After a lively discussion on Monday, the Belleville City Council voted unanimously to pass a resolution giving its opinion to keep the library site in the City of Belleville.
The vote was taken after members of the audience implored council members to consider the city, not the library district as a whole, in taking a stand.
At the last meeting of the city council on Aug. 1, resident Mike Renaud asked if the council had taken a stand on the site, one way or the other, but he was rebuffed by Mayor Pro Tem Rick Dawson.
Councilwoman Kim Tindall said Renaud’s question was legitimate and he deserved an answer. Since the council wasn’t in the mood to discuss it that night, she asked that it be placed on the Aug. 15 agenda.
Before the agenda item could be considered on Aug. 15, Mayor Pro Tem Dawson tried to head it off, calling a “point of order”. He noted that on Feb. 15, 2010, the council passed a resolution that was the agreement for the district library.
“All five of us went through this document and voted 5-0. We’ve already agreed to have the district library run by the council [he meant library board],” Dawson said, adding the selection of a site is up to the library board.
Dawson said he attends library board meetings and gives his opinions from the audience [when recognized by his wife Mary Jane, who is the library board president]. He said others give their ideas, too, including Barbara Miller.
“I’m not done giving ideas, either,” Miller said from the city council audience.
“I want to give them a chance,” Dawson said of the library board. He pointed out the board is doing due diligence on proposed library sites and he finds it “inappropriate to do another resolution at this time.”
Tindall called out for anyone in the audience who was a parliamentarian or knew Roberts Rules of Order. She said if Dawson’s point of order was correct, she would shut up and not say anything else.
Former Belleville Mayor Tom Fielder suggested Tindall propose a motion and once it has a second, to discuss it.
Tindall moved that this council make a resolution giving their opinion that the library site remain in the city of Belleville.
Councilman Brian Blackburn seconded the motion and the lengthy discussion began.
Tindall said she didn’t think the council or anyone else should subvert the powers of the elected library board, but the city council has a right to give its opinion.
She said if the library site moves out of the downtown, it would be a great loss to the city. She said the library brings in excess of 3,000 a month to the city and these people have the opportunity to shop at stores in the city.
“Our economy needs that,” she went on, adding when people look at places to live, they want good schools, a good library, and good roads.
“It’s in the best interests of the city for the library to be within the city of Belleville,” Tindall concluded.
Councilman Jim Shrove said of the three top sites, two are within the city of Belleville.
Mike Foley, owner of Frosty Boy on Main Street, urged the council to represent the City of Belleville and make decisions on how things affect the city and its residents.
“What Kim’s motion is for the city council to pass a resolution that it thinks the library should be in the City of Belleville,” Foley said, repeating that the council should be looking out for residents and businesses in Belleville.
“You should stand up and scream real loud: ‘We need this.’ Represent us,” Foley said.
Jack Loria, a former member of the planning commission, reminded the council that when the city last did its master plan one of the things the consultant said was to keep the library.
He said when the three planning commissions – Belleville, Van Buren and Sumpter — met together a few years ago, Van Buren said the City of Belleville is the cultural center of VBT.
“Van Buren Township has already admitted you are the hub,” Loria said. “We wholeheartedly back the planning commission to keep the library in the City of Belleville.”
Vera Howell said she attended the last library board meeting and it was a very good meeting with lots of people giving their thoughts.
“You are serving us,” she said to the council. “You should speak up … to keep it in Belleville proper … Someone said the property over the bridge is an extension of Belleville. That’s not Belleville, that’s Van Buren Township.
“Stand up for us. You need to make a stand,” Howell continued. “We want it in Belleville proper. Not across the bridge.”
Planning Commission member Renaud said he didn’t remember anyone at the last library board meeting saying they wanted the main library in Van Buren or Sumpter townships.
Steve Jones, chairman of the Planning Commission, said the city’s master plan was done 10 years ago and the library was named as an asset and should be kept. The 2006 revision said the same thing and now they are in the process of revising it again.
Loria said the library board has to have fiscal responsibility and study the costs of the different locations.
Mary Jane Dawson said the library board is looking not just at a location, but what’s best for the whole community.
“I don’t think the schools would come into a council meeting, township board meeting … We are a separate group,” she said. She said the board also has to look at what kind of impact it has on adjoining properties.
She said the council needs to let the library board do its due diligence. She said the board represents three separate communities within 72 square miles with about 44,000 people.
Library Board member Michael Boelter said the board doesn’t have all the facts and doesn’t know if any of the three proposed sites will work out. He said they may have to start over.
Tindall said the council represents 2.2 square miles and 3,200 people and, “We have to address what’s best for 3,200.”
Foley said the resolution is what’s best for the city and it’s only an opinion, only a suggestion.
“You’re not looking out for the whole district, you’re looking out for the city of Belleville … not the Belleville area…” Foley said.
