It didn’t take long for Eugene (Chip) Acey to fight to keep the quality of life in Springfield Township.
Shortly after he and wife Noni moved to his 20-acre home on Ormond Road in 1971, Acey found himself at the center of a storm involving a potential sale of a square mile of a piece of farm property to a gravel mining company.
“I organized a committee and fought what everyone told me was a losing battle for more than two years,” he recalled. “We eventually won. It got quite a bit of publicity at the time. That was an intense battle. Collin Walls, at the time, was part of the fight. He wasn’t in politics at the time. It was a very interesting time. In winning that, we kept the character of the area and protected property values.”
Acey, a Dearborn native, has grown to appreciate the Springfield Township community in the thirty-two years he’s been here. A Western Michigan University graduate, Acey taught art at the junior high and high school level in the Cherry Hill school district (in the Inkster/Westland area) for three years before going into business for himself.
After the Aceys were married, they moved to Cedar Island Lake, south of Springfield Township, where they lived for 3-1/2 years before moving to Davisburg.
He recalled what the house, which was built in the 1870s, was like when they first bought it.
“When we bought it, it was an old run-down farm house,” Acey said. “It was not liveable. This was one of the old farms in the area. We bought the house because of the lake. My wife and I have always enjoyed the out-of-doors. We found this house and it was affordable because of the condition it was in. It was located in front of the property.”
The Aceys stayed in the same location for 24 years, then a couple of factors prompted them to consider relocating.
“We were getting a lot of traffic on Ormond Road, and we wanted to be by the lake,” he recalled. “Initially, we wanted to sell our house. The initial idea was to sell it and 2-1/2 acres and build a new one back here (on the back of the property). Then, we looked into the possibility of moving it back here.”
After the Aceys committed to relocating the home, they needed a place to live in the time between they moved out of old location and the new location, so they moved into a 30-foot motor home during the time of remodeling.
Chip Acey then contracted to have the house relocated, and after the house was securely on its foundation, Acey and Tom Doone began the remodeling. “We built decks all around, and we added quite a bit to the house,” he said.
These days, Acey sells a product known as Nutra Surge out of his home. He started the business in the early 1990s. He holds two patents on the product, and is looking for help to expand his product to the gardening market.
According to Acey, Nutra Surge increases the population of bacteria and fungi in the soil, and creates more food factories for plants, ultimately giving the vegetables that grow from the plants a higher nutritional content.
In the 1980s, Acey held a patent on another invention, a bottle-flattening machine that still allowed the user to turn bottles in for refunds in the state of Michigan. He co-held the patent with Warren Hieser, who has since deceased. The patent is now expired.
Another interest of Acey’s is as a professional boxing judge in the state of Michigan. He stated he has worked as a judge for 20 years, judging several title fights. Among the fighters Acey said he has watched are Thomas Hearns, Milton McCrory, George Foreman (when he was making his comeback in the mid-1980s) and Michael Moorer.
Overall, Acey is pleased with the life he and his wife enjoy in the township. Although the population has grown, he believes the township’s commitment to preserving its natural features has remained the same.
“When we first moved out here, it was very rural,” he said. “Things changed, and Springfield Township has grown into quite a thriving community.”