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July 8, 2004Council wants Tondu to pay for plant reviewByRecord-Eagle staff writer MANISTEE - City officials say they spent more than $100,000 reviewing the Manistee Saltworks/Tondu Corp. proposal to build a coal-burning power plant on the shores of Manistee Lake. And the city council wants the corporation to keep an earlier commitment to pay the bill and voted 6-1 this week to find a legal way to make the developer do it. "Taxpayers incurred this cost and we're simply asking Tondu to pay what we believe is an appropriate and justifiable invoice," said city manager Mitch Deisch. Alan Marshall was the lone council member to vote against the move. Tondu had asked city officials for a bill of review costs once city planners made a decision, Deisch said. But invoices sent after the April vote to strike down plans for the $700 million, 425-megawatt Northern Lights plant have not been paid. Deisch said the city spent $111,581 in the lengthy review process. Charges include planning, engineering and legal services, studies of the plant's wastewater discharge and emissions, as well as overtime wages for one city employee. Tondu responded to the city's requests in a June 29 letter from Rodger Kershner, an attorney with the Howard and Howard law firm in Bloomfield Hills. Kershner did not respond to a reporter's message Wednesday but said in the letter to Manistee officials that the invoice conveyed "little or no information about what work was performed, why it was done and whether that work is the type for which the city can legitimately claim payment." Deisch said the city sent a very detailed invoice to Tondu on June 1.
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