Township Board - Regular Meeting

All right, we're going to call the meeting to order at this time and welcome board and welcome public. Appreciate you coming tonight. Um, our prayer for guidance is from John who we just learned is in Florida. So unless he plan to zoom in, I'll go ahead and handle those duties. Good. Father, we thank you for this evening. We thank you even for the change of seasons, the snow out there, and just reminds us of your faithfulness. Thank you for the freedom to meet tonight and to gather and to discuss and debate and to vote and to lead. Father, I pray that you'd give us humility and wisdom, compassion, understanding. Uh Lord, I pray for our residents. I pray for all those Lord both representing here and and elsewhere in their busy lives. God be with them, guide and direct them. Give favor and protection, we pray, over this township, protection over those that work uh with us and for us. protection over all of our residents and their families. We pray. We ask now for your grace this evening in Christ's name. Amen.

Amen. If you could rise for the 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. Ask our clerk to call the role. [clears throat] We are all present except John. All right. So, we have a quorum this evening. Is there a motion tonight to approve our agenda? Move. Support. Move to supported. Any discussion?

All in favor say I. I. Opposed. Our agenda is approved. Item six, we have um Consumers Energy is sent Rich. I'm going to try and pronounce it. Howan. I get that correctly. He did not make it. Okay. All right. Rich, who was vacasillating today. Huh? He's with John. [laughter] Florida. Yeah, he was kind of on and off uh during the day today. So, he's off. We'll have to see him at a future meeting. Then we'll go to item seven, which is our fire department monthly update. We have Chief Dit here. Welcome. Thanks for coming.

Chief Matt Dit, Georgetown. Just want to give you an update on October 2025. Uh calls for service, we had 109 um mutual aid given, seven, we received three. Here today, we're at 10:26. Uh for our training and public education, we had four schools. We visited visited. Uh with education, we educated 120 kids. We did 12 home safety surveys and a total of 82 smoke alarms and CO detector installs. Um, other notables were ladder testing for annual certification. We're hoping that's the last time because our ladder truck should be here. We're hoping by the end of the month. So,

nice questions. Recent fire was in November, right? So, that's on next month's report, huh? Yes. Okay. Yep. Otherwise, no fires to report of in October. Yeah, not much going on October. It's very busy with fire prevention. Fire prevention big month. So, I thought of you at 4:30 this morning when my smoke detector started beeping like it needs a new battery that I had to find it. We [laughter] get a lot of those get a lot of those calls. I might be calling you. No. Great. Anyone questions for Chief? Nope. All right. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Free to stay or go. It's up to you. All right. Item number eight, communication letters and reports that are received by board members for information and review. Item nine, uh, we have a public hearing tonight. Uh, this is a public hearing for a resolution related to taco. I hope I pronounced this right, aka senior taco. Uh the gentleman who is here this evening, I see him now, came to our finance committee meeting here recently and we appreciate you coming back tonight because he understands that tonight is an opportunity for a public hearing concerning his uh interest in a liquor license at that location. So is there a motion among the board to open the public hearing?

So move support. Okay. All in favor of opening the public hearing say I. I opposed. All right. So the mic is open. Anyone from the public who wishes to address this particular matter, uh, now would be the time. And of course, you're also welcome, sir, to come up and to speak on your own behalf. Hello. Is it working? Hello, Pete Plowman. There we go.

Um, 6877 Creek Court. I too was at the finance meeting when the gentleman and I believe his lawyer came in and spoke. I thought they were very good and from everything I got from the meeting, they covered all their bases and uh I look forward to a new restaurant in Georgetown because there's no reason why you shouldn't approve this. So, thank you. Okay. Thank you. You certainly not to feel compelled to say anything, but you're also welcome, sir, as uh as the applicant, if you wish. Welcome.

Hello. My name is Isaas Manriquez uh Vargas. Um just moved to uh Jennison in uh six years ago. Uh I have my daughter with me tonight and my wife. Uh we're excited to open a restaurant. Okay. We're excited to have you. And uh yeah, I used to be one of the former owners of Taco Loco down on Grandma. uh different story, but now you know trying to do my own story here. Okay, nice. I'll be sure to uh see the uh Chamber of Commerce about a ribbon cutting when the time comes. Yep. When are you opening?

Uh that's a good question. [laughter] We're, you know, we wanted to work on our liquor license, see if we got it approved, you know, and speed things up, but uh maybe we're thinking about next month if everything goes well. Okay. So, Anyone else? Thank you. Yep. Thank you, sir.

