Township Board - Regular Meeting

I'm going to call to order the meeting of the Georgetown Township Board of Trustees and welcome the public that's here tonight to observe the board's business. Thank you for coming. Also thank you board members. I'm going to open tonight with prayer. This is not only our custom but our privilege. Heavenly Father, we give you thanks for this evening and for the beautiful weather, an opportunity to gather here tonight and to address town business. We thank you for self-governance. We thank you for freedom, some of the things we can sometimes take for granted. We're appreciative that we can govern and we can seek your wisdom in the decisions that we make. Thank you for all those that serve our township or those that are faithful day in and day out to do the things often unnoticed. that benefit our residents and all of us so much. We thank you, Lord, for our residents. Pray your blessing on them, on our churches, our schools, our neighborhoods, our businesses. And we just pray, God, that we would do all that we do humbly, and we do so with mercy, and that we'd be steadfast in our positions.

We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

Okay, if you could rise with me 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, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. You may be seated. All right. First order of business tonight is that our clerk is duly excused for a wonderful vacation that her family is on. And so I'm going to ask... according to township law that we would appoint an interim clerk for this meeting. And I'm going to move that we would appoint John Schwalm. Is there a second? So moved.

Oh, everybody's rushing to it.

Quite sure. Okay. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right. John, would you call the roll at this time?

Gary Beldink. Yeah. Kevin. Yes. Amy.

Yes.

Jim. Yes. And Gene. Here. And Kelly. Not here. And Mr. Schwalm. All right. We have a quorum. Thank you. Thank you very much. I would have prepared a little bit.

Thank you, Jim. You never know. All right. Is there a motion to approve tonight's agenda? So moved. Support. Moved and supported. Any comments or questions? Hearing none, all in favor of approving the agenda, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, the agenda is approved. We're going to start with something fun tonight because this family defines fun in this community. Sammy's Party on Wheels. How many have ever been there before? It's a good time. Aren't you guys with the bubble machine and all that stuff? Yeah, I did that one time. That was a blast. That was a blast. So we had a contest we kicked off this year. For those who are here in the public or anybody who's watching, a float contest for the Memorial Day Parade. And we're hoping that this was the first seed planted this year. We're hoping that it takes root and that we get many more entries in the years to come. It would be wonderful to see it come out of just the community, out of neighborhoods or churches or what have you, and that there would be great competition because I'm sure Sammies would like to win again. But we hope that there's stiff competition this next year, even more so. But this is a time when we're going to present them with an amazing-sized trophy. Thank you very much, Andy. Thank you. You would think you just won the Ryder Cup or something here, you know. But we're going to present this to you tonight and take a picture so we can put it on our website, if that's all right. So I'd like you, though, to step forward with your family, and I'll meet you out there by the mic, and I'd like you to introduce each person.

Thank you.

Who do we have here?

So we have our son Gabriel.

So our oldest is Riley, and then our son Gabriel, and then Brianna, and then Autumn, and this is the rock of the entire company. All right.

And you're Sammy, of course. Well, you guys look like a fun bunch. You ever go there and have fun when it's closed, right? You can go over there any time you want. Can you bring friends? Yeah. Oh, that's fun. Makes you a friend to everybody in your class, I bet. That's great. Well, this is your trophy for winning the most patriotic float in the 2026 Memorial Day Parade. So congratulations. If everyone could congratulate. This is going to remain with the business until Memorial Day next year. All right. So proudly display that. And we're going to get a photograph if we can move down. I'm hidden behind them.

I think I'm hidden. All right. Here we go.

All right. Thank you. Congrats. Yeah. Thanks for participating. Yeah. Thanks for participating. I appreciate it.

Tom, you're hiding behind me? I was.

I was behind all of that. Oh, do we have a picture we could call for the float?

Do we have a picture we can find? No?

Jim, Sam is a former student, and Renee is a former neighbor that we got to watch grow up. Wonderful, wonderful family. And when I had Sam in class, he was quiet and shy, and we helped him to blossom.

How many people in here are former students of Mr. Schwamm? Come on. Yes. All right. Well, thank you so much. And by the way, you're welcome to stay or you're welcome to leave. We don't consider it rude, so we know you have things to do. It's up to you. It's going to get a little thick tonight. We're talking about ordinances and revisions and, you know, it might put you to sleep, but you're welcome to stay. Item seven, then, Ottawa County Equalization Update. We've got Brian Busher here tonight. We appreciate having Brian. I think he introduced himself to most of us ahead of time. And, of course, he works with Connor here in our office. And thank you, Brian, for coming.

You bet.

Looking for an update and an overview from you.

You bet. I'll try and make it quick, but I'd just like to say before I start. When you have things like this going on, beautiful weather, I mean, this is a community that's functioning well. So I just want to commend you guys on that. It really is a pleasure to be here tonight. So I'm going to start with our assessing contract update. and I was given a couple of questions or topics that I was asked to touch on, but if any questions pop into your mind as I'm going through it that you think, I'd really like to know the answer to that, at the end, feel free to ask your questions and I'd be happy to answer them. And if you remember something later, shoot Justin an email and he can get in contact with me or y'all always have Connor. So let's get started. All right, I'm going to start with a little bit of background to just talk about how we got here. In 2023, when I was equalizing the assessment roles, I noticed something with the value in Georgetown Township, and that was that the value of Georgetown Township was nearing the level that requires a higher level of certification to certify that role. Your then assessor, who was an exceptionally good assessor, did not possess that higher level of certification, so I simply brought it to their attention to say, hey, you're going to need this eventually. I'm just putting it on your radar. Probably unbeknownst to me, that kind of set into motion a number of things in the township as to, you might say, a course forward of what the township wanted to do. There were some... departmental changes that you guys were looking at and ultimately the township said well we would like to explore getting a higher level assessor for that position, a master's level assessor and the then assessor was not interested in pursuing that level of certification. So you guys had looked outside the community to look for hiring an assessor. That didn't work out for a number of reasons. It's hard to find someone.

I mean, there are very few potential candidates. It's very hard. A lot of people that possess that level of certification.

