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Livonia Observer:Soccer complex a positive reuse of contaminated school site; August 27, 2009 OPINION
Topic Started: Aug 28 2009, 09:55 AM (505 Views)
IlikeLIvonia
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Soccer complex a positive reuse of contaminated school site

August 27, 2009

http://www.hometownlife.com/article/20090827/OPINION/908270594/1199/NLETTER05/Soccer-complex-a-positive-reuse-of-contaminated-school-site

The Livonia school board did the right thing last week in approving a cooperative agreement with a sports management company to turn the old Cooper School site into a soccer complex.



The school, built in the 1960s on a former landfill in Westland, was closed in 1991 because of contamination. The district has since torn the building down and erected a fence to keep people out, but the site has remained an eyesore along Ann Arbor Trail all these years.

Under the terms of the agreement, the school district will spend about $1 million from its sinking fund and use another $800,000 from a Michigan Department of Environmental Quality grant to grade the property, cap the landfill, erect a soccer dome provided by the company, plant grass, build a retention pond, install an irrigation system and add a parking lot and lights.

Breeze Sports Management of West Bloomfield will lease about half of the 40-acre site for 35 years, paying the school district about $2 million over that time period. Breeze would pay $55,000 for each of the first three lease years, then increase that total $5,000 periodically to $75,000 annually in lease years 26 through 35.

The company will manage the complex, which would include four outdoor soccer fields, a couple of training fields and a dome for indoor soccer. If the company defaults, the school district gets to keep the dome.

While the agreement, approved in a 5-2 vote, doesn't take care of the entire site, it's a good start.

If the school board had not approved it, the district likely would have lost the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality grant, set to expire Sept. 30.

The school district is fortunate to have an interested lessee for its vacant property in this economy, especially given the property's history. As Trustee Daniel Lessard pointed out, “There's not a big market for contaminated property.”

A soccer complex may increase business in the area as families traveling from other communities stop to eat at local restaurants or purchase items needed last minute from local stores.

With obesity on the rise in Michigan, a soccer complex will provide residents with another place to get and stay in shape.

The agreement is contingent on many things, including state approval because of the contamination.

We hope it works out. There have been previous proposals, including a medical office complex and senior housing, that never took off, mostly because of the economy.

We applaud Westland city officials, Livonia Public Schools and Livonia Mayor Jack Kirksey, who served as a project consultant before being elected mayor, for working hard on getting help to remediate the property and for trying their hardest to get the property developed.

It's been almost two decades since the Observer broke the story about the contamination and we're glad to finally see something positive happening there.




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livonia1 wrote:

"It's been almost two decades since the Observer broke the story about the contamination..."

Nice of the OE to take credit for "breaking the story" when it was actually a parent, and now current Westland City Council member Cheryl Graunstadt that "broke the story". If it wasn't for the persistence of a parent (who at the time was probably labled a "terrorist" by LPS) the children would still be wallowing in toxic soup on that playground since LPS already knew it was built on an uncontrolled waste dump site.

"We applaud Westland city officials, Livonia Public Schools and Livonia Mayor Jack Kirksey, who served as a project consultant before being elected mayor"

Why applaud the waste of hundreds of thousands of taxpayers dollars by LPS on the "environmental consultant" Crooksey and the do nothing contractors that doidn't accomplish a thing for the years they sucked taxpayer monies for the childrens educational facilities trying to get fat contracts for friends.

What a waste...
8/27/2009 7:26:22 AM
Edited by IlikeLIvonia, Aug 28 2009, 09:58 AM.
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Whatever
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Their friends at the O & E are trying to convince the voting public that spending $1million from the sinking fund was a good use of taxpayer money. Do you think it will work? Do they think people are that stupid?
Edited by Whatever, Aug 28 2009, 10:35 AM.
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uh-oh
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People are that stupid. (Although most are just oblivious!)
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Monkfish
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Who are these people....Breeze Sports Management?
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George
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What is LPS going to do with the remaining part of the Old Cooper property? They still will own a land fill, but not only that, a land fill with a Soccer complex next to it. They will still have to fence off the property that's not be cleaned up and how much will that cost? Where will the money come from that? Oh, I forgot the sinking fund. This lease for 35 years makes no sense either. This board and Liepa tied the hands of future school boards for the next 35 years. If this guy happens to pay the lease on time, which half of me thinks he's probably smarter than they are and will. I believe they think he will default and they will get the dome. I'm pretty sure we won't be able to get him off this property without a law suit on our hands, IMO.
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