Joyfield Township Board Meeting
August 1st, 2012 7 p.m.
(this is a dictation from audio recording taken during the meeting)
Call to Order
Pledge of Allegiance
Roll Call- Ken Fallowfield (KF) Ted Wood (TW) Mark Evans (ME) Guy Sauer(GS) Chris Smith (CS)
Approve Agenda-
Motion to approve agenda by Ted Wood, 2nd by Guy Sauer. Motion carried
Public Input-
Remind public- Agenda related only.
Tom Hart starts to comment, it’s not agenda related... Supervisor intervenes and closes public input.
Approve Minutes July 11th- Ted Wood reads minutes from July 11th.
Guy moves to accept minutes, Mark 2nd, Motion carried.
Treasurers Report-
July- 42,329.89 balance.
Revenues: Time Deposit- 245.90
Cemetery- 50.72
Interest- 5.44
Misc- 29.00
State Revenue Sharing- March/April 2012- 9,304.00
Burial- 850.00
Summer Tax- 172.45 7% of anticipated amount.
Total 10,657.51
Expenditures- Board approved 10,077.90
Tax- Check re-order 24.75
Total- 10732.65
Net Savings Balance 42254.75
Cemetery saving- 721.93
.03 interest
Total- 721.96
Cash balances Savings- 42254.75
Checking- 5,664.29
CD- 80,000.00
Cemetery CD- 17,935.37
Cemetery Savings- 721.96
Checking- 8040.88
Total Balance 154,617.25
Ted moved to accept treasurer’s report. Guy asks question, then seconds the motion. Motion carried.
Bills-
ATT- 41.52
Consumer’s- 11.55
Ken Fallowfield- 750.00 cemetery maintenance
Baird/Cotter& Bishop- 2200.00 financial audit
BCRC - 1,110.21 brining roads
Ted Wood- 38.70 election supplies and postage
Total 4151.98
Discussion:
Question by Guy Sauer- ATT- does it keep going up??
TW- No
GS- No late fees
TW- No late fees.
KF- I think we would have to have some kind of internet thing from Vonage, is that what you’re thinking?
GS- No, you’re paying forty two dollars a month on a phone that hardly gets used.
TW- Usual service charges, 911 emergency, billing for more than one city or county, state and federal taxes.
GS- It’s a lot, the phone has to be there for the community, correct?? Does it have to be a hard land line.
KF- No, it doesn’t have to be a hard land line, but if you get internet service you’re still paying 50 bucks a months for that. I mean, if you gotta cell phone/land line situation, it’s still the same.
GS- All right
KF- I think this would actually be less money.
Guy makes a motion to pay the bills, Mark seconds, Motion Carried.
Committee Reports- Report from the Advisory Committee
Matt Emery- The planning advisory committee continues to meet. We had our last meeting on the 24rth of July. We took a look a by-laws again, but the reality of the situation is we’re coming up on this election and depending on whether or not that ordinance stands it might be more appropriate to, if the ordinance stands, appoint the planning commission and let those people be active in making their by-laws. So we did not come up with any firm recommendations there. As far as Lakes to Land goes, people on the Advisory committees from various areas have been asked to provide input and stand on committees, they broke it down into 7 different areas of interest and asked you to put it into ranking order. I think we’ve all responded to that, I know I have. Lakes to Land is continuing on. I think in September and October, is the months Beckett & Raeder will be working with local planning commissions or whoever the advisory people are. There was some public discussion of possibly doing everything that we can to encourage public input on it. As it is right now we don’t have another meeting scheduled, we’re just going to have to see what goes on with the election and meet after that.
Correspondence-
-Letter from Blaine Twp- dated July 18th, advising the Blaine Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on the adoption of their zoning ordinance on August 8th at 7:00 pm. at the Blaine Township Hall.
-Benzie Area Historical Society thanking us for our support.
-Reminder of Board of Commissioners on September 18th 9a.m. for the 911 service plan.
-Northwest Michigan Council of Governments advising that interested townships can apply for grant money or direct technical assistant made available on a competitive basis. This can be used for a variety of projects related to planning and needs of the township.
-There is a request to participate in the Grand Vision, which ties back into the request you had last month. Perhaps you will at some point respond on that (directed towards Guy Sauer).
Guy- I haven’t gotten very far yet.
Old Business- No Old Business
New Business
Letter from the Benzie County Road Commission- It’s time to apply 2nd round of brining to the roads. They’re leaving estimate at 1,138.64. First one came in underneath that. If we have any adjustments to the brining of the roads, we can have roads added or removed. I don’t remember if Kast Rd. is still on that list.