Yep, that is correct. It is a difficult certification to obtain. And so there's not a lot of them that have that. Which is why I brought it to the township's attention early, because oftentimes if an assessor is pursuing that certification, it can take, I'll say, three to five years for someone to obtain that level of certification. The reason that I mentioned it, and that'll bring me to the next slide. Brian, what's happening to that guy? He's falling off a cliff or something. Oh, that was a stock photo. I don't know why that one's in there. I'm concerned. This is again, so... But I don't know. Maybe he is falling. So if you look at the graph on the side there, oh, I think I just turned it off. Maybe did I? There we go. Okay, I'm not going to use the pointer. If you look at the graph on the side, this is the reason why I mentioned my concerns. The state tax commission issues the level of a dollar value that is required or that a community can have. And once they exceed that dollar value, they then have to have that level of certification to sign that assessment role. The blue line is that level and the orange line underneath it is you guys. And you can see it is slowly creeping towards intersecting with that line. And once you intersect, that means now you need that higher level of certification. I brought this to the attention in 2023, and I said, hey, you're probably about five years out. That's my speculation. And the reason for that is if you look on the far right where it says the difference, you guys had been gaining on that certification by about 2% a year, all right? And the reason for that is because your community was growing in value faster than the statewide average. And you can see on the right-hand side, it's been about 2% that you've been creeping up on the statewide average growth. And we were on track to hit it, I'm going to say roughly 2027, and then 2025 threw me a curveball, and you guys underperformed the state. Obviously, I couldn't see that coming, but really that just backs the intersection point up a little bit. But this is the reason that I brought this to the township's attention to say, hey, it's coming. I don't know when, but it's coming. So you currently don't require a master's level assessor, but you, as you can see, eventually you're going to.

To the higher assessors.

Say that one more time, I'm sorry.

When was that put in place that we had to have these higher level assessors?

So that's been in place. Oh, boy. Long before my career. Okay. I'm just curious. Yeah. They've always had a tiered level of certification. In fact, I'm going to say that goes back to the beginning of equalization already. I think back in the 60s already, they already had a tiered level of certification. So the lower communities can have a lower certified community or assessor, and then the higher value communities require a higher value certification.

Is the schooling and stuff so long that people don't want to do it? You said, what, three to five years?

Part of it is schooling. Part of it is just it's a difficult program. And it's difficult for a reason, right? These are communities with a lot of value at stake, and they want to make sure they're done right. So it's a difficult program. I'm actually a grader for that program, one of the panelists that analyzes the submissions. We have some good candidates every year, but frankly, in this profession and a lot of others, people are just retiring out almost at a faster rate than we can replace them, right? So, yeah. So, anyway, that's why. So... Once this was brought to your attention and you guys contracted with Ottawa County, it was a four-year contract to provide assessing services. Anything else you want to touch on that? Yeah, anyway. contracted with Ottawa County on a four year contract, and then Ottawa County then had to look to hire people to fulfill this contract. As the equalization director, it's my certification. I'm a master's level assessor, so I have the level of certification. I sign those assessment roles. But I can't do all this work myself, right? So we have an assessing division manager who we hired, and that's Connor Galligan, who does a fantastic job managing the day-to-day assessing functions for the township. And then underneath Connor, we have a number of property inspectors, field staff. We have some clerks all assigned to fulfilling this contract. um and one of the things i also like to mention is in addition to simply you might say providing the assessing function one of the things that one of the benefits that you get from going with the county is that we have not just those four staff members that you saw list see listed there but we have a whole Whole other staff that's always managing the phones. So if any taxpayer has a question, eight to five, they call the office, they're getting somebody, even if every one of those people is out doing property inspections or already meeting the taxpayers. So that's kind of a nice service that we can offer to the community. So periodically, some will voice concerns about equalization also providing the assessing function, okay? And I just want to speak to those possible concerns that some will have. EQUALIZATION BY STATE OR UNDER THE CONSTITUTIONAL MANDATE, AND I WILL JUST READ IT TO YOU. IT'S MCL 211342, SAYS THE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS SHALL EXAMINE THE ASSESSMENT RULES OF THE TOWNSHIPS OR CITIES AND ASCERTAIN WHETHER THE REAL AND PERSONAL PROPERTY IN THE RESPECTIVE TOWNSHIPS OR CITIES HAVE BEEN EQUALLY AND UNIFORMLY ASSESSED AT TRUE CASH VALUE. That's our mandate. That's what the county equalization function does, is we make sure that everybody is assessed uniformly. In addition to that, in fact, the very next line in the Constitution that says the county board of commissioners through the department, meaning through the equalization department, may furnish assistance to local unit assessing officers in the performance of duties imposed upon these officers by this act. SO THE CONSTITUTION PERMITS EQUALIZATION DEPARTMENTS TO PROVIDE THIS SERVICE, AND THE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS HAS SAID, YEAH, WE'RE OKAY WITH OFFERING THIS SERVICE TO OUR COMMUNITIES, OKAY? SO IT'S CONSTITUTIONALLY ALLOWED. One of the things the Constitution, it created a system of equalization that really has limited oversight. As equalization director, my authority over the local unit assessment roles is very limited in scope. But it also allows for providing those assessing services, which is a little bit more broad in scope. So how do we make sure that we are, you might say, fairly equalizing when we're also providing those assessing services? And I'd like to touch on that as well. The first thing that we do just as an internal practice is we keep these as separate divisions. We have an equalization division in our office and we have an assessing division in our office. Now we're one office, I acknowledge that. But both of those divisions operate independently of each other. Each one develops their opinion of values separate from each other. And in addition to that, the state audits the local assessing role. every five years every five years they come through and they audit every assessing role in the in the state of michigan so we're audited that way and the county equalization department in our equalizing of assessment roles we're audited by the state annually so every single year we're undergoing an audit by the state to make sure that we're doing our job correctly does that make sense So that's how we make sure that we are uniformly assessing, even though we provide those assessing services. As equalization director, I treat all of the units that we do assessing for exactly the same as those that we're not providing that assessing function for. As I had mentioned, the assessing audit conducted by the state every five years in 2025, Georgetown Township and really all of the jurisdictions in Ottawa County underwent our five-year audit. And I think Connor had mentioned this to you guys in the past, but I'm just reiterating that you guys were found compliant. Your assessing function was found compliant in all of the key substantial compliant areas. So that's a gold star, right? That's fantastic. That's exactly what you're hoping for. And I'd also like to say kudos to Connor because he did a lot of work to make sure that that happened. So... And as it's every five years, another four years from now or so, you're going to have another audit. So looking forward then, just a couple of things that are on your horizon, I guess, not necessarily short term, but contract renewal. As I mentioned, we have a four-year contract with Georgetown Township. And when we renew them, we typically will renew on a three-year cycle. So in 2028 is when this contract comes due, and then we look for renewing every three years. The reason we did a four-year is because all of our other contracts are on a three-year cycle, and in order to, you might say to sync them all up, we had to do a four-year contract. BUT GOING FORWARD, IT WILL BE A THREE-YEAR. IN ADDITION TO THAT, THERE WAS A SUPREME COURT RULING, I THINK IT WAS ABOUT LATE LAST YEAR, THAT SPOKE TO HOW NOT JUST ASSESSORS, BUT I'LL JUST SAY GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS CONDUCT PROPERTY INSPECTIONS, AND WE HAD TO MAKE SOME SMALL TWEAKS, YOU MIGHT SAY, TO OUR POLICY AND PRACTICE AND HOW WE DO PROPERTY INSPECTIONS, ALL OF WHICH CONNOR AND HIS TEAM HAVE ALREADY IMPLEMENTED. SO A COUPLE OF SMALLER CHANGES THERE. The third one is monitoring cost. And this is something that I probably do more than anybody else in our office is just look for ways to do things more efficiently, make sure we're doing them well. But if you don't keep your finger on the pulse of your costs, they can get out of control quickly. So that's something I'm constantly mindful of is how do we keep these costs under control. AND THEN THE FOURTH ONE IS THE DESIGNATED ASSESSOR CONTRACT RENEWAL. I GUESS I'LL MAYBE ASK THAT. HAVE YOU SHARED THIS WITH THE BOARD AT ALL? OKAY. THEN I GUESS I'LL BRING IT UP AS AN INTRODUCTION, AND THEN JUSTIN WILL OF COURSE TAKE IT FROM THERE. Five years ago, just under five years ago, well, I guess I'll back up a little bit more. In 2018, the state of Michigan passed some legislation called the Assessing Reform Bill. And part of that bill was to require counties to have an interlocal agreement that, sorry about that, an interlocal agreement to provide a designated assessor for all of the assessing units. And the intent of that is that if a local unit is found noncompliant in their once every five year audit, they have one option to make it right. So you failed the audit, you were found non-compliant for whatever reason it was, you go back a following year for another audit, and if you fail that, that second audit, you then have three options. The first option, which all jurisdictions have, is simply hire another assessor. You've got to let your assessor go. They had two bites at the apple. They didn't make it. You've got to let them go and hire somebody new. That's option one. Option number two is hire the designated assessor, who is the person chosen by the interlocal agreement. Or option number three is to have the state tax commission come in and assume your assessment role, and then they will provide the assessing services. In Ottawa County, the decision was made to appoint me as the designated assessor. That was a five-year contract, and that contract comes due at the end of this calendar year, December 31st of 26th. So what I asked all of the local municipalities, local assessors, do you want me to continue offering this function or would somebody else be interested in it? And all of them had said, yes, we'd be interested in having you just continue this going forward, okay? So that contract then needs to be renewed, and so I had sent that on to Justin, and he will be working with you guys to approve that interlocal agreement. The way that that works is the same contract goes out to all of the jurisdictions, and then all of those jurisdictions approve it, if they approve of appointing me as the designated assessor. So that's something else that we're working on. And that is... I believe that is the extent of my presentation. Do I have any questions or anything that you'd like me to touch on?

