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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Contractors prepare for their slice of Flint demolition funds
by Josh Marshall
Posted: 08.21.2013 at 6:19 PM
Josh Marshall is a reporter for NBC25. He studied Broadcast Journalism at West Virginia University.
Federal funds and contractors are pouring into the city waiting to bid on around 17 hundred homes. While residents wait patiently for something they have been asking for, for years.
/ Josh Marshall
FLINT -- Federal funds and contractors are pouring into the city waiting to bid on around 17 hundred homes. While residents wait patiently for something they have been asking for, for years.
"This house has been abandoned for longer than three four five years and I’ve been calling the land bank to come clean this stuff up but they never do so I’m glad they are coming to fix it," said Flint resident Marzel Marshall.
More than $20 million worth of help is on the way. And contractors are poised to start the bidding.
"They come from everywhere, every excavating contractor in the world becomes a demolition contractor," said Flint contractor Martin Burnash.
17 hundred empty homes are scheduled for demolition in Genesee County, it’s possible tall order for Flint's Burnash wrecking.
"A lot of times we'll bring other people in to help which are also local contractors," said Burnash.
When the city is contracting multiple demolition sites Burnash says he hires extra help to meet demand.
"Anytime your putting people to work in the area that's huge," said Burnash.
The land bank hopes within the next two months residents will see the difference they have been waiting for.
"I’m going to be happy. I’ll be able to sit outside in the driveway being able to see the corner. As you can see there isn’t any sidewalk here anymore the earth took over that," said Marshall
Contractors like Burnash are going to be bidding on lots like this starting at four o’clock tomorrow at the Flint Public Library. |
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Thu Aug 22, 2013 7:40 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Small local contractors are already complaining about the requirement that only contractors capable of demolishing 10 houses weekly will be considered. They point to Burnash and Barkman as local contractors that will get the jobs.
The other question is whether contractors who are strong Snyder or GOP campaign contributors be the ones who get the lions share of the contracts. Smith Village contracts went to a contractor from the western side of the state ( a Snyder contributor) who brought his own workers with him.
I heard 2 interesting predictions Wednesday at the county commission meeting. The first is Smith Village will fail. The second is that neither the Land bank or Salem Housing will survive five years from now.
Smith village is out of money and according to Megan Hunter they will have completer 39 homes. The HUD agreement was for 83 homes, an early childhood development center and a center for the performing arts. Let us not forget all new sidewalks, green spaces and landscaping.
The residents of University Park are concerned about new foreclosures. They rely on their strong neighborhood association. Sadly many are so underwater in their mortgages as the values are about half or slightly more than they paid in 2005. On top of that some got predatory lending type mortgages. |
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Thu Aug 22, 2013 7:56 pm |
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Raymond Sist
F L I N T O I D
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| Do you realize that injecting partisan politics, almost all of it against republicans, costs you credibility? Or, don't you care? |
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Fri Aug 23, 2013 7:47 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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When a Republican oriented company comes in on a federal contract requiring section 3 (local workers) like Smith Village and then only uses their out-of-town employees, I have a problem with that. The stimulus money was supposed to revitalize the local economy, meaning Flint.
The employees stay in motels in other communities and they probably spend most of their money there and in their hometowns.
Other writers have written stories showing the links between Snyder campaign donations and the awarding of contracts. Flint ends up paying the fines for violations and local workers don't always benefit. When we complain they throw the locals some bones, but the major funding goes to companies in the western part of the state.
Over $2 million in fines so far. What does political sensitivity have to do with the poor subsidizing political mistakes.
Oh and Walling and Eason, both Democrats, cost us with their political shenanigans.
Right now the GOP is running the show. Political cronyism sucks! |
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Fri Aug 23, 2013 9:01 am |
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TruthTalk
F L I N T O I D
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| I find it funny a contractor does interviews on demolitions when he is banned from doing demolitions for not only the city of flint but the land bank also. A contractor on the suspended vendors list spreading his wisdom; I will give you some wisdom no one can do 10 demolitions and backfill holes/ restore property in one week. Not Burnash. Not Bartman. |
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Mon Sep 02, 2013 1:42 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Demolition is starting and the Land bank has not revealed any details regarding who got the contracts and whether local people are being hired. Dan Kildee is still in the middle and still working deals with his friends.
Consumers Energy foots $1 million bill to remove gas pipes at 1,600 blighted Flint homes
Jeremy Allen | jallen42@mlive.com By Jeremy Allen | jallen42@mlive.com
Follow on Twitter
on October 17, 2013 at 6:00 AM, updated October 17, 2013 at 6:12 AM
FLINT, MI – Before each of the 1,600 Flint homes is demolished with the $20.1 million blight remediation grant, Consumers Energy has to remove gas lines from the properties – a process that costs about $650 per home.
Instead of billing the Land Bank for the $1.04 million it would cost to remove the gas lines, Consumers Energy agreed to foot the bill for the Genesee County Land Bank and the city of Flint.
The agreement was made in May -- months before Flint was awarded the $20.1 million grant.
Dan Malone, senior vice president of distributions and customer operations, said that his company decided to do the work for free because it wanted to extend its service to the community and to U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee.
“There are 1,600 here, but we also have homes in Grand Rapids, 950 in Saginaw, and these were put into a work plan that was already full, but when we were at the Mackinac Policy Conference talking to Congressman Dan Kildee, this was at the top of his list when we asked him what type of support he needed,” Malone said.
“He asked us to figure out how we could possibly do it and told us that this was worthwhile, so we took Dan’s challenge and figured out how we could do it as part of our community and part of our service territory. It’s certainly not the easiest thing in the world to do, but we were able to figure it out and get it done.”
Malone said that the company is looking to find ways to recoup some of the materials it removes from the homes.
“We’re looking at a partnership with a 501(c)3 company called Project Greenhouse and they’re looking to recycle some of the material and we’re looking to see if we can work with them right now see if we can utilize the material as a fuel from one of our biomass plants. That’s something that’s still in progress,” he said.
Flint Mayor Dayne Walling said that the efforts of Consumers Energy are helping to facilitate the blight removal process.
“It’s certainly something that the Genesee County Land Bank and the city of Flint are appreciative of. Consumers Energy plays a vital role in our community, and this is another example of public and private sectors working together for the community,” Walling said.
Malone added that Consumers Energy is happy to be able to do this and help revitalize the neighborhoods that it’s been serving for the last 125 years.
“With houses scattered all around the city, we had to come up with a way that we could do it effectively and efficiently, and by doing so, be able to provide this service at no charge to the endeavor, taking the public, private and the business sectors, and government getting together and being able to remove these 1,600 homes,” he said.
“It is good for the people and good for the state and it’s good for our business as well.” |
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Thu Oct 17, 2013 6:57 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Remember the land bank said 10 houses weekly had to be demolished by a qualify contractor.
WT Stevens got one of the first contracts. I watched them take days to demolish a house on Chevrolet 2 blocks before Flushing. Then yellow tape surrounded the hole for about a week before a crew filled it in.
More favoritism? Other minority companies could have done that. . |
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Sat Nov 30, 2013 8:46 am |
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