(Community Matters 178) Mayor: Legal Turbulence Around BlueOval Project Is Still the “Best Problem” to Have

Marshall Mayor Scott Wolfersberger returns to Community Matters discussing Marshall’s budget, services, and identity while keeping focused on community life. 

He also discusses the long legal drama surrounding the BlueOval development in Marshall - and how that affects the outlook in town.

Episode Resources
City of Marshall
BlueOval Community Matters episodes

ABOUT COMMUNITY MATTERS
Former WBCK Morning Show host Richard Piet (2014-2017) returns to host Community Matters, an interview program focused on community leaders and newsmakers in and around Battle Creek. Community Matters is heard Saturdays, 8:00 AM Eastern on WBCK-FM (95.3) and anytime at battlecreekpodcast.com.

Community Matters is sponsored by Lakeview Ford Lincoln and produced by Livemic Communications.

Transcript

Setting The Stage In Marshall

Richard Piet 0:02

Thank you for being with us for Community Matters. This is a visit to 95.3 on Saturdays in the 8 a.m. hour of any day at Battle CreekPodcast.com. Our episodes are there with others as well, other voices from Calhoun County. And this one's new. If you go to your favorite podcast directory, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, whatever you like to use, type in Community Matters Calhoun County. It will come up there too, and you can even subscribe. Well, it's been a busy week in uh Marshall, and that will continue. In fact, Mayor Scott Wolfersberger and I had this uh time set aside to talk anyway, and then uh more of the lawsuit talk uh started up again, and we just heard a bit about that a little while ago, and we'll continue to follow that. In the meanwhile, there's lots to talk about in Marshall, right, Mr. Mayor? There absolutely is. It is a happening place.

Growth Pains And Legal Backdrop

Mayor Scott Wolfersberger 1:02

Welcome back. Thank you so much. Great to speak with you again, Richard.

Richard Piet 1:06

What's it like for a mayor, I suppose, but also for a municipality when you have this big development coming, and then there's back and forth in the legal system, and you're just kind of keeping your sea legs on all of this, I would imagine. I mean, talk about what that's like.

Mayor Scott Wolfersberger 1:25

It is the best problem to have, I'll put it that way. I guess it is. Um, you know, having having to manage growth and having to communicate the needs and demands of the city and the level that with the needs and demands of the developers, and I would much, much rather be in this position than having to figure out who we're cutting from staff because we don't have the budget anymore. I mean, I don't fool myself. This is uh the best problem to have.

Richard Piet 1:50

Boy, that is a really terrific way to look at it, isn't it? Uh things could be a whole lot different.

Mayor Scott Wolfersberger 1:56

And they would have been we were staring down and had been for quite some time, staring down some very serious cuts to community services. And even looking at one point we looked at consolidating our fire and police departments, you know, and going the public safety department because carrying them both was getting very expensive. So, I mean, this this development, whether people agree with the development or don't agree with the development, it it has given Marshall new options, new life in their budget, and and the ability to continue the services people love about this community.

Budget Turnaround And Core Services

Richard Piet 2:27

So, in fact, one of the other conversations we just had about the situation is such that we're now at a point where the I think it's the largest taxpayer in Marshall, right, uh is gonna start paying the bills. Yeah. And so how do you look at that? You say, hey, look, we have money now. It's the inference you just gave, but is it that literal?

Replacing Aged Fire Equipment

Mayor Scott Wolfersberger 2:50

Anytime you've come through a period where you weren't as busy at work or not as much money was coming in, and you you had to put off purchases, you have to put off maintenance of things, you know, it's it's not like you've all of a sudden got this magic amount of unlimited cash. So we've still got to figure out the best places that we can put that money where it's been neglected. Last night at City Council, we approved the purchase of a new fire truck. $1.1 million dollars. That that bill will come down come due in fiscal year 2028. And it's a big dollar amount, but we've been talking about it the entire time I've been on city council since 2018. So we knew this needed to be done. The truck's 23 years old now. We actually had to have part of the frame welded last year. So I mean, it's desperately in need of repair or replacement, actually. So the fact that we're able to go ahead and sign that purchase agreement and get that on the delivery schedule, and it's is it a big ticket item? It absolutely is, but we are confident we'll have the money to pay for it.

