Belleville City Council members Monday night adopted a resolution that will place a $6.5 million bond issue on the August primary ballot for Main Street improvement projects and for a conceptual downtown improvement plan. Despite moving forward with the bond vote, after a group of downtown merchants submitted petitions halting the sale of the bonds and asking for a referendum, city officials and local business people became further mired in personal attacks and shouting matches as both sides butted heads during Monday night's regular meeting of the City Council.
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The Main Street improvement plan calls for the replacement of the six-inch cast iron water main system and concrete replacement of the asphalt roadway, in addition to a number of streetscape amenities such as new brick pavers between the road and the sidewalk, themed light posts, fencing, new crosswalks, trees and landscaping. The bonds also are slated to fund a conceptual downtown improvement plan, the "Walker project," which, if approved, would bring a national chain grocery store downtown, residential loft apartments and condos and a new parking structure.
Downtown merchants upset with the lengthy period of time the project would take (officials estimated the roadway project would start in March and end in October) and the amount of funds being borrowed by the city, circulated petitions to residents and other business owners to force the sale of the bonds to a referendum vote.
Spokesman for the merchants' group, Pat Bruetsch, asked the city Monday night to consider abandoning the bond issue altogether and coming to a consensus agreement with the business owners and residents.
"The business people want the street paved, but they don't want it to cost so much and they don't want it to take so long," Bruestch said. "I want for (city officials and the merchants) to meet and discuss the project and hopefully get to something that we can all agree to. We want to be your biggest backers and supporters."
Bruestch said if the city decides to put the bond issue on the ballot, that they will fight it through advertising and circulating more information throughout the community.
Councilman Rick Dawson, visibly upset by Bruetsch's comments, said that putting the bond issue on the ballot was a done deal because, by law, the petitions have essentially forced the city's hand and they have no other options.
"How can you have the audacity to stand up there and ask us to stop this?" Dawson said. "(The business owners) told us, 'Put it to a vote of the people," well, that's exactly what we're doing. How can you guys get on us for doing our jobs? Especially with some of the crap that's been put out there."
Council members, and some audience members, aired concerns about alleged misinformation being distributed by the business owners' group. The complaints focused on residents who had signed the petitions, who allegedly were told that their taxes would go up if the bonds are approved, which is not true.
Councilman George Chedraue said that the merchants had accused the city of perpetrating lies and misinformation, but that they should take a hard look at themselves.
"(A city resident) stoop up here in one of the meetings and told us he was told that his taxes would go up and that he should sign the petition. I ask you sir, who is the one perpetrating the fraud? All I can say now is be careful what you wish for." Chedraue said.
Robert Austin, who owns Red Beans and Rice downtown, said that the business owners' group may have gotten the proper amount of signatures but they were retrieved all of them under false pretenses.
"How many people have come back and asked that their names be taken off that list?" Austin said. "Put this on the ballot and let the people choose. This division between the (merchants) and the city is ludicrous."
Mike Foley, owner of the Frosty Boy downtown, addressed complaints voiced by Council that they were being threatened by the business owners. Foley explained that Bruestch wasn't trying to threaten council members by saying that they would fight the bond issue but rather he was offering an alternative.
"For you to say that we don't care about the citizens in ridiculous," Foley said. "We think (the bonds) is too big of a loan for this small city. Michigan is in a recession right now, and here we are borrowing $6.5 million."
Dawson responded saying, "You think that's too much money? You know how much the city can borrow? So you know more than our bond attorney who came up with that amount?"
Resident Chris Donnelly asked both sides to stop the personal attacks and "he said, she said," and please focus on the real issues at hand.
"There has been so much thrown around here tonight; who said what to who, who sent what e-mail...all that is is 'Hey, get your toys out of my sandbox,'" Donnelly said. "I want to know the facts. How much is it going to cost? How long is it going to take? I want that instead of this denigrating in these personal attacks and petty arguments. I've watched this fiasco from week to week and now it's going to the vote of the people, we need know the facts."
In the end, the council adopted the resolution placing the bond issue on the August ballot with Councilmember Brian Blackburn casting the lone dissenting vote.
For more information on the downtown project or city of Belleville, visit www.belleville.mi.us.
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