At the Sept. 6 work/study meeting of the Van Buren Township Board of Trustees Clerk Leon Wright brought up the issue of people referring to Van Buren Township as BELLEVILLE.
He said he thought the township should work to market itself as Van Buren Township. Other board members agreed.
Apparently, it was all set off by Supervisor Linda Combs’ assistant Lianne Clair who sent Combs an email over the Labor Day week end after she saw a big promotion on TV for Wayne County Community College in BELLEVILLE, when it actually is in Van Buren Township. Combs sent a copy of the email on to other board members and to Michael Dotson, head of the local WCCC campus and also chairman of the VBT Local Development Finance Authority. Clerk Wright said they are having a major problem with a large college saying it’s in Belleville and also an automotive business that is going on TV saying it’s in Belleville, when it isn’t.
“I like buying from Atchinson Ford and I’ll continue to buy from them and I like WCCC,” Wright said. “I think we need to put a collaboration together with our businesses” to promote Van Buren Township.
Resident John Delaney said in 2007 Visteon changed its address from Belleville to Van Buren Township and then went bankrupt. Board members laughed, but wondered about it.
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Oh shut up VBT Board when the only city/town in the township is Belleville you will always be called Belleville/Belleville area. BTW state gov doesn’t use VBT in the address on my drivers license.
VBT has no downtown, just recently installing some sidewalks, and they will have to re-name Belleville Lake to Van Buren Lake? City of Belleville doesn’t even have a grocery store but they do have the library, a great hardware store and the wonderful Bayou Grill. Both communities are lacking in some amenities so they should just combine to share services and save money. VBT will be in receivership in a few years anyway.
Van Buren Township dropped the ball on the historic Riggs house, putting money into it then allowing it to be vacant and vandalized for ten years, now it will be demolished. Van Buren Township has a vacant Farmer Jack located on Belleville Road this is what people see when they get off I-94. VBT Board should be paying attention to these 2 issues instead of worrying about the City of Belleville identity.
Van Buren needs to concentrate on it’s rising crime rate and not worry about the qualification of it’s name. The demographic change that has taken place in the Township has brought along with it an escalation in crime. There are so many more serious things to get under control than a name. Everyone likes to ignore the truth and many people have moved from the area because of it. The careful coding on police labeling of an incident is 90% of the time a white wash of the truth of the police summoning. Be truthful. Warn your residents of what is actually happening, and you just might be able to get the criminals, whether petty or major out of the township. Until the truth is released, Belleville or Van Buren township will never ever see the peace that it once had and was once the draw for people to move to.
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