Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Well, let me do know what it is. It's You're live right now, sir. Send me your speech so I can include it. last year they voted that I have to Hey, we're about to go live.

You're live. Okay. Uh want to welcome everybody to our uh annual meeting. It is 6 pm and we'll get started on March 23, 2026. We've got a few things to uh accomplish tonight. I want to welcome everybody, especially the firefighters and our firefighter of the year. It's except some exciting times. So, I want to welcome it and call it to order uh officially. And then we're going to move secondly into the pledge of allegiance. So, if everybody could stand and say the pledge. I pledge algiance 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.

Okay. The second item, we've got to approve the minutes from last year, but from my understanding, we're going to have a couple of corrections with those before we move to officially adopt them. So, would you like to share? Yes, I'm Okay. So, we have a motion for the correction. I have corrected them. We'll make sure that the clerk is getting them. Do we have a second for that correction? Okay. A second by Mr. Sheay. All those in favor say I.

Oppose. The same. And the motion will go ahead and carry. Okay. We're going to move on to our most exciting feature of the evening most likely. I'm sorry. Right. Right. Now we need a second and it's just in a second by Mr. Sheay. Now all those in favor say I.

Oppose. The same. Good. We're going to move on to our uh firefighter of the year. And I know that we've got a couple of guests that are in the audience that's going to be uh presenting that. But uh first Chief Stalzer is going to go and then our commissioner Josh Buger will go after him. So Chief Stalzer. Okay. And a reminder reminder to talk into the mic so that people turn it over to Josh.

Oh wow. I'm right off the gate. Right out of the gate. Okay. Well, it is my honor to be here this evening to recognize Drew Clawson as the Spring Lake Township Firefighter of the Year. Where is Drew? There you are. Do you want to You can stay seated, but Come up. No, let's come up. Okay. I know you you I've been told that uh standing up in front of people and receiving award is not really your thing.

Not kind of a quiet guy. All right. Well, this is our time to embarrass you. No. And really genuinely, it's to thank you, Drew. So, uh I have a a a printoff that I'm going to read of some of Drew's accomplishments. They are many, and we are very grateful to him for his service. So, Drew began with the Spring Lake Fire Department on December 2020 as a paid on call firefighter. He was then hired full-time in May of 2023. He is currently assigned to station two. Uh he is a firefighter level one and two, certified in hazmat operations, fire inspector level one, plan reviewer, and a paramedic. Uh Drew was chosen because he was recognized by his peers for his SP positive spirit and dedication. He proactively identifies station vehicle and equipment needs, helps ensure operations and remain that that operations remain safe and effective. Uh beyond his daily duties, he is also actively involved in the smoke detector program. Uh his ongoing professional growth as a paramedic and fire inspector. Um his personal dedication uh is in is a testament to the his service. He balances demanding responsibilities while raising a young family. His wife is here tonight as well. Do you guys have kids too?

Four. Oh, four. three under three anymore. Okay. All right. Yeah. Not not three under three. All right. Good deal. Um yes. And uh he consistently goes above and beyond with a positive attitude. So Drew, without further ado, if I could present this to you and congratulate you on your service to Spring Lake.

Drew. Drew, do you want to say any words or do you want to No. All right. No, you don't. All right. Thank you very much, Drew, for your service. All right. There you go. Appreciate the board. Thank you. Uh Jerry, we'll turn it over to you. You want to take any pictures? Uh Chief, you want to take some pictures? You're going to take them outside? Okay.

Thank you. And congratulations, Drew. What a great honor. Thank you all of service. I'll give these guys a minute and you guys can go ahead and Yeah, we'll let them clear out. Okay, we'll officially get started again. and uh I'm vested with the honor of being able to give an annual report over uh the the things that we've accomplished uh here in Spring Lake Township. And I I want to share that uh things are going very very very well. We are very very blessed to live in this West Michigan community. Uh not only the environment and not only the natural features that we have here in in our community and all of West Michigan, it's just really a high valued area. It's a high valued uh community with the schools and with everything that we have here collectively. So, it's just really uh a blessing to be able to do this. Greetings, Spring Lake citizens. I'm pleased to present the 2526 annual report along with our proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year. This past year has been an outstanding one for Spring Lake Township, marked by meaningful achievements across many areas. Our board remains deeply committed to serving this community through responsible, transparent, and thoughtful decisionmaking. We strive to communicate openly and lead with the practical common sense approach our residents expect and deserve. We take great pride in our role as stewards of this community. That respons that responsibility extends to our residents,

