Township Board - Regular Meeting

I'm going to call the meeting to order of the Georgetown Township Board on this sticky evening and turn to you, Amy, to offer prayer to start our meeting tonight.

All right. Let's bow our heads and let us pray. Please pray for everyone in this room tonight, our fellow board members, that we all make good decisions. Our friends and residents who are here in attendance, thank you for coming. Pray for the township employees who service all every single day tirelessly. And it's election season, so please remember to pray for all the poll workers and candidates And we thank and pray for our first responders daily, our police officers, our firefighters, and our EMTs. They witness unthinkable things, and we pray for their well-being and their safety. And we also pray for our nation that we all unite. Keep us all safe in our journey home, and we ask this in Jesus' precious name, and all God's children say amen.

Amen. Thank you. If you'd 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, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. You may be seated. And Clerk Kuyper, did you just acknowledge the role tonight?

All present except Trustee Kelly, who is absent with notice.

Thank you. All right. We have a quorum. Is there a motion to approve tonight's agenda? Move. Support. Move is supported. Any comments, questions? I don't know if it's necessary to say, but I think item eight is essentially removed. We're bumping that to a later meeting. I don't mind just knowing that we'll skip it when we come to it. All right, hearing nothing further, all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right, the agenda is passed. And we're going to begin tonight With a presentation from, I like to say Pat, because I'm never sure with Stasiewicz, if I'm close. Say it again. Stasiewicz. All right, Pat, thanks for coming. I appreciate you coming, and I know you've got a PowerPoint for us, and for the public, you'll be able to see it there on the screen.

Here we go. All right. Well, thank you very much. I appreciate the invitation to be here tonight. My name's Pat Stasiewicz. I'm the Public Utilities Director for the Ottawa County Road Commission. And Justin asked for me to give you a 20,000 foot view of what's going on with your wholesale water and wastewater providers. And so that's what I'm here to do tonight. He asked for five slides and five minutes. I'm at like six slides and six minutes. So first we have to the left the city of Wyoming water treatment plant that's over on New Holland Street in Park Township along the lake shore. And then the City of Granville Clean Water Plant, that's right off of here on Baldwin near the ramp. So you can see that as you come off the highway.

I've long said this about the best-looking sewage treatment plant I've ever seen.

It is, it is a good one.

And there might have been a time when that exit, when we had those older warehouses on our side, where it looked nicer than ours did. Right. with our property, so we've changed that.

It's been a little rough over the years for sure. So I'm here to give kind of a 20,000 foot view of the water and wastewater. And why I'm here is because the city of Wyoming, their treatment plant is nearing capacity and so we're facing some pressures to expand certain components of the system. It's also aging and so there's a number of renovations that we need to consider and we need to consider increasing reliability and redundancy. On the other side, the city of Granville, we are doing pretty well with capacity there. But Granville is very forward thinking with making sure that we keep up with those facilities. And so they have a number of capital improvements on the horizon. Now the numbers I'm gonna give you are very high level. So there's a budgetary numbers. And so as we get closer and closer, some of them are actual, but I just wanna give you that context. And they will likely increase over time because there's inflation. And as we design a project, we'll get narrow in on the actual cost. And then the other thing I wanted to say, I'm rounding some of these percentages. And so I'm trying to again, say at 20,000 feet. So we'll get into that right now. So there's a number of capital improvements at the Wyoming plant. Currently we're constructing a third transmission main in Port Sheldon and Olive townships. So the Van Buren Street corridor is pretty beaten up right now. But on the horizon we have The north treatment plant filtration system, that old part of the plant dates back to the 60s and we really need to take down each one of those filters and get to the very bottom and build them back up. And as we do that, we're going to have an opportunity for some incremental capacity. So it's kind of a mixed blessing on that one. That's planning to take place in fiscal year 27-28. Then we have the second intake in 2029. That's really for redundancy. And then the third transmission, main phase two, that's slated for about 32, fiscal year 31-32. Of those totals, about 182 million Ottawa County shares about 49% and Georgetown is about 41% of that Ottawa County shares. So when you do all the math, roughly 20% of these big numbers is Georgetown's share if it all came due right now and we were to cash out. So that'd be about 36 million. Now here's some history on the wholesale rate. Wholesale means the amount that Georgetown purchases from Ottawa County through Wyoming if it's bulk water or discharges to the treatment plant. So the blue in the bottom is the operation of maintenance costs, and you can see that's kind of dipped up and down, but it's generally on the rise. The yellow is cash-funded capital, so that's a project that we're going to do in charging the rates and pay for that year. And then the green is bonded debt, and so that's a larger project. We may pay for that over 20 years or maybe even longer. and then the pink on the top is the the third transmission main uh the first phase so you can see incrementally what what that's costing that's over 20 years and then that um projected on the far right there that's that orange on the on the top that would be if we finance the north uh treatment filtration system renovations that we've got planned So that gives you kind of a context of where we've been. I know it's not super easy to read, but essentially we've been at this 1,500 per million gallons. If you divide by 1,000, $1.50 per 1,000 is another way to think about it. And now we're in this 2,000 to 2,500 range.

This is a busy... Can you go back to that slide? Sure. If you go back to that slide, if you look at the blue... Yep. that's the water rate this is the old operation and maintenance rate okay yep there comes a point though we're going to spend more money on bonding than we are on water well you you are right now we are right now right this is the current fiscal year the money we're spending to pay for the pipe is more than the water that comes to the pipe I'm pointing that out because I don't think people realize the cost of the infrastructure is far more than the product the infrastructure is carrying. I'm just trying to get everybody's mind to understand what's going on here because that bonding is... Well, from the context that the water is free from Lake Michigan... I understand, but I don't think people understand the schematics of what's going on with that water line.

Right. It's expensive. It is. I know.

I'm not taking away from it. I'm just saying, I'm trying to point out the realities of it. That's all I'm trying to do because I don't think everybody understands realities.

When I started, they just finished back in 1992, 1995, they just finished the second transmission main. And so all that time we've been paying on that one. And so incrementally we're at that point where we need to increase capacity. So you're right, it is a growing expense. So here's a little bit of context. So let me explain this next one. This was from the Holland BPW. They shared this information with me and this is a rate study throughout all of Michigan. And so what they're looking at, we're doing tiered rates. And so this particular chart shows an average summer bill throughout the state of Michigan for fiscal year 24, that's the blue line, and fiscal year 25 is the incremental change. And so if you see here, all of these gray, these are Ottawa County communities, both on Grand Rapids and Wyoming water. And here's Holland BPW, Georgetown Township is down here. And so over this time, the whole scale is from $22 a month to about $108 a month. And Ottawa County generally has been in the $25 to $40 a month, but incrementally we're going to the $30 to $48 a month. So I'm just, again, I'm not trying to say that this doesn't hurt when you increase rates quickly, especially if you have a fixed budget. So that's not what I'm trying to show with this, but I'm trying to give you context that West Michigan generally still has very affordable water rates.

Where will that land us on that chart when that's all said and done at 48?

Well, this is the incremental increase right here. So, you know, Andy Campbell will have to take a look at all of those and we can talk about some other potential ways to reduce that. But, you know, you're looking, you know, somewhere up in this area.

