Township Board - Regular Meeting

Here we go. Hey, you'll get a chance. Yeah, you'll get a chance. I'm going to call the meeting to order at this time. Thank you for all who have attended tonight. Thank you board for being here. Kelly's absence is excused tonight. And we do have a quorum. So, we'll move forward and appreciate again everyone's uh taking their time out on this beautiful evening to be here. We begin our meetings with a word of prayer and tonight it's going to be our treasure duet. So, thank you, Jean.

Bars, please. Thank you, Lord, for this beautiful day that we have today. And as we go into spring and the beautiful flowers and stuff that start popping up, Lord, we know this is from your presence. We ask you, Lord, to be with us as a a board tonight and decisions we make for the township and give us wisdom we need. Thank you, Lord, for employees that we have and the hard work that they do. We ask that you can continue to be with them. Be with their police and fire, Lord. Keep them safe. Bring them home to their families every night. We thank you, Lord, for this country they have, for our president, for elected officials, Lord, all the way from Federal down to here to the township. We just ask continued guidance. Thank you, Lord, for sending your son that we just celebrate Easter that he died and rose for our sins. And we thank you for forgiveness of our sins. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Thank you. You would rise for the pledge of allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. May be seated. I've already taken the role tonight here for our absent clerk and we are in in a quorum position. So we'll move forward here with approval of the agenda. Is there a motion to approve? So move this agenda. Moved and supported. Any comments? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. I. Opposed.

We have our agenda. Okay. On the front end of our agenda tonight, we have Rich Powderman. I hope I pronounced that correctly from Consumers Energy. And I also see Joe Bush. whether he's here to to speak along with you or not. We're always glad to see you, Joe. And and but I believe uh Rich, this is your opportunity here to speak to the board and we do appreciate you coming. Oh, I'm sorry. And yes, ma'am. Amy. Okay. So, I'll have you introduce yourself and your role as well. Thank you for coming as well. Thank you. Yeah. Thanks. Go ahead. I'll let you just go ahead and say your name so I know who you are. All right. You're really pull that down. It's okay. It's all right. Amy Gilin with Consumers Energy Permitting and Zoning.

Welcome. All right. So, um Okay, I got

um All right, Amy's going to help me with this again. Rich Hu Energy. Um really, really happy to be here tonight. Uh we'll talk about it, but obviously, you know, we've been here a long time. uh we've come alongside of of of Georgetown and its growth. Uh you know, and now it's kind of interesting how how much this area has grown and we're so we're excited to we're honored to serve this area. We're honored to serve a lot of Ottawa County and um just want we're just here to talk about the importance of this project and how it's important for your growth and the reliability uh of how we're going to construct this so we can keep the lights on more often and it will have a more resilient system. So, we'll we'll get into that.

Rich, if you don't mind, just turn that mic a little bit towards you. Oh, sure. Raise up and just get a little bit closer there so everybody can Yeah, I'll lean in a little bit.

Great. Thank you. Um, so you know, you I don't have to tell you guys this, but it's just good for our people to understand. Uh, you know, we we have 90,000 miles of uh power lines, but you know, not not all places are the same. You know, Michigan is really not overly growing as a state. Our load that we, you know, generate power for is fairly flat, but obviously your area is growing immensely. And um as you can see, you know, back when my wife lived here in uh on West Lane in 1990, you know, you were you were quite a quite a bit less than you are today. Probably um I don't know, almost double since then. I'm not sure. It's probably pretty close. But uh yeah, Ottawa, too. You know, Ottawa, my goodness, you know, um we've been a strong very honored to be a part of Ottawa's growth. you know, we're the number one taxpayer here in Ottawa County by eight and a eight times the next closest and you know, Campbell and Zealand uh have a lot to do with that, but we also have a lot of other infrastructure substations and things like that. This project uh adds to it. Um so why do why do we need a substation? Um substations are a very integral part of our distribution system. We're all served by a circuit that comes out of a substation and uh I live on one, you live on one, we all live on them. So, um so when we face that as more and more customers are served on a circuit, uh they become a little longer. Um they're under a little more strain over time and we haven't really added onboarded too many substations since your growth boom started. Um, Georgetown's pretty unique in the fact that you've had a you're a first ring suburb with the Jennison area

and then you're also absorbing new growth in a second ring suburb like where my my in-laws live over in Madina and and uh the old rolling hills golf course area. It's just really explosion uh of growth. So, um the Eagle Substation, it's probably I didn't name it, but I'm sure it has to do with your school and uh rightfully so. Um, Eagle Substation has been a part of the long range plan to add capacity to electrical capacity. You know, uh, you know, sometime we we want to start it sometime this year, maybe early next year. But another thing that, uh, if we can shorten the length of the circuits we live on, uh, you have, you're kind of Eagle's going to be in the middle of about three or four other subdivisions that you're all served on today. when what the what Eagle does is shortens the length of your circuits that you live so there's less less opportunity for disruption. And we're also going to be um if you look at the bottom there um we're also going to be adding these devices that create almost like traffic lights. U so if one circuit goes down there's pretty this the our technology is getting really smart where it can reroute power. it can, you know, can fuse off some customers while we're there's going to be some customers out, but we can may be able to back feed other ones and fuse off while we while we while our crews work on that outage, we can repower maybe some some other part of the circuit where we never used to be able to do that before. So, um, our goal is to keep keep the lights on more often and for longer than we ever have before. Um where are we going to how is this uh substation going to be fed? So right now

