County panel rejects offer for Tecumseh Products property

Editor's note: This story was updated Thursday with the results of the Lenawee County Board of Commissioners' meeting Wednesday.

ADRIAN — Lenawee County commissioners this week rejected a proposal to buy the Tecumseh Products Co. site to use it for boat and recreational vehicle storage.

Adrian businessman Larry Anderson proposed buying the 57-acre site south of East Patterson Street between South Evans and South Maumee streets for $80,000 cash. At the county board of commissioners’ personnel/ways and means committie meeting Tuesday, Anderson said he had an estimate that it would cost about $600,000 to refurbish the remaining building on the property along with costs to clean up weeds and other vegetation on the site.

Anderson told the committee that he has experience converting underutilized or blighted properties into being used again, such as the Temple Fitness gym in the former St. Peter’s Episcopal Church on North Evans Street and the former Dura Corp. property on East Beecher Street in Adrian. He said using the site for RV and boat storage would provide income to pay for refurbishing the 160,000-square-foot Orbitec building.

The committee voted 8-0 to recommend the offer be rejected. Commissioner Terry Collins, R-Adrian, who made the motion, said his reason for rejecting the offer was the county has an appraisal of the property that has a much higher value. The appraisal, which was done in 2023, gave the entire property an as-is value of $440,000. The Orbitec building and neighboring parking area, without any of the surrounding land, was appraised at $370,000.

The board voted 8-0 at its meeting Wednesday to follow the committee's recormmendation as part of the meeting's consent agenda.

Commissioner Jim Daly, D-Adrian, was absent from both meetings.

Lenawee County bought the property in October 2021 for $2.3 million with a concept, dubbed Project Phoenix, to create a recreation, business and community complex on the site. That plan was shelved the following spring due to opposition to its projected cost, its location away from the geographic center of the county and doubts about whether it would attract youth sports tournaments.

The Environmental Protection Agency continues to conduct soil contamination remediation at the site.

New alert system coming

Lenawee County is planning to move to a new alert system to send emergency messages by phone calls, text messages and emails. Emergency management coordinator Craig Tanis told the county’s criminal justice committee at its meeting Aug. 6 that the county’s contract with the company that provides the Rave Alerts system is ending. In its place, the county is planning to use a system from HQE Systems Inc.

“It’s the same price, but the program does a lot more for us than what we’re currently getting,” Tanis said. “It’s more user friendly on our end, for dispatch and dispatchers, and it’s more user friendly for the public. It’s easier for them to sign up. They still have to have internet access to sign up, but they don’t have to have an email address. … If they just have a phone number, they can sign up with just a phone number and just get those alerts on their phone.”

HQE’s system can be customized to the county’s needs, Tanis said.

The change won’t happen until Jan. 1, Tanis said, and current  Rave Alerts recipients will be automatically switched over to the new system.

“So, hopefully, it’s seamless as far as the citizens are concerned and they shouldn’t notice the difference,” he said.