Just for the public's benefit and anybody watching at home, we have a rule in Georgetown for the issuance of liquor licenses that among other things, you have to have seating for food and your food receipts have to exceed your drink receipts. In other words, we're not looking for bars. We're looking for restaurants that happen to have bars or alcoholic uh beverages available there. So any fits that uh description and appreciate that. Okay. Hearing no one else. Is there a motion to close this public hearing? Some support. All right. All in favor of closing the public hearing say I. I. I. And it is closed. Uh discussion among the board. Any questions?

I I do have a question and it's been brought to my attention that there's been some discrepancy in a building building permit there. Will you ex you have you got a building permit now? We have I don't have a permit sir but is that well I'm just asking as far as trying to get you know a liquor license prior to having the building approved. I'm just trying to figure out the process because this is kind of new to me. We haven't I haven't done a lot of liquor licenses. So Sure. Sure. I'm just asking the question. There's been some talk about

I'm I'm on the planning commission, so I talk a lot to Ryan and he's like, "Well, we got there's been some parking issues. There's been some issues in getting this building going. I'm just trying to figure out where you are on that." Yeah. Like I said, we haven't, you know, the only stuff that we've done is paint, right? Okay. I mean, do I really need to get a permit? So, you're not modifying the building at all. You're just ti painting it. Okay. Okay. The whole layout is going to be the same. Okay. That's fine. I understand. I'm just asking the question because I know there's been a lot of work going on around. I'm like, yep. Where are we at with the and parking? Parking was something that was discussed in finance and and is a concern. It is.

I would only say um to answer your question, any approval tonight of the issuance of a liquor license is of course subject to the ability to obtain a building from it and to open the establishment. Right. In the absence of that, it would fail. It would become moot and basically be turned back into the township. So, in that respect, you can say it's contingent on actually completing your opening. A condition that the state Yeah.

Okay. And even if there's no modification to the building, they still should get a zoning compliance review by Ryan. So, and Craig Scholma on the fire. So, I I understand. I'm just Yeah. No, I'm just in the event that there's no structural changes and no building permit is needed, there still is that zoning compliance process that would review the park site. So, and I'm I'm okay with I just want to I want to bring it to everybody's attention. We have a discussion about it. I wasn't aware of that. Yeah. Thanks. My understanding then that unless you if you don't get a liquor license, you're not going to open up as a restaurant without liquor or We we are

because you made it kind of sound like you're not going to do anything unless you get so money. Okay.

If you if for some reason you didn't get it, you still would open it up as a Yeah. as a restaurant with soda and water or whatever. Okay. Just curious. Good. Good. Anybody else? All right. Well, this is a roll call vote on whether to approve this resolution to issue the lift license. Trusty Kelly, yes. Treasure Dit, yes. Trusty Valdank, yes. Clerk, is he? Yes. Trusty Grassman? Yes. Supervisor Wearingga? Yes. Six in favor, one absent. Okay. Thank you.

All right. Uh, next up is item number 10, public comments for action items remaining on tonight's agenda. I think most of you know kind of our routine, but for any who do not, there are two opportunities left on which the public may comment. One of which is right now as it relates to any items remaining on tonight's agenda. And then later in the meeting, anything you wish to speak to, um, whether on the agenda or not, will be open to you on the floor. So, this time, public comments for remaining action items. Is there anyone? Thank you for coming.

Hi, my name is uh Sandy Bloom Ross Camp. I live at 2487 Cedar West Drive and I just had a question. Um looking through the rest of the agenda here, we've got some liquor licenses that we are renewing. Um and you had mentioned before that um one of the requirements is food uh receipts need to be greater than the liquor receipts. Is that right? With the exception of any recreational est with a couple of recreational establishments, rebounders and uh the dunes. Uh yeah, is that what it's called with the golf simulator? But other than that, they're they're other ones are pure restaurants. Yeah. Gotcha. Okay. So there's an exception. Um and then Golden Grounds Coffee, that's the burrow um right outside of Grand Valley State University on Okay. And they serve food. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Okay. Is there a like a review process to make sure that that stays in compliance? There is. Okay. There is. All right. Great. Thank you. Yep. I share your concern in that regard. Yep. McCloskkey at 3540 Baldwin on the agenda number six that you passed up. Uh what's the reason the consumer electric update can't be here? I don't know why he couldn't be here periodically why he can't be here. You said yeah.

