By Sara L. Smith
VIEW Staff Writer

GRAND BLANC TWP. — Now it’s a case of wait and see.

That’s what David Lattie, attorney for Grand Blanc Township, says regarding two court cases he filed on the municipality’s behalf now that both are awaiting a judge’s ruling on certain motions.

Lattie is awaiting a written opinion from Genesee County Circuit Court judge Geoffrey Neithercut in the case of ongoing litigation involving the township, Grand Blanc Community Schools and the Genesee County Drain Commissioner’s office over tap fees assessed to the schools for the building of two new middle schools in 2005, now that Neithercut cancelled a hearing, scheduled for Monday morning, on the case just a few days prior. Argentine Township and Linden Community Schools also are parties in the case because the Linden school district built a new middle school located in Argentine Townshhip, requiring tap-in fees from the county, as well.

Neithercut was expected to rule on the schools’ motion to set aside his previous decision to dismiss the case entirely after the district refused to adequately participate in a Genesee County Board of Review process established to look at tap-in fees for water and sewer assigned to the school district by the county drain commissioner’s office.

The school district claims it was over-charged for tap-in fees, after being assessed $1.1 million by Grand Blanc Township and approximately $600,000 by the drain commissioner’s office. The township has maintained that it would be more than willing to reimburse the schools for any over-charges in tap-in fees if they would participate in the Board of Review process and wait for township officials to ascertain the precise amount, should there be an overcharge, since new data loggers measuring exact consumption were placed on the outside of the two middle schools.

Township officials have indicated that a reimbursement is likely, since it appears that the schools actually consumed about one-third of the estimated usage that was charged to them.

“It remains to be seen just what exactly this means,” said Lattie. “There’s no indication either way from the judge’s lack of hearing oral arguments on the case what it could mean.”

Lattie said that his office received an official notification from the court last Friday regarding the judge’s position to instead submit a written decision on the case. He mentioned that he was surprised by the decision and said that attorneys for each of the parties in question, with the exception of Argentine Township, were in court on Monday ready to argue the case anyway.

“I’m anxious to see what the judge determines to do,” Lattie said. “It’s now a wait and see situation for us.”
A date for the judge’s written opinion to be released hasn’t been indicated, Lattie says.

“He (Judge Neithercut) has the ability to do this under court rule,” he said. “It was sort of unexpected by everyone in this case. Ongoing discussions are going to continue between the township and Grand Blanc schools- obviously, we are still going to move forward with any efforts to resolve the case.”

Meanwhile, the township is awaiting a decision by Neithercut in another case — this one involving litigation filed by Latie on the township’s behalf against Woodland Park Academy regarding the school’s former location on Saginaw St.
The Academy, also known as a charter school and therefore considered a public school under state law, relocated its operations to a new facility on Grand Blanc Rd., abandoning the old site more than 18 months ago.

Since that time, no instruction or any other academic-related activities have occurred at the site, says Lattie. Since this is the case, Lattie filed a motion asking that the structure no longer be considered a school and therefore, be deemed a public building required to comply with the township’s building code and local zoning ordinances.

The township can’t enforce the state’s building code or local zoning ordinances on a public school.
“Our position is we consider this to not be a public school at this time and we want it to comply with our building and zoning ordinances,” said Lattie. “The school took the position that the property is still a school even though they aren’t using it right now, but that they might want to in the future.”

Attorneys for the school filed a motion to dismiss the township’s complaint about three weeks ago, saying that the site may be used to house intramural programs or teacher in service conferences in the future, even though no classes or instruction may be taught there ever again, Lattie indicated.

A hearing on the motion is expected just after Labor Day.

“My hope is the judge doesn’t grant their motion,” he said.

The property, currently up for sale, is housed in a residential area adjacent to a condominium community, which has complained about the school various different times, arguing that the building is not in compliance with the building code, indicated Lattie. There are at least two “makeshift” modular classrooms on the property, which are not deemed to be in compliance with the building code.

“The condominium development has indicated it would like to get rid of the modular school units at the site and we (Grand Blanc Township) would like to get rid of them, too,” he said.

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