces at Waterstone.
OHS Assistant Principal Pat Richardson is retiring after 21 years in public education. She’s worked in Oxford since 1999.

May 18
Oxford’s first ever American Cancer Society Relay for Life raised more than $64,000 with Oxford Bank employees raising $21,900 of that total.
A 114-year-old stone bridge that extends over Indian Lake Road on the east side M-24 between Oxford and Orion is being considered for the National Register of Historic Places.

May 25
A total of 261 diehard fans attended the Oxford 7 Theater’s three 12:01 a.m. screenings of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.
Longtime OHS teacher and golf coach Don Lovell passed away at the age of 62.
Jim Schwarz, principal of Clear Lake Elementary, was named the Oxford school district’s new Executive Director of Curriculum. He replaces the retired Karen Eckert.
Tributes and proclamations from the state and county are given to Addison Township in recognition of the 175th anniversary of Lakeville’s first settler, New Yorker Sherman Hopkins who came to what is now the unincorporated village in 1830.

June 1
Oxford natives Glen Giuliani and Quinn Minard will appear on the Campbell Outdoor Challenge TV show to show off their skills in deer hunting and filming hunts.
Oxford Village approved a $10,152,990 budget for July 2005 to July 2006 supported by a 12.62-mill tax rate.
The village council will issue $3.3 million in bonds for street and parking improvements.

June 8
A total of 264 students make up Oxford High School’s 2005 graduating class. Graduate Rob Cerato won the coveted Oxford Cup.
OHS seniors Kyle Oliver and Vanessa Collier won Best Male Athlete (George Prince Award) and Best Female Athelete (Helen Smith Award). A total of 89 senior athletes were honored by the Oxford Wildcat Booster Club.
A gravel hauler struck and seriously injured 53-year-old Oxford resident John Layman (affectionately known around town as ‘The Mayor?) as he illegally crossed at M-24 and Burdick.
Citing declining enrollment as the main reason, Oxford school officials decided to temporarily suspend the three Computer Aided Design (CAD) classes at OHS for the upcoming 2005-06 school year.

June 15
Fire erupted at the Oxford Oaks condominiums, completely destroying an attached garage and causing various degrees of damage to four adjacent condos. A malfunctioning garage door opener is the suspected cause of the accidental blaze which led to about $252,603 in damages.
Teachers and Oxford residents Sam and Jane Coram retired after a combined 56 years in Oxford Schools.
Oxford Township Supervisor Bill Dunn has initiated a petition drive as a village resident to stop the village council from spending any more tax money on cityhood or taking any further action regarding cityhood without a prior vote of the people.
A three-year, $38,485 computer services maintenance contract was award by the Oxford Village Council to Next Generation Computers, Inc. The company is owned by village resident Tracy Miller, Sr. who is also the husband of village President Renee Donovan.

June 22
A whole laundry list of school sports and extracurricular clubs (including the boys and girls golf teams) have been spared the budget axe.
Lawyer Fred Fresard, of Oxford, won a ‘Pro Bono Service Award? from the Detroit Metropolitan Bar Association for helping a Detroit widow who had been swindled by a crooked contractor build her dream porch.
Oxford School officials approved a $35 million balanced budget for the 2005-06 school year.

June 29
Approximately 1,400 people braved the scorching heat to attend Oxford’s First Annual Hot Blues and BBQ festival. Luther ‘Badman? Keith won the blues music competition.
Oxford school bus drivers Pat Bliss and Bev Hill, who have a combined 67 years of driving experience here, received plaques for excellence in transportation from Oakland County. Bliss also won School Bus Driver of the Year from the Michigan Association for Pupil Transportation.