Richard Piet 3:49

1.1 million big ones.

Mayor Scott Wolfersberger 3:51

That's what a fire truck costs now. That's not even like a complicated fire truck. It's not the Cadillac model, huh? It is a Spartan fir, so the chassis will be built right up in Charlotte, but it's uh it's just a fire engine. It's you know, if we have to, and at some point, I think in the next 10 years, we're gonna have to replace our aerial ladder, and I believe that's more like two and a half.

Reviving Parks And Skate Park

Richard Piet 4:13

Oh my goodness. Yeah. I should have said the Lincoln model. Apologies to Ford. Yeah. So this is an average truck, 1.1 million. Wow. Okay. Well, so that paints a bit of a picture, doesn't it? We can do that now. Yes. And uh we don't have to weld the other one back together again.

Mayor Scott Wolfersberger 4:33

It's not just that type of thing. We had some money that we finally had, you know, in our coffers last year that we got a matching grant from the Cronen Foundation for fifty thousand dollars, and the city put in fifty thousand and we rebuilt the skate park. The skate park had been almost unusable for years. Uh, it had, I mean, fixtures had holes in them, and and some of the fixtures were just some simply pushed off to the side so that people wouldn't try to get on them. And we just we were able to revamp that whole thing. And and so it's just things like that, things that have had to have been neglected because we didn't have the budget to put into our parks so that we could maintain, you know, our basic, we had gotten down to some very basic levels of staffing in the city, and so now we're looking at some possible new positions, just different things that we can start to enhance those city services again and bring those benefits of this development to the whole community.

Richard Piet 5:24

Is there anything even with that that you still wrangle with and say, boy, we're gonna put this off or that off?

Mayor Scott Wolfersberger 5:32

We need to reinvest in our riverwalk even more than we have. We we put uh $400,000 into I think about a 200-foot section of the riverwalk last year. And it's just, but it's been there for 20, 25 years now, and it's in need of some love. And you know, we also were we're looking with the develop new housing development out on A Drive and Hughes. We're looking at possibly coming to an agreement with them to be able to extend the riverwalk west of South Kalamazoo so that people can continue to have that recreational space available to them. Well, I mean, judging by what we spent to you know replace 200 feet, you can only imagine what a couple miles a new river walk is going to cost. So there's definitely areas where we're gonna continue to pursue grants from you know community foundations, from the federal government, from the state government, so we can maximize. There's a grant we can get into where we have to do matching dollars. We'll have those funds now to be able to make that match and get, but again, double our money because we're able to we're in the position where we can make the match.

Richard Piet 6:34

There was some publicity from Ford about their hiring process, and they illustrated it was an illustration of uh generally speaking the distance from which they're trying to attract potential employees. I think it was 60 miles, something like that. Okay. Is there pressure that you feel in Marshall to say, hey, you know what? We want those people right here, living here, working here, spending their income here. Does that put more pressure on the city?

The Meijer Rumor And Downtown Balance

Mayor Scott Wolfersberger 7:04

It absolutely does. Um, we recognize that city's only so big, so you know, residential and those types of issues, we have to be very careful. You know, we we don't have a lot of undeveloped area inside the city limits. So, because we don't have an income tax, you know, property taxes are our primary drivers. So if we can't get those employees to live in the area, then the benefits of their employment are really not being fully felt here. And so by getting them into the area, having the restaurants and the retail and the entertainment and recreation options that they're looking for to make this their home, that's what we really have to focus on.

Richard Piet 7:42

Speaking of which, if you're a big box store and you're watching what's going on around Marshall, you might want to situate there or at least think about it. There's lots of chatter going around. I mean, I picked up that there is about a potential Meyer store in in Marshall. What do we know about that?

