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Sunday, July 5, 2015

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK: Bay City Code Enforcement Officer Refers To Grant Street As A "War Zone", While Bay City Times Calls Convicted Felon Steven Ingersoll, Owner Of 616 N. Grant, An "Entrepreneur"; State Of Michigan Picks Up The Tab To Tear Down Ingersoll's Mess. (What's Wrong With This Picture?)

616 N.Grant Street; photo by Miss Fortune
On January 10, 2014, an unoccupied home at 616 N. Grant Street in Bay City burned in a suspicious fire.
Less than two weeks later, its owner Steven Ingersoll opened his gaping pie hole to the Bay City Times, insisting the fire was “clearly set by someone.” 





Ingersoll continued, saying his insurance adjuster told him the blaze at the home “wasn’t a spontaneous fire.” 

Nearly 17 months after the fire (take your pick on the cause: oily rags, smoldering Cuban cigar butt...or some combination of the two), Michigan taxpayers will likely be picking up the tab to tear down the blighted, decrepit hulk. 

The Bay City Times reports today that Ingersoll's structure is one 18 “penciled in” for demolition in Bay City under the Michigan State Housing Development Authority's Blight Elimination Program. 

Bay City was awarded a $250,000 MSHDA grant to eliminate 18 structures within a 1-mile radius of the Uptown Bay City development (or “Uppity Town”, as it's known by locals clearly unimpressed with Shaheen Development's $445,000 penthouse condos).

The Bay City Times, oddly describing Ingersoll as a “Bay City entrepreneur” (one who was convicted in March on three counts of federal tax fraud), reported that Debbie Kiesel, Bay City's grant and neighborhood services coordinator, received permission from Ingersoll on July 2 to knock down his property. 

Must have been a short phone call!









 

3 comments:

  1. "Loot-a-thon" is a perfect phrase to describer the Ingersolls' actions.

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  2. Does he retain ownership of the property? If it gets sold to pay his debts - is the grant being used to clean up his mess? Rural development and Michigan grants sounds like the tax payers are and have been Ingersoll financial backing for decades. All property cleared needs to become city owned to sell to put back on the tax rolls. Why did the insurance not pay to tear it down? Did that money go to the special bank account?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Good points. Maybe Ingersoll kept the insurance money and is using it for something else. Maybe an off-shore bank account for his wife, or for when he gets out of federal prison?

    ReplyDelete