Published by Tecumseh Herald on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 8:18am
Editor’s note: The proposed Lenawee Community Complex, under the name Project Phoenix, on the former property of the Tecumseh Products has raised questions and concerns from people objecting to the project. The Lenawee County Commission voted in October to purchase the property for $2.3 million with hopes of building a public-private partnership sports, recreation and community facility. The Herald received the following letter from Mark Beekel, president of the Southern Michigan Railroad at 9 p.m. on Wednesday, April 20, after the April 21 edition of the newspaper was printed and delivered to the post office and newsstands. It may contain information that contradicts statements by the City of Tecumseh administration.
As president of the Southern Michigan Railroad Society, I wish to set the record straight regarding our relationship to the County’s proposed Project Phoenix.
Earlier this spring, we had our legal counsel draft a letter to the county commissioners informing them that the proposed sport complex appears to encroach upon our right-of-way and that we need a seat at the table. To date, we have received no response from the County.
When the matter of our letter was raised at the following commission meeting, Chairman David Stimpson stated that our railroad would be “part and parcel” of Project Phoenix and that we are fully on board with Phoenix. To say we were shocked is an understatement. If we were “part and parcel” of Phoenix, there would have been no need to send our letter.
We must also clarify another communication we sent to a local media outlet. 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. We never identified Phoenix as a mutually beneficial project.
Since then, more information has come to light. We have received information obtained through a FOIA request that is troubling.
One of the communications was from Tecumseh City Manager Dan Swallows that revealed that he had contacted the City’s legal counsel to see if the City could take our railroad by eminent domain.
We also saw communication between Jason Miller, the former owner of the Tecumseh Products property, officials from the City of Tecumseh and Chairman David Stimpson. In his communication to these officials, Mr. Miller 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.
We were also party to a discussion in August 2021 with Tecumseh officials and administrator Marty Marshall about our railroad as it abuts the Phoenix site. They sought a long-term lease for our track south of M50. They wished to remove the rails. When we rejected that proposal, they told us they would then need several grade crossings across our rails. We told them that that would adversely affect our maximum train length and we could not agree to that. We parted with no agreement.
Our recent communication with several county commissioners leads us to believe that most of the commissioners had no idea that our right-of-way or easements would be problematic for the Phoenix Project. Neither were they aware of the communications between the railroad and Mr. Marshall even though that discussion took place many weeks prior to the county vote to acquire the former Tecumseh Product property.
As a nonprofit corporation, the Southern Michigan Railroad Society is proud of our 4o years of operation in Tecumseh and Clinton. And we are proud of the 7,000 visitors we brought to Tecumseh last year. 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. As this project currently stands and in view of the lack of consideration being given to our railroad and its members, we no longer see this project as mutually beneficial.
Mark Beekel, President
Southern Michigan Railroad Society
More on "Project Phoenix":
https://www.lenawee.mi.us/1021/Project-Phoenix
A visualisation (note lack of railroad tracks along Evans Street):