um this is where we are are tapping into the uh it's called the 345 line. It's up by your water tower up toward Filillmore. So, we will have uh high voltage lines that tap into that 345 by the water tower and run that down to the intersection of 36th and Baldwin and uh where we own property. Uh and then that's where that that these lines will power that substation. uh as we start to step down power from the high voltage areas that run around the state, we start to bring those in locally so they can safely serve your your meters and your house. Um we've uh we've been at this project probably about a little over 10 years. Uh we acquired the property from the church at around that time. Uh and we've been um accumulating easements from property owners along that corridor since that time. And we we like this because we can bring in about, you know, we have a Haggard Park sub sub that's over on 40th and the intersection of a lot of our different substations. This works really well um to uh to be to feed into your electrical network how you're served here. And I think this is where Amy is going to uh help us out.

Oh, thanks. Um, okay. I'll lower it. Goodness.

Yeah. Um, okay. So, I just wanted to tell you real quick like what a substation um, like how it starts and where where it comes from because 6 years ago when I started with consumers, I didn't know. So, I thought maybe there might be others you don't know. Um so basically if you look at this graphic it's you're the power is generated at the um power plant and from there it's very high voltage and I'm going to say the word voltage like 30 times so just forgive me. Um so it goes from the power plant to a trans transmission substation through the high voltage transmission lines. Those high voltage transmission lines are the ones that you see typically like along highways or whatever. They're like the huge towers, the huge metal towers. Um, and so the electricity in those are very high and you can't just run those right to your house. So that's why it's called a transmission because it's literally not connecting to anything other than the power plant and the um transmission substation. from the sub transmission substation it goes to um or it connects to an we call it HVD high voltage distribution line and that's what um Rich was talking about is going to be going down that one corridor that's the easements that we've been working on getting is for the high voltage distribution lines HVD so that transmission substation is basically like a step down facility where it kind of brings some of the electricity power down so that it on so it's on its way to getting to where it can actually go into your house safely. So from the transmission substation goes to the HVD lines and then it goes to a dist distribution substation. Um Eagle substation is a distribution substation. Um and there's many more distribution substations than there are transmission

substations. Transmission substations are very large. distribution are smaller that you typically see those like in neighborhoods and that type of thing. Um and so at the distribution substation um HVD lines come in, LBD lines go out, low voltage distribution is what LBD stands for and those are the lines that you'll see like um going into into your neighborhood and and uh connect into your home. So that's basically how electricity gets to your house. It has this really long pathway and the Eagle substation, like Rich had mentioned, it's going to be centered pretty well between two uh significant substations that serve your township. And um those substations are pretty much at capacity. And that is why we need to build the Eagle substation is to help with um the reliability service as well as um allowing for future growth that we're sure is going to be happening. Um Oh, I have a clicker.

I can't I can't do it all here.

Okay. Um so the the subst the eagle substation is going to have your typical features which is uh security fencing. The security the security fencing is actually um required by the electric code. It's not the building code. It's actually required by the electric code. Um they require a um chain link fence with additional 1 foot of barbed wire. Consumers Energy puts the chain link fence at a 7 foot height with an additional 1 foot which means it's 8 foot. The reason for that is because it doesn't affect me cuz I'm short but like somebody like Rich who's like at least 6 feet um that if the ch if the barbed wire started at at 6 ft it could it would be at eye level and we don't want that. So that's why we put it at 7 ft. Um it also will have a mobile substation grounding pad. That's what that yellow square is there. And basically that's just a gravel surface with a copper ground grid underneath it. The purpose for that um copper ground grid is to keep our crews safe because in times of outages or maintenance um our um operations department or team, they bring in a a mobile substation on like a big semi and they will bring it in, park it, and then they connect that mobile substation, which is literally a substation on wheels, to the Eagle substation. Um so and give you give everybody power so that they can work on the substation itself while still maintaining the the electricity for people. So that's what the um mobile substation is uh grounding pad is for. Mobile pad is what we call that. And then we have two driveways one

one coming off of each reach each each road. Um, and then our construction dates, the HVD lines are expected to start in December. The substation construction is expected to start in March. Okay. And then I wanted to talk a little bit more about the layout of the substation. Um, again, I already mentioned the driveways and I already mentioned where the mobile pad is and the green is the substation. Um the setbacks per this zoning district, it's 60 feet from the um center line of the roads, 20 feet from the side and 75 ft from the rear. Your zoning ordinance isn't completely clear on if it's a corner lot if you have two sides, two rears. Um but as from what I was uh gathering from it um we clearly meet the setbacks um from every aspect with the exception of the rear which is the church um so the south south part or the south property line. um we fall a little bit short there, but everything else is um exceeds the setback requirements. And we're also leaving trees there along the property line on the east. And we're also there's also a tree line that the church has there on the south as well for screening purposes. Um and I don't know the first picture that we showed um on our cover. See, this is why you're running the clicker. Thank you. Um, so this is what you see from the intersection and these these trees are all expected to stay. Um, there they there's like a wetland area um in a drainage easement for the for a county drain. Um, behind like that uh you can kind of see the wetland. So

everything in front of that will be will stay including the church's sign. So, so there will be some screening from the intersection there. And the fencing would run where the fencing in that picture be around. It's just the green. Okay. Yep. Yeah. The rest of it will just be natural. Have you talked to the zoning administrator? Yes.