Thank you, Ryan. Anyone?

Ryan, if we were to replace Connor and the work that all of you do, am I pretty close in saying it might take four or five people?

Yeah, I would say that's a fair statement. So part of the reason... Well, yes, I mean, we use four to five people, but part of that is part-time staff, right? So it's not all full-time staff. Excuse me. One of the things that we, when we're looking to staff a... an assessing unit, right? If we take on a contract, we look to industry standards to say, how much does the industry indicate should be in terms of FTEs or full-time employees to fill that contract, okay? To fill that amount of parcels or fill that amount of value. And what we have found is that the The practice that we are doing is right in line with industry standards, which is a good thing, right, that we're providing right where we should be. And the amount of FTEs per parcels, boy, I'm going to say it was right around one FTE per 4,000 to 5,000 parcels, and you guys are at like 22,000 parcels? Yeah. Right around 20,000 parcels, right? So it's about four people, right? Can you do it with less? Yeah. Can you justify more? Yeah, you probably can. But on average, it's going to be around four.

All right. Just my only comment is the system is kind of convoluted when you think about all the money we have to spend for assessing, and we only get 7% of those property taxes in the township. and the county gets 14%, and the public school gets the rest, and they ain't paying for assessing. We are. Correct. So that's my comment to the system, because the system is skewered. It's just bad.

Yeah, well. Yeah, that's how the Constitution set it up, though, right, is that the local jurisdictions are the ones charged with providing assessing services. But, yeah, I mean, point taken, right? I think in Ottawa County, I think it's something like 82 cents of every dollar in property taxes goes to the schools, and they contribute zero towards assessing. That's just how the system is set up, right? That's one of the functions that is the burden of township government.

I'd be curious to go back. 40, 50 years and see what that percentage was then. Above schools, county, and townships. Split up.

And I don't know the answer to that.

That's just my observation. I just look at it and go, wow. We spent a lot of time and money on assessing. We've got a full-time guy. And schools collect all the money and they don't do nothing for it.

Correct. And, of course, it's further complicated because if somebody wants to appeal their value, it's the burden of the township to defend those values, right? Right. Even though the schools have the most to gain, they have to contribute nothing to defend those values. But, again, that's just the way the system is designed, the way the system is structured. And to the best of my knowledge, it's always been that way.

Yeah, and then you look at the non-homestead properties, and those are even worse, how that works. All right, very good.

How did I do for you? Thank you, Brian, and thank you, Connor. Thank you. Appreciate it. His presentation, if you thought it worthwhile, could be made a link in the minutes, yeah? Okay, good. I didn't mean the presentation itself, I meant the content, yeah. Thank you. Except the guy's following me. All right, Chief, we have you up next. Item number eight, here to give us a monthly update. I'll say the same thing to Brian as I said to Sammy, and I'll say it to you as well, Connor, if you guys want to slip out, that's totally up to you.

