VBT supervisor McNamara welcomes Google to community

At the beginning of the March 17 regular meeting of the Van Buren Township Board of Trustees, supervisor Kevin McNamara read a prepared statement on newly released information about Google and the data center – and welcomed Google to his community.
“Google is the company that will own it, finance it, and run it on their own,” he began.
“If anyone has any questions about this site, our director Ron Akers and his staff have done an incredible job of taking every statement of concern and getting factual responses. Those are listed on our Van Buren home page. It is constantly upgraded as we get new questions. It is transparent, open, and fact-driven.
“This property is privately owned and zoned for industrial usage. Van Buren has named Industrial properties as the only place to place data ceenters. This site has seen a lot of activity, including warehousing, trucking, and truck stops being proposed for development. All legal uses.
“Van Buren is a community of two-lane roads and we are adamantly against high-volume trucking use. We are excited to have an environmentally friendly, quiet, low-traffic and no-trucking use coming to this location. We know this because we have gone out and visited an area with multiple hyper-scale data centers. We walked the site and the neighborhoods. We spoke with the locals. They do not have sound issues.
“We are also very excited to have a company that has a track record of being a good, ethical, community partner. We have learned this from contacting other municipalities and school systems with Google centers in their area.
“In negotiations with Google, Google has agreed to everything we have asked them to do on this site. They have 15’ high berms with 15’ high trees on the property lines, that will grow 30’ high. They have pushed back the buildings and put the cooling towers behind those buildings to mitigate off-site noise. They have agreed to eliminate light pollution.
“They are putting in $30 million in landscaping to beautify the site. The site (for the most part) will not have sight lines from the streets into its operation. They have agreed to install the Marley “Ultra Quiet” brand cooling towers which are the quietest cooling towers on the market (and most expensive).
“As for environmental – this site is electric and the water is tap water going in and goes out to the sanitary sewer. If they ever have a power outage from their dual electric lines (hasn’t happened in ten years based on historical look up) then they use low-sulphur fuel Level 4 EPA generators and off-site battery back-up.”
He said, “People want me to beat up on Google, but I am not going to kick Google. They could have forced this situation – but they did not. They did everything we asked in an effort to be a good community partner, and for that I am thankful.
“And, I openly welcome Google to our community,” he concluded.
There were no comments from the board or the audience and the meeting continued.
In other actions, the board:
• Heard a presentation from Kurt Heise, an attorney who formerly served as supervisor of Plymouth Township, among other state elected positions. He explained the mass tort environmental litigation involving PFAs, that has been in fire fighting foam, fire extinguishers, and Teflon. Although it no longer is in production, litigation has begun against the manufacturers of the PFAs. He said the Great Lakes Water Authority should have sued, but didn’t file. They are doing the necessary testing now and the water is fine and he drinks it every day. Heise is working with a New Orleans lawfirm and invited Van Buren Township to join the suit. It will get $50 to $75 per resident. He said there is no cost to the township at all, no strings attached, and the funds can be spent in any way. He said this suit involved MMM and others and other manufacturers will be settling in the future, so more money will be coming;
• Approved executing the legal services agreement related to the AFFF (Aqueous Film Forming Foam) product liability litigation, as described by Heise;
• Approved the reappointment of Harlan Davenport to the Board of Construction Appeals with a term to expire Feb. 28, 2029;
• Approved the supervisor’s reappointment of Denise Partridge to the Water and Sewer Commission with a term to expire June 1, 2028;
• Approved the supervisor’s appointment of Christine McCarley to the Downtown Development Authority board to fill a vacancy, with a term to expire March 9, 2029. She was introduced to the board as branch manager of Genisys, with 37 years of credit union experience;
• Approved the supervisor’s reappointments of Joyce Rochowiak, Jessica Thomas, and Velon Willis to the DDA board with terms to expire March 9, 2030;
• Approved the selection of American Fireworks Company as the contractor for the 2026 VBT Fireworks Show on June 27 with a rain date of June 28 at a cost of $25,000. The township offers to pay $25,000 and then selects the firm with the best show for that money. American Fireworks Company won the contract for the last three years, as well;
• Approved the selection of SAK to provide sewer lining, sewer inspection, maintenance and rehabilitation needs for a period of three years with an option to extend an additional two years at a cost not to exceed $515,000 annually. “It keeps our lines waterproof in Van Buren Township,” McNamara said, later explaining that it’s easier to line than to dig up driveways. He said the township is trying to play catch-up after a lapse of work with COVID. There is money in the bank for this, he said;
• Approved a Subrecipient Agreement with Wayne County for a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) award of $412,500 for sidewalk ramps in Haggerty subdivision. Specifications are being prepared by Fishbeck engineering. McNamara said the township repaired sidewalks in the subdivision and took care of work that needed to be done, but didn’t do the ramps because they were too expensive.;
• Approved the second reading and adoption of a zoning ordinance amendment to add housing standards in accordance with the MSHDA (Michigan State Housing Development Authority) Housing Readiness Program. Ron Akers, director of municipal services, said the township got a $50,000 grant to look at housing in the township and then came up with a recommendation for a Mixed Residential Overlay District and a new Mixed Residential District; and
• Heard resident David Guernsey say he didn’t want to incite violence, but he is against concentration camps in the township and if the township allows an ICE detention center to be built, he and other residents of the trailer parks where people are dumped, will be forced to arm themselves.
Absent and excused from the meeting were clerk Leon Wright and trustee Donald Boynton.