City Council puts city hall, Savage Road property on the market

At the Oct. 6 meeting of the Belleville City Council the council voted unanimously to put city hall and the vacant property next to the DPW yard on Savage Road on the market. They chose Moving the Mitten as their Realtor to handle the sale because the mayor said they “helped us to obtain the new city hall.”
He referred to the former post office at 330 Charles St. that is being renovated for a new city hall.
Mayor pro-tem Kelly Bates was not present at the meeting because reportedly she was not feeling well.
Mayor Ken Voigt said the property on Savage, between the DPW and the Blue Sky business, is in the city’s marijuana district, but added he didn’t know if that would make a difference in who wanted to buy it.
He said the city has multiple appraisals on the properties, but both properties are “unicorns” and it’s hard to find comparable properties to gauge prices.
Councilman Jeremiah Beebe said this vote will start the process. He said the two-story side of the present city hall at Five Points is more than 100 years old.
In other business at the Oct. 6 meeting, the council:
• Approved allocating up to $60,000 for legal fees for the lawsuit the city is a part of against Republic Services, which is set for trial in February. This concerns the effort to keep radioactive waste from Wayne Disposal toxic landfill on the North I-94 Service Drive in Van Buren Township. Mayor Voigt said Van Buren Township has generously offered to pay 50% of the legal fees if the other three communities involved – Canton, Romulus, and Belleville – shared by paying 16% each. Belleville’s share is coming from the fund balance, Voigt said, which is a rainy day fund. “If this isn’t a rainy day, I don’t know what else it is,” he said. He said until it is fully adjudicated they won’t know whether the cost will be more or less. He said, “We may have to throw up our hands”;
• Approved fundraising in the city by the Belleville High School Band Boosters who have just become a nonprofit in Michigan and with the IRS and now needs permission from the city to fund raise here. School board president Amy Pearce was present to explain that the Band Boosters has become independent of the school district in order to be non-profit and raise funds to help the student musicians. She said the year 2026 will mark 100 years for having a school band at the high school;
• Approved naming the small area around the Welcome to Belleville sign as the Gateway Pocket Park;
• Set a public hearing for the Nov. 3 council meeting to hear input on changes to the election year schedule, as of the 2028 election. The council made a change by resolution last year, but it didn’t work because it hadn’t held a public hearing. They are trying again;
• Approved the pay rate of labor attorneys Shifman Fournier from $165 to $185 an hour. This law firm is used by the police department;
• Approved the Morton Salt quote left by the former DPW chief. Interim city manager Steve Jones said the total is just under $13,000 for 200 tons. The approval was contingent on Jones checking on the account to see if that is the usual order;
• Briefly discussed the lengthy America in Bloom evaluation to determine what the city could do to be better. The city got 60.82% of the possible points offered on the rating. Councilman Randy Priest pointed out the pages where the city got a score of zero, such as code enforcement, landscape ordinance policy, and urban forest plan. The mayor said that’s why the city asked them to come because sometimes locally you can’t see the forest for the trees and someone without skin in the game will see things local people don’t see;
• Again took no action on the proposed purchase of a woodchipper from Bandit since Jones had provided no information on the warranty and the mayor wanted all the information before buying it. Voigt said he knows they could use the woodchipper in the cemetery for 20 hours a week;
• Heard Jones report that crews have cleared overgrowth in the cemetery over old headstones that haven’t been seen in years;
• Heard Lisa Jackson of Victoria Commons say her autistic son is 30 years old and has been attending a program in Westland and was picked up each day. He goes five days a week while she works as a registered nurse. Now, she said, she’s been told he can’t be picked up because Belleville doesn’t pay the SMART tax. Mayor Voigt explained the situation with the SMART tax and the van they had received from SMART that failed and has not been replaced. The city’s Wheels for Independence is in the process of being turned into a non-profit after attorney John Day offered to help. The mayor, who said he is on SEMCOG’s transportation committee, offered to help find options for Jackson’s son; and
• Heard councilman Priest say he wants three unsafe trees cut down. A resident of 194 N. Liberty St. said she was notified about their tree, which wasn’t on Priest’s list, and it is scheduled to be taken down. Priest also listed things that are wrong around town, such as a loose brick in the CVS/hardware store area, overgrown vegetation at the vacant funeral home, exposed wiring on lamp poles, and other things.