0045-2325
INSIDE/3A NORTH MACOMB COUNTY FOOTBALL PREVIEW
AUGUST 24, 2023 • Vol. 35, No. 18
Historic Macomb County Building still in use 10 years after fire BY DEAN VAGLIA
dvaglia@candgnews.com
Photo by Dean Vaglia
The Macomb Township Board of Trustees met on Aug. 9, amending the township’s trash ordinance and approving contracts.
Trustees amend garbage ordinance, approve contracts
MACOMB TOWNSHIP — It was a short session for the Macomb Township Board of Trustees on Aug. 9, with the board mostly focusing on housekeeping items and formalities. One such item was the approval of amendments to the township’s garbage collection ordinance.
“In the renegotiation and bidding process of awarding a new waste hauler, the selection committee had identified a number of areas in which our ordinance was inconsistent with the requested services and the terms of those services so our ordinance had to be amended to account for the new contract that is being negotiated,” Macomb Township Supervisor Frank Viviani said. “Once this ordinance is approved, counsel and I will finish negoSee TRUSTEES on page 2A
See BUILDING on page 4A
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0160-2332
BY DEAN VAGLIA
dvaglia@candgnews.com
MACOMB COUNTY — After 90 years and a fire, it seems nothing can topple the old Macomb County Building. Overlooking the Clinton River, the building is a centerpiece of the Mount Clemens skyline. The art deco architecture sets it apart from its neighbors in the stone courthouse and glass-sided county administration building, but the faces along the roof speak little of the old building’s turbulent creation or its long-standing role in Macomb County’s legal system. Opened on June 5, 1933, the County Building has its origins in the county’s need for a new courthouse a decade prior. Built by St. Clair Shores architect George Haas for $700,000 as a replacement for the county courthouse, its creation was not without controversy. The county ran out of money during the project — which was already $155,000 over its budgeted cost of $545,000 — causing county employees to go weeks without pay while the county “existed on loans and began issuing script to employees and vendors,” according to a history of the building by historian Cynthia Donahue. During construction, the building went 18 months without a roof and only the lowest four floors were completed when it opened. The rest of the interior was finished on a “room by room” basis. From opening day, the building housed Macomb County’s court until the current courthouse was finished in 1972. County administrative functions took place in the County Building until the Administration Building was opened in 1998. By the 2010s, the old County Building housed support services for the court as well as the finance, human resources, facilities, and IT departments, including storage for the county’s servers in the basement. This arrangement held until April 17, 2013,