I just want to go over May stats. We had a total of 273 calls for May. Last month was 270, so a little bit of an increase. Mutual aid given and received, we had five. with a year-to-date total of 934 calls. So under public education, we went to three schools and we did field day, which we go with a fire truck and spray the kids down. Last day of school, they all love it. Nice warm day, good way to finish out school. And then with our big notable is a big thank you for the reconstruction at 8th Avenue Park. That dip, the spillway, made a huge difference. So our fire trucks can now get through, rescue trucks can get through, dive equipment. We were just there last week and we did some training there, did some drone training there and talking with Justin, the place is packed out. It's been a very popular summer so far with people being there. So we want to make sure we're prepared. We appreciate the redesign and the approval for that. That was probably the big thing for me. Any questions at all?

Matt, can I just give you a thought? Sure. We've improved the video so that now if we put things up on screen, they can see it at home. And just a thought, like when you had that special day with the kids and there's just so much happening with the fire department, it'd be great to have a PowerPoint or some slides. Sure. Just a thought for you. I have a conversation with Justin.

Like a video clip or something? Yeah. I try to throw those on Facebook and get them out to the public. We did the spillway. We did a big push on Facebook for it.

It would be good to see it up there and then it's archived. Yep. Because you guys do so many wonderful things, and when you have your dinner, your videos are incredible. Just a thought.

Yeah. I appreciate it. Thank you. Good.

Thank you. All right, thanks, Chief. Thanks, Matt. 8th Avenue is packed. I think over 1,000 bucks in admissions fees just this past weekend. Way more. Okay, way more. Yeah. Yeah, it gets used a lot. Yep. Thank you. Okay, item nine, communication letters and reports received for information and to be filed. Item 10 is a public hearing on community block grant program. Is there a motion to open the public hearing on the Block Grant Program. So moved. Support. So moved and supported. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay, the public may comment at this time on the block grant program, and I think as you're thinking about whether you wish to, would you just preface that with a brief overview of this program, Justin?

Yeah, definitely. We have approximately 55,000, 56,000 residents, and we are eligible under Housing and Urban Development, HUD, to get roughly $250,000 in community development block grant dollars. And one of the requirements to do the application to HUD is we would have to go through a public hearing. So we're going to have one now. After our proposal is done, we'll have a second one. And we're hoping that we can use these funds in the later part of 2026.

Importantly, too, as we talked about it, there don't appear to be the strings attached that would be your chief concern, right? Hey, they want to give us money. What's behind it, you know? So...

If we don't use it, they'll give it to someone else. So long as they're giving it out, let's try to take it, take advantage of it.

Anyone from the public wish to address the block grant program?

Yes, Pete. Just quick. Just to make sure I'm clear on the block grant. No strings attached. It's not for low income housing or apartments or something like that, nothing like that that we know of, right?

Right.

Okay, that's all I wanna know.

Right, yep. A couple of potential uses, Justin, go ahead.

Homebuyer assistance grant, I guess we looked at what's the barrier for, I guess, younger people trying to become a homeowner. The price of homes have exponentially gone up. So we have a nonprofit that would basically handle all the applications. and we could have roughly $20,000 to $30,000 be used for down payment assistance, and they would have to stay in the house for five years.

What have you seen other communities use the money for?

It's kind of endless. If we, based on input, if people want to do a housing rehab that does... A what? A housing rehab where if you're an elderly person, you could... This is what I did in Grand Rapids. We had elderly people who... about the income guidelines. They apply to the program, and myself went out and organized work, like roofs, furnaces, to help people who couldn't afford them get their house fixed up. Every community's different, and you kind of tailor the program to what your community needs. So it's not a one-size-fits-all. It's not like we have to do low-income housing or subsidized housing. We look at our needs of our community, and then we design a program around that.

Okay, others who wish to address? And seeing none, we'll close with a motion. This public hearing, is there a motion to close? So moved.

Support. All in favor say aye.

Aye. Any opposed? It's passed. Now to a motion then to approve of this, participating in this grant program. That's a roll call vote that begins with a motion and second. Does someone wish to make that motion? So moved. Support. Okay. Any discussion? Further discussion? All right. I'd ask our clerk to call the roll, please.

Thank you, Jim. Gene DeWitt?

Yes.

And Mr. Waringa? Yes. Mrs. Grassman?

Yes.

Mr. Veldenk? Yes. And Mr. Kelly.

Yes.

And Mr. Schwamble. Yes. Thank you. Okay, thank you.

Item 11, public comments for items on the agenda this evening. Anyone from the public wish to address the items that remain tonight, largely consisting of, but not entirely, of ordinance revisions? As Pete comes forward, too, I'll just remind you there's also a public comment period at the end for any comments issue you may wish to raise, whether on the agenda or not. So, Pete?

Pete Plowman, 6877 Creek Ridge Court. A couple things. On the assessing, Gary, you hit it right on the nose. As much money as we give in taxes to the county and we get so much, so little back, and we're paying, what, $2.2 million for this four-year contract with assessing for the county, and we haven't even met the level that we actually need to have one yet. And with our growth rate going down, you guys can see our number of builds that we're doing. Will we need one next year or the year after that? I'm not sure. And from everything that I learned from the assessing gentleman is that all he's doing is growing government, hiring people, growing government. And it's like, and we're paying for it. And I think you really need to look at that contract or go at the ability of, Hiring our own person in a serious manner. The other thing I wanted to talk about quick was River Ridge that's on the agenda here. My real concern with that plat is that Fillmore, as you know, is a very busy road, one of the main ways in and out of Georgetown. My concern is that we have not left enough space for, well, it needs to be a three-lane road now. but it should be a four-lane road in the near future especially with cottonwood is four lanes and then so we only got like what 110 foot of frontage on on fillmore that could be a three-lane road today but We actually need another 32 feet to have a four-lane road going Fillmore up towards Grand Valley on the north side. With all the growth we're going to have up that way someday, that will be a four-lane road. That's one of the main ways in and out of here. And maybe possibly a bridge over the Grand River someplace along that stretch at some time. So I think that needs to be seriously considered in that rollout of that plat. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Getting really busy up there.

Yes, it is.