And he allowed two driveways on that parcel. Um, we talked to I there wasn't anything that that we saw that would um not allow that and we've talked to the road commission. Um, and we we so far haven't ran into any issues with that. So, you talked to road commission but not the zoning administration. No, we've talked to both. Yes, we've talked I've talked to the Yes, I've talked to Ryan and I've talked to you or I'm just curious because I I I didn't think that we'd allowed a driveway off each road on a corner lot. Okay. I'll But I don't I I could be wrong. I just don't know how that all sets with commercial.

I think it's really important. I think it's a really good point. Um one thing that I would say and Amy, I'm not 100% sure on this. I'm assuming the mobile sub is more of an emergency. Um whereas we probably heir toward using 36 as kind of where we our regular maintenance folks come in. Um we can verify that but I guess a good call up and up would be much safer for everyone. We do it that way.

Yeah, that is going to be our main our main um entrance is 36 and substations have very low um traffic. It's maybe once a week somebody will stop in there and look at things after the construction's complete. I also am curious about the setback for the fence because I think there's a there's a rule on height of fence in next to the road. I don't you want to check on that? 7 foot's pretty tall right by the road like that.

Thank you. We will we'll connect with Ryan. Um if we could uh the clerk um is anybody taking not just thanks for letting us come by tonight. Uh really appreciate it. Um just really happy to to serve your child and uh good luck with the rest. C

can we ask you a couple I didn't know we were wrapping it up. Okay. Um we'll be delued with questions about this and this will be controversial. And there'll be a lot of people concerned. We all need electricity, but this will hurt property value as far as most people will see. And they'll want to know why that area was selected. And they'll also be concerned about is there I don't want to say radiation, but as far as electrical, it does not enhance property value. and to have it on a corner. You know, we we have down here in the middle of the section tucked away, but this will be right out there. And I know there's going to be people coming in here and saying, "Why was that location picked?" And if there's a a problem that you're not meeting our code right now, um I'd get that taken care of. But I hope you're willing to come back again because there will be an awful lot of questions about this. Well, obviously we want to be a good corporate neighbor. Um, you know, we're we're everywhere. Uh, we're and I think, you know, we understand new things are can be disruptive. Even if like there's a substation around the corner, but if it's been there for 40 years, it doesn't seem like it's such an impact. But if it's a new substation, hit that, too. Um, new things are are are impactful, especially. So, um, we're here tonight cuz we want to share what what your community is in need of and how we are doing our best to try to keep up with your growth. Um, it's we've been at this a long time. It's not the easiest to find property as you can imagine. Uh, you know, finding an easement corridor to couple with it, that's additional challenge. Uh but we we feel like we can uh get this into the community in the least disruptive way possible.

You feel confident about the wetlands there? I'm not an engineer, but our engineers feel like they can accommodate it. We've looked at putting sidewalks and so forth in that area and it's a financial nightmare. Yeah, understood. Will there will there be additional screening added besides that which you won't take away?

No. There um there's trees up in the corner and then and then this site is um back in that back corner. Um and there's a drainage pond um up to the just to the north of that. And then there was some existing trees there on the west as well. Um landscaping is interesting. I you know I think what I really like about this there's a lot of natural mature things that are going to be preserved.

Uh that's a very good thing. Uh we have to be careful on what grows up around substations. Um trees are the number one reason for outages and animals are number two. So, we have to be mindful of animal infil infiltration into the substation. Uh, squirrels and raccoons make bad choices sometimes and it's the last one. Seen it quite a few times. They cause a lot of disruption when they make those poor choices. So, we just have to be mindful of wildlife when we Exactly. I did I did like to see that all your power come from the Campbell. There was no solar systems hooked up on that thing. So yeah,

I'm going to hold you that drawing. We'll keep the camera open. Every 90 days seems good for I know. Okay. If there's nothing else, we're not leaving. We're we're here. Uh please if questions come in over time, Justin knows how to get a hold of me. We're very happy to try to get back. I I know you acquired the land, you acquired the easements, and so you you got as long as you're meeting requirements with us and with the county that can do what you are going to do.

Um just think of us in terms of what John was saying. If there's a way that you could without too great expense add in some fashion in a way that doesn't jeopardize your system back there some further screening I think that would help a lot with the community if they drive by and don't even really notice it um would be great thank you thank you thank you yeah was Joe part of this

you don't have to, Joe.

No, no, it's fine. There's been a lot of questions. We got some people in the audience worried about the water because we had a lot of flooding recently. Um hopefully with the rain coming the rest of this week, hopefully we don't see a lot more flooding in Georgetown. Um there's been a lot of concerns on if consumers builds here, where's the retention pond? Again, the wetland question has been brought up to me numerous times. Um I know I worked with uh Rich and his team, quite a few engineers a while back. we got on a phone call and try to work around there's a drain there's a drain easement what does that look like we don't want to disrupt that easement we got a lot of drainage coming off Baldwin Street um so that'll be all part of our review so I want to make sure tonight I'm not just here for this you got about three items on the agenda and I just told Justin hey I might as well show up and answer any questions directly you can hear it right from me um but again Rich has you know reached out to me a few times and said hey our engineers are challenged in the very first run or go at this where can we put a retention detention pond because all this water runs downhill across the street kind of on 36th then ends up in other people's yards could be um so we'll make sure we have the right detention retention um but no nobody gets flooded out downstream

so it' be one of our reviews we haven't really seen the up-to-date models but I know working with their engineers they're going to get very creative and make sure and they got wetlands on there too we want to protect those the best we can but um Anytime we can get storage for for volume of water is is a good thing. So they will be doing the standards just like anybody else. Good. So they got good engineers on it. So we'll we'll figure it out. They'll get there. Yeah. Thanks for that reassurance. Yep. I just want to make sure that Justin asked me else you want me to talk about while you're here.

