At tonight's meeting, 

Arvin Sango has asked for a larger tax abatement, pleading higher costs of construction.  They have also adjusted downward the number of new jobs promised, from 11 to 9.  At tonight's meeting their Counsel did most of the talking.

Noticed in the tax data included in tonight's packet:  The property taxes on the Van Curler property were $23,842/year.  The SEV was $1,191,200 with a supposed market value of $2,382,400.  The sale price: $329,000.00  Can you say, overassessed? 

Backstopping that reality check was a seventy page document, MDOT's $8500 assessment of the value for the 0.567 acres of land they are demanding to purchase for additional right of way and drainage for their 8 Mile Road bridge project.   That translates to a price of $14,991/acre, an only seven percent premium to the $14,000/acre the Township Board agreed to pay for the 23.5 acres of Van Curler parcels.  The date of the assessment precedes anyone's notice of the Van Curler price drop; perhaps it predicated the price drop. 

At this meeting Manager Fink misstated the price of the Van Curler purchase as being $12,000/acre.

Trustee Tracy Thomas asked if MDOT's 70 page assessment was a precurser to a taking, the legal process by which land is seized for a public purpose.  Fink said no, citing Northfield's special "relationship" with MDOT.  He said MDOT had a Plan A, which required the land, and a Plan B, which did not.  Fink said he had asked $16,000 for the parcel and had tentatively accepted MDOT's counter offer of $12,000. 

In somewhat related news, the Sign has been removed from the Doorway of the Avengers' Motorcycle club.  The Club was a long time resident of the old filling station located beside the Whitmore Lake Tavern.  The club's building and parcel were separate Van Curler properties.  A large Dumpster has appeared on the asphalt in front of the building.

The Equalization Tank was back on the Agenda.  Tetra-Tech's Brian Rubel said that the soil boring studies completed in (2016) provided the basis for the design of the Tank foundation by the steel tank's manufacturer.  Tetra-Tech's March 18, 2016 report is in the packet, but without the supporting appendices.  Some of that information is available in Our World Famous Collection of Northfield Township Sewer and Wastewater Treatment System Documents.

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Tonight's meeting documents: