Morning Sun - 04/20/2016 Page : A01

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ByRickMillsrmills@michigannewspapers.com@RickMills2 on Twitter

A subsequently suspended Cen-tral Michigan University footballplayer accused of hitting andshoving women at a Mt. Pleas-ant bar in De-cember is knownamong friends asa peacemaker andhas never struck awoman, his attor-ney said in a pressrelease Monday.

Attorney DavidBarberi vowed toaggressively de-fend three mis-demeanor charges that MalikKadean Fountain punched twowomen at the Wayside bar.

“I am convinced of my client’sinnocence,” Barberi said, addinghe’s confident that as the investi-gation continues charges will bedismissed.

Fountain, 19, of Chicago, wasarrested two weeks ago and sus-pended from the football team

MT. PLEASANT

Footballplayer’s lawyer:My client neverhit a woman

ByRickMillsrmills@michigannewspapers.com@RickMills2 on Twitter

A 23-year-old Mt. Pleas-ant woman could face criminalcharges after her 3-year-old childwas found wandering a city parkalone just before 8 p.m. Wednes-day, but not for losing track of thechild.

Her male companion was jailedon an arrest warrant from Flor-ida and for violating a court or-der that he not contact the child’smother – and police are seeking tocharge her for helping hide him.

Police were called to HorizonPark for a “child wandering in thepark alone” about 7:40 p.m. andsearched about 40 minutes be-fore finding the parents, said JeffBrowne, public information offi-cer for the Mt. Pleasant Police De-partment.

“They left to go to the store,”Browne said, adding that the fam-ily lives near the park, which is

MT. PLEASANT

Momcould faceobstruction ofjustice chargesover incident

JANE KEON — FOR THE MORNING SUN

Pictured Tuesday, brown and green algae spreads near where the Honeyoey Creek empties into the Pine River in Alma.

By Lisa Yanick-Jonaitisljonaitis@michigannewspapers.com@lisayj_msun on Twitter

An ugly and bacteria-lacedsludge of algae with nutrientlevels rivaling that seen in thewarmer days of summer haswatchers of the embattled PineRiver worried about what thissummer and fall holds.

Testing of a brown and greenalgae on the Pine River in Almashows components commonlyfound in fertilizer or animalwaste, at levels commonly foundlater in the year, leading thosemonitoring the river to wonder:what is causing the bloom?

In the middle of March, GaryRayburn, a board chair for theHealthy Pine River organiza-tion, noticed globs of a greenand brown substance floatingdown the Pine River.

Rayburn and his wife SusanHunter documented the pollu-tion seven different times overthe last month, making video re-cordings of the mass of algae asit moved through the water.

“It’s beautiful today every-where but the waters of thePine River,” Rayburn wrote inan email Sunday sharing his

videos. “Today is the worst I’veseen, spreading out more thanhalfway across the river... pleaselook at this mess and tell mewe don’t need to do somethingnow.”

Upstream, near where theHoneyoey Creek empties intothe Pine, Jane Keon, a director-at-large for the HPR group, canalso see a “nice big patch” of thebrown and green growth fromher home; she recognized it asbrown algae from past experi-ence and reached out to Ray-burn.

“The algae builds up in yourarea because the water is goingso slowly due to the backed-upsediment in the river. The samealgae is growing behind (Keon’sneighbor’s) house, too, where thestream can’t flow,” Keon wroteto Rayburn. “I’m glad you aretaking pictures... what you areseeing indicates that the riverhas problems!”

A sample of algae was testedat Alma College, and MurrayBorrello, who is the directorand chair of the Program of En-vironmental Studies, said whilea source isn’t determined, thereare some possibilities.

The sample showed levels of

nitrogen, ammonia and phos-phorus commonly found in fer-tilizers and animal waste, butthe amount found in the test isahead of a typical spring sched-ule, Borrello said.

“The levels of both the ammo-nia and phosphorus were at con-centrations where we normallyfind them several weeks fromnow – when application of ma-nures is widespread on fields,”he said.

Further testing showed “ex-cessive amounts” of E. Coli andcoliform bacteria and, whilenone of the results are conclu-sive of a specific cause, theyare more like what the collegewould find during a normalsummer sampling in the PineRiver.

The algae moved down theriver as a “slug” rather thanspread out across the river, andBorrello said that could indicatea “point source” for the high nu-trient levels.

