July 21, 2001
Clinton Township trades apartments for a park
By Erik Burriss
Staff Writer
Clinton Township is trading a set of apartments built in a flood plain for a new park.
Wednesday, the Alvada firm Shaferly Excavating began rapidly demolishing the 20-unit complex that is underwater when Willow Creek floods.
"He's got 90 days to do it," Township Trustee Dennis Kingseed said. "It's been three days and it's about done."
Construction of the four buildings began in 1997 and was approved despite warnings from local residents the complex would flood. An enigineer from Volunteers of America, which owned the project, told the Seneca County Flood Plain Varience Board that the buildings' first floors would be 9.6 inches above the flood plain.
Six days before contsruction was complete, heavy rains sent Willow Creek up over its banks and into the buildings, Kingseed said.
Once the demolition is complete, the Department of Housing and Urban Development will turn the 3-acre site over to the county for $10, assistant county prosecutor Jeff Stockner said. The county will turn it into a park and either give it to the township outright or have the township maintain it.
"There's no other use that can be made of that property," Stockner said.
HUD and the township are also scheduled to repair a tile that provides drainage for Huron and Harley streets that was cut during the construction of the apartments, Kingseed said. Drainage work for the location of a new set of HUD-built apartments complex located farther back from the creek will also be done.