Brandon Twp – After more than four years of being a liability to the township, 46 Cedar is back on the tax rolls.
On Monday, June 16, the township board accepted a bid to purchase the Cedar Street home, in the amount of $70,126. Ortonville resident Dennis E. Francis presented the highest bid, out of five submitted, and signed an agreement to purchase under special stated by the township attorney.
The property became a liability to the township as a result of a 1997. The lawsuit was filed against the township to clean soil on 46 Cedar Street because the soil was proven to contain petroleum products. The property owner, Thomas Amoss requested the township clean the contaminants from the soil because a township owned, underground gas tank was leaking onto the property.
Township hired engineers from Hubble Roth & Clark, had been performing soil injections to neutralized the petroleums, however an Ann Arbor firm, specializing in soil clean-up told Amoss the injections would only clean the soil within a one foot area of the treatment site.
Amoss? son-in-law said the lawsuit was filed because Amoss wanted his property cleaned and felt the method used by the township engineering firm, Hubble, Roth, & Clark was not effective in complete remediation of the soil.
In October of 1998, before the case was settled, Amoss died from complications of diabetes.
In a settlement resulting from the lawsuit, the township purchased the property, from Amoss? estate, for $140,000.
Dennis Francis has purchased the property under the condition that the property will remain subject to specific easements for access to the existing monitoring wells.
The property will be subject to a general easement allowing the township access and the right to perform any acts to accomplish remediation of the petroleum for compliance with Federal or State laws.
Francis has waived any claim for trespass, personal injury or property damage from the existing petroleum residue and the township is not obligated to remove the residue unless required by law.