Air Force spending $3.8 million to knock down old housing units at former Wurtsmith base

The Bay City Times reports on new funding to demolish old housing units at the Wurtsmith base:

The U.S. Air Force will provide nearly $3.8 million to help demolish hundreds of vacant, dilapidated housing units at the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base in Iosco County. The demolition project has been on Oscoda Township's wish list for several years. "It's a problem that wasn't going to go away, and the price tag was much more than we could afford," said Gary Kellan, director of Oscoda's Office for Economic Development.

Kellan said it took federal legislation to make the Wurtsmith project eligible for Air Force funding. Kellan said Sen. Carl Levin was successful in adding the project to the 2005 Department of Defense appropriations bill. Kellan said the bulk of the new money is earmarked to demolish more than 350 high-density housing units in 68 buildings. No one has occupied the buildings since the Air Force's departure. The Air Force funding will also pay for some needed work on the base's water distribution system, he said.

The demolition project will likely begin later this year, Kellan said. It will include tearing down the vacant multiple-unit housing near the Villages of Oscoda, as well as some high-density row housing near the entrance to the old air base.

Wurtsmith had about 1,200 housing units when it operated as a military base. Since its closure, more than half of the homes have been renovated and sold or leased as a site condominium community.