July 6
Leonard is gearing up for its 53rd Annual Strawberry Festival. The parade Grand Marshal will be Robert Smith. This year’s Special Persons are Murial Paquette and Joyce Brasington, new principal of Leonard Elementary.
A 42-year-old Oxford woman is in serious, but stable condition after being air-lifted by a Life Flight helicopter from the scene of vehicular accident at M-24 and Drahner.
Oxford resident and 2000 OHS graduate Ryan Hickmott appeared on the FX Reality TV show ?30 Days.? On the show, he lived with a gay man in San Francisco for a month.
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July 13
Christine M. Burns, of Clare, was hired as the Village of Oxford’s new clerk/assistant manager/treasurer designate. Her fire-year contract includes a starting salary of $53,000 a year plus benefits. She replaces Clerk Rose Bejma, who’s retiring after 30 years with the village.
Oxford Township Supervisor Bill Dunn wants village and township officials to work together to limit the number of residential units eventually built on the nearly 1,200-acre Koenig Sand and Gravel property.
Oxford’s DDA is expected to close later this month on its $390,000 purchase of the Oxford Colonial Adult Foster Care facility at 19 W. Burdick Street. The home is to be either re-located or demolished and turned into additional downtown parking spaces.

July 20
Nathan Grove, owner of Oxford Ace Hardware, confirmed he has a purchase agreement in place with local businessman and real estate investor Bob Knauf for a 28,000-square-foot portion of the northeast downtown parking quadrant which contains bearly 60 parking spaces and a loading zone. Although Knauf would not confirm the pending purchase, it’s been reported by reliable sources within the village that he intends to use the land as a bargaining chip to trade for some village-owned properties.
Tommy P. Toteff, founder and owner of Tom’s Hardware in Oxford, passed away at the age of 77.
A nearly $2.3 million bid was accepted by the Polly Ann Trailway Management Council and Road Commission for Oakland County to construct a pedestrian bridge over M-24 in downtown Oxford and surface 12.2 miles of non-motorized trail through Oxford, Addison and Orion townships. The Anlaan Corporation, of Ferrysburg, Michigan, submitted the low construction bid of $2,283,324.

July 27
An electrical pole split in two in downtown Oxford’s southeast parking quadrant resulting in a man trapped in an elevator, a power surge and electrical fire at Oxford Bank and a power outage for about 2,000 DTE Energy customers.
Curtis Insurance founder Ralph R. Curtis is in serious, but stable condition following an auto crash in Metamora Township.
The Oxford Public Library Friends has donated $1,000 to help Hunter Strunk, 8, of Addison, purchase a $16,200 electronic wheelchair lift. Friends President C.J. Carnacchio called upon Oxford’s service groups to donate the remaining $4,200 needed.
After receiving some skin grafts to his seriously injured leg, John Layman (a.k.a. The Mayor), 53, of Oxford, vows, ‘I will walk again.? Layman was struck by a gravel truck while crossing M-24 in June.

August 3
Evald Jorgensen was named Michigan Senior Citizen of the Year in the ‘service to others? category. A positive force and leader in the Oxford Senior Citizens group for 15 years, the 77-year-old Oxford resident will be honored at the Michigan State Fair later this month.
Ed and Gerty Stewart, of Oxford, are celebrating their 69th wedding anniversary and Ed’s 95th birthday.
The Oakland County Board of Commissioners approved a $3.43 million purchase of nearly 350 acres of green space and environmentally sensitive habitat to be added to Addison Oaks County Park.

August 10
Curtis Insurance founder Ralph R. Curtis passes away at the age of 85. He had suffered extensive injuries during a July automobile crash in Metamora Township.
Oxford resident Nathan Gerbe, 18, was the Buffalo Sabres? fifth round draft pick in Ottawa. He was the 142nd overall pick in the 2005 National Hockey League Entry Draft.
Lakeville has a new postmaster and her name is Ruth Yerkes, of Addison Township.
Mission accomplished ? Oxford’s Rotarians, Kiwanians, Lions and Civitans joined forces along with some private donors to contribute the remaining $4,200 to buy 8-year-old Addison resident Hunter Strunk’s electronic wheelchair lift.

August 17
The Oxford Leader has learned that Tracy Arthur Miller, Sr. ? husband of village President Renee Donovan, owner of Next Generation Computers, Inc. and leader of the cityhood movement ? is a convicted felon who did time in Jackson State Prison in the late 1970s. Miller was convicted of obtaining money under false pretenses from St. Leonard’s Parish Credit Union in Warren, carrying a concealed weapon, and violating the building contractors law.
Continued next week…