Owosso to bill three properties $116,107 for city cleanups Sept. 8

Owosso is preparing to charge three properties a combined $116,107.42 for cleanup and abatement work the city paid for and never got reimbursed. The dollar figures, missing from earlier notices, appear in the packet for Tuesday's City Council meeting: $54,578.12 against 117 W. Exchange St., $26,591.90 against 321 E. Williams St. and $34,937.40 against 326 S. Dewey St.

The Current reported Sept. 3 that three public hearings had been scheduled for the Sept. 8 meeting on Special Assessment Districts No. 2027-101, 2027-102 and 2027-103 without any amounts attached. The packet supplies them. Each notice describes the charge as "unpaid costs incurred in the altering, repairing, tearing down, abating or removing of hazards and nuisances" at the address, assessed under Section 10.7 of the city code, which lets the council order a property cleaned up and then bill the cost back to the property by special assessment.

For a property owner, the hearing is the moment that matters. The published notice states that appearing and protesting at the hearing is required in order to appeal the amount to the State Tax Tribunal, and that a written appeal must be filed within 30 days after the council confirms the roll. An owner who does not want to appear in person may file an objection by letter with the city clerk before the hearing closes. The assessment rolls are on file at the clerk's office at City Hall, 301 W. Main St., and the notice directs questions to the city treasurer at 725-0599.

The hearings are on their second scheduling. Minutes of the Aug. 17 meeting, up for approval Tuesday, show all seven members — Councilmembers Christopher Owens, Emily Olson, Carl Ludington, Rachel Osmer and Janae Fear, Mayor Pro-Tem Jerome Haber and Mayor Robert J. Teich Jr. — voted to rescind Resolutions 116, 117 and 118 and adopt new ones correcting the roll numbers and the hearing date.

Tuesday's consent agenda also answers a question this desk raised last week about the city's $142,766 road salt authorization. The purchase would go to The Detroit Salt Company, L.C., through State of Michigan contracts, with competitive bidding waived: 400 tons at $67.08 a ton, or $26,832, for early delivery, plus up to 1,400 more tons at $63.70 a ton, or $89,180, delivered as needed through the 2026-27 season, with a $26,754 contingency on top.

Three other purchases on the same consent agenda: a $46,280 tree removal contract with Ronald's Tree Service for the 2026-27 fiscal year, plus an $18,000 contingency that requires written authorization to spend; $22,491.64 in roofing materials for the DPW city garage from Home Depot on the state MiDeal contract, with a $2,500 contingency; and about $21,395.52 in bulk carbon dioxide from Nippon Sanso Matheson at $.1148 a pound, a sole-source buy estimated at 92 tons for the year ending June 30, 2027.

Downtown gets two street closures for Friday, Sept. 18. At the Owosso Farmers Market's request, Main Street Plaza would close from noon to 8 p.m. for Art Walk, and a second order would close N. Ball Street from the south side of Fountain Park to W. Mason Street, Exchange Street between N. Ball and N. Washington, and the city parking lot at the southwest corner of W. Main and N. Washington from 2 to 10 p.m. for the Art Walk Market and the Fountain Park movie. The packet still does not say which film is showing.

What happens next: the council meets at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 8, in the Virginia Teich City Council Chambers at City Hall, with the three assessment hearings first on the agenda. Written objections must reach the clerk before each hearing closes. The council is also asked Tuesday to hold a first reading of the proposed towing ordinance for unpaid parking tickets and set a public hearing on it for Sept. 21, the next regular meeting, and to enter Councilmember Ludington's notice of pecuniary interest for August contracts with Ludington Electric, Inc. — the packet does not state the August total. In July, the council approved $2,345.86 in Ludington Electric work with Ludington abstaining.