First Aired March 4, 2023
*Note: The Michigan Legislature approved a $1.3B spending bill, including $630M for the BlueOval Battery Park at the Marshall Megasite. Read more here.
Jim Durian, CEO with Choose Marshall – also known as MAEDA, the Marshall Area Economic Development Alliance – tells Community Matters all land parcels needed for the Ford BlueOval Michigan Battery Plant have been purchased.
Durian discusses this and the overall MAEDA perspective on the plant, announced by Ford Motor Company, state and local officials on February 13, 2023.
Episode Resources
Marshall, Michigan website
Marshall Township, Michigan website
Ford Motor Company press release about BlueOval Battery Park Michigan
Choose Marshall-MAEDA website
CATL website
PA 425 Conditional Land Use Transfer Explained
Other battery plant and Community Matters episodes
ABOUT COMMUNITY MATTERS
Former WBCK Morning Show host Richard Piet (2014-2017) returns to host Community Matters, an interview program focused on community leaders and newsmakers in and around Battle Creek. Community Matters is heard Saturdays, 8-8:30 AM Eastern on WBCK-FM (95.3) and anytime at battlecreekpodcast.com.
Community Matters is sponsored by Lakeview Ford Lincoln.
Battlecreekpodcast.com and The Richard Piet Show are Livemic Communications podcasts. Livemic Communications helps businesses, organizations and entrepreneurs create customized, purposeful podcast content.
This interview is so much crap with Jim Durian. It’s fun?! People are loosing their community which they came here for. What about the surrounding areas like Ceresco and even the marshall township area called Squaw creek. There are 100 homes there and there’s no one over here offering any money for the loss of value they’re going to have on their homes. What about the air pollution? This is going to cause what about our watershed? What about the Kalamazoo river? How about a big one? How about the fact that this is working with the communist China business CATL and the fact that this site is 12 miles from a sensitive mission air, National Guard base and our federal center in Battle Creek. This guy was hired in 2020 and he doesn’t even live in Marshall. It doesn’t matter to him. This is all a business deal. This is all about greed. This is not a green deal. This is a greedy deal
Jim Durian did not tell you the truth. He did not tell you about how our government officials have signed non-disclosure agreements and refuse to talk to citizens. There have been multiple meetings with both Marshall City and Marshall Township officials where large crowds of citizens have been asking important questions and have not been able to get any answers. The majority of people in Marshall City and Township are NOT HAPPY. We do not support the Megasite.
We have a number of serious concerns:
Environmentally, this is a terrible idea. Our groundwater and air will be polluted. Several protected species are being harmed.
Economically, this is a terrible idea. Marshall and Marshall township already have plenty of businesses for the number of citizens. We love our small town and take pride in being a small town. The taxes all the people of Michigan would pay for Ford and the fact that Ford will not even have to pay taxes is absurd.
Most concerning of all is the national security threat of welcoming Communist China so close to our Military Base in Battle Creek.
Please contact me if you are willing to interview a citizen or group of citizens to get our side of the story.
Thank you,
Lynn Sleight