Hibl pulls item on possible new industrial park from Monday’s Clare City Commission agenda

     CLARE – A proposal to create a second industrial park or expand the existing one was pulled from Monday’s, Nov. 2, city commission agenda at the request of two commissioners, City Manager Ken Hibl said Friday.
     Hibl said the request surprised him but referred questions about the delay to Commissioners Tom Koch and John Koch who he said asked for it.
     “It will go on an agenda but I considered it appropriate to pull it for Monday at the request of the two commissioners. It is what it is,” he said.
     Commissioners had been prepared to hear a park proposal by Acting City Manager Bob Bonham who reported at the Oct. 13 commission meeting that the Industrial Development Corporation committee had met Oct. 17 to formulate development of a new industrial park.
     Bonham, who filled in for the vacationing Hibl, said the proposal would be presented Nov. 2 to the city commission.
     Comments from the two Kochs Friday indicated their apprehension at finalizing a park plan without what they considered a comprehensive study.
     At his business Friday night, Commissioner Tom Koch said he did not want the commission to take action on choosing a plan for a park without knowing more about location and infrastructure options and needs.
     “I asked Ken to not have a vote because if we pick a spot then that’s the spot we have to use to go through the grant process,” he said. “We need more information before that decision is made. If we go ahead and vote on this we wouldn’t consider any other alternatives.”
     With Clare’s city election set for Tuesday, Nov. 3, and the beginning of new terms for incumbents and possibly a newcomer winning a commission seat, Koch wanted a vote to come after a “new commission is set,” he said.
     Skepticism threaded Koch’s misgivings about a plan he said has been on the drawing board for three years “when we thought we might have a Wal-Mart store.”
     Ron Kunse, managing partner of North 10 Limited Liability Corporation and co-owner of Northern Dry Bulk, owns 40 acres off Colonville Road, in an area under an urban cooperation agreement with Grant Township.
     This property may still be the preferred site for a new park.
     “We are not privy to all the IDC information at this point,” Koch said. “Ken (Hibl) was kind enough to take that to heart. I appreciate that.”
     Koch added that he didn’t mind if a plan was unveiled he just didn’t want the commission to vote on a site.
     He speculated a few inquiries about industrial space had propelled talk of a new park plan to surface.
     Talk dropped off a year ago when local officials finalized the urban agreement with the township, and Kunse again had plans to develop his property for commercial and industrial uses but the economy collapsed and soured everything.
     Aside from increasing the tax base through development is a necessity the city has to build a new water tower for storage.
     The current tower built in the early 1960s is at capacity space. To build a tower today would exceed a million dollars, Koch said.
     “A tower is needed whether or not we have an industrial park.”
     While John Koch may share his cousin and fellow commissioner’s viewpoints, he did not ask to have the agenda item removed Monday, he said at his home Friday.
     Both Kochs expressed skepticism that all available properties at both ends of town were thoroughly considered and evaluated.
     John Koch questioned whether the undeveloped Kunse property is viable since the acreage is void of infrastructure – roads, utilities, maybe even natural gas – that manufacturing and other industrial tenants would want.
      “It would make the property more attractive if it had an infrastructure. It’s not easy to make a good decision,” he said. “I still think there are a lot of questions that need to be resolved.”
John Koch also wondered how timely information in the plan is. In his first year as a city commissioner, there was no vote to authorize an engineering study for an industrial park.
      According to the city Web site, members of the Industrial Development Corporation committee include: Al Iacco, Rich Hughes, Vince Demasi, Don Jones, Larry Barco, Neal Erickson, Ron Kunse, Bob List, Rick Moser, Mayor Pat Humphrey and City Manager Ken Hibl.  It meets as needed and functions as an autonomous governing entity that oversees operations, development and management of the industrial park.