City Renews Sanitary Fill Site Search - New Move To Acquire Killins Pit Revealed; Opposition Forming

City Renews Sanitary Fill Site Search

New Move To Acquire Killins Pit Revealed; Opposition Forming

A Scio township resident announced this morning that he would attempt to block a new secret move by the city of Ann Arbor to locate a sanitary fill at the old Killins gravel pit on W. Liberty Rd.

Glenn E. Killins of 4001 W. Liberty Rd., a former president of the Killins Gravel Co., which owns the pit, said he would hire an attorney and fight the city’s attempts in court, if necessary.

Killins was one of the leaders of a group of Scio residents who waged a successful fight against the fill last June, when the present officers of the Killins firm offered the gravel pit to the city for $35,000.

Opposed By Petition

In a petition, they condemned use of the gravel pit site as a sanitary fill for garbage and refuse disposal on grounds that it "would cause foul and offensive odors, noise and dust, and would reduce property values.”

City officials said the Killins firm’s asking price was too high anyway, noted the opposition and backed out of the negotiations.

They later attempted to locate the fill on a Pittsfield township site, and then had to give that up when Pittsfield residents voiced similar loud protests.

During recent weeks, however, a group of City Council members headed by Ald. Lawrence H. Ouimet, chairman of the Council’s public works committee, has been quietly maneuvering to acquire the 30-acre Killins tract.

Sought Special Meeting

Ouimet intended to have Council President Cecil O. Creal call a special Council meeting for Monday night to authorize him to make I another offer to the Killins firm.

If the company refused to accept the city's price, Ouimet indicated that the city would seek to condemn the land and have the Scio Township Zoning Board rezone the I site so it could be used for a fill.

Yesterday, Killins learned of the 'maneuvers and started to organize opposition.

He promised today that he would [recirculate petitions against the fill, and also maintained that the Township Zoning Board would never rezone the land.

"Some of the board members are opposed to having the fill there and would have circulated petitions against it themselves last June,” he declared.