Sumpter Township sells two properties it owns on 5-2 split vote

After a heated discussion at its Jan. 27 meeting, the Sumpter Township Board of Trustees voted 5-2 to sell two pieces of township owned properties to the same person, who was not announced.
The 67 acres on Rawsonville Road (81-122-99-0007-701) went for $300,000 and the smaller parcel on Martinsville Road (81-102-99-0006-000) went for $200,000.
Voting no were trustee Matthew Oddy and treasurer Bart Patterson. Yes votes came from supervisor Tim Bowman, clerk Don Laporte, and trustees James Frazier, Tim Rush, and John Honey.
After the vote, supervisor Bowman announced: “Done deal!”
“We were willing to take $450,000 on that,” Oddy said. “$300,000 is 60% of what we wanted.” He said the township should advertise it as such if it would give a land contract.
Treasurer Patterson said the township had owned the Rawsonville property since 1984. He said he asked himself what he would do if it was his property. He said it took him two and a half hours to find out information on the parcel. He wondered if it was a treed lot, with oaks? The value of the trees could be taken into account, he said.
Oddy said they sold the Moose Lodge on land contract and that fell apart. He said the Martinsville Road property had extensive environmental contamination.
Clerk Laporte said both property sales should be on one contract, so if one fails, they both do. The board agreed to this.
In other business at its Jan. 27 meeting, the board:
• Under open floor discussion, heard Gary Lloyd of 21187 Sherwood Rd. tell the board again that he and his wife has to pay $4,000 for a study that wasn’t necessary after someone from the township called the state to say they were building on wetlands, which wasn’t true. This halted construction of their barn and he wants the township to make them whole and reimburse them the $4,000. Township attorney Rob Young said the township doesn’t have the authority to reimburse. Lloyd said this cost was caused by the township. The planner didn’t call and he said he thought it was ordinance officer Pete Gregory who was getting back at them. Lloyd said after Gregory “mouthed off” to his wife, he threw Gregory off their property. Two weeks later their construction was stopped, although they had all the permits needed. Attorney Young said there was nothing they could do by law and it was just speculation that Gregory called the state. But Lloyd said they had insurance for making bad decisions. He said he would file a Freedom of Information Act request to find out who called and the state said it was the building department, but wouldn’t tell him who. “I’m a licensed builder and I’ve never seen anything like it before,” he said;
• Heard Cheryl Norden of The Bake Shoppe complain about Sammy’s Auto Sales next door in what used to be the Hughes business. She said he has blocked the traffic so her deliveries can’t leave. She said owner Hassan Nassar said she brought in two semis of dirt to fill in the county ditch for access. She said that didn’t happen. She said she filled in the drive in front with gravel from the back of her property. She said the county installed that for her years ago, with a county ditch and two basins. That’s because her property flooded when they bought it after it was vacant for ten years. She said Sammy said she installed 20 cameras to watch him, but for the past 21 years she has had an “observation deck” to tend to equipment on the roof and she can see for a great distance. She said she climbs a five-step ladder to get there. She does have cameras, as well. She showed a display of pictures from Sammy’s business. Norden complained about Sammy calling her names at a public meeting and asked the attorney if he couldn’t have struck that from the record. Trustee Rush said this was a private problem and she should meet with the supervisor. Supervisor Bowman said to call his secretary;
• Received and filed all department reports without mentioning their contents;
• Approved developing a Tri-Community Planning Commission with the city of Belleville and Van Buren Charter Township;
• Approved text amendment to Section 5.3, Accessory Buildings, Structures and Uses;
• Approved the planning commission’s recommendation to rezone 24473 Sumpter Rd. from C-2, General Commercial, to R-1, Country Home Residential;
• After discussion, approved posting, accepting applications and conducting interviews for a part-time ordinance officer for a weekend shift;
• Approved hiring Darrin Moore and Landon Hall as paid-on-call fire fighters, contingent upon passing a physical and drug test;
• Approved hiring Wyatt Behrendt as permanent part-time DPW/Water Department employee at $23.80 per hour for no more than 29 hours a week;
• Approved the employment contract for Jamie Goode, Sumpter Township Fire Chief;
• Approved Public Safety Director/Police Chief Eric Luke and three command officers to attend the MACP Winter Professional Development Conference in Grand Rapids on Feb. 4-6. Cost of conference is covered by state-provided training funds; and
• Went into closed-door session to discuss the AFSCME contract and the attorney’s written opinion on another matter.
Before the Jan. 27 board meeting at 6 p.m., the board held a special 5 p.m. meeting to discuss Judd Road improvements with Wayne County Commissioner Allen Wilson. The other officials from Wayne County expected to be present did not attend. They had been told the 2.3 miles of paving would cost $1.7 million. The agreement appeared to be that the township and the county would share the cost 50-50 and the county would pay no more than $1 million. The township was asked for $1 million