EDITOR:

I offer this letter to apologize for, and correct, my error expressed at the city council meeting of April 4. I voiced the opinion that if the Dial Companies, aka DP Management, LLC, disconnected their own sewer, the old Super One should not be considered a “brownfield” site. I was wrong. I am not the city attorney, but I am an attorney. I studied this exact law in depth. The Brownfield Redevelopment Financing Act, Act 381 of 1996, as amended in 2016, Section 125.2652, 2, (c), (iv), makes it very clear that shutting off the sewer, no matter who does it, qualifies the property to be rehabilitated as a brownfield site. I further learned that Dial has been completely cooperative with the city in every detail. Finally, I believe that Escanaba would be far better off with a new $8,000,000 hotel than an empty old supermarket. I am sorry for my wrong-thinking.

Ralph B. Blasier

Escanaba