Anyone else? All right, seeing none, we'll close that initial public comment period. Item 12 is the consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda? So moved. Support. Any discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Carried. Item 13 then, second reading adoption of ordinance number 2026-05. This is a sidewalk revision ordinance. This has come before us, obviously, previously for a prior reading. Is there a motion to approve the second reading and adoption of this ordinance change? So moved. Support. Okay. Supported. No, it's been discussed, but you can have further discussion or question or debate. Okay. Hearing none, this is a roll call vote as well.

Mr. Wieringa? Yes. Mrs. Grassman?

Yes.

Mr. Veldink? Yes. Mr. Kelly? Yes. Mr. DeWitt? Yes. And the clerk votes yes for sub clerk.

Thank you. I just think, you know, connectivity. People want connectivity. They want sidewalks.

And we want to keep our residents safe.

We want to keep them safe. Sure. But you can put in sidewalks.

You can put in sidewalks. Yeah, you can.

That's right.

Nobody's stopping. Anybody in this town should put sidewalks in front of their house. You can put one there any time you want.

Yeah, we rely on us making them, right? Well, that's the key.

Who's going to pay for it? If you want to spend $60, $70 million, we can put sidewalks in all of Georgetown. But I always say put it to a millage and we'll vote on it and we'll be done. Then we know how it's going to go. Yeah.

But I'm not opposed to that. Yeah. It would come from utilities, wouldn't it? Item 14, second reading and adoption of ordinance number 2026-07. This is utilities revision ordinance and coming before us for a second reading. Is there a motion to approve the second reading and adoption of this ordinance change? Support. It was supported. Again, discussion. Gary, anything else you wish to add that we haven't already previously discussed? Not just him, of course, everyone else, but Gary in particular. Is this background? Not really. Okay. I know that we've looked at it pretty thoroughly. Anyone else? All right, hearing none, it's a roll call vote. Mr. Schwamm? Okay, Mr. DeWitt? Yes.

Mr. Waringa? Yes. Mrs. Grassman?

Yes.

Mr. Veldenk? Yes. Mr. Kelly? Yes. And Schwamm, yes.

All right, very good, it passes. Item 15 is the initiation of a zoning ordinance amendment. As this board knows, those changes or amendments can be initiated here, sent to Planning Commission, back here then for first and second readings and potential adoption. This is one that came in front of, or these are a series of potential changes that came in front of Finance two meetings back. It's pretty thick. We asked to look at it a second meeting and to have Ryan Schwab there, and Ryan came. We appreciated that. Really went through it meticulously with us. By us, I mean the three of us right here, myself and the two to my right. As part of finance, I know that some of you have availed yourself of talking directly with Ryan or Manette or Justin. And so the question I guess I put to the board is, do you want to, board members, undertake the sort of analysis that Ryan was good enough to lead us in through our meeting recently? Or would you rather have targeted questions from your own review? One way is going to be pretty thorough and pretty extensive, which is fine. The other way, though, is to presume that maybe you've already reached certain conclusions through your own readings and questions, and maybe just to target any lingering issues. So what is the preference of the board? Brian is here. Either way.

Brian did a wonderful job with the Finance Committee. Very detailed. He was impressive. And we had many, many difficult questions for him. So he was very, very thorough.

Okay, looking more to my left here. Would it be beneficial to you, or do you feel like you have, the three of you have read things thoroughly, or do you have precise questions? You'd rather Ryan just address those questions.

I'm pretty happy with the way it's been put together. There's some strikeouts that I agree with. I don't I've gone through it a couple times and I've asked Ryan a couple questions too, so it's not like there's anything new in here. So it's just strengthening our zoning ordinance really.

And it is clarifying on one point in particular as it relates between planning and this board, mutual involvement in, for example, decisions about PUDs and what represents a higher form of development and that kind of thing. It's clarifying with practice. Actual language, and I think that's rather important, among other things. Brian, you want to move closer to the front here? Maybe I know for a fact that in finance we talked about, Gene, I think you and I each addressed the question of whether or not to require, there was a new ordinance offered here or a provision related to a storm shelter. Yeah, that's going to be the one I'd like to see tabled or brought to the

to look further into it because I think it's way too broad.

That's the one I had.

Good, Amy, you felt that way as well. I think it's 3.52 just so you know what we're looking at. 3.51, no, 3.52, you're right. I think part of the opinion in finance was, and maybe it was yours as well, Amy, it was maybe premature if we should ever adopt it that there should be a need. Otherwise it seems just like an added I would like to think that neighbors would be neighborly and would help one another in the event of a crisis situation that way, but I'm not a developer. You might like it one way or another, Gary, because it's just more requirements. I don't think it arises in too many places, but... it could arise in the future, you know, that you might have that many that lack basements and the like. I just don't think we're there right now. I don't think it's been necessary.

We're talking mostly residential right now. What are we going to do about commercial? There's only one, in the research I did, there's only one other township in all of Michigan that has something very, I mean, has storm shelter, but it's very loose. You've got to also get into the Michigan residential cold building, you get into what you want to do if you want to stay with FEMA to get grants or anything else that would help out that situation. There's only three states in all the U.S. that actually do it. They're in Tornado Alley. I think there's too many questions and stuff out there that we can just blind put this in there without doing a lot more research.

Brian, anything you want to shed light on with that one? Anything more to add?

I KNOW WE TALKED ABOUT IT A LITTLE BIT AT FINANCE. I THINK THAT WAS THE ONE AT THE FINANCE MEETING THAT GOT A BIT OF, HEY, MAYBE THIS IS ONE WE'D LIKE TO AT LEAST BRING IT TO THE BOARD FOR DISCUSSION, BUT WE'RE UNSURE IF THIS IS SOMETHING THAT IS READY TO BE PUT IN THE ORDINANCE. AND I THINK THE COMMENTS THAT GENE MAKES ARE VERY REASONABLE, SOMETHING THAT um we could definitely do some additional research into as to maybe specific guidelines if it's something that we want to see do more research into the history of other developments implementing something similar to that and what sort of options can we have for maybe a more targeted ordinance so yeah i think i think it's it'd be a reasonable one to maybe just hold off for now but okay

Brian, is there one that you wish to highlight just because you feel like it's important that you want to draw the board's attention to it any more than they've already done?

