Freeland and Tittabawassee Township

Tittabawassee Township is the river township between Midland and Saginaw, with its centre about 9.8 miles from Midland and 10.1 miles from Saginaw in a straight line. Freeland, its main community, takes its name from a tavern and hotel the lumbermen knew as Mammy Freeland's, and the station there was once called Freelands' Depot. The 1881 county history records the township being organised on 5 April 1841 at the house of Obadiah Crane. It is also one of the few places in the valley that is growing: 10,607 people in the April 2020 Census base, 11,007 estimated for July 2025.

The newest houses in the valley

The 2020 to 2024 Census survey counts 3,648 homes, and the median build year is 1994, the youngest of any town covered on this site. The 2000s were the biggest decade, with 847 homes, followed by the 1990s with 768; another 537 were built in 2010 or later. Only 1,280, about 35 percent, predate 1980. Single detached houses are 78.8 percent of the stock, 285 are mobile homes, and owners live in 86.3 percent of occupied homes. The median owner occupied value is 276,000 dollars, the highest of the towns on this site.

Newer does not mean dry. A 1990s or 2000s basement is usually poured concrete with a plastic footing drain and a sump from day one, so the usual complaints are different: shrinkage cracks in the poured wall, window wells that fill, a pump that has never been replaced, and backfill that has settled so the yard now slopes toward the house. Most of those are small jobs. The crack repair page explains how to read a poured wall crack.

May 2020 on the Tittabawassee

On 19 May 2020 the Edenville Dam failed upstream, taking the Sanford Dam with it, and the river rose through Midland and down past Freeland. News reports from the week describe low parts of Freeland under water and North Gleaner Road flooded, and the township asked residents to cut water use because the sewer system was overloaded and backups into homes were possible. A basement that filled with river water or sewage that week was a flood and sewer event, not a drainage failure, and the insurance and township reports come before any waterproofing quote.

Soil on the floodplain

There is one rule here that no other town on this site shares. The Environmental Protection Agency's Tittabawassee River, Saginaw River and Bay site covers floodplain soil carrying dioxins that washed downstream from the Dow plant in Midland over many decades, and EPA places Freeland in Segment 3, a stretch of about 4.2 miles. EPA and the state have set cleanup levels for floodplain properties, and soil removed in the cleanup goes to a landfill or an approved area at the plant. Before any exterior excavation on a floodplain lot, ask EPA or the state whether your property was sampled and what that means for digging and hauling soil.

Permits at Township Hall

Township Hall is at 145 S. Second Street in Freeland, on (989) 695-9512. The township lists separate building, electrical, mechanical and plumbing permit applications, each with its own inspector, so ask the office which ones a pit, a pump circuit and a discharge line need.

Nearby

Thomas Township, downstream on the same river, shared the May 2020 flood, and Midland, upstream, pays owners to take footing drains off its sanitary sewer.