Board of Commissioners turn down bank property clean up proposal

BELLAIRE — Concerned about spending any more money on a controversial piece of downtown Bellaire property, as well as the cost of the proposed project on the property, Antrim County's Board of Commissioners failed a motion to spend more than $7,000 cleaning up and seeding the former Citizen's Bank property during its bi-weekly meeting last week. 

The motion, proposed by District 5 Commissioner Terry VanAlstine, supported by District 3 Commissioner Karen Bargy, failed by a vote of 6-2 during the Aug. 6 meeting, with all of the board voting against the motion except for VanAlstine and Bargy. 

If approved, the county would have spent an estimated $7,215 to remove weeds, rocks and debris, then put down topsoil and grass seed on the several hundred feet of former bank property on Cayuga Street, which the county purchased for more than $500,000 in 2017 to allow for a possible future expansion of the county's administration and jail campus. 

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