Um initially this morning it was weather concern. the day got better and it was he was coming and then apparently I don't know what the reason is that he didn't make it. So anticipate that person being at a future meeting here real soon. Yep. Cuz I think Yeah. You want to hear what he has to say. I know what you're I know what you're thinking about. Yep. Yep. Anyone else Pete Plowman, Georgetown, 6877 Creek Ridge Court. Hey, um I can't remember which item it was, but they're we're doing some improvements on um a sewer line for Dean's Escavating

for $111,000. Yep. curious, is there other quotes? There's only one quote there. I didn't see another one. I don't know why we don't have three quotes as per our policy of 20K or more. Um, and then also on the tax memo that Justin put together to show Georgetown and how we re um uh compare to others in our areas. Um, I'm curious, is that just the to set up on to move down the path of raising our property taxes? is that what we're going to be doing? Why don't you just come out and tell us what what you're going to raise it at if that's what we're going to do? Because that's what that comparison tells me. Um it doesn't show that we're you probably going to stay at that rate. So why don't we just go to you know 2.75 or 3.25 whatever it is because you know you guys want to move that way. So why don't you just tell us what it is and that's all I have.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you. as he takes a seat. I'll just say um it's not for that purpose. It's somewhat I suppose you can say because we're heranged occasionally publicly mistakenly as it relates to how much people pay and sometimes we like to remind people of where the tax rates stand. But we don't have that we don't have that intention in mind. Anyone else at this first public comment period? All right. Seeing no one else, we'll close that public comment period. We'll move to item number. Bear with me here a second. 11. Our consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda? Some move.

Support. Moved by Gary, supported by Amy. Any comments about any of these items at all. Okay. As someone pointed out here, as we've alluded to, there's a renewal of some liquor licenses. you touched on what that requires and the fact that there has to be a continued compliance in order to maintain and keep those licenses. All right. Uh hearing nothing else. All in favor say I. I. I. Opposed.

Those items are approved. Item 12 then policy 2025-01 water and sewer rate increase policy. This is a motion that was recommended out of finance as it relates to um the approval of a policy and how we want to handle any future increases in water or sewer rates uh so that this past summer's sequencing would not occur again. So is there a motion tonight to approve that policy 202501

support? [cough and clears throat] Okay, moved and supported. There's immediately on the heels of that also a motion to amend the policy. And I guess I'm a little unclear, Justin, as to the sequencing here. Maybe you can whether to roll these two together in discussion and then vote on them separately or how.

Yeah, definitely. So, there's two different things. So when it first went to finance looking at the timeline for the monthly be uh bu or billers that are are build monthly versus quarterly we ran into a timing issue um because last meeting was cancelled due to lack of agenda items. This would have been the only item. So we moved it back uh two weeks and by doing that adjusted the calendar of the quarterly builders or the monthly billers. So moving forward, this um policy basically is going to eliminate the 250 monthly billers that we have. It's going to roll them into the quarterly billers. So then we would have um roughly 13 cycles of bills that go out to roughly 15,000 utility customers that we send bills to. I I believe, you know, talking with staff here, looking at efficiencies, how we can do better, and this is one of those items that kept on coming up over and over again.

Yeah. So, my earlier summary really alludes more to the amendment of the policy that follows on the heels of this than it does the the whole transition of monthly billers to the quarterly. So, now you've heard his explanation on on the motion that's before you uh and perhaps we will deal with that then separately. Any any thoughts among the board about taking the 250 or so out of the 15,000 that are on a monthly billing cycle and putting them on a quarterly? Okay. Hearing none. Uh all in favor say I. I. I.

Any opposed? All right. Now we'll deal secondly with amending the policy as it relates to what I alluded to before, the timeline. And the timeline example that was provided to you gives you a good idea how that would be rolled out. Is there a motion to place that before the board to amend that policy? Move. Support. The support is on the on the floor. I know initially I thought hey 100 days that's what are we doing? You know we can't wait that long. And then that example helped me a lot because it pointed out the fact no you shortly thereafter you go ahead. Yep.

