Readers, this is unedited so their may be some typos, but since their is high interest in the article I figured I'd include some of my notes.
The St. Clair County Board of Commissioners approved spending $560,000 to buy the former Art Van Furniture
building in downtown Port Huron at a board meeting with a 5-2 vote Thursday
night.
Commissioner Tom Reilly and Bill
Gratopp voted against the purchase.
At the start of the meeting, two
memorandums were added to the board agenda that detailed the agreement between
the board of commissioners and the library, and the parks and recreation department.
More than a dozen members of the
community attended the meeting to voice their disapproval
of the purchase, including city and township officials. In addition many nurses,
from the St. Clair County Health Department spoke against spending such a large
amount of money on the property when they haven’t received a raise in year.
Port Huron city council member Ken
Harris spoke against the resolution to but the property.
“I’m here tonight to speak
against the property purchase.” Harris said. “I think this is a step backwards.
I don’t see the advantages of having another parking structure.”
“Right now you don’t know that
the money will be used for what it was being dedicated for,” Greenwood Township
Supervisor Terry Gill said. “I don’t think you should be doing that.”
“I would like to know, what’s the rush? The first I heard
about it was Wednesday in the paper. The mileages are coming up,” Lynn Township
board member Juanita Hunter said. “It feels like this is being shoved down our
throats.”
After each person spoke out against buying the Art Van
building there was a loud applause from the audience. After the purchase was approved many people
attending the meeting walked out.
Before the meeting St. Clair
County Library System Director Allison Arnold expressed her support of the
property purchase.
“We’re looking at the future of
the library,” Arnold said. “We know there is a need to update our building.”
Library board president Arnold
Larson said that if the purchase is not used for library funds, it will serve
just as a five or six years, and essentially is a fund transfer. He spoke in
the meeting in favor of the purchase.
“The St. Clair County Library
System Board of Trustees is exploring the possible expansion of the main branch
facility. If constructed, it is likely that an expanded or new facility will be
located on the same block that the main branch now occupies,” the memorandum signed
by Larson said.
“It is anticipated that if the
Library expands or constructs a new main branch, that existing parking will be
displaced,” the memorandum continued.
The memorandum said the library
would commit up to $200,000 to the purchase and if the library didn’t use it within
10 years it would be taken back. Commissioner Howard Heidemann said it was
important to realize the money would be paid back if it was not used.
County chairman Jeff Bohm had a
presentation that explained how the property was on sale for $1.2 million three
years ago and the board decided to buy the property after price for the
property was lowered.
He said the county had an independent
specialist look into the cost of the building.
“We like the property because of
the way it fits into the county’s campus,” Bohm said.
Bohm said parking issues in
downtown Port Huron have been well documented. He said the city of Port Huron
has not made a firm commitment to using the property but said but they do have
interest and added library has been in discussion with the board for a while on
the subject.
“I’m not going to speak for them
for their specific plans because they don’t have them honed in yet,” Bohm said.
Other members of the board
offered support for the property purchase and said echoed that the purchase was
approved by the library and parks and recreation. The decision to purchase the
property was moved around on the agenda several times to allow for public
discussion before the board voted on the resolution.
“What we have before us tonight
is signed agreement with the library board and parks and recreation to move
forward,” Commissioner Karl Tomion said.
Later, Tomion said a lot of
people were getting the wrong impression were the county was getting the money
for the purchase.
“We’re not raiding their funds,”
Tomion said
“The millage money is in
question will be used for the library,” Commissioner David Rushing said. “There
are a lot of legitimate concerns brought up tonight.
“I have reservations on this but
I will be supportive,” Rushing said.
Two commissioners spoke against
the resolution, Tom Reilly said he could not support the project because of the
way purchase was handled.
Commissioner Bill Gratopp said
he could not support it the purchase because he ran for election on the promise
of creating more public parks in his district. He said he believed the money
was better used by the Parks and Recreation Department.
Before the board voted on the resolution Bohm said the board
has discussed the purchase at length in workshops and with the public. He said
the board have discussed the purchase for three years and the best time to act
now.