You're suggesting or conveying that all these other communities will still have a higher rate than us even after this debt that we're talking about having to tackle.

i'm not promising anything i'm just saying that that you you it's it it's very um difficult to to try to compare different areas because again your our cost of living here is different than the east side of the state so it's all relative And I do totally appreciate the incremental cost increase that have happened rapidly. What I'm trying to show with this is number one, you know, we've talked about tiered rates as a potential solution that the township may want to consider. Holland BPW just went to that and so we can learn from some of their successes or failures depending on how that turns out. And so this information was kind of looking at that of what other municipalities throughout the state are paying for water and what that means for that community. You're going to have to do the same as you continue to replace the aging infrastructure within the township. as we continue to replace and increase capacity for for the wholesale supply all of that gets put into the to the machinery and you have to you have to pay the bills um so so that's where the the rate consultant will will take a look at that and and provide some guidance to you and then and then you'll have to make some decisions so moving on to wastewater again 20 000 feet we've got the maintenance center bill building that's under construction right now 3.7 million dollars um that probably should have done been done with the last improvement or two they're they're really far behind on that so this we we asked them to um justify that and for six months we talked about it and I think everybody's on board with the need on that. And so right now I'm working with Justin on how we may want to deal with this in the rates. The next three projects are about 2.5 million. Granville is trying to keep up with some of these things. Side stream treatment, I think that's going to help them keep in compliance with their permit over time. This grit process is another thing that is getting old. That's going back to the original process. And then there are some other things like standby generator, final effluent tank. So of this, Georgetown is at about 40% of the total. So to give you context, we were at 20% of the total with Wyoming, because you're part of a much bigger system. With the wastewater system, there's only four communities, Granville, Georgetown, Jamestown, and Hudsonville. And so of that total, you're at 40%. But the numbers are generally smaller, too, because it's a smaller facility. Here's the rates over time. Again, the blue is the operation and maintenance cost, and the green is the bond indebtedness. And generally, we've been in this $250 to $3,000 range, and now we're creeping up to the $4,000 range. We are going to have some of these bond issues start to drop off. So that's what we're going to try to balance not only with Wyoming but with Granville, trying to delay as much as possible or try to make sure that we don't have any huge swings in those wholesale costs. That's the last slide, but I just kind of want to give you some food for thought regarding these big numbers and your system, because it's growing and aging at the same time. So from 1965 through 1988, that's when your system really started to be built, we sold on your behalf 12 bonds. for the township. And that really helped to build your base sewer system and some of the base water systems that you have. Then from that you had a lot of subdivisions, you had developers extending water in the township's roads. In some cases the township was putting money into it. But you really didn't have any township infrastructure bonds up until 1988 was the last one. Now, you know, some of that stuff is 40 to 60 years old, some of those pipes. And pipes are generally have a lifespan from 50 to 100 years depending on a number of factors. So just to give you a context of where you're at with some of your infrastructure, And then we've since sold 13 bonds for Wyoming system. So that's really, we've done that. We've been at the table from day one with Wyoming and have been able to finance our, I say our, our collective debt to keep our rates low because the county has a lower bonding rate. In Granville, however, we were not able to do that until 2008. So up to that point, Granville was financing everything, and we paid for it. We paid extra in interest, and so it wasn't the best contract. We have a great relationship with them now. And so from 2010 forward, we've been coming to the table with financing, and we pay a lower rate as a result of that. So when Andy talked with me a few years ago, when you first worked with him on looking at rates, he mentioned that the township didn't want to consider any bonding whatsoever. And so I just want to give you, again, some food for thought. The Grand Haven Township recently did a transmission main project in the township. Now, they, like you, had a lot of growth, they have a lot of connection fees, they have a lot of money in the bank, but one of their philosophies was that, in this case, this is a long-serving infrastructure that we're talking about a 75 to 100-year pipeline and a booster station, and so what they did is they decided to pay half of it in cash and half of it funded over time. And what that really does is that doesn't put all the burden of paying for that infrastructure on yesterday's or today's rate payer. It also puts it on some of the burden for those that are going to be using it over the next 20 years. You do unfortunately pay interest as a result of that. and that's part of the balance that you have to consider of what the rates are to your customer, what's good prudent financial management of trying to keep your interest rates down, and all of that included. So with that, that's all I had.

On that point, Pat, we're not obviously in control of what the county decides to bond. We're subject to those bonds. Blue area, basically. The blue cost to us and to our residents, right?

Well, we can never force anybody to bond. And so as and when these projects come due, we will inform all the communities what the cost is gonna be. In the case of Wyoming, If you want to pay cash and you have the money on hand, then we can reduce your rate accordingly. um so so there there are some there is an ability for uh the township to to manage that in some in some aspect but but then you would need to have those funds on hand um you you know i've talked with with justin about at least looking at some of your your upcoming um capital improvements within the township and if what it would mean to potentially finance for that just to give you a high level of what financing costs are today They're about 4%. So for a million dollars, it costs about $75,000 a year at 4%, roughly, in annual costs over 20 years. We could finance from five years to 30 years. So there's everything in between on that. But in that scenario I gave, over 20 years, for that $1 million, you're paying a half million dollars in interest. So it's just like when you go to mortgage a house, you never want to look at how much interest you pay. You know, it's one of the things that, you know, if you could afford to pay cash for a house, God bless you, but not everybody can. Again, this is your decision. I'm just here to give you some information and some tools, food for thought tonight. I'm happy to answer questions and come back at a later date.

I'm sure that Justin understands this, and Gary probably does, and forgive me if I'm the only one who doesn't, but when I look at your first chart and it had pink and projected orange on there in 2029, those are Ottawa County bonds, which you would say currently the pink is already in existence, that being the Ottawa County debt rate from that first chart, from the first chart, right? So that already exists, right? Next one, yep. That already exists, correct?

Yeah, this right here already exists.

And that's through Ottawa County. And we're paying, well, our people are paying that on that bonding. You were able to do that without us saying, we hereby authorize you to bond or we did previously.

You did previously have been informing you and asking you along the way.

Okay, I'm trying to decide if that's different than the sort of bond you're looking to us to be debating, considering among ourselves, which is our own bonding or would it, yeah. So we haven't, as a township,

take it out of bond but we've done so essentially through the county right and what you think we might need to consider for the future would likewise be something that we consider authorizing the county right i would have to come back to you and in the case of anything with granville we've been using act 342 which we have a specific contract between ottawa county and the local community it could be a one-on-one just financing for georgetown or if If the other communities want to join in, it could be a multi-jurisdictional one.

I know it feels a little bit like semantics, but it's one thing to take, we take out a bond, we as Georgetown are going to bond X or Y, right? Versus we are going to authorize Ottawa County to do so on our behalf. It feels a little different, but I know in essence it probably isn't. Either way, our people are responsible for a certain amount of that debt financing, right?

Right.

I think we've sort of, at least thus far, taken the approach that it seems once removed. when the county is doing so versus saying to our own people look, we're hereby gonna finance this expected debt. I don't know if we should see it differently but I think we have and it maybe makes people feel better on the board to say well we didn't bond as a township because we don't do that or we haven't done that and we have no debt and so on versus we hereby authorize as we have already the county to do so essentially on our behalf along with other municipalities within the county. Right?

Right.

Yeah.

That's an interesting perspective and I appreciate that. You know, I'm here tonight to try to, you know, explain to you that it's a partnership. We're in this together. My office is the public works agent for the county. And so we act as the agent for the municipalities if and when we're needed. And so in this case, many years ago, we realized it'd be better to have a regional wastewater system than to try to do it on your own, and likewise, a regional water system. And so we have been your agent, and it does take constant communication, so I would just say that we would invite you, an elected official, we get two spots every fall, we're gonna have meetings at the Granville plant. I'm sorry, the Wyoming plant with a luncheon and elected officials so that we can talk about the issues of the day. Tomorrow we have a quarterly meeting with the Granville wastewater plant. So we meet with them quarterly to talk. And so if any time we want to have the board more engaged either in tours or to get into the weeds on any project or what have you, we're here to help facilitate that.

I'll ask this and then I'll shut up for the others. As our agent, if we didn't have you as an agent, we would more or less have to have our own agent, somebody we might have to hire even, as would any other municipality who's part of this program, correct? Right. So you're our agent. Yes. Do you see yourself, you use we a lot, and I'm thinking we county, but sometimes it felt like in the beginning of your discussion, like we, city of Wyoming and Ottawa County, to what degree do you have as our agent the ability to negotiate with them, to push back on them, to advocate for these municipalities within the county that you represent?

Yeah, that's an excellent question. And so we have been negotiating with them an updated contract. And we're getting very close to having that before you and all the other boards and councils. And we have been struggling with this issue of growing communities, communities that are built out, and everything in between. And I think we have a great contract that kind of strikes a balance of all of that. When I say, when I come to the table, we, I'm representing the rate payers as much as anything else because those are the ones that really buy and help finance the system. We're just managing it on their behalf. And again, you're the stewards to try to provide your residents with different services. So that's how I view it as well.

