Sumpter Fest on this week end, ‘Honoring Hometown Heroes’

It’s Memorial Day week end and so it’s time for the annual Sumpter Country Fest, Thursday through Monday.
This year’s theme is “Honoring Our Hometown Heroes” and there will be six Grand Marshals in Saturday’s parade, which starts at noon.
Grand Marshals are the police and fire chiefs of the Tri-Community: Sumpter and Van Buren townships and the City of Belleville.
The Honored Citizen is Leslie Powell, who retired last year as Sumpter Fire Chief.
This year’s Country Fest chairman is Kim Toms, who said they will be recognizing “the courage of our police and fire departments and EMS.
“Our main goal is to bring affordable family fun to the community. The festival is put on by the hardworking volunteers from the Sumpter Township Parks and Recreation Commission with support from township’s departments and members of the community,” Toms said.
Proceeds from the festival help fund other events in the community.
Grand Marshals
• Sumpter Township Chief of Police is James Pierce, Jr. He was born in Detroit in 1950 and has lived in Van Buren Township for the last 12 years.
For the past 43 years he has been married to Dr. Regina Reed Pierce, who has a doctorate in Nursing. He has two sons and one is a law enforcement officer in Detroit. He has seven grandchildren and all his family resides in Michigan.
He attended High School in Detroit and Los Angeles, CA. He has a Criminal Justice degree.
Chief Pierce was employed by Michigan Bell Telephone Company 1968-70 and then entered the U.S. Navy and received an Honorable Discharge in 1971. He then continued being employed by Michigan Bell Telephone Company until 1973. From 1973 until 1993 he was a police officer for the Detroit Police Department. From 1993 until 2003 he was a Police Sergeant-Retired, Detroit Police Dept. From 2003-04, he was employed as a Wayne Country Deputy Sheriff. 2004-07 he was Commander of Police in Sumpter Township and became Chief of Police in 2007.
• Van Buren Township Interim Public Safety Director is Gregory M. Laurain, who is starting his 31st year with VBT Police. He began his career as a Reserve Police Officer in 1981 with VBT and graduated from the Oakland Police Academy in 1982.
He was hired as one of VBT’s part-time police officers and became one of the township’s first full-time officers hired in 1983.
Laurain served in many capacities during his years with VBT, including bureau’s, units within the department and assigned to a Special Task Force with the Michigan State Police (Western Wayne Narcotics) and later with the Drug Enforcement Agency (Airport Interdiction).
Laurain worked his way up from patrolman to Sergeant where he supervised Patrol personnel and later was assigned to the Detective Bureau. In 2006 he was promoted to Captain of Support Services and served there until last April when he took on the assignment as Captain over all Police Operations. Since January of this year, Laurain has been serving as the township’s Interim Public Safety Director overseeing Police, Fire, Emergency Dispatch and Animal Control Operations.
“We are facing some changing times in how we deliver Public Safety to our community, but I look at it as challenging and very exciting,” Laurain said. “I can tell you that I enjoy coming to work each day and serving alongside the other dedicated Public Safety personnel of this organization.”
Laurain said he was disappointed that he would not be able to be in the parade, since he would be on vacation in Florida.
• Belleville Chief of Police is Gene Taylor. Chief Taylor has been in police work for 37 years and the last eight years as the Chief of Police for the City of Belleville.
He is married to a Sumpter Township girl, Elayne Whitehead, and they have two daughters, Lynette and Laura.
• Sumpter Township Fire Chief is Joseph Januszyk who has lived his entire life in Sumpter Township. He graduated from Belleville High school in 1976. He attended Washtenaw Community College and has been employed by Van Buren Public Schools for the last 28 years.
Joe has been an on-call firefighter for Sumpter Township Fire Department for 35 years. He recently was appointed the new Fire Chief’.
“I am proud to say I am from Sumpter Township and am dedicated to my community,” he said.
• Van Buren Township Fire Chief is Daniel Besson. He is married to Jennifer who is a Registered Nurse at St. John Medical Center in Detroit Emergency & Trauma Center. They have two daughters, Abigail,10, and Emma,8.
In 1999, Besson earned a bachelor degree in Public Safety Administration from Eastern Michigan University. In 2007 he graduated from EMU’s School of Fire Staff and Command and is now in the process of earning a master’s degree in Emergency Management (with Epsilon Pi Tau honors).
Besson was promoted to full-time VBT Fire Chief in August 2012 after serving as the interim chief since June. He has 18 years with the VBT Fire Department with a promotion to Lieutenant in 2003 followed by a promotion to Battalion Chief in 2009.
Besson spent nearly ten years of full-time service (2003-2012) with the City of Flat Rock Fire Department with a promotion to Shift Commander in 2008 and Lieutenant in 2011. He served as the Coordinator of Emergency Medical Services and as the Training Officer.
Besson has a total of 20 years of paid-on-call/part-time and ten years of full-time fire experience.
He was with the Belleville Fire Department for two years of paid-on-call service from 1992-1994. He also had 15 years of volunteer service (1996-2011) as a Police Reserve for the VBT Police Department.
Besson has also previous 911 Operator/Public Safety Dispatcher (1996-2003) for the VBT Public Safety Department. He also was Lead Paramedic in 2012 for the Detroit Grand Prix (Pit Row Team).
Besson was elected to the Belleville City Council and served one term.
He is a licensed Paramedic and a certified Fire & EMS Instructor along with being a state-certified Fire Inspector and nationally certified Fire Plans & Examiner.
• The City of Belleville’s Fire Chief is Dr. Brian Loranger. Dr. Loranger graduated from Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa, in December of 1985, where he also met and married his wife Dr. Anna Wallis. They moved to Belleville in 1986 and opened their own practice, Loranger Family Chiropractic Center P.C. In 2011 the Lorangers opened a second practice in Dexter.
The couple has three children Aaron, Corinne, and Faith. Aaron lives with his wife in Appleton, WI. Corinne is currently attending LIFE Chiropractic University in Marietta, GA. Faith is looking forward to her senior year at Divine Child.
In 1989 the Fire Chief in Belleville was Jack Loria. He asked Dr. Loranger to join the Fire Department. Dr. Loranger worked his way up in rank at the Fire Department and in 2012 became the Fire Chief for the City of Belleville.
Throughout his time in Belleville he has been an active member in the community. He has been involved with the Boy Scout Troop 793, the Belleville Kiwanis Club, the Strawberry Festival Committee, and the Downtown Development Authority. He also was elected to the City Council. Dr. Loranger is an active member of the BYC, working to promote the Belleville Lake community.
Honored Citizen
Leslie F. Powell retired as Sumpter Township Fire Chief last September after 41 years of service.
He was born June 3, 1948 in Pottsville, PA, which is coal country. He moved to Grand Rapids in 1960 and came to the Belleville area in 1962. He graduated from Belleville High School in 1966.
Powell married Beverly Januszyk July 26, 1969. They have a daughter Jennifer (Chris) Scott and two granddaughters, Leslie and Brittany Scott.
Powell worked as a heavy equipment operator until he retired from Operating Engineers Local 324 in 2004. In 1968 he enlisted in the United States Army where he served as a Parachute Rigger until 1971. He first became involved with the Sumpter fire department in 1965.
In 1971, he officially joined the Sumpter Township Volunteer Department and was elected Fire Chief in 1986. He served in that position until Sept. 12, 2012.