I think you mentioned it. I think the one that is pretty big is in regards to PUD and the way that we evaluate what is a higher quality development and who does that when, who approves a deviation. And I think the way that the Township Board and Planning Commission have historically always operated is If somebody comes in with a PUD application, they are able to request deviations from our ordinance, so things ordinarily that maybe they would not be able to do, maybe a smaller setback. it's always been the case that the township board would review those deviations from the ordinance and the planning commission both at that preliminary stage so right at the beginning of their application and then as they do engineering and they do other things there's that already approval of those deviations from the ordinance and the way it's written in our ordinance states that it's something that can be approved at the final development plan by the planning commission And a lot of those deviations can be things like a detached garage, having much smaller setbacks. And I think the impression that I got from working here is that it's important for the township board to be able to review those things. And it's also important for the planning commission to be reviewing those at that preliminary stage before we get all the way through all the engineering and everybody's already on board with it, so I think that would be the most major change in my opinion, but I think the ordinance change brings us in line with maybe the way the township has always assumed to operate, which is we should be looking at those kind of things from day one of a PUD application.

Anybody have any questions for Ryan? Ryan, as far as a shelter, if someone has a basement, they meet it completely.

Well, I think that's your question right there is exactly why maybe it's something that we need to do some additional research on because those are the questions that have been asked to me. What would meet that requirement as a storm shelter? Is it just the basement? Can it be somebody's bathroom and they have a certain fortified concrete around it? Would that meet the requirements? So I think that's where I think the point that Jean makes is very reasonable, which is maybe a more targeted ordinance, maybe research into what those FEMA or fire department guidelines would be, and then maybe including those in an ordinance if we do want to pursue something like a storm shelter ordinance.

Well, and we just spent money on a tornado siren and maintenance, so it's obviously important. to the township and prop into our residents.

Well, yeah, and you put that by a campground, which has no basements. Right. That's the correlation I have. I'm like, okay, so we put the siren in and they have no place to go down by the campground there on the river. So I go, we're just telling it's common and you're on your own. Climb under your car. So, I mean, I don't know if that wording is we have to look at differently, because maybe, like you say, if you've got a neighbor that has a basement, you go there. When I look at the campground, I'm like, there's no place to go down there. So you put the siren up there for safety, but then we don't require anything for safety. And I'm like, I don't, it seems like we're not going the full bore.

Interesting. So you'd rather that we not warn them at all, right?

I'm just saying you spent the money warning them.

At Sandy Pines, what happened was, because that's a perfect example, right? Only a mass number of trailers. FEMA doles out money for these things, right? And they got the money to build a big shelter, which they use for other purposes as well. And again, it's another reason to look into it to say, is this ever something we'd want to look at? If we did, is it something we'd have to pay for, that developers would pay for, that someone else would pay for?

I don't know. Maybe the campground has block bathrooms where they're sufficient for that. I don't know. I'm just asking the question.

And they might.

And they may. And they may. How many of you grew up with a cinder block room in the basement of your home with evaporated milk and spam? Anybody?

my dad went through the 56 tornadoes yeah that was commonplace well you can get into that same old thing too with most of our modern uh buildings that are going up now are made of mostly 10 some of the construction of of our uh industrial areas so you have 50 60 guys in there and something goes through is one bathroom that you'd be the more inside and covered gonna be enough. So are we looking at just residential or are we gonna expand this to go into commercial? I mean, there's so many ways that this could fly that I think we need to really look at. I'm all for safety, don't get me wrong. No. Says the former fire chief. Yeah.

Ryan, I believe our lawyer recommended we consider this. What would be the reasoning behind that?

I think the reasoning to at least consider it is when you have things like PUDs and you have developments where maybe you've got – maybe there's different developments that are going to be targeted maybe towards younger families or – older people and they're going to be hoping to do development that's maybe a little bit more affordable. Those types of things may not have basements, which I think in general, that's what you think of when you think of, okay, if there is a tornado, where are you going to go? We're going to go to the basement. So I think that kind of spurred this on a little bit. I think there was a suggestion with a previous PUD application, perhaps even by Gene that, hey, maybe this is something that we should take a look at. Do we have a requirement for this? Is there a requirement for this? So there's some language that's offered there. So we'll kind of leave it to you if it's something that you want to initiate at this point or if you think it's something that's worth a little bit more research and maybe you'd like to see some more specific language.

Would this give you more decision-making ability, more discretion when developments are put in? Would this give you more influence in particular developments?

I think it depends. I think potentially you could meet this requirement with, you know, if a development's proposing like a clubhouse, you might be able to meet that already just by changing the way that you decide to construct that building. I don't know that it necessarily... gives me additional influence on development. I don't think I'd put it that way.

I probably worded that poorly.

Yeah, it would be an additional...

I think from a safety factor.

From a safety factor, I think you could require additional things. Yes, I think that's a fair characterization of it. But I think it's also an additional maybe requirement on potential developers to show this is something that you're going to have to do regardless of if every individual unit has basements or not. So perhaps it's an additional requirement on a developer. I don't know that it's additional say that we would have, just an additional requirement in our ordinance.

I would think that we're not trying to, because of what came through us a while back, that we're not trying to make it harder for such type of element to happen. I don't want to go there, but in a way it kind of feels a little bit like that. That kind of bothers me too, but you can get into, you could put a pillbox in your garage, which takes up as much as a workshop or something like that, but then you need four inches of cement to boil it down, and you need three square feet for each person, all these kind of guidelines that would have to go along with something like this too.

I just think we need to go out for the research before we pass anything like this. Okay, is there a motion to approve these ordinance changes? I'm sorry, to initiate the ordinance change subject to the removal of 3.52.

I'd like to make a motion that we strike section 3.52 at this time. So we come up with a better wording? I think that wording is too vague, too. I'm not against it. I just think that it's got to be fleshed out better than what it is.

I think rather than a motion to strike, which might require a double motion, then to go back to the initiation, do you just want to make the motion to initiate the following zoning ordinance amendments with the removal of Section 3.52? That's fine. Yeah.

Support.

Moved and supported. All right.

Yeah.