Continue to be an advocate, please. Thank you.

So Pat, we could pay part, we could pay all, If we were to go through the county, you could get us a better rate and you'd help with the negotiations. And as Jim was just saying, where we might have to hire someone, this would be a service or a partnership with the county if we were to ever go that route.

Well, I'm saying, for instance, if you did want to do bonds on your own, your township could go to market on your own. You could... You could hire a consultant and have that done. The interest rates may be a little bit higher. And I've had conversations with Jamestown Township, other communities, and they've looked at that. And so I would encourage you that if we do get to the point of doing a bond issue or just a Georgetown Township, for your due diligence, you should look at what it would cost to do it on your own. I think we would have a better rate, but you're the stewards of the township's money, and so I'm here to provide guidance, and at some point, though, I am representing the we.

Like Jim has said, in the past, we've always paid it and paid the full amount, but we're looking at some incredibly high numbers and a renewal of the infrastructure and you said back in 1988, now was that through Ottawa County or when we did, I think you said 1988, we did apply for a bond.

Right, there were, I don't have, I have them here, but there were like six water bonds and and or maybe five water bonds and seven wastewater bonds back from 1960s through the 80s and they were as the system kind of grew from from the first pipes out

So this has been done by the township in the past, or was it with?

Right, well, that was back in those days, we had some EPA grants. That's when Georgetown Township started to grow. We had Northwest Ottawa and Spring Lake and Grand Haven Township. In that late 60s, early 70s, all those systems, Allendale Township, All those really started to grow and they all had their unique story and solution. But for the most part, we've been fortunate to be able to work regionally within Ottawa County because it's so much better when you can do that. You get the economy of scale. Thank you. Yep.

I have one final question, or maybe unless there's others. But when we heard the initial presentations for the water treatment plant expansions, one of the topics was simply Georgetown Township's water consumption in the summer months was one of the biggest drivers for our allocation as it related to that project. So when you mentioned renegotiating contracts and rates, how can we stay prepared? Because one of the solutions was, if we could, over the next couple of years, really figure out a way to decrease irrigation consumption, specifically during the summer months, that would be the sole That would be our sole ability to decrease what we owe as a community. So if we magically got people to abide by alternating days or decreasing their irrigation, when do we have an ability then to take a look at what our allocation is if we could decrease that consumption? I just want to make sure that if we're willing to put in the legwork to try to get that under control,

when would be our next opportunity is that an annual uh discussion so annually we can look at that if we were able to figure out a solution yes excellent question and one of the things that we are using now in the new rate structure is is we're using not only the average day but we're using a component of the maximum day and the peak hour And so all of those come into the rate making. And to your point, irrigation is a big component of that. And so we are looking at three years and we average those of past history. And we look at some projected numbers and we average those and we blend it together. And so we do kind of take a bit of both, a backward and forward look. And so there is the ability that over time, for instance, if your projections start to reduce, if you're saying, hey, we don't see the growth happening that we thought we did, that gives you the ability to reduce your projections and reduce your potential rate. So we do have a bit of, I think, some good flexibility in there to address some of those. And the other thing we're doing is there's an optimization study that's going on that's looking at each system individually, looking at max day and peak hour, and we're going to try to come to the table with individual solutions for each community and say, here's some options that you could have. Maybe a new tank would help to provide that. So those are things that we are definitely working on.

One of my questions is, so you spend $4 million on a building in Granville sewage treatment plant. We do that now. And I look at the growth that's potentially in Jamestown right now. Well, they benefit from us paying big money for our portion at this time. But there's aspects of that plant that they're going to use more of in the future, I think, than Georgetown is because their growth is going to be more than us. How do we balance that out?

Well, that particular contract is a capacity contract. So the Ottawa County communities as a whole own 56% of the plant based on the hydraulic loading. So there's a number of issues to say capacity. But within that, it's a first come, first serve. So we base it on what all the communities are using and we divide the annual costs. But over time, if there's excess capacity, then we could, as a combined system, Ottawa County system, potentially reduce our rates in the future. One of the things that we've been talking about is doing a full build-out projection of what the actual projections are for Grandville or Georgetown? Does it keep going like this or are we gonna plateau eventually? And as we've been looking at that for all the communities, we're trying to see if there is excess capacity for something like an aquarium that may go across the street or the river or anything like that that may come through. So if we understand to a better extent what we need and what we need to keep for our communities, then we have a better understanding of what excess capacity may be available.

Yeah, I understand the crystal ball is hard, but I'm just looking at, you know, it was always easy to pick on Georgetown because we were always the big growth. But we're getting to the end of our cycle. We have the Northwest Quadrant, I call it, that developed, but there's no services there yet.

Right.

So then you're like, look at Jamestown. They've got a lot of developments going off there right now. Like, well, should they potentially be starting to pay more for the increased use of Granville Sewage Treatment Plant?

because they're the next that's the next area i don't think that would be equal or fair compared to what to the to the uh scenario that we have every new user uh regardless of whether they're in georgetown blending uh hudsonville or jamestown pay a connection fee to the plant and we collect that and we use that to pay the debt and then what we don't collect in connection fees, then we charge in a debt rate. So we are having growth pay for growth, but then where we're short, then we're charging all the users because all the users benefit from that. i get your point i really do we're trying to blend that combination of having growth pay for growth but we do have to be fair and consistent among our neighbors and boundaries i just feel like we're we're spending more money on the gas and they're all on the same bus right trying to figure out how to make that i understand i appreciate the perspective yep you're six minutes is up i think right sorry i know you have a large agenda i apologize

Thank you for coming, Pat. Feel free to leave or stay. It's up to you.

All right, thank you very much.

All right, Chief DeWitt.

Welcome.

Matt DeWitt, Georgetown Township Fire Chief. Let's go over the June stats. Total calls for service, 277. Last month was 273, so just a slight increase from last month. Mutual aid given and received five a year to date. We're at 1260 for the year. Put that little perspective that supersedes last year's complete total already. Public education, super cool cop school we had in June. That was at Rebounders where the kids get to come out and go to a camp and experience what it's like to be a police officer. And on top of that, we get invited to that. We show off a car. We cut that car up and then we teach them some fire prevention and safety. So it's kind of nice working with the Sheriff's Department with that. Notables this year, or for this month, is hose testing. Got all our hose annual certified, tested, all of our nozzles. with only a few small problems. Preventative maintenance on all of our fire trucks. We've been doing that and getting all that taken care of. That's an annual thing we have to do. And looking at our data, our busiest day of the week has still been Mondays. And we cannot figure that out. It's Mondays first and then Saturday second. So it's really strange. We've been following the data. We've got three months of data now since we've started the new program. For whatever reason, Mondays are the busiest day of the week. So, strange. Yeah, that's all I got.

Any questions?

Theory on that?

What's that? No theory? I have no theories.

I really don't. Typically, weekends are always busiest, so the second being Saturdays. Typically are the busiest, but for whatever reason, this last three months, it's been Mondays.

What's the bulk of the calls for that thing on Mondays?

Basically medicals. Medicals, really? A lot of medical stuff. So a few fire incidences in there, but yeah, it's just strange. We can't figure it out.

You're stressed going back to work every Monday. I got to go to work. Yeah, I got to go to work.

Exactly. not figure out why it's always Monday. So we'll keep tracking the data.

All chief, it's Monday, so get out there if you need to.

Yep, exactly. All right, any questions? No?

