Future of city, DTCDC agreement unclear

By Dan DuChene
Jun. 17, 2009    ·    5:35 a.m.

Perhaps the news about the city’s agreement with the Depot Town Community Development Corporation is the lack of any conversation at Tuesday’s City Council meeting.

Though brought up by the group’s director, Erik Dotzauer, during audience participation, City Council spent little time discussing the future of the memorandum of understanding between the city and the DTCDC, which City Council had voted last month to terminate after 45 days.

At the meeting, Dotzauer reminded City Council that the DTCDC had agreed to drop the much debated term “Ypsitucky” for its roots music festival slated for September. He said the festival will continue with a different name, and that the group was interested in continuing the agreement.

“I do not know if the council has any intention of reconsidering (the termination),” Dotzauer said. “I’m not sure where it goes from here, but I’d be happy to have any conversation with anybody.”

If the memorandum of understanding is terminated, then the city will take over maintaining Riverside and Frog island parks, and the Ypsilanti Area Jaycees will take over event scheduling. Both of these responsibilities were taken over by the DTCDC when it reached its agreement with the city.

City Council had approved shifting $22,000 from the City Clerk’s Office to the Department of Public Services to maintain both the parks. The money was originally allocated to purchase a new microphone system for Council Chambers. The move is part of the budget for the 2009-2010 year that was passed by City Council Tuesday.

Councilmember Bill Nickels, D-Ward 2, brought the subject up again toward the end of the meeting, during council-proposed business. He pointed out that per a conversation with City Manager Ed Koryzno, city staff would need to know as soon as possible if they were to take over maintaining the parks.

After Nickels’ remarks, a moment passed where nothing was said by any council members as they all looked at each other. Mayor Paul Schreiber then moved on to the next item of business.

“Things changed,” Nickels said after the meeting.

He said he had come out of last month’s City Council meeting fully expecting to rescind the decision to terminate the agreement with the DTCDC if they agreed to change the name. However, he said he and other councilmembers had gotten word from event organizers, including the Heritage Festival and the Depot Town Cruise Nights, that the group was difficult to work with.

He said this was in addition to issues brought up at the previous meeting regarding the DTCDC’s reluctance to communicate with City Council, regarding an annual report and grant applications.

Nickels pointed out one instance where a community band was scheduled to play Riverside the same night Depot Town had its weekly cruise night scheduled on two separate occasions this month. He said this will create a two-fold problem in that Cross Street is closed for the cruise nights, blocking access to the park from that road. Additionally, the festivities in the park would likely conflict with those going on in Depot Town.

“There’s no certainty at all,” Nickels said after the meeting. “Nothing was discussed tonight.”

Related stroy:
Council considers terminating Depot Town CDC agreement