For Saginaw’s economic future, the top two news stories of 2023 reflect a wide contrast.
An immediate item that will dominate the first half of 2024 is that the Saginaw Spirit franchise is hosting the Memorial Cup, Canada’s junior hockey championship tournament, drawing an estimated 17,000 visitors from May 24 to June 2.
Onward five years to 2029. If pieces fall into place, the $100 million Medical Diamond multi-purpose facility will open its doors with 1,000 jobs at the old farmer’s market site on South Warren at Millard. The cutting-edge edifice would be across the river from the new Saginaw United High School, combining Saginaw High and Arthur Hill, which has made some economic news of its own with skyrocketing costs.
Also at the top of the story list is the City Council’s decision to seek voter renewal of 7.5 mills at the earliest possible five-year cycle date of Tuesday, Feb. 27. Past efforts have been successful, but local leaders are allowing a time cushion to try again, if needed..
A reason the public has learned more about 10 days of hockey, compared with future decades in health care, is that civic and business leaders have pushed the Memorial Cup while keeping the Medical Diamond under comparative wraps. They wanted drum up support for the Canadian link, at the same time as they remained low-key while seeking Med-Di official approval from a prime tenant, the Central Michigan University College of Medicine, which finally arrived after Thanksgiving.
The Medical Diamond term is coined by Dr. Samuel Shaheen, whose family for nearly 30 years has led efforts for health care to become the No. 1 local employer and a main piece in coping with Rust Belt abandonment. Diamond tips on a map are downtown on top, St. Mary’s and Covenant at the sides, Old Town and central parks at the bottom.
An early emphasis in obtaining $5 million in federal ARPA funds from both the City Council and the County Board was discussion of a “behavioral health” facility, in line with growing awareness of mental health concerns. This section, about one-sixth of the total plan, could open sooner, possibly two years ahead of 2029. Other priorities hopefully will become more clear in 2024, now that CMU’s partnership is on the record, no longer subject to the secrecy of labor-type negotiations.
Since then, the state has granted $30.3 million and the feds $3.3 million, with supporters to seek more during the 12 months to come.
The puck stops here
There is nothing new about trying to capitalize on hospital main campuses inside the city limits, a concept that expanded with the auto plant shutdowns of the 1980s.
In contrast, it wasn’t until 2023 that a one-time ice hockey event was announced that will transform downtown Saginaw into a Frankenmuth-type tourist location, if only for a few late-spring days when the only ice will be inside The Dow Event Center.
Promoters from Saginaw Future and the Chamber of Commerce estimate thousands of Canadian visitors will spend $25 million in the region. Much will occur in suburban hotels and activity sites, of course, with officials making special efforts for city-based small enterprises to reap their share.
While Memorial Cup news may seem to have come suddenly from the Saginaw Spirit, seeds were planted at the millennium’s turn, when co-owners Dick Garber and Craig Goslin created a new team to replace the old Saginaw Gears and failed franchises that followed, one named Lumber Kings. The founding of the Spirit took place in sync with countywide voters approving one of the now-abundant small fraction millages — with aging, parks, public health, sheriff’s, mosquitos, etc. — to bail out the Civic Center from City Hall’s outbreak of budget cuts.
The Spirit since then have survived the financial crisis of 2008 and now the covid pandemic, and as an anchor tenant they have played a leading role in preserving the 52-year-old facility. They exercised this stability in winning the competition to be a site for the tournament, which Goslin described as similar to the Super Bowl up in the provinces.
How did we become the site for a Canadian tournament? In addition to the foresight of local planners, the 60 junior teams include five south of the border — Saginaw, Flint and a trio in the Pacific Northwest — and sometimes our northern neighbors opt to make their big event international.
Memorial Cup planners have relied mostly on federal and state grants, along with private support, to create what they describe as a “campus type” of infrastructure outside The Dow, in some aspects sort of like a football tailgate. Vendor trucks will fill Jolt Park, for example, and a giant screen will show televised action from inside Wendler Arena.
To reflect how the impact is short-term, small business loans up to $5,000 are available for entrepreneurs in need of extra supplies and temporary employees.
For Saginawians who assert that they aren’t hockey fans and question why such a big welcome mat should be furnished, planners respond that the improvement work, from downtown all the way to Hoyt Park, will endure for years after the Memorial Cup becomes a mere memory.
