Lenawee County Board Head Connected To Sports Complex Approved For COVID Bucks

Board already directed $2.3 million to scheme; it wants $10 million more and bought adjacent land

By Tom Gantert | April 4, 2022

David Stimpson is a lawyer, business owner and chair of the nine-member Lenawee County Board of Commissioners. Stimpson is also one of eight commissioners who approved the $2.3 million purchase of a 50 acre-parcel in his district, the site of a proposed sports complex. The deal closed in October. Less than a month later, his company, BCKS Investments LLC, purchased land close to the proposed complex, dubbed “Project Phoenix.” The project also includes land that he said will provide a corridor to the facility.

A report in the Tecumseh Times Herald stated, “Stimpson said his new Evans Street parcels will help connect the downtown area to the Project Phoenix area to make a walkable business and commercial district along South Evans Street.” It also reported Oct. 21 that Stimpson had been working with another local developer for three years to pitch the project.

A board subcommittee, filled with members Stimpson recommended, was created to decide how to spend millions in federal COVID relief dollars. It recommended using $10 million of the money on Project Phoenix.

According to the Adrian Daily Telegram, there is as much as $35 million available in local, state and federal money for the project.

The Lenawee Daily Telegram has reported that the city of Morenci opposes Project Phoenix, as do Deerfield and Ogden townships. Opponents of the project raise several objections and say it should be more centrally located to serve all county residents rather than be in the northeast corner. They believe the COVID relief money should be spent on roads, infrastructure and a tax cut for county residents and businesses. Another criticism is that similar facilities already exist in larger communities nearby, and the nearby city of Monroe closed a sports facility there for cost reasons.

Roger Johnson, a member of the Deerfield Township Planning Commission says, “The (discussed) Lenawee County share of the project requires a $20 million dollar bond, with annual debt service around $930,000 per year against a projected best-case income for the project of $139,000 per year.”

Stimpson did not respond to an email when asked if he thought taxpayers should pay for a project that might benefit him.

Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.

Teachers Unions Called For Closing Classrooms; Students Now Facing Mental Health Challenges

Each of Michigan’s big education unions opposed in-classroom instruction

By Jamie A. Hope | April 2, 2022

In August 2020, the teachers union at Detroit’s public school district threatened what it called a safety strike rather than comply with school leaders’ efforts to get teachers back in classrooms during the COVID-19 pandemic. An article published that same month in the Detroit Free Press quoted Detroit Federation of Teachers President Terrence Martin, who said that 80% of the 4,000-plus teachers in the union wanted to work remotely and not be present in the classroom.

Detroit’s school employees are affiliated with the nation’s second biggest teachers union, the American Federation of Teachers-Michigan. In most Michigan school districts, the workplace has been organized by the Michigan Education Association, an arm of the nation’s largest teachers union.

The MEA released a member survey in November 2020, which found its teachers also did not want to be in classrooms during the pandemic. MEA Executive Director Paula Herbart called for classrooms to be shuttered until COVID case rates were lower.

The Detroit Public Schools Community District has shuttered its classrooms in 2020-21 and 2021-22. Tracking just how often school districts around the state closed classrooms is difficult.

Closing classrooms has had consequences for children.

Chalkbeat Detroit reported March 14 that the Detroit school district has hired additional mental health staffer to deal with a potential mental health crisis among students who were deprived of the classroom experience and personal interactions during the past two years.

The district has also launched a health and wellness campaign called Are You OK? It includes a mental health hotline for students, home visits to check on students, small group counseling sessions and mental health referrals for students and families.