BERRIEN COUNTY COMMISSION UPDATE

By DEBRA HAIGHT
BCR Correspondent

ST. JOSEPH – Projects on both ends of the county received attention from Berrien County Commissioners last week. In addition, the county board took action on a number of items including naming March Restaurant Month and heard an update on broadband opportunities.
Berrien County Administrator Brian Dissette and Berrien County Commissioner Jim Curran both spoke about the tower project during the meeting. County officials have been working on the project for several months, stressing the need for a south county tower to improve emergency radio reception and communications along the state line.
The county received a $5 million state grant to help pay for the tower project last fall. The entire project is expected to cost $7.8 million, with the remaining money coming from county American Rescue Plan Act funds.
Curran said that the location that has been decided on for the new tower is in Buchanan and owned by American Electric Power. “It’s such a perfect place for the tower with the right elevation,” he said.
Dissette said the county has been holding meetings every other week with Buchanan officials to bring the project to fruition. He said the next steps will include sitting down with Pearson Construction to go over budget estimates for the project.
County officials will also be continuing ongoing discussions with AEP and the city of Buchanan on everything from building acquisition to submitting planning and zoning applications to the city. “It’s something the county board and the staff are excited about,” he said.
In a related matter, Curran said that other projects to improve cross border communications between Indiana and Michigan are moving forward. “Both states have 800 megahertz systems but they can’t communicate with each other,” he said. “We’re working with Indiana to be able to communicate with their towers.”
He told fellow commissioners that there has been movement in that area with the Clay Township fire department now on the Michigan 800 megahertz system. Clay Township is just south of Niles on the Indiana side of the state line. Curran said three or four other Indiana departments are close to being connected to the Michigan system.
A public hearing was held at the start of last week’s meeting to hear comments about the brownfield plan for the new Jimmy John’s restaurant in Benton Township. The plan calls for the Jimmy John’s restaurant already in that area to relocate to the new site on East Napier Avenue.
Berrien County Community Development Director Dan Fette told commissioners that the brownfield designation is needed as the .7 acre site was a former gas station which was demolished in the early 1990s. Having the brownfield designation allows the developers to get a tax break on the costs of cleaning up the contamination.
Fette said the project will include removing the contaminated soils and replacing it with new backfill. He estimated that it will take about 24 years for the property to generate the taxes to cover all the clean up costs. He emphasized that there is no cost to the county for the project which still has to be approved by the Benton Township Board.
“This is a way to get the property back into use,” he said.
The meeting also featured a presentation and discussion about opportunities to expand broadband services in the county. Southwest Michigan Planning Commissioner Director John Egelhaaf told commissioners about the tool his organization has developed to help residents know more about the issue.
He said the new tool which he called a “story map” will soon be available via a link on the county’s website. It will give people both the background of what the county has done over the last three or four years about broadband including the Merit survey done last year as well as what’s happening now.
He reported that grants have already been awarded to expand broadband service in the county. “There are three different programs where grants have been given to providers who will provide internet services to underserved areas,” he said. “If people don’t have broadband currently, it could be coming soon.”
“I want to thank you for your work to put something together that is user friendly and something we can use as a tool as we go out to communities,” Commissioner Teri Freehling said. She is chairwoman of the county’s BC Bits broadband taskforce.
Curran is also on that committee. “We worked on this before it was popular and we now have other counties coming to us and asking how e got here,” he said. “It’s really an exciting time, a lot of federal and state grant dollars are available since we’ve done this work. We are well positioned to receive grants.”
“Berrien County was talking about broadband before it was cool,” fellow commissioner and BC Bits member Ezra Scott said. “I want to thank the board for making this a priority and now others are looking to us for how to start broadband.”
County commissioners have said previously that they plan to set aside $6 million or more of the county’s $30 million in ARPA funds to partner with local townships to expand broadband. They approved an application for townships to apply for some of those funds last month and have scheduled workshops to help townships apply.
Commissioners followed through on their pledge to declare March as Restaurant Month in Berrien County after a presentation the week before by Southwest Michigan Regional Chamber President Arthur Havlicek. The first Restaurant Month was held last year as restaurants were looking for ways to recover from the pandemic.
He said restaurants weren’t able to operate at full capacity until last July and many are still struggling. He pointed out that restaurants face a number of challenges, ranging from insufficient federal pandemic aid and staffing shortages to consumer hesitancy, inflation and supply chain issues.
The Buchanan Area Chamber of Commerce are among the other area organizations supporting restaurants this month. Several area restaurants are participating in “Restaurant Week” specials this week with the goal of bringing more customers into those establishments.