By DEBRA HAIGHT
BCR Correspondent
ST. JOSEPH – The Niles area could be the site of a new Berrien County Road Department garage. That news as well as information about the county’s plans for the American Electric Power complex in Buchanan came during and after last week’s Berrien County Board of Commissioners meeting.
Berrien County commissioners authorized county staff to pursue buying real estate-possibly in the Niles area-for the Berrien County Road Department at the county board meeting last week.
No additional details were given about the possible real estate purchase during the meeting. County Administrator Brian Dissette did say after the meeting that the county is looking at sites in the Niles area as well as in other parts of the county for the road department.
“I’m limited on what I can say at this time,” he said. “We hope to have an option agreement (or potentially two options) for the Board’s consideration in the coming months.”
He noted that it is the county’s intention to secure property for the road department’s usage preferably in the Niles area. “We will be looking at other locations, but the Niles area is our immediate priority,” he said.
He said it was too early to say what if any existing road department garages might close if plans move forward with the Niles area site. “We’ll make those decisions after securing property,” he said. “Put simply, we are trying to place future garages closer to large population areas (and areas that are predicted to be population centers).”
County commissioners received an overview about the state of current road department garages as well as other county facilities nearly a year ago. The six road department garages are currently located in Baroda, Watervliet, Eau Claire, Benton Harbor, Buchanan and Three Oaks. Repair work was identified for most if not all of the existing garages.
One Niles area site mentioned in past discussions was property near Pucker Street in Niles Township although some concerns were raised by at least one resident about the property’s proximity to the Dowagiac River.
County Commissioner Jim Curran made the motion for authorizing negotiations to purchase real estate. The motion stated that county administration would be authorized to “pursue suitable real estate for road department needs” and negotiate and bring back option agreements for the county board’s approval.
It was Curran who spoke about the Pucker Street site at a county board meeting more than a year ago in December, 2021. Curran told fellow commissioners then that road department officials had talked to the administration committee about the Pucker Street site and that a feasibility study was being done.
“This all fits into the master plan of the road department when it comes to road department garage locations and service areas,” he said at that meeting in 2021. “We’re moving it forward, we support it.”
The county’s purchase of the AEP complex in Buchanan was not discussed at last week’s county board meeting, but Dissette said after the meeting that the county board has approved a change order to conduct more soil analysis of land at and near the AEP complex.
Dissette said more analysis will be done of the soils on an adjacent parcel to determine if a tower can be placed there. “That analysis will occur behind the (Buchanan) township’s fire station,” he said. “We’ve still got to get formal permission from the township for the site analysis. The work should occur in the spring.”
The county purchased the nearly 20 acre property which includes the office building off Circle Drive in Buchanan in late July from American Electric Power for $200,000. The AEP property was to be the new home of the county’s Emergency Operations and 9-1-1 Centers. Those centers are now located at the county’s 2100 Empire Facility in Benton Harbor.
It was also scheduled to be where the new south county 800 megahertz communications tower would be. The county has been looking for a location for a new tower in the south county for the last few years. 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.
In addition to the county operations to be located at the AEP site, Dissette said previously that the building will give the county board space for a conference room to hold meetings in the south county as well as space for at least some Buchanan city offices now in the Buchanan City Hall.
The plans hit a snag in December when Native American artifacts were found on the site where the communications tower was to be built. Dissette said then that the county might have to look at alternate locations in the south county and mentioned Bertrand Crossing as one possibility.
He said in December that the AEP site was the ideal location since it has the highest elevation in the south county area which would insure the best coverage for the radio communications tower. He did acknowledge that it could put the AEP purchase in jeopardy if another place on the parcel or at least nearby could be found for the tower site.
The project at the AEP complex hit another snag earlier last fall when Buchanan Township officials fought attempts to have the small section that lies in the township annexed to the city of Buchanan. They said they didn’t oppose the project but didn’t want to have it annexed.
Last week’s county board meeting also featured action on approving an update to the county board’s bylaws as well as reports on the county’s response to the Christmas Day blizzard.
The board’s Personnel and Human Services committee has been working on the update to the bylaws for several months. In many instances, changes were made to codify what’s already being done.
Executive Assistant Annette Christie outlined the changes at a committee of the whole meeting in late December. She told commissioners that the recommendation was to change the name of the board’s “committee on committees” to the “executive committee.” Membership will be the same-committee chairs plus the county board chair and vice-chair.
Commissioners said the sheriff’s department responded to 316 traffic related incidents on the second day of the Christmas blizzard, helped Benton Harbor residents when there was a power outage and county road crews put in 2,552 hours between Dec. 23-27, costing an extra $80,000.
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