So, this is just an example. Um, again, we get our rates in May from Auto County Public Utilities and, um, we try not to guess at them, but we just look at, um, what the raw numbers are. And once we get the numbers, we look at what our rates, how much money that we have for future pipes, what that looks like, and it would go to utilities, then go to the board, then the 100 day clock would start. uh we'd send a letter the next day out uh to all residents. Uh the new rates are in effective would be effective October 12th and then the first billing date won't be till January. I want to be clear this is purely a hypothetical hypothetical.

All right. But what this would look like is that on the 12th of the roughly 13 billing cycles we have, one of the 13 would uh start um getting the new rates and basically every week from October the 12th it would go through the cycle. So people would have ample opportunity to you know look at their system adjust their usage and um I guess that was the the number one I guess uh complaint by citizens was hey I just I wasn't notified if I would have known I would have done things differently so I agreed and we can put this policy into effect and and u work with our citizens better

and I think what's really helpful about it is that that new rate starting on October 12th gets us out of the summer sprinkling season for folks. So there's not as much pressure to dramatically change [clears throat] um and maybe there should be, but it you know the the bulk of what people felt was the increase rate plus a hot summer and additional sprinkling. And so you won't have the two coupled together on

what you're saying, Kelly, pragmatically speaking, is that if there's an increase in the rates sometime in the future, it's wise to do so after the summer is concluded. This is a hypothetical, and you're saying you like the dates of this hypothetical, not necessarily the year, but the timing of it, that if there's ever an increase in the future, you'd prefer to see it happen in the fall as opposed to spring summer. I think that's most helpful for people's pocketbooks.

Yeah, I agree. And hopefully in that notification, uh, you know, I don't want to send out more mailings than necessary. It is expensive to send letters to everybody. I do think it's it's important and warranted over a change like this, but, you know, instead of just saying a couple sentences about the rate going up, you might also include like a helpful tip of these rates are going up potentially in the fall. If this hypothetical were were true, you know, now is the time to think about sprinkling habits next year. Others? Yeah.

Okay. Um I just feel compelled to say one more time, there's been no discussion among any committee or any board member about raising the water and sewer rates. This is purely hypothetical. So please do not read what is not there. He had to use a date for example. You picked a date. So, all right. Any further comments?

But I would say I I think there was some thought that went into that the date. It wasn't plucked out of thin air. I mean, it it would allow us to really kind of have some a a a long timeline and a ramp up effort um and really time it into, you know, a a calendar year potentially. And we had talked about that before as being sort of ideal should we have to do something in the future. So it's hypothetical but I I sort of want to clarify that should we have to do something a timeline like this is what would work well potentially a long ramp up effort and a change that wouldn't uh affect people until sort of a a non- high usage billing cycle.

Correct. So we're on a different calendar year than the cities. So we're we send our sewer to Granville, we get our water from Wyoming indirectly through Auto County Public Utilities. And by doing that, they're on different calendar years. So they settle in May, their new rates take effect in June, and we're paying new rates in June. So by doing this, um, we're we're late to the ball game, I guess. But then we know for sure what the rates are going to be. The opposite is we can throw a dart at it. And we kind of had an idea earlier at it, but um and the the numbers that we had originally that were we're talking about in April actually end up being higher. The costs for watering should being higher than we anticipated. So at the end of the day, the users are the ones that are going to have to pay for it. So, um, if we if our rates go up in June, June 1st, it's going to be June, July, August, September, October, we really have five months that we could potentially been absorbing these costs. And the water sewer uh, utility stays in one, I guess I say one bucket. And it's ultimately that's going to ramp up the need for additional increases in the future. We hope that this infrastructure costs can slow down, but unfortunately looking at the Wyoming $600 million capital improvement pro program plan and we're on the hook for a large portion of it, it's not.

And there lies the problem because the rate increase comes just prior to the highest amount of consumption. So now you're going to end up with, you know, uh, during the highest months of usage and if you push it off to October, you end up with a big water bill that you got to try to cover because you decided you didn't want to raise it in you wanted to raise in October cuz the usage is in the summer in Wyoming that that's the biggest problem we have right now is trying to get all these everybody on the same page of when you're trying to do things, right? It'd be great if Wyoming did their water usage in October, you know, but they don't. So, we're trying to like

So, our try to mesh this all back to the thought that this is a hypothetical, we could hypothetically still with the passage of this amended policy, we could still begin the process in July if we wish. We could. Yeah, we could. We could. But the problem is is the usage, right? May not be wise to do so. saying or it may be publicly difficult to do but if you were taking it in the shorts for several months on a major increase you might think otherwise as a board at that point. You know, [clears throat] it's a lose-lose situation because what you could do is you could try to anticipate the increase.