He said the library site will be passed by millages to last for 40 to 100 years.
“I’d like to hear impassioned speech on keeping it in the city,” Foley said.
“I have a tremendous respect for those on the board,” Fielder said, adding the presentation at the recent forum showed there was a preferred site.
“We can’t measure the impact of having the library in the City of Belleville,” Field said, noting that if he was an architect and he could have a blank slate, that’s the one he would push. He referred to the unimproved property owned by the DNR.
Fielder told of the committee he was on for a new school building and it made two proposals that were turned down by voters until there was a proposal to keep the school where it was and the voters approved it.
“The voters are going to tell them where they want it,” Fielder said of the library site. He suggested if the board wanted to avoid two years of false starts that board members talk to everyone they can to find out where they want to site the library.
He warned that the voters may say, “Go back and come up with a better idea.”
When Mayor Pro Tem Dawson prodded him, Fielder mentioned that 25% of the city is non-taxable because of schools, churches, parks and the library.
“That’s because we’re the central hub,” Fielder said, adding there are tradeoffs to being a hub.
“Their job was to find the best place,” Fielder said of the board. He recalled that the architect said the loss of tax revenue was not his problem and, “I respect him for saying that. He was honest in saying that.”
Barbara Miller said she has attended more library board meetings than any other citizen and the DNR was the preferred site from the beginning.
She said the July 14 public forum was intended for the library board to get public input, but the library board was voting for their favorites and the totals weren’t the public’s opinion.
Miller said the people who voted for the high school are the same voters who will be voting on the library.
“If you don’t listen, we will speak with our votes,” Miller said. “People want the library in town.”
She said the proposed site that included Lakeview Tavern, Mike Windiate’s apartments and other businesses, doesn’t even merit attention.
“It’s a fraud to say that is a reasonable site,” she said, explaining that board members may have thought its inclusion would take pressure off them for a downtown site.
Miller said there are vacant lots up and down Main Street and the library is an “economic engine in the middle of the community.”
Loria asked how many square feet the library was to be and when Mary Jane Dawson hesitated, Loria asked if it was 40,000 square feet. Dawson said “somewhere around that.”
Loria asked if they wanted 40,000 square feet or needed 40,000, and he planned to ask that at the next library board meeting.
He said with the new electronic books and the like, maybe not as much space is required.
Mayor Pro Tem Dawson said they are talking about two buildings, a main library and a satellite.
He said now under discussion is the 2005 study that said the library needed 45,000 square feet. He said since then libraries have changed and, “Hopefully they will do another study because that one is old … get updated information on what does this area need.”
“… and, what will they support,” Loria added.
At that point the council voted unanimously to have an opinion in resolution form for the library to be in Belleville. After the vote, the crowd that had filled the meeting room left, with a handful of people left.
At the end of the meeting, Renaud thanked the council for their votes and thanked the people “who did a better job of persuading you to vote for it than I did at the last meeting.”
In other business at Monday’s meeting, the council:
• Took no action on Belle Villa Townhouses’ request to reduce the permit/inspection fees of $85 each for 79 water meters they are having installed so each unit will pay its own water bills. Laura Hogan claimed the costs were too high compared to Mt. Pleasant and Flushing and she asked for a $3,500 fee rather than almost $7,000. Dawson said that would cost the city $3,900 and they couldn’t do it for one and not others;
• Approved amending the city fee schedule to include a $50 “Tax Export File” on CD for mortgage companies. In the past Wayne County was handling these requests and charging for the service;
• Approved accounts payable of $216,252.68 and the following departmental expenditures in excess of $500: to BS&A for internet services, $2,740; to J&T Towing for towing/ impound fees, $1,390; to Neopost USA for maintenance/rental of postage meter, three quarters, $892.26; to Northville Charter Twp. for SWAT 2011 FY, $2,083.35; to Oakland County Treasurer for CLEMIS, $1,962.75; to Starr Indemnity for fire dept. insurance, $1,050; and fire truck repairs to a company to be determined, some $2,188;
• Heard City Manager Diana Kollmeyer publicly thank Prentis and Joann Howell for donating an upright freezer to hold food for distribution to the needy;
• Heard Harold Webster ask about why the city charter was ignored by letting the city manager live outside the city and why a councilman could be convicted of a felony and still be on the council. Webster was told state law superceded the charter on where the city manager could live. Councilman Brian Blackburn said he pleaded no-contest to a misdemeanor [after a traffic incident] and the charter has no problem with that. Councilwoman Tindall said, “Crap happens. He made a mistake and you shouldn’t have to pay for it the rest of your life”; and
• Learned Mayor Richard Smith and his wife Phyllis were celebrating their 47th wedding the day of the meeting – Aug. 15. Also, City Manager Diana Kollmeyer was celebrating her birthday the same day.