[CPEO-MEF] Business leaders take tour of duty at Wurtsmith base

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Business leaders take tour of duty at Wurtsmith base
Development Commission still searching for new director, future 
investors
Friday, July 12, 2002
By Tony Francetic
TIMES WRITER

OSCODA - Are you in the market for a 90,000-square-foot "Super Dorm"? 
How about a mess hall bigger than a restaurant?

If you are, the Wurtsmith Development Commission wants to find you. The 
key issue those officials are dealing with now is finding out how.

The Air Force closed the 5,000-acre base in 1993, and since then local 
leaders have searched for private business and public agencies to fill 
the void. They've met with mixed success.

Gary Kellen, assistant Oscoda Township supervisor, said a marketing 
strategy for selling buildings on the base is temporarily on hold.

"We have an office of economic development. But, our former director 
(Carl Sachs) who was with us for nine years took a job in Virginia, so 
we are in between directors.

"We're recruiting, and once we get a director, it'll be up to that 
person to develop a marketing strategy," he said.

Development commission members toured the base Thursday to get a better 
idea of the status of the vacant buildings and know what buildings are 
available for the market.

Bob Stalker, chairman of the Wurtsmith Development Commission, said 
other avenues of selling the buildings include posting on the Internet, 
through direct showing of the buildings and listing properties with 
real-estate agents.

"Every avenue we've attempted to pursue and will continue to pursue," he 
said. "The problem is, there was a lot of publicity when the base closed 
and that has diminished. We need to recharge that interest." 

This article can be viewed in its entirety at:
http://www.mlive.com/news/bctimes/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/html_standard.xsl?/base/news-0/1026486917205460.xml

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