Thanks Joe. Uh now we'll turn it to the chief here. He can take the microphone. Chief with a fire department update for this past month. Thanks for coming.

Matt Dit, Georgetown Township Fire Chief. Uh just going over some of the stats from March and how busy we were. Uh 114 calls for March. We had mutual aid given and received of nine. Had some pretty good grass fires along um the highway 196. We had to call mutual aid for that. Total of 406 calls a year to date. Under training and public education, we did 13 home safety surveys uh for a total of 77 alarms installed between smoke detectors and combination alarms. And our notables for this month were the ladder truck. We're getting closer. Um training has been complete drivers training. We're doing pump training. We should have it in service by May. Um that's kind of the goal. And we're getting the equipment uh established. Graphics are wrapping up this week. Radio's getting installed this week. So, really hopeful we'll have it in the first part of May. So, in service, we also hosted a a regional hub for a class, an alternative fuel class, um which was pretty cool. We got a chance for someone to come out from Ford. He brought some cars out. We got to see electric cars. Um talk about the different kinds of fuel that cars run on nowadays, not just gasoline anymore. Um, and then what challenges that provides us as emergency responders cutting open a car, especially the electric cars, where to cut, where not to cut. So, that was really cool. We had um departments from Kent and Ottawa that joined us in that class. So, we're hoping to do more of that and uh yeah, it was good training. So,

so first quarter busier, about the same or less busy than last year? Um, first quarter so far, it's been about the same up until the transition. uh transition as far as starting from the 30th when we started has definitely picked up call volume. Yep. We'll have more of that for next month. Can speak to it. Yep. Matt, I I heard from my son Yeah. worked with Mark Nada at Hudsonville. Yeah. And the day before Mark was going to um leave Hudsonville and he loved it. loved Hudsonville High School and so forth. A woman had an incident out in the parking lot and Mark ran there nice

and prolonged her life. Um he was instrumental. Uh she did eventually in the hospital end up passing away. Okay. But uh he is we're very very impressed to be one of our six that we've got working for us now. And yeah, our guys are very excited. They're very excited to be able to serve the community in this fashion. It's been going really well. Good. So good. Yep. Okay. Thanks, Chief.

All right. Item eight on our agenda tonight is just communication letters and reports which have been received by the board members for information. Item nine is our initial public comment period. So, this is an opportunity for anyone who wishes to address the board on topics that are under agenda on our agenda tonight to do so for up to a maximum of 3 minutes. There will be a second public comment period toward the end of the meeting which is not a very long meeting tonight. So just in a few minutes from now hopefully uh in which she'll have a chance to speak again if you like or speak for the first time. So is there anyone here tonight who'd like to address an agenda item at this point? See Mr. McCloskey. Now I live right next I don't have any teeth so I can't talk very well.

Name an address. I'm getting dentures. Okay. Uh, I live next to where they're going to build their substation. What address is that? Huh? What address is that? Oh, mine is 3540. Okay. And theirs is 3570. I know their address. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. I don't agree with some of the pictures that they have on there and some of the some of the some of the the dimensions that they have. I don't agree with all that. Oh, they're going to cuz I live right next door to it and I don't want substation there, but it's going to devalue my property and uh I don't want that. Okay, thank you. Uh anyone else and seeing one more? Yes.

Hi, Pete Plumman, 6877 Creek Ridge Court. On your agenda items, um agenda 102, the approval of the March board close session meetings. I don't see anything that um that the public can see. It must be since it was closed, but you're approving something that we have no visibility to. Um I don't know why that is. It's certainly not transparent. The other item is number 12, the siren. Uh it spoke in the U services committee. That location, we're servicing communities on the other side of the river. I'm hoping that we're going to move that tower so it services more of Georgetown in that radius that it covers. I'm hoping that you're going to at least look at that. Some of the, you know, the people are going to put it up, make a recommendation. that does not mean we have to take their recommendation. We can do what's best for Georgetown. Um the other thing on the property purchase, which is item number 16, I looked at the April expenditures. We've already paid for that property. We've already wrote them a check. I see it on the April expenditures. So, you're going to go in close session to approve the dollars that we've already spent.

You can you can clarify that later. I this is a different one be go ahead.

I'm not I'm confused on that. Um because I would be concerned if the clerk and the treasurer are writing checks for that amount without the board approval. I mean you made approval in your session to make the offer but you didn't give approval to spend the dollars is my concern. Then the other thing that I have is as it relates to the fire department, are we going to do anything to build the nursing homes, the nonprofits, the people who don't pay taxes using our EMS systems here, are we going to bill them for each service that we go out there, or since they pay no tax, is that just a a free service that we do for them? Just something you guys should consider. Thank you.