Thanks, Matt. Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, item eight, I said we're adjourning to a later time. Item nine, communication letters from reports received by the board for information to be filed. item 10 this is a public hearing followed by a potential resolution for community block grant program is there a motion to open the public hearing a move support all in favor say aye aye opposed okay the public hearing is open you might say what is this well some of you maybe have studied it and came prepared and you're welcome to address the board on this topic if you like um so we'll wait All right, seeing none, is there a motion to close the public hearing? Support. Okay, all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? The public hearing is closed. Don't feel bad, public. There's a number of these that come before us that people, well, I don't have anything to say. I'm not quite sure what that is, and you'll probably hear a little bit in the debate now or discussion about what it is exactly. So motion to approve. uh or motion to deny whichever you are leaning toward motion to approve the resolutions house written in the minutes is there a motion to approve the proposed resolution related to the participation in this community block grant program obviously debate to follow so i move to approve i support that all right moved by gary supported by amy now it's open before the board I do think because of the way the public looked at us here and those who are in the room and maybe those who might be watching it later, it'd be useful. Justin, I know Gary could probably quit himself, most of you probably could as to what we've learned about this, but Justin and maybe even more so Andy has gotten into the weeds on this one and might be able to at least give a broad overview to frame the debate among the board.

Yeah, so since Georgetown Township is over 50,000 residents and we have pockets of low to medium income residents, we qualify through HUD to get an allocation of funds based on population. So our allocation for this cycle is like $245,000. And we did public engagement, we did a survey, we had public hearings, we took that feedback, and we developed a baseline to start to implement these funds. This consolidated plan we're going to use for five years, but it also is a starting point. If in a year or two we feel like it can be contoured or changed or we can better serve our residents, we can work with our HUD rep and we can change that. This does not affect our local tax dollars. We use all the admin dollars from HUD to implement this program and manage it. So it's not like this is a drain on your taxes, it's the federal dollars. And if we don't use it, it gets sent to Detroit or the East Coast or West Coast. My recommendation is to implement this and pass it, and then we will have a 30-day, I guess, feedback period. And then I think how the dates line up, we'll have 24 hours from the end of this 30-day period to submit it to HUD, and hopefully everything checks out, and we can hopefully use these funds in the fall.

Clarification question. The $210,000, is that... It's annually. Is it subject to increase? Is there any COLA or anything each year or is it constant?

It's based on Congress. They could come back. I see. with the continued resolution and cut it. I wouldn't mind to see them do away with it, but they didn't and they're giving up money, yeah. But it's there, it hasn't been taken away and if it's there, we might as well use it. Because if we don't use it, someone else will.

Okay, so for the purpose of the board then now, the debate is open. It seems to me the debate, just my perspective, would center more on how you might want to use it because there's a variety of ways it can be used versus whether we should accept it. So I think one of the threshold things we looked at was, are there strings attached? The answer was no, and we're always, of course, a skeptical, okay, this federal government really? You can't opt out of this program. You can just quit it, right? So it's not, if we found there was something that we thought, oh, we didn't see that aspect of it, we could curtail our involvement and move on, right? So in there are communities that don't qualify for it, I'd give, for example, Hudsonville or I don't know if Granville is.

Because they have so many people that are low income, they get a very small allocation.

Okay. All right. But you've got to have a certain amount of people within that low income definition. All right. Anyway, the point being is some can't get it. Those that do, if they know about it, likely reach out to receive it because, as you say, it's going to go somewhere else. You can, of course, feel free to debate about whether you should participate at all, but I would see the question being more about how do we want to participate or how do we want to use that money. So the floor is open.

So Justin, this is our first time doing this. Correct. But you've had experience with this with Grand Rapids.

Correct. I worked in the community development department in Grand Rapids and we use these funds and other different types of funds and we managed it. It can be, there's different programs that you can implement that are very Admin heavy, this one is probably one of the easier ones to implement and less cost to our staff and time wise. I would shy away from trying to do an admin heavy implement of these funds because we don't have the people to do it.

That's what I was gonna ask, do we have people to?

So the good thing is, Mr. Reinschreit here did a great job of drafting this, working, going through all the modules through IDIS. And we, I believe we're on a good point We have a non-profit that would handle the home buyer assistance part. We're working with Love Your Neighbor in Hudsonville. You have to be HUD certified, it's a process, but we've sat down and had some meetings with them, engaged them, and we're gonna try to go through this process for the next year, try to make it as streamlined as possible, but we also, once we implement this, get the funds, get the program going, It's gonna be really hands off on us and more on the non-profit to go through the home buyer assistance grant and implement the roughly $30,000 per home buyer that goes through the program.

So you and Andy pursued this. We're looking at over $200,000 a year for how many years?

This will be five at least.

So a substantial amount of money. And the obligation on our part, paperwork, is not overwhelming. And as far as strings attached,

minimal okay the hardest part has been the last 65 days thank you andy yeah um i just want to i want to frame this again for the public's sake right what has been proposed but it's one of other options that could it couldn't change for this year but it could in the next year whatever but the current proposal would be to use that money for the benefit of up to i guess would be seven new home buyers in Georgetown that qualify for that income level as a down payment toward the purchase of a home in the township on a first come first serve qualified basis using this outside agency or whatever to do the qualifying. So that's the proposal for the use of the money at this point in time and for this initial year. But there may be some non-administrative heavy other options Some are. That could be considered if we say, oh, that didn't go so well.

With federal dollars, there can be federal rules. So someone asked me about infrastructure projects. Well, if you do infrastructure, say a public water main, well, if you put $1 of federal dollars into it, it's prevailing wage for the whole project. And then you'd have to find contractors that have to follow Davis-Bacon rules and that are prevailing wages. And we really don't have that on the west side of the state. So then you'd have to be soliciting the contractors on the east side of the state. So then you're gonna pay for them to come over here. They're lodging. It's not, the economics aren't there to do it. Another one is if you do like housing rehab. In Grand Rapids, we had a person on staff that worked really as a delegate for the State Historic Office. We wouldn't have that here. We would have to go through the State Historic Office in Lansing, and it's called SHPO, and do a 106 review, and it'd be very time consuming, if not months, to get responses. There's other opportunities that we can do and the first step is to get through the first hump of this and then we can kind of streamline it and make it more efficient in the future.

All right, board. Potts.

In the most blunt but respectful way possible, I don't think I agree with down payment assistance program because I shouldn't say it like that. I think it's a lovely thought. I think though that it's a band-aid to a much larger problem that down payment assistance doesn't solve. I think that by giving somebody a $30,000 down payment assistance, are we really setting them up for success in a township that the average houses are 400 plus thousand dollars, but we're all complaining about tax bills and water rates and high cost of living. So how do we, you know, and I'm curious if these agencies are doing, and I'm sure they are, I'm sure it's part of their initial application process, but sort of like the... What's the word I'm looking for? The vetting process of you're going to get this assistance, but do you really have enough to take care of all of your other monthly bills? Are we setting people up for success by giving them free money in what I would consider not the most cost effective township where you can find a low to median income priced home? I mean, we recognize that our township is not often the place anymore where people can find starter homes. I'm concerned that this program isn't the best suited for Georgetown Township. All that being said though, in talking with Justin, the other opportunities, I would say that having this money available to us is important. I don't know that I agree with the down payment assistance piece of it or that pathway, but the other options for and I don't know the logistics of it, but thinking through somebody who their monthly budget is to the max, right? Their water rate is now high, their taxes are creeping up every year and they're on a fixed budget and the roof needs to be replaced and there's no more money in the budget for a roof or to make their windows energy efficient or to do things that would help somebody who is truly at the max of their budget keep them in their house or keep them living in a house that's up to date with codes or to me like that is where a township like georgetown i think could benefit most from these types of dollars but i don't know the logistics of how that would work i just don't know if a down payment assistance program and i'll say i just just not to beat a dead horse i just don't know that it's the right solution for our community because i will say that if We as a board or as a community decided that we were really all in to provide affordable housing solutions to people. Gary's gonna wanna roll his eyes at this, but that's what we do with the master plan and zoning ordinance amendments. If we really wanted more affordable housing, we would decrease minimum lot sizes for single family houses, create a new district that allowed 60 foot wide lots, that people built smaller houses. We can see, I mean I read through the survey results again for the second time, the number of people living in a household that was the highest respondents was two. But on 85 foot wide lots, we keep building five bedroom, 600 plus thousand dollar houses, and that's not what people necessarily need. So if we really cared about affordable housing, I think there's a lot of ways we as a community could go about it. I just don't know that this is the right way.

or roll the building code back to 1980, and I'll save you 30 grand a house.

