Adrian City Commission seeks Project Phoenix information

ADRIAN — Adrian city commissioners on Monday passed a resolution saying it is too soon for them to take a position on Lenawee County’s proposed Project Phoenix recreation and event center in Tecumseh.

Before the city commission’s vote, county commissioner Terry Collins, who enthusiastically supported the project in October when the county board of commissioners approved closing on the purchase of the land, said he no longer supports Project Phoenix.

The county is exploring building a recreation and events center on the site of the former Tecumseh Products Co. plant in Tecumseh. It is nicknamed Project Phoenix because, like the mythical phoenix that rises from the ashes of its predecessor, the project would restore a blighted property into something useful. The county bought the land for $2.3 million.

Tecumseh Products is working with environmental regulators to clean up contamination in the groundwater at the site. Most of the buildings have been torn down.

Monday’s special meeting was announced Saturday afternoon. It began shortly after 4:45 pm

The resolution says “it is too early to take a position on the appropriateness or viability of Project Phoenix without a complete, thorough, and objective analysis of the ability of the project to be self-sustaining and not to be a drain on the taxpayers of Lenawee County.”

It also says the commission and city believe the county “must engage in a fully transparent decision-making process in determining whether Project Phoenix should be funded, if at all, by County resources” and the county “must engage in a fully transparent decision- making process in determining where Project Phoenix should be located, if it finds it to appropriately be a County-owned facility or a facility in which substantial County resources are invested.”

The resolution was approved on a 6-0 vote. Mayor Angie Sword Heath was absent.

Speakers, including Tecumseh Mayor Jack Baker, Tecumseh City Manager Dan Swallow, and Lenawee County Administrator Kim Murphy, addressed the city commission, giving their views for and against the project.

Collins, R-Adrian, was one who spoke Monday against proceeding with Project Phoenix. He represents Adrian’s west side on the county commission. When he voted for buying the land in October, he called the project “an incredibly, incredibly awesome opportunity.”

“I do not support Project Phoenix,” Collins told the city commission Monday.

Lenawee County Commissioner Terry Collins, R-Adrian, addresses the Adrian City Commission during its special meeting Monday about Lenawee County's proposed Project Phoenix recreation and events center in Tecumseh.

He listed “several, several issues” about why the project lost his support. The main issue, he said in an interview after the meeting, that changed his mind is the amount of money the county is projected to have to put toward the project rather than using money from other sources. He said money from the county’s ARPA funds, a $20 bond issue, the amount already spent to purchase the property, a $75,000 feasibility study, and other potential costs could add up to $40 million.

During the meeting, he asked how many other “very needy projects in this county” could be paid for with that money.

“I think it should be a privately funded program,” he told the city commission.

No money from any source is currently earmarked for Project Phoenix, Murphy said after the meeting. There had been a recommendation to spend $10 million in ARPA funds, she said, but after the federal government updated the rules for the funding in April, the county asked its legal and financial advisers to determine just how that money can be spent.

She said along with possibly using ARPA funds, the county is seeking appropriations from the state and federal governments and grants. She said there are private donors and foundations that are willing to support the project, too.

“There is a lot of funding out there, but there has to be a level of commitment on our part, if that’s what the commissioners want to do,” Murphy said.

Others who spoke against the project said it should be in Adrian because a county facility should be in the county seat and it would be more centrally located to the outlying towns in the county; criticized the county administration for not providing information on the project; doubted whether spinoff businesses, such as hotels, would be built in Lenawee County; and questioned spending that amount of money on this kind of project when there are other needs, such as road repairs.

Baker, who spoke first, asked the city commission to put off a vote and suggested the city commission and county commission schedule a joint meeting so that the city commissioners could learn more about the project. He said the project is not only “a great thing” for Tecumseh, it is a “good fit” for both the county and Adrian.

Tecumseh Mayor Jack Baker addresses the Adrian City Commission during its special meeting Monday about Lenawee County's proposed Project Phoenix recreation and events center in Tecumseh.

Swallow said Project Phoenix is ​​another way Adrian and Tecumseh can collaborate, like it does on the Kiwanis Regional Trail Authority and economic development efforts.