Discussion, further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right, and that will be, I think sent now to the Planning Commission, right? Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Ryan. Thanks, Ryan. That was a great job. A lot of stuff comes at that guy in a week. All right, we're up to item 16, sanitary cleaning and televising bid. which we put out a request with six different folks and got one response, huh? So moved. All right, so there's a motion to approve that one bid from Plumbers. Is there a second? Support. Supported by Kevin. Discussion? No, we've worked with Plumbers. They do an excellent job. Yeah. We didn't get a lot of interest in bidding on it. Yeah. Specialized equipment, right? Yeah. I think in inquiring about this, I've been told it's a competitive number, even if they perceive that they had the field, you know? So this is... Joel likes working with them, yeah.

Four year bid for the whole four years or is this per year? The whole, right?

For the whole four years, I believe.

For four years, right? Yeah. Just 140. Yeah. Good question. Make sure I had that right.

Anyone else? Hearing none, there's a motion before you. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion is carried. Item 17, second public comment period. As I alluded to before at this point, anyone here this evening who wishes to address the board on any topic, I would just ask you to step forward, identify your name, your address, and you've got three minutes.

Sean Half, Winifred Street. I know we mentioned that plumbers are the only person that put in a bid.

Hey, Sean, I'm going to be criticized later if I don't ask this follow-up. Your address on Winifred? Oh, 1482. Okay, thank you.

Okay. Unfortunately, I had to use plumbers recently for some issues with my septic tank that was getting fixed, but they did do a good job, and they were very reasonable with their rates, so... I wouldn't be concerned about not getting other quotes. They were on the lower end of quotes for pretty much several other places that I called for on that. So they did a good job. Second of all, I just wanted to point out that I've worked with Connor the last couple of years. With who, I'm sorry? Connor, when it comes to assessments and board review. He's done a great job. Very pleasure to work with. Does a good job. It can... be a little tense, obviously, anytime you're dealing with people paying property taxes. Even I, one time, some person got up and started pointing and was like, you guys, and I'm like, no, I had nothing to do with your tax rates.

You work with him through the Board of Review, right? Yes, yeah. Appreciate that, yeah.

Yeah, he's doing a really good job. As far as the thing we just had with the storm shelter, No disrespect to anybody here. I respect everyone up here, but to me it's kind of assumption of risk. I understand that there's a chance you could have bad storms come through here, tornadoes. If I choose not to protect myself from something like that, to me it's an assumption of risk. I wouldn't want to burden somebody else about having to build a shelter because somebody else chose not to. That's just my thought process on that. Thank you. Thank you.

Thanks, Sean.

Anyone else? Yes.

Welcome. Kathy Kiffmuller, 3461 Rosewood Street. I'd like to address the newly implemented speed limits that went through. I live in the 35 mile per hour section, which thank you, that's been helpful. But ever since it was raised to 50 east of 28th and then 45 and a half mile section from 28th to Camrose, It's like people don't care what the speed limit is. We have people going through at 70 miles per hour. We have school buses flying through there at 60 miles per hour. Kids on dirt bikes doing wheelies all the way down Rosewood. And it's getting to where it's uncontrollable and it's unsafe. My husband's had the shovel knocked out of his hands twice, and he's going to get dragged out onto the street one of these days because they just get so close to our property. And the look on their faces, you can tell they don't care. They act like, well... Why are you all upset over this? So now that this TCO has been completed, I think we're requesting that we get some additional enforcement from maybe some more sheriff patrol. I know they came out and sat Friday night and Saturday morning for a little bit. But we really need them to start ticketing people because the abuses are great. It's not like they're going five miles over. It's a free-for-all out there. And, I mean, I'm really concerned about the safety. There was just an accident this week on Rosewood just at the bottom of the hill. So it's the first one I'm aware of in, like, the 20 years I've lived there. So I just think that the speed limit... If it's going to be 45 to 50, then it needs to be enforced because it's really getting out of control. That's all I have.

Thank you.

I, too, have to say I agree with the young lady about the speed limit on Rosewood. I live in that neighborhood as well. People speed all the time, and I know basically it's the road commission or whatever sets that kind of stuff, but, man, it's way too fast. You're going by Rosewood Park. You got the school buses. It's way too fast. Or put in more stoplights so they can't get up to 50. I MEAN, SOMETHING'S GOT TO BE DONE BECAUSE IT'S OUT OF CONTROL. BUT THE REAL THING THAT I WANTED TO TALK ABOUT IS THE UTILITY BILLS. LOOKING AT THE UTILITY OUTLINE THAT WAS PUT ON HERE, THE AGENDA, HOLY COW, WYOMING'S GOT A LOT OF COSTS COMING OUR WAY. SITTING IN THE UTILITY SUBCOMMITTEE MEETING, LISTEN TO JUSTIN EXPLAIN HOW THOSE COSTS ARE GOING TO HIT US. I MEAN, ORIGINALLY, BACK IN THE DAY, JUST LAST YEAR, YEAR BEFORE, We were the lowest priced water of everybody, weren't we? I remember the charts you guys sent out. Now Justin's telling us in that meeting, in probably the next two years, we're going to be the highest. Wow. And that doesn't even include what's going to happen probably in July next month when Granville Sewer tells us what the upgrades there are going to be. Wow, this is all just great news, just more good news. I don't know what you guys are thinking, but this is not the direction we want to go. As I stated before in the finance committee, I really think you need to start putting money aside. Raising, I mean, frankly, the water bill is just an ability for you to raise taxes so you can pay for that stuff, but I think you need to put money aside. I mean, I know you want it to be self-funding, but it's going to be expensive for water and sewer here. SUPER EXPENSIVE. SO I THINK YOU NEED TO START THINKING LONG TERM AND HOW WE'RE GOING TO DO THIS. THE OTHER THING THAT I NOTICED ALSO ON THAT INFORMATION THAT CAME FROM WYOMING, WHAT ARE WYOMING'S NUMBERS?

OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE COSTS?

WHAT ARE THEY PAYING FOR OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE? I MEAN, DO WE HAVE A GEORGETOWN PUMP STATION AND WE ONLY PAY FOR THAT? NO. IT'S ALL WYOMING. ARE WE PAYING FOR ALL THEIR People, personnel, salaries, benefits, maintenance, just the towns that are connected, or the other choice you have, the people who are connected to us, you need to severely raise their rates taking water from our system to Jamestown, Blendon, Hudsonville. You need to do exactly what Wyoming's doing. I know they're not gonna stand for it, so why are we standing for that for Wyoming. You really need to rethink that whole thing because it's going to be super expensive in probably two years. Thank you. Thank you.

