SURREY TOWNSHIP REGULAR BOARD MEETING
UNAPPROVED MINUTES
JUNE 9, 2009
The meeting was called to order at 6:30 pm. Supervisor Rick Miller led in the Pledge to the Flag. Members present: Supervisor Rick Miller, Trustee Joe Maxey, Trustee Carol Dixon and Clerk Glenna Bradbury, Treasurer Esther Pitchford . Also in attendance: Zoning Administrator Rod Williams, Fire Chief Dave Williams and Assessor Frank Gentz.
REGULAR BUSINESS
Agenda
Motion to approve the agenda by E. Pitchford and supported by C. Dixon. All ayes. Motion carried.
Minutes
C. Dixon made a motion to approve minutes of May12, 2009 with corrections, seconded by J. Maxey. All ayes. Motion carried. (Correction: Chuck Gaskill asked for “a copy of these minutes” under the FOI in the minutes section labeled “Other”.)
Bills
- General Fund bills: (check #s 24467-24468, 24492-24494, 24517-24534) for a total of $20,703.69, the Fire Fund bills (check #s 8457-8458, 8486-8507) for a total of $12,442.56 and the Transfer Facility bills (check #s 472-474) for a total of $9,366.79. Motion to accept the bills by C. Dixon and supported by G. Bradbury. Roll Vote: J. Maxey-yes, E. Pitchford-yes, R. Miller-yes, G. Bradbury-yes, and C. Dixon-yes. Motion carried.
Treasurer’s Report
The Treasurer’s report was presented and will be kept on file.
REPORTS
Fire Report
The Fire Department report was presented and will be kept on file.
Fire Chief D. Williams reported:
- Request for two cadets to be moved up to fire fighters; Justin Brettingham and Dakota Taylor, this will leave two openings for cadets. Motion by R. Miller and seconded by J. Maxey to have two cadets moved on to fire fighter status. All ayes. Motion carried.
- Have not heard anything yet on the grant for the tender.
- Requested approval by the Board to have the roof extended, the bid for this is $5079. Motion by R. Miller to approve the roof extension to the east side of fire hall, seconded by G. Bradbury. Roll Vote: E. Pitchford-yes, R. Miller-yes, G. Bradbury-yes, C. Dixon-yes, and J. Maxey-yes. Motion carried.
- Application for grant from DNR 50/50 match for10 sets of Wild Land Turnout Gear, the cost of the gear is $666 per set; with the DNR grants it would be $333 per set. Motion by J. Maxey to apply for the DNR grant, seconded by C. Dixon. Roll vote: C. Dixon-yes, J. Maxey-yes, E. Pitchford-yes, R. Miller-yes, and G. Bradbury-yes. Motion carried.
County Commissioners Report
Clare County Board of Commissioners Minutes received and kept on file.
Lynn Grim reported:
- Passed out new prescription drug cards available to anyone in the county, there are no restrictions to age, income or insurance. Cards go into effect June 15, 2009.
2. Also handed out new county directory, there is an error for Lincoln Township; Trustees should be listed as Mike Tobin and Stella Hardin.
3. Rails to Trails had ground breaking ceremony last week and work has started, expected finish date is 3rd week in July.
Sheriff’s Department Report
Deputy Binger reported:
- 1. The hours for the Township have been pushed back
- 2. Things are running smoothly, no problems with juveniles.
- 3. There was a high-speed chase, which originated in Surrey Township and ended in Midland County with an arrest.
- 4. Property checks are going well.
Zoning Report
Zoning Administrator, Rod Williams reported:
- Issued in May: 7 – Zoning permit, 7 – letters of violation, 6 – blight violations were retired. Mileage – 168 miles, and worked 56 hours.
- A copy of the county street address ordinance was passed out with an explanation of what transpired Thursday, June 4, at the county planning commission meeting. The general consensus of the other townships within the county was to have the county do the road naming and addressing from this point on, looking for an effective date of January 1, 2010. The ordinance should be reviewed with any comments so that they might be considered at the next planning committee meeting which will be August 4 at 7:00 in meeting room A at the courthouse.
- Would like approval for a planning and zoning class on July 8 in Frankenmuth, “Smart Strategies for Dealing With Undesirable Land Use.” The cost for early registration is $70.00 plus mileage of 154 round trip. Motion by G. Bradbury for R. Williams to attend this class, seconded by C. Dixon. Roll vote: J. Maxey-yes, R. Miller-yes, C. Dixon-yes, E. Pitchford-yes and G. Bradbury-yes. Motion carried.
