Public hearings set for brewery tax abatements
ESCANABA — A light agenda awaits the Escanaba City Council this week, as the council members look at transferring tax abatements and lawnmower parts.
The council will hold two public hearings, both of which are related to transferring industrial facility exemption certificates from Bell’s Brewery to New Belgium Brewing Company, Inc. The transfers are necessary for Escanaba’s Upper Hand Brewery after Bell’s was sold to Australian beer company Lion, a subsidiary of Japanese beverage conglomerate Kirin, in 2021.
Following the sale, Lion combined Bell’s and New Belgium Brewing, which was already owned by Lion. There was no change to labeling as a result.
The certificates being transferred exempt Upper Hand Brewery a portion of the business’ property taxes through 2027.
The council will also vote on whether or not to donate parts for a John Deere lawnmower to the Michigan State Police for the mower used at the gun range. The mower that will receive the parts belongs to the state, but the grass at the range is cut by Escanaba Public Safety and MSP.
Parts up for donation include mower deck belts, wheels, bearings, mower deck parts, blades, pulleys, and other miscellaneous parts.
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BARK RIVER — After an analysis of survey responses, Bark River-Harris Schools will be revisiting its plans to propose a bond to voters of the district in November. Rather than taking the time, effort and money to put forward a bond that would fail, the school district hired School Perceptions, a research firm that helps school districts find out what parents and neighbors desire and strategizes best approaches. The company presented its findings to the Bark River-Harris School Board at a special meeting on Tuesday evening. The key takeaway was that the initiative suggested by the school district earlier this year would likely not be accepted by voters, so it’s time to go back to the drawing board. The proposal the district had hoped to fund was for a multi-part facility upgrade including the addition of four new classrooms and a set of restrooms, plus a remodel of the cafeteria into a lecture hall and performance space. School leaders had identified the needs based on a number of issues, including: a lack of space for large performances, activities and community events; classes currently being held in hallways, gym and the cafeteria; a locker room that is too small and lacks ventilation; and an increase in student population. “While we budget money each year for routine maintenance, the cost to address these challenges is too expensive for our annual budget,” read a background explanation from the district. “Instead we would need to ask Bark River-Harris voters for additional funding through a bond proposal. This allows the district to take out a loan (issue debt).” The aforementioned suggested projects had come with a bond price tag estimated at $12.5 million. Paid back over 25 years, such a proposal would see the annual taxes on a property assessed at $100,000 increase by $295. A survey was sent out by mail. There was a relatively good return rate, School Perceptions said, as 486 people replied before Tuesday. The ages of people who responded was somewhat across the board, with the biggest demographic being people over 65. The mode age is often the case with these surveys, explained Scott Girard, project manager for School Perceptions. “That 65-plus age group, they tend to be the largest group of survey respondents, and that’s the thing we like to see, because those folks — number one, they’re often the least directly connected to the school, so they’re sometimes the hardest to hear from and dialog with. And additionally, they are very likely to vote on Election Day. So you want to hear from them on the survey, because they’re going to be similarly represented at the ballot box,” Girard explained. Other means of categorizing respondees was also useful. For example, by sorting responses by staff, parents, and people who were neither, the survey showed that 81% of staff was in favor of exploring a bond, 58% of parents were in support, and 18% of people unaffiliated with the school were in favor of the idea. That number changed — decreased — when asked if the same people would support the $12.5 million bond. 54% of staff said yes, 40% of parents said yes, and 14% of non-parents and non-staff said yes. The sums of those two answers showed that even people who were open to the idea of a bond did not approve of the one the school suggested. “If the election were held today, we would predict approximately 21.8% support for the 12-and-a-half million dollar bond proposal,” Girard said. The survey also asked people why they didn’t like the proposal. Most said it was too expensive; the next most common answer was that they were opposed to a weight room, band room, locker room and commons area addition; remodeling the weight room was the third-most reason against the proposal; remodeling the cafeteria was the fourth item people took issue with. There was less opposition to building new classrooms and expanding the parking lot, suggesting those items are ones people wouldn’t mind funding. Comments submitted through the survey remarked upon the fact that Bark River-Harris Schools takes on a lot of school-of-choice students. Through this policy, children living outside of the district are allowed to attend a school of their choosing. There is some contention around the practice because only people who reside in a school district pay its taxes, meaning that parents nearby can send their child to a well-funded school without paying for it, while residents foot the bill for greater capacity and other accommodations of a high-quality school. “I think some communications around that process, the pros and cons of that piece of your enrollment, financially and facility-wise, will be really important as you’re communicating with your community going forward,” Girard told the superintendent and school board at Bark River-Harris. “Because I think there’s a lot of different thoughts and understandings of the impact that that enrollment has on your district.” Overall perceptions of the school district were good, though. A majority of survey responders said that they felt Bark River-Harris was performing at or above average in all categories, and most said they would recommend the district to others. Armed with the knowledge presented by School Perceptions, the Bark River-Harris School Board now understands that changes will have to be made to their plan. The first step toward revising a proposal took place last night, Thursday, when a meeting of the building and grounds committee considered the survey proposal. Ideas from that meeting will go on to the committee of the whole meeting on Wednesday, April 8 at 7 p.m. in the school library, shared Superintendent Jeremy Pach. “Discussion there will happen with the whole Board of Education,” Pach said. “From there they can vote to move it forward, go back to the drawing table, etc. Many things could come from that meeting.” A regular meeting for the school board will be on April 15. At that point, Pach says, he imagines there will need to be a final proposal so that the architect has time to prepare a plan and the district will be able to present the decided-upon version of a bond proposal before a June deadline to get it on the ballot for Election Day on November 3. Hiring School Perceptions cost the school district about $10,000.
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