KF- It shouldn’t be
TW- I think everything else is static.
GS- 6 1/4 miles or something like that.
TW- We just need to let them know in the next couple of days.
GS- Do we need a motion for the second brining?
TW- I believe we do.
GS- I’ll make that motion.
ME- Supports motion.
Motion Carried.
Payment to Elections Inspectors & Chairperson-
TW- Next Tuesday, August 7th, we have an election and several election inspectors who will be working a very long day and I am proposing that, as we have in the past, after the election, Chris and I worked out the arrangement at the 10 dollars per hour and make out the checks immediately after the election. That’s my motion.
GS- I second the motion.
Motion Carried
GS- I want to go back to old business. Are the shingles taken care of??
KF- You didn’t vote for a color yet.
Action Items- None
Public Input-
Jim Evans- On July 12th at the Benzie County Planning Commission meeting there was a motion made to support township and village planning in all Benzie County townships and villages. That motion couldn’t get a second on the floor. We do have two representatives here from Joyfield, Mr. Tanner, Sue Zenker who sit on that planning commission and I can only speculate why that motion wouldn’t be seconded and support their own activity of a planning commission.
Tom Hart- A lot of people in this room are presuming to be leaders in the community, who are running for office. I read an ad in the Record Patriot today that was disappointing to me. It’s low class, dirty politics, I would expect more from people.
KF- I’m not sure, I’m not familiar, I didn’t read that ad. Is it particular to our situation here.
Tom Hart- It was a political ad.
KF- Political ads, I’m not sure that’s something that........
Tom Hart- It directly slams me and it directly slams the people I’m associated with.
KF- I didn’t read the ad, so I don’t know.
TH- I’m just saying. I think it’s low class, it’s what these folks are going to be known for. I think it’s time to think a little higher, no more lowering the bar, we need to start raising it. I’m very disappointed in our leaders and I’m also disappointed there’s a couple people in here spreading fear tactics about windmills. Spreading rumors that there are active leases in Manistee County, in which there are none. One was led to believe this was true, didn’t go far enough in the verification process. There are no turbines, no leases be signed, nothing in the process of being signed. I’d like a disclaimer presented to the public when voting day comes because they’re trying to directly affect the election. I’d like these two fellows to sign a disclaimer saying,”we were wrong,and we apologize.” I think that’s the least they can do to fix the damage they’ve done.
Susan Zenker- There’s no need to speculate about what happened at the Benzie County Planning Commission meeting. The minutes are posted for public view on the Benzie County Planning page, so if any of you have a question about what’s going on up there, it’s easy to access.
Audience Member- How’s the roofing coming??
ME- He’ll probably start in the middle of this month and probably should be done by the end of this month.
Bob Meyers- I know you paid for brining, but 6 Mile Rd. has never been brined. The part down through the woods.
KF- 6 Mile Rd. That little stretch??
Bob Meyers- Yes, during the drought it was nothing but a cloud of dust.
Don Tanner- I will do my best to keep it to 3 minutes. (Gives a commissioners report)
-Sharing a building with Manistee County
-PIHP (Prepaid Health Plan)
Fully funded deliquent tax revolving account.
911 Program going to independent dispatch. Wrapped up by October.
Hired a new emergency services coordinator. Frank Post, retired policeman, lives in Manistee County. Gene Mayo is on a disability currently.
Planning Commission meeting minutes.
Mike Henshell- Just a suggestion, instead of Mr. Tanner talking during public input. He should be put on the agenda, and whoever the representative for the county board of commissioners, they can speak without having to apologize or going over 3 minutes.
KF- We usually give them some lee-way.
Kurt Krueger- I want to make a couple of corrections to what Mr. Hart had to say regarding Bear Lake township, the full story behind this, which he’s fully aware of now, is that the Bear Lake township supervisor reported very clearly at a township meeting that a representative of JUWI wind had called him and told him specifically that 4000 acres been leased. I subsequently, after hearing this, called him myself, and got confirmation from him, and that’s where the information had come from. He was very clear, that the JUWI rep said they had signed leases. Subsequent to that, there was skepticism out there, and so I called the township supervisor again this morning, after all this has been going on, he still swears the JUWI rep told him they had signed leases. I asked him for the reps name, I gave him a call. The rep claims that he never told the supervisor that. We don’t know who told who what, but the bottom line is that JUWI was in here shopping for leases. They were interested in wind power in this area. What also came out of this is that prior to that there was another company that had signed leases in Bear Lake. Those leases were allowed to lapse. The notion that there isn’t any threat of wind power in this community is just not real. You throw that in with the fact there’s a proposal for 25% wind power coming up in November, it’s a real threat. This township needs to be prepared. To sit back and say nothing is going to happen is ridiculous.