Thanks. Thank you. Anyone else? Seeing none, I'll close that public comment period. We'll go to item 10, consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? Some move. Support. Any comments? Mostly just minutes and such. And about that one reference to closed meeting minutes, I'll just say closed meetings in this context are permissible long as no action is taken. If we were to report such things in minutes, what would be the point in going to close session? It's permissible by law. Anything we act upon, of course, has to be acted upon here in the public and also included within our minutes. Um, did did we just vote? Did we say yes? Well, yes, we did.

Okay. Item 11, Christmas light bids. Um, is there a motion to approve the bid package from Cedar Lake Lights LLC? Some move support. Okay. Moved and supported. Discussion among the board came through uh utilities. We had a couple of different meetings about I'm sorry, services. Thank you. Yes. Yep. Uh this is our low bid by a pretty good margin. Of course, as Justin I think

pointed out those meetings, it isn't perfectly apples to apples, but it it's pretty similar one to the next. Um and uh the consensus at least in services was that this was um both uh comparable in terms of of scope and coverage and and ability and less cost.

So, and I know I see Uh Ryan tonight is here if anybody has questions, but uh the board is welcome to address it if you have any comments or on the old fountain thing. Are it says trees, all trees, are we still looking at doing a waterfall type thing? I mean, is any anything get discussed on I mean, are we still part of that same question I had, I guess, are we still in favor of outlining the whole roof and everything we did before? I mean, um, cuz I just seen this just not a couple days ago, but I don't know if the service committee had this before that you look through all these individual, um, places to I mean, is the service committee agreement then that they want to outline the building like we did before or do we want to do something a little bit different? And the only other thing is like trees, but I didn't know if you're going to try to do the blue little fake waterfall things coming down or

you can tell if it's trivial, but it's just questions I had. Oh, no problem. Uh Ryan Kidd, Cedar Lake Lights owner. Um yeah, I actually price quoted it based on apples to apples of what you guys already had up. Uh so if it would include any type of fountain, I again there's wiggle room in there. I I purposely under bid everything else cuz I want the job cuz I'm I'm a Georgetown resident. I would I take pride in it and I'd love love the opportunity to do it.

I would love to be I was about ready to text you but like if it goes through I would love to be added to services that we can have an open discussion if there's any type of things that visions that you would like. But otherwise um I planned on doing the fountains. I actually planned on the tree. It's not in there, but the tree, uh, your main tree, I want to do it the opportunity to change colors. Um, so, as you know, if you've ever seen Cedar Lake light show, I have Mine goes to music. I'm not going to go to that extreme, but uh I want to uh make sure it looks really nice. So, how about the clock tower? Is that Yep, that's all included. And it it would be the same type of uh I think we had garland around here or did we just put a

All it was was garland kind of swooped around the the middle part. Yeah. And then the trees behind it and then the poles that were right there were garland. Did we have a wreath on by the clock face itself too or not? I don't think we did. I don't think you did, but I mean we can definitely look into that. I have two really large ones right when you come off of the highway there right on that wall. I think I I quoted in there a 60 in two of them. And then I also quoted a very large one out front here at the library too. And then I based it based off of I mean it's 900 ft of C9 going all around the the the line here. And if it if that's something we decide if services decides that maybe they didn't want to do it that way, we can definitely look at it. So

yeah, but I priced it based apples. How much discussion was had or do we need to have a little bit? I mean is how everybody he came and spoke at the services meeting too and kind of laid it all out for us. We felt confident and that's why we recommended Ryan. You're willing to come back and fine-tune? Yep. Anything like that.

That's one thing that I it kind of worried me a little bit was the fact that when I was going around to each location, I noticed a lot of sections were out. Um, and so it was harder to quote it, but I knew that those trees would exist already just uh as far as like being powered. And then one of the times when I came here, I saw the garland swooped really large in the the library, too. Um, I I live by 24 48 hours. I'll respond with within 24 hours. I'll fix it within 48 hours. And I'm right here, so I'm like 2 minutes from here. Is there going to be any drone? What's that? Any any drones?

Any drone? I would like to uh once it's up use my drone to at least get some footage of it. It' be kind of cool to add it to the collection of things that I'm working on. Yeah. How much electricity do we have on the other side of our driveway from our sign? That is also what I'm going to be looking at. Do we have power there under on those for those trees or not? I'm not sure we have it on the other side of the wall on the west side of the entrance way. I don't think we do. on the the west side of our entrance. Yeah. I have to check, but I don't think we do. Okay, we do. Rod's here. There we go. We do. We do. Yep.

Cuz that was the other thing. I mean, I I mean, I like the outline, but I think if we get the big Christmas tree and we got our signage like you talked about and then if we that the trees out front, I think it's I don't know, overkill. No, I think I think doing a roof is like Is that what you're saying? I don't know if I like the roof got warm on the trees. I kind of like the roof, but hon back what I normally do. So, well, I I like the idea is if if we can fine-tune it with the service committee and whatever they say. We're all over it. Yep. I know you're expert stuff.

Anybody else? Ryan, while we've got them, delay it. Sounds great. It is weird being on this side, by the way. Thanks, Ryan. Appreciate it. All right, if there's no further discussion, hearing none, all in favor say I. I. Opposed? Passes. Item 12, the tornado siren project. Is there a motion to approve of adding that uh siren there in that sector down off from Cottonwood that direction? Support.