Yeah, regulations alone are 60 meters plus in housing costs.

Solved it. And get rid of the energy code. Solved it.

But I don't want to sound so negative and say that I don't think this money is a good thing, but these are just the realities I keep thinking about.

I agree with you. I think that this program, I agree with everything you said, I think this program could target let's say grandpa and grandma want to sell their house to a grandchild, all right? And there's a lot of that generational wealth that's being switched over, and they could get a down payment to buy grandpa and grandma's house, which may be the three-bedroom ranches on Cypress Street or Sycamore or whatever. And that program, in that way, will move people into different homes using that type of system. and get them started. That's what I look at.

Can we earmark the applications or tailor the applications to award it to people? And it's way above my pay grade. Or is it just first come, first serve? If you qualify, you qualify.

Well, there's a income qualifications too. So you can't make $130,000.

I just meant like if somebody fills out and checks all the boxes.

They do have to go through a counseling program. constant counseling program, house savings program, house payment counseling, those programs through the National Faith Homebuyer Association who's running the program. And I think that's all related with to get the HUD funding in the first place.

So it's not like, here's what we're doing, here's money.

You know what I mean? It's more of that. And a lot of teaching how to budget home finances and things like that.

Initially, when we were talking about this a while back, it was mentioned that possibly there could be some assistance with furnaces and basic things like that. Is this something that maybe should go to the finance committee and we would have some recommendations for the rest of the board?

So we don't have time to do that. We've had 65 days to really put this together. Okay. Really, if the board doesn't want to approve it tonight, that's fine, but we will lose all of it. So it's kind of, I hate saying this, but if we don't move forward with it, then we just don't do the program.

Okay, then next year, could we be more specific and change?

We can work with our HUD rep. If the funds don't get used, we can work with our HUD rep to do a mod, they call it a mod plan, and we can potentially modify our plan.

Even if the funds get used, right?

I mean, this is year one, the funds got used for this reason, but... Maybe we found this need that we like to contour and serve our residents better. Yes, we can work with our HUD rep to do so.

If we don't vote for this, we lose the money. We lose $210,000. We can reapply next year. We can reapply next year, but who knows if we'll get it.

If we don't approve this tonight, we lose $210,000 for potential people.

It'll be $245,000.

And you and Annie have been working on this for months. Over two months, 65 days. Okay.

I think it's a reasonable point John's made. We can look at so many ideas that others might have to go, I think we make a broader impact. That was okay. Or maybe we end up loving it, going, look what that did. But otherwise, hey, let's look at, in a timely manner, whatever the time frame is for the second year, what could we do that would impact more people in a more tangible way and address some of the concerns you guys are raising?

I like what Kelly has said. I just, it looks like we have this window of opportunity because of deadlines and that we need to approve it then.

And then we can always look at it after that.

Might not be the ideal.

Furnaces and windows.

Might not be the ideal situation, but I think the work that's been done and it's there now, we are doing something, whether it be absolutely, totally the right way, but we are doing something to help our community.

Mm-hmm.

in some way we can as far as lower income people. I feel like, and even if it has to be tweaked in a year, even if this year 30,000 mortgages isn't really what we do, if we can the next year fine-tune it, which sounds like it's possible, then I'd say let's get what we can now if it all works out and we're this far into it.

I mean, realistically, it might not be serving current residents. It might be bringing new residents to our township, right? I mean, it's for first-time homebuyers. Okay.

It doesn't have to be first-time.

Oh, it's not? It's just first-time in Georgetown Township.

Low to moderate income.

But it's not necessarily that it's going to be somebody relocating from one side of the township to the other. Somebody could be moving.

And we can fine-tune that through the Finance Committee. Okay. All this would have to, you know, again, this is the, I guess, the floor of it, and then we can put, I guess, more parameters on it and curtail it to meet the board's needs and desires. So we can do that.

So we'd be looking at about six, seven, eight families. Seven. Seven, okay.

So then Homebuyer Assistance Program, since they're processing all the applications, they charge a fee for the applications that get approved. So, say 50 people apply to the program and none of them go through, they eat that cost. But when one goes through, they give me a fixed price for that one application.

And you did this, your background is incredibly strong. How many years did you do this for Grand Rapids?

I didn't do the homebuyer assistance part. I did a component of it. I did the housing rehab, grants administration part, and I did it for 11 years. Okay.

All right, good discussion. Board, Clerk Kuyper, you wanna call the roll on this?

Trustee Schwalm?

Yes.

Trustee Grassman? Yes. Treasurer DeWitt?

Yes.

Trustee Veldenk?

Yes.

Clerk Kuyper is a yes. Supervisor Waringo?

Yes.

And Trustee Kelly is absent. It passes.

All right, thank you all. Item 11 is public comments for items remaining on the agenda this evening. If anyone in the public here tonight wishes to address any of our items on the agenda, Please step forward and do so. You've got three minutes to address the board, and then you've got a second public comment period toward the end of the meeting where you can address anything that is on your mind. So is there anyone who would like to address the board on the agenda items this evening?

Sir. Kevin Houtsinger, 2669 Tamarack. I had some comments about item 18, the Veterans Plaza. I know there's been a lot of discussion about adding parking and the benefit bring to the community and to those who would want to use that and I think it's great that that's something that I don't know if it started in these meetings in public comment but it seems like it at least helped push it along maybe but I do have some concerns about like the basically what was in the packet the engineering design costs seem to be a little bit high in my opinion for a 300 000 estimated construction to have 45 000 in design cost is uh Seems a little bit high, that's 15%, which for a small, granted it is a smaller project, so there is kind of your baseline costs, but between like five and 10, I feel like is a, five and 10% of your construction costs is a more typical or appropriate range, especially for given the site itself is just over an acre, the parcel. So this shouldn't require like crazy amounts of permitting. The disturbance should be under an acre. But I guess my other concerns would be kind of about like the ownership of those parking stalls maintenance of them any type of like access agreements if the township is going to be owning those but accessing it through the businesses parking and then also kind of i guess Who ultimately gets to use those parking spots? Are those strictly for the plaza if you were visiting the memorial? Or is that going to be used by customers of the stores? If there would be signage kind of limiting how long parking could be there? And I guess also like stormwater, if our stormwater from that addition of parking lot, if that's going to be going through the um the businesses parking or through the businesses storm water system are we going to be responsible if they had to come in and replace their storm sewers and then also i was curious a little bit about the history of the area i think a couple members of the board were on the board when that plaza was originally built and it looked like there was parking back in like 2016 when it was built or 17 and then at some point before 2020 it looks like that got removed so I was just curious about that and then also I guess from a design standpoint I'm not a landscape architect or park designer but it kind of felt like from that vision sheet that the park in the new spots that it felt like you were at a new park and not really at the plaza itself just kind of by the number of trees that you might not even be able to see the plaza so that I guess kind of the point of it being parking for the plaza to me made it kind of look like that it still wasn't quite for the plaza because it's kind of you have to weave around it or through it and then around it but you have to kind of make it through through those trees if that is what it actually starts to look like. But those are just a couple of the concerns or holdups that I would personally have looking at that.

Thank you.

Thanks. Anyone else? All right, seeing none, we'll move on then to item 12, our consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda? So moved. Good for it. Okay, moved and supported. Any comments among the board? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Passes. Item 13 and, frankly, 14 and 15 after it, very similar. having to do with what we've been calling orphan drains, or what the county refers to as such as well. A talk had been made in the past about adopting a few of these problematic places at a time. There are several hundred. And so it's came through utilities, and we'll begin with the first one here, the twin home drain resolution. Is there a motion to approve this resolution? So moved.

Support.

All right, moved and supported. Discussion.

Yeah, like I said, we got a lot of them in the township. We've had some water issues in some of these areas, and nobody wants to take ownership because there really is no ownership of them. So we have no choice but to start picking away at these things and trying to get them figured out and turn them over to the county so they can maintain them. Because really, we don't. Nobody maintains. This is what they did back then. It's like the book of judges. Everybody did what was right in their own eyes.