PLANNING COMISSION REPORT
- M. Parsons stated that there was no meeting this month; there will be a meeting the third week in July.
OTHER
1. A) Steve Stocking, Clare County Road Commissioner reported on the Maple Grove Road contract, paving the last mile between M-115 and Lake Station. The contract amount is $96,000, the Township’s portion is $48,000, and anticipated finish date is July 31, 2009. Motion by C. Dixon to accept the Maple Grove paving contract with the Township’s share being $48,000, seconded by J. Maxey. Roll vote: R. Miller-yes, E. Pitchford-yes, G. Bradbury-yes, C. Dixon-yes and J. Maxey-yes. Motion carried.
B) This is the last year for the Surrey Lake private road agreement, due to downsizing the county cannot snow plow private roads any longer.
C) There is interest in doing a special assessment for paving Alice Street only.
D) K. Jankowski asked Steve about Huckleberry Trail weight restrictions with the school bus coming through, Steve replied that the weight restrictions only apply in the spring.
2. Eunice Andreas received a violation notice from R. Williams, Zoning Administrator about a house she owns on Maple Road, a neighbor is complaining about noise being stressful to their health. She questioned why she was issued the violation and not the renter. R. Williams informed Eunice that the property owner is ultimately responsible for any violations caused by the renter. R. Miller asked R. Williams to sit down with E. Andreas to find out what the issues are and come up with a game plan to deal with them.
3. F. Gentz, Assessor; regarding C. Gaskill agricultural exemption, R. Miller read a letter from Frank (see attached) to the Board, and his request that the response be entered into this months minutes.
- R.Miller addressed the board members regarding C. Gaskill’s request for agricultural exemption, he thought this was resolved at the last meeting, whether or not the Board has the authority to make this decision, he thinks that since the Board are the elected officials, the buck has to stop someplace. The Board of Review has allowed this to go on for 3 years. Rick went out and walked the property with Frank with legal description and there are areas that cross a road that probably shouldn’t, there are areas that he is not sure of, there are areas in the woods whether it can or cannot be used for agriculture, since he is not an expert in this area, he has to rely on the judgment of the assessor, and the judgment of the court of law. He asked Jaynie Huerhauf who is the Township attorney to be at tonight’s meeting because there needs to be some type of resolution on this, he feels that too much effort, time and money is being spent on something that we have lost 3 years in a row. Frank feels that he is very true to this; my question to Frank is why have we continued to lose this for 3 years. Rick asked Frank to explain to the Board what the issue is with the tax tribunal. Frank answered that they just decide that way. Frank asked Rick after walking the property together what his opinion was, Rick stated that he does not see it as an actual farm, what the tax tribunal is concerned with is does it qualify to be an agricultural exemption. Rick talked with D. Williams and asked him to get with the BOR and let them know that we have decisions from the tax tribunal, from legal division at MTA; they said that we need to stop this. J. Huerhauf stated that whatever use is there has been more or less the same use each year, there have been multiple times that those facts have been brought to the tax tribunal and in each case the tax tribunal has found that whatever is happening out there is sufficient to meet the criteria for the exemption. Frank disagreed, there followed some discussion between Frank and Chuck Gaskill regarding the 2006 denial by the tax tribunal, Chuck stated that it was because he was not prepared with documentation for 2006 and was turned down. Rick stated that the board members had to be a balancing act, being the taxpayers “watchdogs” sometimes having to make popular and not popular decisions. The decision is that we have to go by the facts, the facts being that we handled the due process 3 years in a row and have lost. The law states that unless there is a significant change in the property we should not keep challenging this decision each year. J. Huerhauf feels that it is a waste of Township time, money and resources to keep asking the same questions year after year. At some point the direction has to be given that this will be assessed a particular way. A discussion followed between Frank and Chuck regarding how many acres are being farmed, Chuck stated between 26-28 acres, Frank stated that 25 of the 50 acres are woods. R. Miller stated that he was ending the discussion, and that he is asking for the Board’s support on this issue. J. Maxey had a comment regarding Frank’s letter, that the Board had no legal authority to enact and enforce this motion. Rick stated that only Frank and the BOR have the authority to grant or deny the exemption. J. Huerhauf stated that the assessor is responsible for creating the tax roll; by statue the assessor is a subordinate employee to the supervisor, who has ultimate responsibility of the tax roll. Rick stated that according to statute he is the chief assessing officer whether certified or not. It comes down to the supervisor’s decision and responsibility. E. Pitchford commented on what kind of precedence we are setting for others to follow. After hearing comments from F. Gentz, R. Miller made the decision to grant C. Gaskill agricultural exemption, which Rick will sign off on. As the supervisor, he will be ending this issue tonight.