Road Projects And Diverging Diamond

Mayor Scott Wolfersberger 8:04

We don't know a lot yet. I've been told that they have a purchase agreement on some land on the north side of town, uh right by I-94. And I've been told that there's been a preliminary communication with the township about transferring that property into the city so they can receive city services. That is as far as it's gone. We haven't seen site plans or nobody's pulled building permits or anything of that nature yet. So, but it's it seems to be a solid rumor, I'll put it that way. And we're we're hopeful that you know, obviously, you know, we we support our historic downtown uh with all our mic, and and we're gonna make sure that they have all the tools that we can possibly offer to make sure that the people are coming to our downtown to to shop and eat uh and stay. But a Meyer gives you a different level of convenience. For years and years we had a Kmart. And so I'm I'm not overly concerned that a Meyer's gonna you know cause problems for us in our downtown area, just because it's you know, it's a different type of shopping experience. But I I had somebody recently tell me when we know when this rumor started was yeah, they last summer their child was going to camp and they realized that the dog had bitten a hole in their soccer ball. And so at 11 o'clock at night before they were leaving for camp, they needed a soccer ball. Yeah, and they had to run to Battle Creek. And you know, so that's 20 minutes each way, and I mean it's just it was a much bigger deal than just being able to run up the street.

Richard Piet 9:29

Solid rumor. It sounds like a little bit of an oxymoron, but there's elements of it that make sense, I think is what you're saying.

Mayor Scott Wolfersberger 9:36

So there's rumors that I hear that I'm I definitely am wondering where that came from, and then there's rumors that actually have you know, have some reinforcement.

Richard Piet 9:44

So yeah, I see your point. Okay, yeah. So this this has potential validity. The other thing, I suppose, big thing that's associated with this development is the road construction. And uh, we chatted with MDOT a few weeks ago about this. This is uh one of their big focuses in the coming season, you know, which is practically here.

Master Plan, Econ Plan, Zoning

Mayor Scott Wolfersberger 10:04

We've gotten lots of comments about the diversion diamond on the on the west end of town. Part of the problem that people had with it was that it was left when the winter season hit very quickly, right around Thanksgiving and then didn't let up, it meant that they didn't get signs up, they didn't get lighting up, they didn't get permanent markings down on the pavement. And so it's it's been confusing for a lot of people, and I definitely understand why. Now that the signs are up, now that the lighting's going up, and and they're you know, if you got plans to get the better markings down, I you know, I'm looking forward to that being much more straightforward to get through. But as you said, Marshall proper is gonna get a little break from that construction this season, it's gonna move over towards 11 mile road and the casino. And I've seen the design for that layout for the changing that interchange up. I think it's gonna be incredibly more efficient and safer. Doesn't have those 180-degree on-ramps and off-ramps anymore. I mean, it's it's definitely gonna be different, but I I think in a in the best way.

Richard Piet 11:00

The modern designs for these things have changed a lot, and so uh that is a an example of that. You know, the last time you were here, we talked about the master plan, which was still coming together. That's all said and done now, right? For five years at least.

Mayor Scott Wolfersberger 11:14

Yeah, we buttoned that up um last summer and uh got great feedback from our citizens and our townships and and other entities around us, and I feel like it's a great representation of the changes that have happened in Marshall and how we see the uh those changes continuing to unfurl. Now that that's done, that leads us into revisiting our economic development plan, uh, which we've started those conversations. And then I believe next will be uh we'll we'll open up our zoning plan and uh take a look and make sure that fits now with what we put in the master plan.

Richard Piet 11:49

An economic development plan is that similar to a master plan in that it's going to set a guideline for how you want to approach economic development, or is it different than that?

Mayor Scott Wolfersberger 12:02

It's a little more rubber meets the road. It's uh um it gives our different departments and like our our MADA, you know, our relationship with MADA gives direction on on where exactly we want to see the efforts put for economic development.

Richard Piet 12:18

And in that regard, there's a a lot going on in this area. So, you know, I suppose the notion of a big taxpayer like Ford, you know, when you have that now, you can look at other priorities, or does it not change?