But to be clear, once established, they would be turned over to the county going forward as a crop.

Inspections and maintenance on them too.

Isn't there a sharing of costs related to that? But we become a partner with them. By adopting these drains, we become a partner with them. So we need to, this is to officially recognize it. Yes, we'll take ownership. And then we'll have a partnership on moving forward. Correct.

Anyone else? Hearing none, Clerk Kuyper, would you call a roll on this?

Supervisor Waringa?

Yes.

Trustee Beldenk?

Yes.

Trustee Craftsman? Yes. Trustee Schwalm? Yes. Clerk Kuyper is yes. Treasurer DeWitt?

Yes. Passes. Thank you, it passes. Item 15, Hager Drain Resolution. Again, similar. Is there a motion to approve this resolution? Support. Support. I know one of these, it was potentially threatening to the home. I mean, all of them, I guess, are threatening, right, to multiple homes. One in particular. Is it the last one? I think it's the last one. I'll be curious to hear your assessment on that. It loses house. It's here. Oh, on the one after this. Yes. Okay. All right. Okay. Curious, anyone here for the one at Hager? Oh, okay.

We're doing 14 right now.

Yeah, we're doing 14 now.

Okay, I'll just, Wasapi, did I say that right?

It's the type of soil that's present in this location.

Okay, so that is the motion that was just made and approved was 14.

13 was just approved, we're on 14. We're on 14.

Okay, very good. Any discussion on that one, similar to the others?

IT'S SIMILAR. YEAH, I THINK IT'S SIMILAR.

YEAH, I THINK IT'S SIMILAR. YEAH, I THINK IT'S SIMILAR. OKAY. OKAY.

OKAY. ANY NONE? ANY NONE? ANY NONE? CLERK KYPER? CLERK KYPER? CLERK KYPER? YES. YES. YES. TRUSTEE SCHWALM?

TRUSTEE SCHWALM?

TRUSTEE SCHWALM? YES.

YES.

CLERK KYPER IS YES. CLERK KYPER IS YES. CLERK KYPER IS YES.

TREASURER DEWITT? TREASURER DEWITT? TREASURER DEWITT? YES. YES. YES. SUPERVISOR WERENGA? SUPERVISOR WERENGA? SUPERVISOR WERENGA? YES. YES. SUPERVISOR WERENGA? YES.

TRUSTEE VALDENK?

TRUSTEE VALDENK? TR Homeowner is here, all right, and maybe you describe briefly in utilities, this one especially acute.

Yeah, the water comes behind this guy's house pretty rapidly. I think that creek has moved a few different times too over the years from what I can remember, but yeah, he's definitely got some issues back there he's got to be taken care of.

I believe he's built a wall and tried to prevent damage. Yeah. Yeah, and you called Justin and said, please come out here right now. Showed up right away and went, oh, no.

Only fun for the grandkids.

So it's the creek or the drain that goes underneath the road into Hager Park? Is that the one we're talking about? Yeah, that's the one.

Okay.

Right by the park. Yeah.

Well, these are our friends and neighbors and residents that feel the direct impact of your decisions, so.

All right.

Would you call roll, please?

Clerk Kuyper is a yes, Treasurer DeWitt?

Yes.

Supervisor Wierenga?

Yes.

Trustee Schwalm?

Yes.

Trustee Grassman? Yes. Trustee Valdez?

Yes.

All in favor, it passes.

You did a good job of mixing up the order on the fly.

No, I write them out ahead of time.

Oh, do you? Okay. You make me listen really close. I know.

I gotta listen for my name.

All right, item 16, 8th Avenue parking lot. Is there a motion to approve parking lot replacement there at 8th Avenue Park as recommended by the Services Committee?

I'll make a motion to approve it.

Support. And move to support it. I think we've probably all been in that park, I would hope, a number of times this summer. It's bad. It's bad.

And it's getting a lot of use.

It's getting a lot of use.

It's getting a lot of use, and we just fixed the dip, so I think more people can go and our first responders can get in there, right? Much easier if there's any issues. So, yeah.

Multiple bids on this one and the one which we'll file here in a moment. Looking to approve low bidder with the motion that's been made before you. Actually not a bad price. Not that I know this area as well as some people here. Well, you too, but any other comments?

This would be one that's a,

the public will notice and appreciate.

They love our parks.

They love our parks. Is this going to be a complete redone, or is this just going to be a... Yeah, I've seen that. They're going to grind everything up and then put all new down? Okay.

So you might as well do it right. And then when they replace that walkway, as we're slated to do, you'll notice a real Strong improvement there. I think people are gonna appreciate both those things.

Yeah, that's a lovely park.

Excellent. Hearing nothing further, all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed? That item passes. Item 17, similarly here, the Township Hall parking lot. It's been since how long? I'm trying to recall, Justin or Andy, it's been a long time. How long? 98. Okay. In those bills. Good usage, 20, 28 years. Again, a good price, then bid it out, low bidder. Is there a motion to approve of the parking lot replacement here? So moved.

Support.

Okay, moved and supported. Discussion? Just that time. All right, all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed? And that is passed. Item 18, Veterans Plaza, as you heard referred to here earlier in public comment. This issue tonight would be whether or not to order engineering plans. Is there a motion to order plans to be considered for parking spaces and improvements in that green space over at the Veterans Park?

I will make a motion to improve the parking and green space. Support?

Okay, moving supported.

Comments? I'm not going to disagree with the public comment on that. It just seems like that... You know, we did previous work on there. It seems like engineering should be able to be pulled up and looked at. I can't imagine they didn't do borings when they did the whole park. And I'm like, wow, 45 grand? It seems like that information should be readily available.

What I'm going to do is a clarification on that. Since there are engineers or township engineers They bill us on time and materials. So that should have been meant to exceed 45,000 and it'll be substantially less.

And we have the neighboring businesses chipping in for this project as well.

This is going to be a coordinated, I guess, collective between three neighbors. And this really actually started when the neighbor, when they put the Popeyes in last winter, approach me. So it's kind of like a full circle. It is our property. We're going to have, in coordination, we'll have a lease agreement. With the neighboring property, because they're going to have to plow it, because their parking lot's going to be adjacent to it. We can't put a road off Baldwin. We can't put one off Main because of the road commission. There's not enough distance from the corner. So that's not even an option. So this is our best option moving forward if we want to do parking spaces to improve that area and allow us access to our park. Basically, we have an island that we can't get to.

We also talked about putting in handicapped spots and also signage saying for veterans parking only. But like Kelly and I and Jim in the services also said, is that gonna stop somebody from running into Starbucks and parking in one of those spots? Probably not. I mean, they may run in there, but we will have some signage as well.

Remember, I was the naive one. I thought people would actually listen to that.

Nobody would do that. One of the other options, too, was no matter what, we have to come through somebody else's property to get back there. So you're either preserving as much of the green space as possible by putting them in a row on the edge of our property and that's how you get access to them. The alternative would be putting in a small drive aisle to a parking lot that would essentially take up all of the green space And after some discussion, it was that's going to cost more because you need a lot more grading and engineering work to go back in there. And it takes away from the green space at the corner it's sort of a not a great situation, and this is like one of the best solutions, we can come up with, I also chuckled at a $300,000 project total though so. If somebody can prove to me when we get the bill for what the estimated total cost of construction is for this and it's $300,000, you can tell me I told you so, but I don't think it'll, I think it's gonna be more than $300,000. You think it's gonna be more? If you look at the plans in detail, We will have to accommodate for the new impervious surface, so whatever is sized in those existing parking lots, we will have to likely include some sort of swale or grading for drainage on our site for the new impervious surface. And if you're familiar with the new Algro standards, they're through the roof, so they're quite insane. So I think the engineering for the stormwater, the calculations needed for even this little bit of impervious surface, is actually quite a bit of work. Then you have the impervious surface for the additional sidewalk. It's gonna be a little bit more, I think, than what everybody is anticipating, plus all of the, and I realize it's conceptual, but if we really do go robustly with the landscaping as proposed, we'll see.