employees, facilities, and the shared values that define our future. Fiscal responsibility continues to be a top prior priority alongside our strong commitment to supporting our staff and maintaining highquality public services. One of the highlights of the year uh has been the formal establishment of vision force now operating as our community ambassadors. This group has been actively engaged, meeting regularly and providing valuable input and guidance on a wide range of important community topics. We have also made meaningful progress in enhancing our public spaces and infrastructure. These efforts include uh revitalizing and improving our parks, advancing uh the development of a community center, and expanding and maintaining our bike path system. We are also upgrading and optimizing the use of our current public works building. Thanks to the dedication of the bike path maintenance village, residents are seeing noticeable improvements in both the safety and connectivity of our paths, particularly along 152nd Avenue, State, and Hickory Road. Public safety remains uh a cornerstone of our mission. We have strengthened our emergency services, including fire, ambulance, and police operations. Our new fire truck, fully paid for, is now in service and we continue to invest in highly trained fire personnel and first responders. Uh we've we've improve had improvements in communication and transparency have been has been a focus with the expanded live streaming now available to most if not all of our boards uh and commissions. Our public works department continues to

deliver excellent service as do our cemetery operations and internal departments including the assessing water and sewer services. Additionally, we have introduced uh a shared communications director position to further enhance the flow of information to our residents. Our planning department remains one of the strongest assets. the work their work reflects research adherence to best practices and thoughtful consistent decision makingaking regarding development. They are firm, fair, and reliable and an essential resource for our township. We are also proud of our continued collaboration with the village of Spring Lake. By sharing staff, facilities, equipment, and other resources, we are maximizing the efficiency and ensuring responsible use of taxpayers dollars. We will continue to seek opportunities to expand this cooperative approach with other mun municipalities where it is mutually beneficial. From exploring the addition of a potential new park at Petty's Bayou to enhancing emergency services, improving the township facilities, upgrading equipment across all of the departments, and welcoming new citizens to serve on all of our boards and commissions, we remain focused on accountability and responsible stewardship of your tax dollars and communities values. Overall, I'm pleased to report that our community is doing very well. On behalf of everyone who serves this township, we sincerely thank you for your continued support across all departments. Fiscal discipline remains our guiding principle. You hear hear me say that often. Fiscal responsibility is what our board wants to adhere to where you will find a wide range of resources and helpful information. Oh, excuse me.

Fiscal responsibility. Each team works diligently to ensure that resources are managed carefully, strategically, and alignment with the long-term needs of our community. I encourage you to visit our township website where you will find a wide range of resources and helpful information. We are committed to providing the public with access to operations, budgets, and other important materials. You can also view our live streaming American Eagle's Nest camera nicely nestled above the community center and near the fire station off of M104. At this time, I'm going to uh ask our township manager, Mr. Gallagher, to join me together, or I would say probably mostly him. We have several of these charts that are around the room. uh and quite often as a community we do not uh give ourselves enough credit with the fiscal responsibility and the accountability and the things that we are doing uh as a township and so I've asked Mr. Gallagher if he could come up and spend a couple of moments uh explaining out these most important charts

and I think I promised to be under three minutes. So, uh, one of the things that happens quite a bit is people write their checks, their property tax checks to Spring Lake Township, but, uh, we need to make sure that we're telling the story that 90% of those dollars go to other taxing units. So, on our website and within the budget book, you'll be able to see a chart where all of those property tax dollars that people pay. uh our portion of the property tax millillage is partially operating and partially all of the other the bike path the uh fire millillage and uh light millillage. We're proud to say that we have the lowest operating property tax village for any of the local units around us. And also our the amount that we retain uh is second only to Robinson Township and and only by a few ten of a mill. So we are very efficient with your property tax dollars and we're paying attention to those things regularly. The other two charts, uh again these are in the budget book and online. Uh we are proposing in this year's budget to not change the millillage rates. So the mill rates will be the same with the exception that the bike path maintenance and the bike path construction millage will both be rolled down slightly due to the Headley amendment. And then when we look at water and sewer rates, this is a chart of the history of the water and sewer rates. And uh the township had a water and sewer rate study done to look at our needs over the next five years. There are built-in rate increases over the next five years, but we are consistently 10% lower than the next lowest water and sewer rates within our region. So, we're being very efficient and effective with water and sewer rates and with tax rates. And I think that's what you wanted to hear.

