On Monday, April 1, the City of Belleville received six Property Transfer Affidavits for parcels at the city’s front door near the Belleville Bridge.
The property owned by Sam Kassab in the 500 block of Main Street, along with a house behind those commercial buildings on North Liberty Street, now belong to Scott Jones of Van Buren Township.
City Manager Diane Kollmeyer confirmed that this was good news for the city. The deteriorated condition of the 500 block has invited escalating complaints over the years, including even more at Monday’s city council meeting.
City Clerk Sherri Scharf also said recently a woman came into city hall with her daughter. She said the woman used to live here and brought her daughter to see the Belleville she remembered. The woman said the gateway to the city looked like “Beirut” and she was very disappointed.
Hopefully, Jones, whose family started and used to own L&W Engineering, will come up with a wonderful plan to make the entryway to the city beautiful and productive. Everyone is counting on him.
People have been trying to buy the empty properties with the huge parking area for years, but Kassab was unwilling to sell – until now.
The seawall next door to this site is getting fixed and a deteriorated building on E. Huron River Drive got a new roof and there are plans for the carwash next door which has been sold. Things are looking up for Belleville.
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Change – I guess it is needed, however when I lived there it seemed as if everything was as good as it needed to be – I miss our community and where we raised three sons – a small town life but near to universities which gives it a good place to raise a family.
Small town living yet near cities like Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor with cultural events and good universities.