CASSOPOLIS — Returning to the topic which dominated the May 19 meeting, Cass County Board of Commissioners Thursday night approved plans for the maintenance building at Lawless Park so it can be constructed.

Commissioner Johnie Rodebush, D-Howard Township, offered motion 75 of 2011 for the pole barn.

At the June 3, 2010, meeting, commissioners passed motion 85 15-0 “to authorize the Parks and Recreation Commission to proceed in obtaining construction plans and building of a new maintenance building upon Board of Commissioners approval of final plans. The project will not exceed $150,000 and the money will be appropriated from the Public Improvement Fund.”

The packet also included the May 17, 2010, letter from Parks Director Scott Wyman and Cass County Parks and Recreation Chairperson Judy Olson to interim Administrator Charles Clarke requesting $150,000 for the structure at Lawless Park, southeast of Vandalia, which has “blossomed from a county park supported by local visitation into a regional park with regional appeal because of the many recreational opportunities” available at the county’s largest park.

“Identifying the tremendous potential of Lawless Park,” Wyman and Olson wrote, “the Cass County Parks and Recreation Commission had a professional master plan completed in 2009 by landscape architects O’Boyle, Cowell, Blalock and Associates of Kalamazoo. It has been determined from this master plan that a new maintenance facility be given top priority for completion due to the following factors: 1.) The current storage garage is more than 30 years old and has deteriorated to the point where it is dangerously inadequate for any type of use, let alone storage of valuable park equipment; 2.) the current size, 820 acres, and growth, along with future growth potential of Lawless Park warrants proper support  facilities; 3.) to improve job efficiency, an indoor maintenance facility is needed during inclement weather, which in turn eliminated the need for “hauling Lawless projects into Cassopolis to our main facility” at the Road Commission; and 4.) a new maintenance facility will allow us to store valuable parks equipment that is currently outside in the elements.

County Administrator Charles Cleaver told Commissioner Robert Ziliak, R-Milton Township, “The motion approved a year ago called for the Board of Commissioners to approve the final plans. These are the final plans. You have never voted yet on these plans, which the Building Authority has given us their blessing.” Cleaver said the $150,000 includes architect fees.

The Building Authority’s review modified the plans, Chairwoman Minnie Warren, D-Pokagon Township, added.

“The storage area was on the main floor in the front of the building. That’s been taken out,” explained Commissioner Carl Higley Sr., R-Ontwa Township. “Above that large front meeting area will be the storage.”

“I know we’ve been on this a long time,” Rodebush said, “and we’ve been very unprofessional, and I have, too. I realized later that should have gone to the Building Authority immediately. I don’t always agree with Jerry Hart, but I trust him. And our new county administrator, he told us when we interviewed him that he would try to save money, which I admire. I’d like to think we could have a nature center built in a few years, but I don’t look forward to it being while I’m still on this side of the grass. I don’t think with the $200,000, we’ve got enough money to build a nature center right away. If you want to go for it, I’m not going to scream and yell and pace the floor. I’d like to see a roof over it before the snow flies and I think it could happen with a smaller building than the original here.”

Hart, former Planning Commission chairman as well as a member of the Building Authority, explained that since the 1980s, “You appropriate us the money, we come back to you with the plan, you basically approve the plan, then give it back to us and we oversee the building of it. If we have any sizable changes, our chair, or a representative from our group, comes back to you with, ‘Here’s something else we need to do.’ Or, if we’re going to reduce something or make a cost savings, we inform you when we’re in the process of building. But we saw it all the way through to the end, then turn it loose. We’re at the call of the chair to come back as soon as we’ve got plans.”

The architect is also working on the Animal Control shelter addition.

A nature center could be constructed with a $212,000 bequest left nine years ago by former commissioner Charles Bombardie, plus grant funding yet to be secured.

Bombardie, 93, a two-term commissioner from 1969-1973, died July 18, 2001.

Debate May 19 centered around whether Wyman and commissioners were “blindsided” by a cost compromise for a $60,000 structure.

Vice Chairman Ed Goodman, R-Silver Creek Township, commented, “To be fair to Minnie and Charlie, they’re not looking to circumvent anybody’s authority, they’re trying to save the county some money.”

Wyman led off the meeting with an apology to Cleaver.

“I would like to clarify the following,” the parks director said. “At no time did I ever intend to give the indication that the answers given to the Board of Commissioners by Administrator Cleaver and myself to be anything but informative and forthcoming. If my answers were deemed by some to be anything but that, I sincerely apologize to the Board of Commissioners, all those affected and especially Administrator Cleaver, because that certainly was not my intent.

“Furthermore, from the very first day I met Administrator Cleaver, I have found him to be very personable, someone who’s not afraid to sit down and visit. All of the meetings I’ve had with him have been productive and beneficial. He has shared his viewpoints on the parks with me in an open and honest fashion. I sincerely look forward to working with him as we strive together to provide the best parks experience for the citizens of Cass County and all who visit us.”

In other June 2 business, Commissioner Dale Lowe, R-Howard Township, urged the county to investigate cell phone expenses after calculating $360 in the bundle of bills before the board.

“If that’s average, that’s $86,400 over 10 years,” Lowe said. “Everybody’s on a kick to save money so I think we should look at cell phones. They’re getting out of hand. It doesn’t sound like much, $40 or $50 each time per person, but what’s wrong with using a land line when you can? It could well be that a lot of this could wait until they get back to the office.”