I just look at the bid tab for 8th Avenue, apples and oranges. That's a lot of target put down there for a lot less money than this.

Yes, but we don't have to do the engineering work because that impervious surface was already accounted for under the old stormwater regulation. So this is like a fresh engineering project under 2026 standards, which is, as you said, apples and oranges.

That's why I'm saying those spots at one time were engineered into that area.

But were they accommodated in the stormwater in that place? I just don't know if they were. But maybe.

Do you ever beg for forgiveness instead of asking for forgiveness?

I can't. It's not in my DNA.

Pull the plan. There it is. So Justin, the businesses down there are going to help with some of the costs.

We have one definitely on board. We're working on the other one. And again, this is at a high level. We're not building this tomorrow. I don't want to start knocking on doors and say, well, we're thinking about this. Maybe next year. Maybe in two years. I guess I'm not ready there yet. I'd like to have some type of a plan in place and say, here's a plan. Let's be partners. Let's do this together. But I have one that's very interested.

I'd like to get into the discussion. One of our goals that we set this past year was trees in there, which is accomplishing that as well because right now it's just that blank slate. To this gentleman's point, I think we need to be careful about not so

strongly treating the lot that you obscure you know what you don't want to obscure but we need to be mindful of that and then you've got to maintain I'd like to see some nice signage that's going to be the entrance to the park and sometimes we put up a metal sign and I'd like to see something a little bit we got a beautiful beautiful plaza there Let's have something that showcases it. So I don't know if you, in the Services Committee, you kind of kicked that around, but in the past, we've put up just a simple metal sign for something pretty special, and I'd rather not see us go that route, particularly with the Veterans Plaza and the emotion. There's five flags there. I'm pretty sure they know what it is. It's five flags. Well, let's make a beautiful entrance as they walk up there because it's sentimental. It's emotional to a lot of people.

Yes.

And we've done some little signs that I think we could have done better.

So to clarify, this is a not to exceed 45,000, and this is not a vote to go forward with the actual project, but to get plans.

Yeah.

That being said, you all ready to vote?

Yeah. Yeah.

Okay, all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? It passes, all right. Item 19, Woodcrest Park proposal. Is there a motion to accept the proposal for Williams and Works to create a plan for Woodcrest Park?

So moved. Support.

Moved and supported. I'm gonna turn first to Kelly as our resident expert Woodcrest Park person. Thoughts you wanna convey about this?

Yeah, obviously, if you read through the different proposals, they're pretty dramatically different in terms of the way they were presented to us and the price points. I think for this Woodcrest Park, we wanted to kind of tip our hat to the amount of work that Williams and Works has dedicated to our community over the last year. They've really invested, spent a lot of time getting to know people through the surveys, understanding, I think, what the townships goals in general are and i thought their proposal was the best foot forward for that particular park we're excited to be able to have some community-wide input for this park and then come up with a plan we all are familiar with the uh you know physical site restrictions there that we'll have to deal with so it'll kind of be combining our institutional knowledge some community input with williams and works i think their level of expertise they've got a landscape architect right on staff as well as their urban planning staff and i think it's going to be a really great plan for that that park that desperately needs to be kind of reinvigorated to match the caliber of our other parks it needs some love is that what you're saying yeah is there anything that we did in the past when we were looking at that park be able to give to william if it goes to william works

to help them out, to keep the cost maybe down even more.

We didn't authorize new, we didn't do the drone survey work for it. We've got a fair amount, I think, of due diligence that we'll get them started with. We limited their scope.

A different company did it. They had a master plan, but I think it was over 12 years ago. And that was a completely different board besides two. Yeah.

You know, Jim and others have had a dream of attaching the parks. Does that take into consideration any of that happening?

Good question. We looked at that and it was discussed and there's even been inquiry made since the last meeting we had in services. It's presently, it's fair to say, a difficult and potentially closed door at this time. Okay. Fair to say? But not necessarily forever, just okay, you know?

I love that idea and I hope that carries on in the future with boards that they consider attaching those.

Anyone else? Great. There's a motion before you.

Ready to vote? All in favor say aye.

Aye. Opposed? And it passes. Thank you all. Item 20 then, second public comment period. Opportunity for those who are here from the public tonight to either address things we just went through or to speak to your own issues or concerns or ideas. Again, three minutes. Identify your name and address.

Yes, sir.

Welcome. Welcome. Bob Vander Veen, 8282 Hardwood Drive. My question this evening is on a clarity issue. You know, on your last water bills, you're paying $30 water and $30 sewer RTS. That's a $60 tax that I'm being assessed every quarter. I look at it as a tax. I get nothing for it. My question is, where does that money go? The township collects it. $240 a year per water bill. Justin, you know how many water bills get sent out. So that's $2,400 in 10 years. That's got to be an enormous amount of money. I think as a board, I would like to see clarity from the board, either annually or whatever, what's happening with that amount of money. What's collected and what are we doing with it? If it's going for repairs or for new additions, at least then I know what I'm getting for my money.

Right now it's just, it's a tax, I pay it, it's gone.

Thank you.

Good inquiry, Bob. And I think that's something that we will then discuss and answer during board discussion. Sometimes I'll direct something like that if it were unique to you or your situation to an after meeting discussion, but I think that applies and would be helpful to all residents to know. So we'll touch on that here momentarily. Anyone else? Yes, ma'am. Welcome.

Good evening. My name is Anna White. I'm actually a Park Township resident, but I am here as your newest Ottawa County District Court judge. I was here a few months ago announcing that I was running for that position. That seat was already vacant, so I was just appointed to that seat a couple weeks ago. So I wanted to come introduce myself, say hello again, I'm still going to be on the ballot for November for the term starting in January. But I started on the bench last week, and I'm enjoying it so far. So I'm very excited about it. I just wanted to come say thank you. You all were very gracious when I came last time. I know I was able to speak with some of you then. So just wanted to let you know. And if you have any questions, I'll be around afterwards.

Thank you, Judge White. And promise me, I've seen the evolution of judges over my time. Don't get cranky, okay?

Advice for more than one person. Thank you.

Although we can make it cranky as a public. Anyone else?

Sir. John Half 1482 Winter Fred. Thank you for passing the block grant. One thing that was interested, I know there's some conversation amongst the board about maybe finding other ways if possible in another year to use that type of money. And I think with some of the things that Clerk, I always want to say trustee, but Clerk Kuyper brought up was good points. And if there's a way later on, maybe it can be used for some other things. I know people mentioned something like a furnace or repairs or something like this. I mean, I've heard various things that the average American has less than $600 to $1,000 in case of an emergency. And if we could use that money maybe down the line, it might be better served for stuff like people that have a furnace grow out in the middle of winter, you're looking at probably at bare minimum 10 grand for that. A good chunk of people might not have any money for that. Imagine 90 degree days, there's no central air or anything like that, your hot water heater, things like that. So down the line, maybe if it could be used for something like that, I think that would be a very good idea. As far as 8th Avenue Park, I appreciate the improvements in the parking there. I'm usually there once a week during the summertime. It's pretty close to where I live. Just a FYI, as far as I'm concerned, there's that one section you walk there that's just kind of wooded over there and you have the creek and the other gravel pit over there and then the lake right over there. I don't think anything's coming down the line, but I really actually kind of appreciate that little strip where you can kind of walk and if it's really hot out, you can get some shade. There's some nice birds there and stuff like that and The other parks that I go to, I don't really think have even just a little section that's kind of like there. It can just kind of disappear in the woods like that and stuff. So I don't think I'm not aware of any plans to really do anything about that. But in the future, that's definitely something I would like to try to keep as much as possible moving forward. Thank you. I like that too.

Anyone else?

I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you.

I'm sorry, you weren't quite to the mic, go ahead.

