Moran?s plan still the lone proposal
The next move by the Onaway City Commisison regarding the State Street buildings in downtown Onaway is to ask area businessman Tom Moran to appear before the Commission at a future meeting to clarify a proposal made earlier this year.
Moran came before the commission at the first regular meeting of the New Year and offered the $40,000 for the former city hall building and adjacent police station building.
Moran had been keeping tabs on the city?s efforts to prepare the former city hall building for a possible future tenant. The commission authorized some structural work on the old city hall building before winter set in.
At the meeting, Moran told the commission he believed the lots would be better served on the tax rolls. Part of the initial plan is to prepare the site for future development.
Moran added that he would remove both buildings and grade the lots, and if nobody was interested in the property, he might consider putting up a building.
AFTER MONDAY?S regular board meeting, where the city commission had expected a second proposal to be presented which never materialized, some commissioners said they would be interested in having Moran come back in to talk about the proposal further.
?I think they are looking for some clarification on whether or not Tom is planning to put up a building or not,? said city manager Joe Hefele.
Since the beginning of the year, the city has placed advertisements in local and regional publications. ?The city decided to throw the buildings out there to see if there was any other interest,? said Hefele. ?We had anticipated a second proposal on the property coming forward at Monday?s meeting and that did not happen.?
Listed under the commission?s agenda items for Monday?s meeting as the first item of business was ?State Street property ? Bryan Madison.?
?IT APPEARED as if there was an effort to try and quash that second proposal before it got here, which in my opinion is very unfortunate, but the individual who was going to make the proposal decided with the amount of flack he was taking, not to do it. It is very unfortunate.?
Hefele said the city?s options include keeping the police station and leasing the former city hall building, or accepting Moran?s proposal.
At the January meeting, Moran said it would not bother him if someone submitted a higher proposal, but if an interested party does not come forward, he would like the buildings razed and lots leveled before the Fo
IN OTHER business:
? A public hearing is scheduled for March 19 to hear a zoning change request made by the owners of Northern Great Lakes on Washington Avenue. The owners, who appeared before the commission last month, purchased the adjoining parcel to the south of the business location, which fronts Washington. The two parcels have been combined.
Now the owners want to have the one lot rezoned from commercial to highway commercial to sell vehicles. The owners have been asked to bring in a site plan. There also will be questions about where the car lot will be located.
? A motion was approved to change the April meeting dates from April 2 and 16, to April 9 and 23. The meeting times of 5:30 p.m. remain the same.