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Cleon Township is asking voters to approve a bond proposal for a new fire hall and township hall. 

Manistee News Advocate election coverage

COPEMISH — Voters have two Cleon Township Fire Department matters to weigh on the ballot for the Aug. 2 election. One is a bond for a new fire hall and township hall, and the second is a millage renewal for the fire department’s operations.

Mark Greiner, Cleon Township fire chief, said the current fire hall is “not structurally sound.”

It also needs a new roof, siding, windows, doors and insulation, Greiner said. 

He said the Cleon Township Board bought the building the fire hall currently occupies in 2007 and that it was built in the 1960s. 

Greiner said that eight years ago the building benefited from some work that helped to prolong its life span. 

“Back in 2014, the Manistee County Local Revenue Sharing Board awarded us a grant (for) $60,000 for some structural work that was really needed to keep the roof from falling down. Back then, they said that would buy you about 10 years,” he explained. 

Now, the plan is to build a new hall near the existing hall on Imoff Drive in Copemish on land owned by Cleon Township, Greiner said. 

He said the township has architectural plans, elevations and renderings set for the new building.

In order to finance the construction, the township hopes to rely largely on requesting voters' approval of a 0.8820 mills bond proposal.

“That will raise approximately $650,000 over a 30-year period,” Greiner said. 

The building is estimated to cost about $1.1 million, Greiner said. 

This means that even if the bond proposal passes, it won’t be enough to fully cover the costs of the new building. 

“That is not enough money. Between the township, between the fire department, the general operations has saved $300,000 since we moved into the building we are in now,” he said. “So that money along with the bond money will be almost enough to do what we need to do but not quite.”

He said the hope is to close the gap and also apply for American Rescue Plan Act funds through the county. 

“Manistee County government was awarded somewhere around $4.7 million in ARPA fund money and we had applied for $300,000 of ARPA fund money based on the idea that that would get us enough to be able to get the project done,” he said. 

However, Greiner said at a recent Manistee County Board of Commissioners meeting he learned that there were 19 requests for funding. 

See more primary election coverage online at manisteenews.com

“So, the county administrator proposed to the board that they form an independent group of people … to evaluate all the proposals that were sent in and score them,” he recalled. “The long and the short of it was we wouldn’t have made the cut.”

He said fortunately there is a special meeting on July 17 where grant applicants have 10 minutes to make their case to the county board. 

The future of the current building is still undecided. 

“The current structure would have to be assessed. The board is thinking one of two things: It could be used as some type of cold storage facility in part of it that might be structurally feasible, or it may be demolished,” Greiner said. 

If the bond proposal for a new township fire hall passes, he said the hope would be to have competitive bids sent out several weeks after the election and possibly award a contract for construction in September. 

The cost of the bond on a home with a taxable value of $100,000 is about $88.20 a year. The fire department covers Cleon Township and Springdale Township.

BONDS FOR NEW FIRE HALL AND TOWNSHIP HALL

“Shall the Township of Cleon issue its general obligation unlimited tax bonds in one or more series in an amount not to exceed Six Hundred Fifth Thousand Dollars ($650,000) for the purpose of paying the cost of acquiring, constructing, furnishing and equipping a new Fire Hall and Township Hall in the Township?

The bonds will be outstanding a maximum 30 years, exclusive of refunding. It is estimated that it will be necessary to levy 0.8900 mill ($0.8900 per $1,000 of taxable value) to pay debt service on the bonds in the first year of the levy, and to levy an estimated average of 0.8820 mills ($0.8820 per $1,000 of taxable value) each subsequent year for debt service, until the bonds are retired.

The tax revenue received by the Township as a result of the unlimited tax pledge will be disbursed to the Township of Cleon to repay the proposed bonds.”

I mainly grew up in Gladwin, but have moved around living in other states and even in Japan for a time. I attended Mid Michigan Community College and Central Michigan University where I studied journalism, cultural anthropology and Japanese language and culture. I have won a list of Michigan Press Association awards in categories like investigative enterprise reporting, as well as other journalistic awards such as the Inland Press Association Newsroom Contest award for my contextual coverage of Great Lakes drownings, and was a top-20 winner of the Hearst Radio Competition's collegiate category.  Prior to the News Advocate, I was the editor in chief and a reporter for the Gaylord Herald Times, a reporter for CMU Public Radio, a reporter for CM-Life newspaper and the Laker Current.