Oh, Margaret Bauer, 2369 Ocala Drive. A lot of money has been spent on landscaping as I go from Jenison to Granville, but it's not very colorful. If you look around the fountain and the clock, there's a lot of stuff. But to me, I love color this time of year. And I think there could be more colorful plants. The other thing is, what's the problem with that waterfall down there?

Temperamental, isn't it? Pardon? I say it's temperamental, isn't it? Yeah, keep going. Yeah.

It's here today and gone tomorrow. Yep. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Can't ever have too much color, I tell you. Yep. Thanks.

Yeah.

Yeah. Some pretty ones around the clock tower, I might say, but yeah.

We're going to call her to plant some.

Yeah. Others. Yeah. All right, seeing none, I don't mean to go too fast. We'll close the second public comment period. Item 21, discussion general information. I did promise to Bob a moment ago, maybe just a quick reply as it relates to ready to serve. Quick overview of Justin.

Yeah, so that charge was always there. We recently broke it out at the request of numerous citizens as we've been adjusting rates. So that rate was always there. So what do we use the rate for? That rate is basically used for our pipes. The water coming to your house and the sewer pipe going away, we use that. And the rates that we get charged for the Granville plant for the, I guess, the volume of water and the volume of water coming in, that's what we use the, I guess, the incremental change. So if yours might be 11, Gary's might be 100, I don't know. BUT WE USE THAT TO PAY THE BILLS, SO.

AND QUICKLY, JUSTIN, JUST KIND OF WHERE DO WE FALL IN THE CONTINUUM IN TERMS OF COST OF OUR RTS?

OUR READY TO SERVE RATES ARE HANDS DOWN ONE OF THE LOWEST IN WEST MICHIGAN. SO IN COMPARISON, I THINK THE CITY OF HUTCHINTON JUST RAISED THEIRS TO 36, IF I'M NOT MISTAKEN. SO THEIRS IS $6 MORE PER QUARTER MORE THAN OURS, SO.

MAYBE A LITTLE MORE GAMESTOWN.

Yeah, we are ready, and we designed that so that it's scalable. So if you want to cut back, you don't want to spend a lot on your water or sewer bill, then you can, your base cost, your ready-to-serve cost is small, and then your price per unit is higher, so then you can throttle back on usage to contour your finances.

This point might be to you, Andy. Question, when are we going to see the sign up by the road working again? I miss it.

About a week. Okay, good. End of July is scheduled to be here. Okay, good.

Great. I miss that.

Unfortunately, the big holdup was the electronic parts. So the vendor who we approved to do the sign didn't even get the sign in to do the cabinet until just recently.

Got it.

Yeah.

Okay.

Others? I think one of the things that... we need to really do a good job of explaining this. Because I see a lot of people who are confused about water and sewer rates and their taxes. And people don't understand that water and sewer is an enterprise fund. So any money you spend on water and sewer stays in water and sewer. It doesn't go anywhere else. General fund money cannot be used in the water and sewer department because it wouldn't be fair for somebody who maybe isn't even using water and sewer paying taxes with township and then working on pipes that they don't use. So there's a lot of confusion. Everybody's like, well, you know, you got money for this. Why don't you spend it on the pipeline or why don't you spend it on this pump or whatever we do to fix pipes. That water, that money only comes from those that buy water and sewer. And that water and sewer fund is self-sufficient. It's not general fund commingling with water and sewer. That's why it's with a new pipeline coming from Wyoming, and the new sewage treatment plan upgrades, it's so difficult to try to juggle that because you need this amount of money for next year, all right? So how much water are we going to use between now and next year? And so you get, you know, fortunately Justin's got a crystal ball in his office and he's able to, it's actually a black eight ball, but whatever. You're trying to figure out how much money we're going to take in to take care of these bills, to pay the bond, to pay, and that, How long are pipes gonna last? Is there gonna be a blown pipe here that's gonna cost us three, 400 grand to fix? So you're always trying to judge, have enough money to be able to fix things if they break, but not to have so much money people are saying, well, why do you have so much money? So that's a balancing act. I think we've done a pretty good job the last few years trying to balance ready to serve, price of water, but it's a never ending conversation. Justin and I probably sit in his office once a month and talk about water and sewer rates and what's the best way to go with this thing and be fair with the residents and try to do the best we can to keep the price low but be able to be able to fix the things that need to be fixed.

Justin, I know we're kind of going through a heat wave right now but did we have a 30% drop in water usage?

It's not official yet, but the preliminary estimates is that we use one-third less water in June than the prior three years.

Wow.

Historically, we used over 300 million gallons in June. We used a little over two. And my crystal ball didn't predict that. That's good.

Kelly's point, emphasizing that we're going in the right direction.

Right. So just like the conversation we had Pat, right? Pat said, okay, you're looking at capacity, your peak demand day, all those components all stack in. Well, I think our, again, I want to see the paperwork that shows it, but from our indications that we're down roughly 30% in one month. But it was a cool, wet June. We'll see what July. Right now, it's heat. The heat is on, so get ready. Yeah.

But, you know, you have, I think, it wasn't, that wasn't the intent of it, the increase needed to happen, but you know, there's a lot of things. The alternating days or the odd-even days, the increased cost of water happened, you know, pre-summer months, right, if people are pulling back based on trying to kind of pull back on their anticipated water costs, but I would be curious to look at those numbers through the end of the summer then to really see what the change is, because that will be important.

It's usually about three weeks after the end of the month that I get other, and I track it every month to see where we're at and see where we're heading. But May was pretty comparable to other years, but June really looked different.

On that same note though, when Pat brought up that Holland BPW did go to a tiered rate, I sort of wanted to like bookmark that in my brain and I wanted to make that comment that I'm bookmarking it and I think we should bookmark it as a staff to sort of I don't know, set a date a year from now or something to see if we could pick their brain. How's it going, right? What response did they receive from it? Did it work? Because I think in a situation like that, we don't have to be the ones to reinvent the wheel. If somebody has set a precedent, you hopefully can learn from how they implemented that system if we wanted to consider.

So with the report from roughly two years ago, the Beninsky report that we had, Andy Campbell. Andy Campbell came here and he recommended we raise rates July 1st. And July 1st was a few days ago and we didn't raise rates. And I wanted to see where the state of Michigan was going to land for the people in the audience and the viewers at home. We, Georgetown Township, requested a $10 million subsidy to help put our water mains in, to defray costs, to help us out, because we're providing water to Georgetown residents, a small portion of Granville of Kenawa, and Blandin Township. The state budget came past, and our request was not included in the state budget. So now, we're stuck. So I was hoping the Hail Mary passed the end zone, hoping Lansing would take care of us,

But no one's here to take care of us except the people in this room.

So we are, I guess moving forward is we had a rate maker wanted us, recommended that we raise rates on July 1st. We tried this avenue. We were working with our residents to find maybe our new normal of how our water consumption is. And now I'm gonna go back to him and say, all right, with all these things, changes that we've implemented, what should our rates look for towards the future? And especially because Wyoming and Granville's rates, because our rates for water just went up here June 1st, and we're losing money. This will be a never-ending battle, I feel, for the next 10 years.

You know what would also help that? Smaller lot sizes. Grass to water. If somebody else has other comments. I just had one more comment. You don't have to answer it tonight, but at the next board meeting, would you mind giving an update on the moratorium for the benefit of the board? Only because when we made the motion for the moratorium, it was under the premise that we were going to be proactively seeking information to try to help us understand what to do. And I'd like an update on what information we've received, where we're at in that fact-finding mission, and what our current information gathering has got us, if our minds have changed a little bit. I just think an update would be helpful.

By the way, that next meeting will be in August. Because of early voting, we won't have access to this room. No meeting, therefore, later this month. And if you should run into any of our election workers, please encourage them. It's a lot of work. It's a challenge.

Has service ever looked at putting rocks in the river and trying to make a rapid? I thought you said make a bridge. laughter You're angling toward your bridge. We should have did that. I mean, we're behind the eight ball on this thing. We could have our own rapid.

We own more river than the Grand City of Grand Rapids does. Is there a motion to adjourn? So moved. Support. All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

We are adjourned.