SANDUSKY, Ohio (WTVG) – Almost three years since homeland security agents arrested more than 100 suspected illegal immigrants at Corso’s flower and garden center in Sandusky, the same company has been hoping to transform a church building to house migrant workers.
Right before the meeting and my scheduled interview, one of the business owners, Chad Corso, informed me that they were withdrawing their application.
The proposed proposal set out how to convert the former St. Paul’s Lutheran Church at 2211 Mills Street in Sandusky into dormitories for 160 people, including 16 college interns.
On the Planning Commission’s agenda, the owners of Corsos explained how the company they hire with, Manzana, is conducting background checks as part of the government’s H-2A visa program for foreign farm workers.
Meanwhile, residents of the old church have been collecting signatures for weeks in the hopes that their local officials would hear their concerns.
Residents are still nervous, especially after the raid in June 2018.
“When the migrant workers landed next door in the neighborhood and the ICE agents and border guards with drawn guns came to pick up these people in a neighborhood of children, it just doesn’t seem right for our neighborhood here,” says Charles Herzog, the 13abc ahead of the scheduled Planning commission meeting this evening contacted. “We’re a close neighborhood here and I don’t know why they want to double our population in their neighborhood without us being able to speak.”
He and his neighbors tell me how they attended an open house at the church to hear about initial plans for the building, but were unable to discuss their concerns during the meeting.
“We want to be able to be physically present and speak publicly with changes like this in the future,” added Matt Ames.
“I’ve been here for 14 years and I don’t like what they do. If he tells me I don’t have the right to tell him what to do with my house, he’s crazy, ”says neighbor Charlie Baker.
The owners of Corsos wouldn’t speak to us on camera but say more training and planning is needed for the business and reserve the right to re-submit plans for the property or possibly another location at a later date.
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