Then you raise water rates be prior to the increase and as soon as you start getting collecting any sort of money that's above and beyond what you need, you look like a terrible person. So, it's a lose-lose situation. You want to charge as the increases come in, but as soon as you try to plan for those increases, you fill a church. So, I don't I don't I don't have a good answer for that. But all on the other hand, I also know that you have to pay for what you use. The township has to pay what the township uses and try to figure out how we can collect the money to recover that cost. I mean, I I I agree with the hypothetical because it does it does straight it does lengthen the timeline from when we get the increases to when the billing comes, which is what we need to do. It's just that I'm not sure that we can hold to the hypothetical of October just because of the usage being so high that time of year. And maybe that's something we got to talk to Wyoming about. I don't know. try to change that even if we can move it two months further to fall.

It's it's it's tough. Again, you we're we're relying on a different entity um to give us numbers and it's it's not easy. No, but communication is the key with with our residents and our neighbors and our friends in township. So, I agree. It's just letting everybody know. We haven't given up on push back on the city either. We're still exploring what we could do. Well, we're still working through I just sent an email to our attorney for the water rate um Mhm. uh renewal that they're proposing. So, I'm still I should have that here a week or two. So, yeah, let's take up our defense, you know. Yep.

Yeah. Anyone else? All right. Hearing no one else. All in favor say I. I. When opposed? Okay, it's passed. It's an amendment of a policy. It's not a resolution. Doesn't require roll call. All right. Make sure I didn't miss something there. Item 13, Creekfield Drive street light resolution out of utilities committee. Is there a motion to approve the street right light resolution? I'll make a motion to approve the street light resolution. I will recuse myself from this because it does involve my own property. Okay. [clears throat] support.

All right. Moved by Amy, supported by Kevin. [laughter] Any thoughts to say? Kevin, anything to add from utilities? Just as president for uh any new subdivision or area to have street lighting and just make it uniform with other areas and safety safety and uh add to the aesthetics of the area. [clears throat] else. All right. Hearing no one else. All in favor of the motion say I. Jim. It's a roll call. It's a roll call. It's a resolution. [clears throat] Okay. All right. All right. You call the role.

Treasure Dit. Yes. Clerk Kyper is a yes. Supervisor Wearingga. Yes. Trusty Grassman. Yes. [clears throat] Please abstain. Trusty Kelly. Yes. All in favor, one abstain, one absent. All right, thank you. It passes. Item 14, Port Sheldon sewer repair. Is there a motion to contract with Deans Excavating? I move support. Okay, it's for an amount not to exceed 111,000 because I don't think you quite know what you have till you open it up. Is that right, Gary? Any any thoughts on [clears throat]

So we this this sewer line that we're dealing with here on 12th Avenue is is kind of a difficult one. We sent a camera down and it has several bodges on it and Joe can correct me if I'm wrong. I'll talk for you, Joe, just so you don't have to get up here. Okay. Oh, you got it. Okay, Joe, come on up, buddy. [laughter] [clears throat] I can show you a dirty daddy. [laughter] The tunnel, not the tunnel of love. Yeah. Joe's home movies. [laughter]

So yeah, this year we uh we have identified several bulges in our uh sewer on Port Sheldon just uh east of 12th Avenue. Uh I'm going to roll that sewer. As you can see, we got water infiltration. Sure. Get my finger out of the way. Joel, as you can see, the pipe is getting cracked. It's some You want to pause it there? So we have two of these locations that we will have to uh excavate to dig up and repair the uh I talked to uh plumbers and they are not confident with uh lining that or the lateral. This is at a lateral connection actually. Um the next spot is at 398 ft. So we'll skip ahead and go to that one.

[clears throat] Yeah. And there's the other one right there. This is sewer is about 20 ft deep underneath the water table of course because you can see water in coming in. Uh we need to uh address these uh as soon as I can get contractor there sometime this summer when school's out. School Bersley is right there at the corner 12th in Port Sheldon

and we will be excavating right in underneath the road right there. So yeah, I recommend um uh using Deans. It's a time and material no matter what excavating company you do use. Uh they did work for us in Port Sheldon Court. They did a great job. Restoration was good. I had no complaints in that area with using them. And I'm going to jump back to 46 ft. And just to show you, we have 12 other bulges, but they're not near as as bad. And those are the ones we we feel uh confident in just uh lining that lateral. And that means back up maybe just a smidge more. You can just see a little bit. There we go. There you go. So you can see the bulge is starting to go down. We're starting to have some infiltration. It's not near as bad as those other ones. We can put a slip line on that lateral and then in the main and and do those repairs. But there's 12 of those. I'm still working on getting some uh uh estimates on those uh to repair those. But those are 12 more that we're still working on. But Deans is for the two that are the worst and I I'd like to get that in their books so they can plan on it this summer.

