Algonac mayor answers brownfield plan criticism

Mayor pro tem says it’s “a dead issue”

By Barb Pert Templeton

Whether or not the City of Algonac will have a brownfield project was a topic during public comments at a Feb. 18 city council meeting and Mayor Rocky Gillis decided to address the subject with a passionate rebuttal.

“I just had to get this off my chest because I feel like we’ve been attacked for trying to think and act differently,” Gillis said. “Algonac, as you know, has had a status quo for a while and we’ve all been trying to be different, so this is one more tool that the government gave us in our tool box and we accept it.”

The project has stalled at the county level and whether or not the St. Clair County Board of Commissioners will place the subject on their agenda soon remains to be seen.

Algonac resident Eileen Tesch, who is also employed by Blue Water Healthy Living, addressed the council during public comments at the recent meeting.

She began by noting that the council unanimously approved the brownfield redevelopment project on the property owned by Corcat Properties LLC, ‘giving them our taxes and our millage’ for the next 24-years. (See boxed item with this story.)

Tesch cited a school millage renewal that will be coming to Algonac voters in May and the importance of residents knowing just where the funding would be going if it passes.

“The people need to know that if they should vote on this school millage renewal that that money may be going to Corcat brothers,” Tesch said. “I think, recommend, suggest – that you get

together and figure out how you’re going to notify the people of what could be the consequences of this millage coming up.”

Tesch also addressed the city council at a Feb. 4 meeting and noted the school millage renewal and her concern that the officials had already voted unanimously in favor of the brownfield development.

“Giving the private contractor 24-years of our taxes and millages,” Tesch said.

Tesch concluded by stating that she heard the mayor say he’s trying to do the best for the city but she doesn’t know that brownfield is in the best interest.

“None of us know what this brownfield development is going to mean for our future especially when it comes to our revenue,” Tesch said at the Feb. 4 meeting.

Mayor speaks on the subject

At the end of the Feb. 18 meeting, during the agenda item ‘council comments,’ Gillis said since Mrs. Tesch keeps bringing up brownfield, he wanted to say a few things about it.

He said the brownfield program has been around for a long time and it’s a program to spur development. The program came from the state to the county and then to the city, he said.

“The brownfield project, tax revenue captured after the increment, would go to pay the brownfield authority to reimburse the contracture for the streets, the water mains, the sewers, the infrastructure to lower the prices of the home so we can get younger families into those homes at $30 to $40 thousand dollars less,” Gillis said.

What that means is the city is going to take the same amount of taxes they get now plus they get $2,000 per house for tap in fees so that’s $150,000 in tap in fees, he added.

Gillis went on to state that he keeps hearing how this project will be taking money from the schools and yes some of the millage money does go there, but that’s how the program was designed.

“Not by us, by the state of Michigan and presented to us by the county Brownfield Board,” Gillis said.

“This wasn’t some conspiracy that the Algonac City Council cooked up to get development, this is a government program that Governor Whitmer changed to offer it as affordable housing through our affordable housing crisis in this area,” Gillis said. “So, we as a council looked at the benefits and we decided it was something we’d like to explore.”

He said the project is stopped at the county level right now and he isn’t aware of a path forward at the county level right now.

“To insinuate that we don’t care about schools because we passed this brownfield, well if every one of those houses had a kid at 53 houses that’s $530,000 to our school system so it would be good for our schools in my opinion,” Gillis said. “We made the best decision for our residences that we thought at the time.”

Building 53 homes would bring lots of people to the restaurants and businesses in town so that’s another fact to consider, Gillis said.

Mayor Pro Tem Dawn Davey said she wanted to point out that when Mrs. Tesch was mayor of Algonac in 2018 the Brownfield Developers came to do at least one or two presentations to the city council.

“So, she’s aware of how this works, she invited them here so this shouldn’t be new to Mrs. Tesch,” Davey said.

Councilman Michael Bembas complimented the mayor on his comments on the subject and added a few of his own.

“The city doesn’t pay anybody or lose any money on it, we’re not making any money on it now,” Bembas said. “By deferring it so that we can pay for new roads and new sewers is only an investment, the schools aren’t going to lose any money here, in the long run they make money.”

Davey said the subject is actually kind of a non-issue right now.

“So why this keeps coming up by Mrs. Tesch I don’t understand, unless she knows something from a member of the county commission which I don’t know how that would happen,” Davey said. “This is a dead issue and I don’t know why it keeps coming up. I want to make that really clear.”

Gillis also commented on the fact that the project by Corcat Properties is from a local resident and business owner who’s done well and simply wants to take advantage of a government program.

“He’s being vilified for it and all the people that work for him are locals,” Gillis said. “I’m sorry but I’m very passionate that our intentions are being misinterpreted.”