Copyright M Live Michigan
GENESEE TWP., MI -- The state has found a replacement site for an air monitoring station that was taken out of service in Flint after someone broke into it and left with roughly $35,000 in equipment. The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy has received approval to locate the station on the property of Crossroads Village, a park operated by the Genesee County Parks & Recreation Commission in Genesee Township, according to Susan Kilmer, air monitoring section manager for EGLE’s Air Quality Division. “The location is very safe with 24-hour security on site,” Kilmer wrote in an email to MLive-The Flint Journal. “The next step is to get electrical service established, pour a concrete pad, and then move the shelter to the location. We hope to get the site established before the end of the year.” The state temporarily stopped collecting air quality data in Flint early this summer after the break-in and theft at the monitoring station in Whaley Park in Flint’s 3rd Ward, an area with a long history of air quality concerns. The Flint station was the only one of its kind in Genesee County and had been in operation since 1992. EGLE opted to look for a new, more secure location to measure air quality rather than resupply the Whaley Park site because of damage to a monitoring shelter and because of past vandalism and theft there, agency officials have said. In the most recent theft, an ozone analyzer, quality assurance calibrator, and other equipment were taken in the June 20 break-in at the city park, which is located on Franklin Avenue on the city’s northeast side. County Parks Director Patrick Linihan confirmed the partnership agreement with the state on Wednesday, Nov. 5. Linihan said the new station will be located on property that’s not typically used by the public. Dedicated in 1976, Crossroads was the county’s bicentennial project in 1976. It is a recreation of a rural village from the late 1800s, featuring buildings like the Clayton Town Hall and Davison Depot. The village is located on roughly 32 acres and includes the Huckleberry Railroad, a narrow-gauge rail line that’s still pulled around the park by restored, coal-fired locomotives built by Baldwin Locomotive Works. Air quality has been of concern to environmental watchdog groups in Flint for years, particularly in the 3rd Ward, which borders an industrial park that’s also located in Genesee Township.
