Blasius Inc. looks to purchase former Dykhouse property
By Tom Gilchrist
Staff Writer
TUSCOLA TWP. — The township Planning Commission here has recommended rezoning the former Dykhouse Pickle Co. plant — which Blasius Inc. hopes to buy to expand its countertop-production plant in a move expected to create 40 jobs locally in five years.
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The Planning Commission on Wednesday night voted to recommend that the township Board of Trustees rezone the 167-acre Dyhouse property — on Ormes Road west of South Vassar Road — from an agricultural to an industrial status.
Blasius Inc., with about 102 employees including about 90 based at its plant and office in the town of Tuscola, is a wholesale fabricator of quartz and granite countertops, including those marketed under the Cambria brand.
Mike Damm, one of four owners of Blasius Inc., told the Advertiser that business is growing, and said Blasius expects to add about 40 jobs in five years in Tuscola if Blasius Inc. is able to buy the Dykhouse property and relocate its countertop-production plant there.
Blasius Inc. owners include Val Blasius and his son, Jon, and Val’s two son-in-laws, Dave Bogert and Mike Damm.
Blasius wants to remodel its site in Tuscola and use its current production plant for its corporate offices, according to Damm. A 30,000-square-foot building at the Dykhouse parcel is three times the size of the 10,000-square-foot production plant Blasius uses in Tuscola, Damm said. The Dykhouse land also features a 7,500-square-foot building Blasius could use to store materials, he said.
The township Board of Trustees meets next on Sept. 16. Several audience members at Wednesday’s Planning Commission public hearing spoke in favor of rezoning the land.
Lou Ann Haubenstricker, who lives along VanCleve Road next to the Blasius complex in Tuscola, told the Planning Commission that Blasius Inc. has been “a really good neighbor.”
“I just want to say that everything they’ve done down there has improved this town so much,” Haubenstricker said. “It seems like they’ve come in and improved the property so much, that people around them are improving their properties. It’s kind of like a snowball effect.”
Richard Wiacek, who lives along Swaffer Road and whose property abuts the Dykhouse parcel, told the Planning Commission he favors rezoning.
“Who knows, in the future, what’s going to happen to that (former pickle plant)?” Wiacek said. “If you didn’t (rezone it), we would not like to see it grow up into shrubs and stuff like that. It’s going to be a while before anybody’s going to be able to farm it because of the salt water on it.”
The township’s master plan notes the Dykhouse property is served by an “all-weather road” able “to be used all year by heavy vehicles.”
“The fact that it has a Class A road to it is part of the reason why it would be beneficial to us, because (the Blasius complex in Tuscola) does not have Class A roads by it, and that is a problem for us from time to time,” Damm said. “Currently, whenever we have road restrictions, we have to take the loads to my parents’ farm, which is 10 miles from here, and unload there and then we bring the material — bit by bit — from there.”
The Planning Commission voted 6 to 0 to recommend rezoning the land to an industrial status, and Planning Commission Chairman John Bishop explained why he voted to recommend the zoning change.
“I was torn with the possibility that this may appear to be some sort of spot zoning because (the Dykhouse parcel) is not connected with other areas that are zoned industrial,” Bishop said. “But because of what I thought very compelling with the road situation and the previous master plan, how it emphasized the importance of the roads in order to have industrial (properties) in a certain location, I voted the way I did.”
Damm said “Any large trucks bringing material in for us will come in off M-15” if Blasius moves to the Dykhouse parcel.
Dykhouse Pickle Co. President Leon Dykhouse attended the Planning Commission public hearing. He said Dykhouse stopped processing cucumbers into pickles about 10 to 15 years ago, but noted that in its heyday, Dykhouse Pickle Co. employed up to 140 workers at the Ormes Road plant.
Dykhouse family members once ran a pickle-processing plant on the site of what is now Vassar City Hall, according to Leon Dykhouse.
“My father, Clarence, started in his back yard in 1931,” Dykhouse said.