Adrian Poulisse- I just wanted to say I’m not sure the Planning Commission minutes are actually posted yet. The meeting that we discussed, usually the previous minutes are brought up at the next meeting and then pass those minutes and then they’re posted. If you go to look for those minutes I doubt they will be on the website because we haven’t approved them yet. I was the one who made the motion. I want the county government to get more involved and support the local townships and be supportive. I strongly feel the County Planning commission should support planning at the township level and that’s why I made that motion. I support planning here in Joyfield.
Gary Gatrell- Last March when the election was going on there were some promises made, or some I guess there weren’t really promises, but they were things that were said by some of the members that were running for office at that time that they were going have a website. It’s now been 6 months and I’m just wondering where we’re at in that process, because I know for a fact it does not take 6 months to put together a website.
KF- to Guy Sauer- Were you in charge of that??
GS- Not me
KF- I thought you were our computer guy.
Gary Gatrell- The reason I’m asking is because I want to know, we’re in another election, is it just lip service at election time, or what’s the deal because it has been 6 months.
KF- I know it’s really imperative but, I see it brought up a lot, we’re working on it. Someone else?
Gary Gatrell- My question is, it’s not “working on”, it’s “where’s it at”?
KF- It costs money.
Gary Gatrell- It costs money??
KF- To have computer people put it in, so.
Gary Gatrell- Excuse me, I’ve done some websites and the cost involved is so minimal, you just put $9,000.00 into a roof so don’t tell me that it’s costly.
KF- I didn’t say it was costly, I said it cost money.
Deb Lindgren- I’ll give Kurt a lot of credit for at least admitting they dropped the ball on that whole thing between him and Bob (Meyers), sorry, but damage done. You got your letter in the paper today, you know, it’s pretty pathetic, this group of people.
KF- Amen Sister.
Deb Lingren- I really don’t think that, I was on the edge of becoming like Emery, Woods, Smith, Evans and Evans. It’s really a shame............
KF- This isn’t really the place for that type of politics.
ME- (in a low voice) Let her talk.
Deb Lindgren- The turbines didn’t split this community, the people in this room split the community. After I read that paper today, I realized that I’ll be damned if I’m going to be like that. If you win, so be it, I’ll be here at every meeting and I’ll watch everything you do and if you don’t win, if it’s a combination, I’m going to be here and you should be ashamed of yourselves, it’s pathetic, it’s pathetic behavior. That’s it.
KF- Thank you, anyone else.
ME- I move to adjourn.
Board Members Comments.
GS- I’ve got a comment. Mr. Tanner, are you any part of that budget committee at the courthouse??
Don Tanner- I attend... some of the committees I’m involved with, I sit in the budget committee, being the board chairman and in charge of the budget is really too much for one commissioner to wield, so I picked 3 other commissioners to...
GS- I know the main treasurer is Dawn, and I know we’re in the process of getting BS&A.net for the treasurer and the assessors program and when I talked to Mr. Olson, right?
Don Tanner- Chris, yes he’s the new county administrator.
GS- He said it may be discussed. I was under the impression it was going to be put into the budget.
DT- I thought we had approved that purchase, so.
GS- Can you check that out for me please?
DT- Sure.
Adrian Poulisse- They just talked about that at the last budget meeting and set the budget for that. It’s whether or not that it gets through. I’ve attended all the budget meetings but one.
KF- Are you on the committee?
Adrian Poulisse- No, but.....
KF- He’s.....
A comment from the audience directed at Mr. Poulisse.
Adrian Poulisse- Excuse me?
KF- Hold on, we’re not going to do that. I just wanted to let Mr. Tanner finish his statement. I know that you’re not on the committee...........
Adrian Poulisse- Sorry
KF- .........I would probably cut somebody else off, so I have to cut you off...
Adrian Poulisse- Sorry
KF- ......... Apologize.
GS- That’s it, I just wanted to make sure...........
CS- We just received the audit, that’s what’s there, we can go over it next month, it’s pretty straight forward.
KF- Allright. My comments are that I don’t know who or what politician said we were going get a website, I know it’s been discussed up here before. Actually it’s a good idea, I’m for it and as far as the other people complaining back and forth on your politics, welcome to politics.
CS- We need a motion to Adjourn
ME- Yeah.
KF- Motion, second, supported... Meeting adjourned.
Adjournment
No comments:
Post a Comment