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Sheriff Anthony Wickersham
ON 16A SPOTLIGHT ON SENIOR LIVING STARTS
SEPTEMBER 26, 2024 • Vol. 36, No. 20 • candgnews.com
Paid for by: CTE Anthony Wickersham • P.O. Box 752 • Mount Clemens, MI 48046
New playground coming to Waldenburg Park BY DEAN VAGLIA
dvaglia@candgnews.com
MACOMB TOWNSHIP — Kids of all abilities will get a chance to have fun as the Macomb Township Board of Trustees approved the purchase of a new accessible playground
for Waldenburg Park at its Sept. 11 meeting. “It is our goal to make this a boundless playground,” Macomb Township Parks and Recreation Director Salvatore DiCaro said. “To do this, 70% of the play activities must be accessible to serve children with physical disabilities. That is the case with this plan that you
have before you.” Coming in at just over $726,800, the playground exceeds the 70% threshold by being 84% accessible with 20 elevated and 13 ground-level activities. The rubber playground surface will be replaced with turf. Equipment is rated for both children ages 2-5 and 5-12 with
capacity for 250 kids. The playground was purchased from Ohio-based Midstates Recreation and is expected to be installed by May 2025. Midstates Recreation recently provided the playground equipment for Pitchford Park. See BOARD on page 10A
Hamby, Dakota defense fight off Stevenson in 24-9 win BY JONATHAN SZCZEPANIAK jszczepaniak@candgnews.com
STERLING HEIGHTS — Macomb Dakota senior Jacob Bajis had made his mark on the defensive side of the ball all night on Sept. 20. Bajis led the Cougars with five solo tackles as Dakota (4-0) sealed a 24-9 win against Macomb Area Conference Red rival Sterling Heights Stevenson (3-1) at Stevenson High School. And when the Titans attempted an onside kick with just under three minutes left to play, Bajis, a hybrid linebacker/defensive back, showed off his breakaway speed as he corralled the ball and jetted down the left side of the field for a 50yard kickoff return for a touchdown.
“I’m a linebacker and I don’t get to play offense a lot, so once I got that ball, I knew I had to make a play,” Bajis said. Dakota coach Greg Baur said it wasn’t exactly the game plan he had in mind for his recovery team, but said he couldn’t argue the results. “I was hoping he was going to catch it and fall on it, but then I saw him running down the sideline,” Baur said. “I didn’t think he had enough to get there. He surprised me a little bit there.” Bajis’ score sealed the victory for Dakota, beating a Stevenson team the Cougars last suffered a loss to in 2021. The story of the season for Dakota so far has been the impressive play of senior running back/ linebacker Brady Hamby, and he continued to show why he’s one of the most physically domi-
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Photo by Erin Sanchez
Sterling Heights Stevenson senior Graham James is tackled by Macomb Dakota senior Jacob Bajis.
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Dakota improves to 2-0 in MAC Red