Diversifying Beyond Ford

Mayor Scott Wolfersberger 12:33

I guess my primary comment there would be we want diversity. Having a large taxpayer like Ford is great for boosting the city coffers, but we don't want to have it be all our eggs in one basket. You know, we've got some really good housing startups coming, got other retail, you know, we mentioned Meyer, and and you know, there's there's a couple other, again, not solid rumors, but we'll continue to try to make sure that that you know Ford is is an important part of our community and supports you know the what we're trying to accomplish, but we'll make sure that we also have what's the golden parachute, I guess, something along those lines.

Richard Piet 13:11

Yeah, something that that is more diverse, I get it. Has the phone rang more now? I presume the answer to this is yes, with the excitement around the blue oval development?

Right-Sizing New Development

Mayor Scott Wolfersberger 13:23

It definitely has. Our our economic development uh director is is very busy. Um, and believe me, she says no to probably as many things as she says, maybe to, you know, where it's just I don't want to get into details because I don't know what's considered trade secrets, but uh there was a a larger hotel uh that was interested in in being in the area, and we're just not interested in having you know like a seven or eight story tall building, and you know, that's that's that's a bit much, I think, for our community. So so we'll continue, but we continue to look at uh at different things and see how it fits into our framework or again, our zoning, our economic development, make sure it fits for Marshall.

Richard Piet 14:01

Well, this all is interesting, and if you were worried about uh what kind of interest Marshall might stir up, this has changed that in some ways, at least. The idea that it's on the map more now as a destination potential for some places, this is interesting.

Marshall On The Map

Mayor Scott Wolfersberger 14:22

I see it all the time. I hear it from people when I'm out and about and I'm talking with others. They heard about Marshall because of Blue Oval, then they found out about you know Marshall's historic charm and they came to visit. It's exactly that put us on the map with people as far as uh just having them be aware of us and and and what Marshall has to offer. So it's it's been a great boon, you know, not just for the infrastructure investment and the development and the the tax base that that Ford has brought as you know as you well as starting to, as you mentioned, starting to have those full-time jobs come online, but it's been a huge boost for the rest of our economy as well, with hotels being busy and restaurants being busy and our events being packed. It's been fantastic.

Retail Wishes And Grocery Updates

Richard Piet 15:02

Do people come up to you and say, we want to see a fill in the blank here? I mean, I'm thinking about Battle Creek, and people kept saying we want an olive garden. Then they got it. I mean, you know, it it worked out. Do people come up to you and say, Why don't we have whatever?

Mayor Scott Wolfersberger 15:18

They do. It's um the big one has always been uh like an Aldi. And my understanding is Aldi did look at the uh old Kmart building and decided it just wasn't quite the right fit for them. So I don't know if they'll look at the community again later, uh, but our family fair just went through a huge remodel, and they're having their ribbon cutting for their re-grand reopening April 14th. So it's a great new look at their store and uh a lot of updated fixtures inside, and it's kind of exciting, if you will, for a grocery store. Um, you know, it definitely hadn't been done in in quite some time, and so it's a it's a great new look.

Festivals, Tourism, And Community Spirit

Richard Piet 15:53

Kind of nice to hop into a place that you know where everything is, and you can get it quickly if you need to, and you know, there's something to be said for that. Absolutely. And we have uh springtime just trying to get moving here, and so with that, there's a whole slate of events that we would expect right in the warm weather months.

Mayor Scott Wolfersberger 16:13

Marshall's got a couple of big ones or a few big ones. Blues Fest is coming up in June, Motor Fest is coming up in August. Our home tour, our 61st annual home tour is this September, and then our skeleton fest in October has turned into quite the event. I was so pleasantly surprised to see the number of people that turned out with their families walking through downtown last year for multiple weekends during Skeleton Fest. It was really, it was really I don't know precisely who came up with that idea, uh, but I sent them my thanks often.

Closing Thanks And Follow-Up

Richard Piet 16:46

Well, who knew skeletons were so popular, but we'll take it, right? They definitely turned out to be. Well, keep us posted on those things that are happening. Happy to have you come back when you're ready. Great. Thanks so much, Richard. Mayor Scott Wolfersberger with an update from Marshall on community matters.