“It isn’t a general increase innitrogen and phosphorus in thewhole pine River from multiplenon-point discharge upstream,”he said. “The fact that we seehigher levels of coliform and E.coli bacteria than we usually see

this time of year indicates it ismost likely related to manure oranimal waste of some sort.”

There could be severalsources, Borrello said.

Nutrients and manure thatwas frozen in soil on farmlandcould have melted, and are nowflushing through drains into theriver.

A drain could be washing intothe river, bringing with it ma-terial from a parking lot wherefertilizers are transported ordumped – “maybe near the golfcourse if they are applying fertil-izers at this time,” Borrello sug-gested.

Or, it could be waste or fer-tilizer directly dumped into thePine River, Borrello said.

Additionally, it is possiblethat it is coming from multi-ple sources, further complicat-ing matters.

“Whatever the case, we needto do more sampling of the riverwater directly to know howwidespread it is,” Borrello said.“Right now we cannot say forcertain where it is coming from,only that it exists and comesas a slug of material intermit-tently.”

GRATIOTCOUNTY

BLOOMINGPINERIVERALGAEDRAWSCONCERNS

ByMindyNortonFor the Morning Sun

Community members havehelped provide ideas on whatshould be done with the massiveMt. Pleasant Center property.

Housing for senior citizens,housing for young profession-als and families, office space, andopen space for a park were amongthe most common suggestions pre-

sented during the workshop at cityhall Monday evening. Other ideasincluded an indoor communityswimming pool, community gar-dens, a hiking trail, a food hub ofsome sort, and medical offices.

Nearly 50 people attended, in-cluding city staff, city commis-sioners and planning commissionmembers. Members of the publicwere divided into six small groups,led by a city employee, and given

a list of questions to answer and aworksheet of how they would di-vide up the property.

City staff will put together a re-port to be presented to the cityplanning commission at its May 5meeting and for the city commis-sion at its May 9 meeting.

The state closed the Mt. PleasantCenter in 2009 and sold the prop-erty to the city in 2011. Nearly 300

MT. PLEASANT

Residentsoffer ideasforpropertyuseKarenBreedlove andJeffrey Ellissuggests whatcould be donewith the Mt.Pleasant Centerproperty duringa brainstormingsession at Mt.Pleasant CityHall on Monday.

PHOTO COURTESYOF MINDY NORTONPROPERTY>>PAGE2

TODDLER>>PAGE2

RIVER>>PAGE2 FOUNTAIN>>PAGE2

CloudyHigh: Low:68 49 >> PAGE A6

Fountain

Forum held to discuss future of Mt. Pleasant Center land

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Morning Sun - 04/20/2016 Page : A02

Copyright (c)2016 The Morning Sun, a 21st Century Media Property & part of Digital First Media MI -- All rights reserved. Edition 04/20/2016May 13, 2016 10:57 am (GMT +4:00) Powered by TECNAVIA

A Tribute to Life.

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alchapel.com.clarkfunerwww

Alma College is alreadyworking with the city,with continued tests of thePine River as E. coli levelsspike with warm weathereach year.

The city is partneringwith Borrello and the col-lege to determine onceand for all if the cause ofthe problem is human oranimal waste, after yearsof testing and questions.

Last year, continuouslyhigh E. Coli test resultsthat were not specificenough for action fromstate and federal agen-cies pushed the city andcollege to refine its PineRiver water testing.

By the end of last sum-mer, the health depart-ment had posted signs

warning of high E. coliand other bacteria levels.

Borrello said he will ex-pand analysis already hap-pening.

“The next time this ma-terial comes downstream,I will go out and sampledifferent parts of the riverin an attempt to identifywhere it might be orig-inating,” he said. “Sinceit is unclear where this iscoming from, there is noway to source it unless yousee it go from start to fin-ish.”

If those tests indicatea public health concern,Borrello said they willalert the Mid-MichiganDistrict Health Depart-ment; in the meantime,they are busy with nor-mal sampling and don’thave a lot of time and re-sources to dedicate to “fo-rensic” analysis to identifythe source of the bloom.

RiverFROMPAGE 1

acres are available for de-velopment, situated nearPickard Street and Bam-ber Road. The site also in-cludes the former MichiganIndian Industrial BoardingSchool and a Native Ameri-can cemetery – land that isnow owned by the SaginawChippewa Indian Tribe. Inaddition, two buildings arestill owned by Mt. PleasantPublic Schools.

Housing was a topicof concern for one of thegroups.

