DEQ to clean up contamination below Cox’s

By Lisa Enos

MCP Correspondent

SCOTTVILLE — The Department of Environmental Quality has been looking at some petroleum tanks under Cox’s Sales and Service, located at 142 S. Main, and has found that there is still some contamination.  “They have been testing the ground yearly and are still getting residual amounts of petroleum,” Scottville City Manager Amy Williams said.

The contamination was discovered when an old underground tank was removed from the site during the 1996 street reconstruction. Many years ago the building was a car dealership.

The DEQ receives funding from gas tax, and the site is eligible for free cleanup by the DEQ. Williams said she also suggested to the DEQ that they it do the same type of clean up at the east corner of State and Reinberg.

“I recommend we give the DEQ permission and I’m very thankful that they’re going to do these cleanup efforts,” she said. The city commission voted in favor of that motion during its regular meeting Monday.

In other business, the board learned Scottville Main Street is moving its office to Scottville City Hall and Tom Hooper will fill the vacancy on the planning commission.

Crime was about the same level as last year according to Police Chief Barnett, with 129 incidents in the month of February, 30 percent of which were police initiated. Barnett also talked about the issue of truancy and a relatively new problem of “sexting” or sending sexually explicit material via text and other digital devices. He said that a task force has been formed with Prosecutor Paul Spaniola to address the problem as it is prevalent with young people and the only laws on the book are those set up to punish commercial pornographers.

“Some has been connected to criminal sexual conduct investigations. One of these cases in the Mason County Central School District,” Barnett said.