Hi, my name's Tony Maurer. I live actually down at 8266 Thornhill River Drive over in Caledonia. I was just coming out here. I am helping out Michael Markey. He's running for state senate. He'd like to be here today. Unfortunately, Grand Haven and Spring Lake also had meetings, and we had to draw the line at two places at once tonight. So just wanted to come out, introduce myself, thank all you guys for what you do for the community. The very, very brief introduction of what Mike would like to do is to put more power in the hands of people like you to make sure that our communities are able to do what's best for them, looking at stuff like PA 233 that passed a couple of years ago in Lansing that stripped township boards like this, their authority to be able to determine what happens in their community. wants to make sure that we restore that power back in your guys' hands. If any of you guys would like to get in touch with Mike, I'll be here at the end. I'd love to try to set up a meeting, phone call, something, because he values all of your guys' insights of what's going on in your community and wants to make sure that when he does get to Lansing that he's able to embody the needs, the wants, the desires of the people that live here.

Thank you. All right, thank you. Thank you. Michael, if he wants to come to a future meeting, you're welcome.

Absolutely, we'll do it.

Yes.

Bosque at 3540 Baldwin Street. I AGREE WITH THAT LADY THERE ABOUT THE SPEEDING DEAL. I'VE COMPLAINED. I'VE LIVED HERE FOR 17 YEARS AND I'VE COMPLAINED EVERY YEAR. BALDWIN IS JUST AS BAD AS INTERSTATE 196. I THINK THEY OUGHT TO TOWNSHIP, GO TO THE ROAD COMMISSIONER, SEE IF WE CAN'T DO AN AUDIT OF ALL THESE SPEED LIMITS. some streets are too low some seats are too high but you just can't get to a standard and your level i think i think we ought to get to an audit and have that done by the road commissioner i just think we gotta do that and now with the sewer water line coming up it's just like And another thing, too, would be nice if it's a road commissioner, the trucks that go down through there use their jake brake. Because that's just loaded stuff and the weight's there. And they sit there and they throw the jake brake and it just wakes up my cats that are sleeping. It's that loud. So it's just... We've got to do something with the road commissioner to talk to them and see if they can't do some kind of an audit. Okay?

Thank you. Is that it? All right. Seeing none, we'll close the second public comment period. Now it's time for board discussion. And just on that note, it's always concerning to be careful what you wish for when you get those speed studies because they result in things you don't want. They have a way of testing and doing the average speed. Sometimes it raises them, sometimes it lowers. I agree with Kathy back here. Enforcement's really key. Justin and Kevin and I were just talking about it the other day, Rosewood in particular, but you have to enforce, right? And you've emphasized that with our sheriff's deputies. I guess we emphasize it again and all the more. It's like we've got to, people have to know that there's enforcement going on And you're right, Baldwin can get that way too, but enforcement is really a key, really a key. Something else I, oh, to Pete's comment, I want to talk about just, we do owe our residents to be standing our ground as much as we can with Wyoming in terms of negotiation, and I guess I want to say among the board as well as those here tonight that we're doing that as best we can. I mean, we're in certain agreements already, right? There's other things they would like signed that we have not, while other communities haven't. Of course, they use that with leverage. Why are you holding out? Well, we've got reasons. We're the ones kind of at the middle of taking the brunt of it. We've got legal counsel looking at it. All options are on the table, I guess is what I would say. Is that fair to say, Justin? Yes, yes. So Gary likes to use the phrase red-headed stepchild. I don't want to be, and I have red hair.

I've read so many water contracts in the next month, I don't care if I read one for a while. I've gone through all of them, and I've talked a lot with Justin, too. It's like, I'll tell you, it's a difficult task because Wyoming holds the cards. It's a $700 million project. And to say you can raise money to do something different, that means you've got to raise water rates even more to put money away because water and sewer is an enterprise fund. We can't take money out of a general fund to fund water and sewer, and water and sewer can't come to a general fund. So if you think you're going to put money ahead, it's going to be tough to do because you've got to raise water rates to do that. Now you really got a problem. So it's not easy. I think our usage, the way the contract is, are three times the amount that we use in the winter we use in the summer. That's what drives that price up so high in the summertime is our usage. I don't like some of those aspects of the contract either, but it was signed in 1980 already too, so there are certain things we can't get out of. But all options are on the table. We've looked on a lot of options. Justin and I have talked a lot. Once a week we get together and we talk about, what about this option? He looks at me and goes, well, I thought about that too. So it's a tough one.

It really is.

But on a happy note, I got three texts this week thanking us for having Parsons time. One guy said to me, you can actually go down that road without loosening your filling anymore. Because that road was so bad. And I think before the opening, we should have had a Pinewood Derby race down that thing. It was so smooth and awesome. Could have had a great time down there. But no. I got three people that called or texted me and said, man, that was so long overdue. And then I drove by the 12th Avenue project off from Jackson. If you look down there, what the work is going on there with all the drainage.

I have a co-worker that lives down there, and he says, where's my road? I said, Ottawa County Road Commission, 616-842. I don't know.

The only reason I knew that they were doing is that when you go on McCullough and 12th Avenue, you look across the expressway, you can see piles of dirt. I'm like, oh, I got to go see this. And they have done some major, it's going to be nice when it's done, but they're redoing all the drainage and everything. It's quite a project, but it's good. Got that done.

On a positive note also, Andy, I love that banner on the side of the library. It's awesome.

Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. It's good. And the flags down Chicago Drive.

And Baldwin. It all looks nice. All the veteran banners. A lot of towns are doing them.

The Memorial Day Parade was a huge success and well attended. And the ceremony, the police chief from Granville, Paul Etram, he was great. Spoke from his heart. For years, we've tried to have a 21-gun salute, and Jim was finally able to line some people up to do that, and that went off very, very well. But the Jenison band, they just make it. They do. It adds class. I heard a lot of very, very positive comments. It was just very wholesome and just good. So it was a good event. The newsletter also was, I want to mention, I thought the newsletter's been just terrific.

People like the flags that we handed out at the parade, too. Yes. That Kelly and I handed out.

Her family. Yeah.

Anyone else? All right, is there a motion to adjourn? Some will support. All in favor say aye. Aye. It's adjourned.