Hopefully they can get there in June. That's the that's the goal. Um you have any questions? So we want to be least disruptive. Yes. Um and I know you can't predict with certainty, but between now and next summer, how different could this be already by then? you are these things that are very slow to open or could could it really open up and force our hand sooner? Um, I don't know. [laughter] I hope it doesn't force a hand soon force a hand sooner. Uh, that's a 12-in sewer main. We have a lift station that pumps in down this main, so there's a lot of flow that happens through this main.

Um, yeah, that would not be a good thing. The deans will be on TNM. Yeah, it'll be a time and material. They gave us an estimate of roughly what they what they expect. Um, yeah. 90

and they'll be actually they have a job in Anddaleale this summer or this construction season is to say, and they pull off a crew from there to work on this for us. Timeline is probably he said probably close to two weeks from start to finish. You know, that's restoration. So, I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm always amazed still at what you're able to do techn technology-wise and and to show us, you know, 20 ft below the ground. I know to get a camera like that. That's I'm such a little guy that's got to go down that pipe. [laughter] You can't swimmies.

It is. I mean, having this sort of technology prevents bigger problems. Yes, it pays for itself. It's a fantastic technology. The cameras are so great now, the clarity and you see everything and now you can start addressing these issues. And you guys routinely, you have sort of a schedule, do you not that you you look at different pipes so that you don't wait to Yes. have trouble. Yep. We we have on a 10ear rotation. We do roughly around 100,000 feet a year. Wow. Wow. That's great. So we're just on the end of our 10 year, right? Yes. We talked about that. Yeah. This year is our 10th 2025 is our 10th year. Yep. And they're finishing up on that. Oh, okay. How old is that line?

It was built in about the mid uh 1970s, 1977 somewhere around there. Doesn't really Oh, we got our 50 years out of it then. Yeah. Wow. Thank you, Joel. Yep. Thank you. [clears throat]

Anyone wish to add anything? So, one of the one of the things that we've run into with jobs like this, and I'll just from my own experience, if you want to get bids on something like this, um, you can, but they're probably going to add another 50 60 grand to make sure they're going to make money on it because it's it's a difficult job because it's in the water. So, they got to dewater two spots. They're going to be dealing with traffic because it's by the school. And um another thing we found that when we did the last job in Port Sheldon because Deans did 48th Avenue, we were allowed to tack that job onto there and save an insurance cost because they had done their they had bonded for that. So we were able to move it over to this one that there's some savings there. So I Deans has done a great job for us in the past and they've been very fair. It's just that when you start bidding, you're going to get three bids and they're going to be a lot more money because they're going to make sure they're covered. Yeah. Mhm.

Because that's how I would bet it. Or the opposite. People get hungry and they bid low to try to get the job and you have a question mark on the quality of work. You know, generally with excavators though, they're they they they know their game. Yeah. Especially when you're deep and it's in the water. Now you got to de water. It's a it's a you got to be on your game. And when they did poor Sheldon Court, I was impressed with those guys. We I went overlooked that. They they made it look easy, but they did a great job. Yeah. So, I I had no problem hiring them. I think they're going to be fair with us. So, all right. Hearing no one else, then you've got the motion before you. All in favor say I. I. I.

Any opposed? And the motion carries. Item 15, second public comment period. So, this is the option for anyone who wishes to address the board for up to three minutes on any topic that you like. [clears throat]

Good evening. I'm Nancy Pacran P. Paul O N. I live at 640236th Avenue. Um, I want you guys to consider in addition to your water policy because we got to start incorporating conservation into these because we're paying a high price. But those people who water their lawn every day and when it's not fair to us that conserve. Um the other thing is is is the other uh thing that I would suggest is is when we have a drought like we had this summer, we should we should we should enact um rationing so that you have you can only if you live on the even side of the street, you can only water on these days. you live on the opposite side of the street, you can water on these things. I think you I think you need to have a cohesive policy on that because just [laughter] what you did tonight, Justin, is is good, but I think we have to have a more broader policy so that addresses because water is a commodity and it's a precious one. And secondly, I also want to recognize Pastor Phil Voss from Cornerstone United Reform Church, which happens to be in my backyard. Pastor Voss is retiring and they'll be celebrating this weekend and they have done wonderful things for Georgetown Township and uh Trusty Vinc will agree with me. [laughter]

Thank you. Thank you.