City schools plan on track
Saginaw’s hockey hosts will encourage tourists to visit local attractions during the non-game hours. Families who head for the Mid-Michigan Children’s Museum, in the former car dealership donated by Garber Buick, will pass by the five-story Saginaw United structure along the river.
Work is on schedule, even ahead, mainly because a 2023 opening, targeted in the 2020 millage campaign, was delayed early on, after covid hit full force.
It turns out the extra 12 months never was any sort of big concern, compared to the total project cost for Saginaw United and other projects, including the new SASA behind Arthur Hill, blowing up beyond $140 million. The bond issue is for $100 million.
Superintendent Ramont Robert’s team and the school board are using federal covid relief funds to cover the overruns, caused mainly by runaway inflation for construction projects and by supplier delays. These are monies, similar to ARPA for the city and the county, that could have gone instead to classroom activities, or for teacher recruitment and pay.
On the city’s side, a minimum $1.7 million from the record-setting American Rescue Plan Act remains unspent, with the topic to be renewed at a Council planning session at 9 a.m. Friday, Jan. 12, at City Hall. That will be six weeks ahead of the public safety vote, for which city leaders have adopted a low key approach, so as not to roust up any organized opponents. The 7.5 mills is slightly more than for the new schools.
Other top stories
Also on ARPA, the sight of air conditioners sticking out of City Hall windows should become a part of the past. Funds are devoted to sprucing up the 88-year-old structure, removing talk from the Darnell Earley era of needing a new building, at least for the near future. Hoyt Park and Ojibway Island also are in line for major upkeep. Look for 2024 emphasis on co-op type new efforts to finally address food desert/access concerns.
Congressman Dan Kildee is stepping down at age 65, a development that was not made public until November. He explained that an encounter with cancer early this year, although eradicated, influenced his decision. Thus the seat becomes up for grabs along with the U.S. Senate vacancy to replace Debbie Stabenow.
Saginaw’s summer began with an impromptu large street party at Fourth and Johnson that got out of hand, resulting in two deaths and soul-searching on how to bring such tragedies to an end. Remaining weeks were comparatively quiet. Gospel Fest, the African Cultural Festival and Unity in the Community Kickball served as redemptive August successes. An ARPA-funded one-time employment program reached nearly 100 teens and young adults, a new effort but on a far smaller scale than before regular monies were cut more than 20 years ago.
Saginaw Township voters rejected a $242 million school millage with only 23 percent in favor, and the district heads into the new year with a new superintendent, Jamie Kraatz, who could not have a more clear priority than addressing the issue. The school board stayed in-house in selecting Kraatz, who steps up from her role as director of curriculum and instruction.
Meanwhile, the County Board looked outside in hiring Mary Catherine Hannah, from Alpena, as the new administrator, following the controversial dismissal of Robert Belleman.
In Buena Vista, 2023 began with a fire that gutted the in-aptly named Welcome Inn, an eyesore made even more painful because it’s next door to the township hall on Outer Drive. Federal cleanup funds already were available, but work has not commenced during the 12 months. Township Superintendent Torrie Lee holds County Clerk Tim Novak accountable, while Novak and Kildee’s aides cite holdups in the federal bureaucracy.
“Roundabout” intersections that began in BV, mainly with I-75 at Holland, could extend into city locations at Warren and Holland or at Sheridan and Rust, or out into Saginaw Township at State and Center.
Murals and smaller art displays increased their presence in the local landscape, starting with a Spirit hockey player along the Johnson Street side of the downtown parking ramp. Others are beneath the I-675 overpass near The Dow, along Franklin Street north of Genesee, within Morley School Park, and on utility power boxes across town.
Meanwhile, Kevin Jones is finding art in families’ mementos, some from storage in attics and basements. He began in 2023 opening AMusBE, A Museum of Black Experiences, in an historic former residence at 1243 South Jefferson. Kevin invested personal funds to obtain the property and seeks support in 2024 to get things up-and-running on a regular timetable. Beyond volunteering, if anyone possesses family artifacts that reflect black history, from figurines and flags to paintings and photos, he is interested in adding display items to his collection of thousands.
In local sports, Saginaw High’s boys basketball team made it to the state semifinals last March in the Trojans’ next-to-last season. A closing showdown with Arthur Hill will take place Feb. 16 at The Dow in a reunion-type setting. Ticketmaster already is declaring a sellout.
Finally, Saginaw Daily launched Feb. 1. To review the stories highlighted in this summary, along with many more, readers are invited to spend time in the SD archives.
