By Jim Newell

Review Editor

The Orion Township Board of Trustees voted 6-1 during its meeting on Monday to move forward with the proposed Orion Township Municipal Complex and hire Cunningham-Limp as the project manager.

Trustee John Steimel, who is not seeking re-election in November, cast the lone nay vote.

And while Steimel was the lone board member to speak out against the project, many residents also opposed the development, which has higher cost — $18,412,500 – than the $15 million maximum township officials had planned to spend last year when discussing the project.

The Orion Township Municipal Complex will include a new township hall and police station for the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office Orion Twp. Substation.

Township officials and their construction team have since rebranded the development as the Orion Township Municipal Complex because they will be “activating” the 76 acres of township-owned land on Joslyn Road between Greenshield and Scripps roads.

The Municipal Complex will also include a large community room, future trailheads, parks and athletic fields and room for growth and extra storage. Currently, some departments, such as the clerk’s office, store materials off-site from Township Hall.

The police substation will be 8,820 square feet (SF) and cost $2.492 million. The Township Hall portion of the project will be 43,675 SF, which includes an additional 8,000 SF on the lower level (basement). The Township Hall portion will cost $9.651 million.

Site development – “activating” the 76 acres of land – is projected at $4.211 million. This would include infrastructure, driveways to Scripps and Joslyn roads, parking lots and future development.

There is a $500,000 contingency planned, $1,319,500 for owner procured items (furniture, technology, etc.), $131,500 for the bond issuance cost and $107,500 for design fees.

The township could break ground on the project as soon as Aug. 26, with Sept. 1 planned for the day when it would issue the bonds. There is a targeted completion date of Oct. 4, 2021, said Sam Ashley, vice-president of Cunningham-Limp development and construction company, the project construction managers.

To pay for the project, the township is issuing $15 million bonds over a 20-year period. The township and its financial advisors are anticipating an AA or AA-plus bond rating for the township, and should get an excellent interest rate.

If the township can get an interest rate of 1.5 percent, it would pay approximately $875,000 per year in debt service.

However, the bonds will not cover the cost of the project, so the township has dedicated some savings and future revenue streams to pay the debt service on the bonds and project costs.

“When it comes to revenue, we try to estimate conservatively,” Supervisor Chris Barnett said. “We feel extremely confident in these projections.”

Plans to pay the debt service on the municipal complex include using the host fee (about $500,000) from the landfill in Orion Township, permits from the marijuana grow facility on Premier Drive (estimated at $250,000 or more per year) and charging “rent” to departments that make bring in money, such as the police, parks and recreation, DPW and Building Department.

Tearing down the old township hall is estimated to cost around $100,000, but as of the meeting the board did not know where the township would get the funds to demolish the old hall.

The site would be returned to a “natural state” and likely be given to parks and recreation for use or development, but officials said they would explore those plans later.

“If we had the money on hand to pay for this (development), you’ve been paying too much in taxes,” Barnett said to the audience. “I don’t think there’s any community in this state, except maybe one or two, that could pay for this without borrowing money.”

Board members said they were proud that they could finance the construction project without having to raise taxes.

“Historically, this township has paid cash for everything. Well, you can’t do that anymore,” said Trustee Mike Flood, who has been adamant in his requests to see the township’s entire debt service laid out before he would vote on approving construction manager contract and issuing bonds.

“What we decide today, with this board moving forward (on the project), is that this is going to be a 20-year debt for other boards to deal with,” Flood said. “This is something we want. This is something we need. I’m not going to kick the can down the road.”

“Enough is enough. We’re either going to take action, or not. I think you know my stance on this,” Birney said.

Barnett was passionate about his support of the project and

“Thank you everybody. Thank you for your time and efforts to get to this point. This job is the craziest job I’ve had,” Barnett said. “This hit us in the face within a year of me being on the job, in 2013 and 2014. And not just the space, but the issues with the facility.

“I have never spent more time on any project in my life,” Barnett said. “And I have never been more confident that this will turn out like we said it will. I’ve also never been more confident that it’s absolutely needed.”

Barnett said he and township officials, after hearing from experts who inspected the building, were told it would be “foolish” to try to repair the current township hall instead of building a new facility.

Trustee Brian Birney supported the project and thanked Sam Ashley and architect Scott Reynolds of Auger Klein Aller for their time and commitment to the project.

“I just wish some of the opponents to this would spend less time on mindless chat rooms and watch these meetings or actually come here and participate and listen and hear what the experts have to say,” Birney said.