On November 20, 2017 the West Shore Community College (WSCC) Board of Trustees (BOT) decided to table a motion to purchase the building and property housing the former West Michigan Regional Blood and Cancer Center (at 6050 N. US 31 in Freesoil Township, aerial view below) but you might never have known that, and what happened to table that motion if you lived in Mason County. 

Oddly enough, a media source outside the county, the Manistee News Advocate, 'broke' the story four days after the meeting (see it here, here, and here.  As you can see, the college planned to use the facility for their public safety programs, particularly training.

This forum frequently and properly berates the actions of Ludington City Attorney Richard Wilson, a practicing lawyer in the Manistee bureau of the Mika Myers Law group of Grand Rapids.  But, as noted in the article, WSCC BOT member Wilson balked at the $985,000 price tag given to the board for the property and submitted the board by WSCC's new president, Scott Ward.  He was joined in his skepticism of the deal by WSCC BOT member Tony Fabaz, who repeated Wilson's analysis of the $400,000 appraised value being considerably lower than the nearly $1,000,000 price.  Such fiscal sense is rarely seen at WSCC, or Ludington for that matter.

Equally odd is that although it was discussed that the state equalized value (SEV) suggested that the actual worth of the property was around $1 million, the previous purchase by Riemer Real Estate Investments (RREI) LLC in 2013 of the property for the low price of $170,000 was not mentioned.  This is found at the county's property search tool.

A little over two weeks later, the Mason County Press initiates local Masonites to this possible purchase, but leaves out the significant discussions at the November WSCC BOT meeting.  It does, however, note the current owner of the property, unlike the MNA, and a significant new twist unreported previously:  an anonymous donor orally pledged he would give WSCC $1 million if the transaction happened.  It noticed that a special meeting of the WSCC BOT would be held on December 11 to facilitate the approval of what looked like a great deal.

It elaborates that another appraisal done by Riemer Real Estate had the property appraised at $750,800.  With the new and higher appraisal and the $1 million pledge, WSCC President Ward suggested:  “I recommend that the College purchase the property from Riemer Real Estate Investments, L.L.C. for the last listed price of $985,000 in addition to associated closing costs and contingent upon a satisfactory environmental site assessment.”

And they did, according to the City of Ludington Daily News (COLDNews) page 3 article on December 12th.  It finally recapped a little of the earlier haggling at the November meeting and noted that the BOT unanimously voted for the $985,000 figure after the second assessment (by RREI) of $750,800 was put in the record.  The reporter (Brooke Kansier) marked it as a major victory for the new WSCC president, who noted the high visibility of this section of the campus, with an estimated 3 million vehicles passing by it per year.  Other trustees gushed at getting such a great deal; assuming the donor comes through with his pledge, WSCC will actually be getting the property and $15,000 to boot.  

The verbal commitment of $1 million to help renovate and operate the property was revealed to have been made by none other than the soon-to-be previous owner of the property, Dr. Andrew Reimer (above right).  One wonders why he didn't sweeten the deal earlier when he asked for $985,000 without the promise of a million dollars, or why he even used the property appraisals at all.  And why didn't he just donate the property and $15,000 without the exchange of nearly a million dollars between buyer and seller?  

The deal is done, the college will spend a million dollars of public money for property valued at $170,000 in 2013, before it sat vacant for four years, and $400,000 by a supposedly 'neutral' appraiser, and Dr. Riemer didn't even have to formally commit to any re-compensation plan to pay back any of the money.  Oral commitments by an eye doctor are just swell, according to Trustee Richard Wilson, but written agreements between the City of Ludington and House of Flavors can only be done through an audit of the company's assets and allocations

Which, like here, the public must accept the judgment of public officials to do the right thing.  In my judgment, without a written commitment and dedicated funds, the agreement brokered by Scott Ward was reckless and a potential major disaster, funded by your tax dollars.  Let's hope Dr. Riemer serves the public better than these campus clowns and keeps to his commitment.

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Blind-sighted'

Riemer Eye Care, Cadillac, Ludington, Manistee, Shelby, and Portland, Mi.. I  know they have money to burn, but, I still don't understand this transaction, unless they need a huge tax write-off. And if Riemer is donating this, more or less, is he also the one donating anonymously to the COL on other things like the West End and other curious projects of recent? Makes a person wonder wth is going on!

Would not be surprised that the terms of this deal would be for writing off taxes for the next several years.  WSCC pays Riemer $X each month, Riemer donates $X multiplied by 12 to WSCC each year; twelve times X is optimized to give him the most favorable result.  Nothing unwise about that, but it seems a rather sneaky way to get around taxes when you sell a property for much more than it's worth to the place you're donating to.  Undoubtedly, the WSCC Riemer Public Safety Training Center in that highly visible spot will help his primary businesses.

The oral agreement brokered and undisclosed is typical of a public body wishing to circumvent the appearance of unethical behavior, because there is no written record the public can see.  Not surprising that Richard Wilson changed his tune when the terms were made known to him.

If I remember correctly the Cancer Center had a tough time with finding a suitable site for the clinic and had problems with zoning. I'm not surprised they did not last very long due to the location they were forced to settle at.

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