‘Phoenix’ team hopes for SMRS cooperation

Leaders in Lenawee County have been in talks about Project Phoenix, a plan to develop the former Tecumseh Products Company property into a multi-use sports and community complex, for more than a year, hoping to transform the blighted property into a place to serve county residents and countless others who would travel from afar to attend sporting events and other gatherings, and would house the county’s Department on Aging and more. Those who support the project also have hopes that they can regain the support of the Southern Michigan Railroad Society (SMRS), a nonprofit that operates train tours on the rails outside the property that the Lenawee County Commissioners voted to purchase in October.

On April 21 Mark Beekel, president of the SMRS, wrote a letter to the editor with his thoughts and concerns about Project Phoenix, stating that the nonprofit no longer saw the project as mutually beneficial “in view of the lack of consideration being given to our railroad and its members.” He also said that Tecumseh City Manager Dan Swallow had emailed the city’s legal counsel to see if the city could “take our railroad by eminent domain,” Beekel wrote.

Swallow shared the email in question with The Herald. That email did address how the city might be able to proceed if the SMRS refused to work with the city to create track crossings to access the Project Phoenix facility, noting that the city had experienced prior difficulties in trying to work with the nonprofit.  

“I have asked our City Attorney, Fred Lucas, to complete some research regarding the eventuality of having to pursue eminent domain to purchase the right-of-way from the Southern Michigan ‘Railroad’ Society. Needless to say, he is not finding much case law. My goal is simply to have leverage to force the group to the table and be reasonable in their negotiations. As you well know, they are extremely difficult to deal with and use their quasi-railroad status as protection while holding up others for unreasonable compensation to cross or otherwise use their right-of-way,” said Swallow’s email of October 4, 2021 to local attorney Chuck Gross. “My most recent challenges with them was trying to get a reasonable figure to lease or purchase portions of the right-of-way for the Kiwanis Trail Tecumseh Connection project. We are also looking forward to the proposed Lenawee Community Complex on the former Tecumseh Projects Co. property, and how we best avoid issues with the potential desire to relocate a driveway/crossing.”

Swallow told The Herald that in the unlikely event the City of Tecumseh would pursue the option to obtain a way to cross the railroad tracks next to the Project Phoenix property, if the facility is approved by county commissioners, the city would still have to purchase the right-of-way for fair market value as determined by an independent appraiser. Eminent domain refers to the power of the government to convert private property into public use. A government may only exercise this power if they provide just compensation to the property owners. The most common uses of property taken by eminent domain have been for roads, government buildings and public utilities. In fact, many railroads were given the right of eminent domain to obtain land or easements in order to build and connect rail networks.

“When asked for our position on Project Phoenix, we simply stated that we would support any development project that would mutually benefit both the county and the railroad,” Beekel wrote in his letter. “We never identified Phoenix as a mutually beneficial project.”

In his interview with The Herald on April 19, Beekel said, “We did write a letter to them that anything that’s beneficial to the county, I’m for, until all this other came out.”
“What other?” he was asked.

“The part with Stimpson and buying up property and all that. I don’t think that’s right, but that’s me,” Beekel responded, apparently referring to unsubstantiated allegations that Tecumseh attorney, developer, and County Commission Chair David Stimpson had manipulated other commissioners regarding Project Phoenix, and had purchased property on South Evans Street with the purpose of financially benefitting from the potential facility. Stimpson has been purchasing and renovating buildings in Tecumseh since 2006, and there has been no evidence that his  recent building purchases were out of the ordinary.

Beekel’s letter to the editor also said that Jason Miller, former owner of the Tecumseh Products property, “suggested he was about to purchase our railroad and that he would restore passenger service to Clinton, Blissfield and Adrian to the degree that was possible. Miller claimed the deal would be worth millions to him. Let me be clear: we did receive an informal offer from Miller. But we never seriously entertained it nor responded,” wrote Beekel.

In Beekel’s interview with The Herald last week, he said he was upset that he never received a payment of $100,000 from Miller. “Mr. Miller that owned the property offered to pay me for the easement that goes inside the Products. Then after the county paid him, he wasn’t going to pay me. I own 900-some feet inside of that Products facility,” Beekel said. He stated that he had a text proving that agreement. When asked if Miller agreed to pay Beekel himself, or pay the nonprofit SMRS, Beekel said, “He was going to pay me, as the Southern Michigan Railroad, $100,000 for that easement, and it was agreed to.”

Beekel finished his letter to the editor, “As a nonprofit corporation, the Southern Michigan Railroad Society is proud of our 40 years of operation in Tecumseh and Clinton. While we certainly want to remain on good terms with both the county and the city, we are deeply troubled by the lack of transparency and communication between the parties involved.”

The SMRS has long been the recipient of support from the City of Tecumseh, the Village of Clinton, and the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT). According to a June 2012 Herald story noting the 30th year of the non-profit operating railroad museum, often maintenance for different crossings has been absorbed by these entities as they make their own road adjustments and repairs, saving the SMRS thousands of dollars in maintenance costs. According to Cynthia Given, the SMRS director at the time, a MDOT repaving project on Chicago Boulevard in Tecumseh, for example, would have cost the SMRS $60,000.

County Administrator Kim Murphy told The Herald that she planned to meet with Beekel to discuss his concerns.