Supported. Great. All of you saw the uh materials that went with it. the coverage areas and we want optimum placement uh and I trust that uh the spirit of the board is to authorize the optimum placement. Right. Well, and and I appreciate uh Mr. Plowman's comment about maybe moving it. And I know Justin looked at different areas um that could service it. Um but there was no power and we need a spot that has power.

And we don't want to pay to put in power lines and all of that for the siren. We kind of have to go with where there's already poles and power. So, I think if we get too crazy, we got to probably deal with aviation board or something too, don't we? If we try to put that out in the middle of somewhere with a Well, there it is. Just a little area, but uh I guess if you're in that area when something happens, it's important to you. That's for the safety of our residents and our friends. And that's by the campground, right? Mhm. That could be people are in trailers and

correct that could be important. All right. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion's carried. We'll move now to item number 13. This is about the deck replacement there at 8th Avenue Park. Is there a motion to approve the Apex contractor's bid to replace that deck? Some move. Support. It moved and supported. This came through services. Recall there was a area that was removed, a platform and so on hanging over that was removed and not replaced. Correct.

Um, this one generates enough support and interest in the community that we felt replacement would be important. But it clearly needs it. Yeah, it needs it. It's falling apart. It's a danger. So, we want to keep everybody safe. Incredibly popular. Yeah. People love it. Mhm. It's a shortcut walking across. I think it enhances the park. Um I'd be nervous if the railing like before we had talked about this and there were some comments about taking the railing off of that also. Um I think it'd be incredibly dangerous to do that. Correct.

And so there was kind of a compromise. How about that small area where it's very very shallow. Um I'm very glad it's being done and I think it's a smart idea and you need the railings. Mhm. There's a gentleman there that uh would come down in a wheelchair and fish off that frequently.

A lot of people off there was there for a while. Is it going to be similar wood that we they used in the past? I know things have gotten better over the years. Is Rod, do you know if there's going to be anything different as far as the wood they can make it exactly the same way that it is now or or they got a different idea on how they want to put that together? It's the same type of Yeah. So, it's going to look the same once it's done like this. Yeah. Well, okay. It'll look better. Look down. Are you using a different material for the railings?

Yes, there will be like a trail railing that's out there with the metal bridge. Good. Should be a lot more.

Anyone else? They're bad. They're bad. They're bad. Bad. I I went down and looked at them. Oh, yeah. Pictures. I I hate decks. Number one call back on building treated lumber. Yeah. It's actually number four lumber treated. That's what it is. That's why it doesn't last. It's got to be done. Yep. All right. Motion's before you. All in favor say I. I. Any

oppose? Motion carries. Item 14, second public comment period. Now you can address the board on any topic you like. I know we had a couple of candidates who wanted to address us and anyone else who's here this evening. You're welcome. Or I'll just have to leave it. You guys hear me? Okay. Yeah. There we go. There you go.

Hi folks. I'm John Wetzel. I'm a a local Ottawa County guy here. Uh running for state representative. Um uh about 30 years of small business experience. Uh growing. We're a vendor to uh one of the largest uh sectors in Michigan, which is the hospitality industry. We put in uh they it's a POS system. It stands for point of sale, not that other thing. And you get mad at your car and you know and boy, you got you guys are a hard crowd. I usually get a little bit of a laugh out of that. But uh

we've worked with since about since 2003. So going back, I was in the corporate world for a little while uh until 2001. Just really wasn't my uh uh bag of tricks. I guess you could say you're more worried about uh justifying your job than you are actually getting things done. And uh I I shifted to uh doing general consulting and IT and got into a spot where I was reselling uh software and putting together packages and getting to know the restaurant community and uh you know 7 800 to a,000 restaurants later they come and go. But here we are. It's 2026. Um really uh have had a uh calling to want to uh help and work in Ottawa County to keep it from uh it just seems like we're losing a lot of our traditional values. things are just shifting. Um I'm not one of these um people that says, "Oh, get rid of the public schools." I think things can really be helped and tweaked. And I certainly don't come here acting like I'm a know-it-all of all things. I know business. I definitely have some ideas on what we could do to get some of our small businesses coming back to Michigan instead of running away. But overall, I uh you know, I come to you more as a a servant leader type. Um I've hit it off and really uh enjoyed knowing Roger Victor the last four or five years. Um, he's a farmer. I'm not a farmer. The Wetszel side, my last name, going beyond my dad, who was a 30-year tool and die maker at GM. All all small farmers before that. We were we were growing up really uh or we grew up really learning that, you know, you reap what you sew. Um this is, you know, hard work and life isn't always about just doing uh uh you know, walking in and getting to be at the top. there's a pecking order and you have to work hard and sometimes and that came as uh as I uh grew up and uh the business world learning uh you know really really uh coming out of Grand Valley State when I graduated and uh not having a whole lot of you know a pot to

do something in as we say and uh I've really uh grown frugally in that time. I wasn't one of these guys that went and got 250 grand cedar money and all these great stories. I that would stress me out. I don't I don't want to, you know, in that case, I don't want to use other people's money, but there really is um a case for I think small uh business uh mentorship in the area. Um some of the uh the zoning that that's gone on with this uh public act 222 or uh 233 that's happened uh when uh trifecty not picking any Democrats. when the uh the blue team had control of the exact house and the Senate, it really was one of those situations where they were able to do some things.