Bring that to our attention. Thank you. Anyone else? Hey Plowman, uh 6877 Creek Ridge Court, uh Hudsonville. Um could one of the board members, somebody Jim, tell us what is the compelling reason we're doing 48th Street Pipeline Georgetown? Why are we doing that? Um because on top of that project, we got a 30% 36% increase on our water. Then we got the 55% increase. I'm hoping that you'll just hold off on that project unless there you can articulate the compelling reason why we're doing it. That would alleviate some of the pressure on our water bills going forward. So, I'm hoping that you will tell us something about that. Um to um Kelly's point about notifying residents, why don't you just put the notification in their bills, thus not costing more? Um the other thing too is that in the finance committee, we talked about pushing back on uh Wyoming. We're using 21% of Wyoming's water and we're paying 41% of the bill on this project. That is not fair. And I've heard talk from the board saying that they're, you know, Wyoming's a good partner and everything else. Well, of course, when we're paying half the bill, yeah, they love us. But we do not do enough to push back because if we push back or had some leverage, use the leverage we had to uh say, "Hey, we don't want to go ahead with this project

because it's going to cost too much." They couldn't do it without us. So, we need to play like big boys and girls and say, "No, we're not going down that path." The other thing that just grinds me to no end, and I'm sure there's other members on this board, is that I don't know why we have a middleman called the county road commission in the middle of this. I mean, they're getting 15 mil out of this thing, and I'm not quite clear why. So, they're calling it engineering and incidentals, but there's no backup documentation as to what time, effort, and energy they're putting into this. So, we do not as a board look closely at the numbers and the details. And I wish you guys would do more than just show up for meetings, touch the very top surface. I wish you would dive into the details, ask questions, go beyond what you see on a piece of paper and go to the people. And like I keep telling, like I said in the finance, play hard ball and fight for the taxpayers of this township, just do that. That would be nice instead of just spending money. We have to do it. It's, you know, everything's a fire that we have to put out. Why don't we be proactive? Thank you. [applause] [cough] Anyone else? Okay, seeing none, we'll close that second public comment period. Item 16, discussion and general information. Anyone among the board wish to bring up a topic for conversation? I I want to publicly point out the

sunshine award that was so generously included in our packet um acknowledging the township's work in uh removing cleaning up the voter role. Um it's got my name on it, but I just, you know, she's not here tonight, but I just want everybody on this board to know that Amber does all of that heavy lifting. Um, and I really want to give her um the commendation for that. You know, my name's on it, but it's really important for everybody in the audience watching at home this board to just know that um she does so much of the heavy lifting on that voter role and uh it really this award really should be have her name on it. So, I will graciously accept that as your clerk, but just I just want everybody to know how hard Amber works for us. But I tell her I tell her that's why she's at desk number one.

Yeah. [laughter] I say you're at I know why you're at dust. You're number one, Amber. That's number one. Thank you, Kelly. Who else? And yeah, good point. Yeah, you look like you're about to say something. I'm just going to go to a Ottawa County Treasurer Association meeting here coming up Wednesday and if I hear anything decent on that, I'll bring it to the board. Right. Anyone else?

Gan and I named Kelly got to hand out a ton of candy at the trunk or treat and the turnout I think was much much greater than it was last year. lots of kids, lots of families, lots of uh people probably from inside and outside the township, but there was I don't know if you had a number on that yet. I we we're told to plan on about 750 and I personally had 12 bags of candy that had 200 pieces in a piece in each bag and [cough and clears throat] gone. So, um it was a good time. Great place for kids to trickor treat.

Great place for kids to trickor treat. Some of them did go through at least three or four times. I [clears throat] didn't make comment to some of them, but uh it was a good time and I'm glad that we had opportunity to do so doing that. What else? None. Motion to adjurnn. So move. All right. All in favor say I. I. I. We are germed in. [clears throat]