Jackie Curtiss, IsabellaCounty’s representative forthe Area Agency on Aging,said she would like to seesome type of senior village,similar to the Gladwin Pinesfacility in Gladwin.

Fellow group memberPeggy Burke said housingfor retirees was also a pri-ority for her.

When the facilitatorasked how long-term suc-cess of the project shouldbe measured, GingerKaufman, who lives in theadjacent neighborhood, said“For the people who alreadylive on the perimeter to behappy or satisfied with thedevelopment, as opposed tomoving” to get away from it.

Group member SteveLawrence said successwould be something thatwas “sustainable for a longperiod of time.”

The group of six peoplealso discussed the impor-

tance of having housing foryoung professionals, whoright now might struggleto find an affordable placeto live that is not studenthousing.

Planning commissionmember Susan Horgan saidshe thought it would be com-patible to have housing forsenior citizens located nearhousing for younger people.“I don’t look forward to liv-ing in a place where we’reall the same age,” she said.

Another idea this groupgenerated was having acommunity swimming pool.

In a nearby conferenceroom, another group wascoming up with similarideas. After brainstorminga list, they were given a mapand asked to draw where onthe property they would putthings and how much of theland each suggestion shouldtake up.

They came up with:• 25 percent for residen-

tial housing of some sort,either single family or du-plexes/semi-detached hous-ing. They did not want itto be zoned for multi-fam-ily housing (such as studenthousing).

• 10 percent for senior cit-izens, such as an “over 55”community of some sort.

• An area near PickardStreet would take up 25percent, with commercial,industrial and office space.

• The remaining 40 per-cent of the land would beopen space, including keep-ing the trees near the river.

Another suggestion forthe open space would be

to have gardens, similar toDow Gardens in Midland, orcommunity gardens, wheregroups would have landavailable.

“A church could do a com-munity garden, a schoolcould do a community gar-den, it wouldn’t be just oneperson coming out to do agarden,” suggested groupmember Karen Breedlove.

Other possible ideas in-cluded an outdoor ice rink,if feasible, and possiblyhiking trails and a trail forwalking and jogging. Thegroup also suggested thatthe city look into namingrights, similar to what Cen-tral Michigan Universitydid in securing a donationto name McGuirk Arena, asa way to fund some of theideas.

“I don’t want to see thecity give big tax write-offsto develop things, whenyou’re trying to expand thetax base,” said group mem-ber Jeffrey Ellis. He wasn’topposed to giving tax incen-tives to a developer when aproject was first being built,“But once it’s up and going,he ought to pay the fullfreight.”

Kati Mora, a registereddietician, said she wouldlike to see a food hub bepart of the commercial/in-dustrial area.

“I would love to see adedicated space,” she said,adding that she was openminded about what thatcould be, such as an ex-panded farmers market orsomething like the Down-town Market in Grand Rap-

ids, a popular venue that hasa produce market, a bakery,a restaurant and other at-tractions.

Mora would like to seethe area’s agricultural com-munity involved in some-thing here.

She said she came to theforum because she thoughtit was important to give in-put.

“I love a good brainstormand I love all the ideas peo-ple have,” she said.

Down the hall, anothergroup was going over theirlist and drawing it on themap.

They came up with:• 60 percent urban resi-

dential• 15 percent commercial• 15 percent parks and

open space• 5 percent office space• 5 percent institutional.At the start of the meet-

ing, City Manager NancyRidley told the audiencethat the city would like tosee some open space in-cluded in the property andwould prefer not to retainownership of the develop-ments.

Ultimately, it is expectedto take years to bring theproject to fruition. Thenext step is demolition oftwo cottages, a tunnel, andtwo houses on the property,along with removal of anunderground storage tank.

City commissioners lastweek approved a bid for$460,000 from MelchingInc. for that work.

More buildings will haveto be demolished after that.

PropertyFROMPAGE 1

the same day for violatingteam rules.

Isabella County Pros-ecutor Risa Hunt-Scullycharged Fountain withone count of aggravatedassault, a one-year misde-meanor; and two countsof assault or assault andbattery, a 93-day misde-meanor.

Witnesses said theearly-morning altercationstarted after Fountain al-legedly shoved a womanwho refused his requests

to dance and later punchedher and another woman.

Fountain told police hewas at the bar with a for-mer CMU teammate whohe said looks “very similarto him” and said his team-mate “got into it” with theman and two alleged vic-tims, according to courtdocuments.

