On Jan. 10, after almost an hour in a closed-door session to discuss “purchase and/or lease of real property”, the Belleville Area District Library Board voted unanimously to get appraisals for four parcels in downtown Belleville.
The properties are: 397 Main, 369 Main, 381 Main, and 360 Charles.
In September, the board approved appraisals for a church at 189 High Street and a residential property at 227 High Street, both in the City of Belleville, and a residential property at 11933 Belleville Road, Van Buren Township.
Christopher L. McDonald, a Certified General Real Estate Appraiser, was hired by the District Library Board at its Sept. 13 meeting to do reports on the market values of those three properties for a fee of $3,100. The parcels were being considered for library sites.
At its Jan. 10 meeting, Belleville attorney Barbara Miller advised the board that 397 Main has been vacant for years but now has a tenant with a long-term lease.
She said the board should have acted on the property when the community was urging it to and, “I was at several meetings when the community was urging you to. Now there’s a tenant that will affect the price of the building.”
During the regular meeting, before the closed session, Miller asked the board how far it was from a decision and board chairperson Mary Jane Dawson said, “A lot closer than we were a couple months ago.”
“Will it be today?” Miller asked.
“No, it won’t,” Dawson replied.
In other business at the Jan. 10 meeting, the board:
• Approved election of the same officers as last year: Dawson, chair; Christina Brasil, vice chair; Joy Chichewicz, secretary; and Elaine Gutierrez, treasurer;
• When Vera Howell asked about the “for sale” sign on property next to the DNR site and whether it would need to be purchased to build a library, Dawson said, “It could, it could be done with or without that property. It would be more advantageous from a building standpoint, parking standpoint. The DNR property must be considered. Any of the properties we’re looking at would need to be purchased”;
• Heard Howell state: “A lot of the seniors are not for building this big monstrosity of a building that is being considered. No one of the Board or the architect people have given us a reason why we can’t stay here, build up, out, remodel and make this property usable that has been usable for the 12 years that I’ve been here. Why do we have to have such a large building and go through all this expense and all this rigmarole when we have something right here that has served us? Why don’t we just build on this site?”
• Heard vice chairperson Brasil explain, “The district library does not own this property or the building. We rent them from the City of Belleville. For us to do anything here, we would need to purchase this building and property from the City of Belleville for us to do something here. And, you also have to consider housing the library somewhere else while we do something here”;
• Heard Howell insist that something is not getting across to the board. “They’re [seniors] saying we don’t want it; you’re saying we need it and we have to pay for it.” Dawson challenged her, saying, “Who? Who are the people you’ve been talking to? Just people in your neighborhood? Would you ask them to come to the meeting? We’d be interested in hearing what they have to say; we all would.” Howell said a lot of people don’t come because Dawson is rude to the public. “You sound like it’s an imposition to even ask anything … Everything is a closed meeting. We have a right to know what’s going on. We have to pay for this”;
• Heard former City Councilman George Chedraue ask where the information is that the city owns the property. Attorney John Day and vice chairperson Brasil discussed an agreement with the city for library purposes and the reverter is the City of Belleville. The city has title to the property and leases it to the library for $1 per year; and
• Heard Chedraue say Howell has a good point about the proposed size of the new library, since Dearborn’s library of 40,000 square feet has downsized to about 25,000 square feet and the third level is completely closed.