VBT LDFA considers ways to help fix up Grace Lake trails

At its regular meeting May 14, the Van Buren Township Local Development Finance Authority (LDFA) discussed ways to help fix up the nature trails at Grace Lake Corporate Center.
“It would be a tough sell,” VBT Supervisor Kevin McNamara said of raising money to help the property responsible for the Visteon bonds.
LDFA Corresponding Secretary John Delaney has been talking about the poor condition of the nature trail at what is now Grace Lake. He said that fixing the trails would bring more people to the site and thus help market it as a home for more businesses. More construction at Grace Lake would allow more tax capture to pay off the bonds.
When Delaney suggested trail work, Chairman Michael Dotson said the LDFA can’t do much with not much of a budget.
“We count on registered brokers to market Grace Lake,” said LDFA member Doug Peters.
“It needs to be marketed so people will know it’s there,” Delaney said. He said events could be held there because there is “… so much green space … put in pop-up tents for an hour or two.”
“I’ve never known Sovereign Partners to say no,” Supervisor McNamara said.
Delaney said they could get Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts to clean up on the trails and then sign then off for merit badges. Eagle Scouts could build benches according to Sovereign’s specifications.
Delaney said this would be marketing it as a community, noting they have experts they pay multi-hundred-thousands for marketing it.
Chairman Dotson said they could sit down with someone from Sovereign and plan out some events for the next six months.
LDFA member Chuck Covington said maybe they could move something that is already scheduled to Grace Lake.
Delaney said at the beginning Visteon told the township there would be outdoor athletic fields, soccer fields, places classes can go to study the environment. He said they could sit down with LDFA member Scott Medlen from Sovereign Partners and try to come up with a plan.
Later in the meeting, Delaney said the LDFA is supposed to be broke after paying money for the bonds, but is there a way to raise money to help with the marketing.
He said Girl Scouts earn money by selling cookies.
McNamara said, if you want to raise $20,000 for summer camp, for example, you want it to be a wash. You get the money and spend it all on the camp.
“We don’t have a legal way to raise money,” McNamara said.
“We could get the conservation club to donate funds to improve the looks of the trails, so school buses would go there,” Delaney said.
“Could the LDFA be a grant recipient?” McNamara asked.
“Get somebody to write checks, rather than a lot of boxes of cookies,” Peters said. He suggested turning it over to Parks and Recreation.
Covington said he would speak as a Devil’s Advocate: “Aren’t we supposed to spend all our money on the bonds?”
“This is unchartered territory,” McNamara said. “People can donate money for a specific purpose and you have to use it for that.”
“This is private property,” Peters said, turning to Medlen and asking, “Do you want people on your property?”
“If we know about it,” Medlen said.
“Can I ride my bike there?” and he was told no, because there is a tree fallen over the trail, the bridge is not navigable, and the trail is not clear.
“You should put yellow tape across,” said Peters, a retired attorney. “You’d better tape it,” he advised Medlen.
Peters said they should get Parks and Recreation to give them a price at how much path repairs would cost.
“We’re on private property,” McNamara reminded them.
“Why raise money for them since they owe us money?” Covington said, agreeing that now Sovereign owns the property, but it was the same property that had the bond cost.
“Go out. Ride your bike,” said Peters. “Break your neck. It’s all right. It’s all on Sovereign.”
“Does the public want it?” Peters asked of the nature trails.
Chairman Dotson asked Ron Akers, director of planning and economic development, if he would research the law on raising of money by the LDFA, receiving of grants by the LDFA, and is the LDFA impeded by law from doing these things?
McNamara said the DPW could look at it to estimate costs to repair the one-and-a-half-mile path.
“I’m paying a contractor to take care of that – or not take care of that,” Medlen noted, adding he would talk to the contractor.
Delaney said he took 40 pictures of the trail and he would give them to Medlen.
In other business at the 49-minute meeting, the LDFA:
• Discussed at length potential bylaw changes, with the renaming of Delaney’s office of Corresponding Secretary to something else since he rarely is asked to do anything secretarial. That position is to lead the meeting if the chairman and vice chairman aren’t present. Dotson said many boards he knows, including the Wayne County Community College board, have the officers are chairman, vice chairman, and secretary. New names for Delaney’s position were suggested as: third chair, vice-chair pro tem, and second vice chair. Peters suggested he might be called “major domo.” Dotson asked Akers to go back and see what title is most used by similar bodies. McNamara said nobody wants to be called “secretary” these days and prefers “executive assistant.” It will be discussed again at the July meeting;
• Discussed an upgrade to the website. Dotson said the executive board asked Akers to look into upgrading the LDFA website and it would cost $2,200. “We do not have money budgeted for that,” Dotson said. He said the budget is for attorney and debt service. “Every dollar we spend ultimately we can’t spend on debt service,” Dotson said. Everything required is already on the website, he said. “The website is in current compliance4 and it would not do anything for us to upgrade now,” said Peters. “For us to spend money on a website, we can’t justify,” Covington said. “We couldn’t justify a blowback.” Dotson said it is a separate item entirely to talk about making money. “Our bond obligations will be on us in another couple months,” Peters said. He made a motion to table this item to a future point, which was unanimously passed by the board.