That's that's the that's the three minute mark. Oh man, I'm out of here. I didn't have a little countdown. I'm used to the Anyway, I I don't know everything. I'm just here to try to help you guys in any way, shape, or form that I can. I'd love to learn and figure out what we could do as far as new funding already. I know we need to repeal that public act, but there's a lot to it, but thanks. Thanks very much. And I think I want to clarify. I see your it says on your tag it says for state senate, and you start off by saying for state rep. So, I just want to make sure we're clear. It's senate. All right. State. That's right. Yeah. Got it. All right. Yeah. Well, you guys are our representatives, and I guess it just came out. All right. Thanks. State Senate. Y. Thanks so much.

Good deal. Welcome.

Hello, Georgetown Board of Trustees. I appreciate you guys letting me speak. My name is Kevin J. Moss and I'm running for state senator in the 31st district. And I'm a West Michigan business owner and I uh I've worked in the Michigan Senate under Republican leader Eric Nesbet. And I know that Georgetown uses over 2 billion gallons of water every single year. And I know that Georgetown families and residents right behind me have been hit with a 55% water hike, which is astronomical. And I know that this board, this board right in front of me has imposed a uh a freeze on all development because the infrastructure in Georgetown Township hasn't kept up with the astronomical growth in Georgetown Township. And as your state senator, I will advocate and I will fight for infrastructure funding for the immense and abundance of infrastructure that either needs to be updated, that needs to be replaced, or that needs to be added. And I will also fight for revenue sharing, state revenue sharing to high growth townships like Georgetown Township. And I will also uh fight to repeal the one big not so beautiful bill uh PA233 so that Georgetown Township can actually control Georgetown Township's land rather than a foreign company going to a state commission and getting a permit to build on Georgetown township township's land and you guys can't do anything about it. That's not right. It should be local control. And I just want you to know two things about me before I go.

Just two things. Well, three things. My name is Kevin J. Moss. Number two, I show up. And number three, I get things done. So, thank you guys very much for letting me speak. I appreciate it. I appreciate all of you guys. And I have a card uh for all of you guys with my card in it, too. So, feel pretty good. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much. You bet. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Anyone else? Anyone else? He plowman 6877 Creek Ridge Court. Hey, just a quick note. I think your open meetings MCL 12.268 should be 15 268. So, um I just wanted to bring a quick note. Um the letter that was from the lady that you bravely put on the agenda, which was great. Um I've been talking about this for a while. We have a tiered system now where the people who use less than 12 units still pay for 12 units. I think it you should look at that and if we're not going to tier at the high end, the 25% power users, if we're not going to make them pay extra for the volume that they're going to do, then you should do away with the bottom tier and not force people to pay for something that they never use. So, I'm hoping that you will do something about that. And once again, I want to reiterate that we as Georgetown should charge the nursing home retirement centers that don't pay any taxes for the services that we give them, primar primarily the EMS stuff. Every time we go there, we send them a bill the next day for the services rendered. I mean, we I'm I'm certainly I know that we charge for water and sewer to those folks, so we should be charging for other services as well since they pay no taxes. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks. Koski at 30 3540 Baldwin Street. What with all the construction going on, the traffic through there is just tremendous anymore. It's nothing but size straight line of traffic, a constant. What can we do with the sheriff's department to help certain time of day that they can't police that area all along Baldwin all the way from 48th all them people and then they go up to uh on 36 past the schools and the traffic off of Port Washington port I mean port and uh Chicago Drive. They all come up this way because of of the construction going on with your sewer system. I don't know how long is that him. How long is that going to be tore up? Did Joe answer that? Probably not Joe's domain, but uh you could seek someone out. This this is a top a topic for you to address right now yourself.

I like Yeah, I'd like to know. I mean, is this going to go all the way through the summer of 20 26 and into the 27? Again, this is Do people know any of that? You have the floor. Huh? You have the floor, Mr. McCloskey. It's your three months. Does anyone of you trustees know how long that's going to be?

Yeah. There's I remind you this. There's not dialogue during this time because this is your opportunity to present. If anybody wishes to address that during board discussion, they may. If you wish to, you know, button hole Justin or one of us or even whoever it might be, you mentioned something about the sheriff's department and you can go to the appropriate people to get direct answers that are in depth. Well, can uh do I have to contact the sheriff's department, see if they can't add some certain times a day that to police it a little bit? Now, I did see somebody out there today that they're doing something with the speed limits because the red lights are out in front of my street. They are trying to slow people down.

It's good. But it's getting ridiculous. And at my age, it's I can't even pull out of my driveway. So, I can't pull out of my driveway until that light turns red. I'm 36. because if I pull out going east, they'd hit me in the back and it's I don't want to have to live like that. Yeah. I can't imagine the amount of change you've seen in 80 plus years.

Oh, I have. When I moved here when I moved here in August of '09, there was nothing over there. It was all farmland. Now we got all these houses being built. So, thank you. Anyone else?

Welcome.

