The red and white Bay Mills Township Hall/fire station is something of landmark. But if the township board is successful, the building will no longer be needed and a new township hall, including a new fire hall, will move about four miles south.
We've reported this plan before, but this is an ever-evolving story that may play out for another four years, and what started out as a new township hall is now a hoped-for government complex, with enough room for a 300-person wedding reception, and an attached fire hall capable of handling a growing fire department.
The present township site grew two years ago when the township bought neighboring property west of the present town hall, in a tax sale. But when engineers and planners tried to plan a bigger, better combined building, the footprint didn't fit the boot. That launched a three-move land trade.
Roger Graham, Bay Mills Township Supervisor, is hoping that the complex project can get done within four years. But dominoes have to fall.
At the last meeting the township approved the first move. It traded its former dump site, which is now a sand pit, to the Chippewa County Road Commission. In return Bay Mills received 40 acres of undeveloped land near the Avery Grade, north of McNearny Lake.
The new 40 acres is the lure for the next move. The township hopes the US Forest Service will trade some land near the Iroquois Point light house in return for the Avery Grade acreage. That site, on the south side of Lakeshore Drive, could handle a sizable building, though Graham indicated that the township doesn't have approved plans.
Graham points to Rudyard Township Hall as an ideal. It's big, has parking, and can handle the needs of both a meeting hall, and a fire station. But this is all preliminary, he cautions. And if past is precedent, it will take a long time to get all the red tape cut.
What of the red and white building and the new land next to it? "We haven't gotten that far", he said. "That's farther down the line than we've gone." Another, more distant, domino.