“Bringing thousands of visitors to Lenawee County is going to benefit both communities, without a doubt,” he said.

An example he gave is concern about Tecumseh not having enough hotel rooms for the visitors. He said Tecumseh officials want visitors to stay in Adrian.

The Products site’s advantages, Swallow said, are its size, 55 acres; it is close to the city’s commercial center and additional sports field at Raisin Township’s Mitchell Park; it still has the infrastructure in place that served the products plant when 5,000 people worked there; and restoring a blighted site would help generate taxes for the city, county, schools and other taxing jurisdictions.

Murphy told the city commission that the county commissioners would not vote this week on Project Phoenix, though city commissioner Gordon Gauss and at least one of the speakers recalled statements at a county meeting last month that indicated there would be a vote. She said they will hear a presentation on Tuesday from their consultants and be able to ask questions. She said the county commissioners on Wednesday will get an update from members of the environmental team working on the site and an Environmental Protection Agency representative.

Unlike a private business, which can work behind closed doors before presenting a final plan to the public, the county is developing the plans for the site in public, Murphy said.

“Through that, we are coming up with different avenues, different ideas, different things, and it appears people are taking different pieces of that and running with it as if that is our final decision. And it is not,” she said. “We are simply trying to be transparent and show the information as it is presented.”

Lenawee County Administrator Kim Murphy addresses the Adrian City Commission during its special meeting Monday about Lenawee County's proposed Project Phoenix recreation and events center in Tecumseh.

The city commissioners’ complaints about Project Phoenix were mostly about the finances. Commissioner Lad Strayer said he is not opposed to the project in principal, particularly if it was funded privately or if the city of Tecumseh was paying for it.

“I’m opposed to a very expensive project that uses taxpayer dollars and is going to benefit very few,” he said.

Strayer also agreed with Collins’ assessment that people going to tournaments at the facility won’t go to Adrian for hotels or restaurants.

Commissioner Mary Roberts said she doesn’t know enough about Project Phoenix to take a position for or against it. She said she really wants to believe in the project and is not opposed to the location, but she doesn’t know how the funding will work.

“I think there are some people who are working on this, they know exactly what’s happening with it, but that information is not public, and that causes problems,” she said.

She said she welcomed a joint meeting with the county.

Gauss said he expected the resolution to take a position for or against Project Phoenix, but he was OK with taking more time to understand the project.

“I’m not crazy about supporting the project,” Gauss said, based on what he already knows about it. “But I’m willing to listen.”

Commissioners Kelly Castleberry and Allen Heldt also were critical of the financial aspect of the project. She said she has not seen an objective financial analysis. She also raised concerns about whether the county had the resources to manage repeated crowds the size of those that go to the Faster Horses country music festival or races at Michigan International Speedway and that houses could be turned into short-term rentals, reducing the availability of housing.

Heldt, like Strayer, said he is not opposed to the project, but he is opposed to spending any more public funds on it.

“The Adrian City Commission does not gamble with public dollars,” Heldt said. “… When the county spends over $2 million of public money on buying a contaminated piece of property without having grants in hand, in escrow, and private dollars, that is irresponsible in my eyes.”

He said he can’t get a straight answer from county commissioners he’s talked to about whether more public money will be spent on Project Phoenix. He said he told county commission chairman David Stimpson he should convene a meeting with the city commission to share information about the project.

“The city commission does not know what their plan is, but I think the county doesn’t have an idea how to fund it, either,” Heldt said.

Heldt and Strayer said the reason for Monday’s meeting was a lack of information provided by the county and city commissioners not having answers when city residents ask them questions about it.

“I don’t think it’s our responsibility to reach out to the county commission and say, ‘Explain this thing to us,'” Strayer said. “I think the county commission should have come to us weeks ago and said, ‘Hey, we’ve got this big project. We’d like you to be on board. Here’s what it is.’

“Instead, we’ve been kept in the dark and we’ve kind of had to piecemeal things together and then people say we don’t have the right information. Well, it’s not our fault.”

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