Hi, my name is Kevin Hzinger, 2669 Tamarak Drive, right here in Jennison. Um, I wish Clark Kyper was here. Um, but I sent this via email as well. And I think a few neighbors that I've spoken to about the topic have also felt um, heated enough to send an email as well. Um but I'm once again just looking for clarification from the board um that confirms clerk Kyper's involvement in the discussions about um ordinance number 2026-03 the temporary moratorum was appropriate and in compliance with your policy 2010-01 uh that policy states that uh the board you should avoid creating an appearance of impropriety even um I just want to confirm that there's no appearance of impropriety or anything like that um with her involvement in discussions at the February and March meetings um speaking about the moratorum um given her employment with Eastbrook Homes um and given that Eastbrook Homes was present at both of those meetings um speaking against the moratorum uh saying that there would be financial hardships to them and possibly their employees um clerk Kyper um if the moratorum was go to go into effect and their council also sent a letter kind of questioning um if it would hold up to judicial scrutiny. Um I yield my minute and a half remaining if you guys wanted to talk about that or uh I understand that that might be more appropriate during the uh your guys's time to speak.

Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? None. We'll close the second public comment period. We're going to do discussion and general information ahead of close session this evening. So, uh, anyone on the board wish to address uh either something that was brought up during open public comment or just something on your mind or something you attended something you want us to know?

Attended a treasures assessors meeting this afternoon in hot New Holland. center in that West Shore Mall. Pretty fabulous place they got there. It's I think it was the old Yonkers or something that they $16 million of the building was donated and they they had I think they only end up putting two or three million in of their own. Otherwise, the rest of it was it's all free and clear and paid for and pickle ball courts, seven or nine of them in there and it's like a thousand people a day that run through that place and plus all the conference rooms and everything else that they have. It's it's quite the place. But that's where our meeting was today. Good meeting. Talked about the postage uh laws that may come effect as far as taxes and when things are due and not due. and uh assessors got up talked a lot about some new laws that are coming in was paying no property taxes and different things like that too. So good meeting. So glad I went.

Did you discuss unrealized gains? I'd like to sit in that meeting for a little while. Yeah.

I I appreciate Rich and Amy coming in. I think they're very detailed. I am nervous about it, but I seems like they're they're doing their best with it. Um I wish it was a different location, but um that's where we're at. But you were very open and we appreciate that. And I would like to say how nice our township looks with all of the veteran banners that are up at the library and all of the flags along um Chicago Drive. It's I mean looking very nice and I appreciate all of our DPW or whoever is installing all of that. I think it's I think it looks wonderful. Um, just to address, I didn't quite understand Mr. McCloskkey was saying, but I'm assuming he's asking about the 48th Avenue water line. It should be completed this year, right Joe? To Baldwin Street

from Port Sheldon to Baldin, 48th Avenue be completed. We don't have a timeline yet for Baldwin. The bids aren't out as far as I know, and we'll have to figure that out. Um, what do we do it? I'll probably do it in two phases. Last time I talked to Justin, so that gives you some information on that. Uh, number two, I last week I went for a ride over to Maplewood Park. Um, we made a really good decision on replacing that basketball court. This winter, that thing he terribly. I mean, there's some spots it's up this high. I mean, this winter was brutal on that thing. And the tennis court's the same thing. So, um, well, that tennis court has been horrible for years.

Well, they're really bad now. If you thought they were bad, they're even worse cuz the winter play the bounce. cold weather this year. Just they're Yep. We made a good decision by replacing those. Needed to be done. So, good. Good. What else? I appreciate it. Uh item 16, we're going to Yeah, sorry. 268D. So, okay. I want to add that correction. Okay. Go into close session. Thank you.

All right. Very good. At this time, we're going to go into close session. Uh, this is when the board is able to discuss possible property acquisition that would always have to be with a public purpose and that could only take place in an open meeting. So, discussion can take place otherwise negotiations or otherwise would be um compromised with the seller. Uh, if there is a decision to be made tonight yet, we'd come back on the record and make that decision. If we're not ready to make a decision, we'll come back on the record and close the meeting. And uh yeah, that's it. So, you're welcome to say if you wish. So, is there a motion to go into close session for property acquisition? So, move support. Roll call votes. Uh Mr. Schwan,

yes. And our treasurer, yes. And Amy, yes. Yes. Evan, yes. Yes. All right. Okay. Motion to go back into open session. support. Move is supported. Uh John, yes. Jean, yes. Supervisor Woods, yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. All right. All in favor? We're back in open session now. Is there a motion to um acquire property on behalf of the township at the northeast corner there of Berry and uh 8th Avenue uh for the sum of $185,000. Some

support. It was supported. Um I think it'd be appropriate to identify and identify it and give its purpose briefly if you would Justin for the sake of Yes, no problem Jim. So the acquisition involves the um property uh directly behind our pump station uh that serves as also referred to as GT1 and GT1 serves about approximately 60% of our water in the whole township and uh the future acquisition will allow us to build a new pump station and a potential water storage in the hopefully far future. So

and the purchase agreement then if this is voted yes will be executed uh this evening proceed toward a closing you're authorized to do so I think would that agreement be subject then to public scrutiny through either being part of a future part of our agenda or otherwise they contact the office. How do they find that out? Yes. Um, we're we're going to include the uh purchase agreement with the minutes um and so that they'll be viewable to the public at home. So, very good. All right. Um, we'll do a roll call vote on this one as well. Okay. So, there's been a motion. Seconded, correct? Okay. Motion of purchase. John, yes. Jean, yes. I vote yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Okay. So, it's 6. It's been authorized. Appreciate it. Is there a motion to adjurnn? So move support. All in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. All right. Meetings adjourned. Utilities.