- L. Grim commented that there was a motion that had been voted on by the Board at the May meeting. Motion was made by R. Miller to rescind the motion made in May to have the Board grant the tax exemption to C. Gaskill, seconded by J. Maxey. Roll vote: C. Dixon-yes, J. Maxey-yes, E. Pitchford was absent from May meeting, R. Miller-yes and G. Bradbury-yes. Motion carried.
- R.Miller addressed A. Reiss regarding the FOI, what happened was that Rick received the request and put it on Frank’s desk and it was 4 or 5 days before he came in. Rick called Alan and apologized for that, the situation has been rectified because from now on when Rick receives mail, Cheryl Ashley (secretary), will open it and make sure that the right person gets the information on time.
CORRESPONDENCE
None
PUBLIC COMMENT
None.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
- R. Williams – building permits and inspections, he has a fee schedule from City of Clare, Clare County and the State. He is going to sit down and put a fee schedule together for the Township. There seems to be a big issue regarding liability that the Township would undertake through issuing the building permits and doing their own inspections. He called MTA and talked to member services, they said you are afforded a certain amount of governmental unity as long as you follow your ordinance and follow the other guidelines set forth in the construction code to the letter of the law that there is not a liability issue any more than what the Township faces every day. He will continue to put a package together to present to the Board.
- After much discussion about street naming and addressing a motion was made by E. Pitchford and seconded by G. Bradbury to allow Clare County to be responsible for street naming and addressing. Roll vote: R. Miller-yes, C. Dixon-yes, G. Bradbury-yes, E. Pitchford-yes, and J. Maxey-yes. Motion carried.
NEW BUSINESS
1. Mahlon Parsons-planning commission secretary pay rate, it has been suggested to him by a prior secretary that this position does considerably more work for the commission and thought they should receive acknowledgement through a bonus to recognize the additional work done by the secretary. M. Parsons concurs and would like to bring it to the Board, he would like to see the secretary’s pay rate doubled to $40.00 per meeting. Motion by J. Maxey to increase the Planning Commission secretary pay rate to $40.00 per meeting. Seconded by G. Bradbury. Roll vote: J. Maxey-yes, G. Bradbury-yes, C. Dixon-yes, E. Pitchford-yes, and R. Miller-yes. Motion carried.
2 Special Meeting & Budget Public Hearing date is scheduled for June 30, 2009 at 6:00 p.m. at the Surrey Township Hall.
- Lawn care equipment purchase vs. lawn care service, the person who has done the lawn maintenance in the past is no longer available, John Hanner who works at the cemetery is now cutting the lawn but his schedule is limited by other commitments, maybe we should consider in the fall or next year having a lawn service. R. Miller suggested that we continue using J. Hanner for now.
PUBLIC COMMENT
- Web site will be completed this week. There were 3 people who worked on this project and Rick wanted permission from the Board to get them a plaque for designing and putting the web site together at no charge. He would like to present it to them at the next board meeting. Motion by C. Dixon and seconded by J. Maxey to purchase 3 plaques at a maxium of $20.00 each. Roll vote: J. Maxey-yes, E. Pitchford-yes, C. Dixon-yes, R. Miller-yes and G. Bradbury-yes. Motion carried.
2. Connie Fletcher who owns a beauty shop business that she’s had in her home for 25 years. She was concerned by an article in the Clare County Review mentioning deed restrictions on Lake 13 regarding home businesses. She wanted clarity from the board. J. Huerhauf stated that this was a private issue between her and the Lake 13 Association but as long as she had pursued all the correct procedures when she established her business everything was fine.
With no other business to come before the Board, R. Miller adjourned the meeting at
8:25 P.M.
Glenna Bradbury
Surrey Township Clerk
Transcribed by Donna Jones