Members of the Romulus City Council agreed to extend the lease on a city-owned building occupied by a local business but cautioned that they would not be in favor of granting any further extensions.
Mayor Robert McCraight presented the lease extension for Big Steve's Design to council during the Aug. 8 meeting. Councilwoman Celeste Roscoe asked about billing for utilities at the location, saying she was unsure if the lease included those costs.
Merrie Druyor from the Downtown Development Authority, explained that the utilities at the location were initially billed to the city and then billed to the renter of the space. She said that the renter was current on all the utility payments.
Councilman William Wadsworth said that while he was willing to vote to approve the lease, he was concerned that it was only for six months and had already been extended twice.
“I can see that with COVID, he couldn't open the coffee shop. That gives me grounds to vote in favor of this. But this is the third amendment,” he said. “If this comes before me again, I won't be in favor of it.”
Wadsworth expressed his concern that the extensions could set a precedent with other city businesses who might also be facing difficulties to come to the city for relief.
McCraight said the first extension was, in fact, due to the impact of COVID in the business community. The second extension, he said, was a supply-chain issue, also the result of the pandemic effect across the country. He said the initial lease and the extensions were an effort of the city to help promote local businesses.
“We need to be creative and think out of the box. We didn't want to subsidize the business, but we do want to help, he said. “We need to continue to watch but some of these things were just outside anyone's control.”