That's exactly Yep. And our township really does not do enough uh to brag about that information. And it's it's important I think for all of our residents when you actually receive your tax bill from the township. You've got to realize that there's a lot of other things that are on there. Millages bonds, the library, uh the schools, the ISDs among various other things. So when we as a township or Mr. Gallagher shares and uh Amy shares when she is doing the budget. If you actually look at our operating uh uh amount, we are still one of the lowest if not the lowest uh among many of the townships in Ottawa County. And so, uh, that is a very very important thing to share. And, and again, we have citizens that are, um, deservingly required and have high expectations of their elected officials and our public service and fire and safety. Uh, and and I want to make sure that our our residents know that that our board takes that in the utmost uh, importance. So, uh, very important things. Uh Amy, thank you for all that you do with our budget and you deserve a lot of kudos for the things that you do uh as well. So, this will conclude my annual address. I'd like to thank our boards, our staff, our first first responders, our community leaders, our industrial and commercial partners, uh and most importantly our residents for allowing us to serve and represent what we believe is the finest community in all of West Michigan. So that will conclude my address. We'll move on now to the rest of our annual meeting of electors. And uh there's two more things on here that we'll we'll uh make progress through. Number one is the consideration of board salaries resolution. Uh so there are no

changes in that. So there's not going to be any action that's going to be needed with that. Um so we can move forward. And then the last thing here is to allow for public comment. So if there's any visitors in here that would like to come up and and um give some public comment, you would have three minutes. We just ask that you do your name and your for the board salaries. Okay. clerk, treasurer, and for the trustees. So, we have a motion to uh have no changes to the current board salaries, and we need a second, and we now have a second. And so, now that consideration passes with no changes to board salaries. So, let's now move forward to public comment. Are we going to have any public comment tonight? Okay. Well, now we can make a motion. Okay.

We have the motion to vote on the on the resolution on the resolution. Okay. So, who has made our motion? Okay. And we have a second. Okay. And it can be a voice obviously. So, all those in favor say I. I. Oppose the same. Excellent. And that will wrap up our annual meeting of electors for March 23, 2026. Thank you everybody. I asked for public comment. Do we need to have any?

I understand. Now we can still open it up for public comment if anybody You can tell we only do this meeting once a year. We need a little more practice with this one. So, okay. Do we really have any public comment? Anybody would like to come up at this time? Okay. Mr. Nash, I guess to start out with being around here a little bit, I'd like to thank Jerry and Gordon and the firefighters. They're right. This is a special special place because of the work they do and uh I'm very thankful for that. Well, you know what I'm going to say because I always talk about the same thing. Margaret's probably got it all written down already, but anyway, uh I'm the roundabout guy and I'd like a roundabout at 104 and 148. It's a busy intersection. and it's a half mile from a high school that has a full park parking lot with student cars. Uh, a long time ago, this board uh contacted a traffic engineer. He told us how you build road roundabouts and what would be the best at 148th and M104, which was kind of an interesting story. He drove from Grand Haven to Grand Rapids and back every day and he drove through that intersection. So, he was very familiar with it. Um, so here's some things I hear so many opinions about roundabouts. What I'd like to suggest to you, go on Google, get the

facts, don't uh necessarily necessarily listen to what you hear. The biggest one for the construction of roundabouts is the increased safety. With a roundabout, there's 90% less fatal car accidents. There's 80% less car accidents that cause injuries. And the other thing and this is in Google again there's 30 to 50% less delays. And if we look at that that's why I hear well where are they? Wellies be building four. Grand Rapids has already built nine. The state of Michigan has built 180. The United States has built 11,000. Is that a coincidence or do they make sense? I say they make sense and I pray that we'll have one before we have a major accident. Thank you very much for your time.

You have any other public comment at all? So, I'm just going to take a moment just to give you an update and and the really the community an update with where the the progress is on the roundabout on 148. So, as I stand here and understand it, Mr. Nash, right now, there's a couple of moving uh moving things going on. Number one, the uh the corridor improvement authority that we've enacted along that stretch uh is actively engaged in working and doing some community uh engagement to determine its functionality. And I do realize also, if I'm if I'm correct, that MDOT did attend, I believe some representatives from MDOT did attend one of our corridor improvement authority uh sessions and I and I know that they're very aware of that as well. So, the township in fact has uh over the years purchased or uh uh was able to accommodate getting the four corners there at 148th and M104. And so, uh it's certainly not a dead end. Um people understand that M104 is a state line truckage and so primarily it will be the state being pushed to uh try and get that corner there, but at this point in time, it's still just a lot of research and investigation. And I know that's your passion and I know that you would love to see a quicker, faster answer to that. But I I do know that there are things in motion to to uh to investigate that and and get that and your facts are correct. So I'll back you up on your facts because I've been in a lot of those meetings with uh roundabouts and roundabouts going in. So uh they do have their their function. There's no doubt about it. If we can get everybody to learn how to maneuver through them, that would be another thing. Uh, but once they're in a community, I think more and more people will will learn how to navigate them. So, seeing I've made several smaller

errors as I've moved on through the evening. Margaret, can we now bring our annual meeting to a close? Uh, and so we so we need a motion to adjourn. Mr. Shay has given us a motion. And we now have a second. And so, we are going to close the annual meeting. Thank you everybody. We're going to transition right into our regularly scheduled trustees meeting. So, if I could ask all of our board members to come up and we will transition here.

