Library, Sumpter Twp. sign 49-year lease pact for hexagon house

On Tuesday, Aug. 13, the Sumpter Township Board of Trustees approved signing of the 12-page lease agreement for use of the hexagon house across Sumpter Road from the township hall as a satellite library.
Joy Cichewicz, a Sumpter resident and chairman of the library board’s building committee, came into the Sumpter meeting to answer any questions, but none were asked of her.
Sumpter Township attorney Rob Young, who had been working on the agreement with District Library attorney John Day, left the Sumpter meeting early and drove to the meeting of the Belleville Area District Library in Belleville and joined Day to witness the approval of the same agreement by Cichewicz and the rest of the district library board.
Young told the Sumpter board that this was the fifth or sixth draft of the lease agreement. He said the building will be ready to open at the end of October or early November.
After the approval by the library board, both attorneys left the meeting and Cichewicz explained some of the background of the hexagon house.
She said it was originally built as a senior center, but quickly it was proven to be too small for the seniors. Most recently it has been the offices for the township’s Department of Public Works.
She said the DPW has moved into the former post office next door and work has begun in earnest to turn the hexagon building into a media center. The media center will operate in conjunction with the new Belleville Area District Library that is being constructed next to the present library on Fourth Street.
Taxpayers passed millage to pay off a $14 million bond for construction of the new library. That also covers support of the media center in Sumpter.
The building is still owned by the township and Sumpter planned to use money for renovations that it has in its coffers that was collected by a library millage voted by Sumpter residents in the past.
Presently, Sumpter Township has taken over renovations on the outside of the building and the library is working on the inside upgrades and furnishings.
The agreement said: Upon execution of the lease agreement, the tenant will tender to the landlord the sum of $200,000 as tenant’s contribution to landlord’s improvements, which is in the library budget.
Also, the lease will commence when the landlord (Sumpter) notifies the tenant (library) that all of the landlord’s improvements to the satellite property have been completed.
Possession of the satellite property shall be turned over exclusively to the tenant not more than five days of the receipt of such notice.
The lease runs for 49 years following the commencement date, unless terminated earlier. Rent is $1 a year.
Among the details of use of the building, the library can’t become a nuisance. It cannot sell, use, or store drugs and can’t allow any campaign or political materials related to any specific candidate for office or political party affiliation. This does not refer to any informative documents to a ballot question.
Cichewicz said the township will provide a dumpster and waive the fees.