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  • Traverse Bay Christian Elementary School and the Grand Traverse County Road Commission are in dispute over compensation for a 20-foot right of way at the front of the school property. Record-Eagle/Jan-Michael Stump

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July 1, 2010

School is hurdle for Hammond-Keystone

BY BRIAN McGILLIVARY bmcgillivary@record-eagle.com

TRAVERSE CITY — A private Christian school led by the Grand Traverse County Road Commission's former manager is the last holdout in the county's efforts to purchase property for a Hammond Road to Keystone Road connection project.

Traverse Bay Christian School initially wanted $672,000 so it could push its school back about 20 feet, the width of property sought by the road commission to raise and widen Keystone Road.

Negotiations began more than a year ago. The school — led by ex-commission manager Michael Dillenbeck — now wants $79,000, and wants taxpayers to pave its gravel, overflow 30-space parking lot.

The road commission offered $38,000, or $17,000 more than its appraiser recommended.

"A lot of people will settle after they get the first appraisal. This one is a little more complicated, I guess," said road commission Chairman Jim Maitland. "Mr. Dillenbeck has handled these in the past ... and is well aware of the process. He's just doing his best for the school."

Dillenbeck is on vacation and did not return messages left on his cell phone. The school's attorney, Eric Phelps, declined comment.

The school granted a right of access to its property that allowed the project to proceed. In exchange, the road commission built a new driveway, created a 34-space paved parking lot, and gave the school an adjacent half-acre lot to the north that the road commission's appraiser valued at $10,000.

School Principal Jason Harding said the road commission had to fix areas it worked up, and he's waiting for crews to complete detail work.

The school opened in 1991 and houses about 50 students in kindergarten through sixth grade. Its 18-acre parcel is just south of the newly raised Keystone and Hammond roads intersection.

The new road bed sits about 20 feet higher, leaving the school with a view of a retaining wall.

"It surely has changed how things look and how things can be used at our school," Harding said. "We're a school that always wants to grow and get better at what we do, and it has created a lot more work for us to process all of these changes. Being inside a construction zone for a year also hasn't helped."

The road commission will fulfill its responsibilities under a right-of-access agreement, Manager Mary Gillis said. But the commission won't reopen the agreement to add new items such as paving the gravel parking lot.

Both sides said they want the issue resolved this summer, but it may end up in court if they can't settle the cash dispute.

"Traverse Bay Christian Schools does not desire litigation, but will not shrink from it ...," Phelps wrote in a June 23 letter to the road commission.

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