“Our client maintainsthat he has never, everstruck a woman at any timeor at any place, includingon the night in question,”Barberi said. “We have al-ready interviewed severalwitnesses not previouslycontacted by the police,

whose testimony supportsMalik’s innocence of anyinvolvement with the twowomen complainants.”

Fountain, Barberi said,has no prior criminal his-tory and a reputation forrespecting women.

“After reviewing videofrom the Wayside securitysurveillance system, thereis no evidence to corrobo-rate the complainant’s ver-sion of events,” he said.

Barberi said the com-plainants and their un-named friend were in Mt.Pleasant celebrating abirthday, according to po-lice reports, and were all

consuming alcohol whileFountain was not drink-ing.

“Video footage showsthat it was the friend of thecomplainant who initiatedthe fracas,” he said.

Fountain, a linebackerwho was redshirted in2014, denied hitting anywomen during the alter-cation, police reports in-dicate.

Police asked the firstalleged victim to lookthrough the CMU footballroster online, and she iden-tified Fountain as the as-sailant, according to policereports.

FountainFROMPAGE 1

on the east side of townsoutheast of Mt. PleasantHigh School.

“They thought someoneelse was watching theirchild only to find out thatindividual was not watch-

ing their child.”An initial check showed

the man was wanted oncriminal charges in Flor-ida and was under courtorder not to contact themother of the child.

Florida officials askedthat the man be arrested,but when police returnedthe woman refused to letthem talk to the man or

enter the residence.Before they could re-

turn with a search war-rant, the woman and childleft the residence, Brownesaid.

“Officers obtained thesearch warrant and exe-cuted the search warranton the residence,” he said.“Officers found the malesuspect in the residence

and took him into cus-tody.”

Besides the Floridacharges, police are seekingIsabella County chargeson the man for violatingthe no contact order, andon the woman for obstruc-tion of justice.

Child Protective Ser-vices officials have alsobeen contacted by police.

ToddlerFROMPAGE 1

FLINT, MICH. (AP) >> A class-action lawsuit over Flint’scontaminated water wasdismissed Tuesday, withthe judge saying constitu-tional claims by residentsare barred by the federalSafe Drinking Water Act.

U.S. District Judge JohnCorbett O’Meara said hewasn’t making a decisionon the merits of the lawsuit,which is one of dozens filedover lead in Flint’s drink-ing water. But he said resi-dents can’t pursue a remedyfor civil rights violations inthe matter, due to federallaw and rulings by highercourts.

Residents accused Flintand state officials of vio-lating their rights by pro-viding contaminated wa-ter and requiring payment.The city, under a state-ap-pointed manager, switchedfrom using Detroit’s watersource to the Flint River butdidn’t add corrosion con-trols, causing lead to leachfrom old plumbing.

“Plaintiffs’ allegationsare addressed by regula-tions that have been pro-mulgated” by the U.S. En-vironmental ProtectionAgency under federal waterlaw, O’Meara said.

A message seeking com-ment was left with resi-dents’ attorney, WilliamMurphy Jr.

Also Tuesday, Flint MayorKaren Weaver she is not im-pressed by Gov. Rick Sny-der’s pledge to drink Flinttap water that’s run througha government-approved fil-ter for a month.

“Lucky for him that hecan drink filtered water,because we’ve been dealingwith this for two years, andwe were drinking it whenit wasn’t filtered,” Weaversaid, adding that she be-lieves — despite the state’sreassurances — that it’s too

early to tell city residents it’sOK to drink filtered tap wa-ter.

“If the governor reallywanted to know what it’slike to deal with the situa-tion we’re in ... he needs tocome and stay here for 30days and live with us andsee what it’s like to have touse bottled or filtered wa-ter when you want to cookand when you want to drinkand when you want to brushyour teeth,” Weaver said.

Snyder made his pledge

Monday. He told reportersTuesday during a tourismconference in Lansing thatWeaver “has her own per-spective” and is “entitled toher opinion.”

“I was asked to do thisby a lot of residents, bythe press, so I’m just fol-lowing through on what Iwas asked to do,” he said ofdrinking and cooking withfiltered Flint water. Livingor staying in Flint for 30days is not practical, Sny-der said.

STATE

Judge dismisses class-actionlawsuit in Flint water crisis

CARLOS OSORIO — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

In this file photo, Gov. Rick Snyder addresses the media in Flint. A class-action lawsuitover Flint’s contaminated water was dismissed Tuesday, with the judge sayingconstitutional claims by residents are barred by the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.

| OBITUARIES | MORNING SUN WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20, 20162 A