BERRIEN COUNTY COMMISSION UPDATE

By DEBRA HAIGHT
BCR Correspondent
ST. JOSEPH – People will have two more opportunities to buy tax foreclosed properties this fall, Berrien County Treasurer Shelly Weich told Berrien County Commissioners last week. She reported on the results of the first tax auction just concluded as well as the process for the last two scheduled auctions.
The auctions of tax foreclosed properties has been online since the height of the pandemic in 2020 and are expected to remain online into the future. “Someone asked at the MAC (Michigan Association of Counties) conference when we might go back to in person auctions and the person said we won’t go back,” Weich said.
She noted that having the auctions online brings in more potential buyers-many from out of state and also actually offer people better views of the properties up for sale.
Berrien County is one of many Michigan counties using a third-party vendor, Tax-Sale.info, to conduct the auctions online at www.tax-sale.info. Before the pandemic, the auctions were held each May in person in Berrien County.
Weich reported that the first online auction for 2023 was held Aug. 3 for properties having taxes delinquent for 2020 and prior years. She said 86 parcels went to auction with 69 sold.
The properties are put out for bid for a minimum amount that covers the delinquent taxes owed. She said the total taxes owed for the 69 properties sold was $247,425 and the properties actually sold for a total of $1.53 million.
“I feel we did well, we got a lot of money for only a handful of properties,” Weich said. “We don’t like to take properties away from people but it’s the nature of the beast and part of our job.”
She said excess proceeds of $700,000 will be paid out to the 26 delinquent property owners with claims which leaves an estimated $590,000 in profit for the county. Recent court decisions have changed what is done with the auction proceeds so that excess proceeds are returned to property owners.
Weich said she found it interesting that 19 buyers came from out of state, including California, Illinois, Texas, Georgia and Florida. Of the remaining buyers, 16 were from other parts of Michigan. About half of the properties up for auction were bought by Berrien County residents.
The remaining 17 properties not purchased at the Aug. 3 auction will go on auction Sept. 29 for the minimum bid. Any properties left after that will go to the final Oct. 30 auction for minimum bids of $100 per property. She said the remaining available properties will be back online this week.
Potential buyers have a $1,000 credit card hold placed on them when they put in a bid with the hold not charged unless they are the winning bidder. Winning bidders then have five days after the auction to pay the entire amount. Weich said the only disqualification for bidders is if they owe delinquent taxes on other properties.
Also last week, County Commissioners approved a new drug treatment program for jail inmates, accepted grant funds for a Lake Michigan linear park and settled with a Detroit area company threatening to sue the county.
Commissioners approved a contract with Therapeutics, LLC to provide Medication Assisted Treatment services to Berrien County jail inmates suffering opioid addiction for a one year period. The cost is expected to be $180,000 with the funds to pay for it coming from the county’s recently opioid settlement funds.
The county joined the opioid settlement earlier this year and will be getting at least $4.4 million over 18 years. The county board formed an Opioid Settlement Taskforce to advise them on how to spend the money and the Medication Assisted Treatment program is the first to get funding.
The Medication Assisted Treatment program has been used in other parts of the state to help inmates with an opioid addiction recover while in jail. The program is designed to include treatment with therapy and discharge planning with the ultimate goal of reducing opioid overdose related deaths.
County commissioners accepted a Michigan Department of Transportation grant to help pay for the costs of developing the Red Arrow Highway Linear Park Pathway Project. The county is getting $925,000 for the project from the MDOT Transportation Alternative Program and is matching it with $320,000 in local funds.
The pathway will eventually run from New Buffalo to Bridgman and the grant being accepted now will expand a section of trail between U.S. 12 and Community Hall Road in New Buffalo Township.
Commissioners approved paying $10,000 to Trex Properties of Detroit to settle a potential lawsuit over hazardous materials from the Berrien County Road Commission allegedly dumped at a Detroit area site over 30 years ago. Trex now owns the property which has found to have environmental contamination.
The matter was brought to the county board by Corporate Counsel Thaddeus Hackworth. He said the remediation costs of clearing contaminants and pollutants from the site is expected to be close to $10 million and federal law dictates that any entity that provided hazardous substances to the site is required to contribute to the clean up costs.
Hackworth said the county received a letter recently from the property owner stating its intention to file suit against all entities they can identify in order to get them to contribute to the clean up costs.
He recommended that the county board pay the $10,000 which comes without admitting any liability. He said the cost of defending a potential lawsuit including legal fees and discovery could very easily be more than that amount.