Oh, you know what? You can Yeah. What power move is this? Hey, we're going to call our regular board of trustees uh meeting to order. If we can uh have a call to order and a roll call. Margaret here. Jack here. Here

good. We have done the pledge of allegiance already. So, we're going to move on to uh our public comment and I do want to say again, thank you for everybody that's attended our annual meeting and now our regular meeting. Uh we open it again to public comment this evening. Uh hopefully it's related to concerns within Spring Lake Township. Uh so if you have anything that you would like to share, now is the time. We'll open it up at 6:24. Going once, twice. Okay, we're going to close it at 6:25. No public comment. Okay, we need a motion to approve tonight's agenda with no changes to my understanding. Just a reminder that uh we are going to uh with item six the budget uh consider that a budget hearing. So we'll open it up to the public again if anybody wants to talk about the budget.

Got it. I'll make a motion to approve the March 23rd 2026 agenda. So we have Trusty Sherf second Schroeder and Trusty Schroeder with a second. All those in favor say I. I.

The same. Good. We can move right on to the consideration of the 2026 27 budget. Before we move into a public hearing though, we can as a board, do you have any concerns or questions prior to moving forward? Should be pretty much straightforward. just to share with our community uh the months of January, February, and March is uh our budget uh calendar year. So, uh just those of you that may be joining live streaming and just kind of getting a feel or an understanding of what we're doing as a board tonight, I want to share with you that we have been going through budget uh meetings several times this past couple of months. We've had many people that have attended those from community citizens and others. Uh so tonight is really kind of a rubber stamping of of many of the processes that we've uh have already gone through. So with that, the public has had a chance to visit the budget. You can also visit it online if you would choose to go there and see it. Um we are going to need a motion to go into a budget hearing if I'm correct. So I need a motion to move into the public hearing.

I'll make a motion to go into public hearing regarding the 2627 budget. Okay. Second.

Trustee Z trustee sheriff. Okay. At this time, we can invite our public to come up and have anything that they would like to have public comment on the on our actual proposed budget for this next fiscal year. So, if anybody has any comment, we welcome that now. Going once, twice. All right, we're going to need a motion to go ahead and come out of the hearing. I'll make a motion to close public comment.

Second and then trustee. Hey, the budget hearing is closed. Now we are going to need a consideration to adopt the 2627 budget. I'll make a motion to approve the 2627 fiscal year budget. Okay. Sheriff with the motion. Second. Schroeder. Schroeder with a second. Go ahead and call for the vote if you would, Margaret. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. So, the budget passes for the next fiscal year. Now, we need to move on to the consideration of the 2627 appropriations act. And I'm assuming Mr. Gallagher, you're going to give us a little highlight on this one. So, that's just uh the the budget gives us the framework and the appropriations act approves spending those dollars. Questions or concerns by the board.

Okay, we need a motion. I'll make a motion to approve. Is it a fiscal year or is it just a 26 27 fiscal year appropriations act? Trustee Sheriff with the motion. Second. Trustee Ziggler with the second. Call for the vote if you would. Margaret

Consideration of the 2627 Appropriations Act passes. We're going to move on to the consideration of a bid award. Now, this is going to be a little bit of a newer business, but something that has to be pressing a little bit, and we're going to move move forward with this. Uh, Mr. Galler, you want to talk about the consideration of the bid award for the Hickory and the Rannis Road project.

So, part of our uh 2024 uh millillage was new pathways on Hickory and Rannis along with other pathways. So this is really uh state road was phase one. Uh these paths are really phase two. So uh we did take bids for uh those new pathways on Hickory between 148th Avenue and Fruitport Road and Rannis between Leonard and 152nd Avenue. Um we received six bids. The engineers estimate for this project uh was um I believe a million600,000. The low bidder was Bob's Asphalt Paving out of Revena for 1,238,99. Uh you received the bid tabs from Prina and Newuhof there. Uh the reason that we put this on this agenda instead of waiting two weeks is so that we could cut some oak trees that need to be removed prior to the oakwilt uh season. So the recommendation from staff and from our engineer is to award the project to Bob's Asphalt Paving in the amount of 1,238,99.

I don't know if you have any questions. Just open it. Let's open it up to the board and see if you have any questions for staff that may pertain to this particular bid. I just noticed that it's significantly lower than the other bids. Have we used Bob's asphalt paving before? So, um, we have not, but Prime and New Hoff has looked into their work uh and and is confident that they can do the work and and will be a good contractor. The situation is such that normally Bob's uh just does paving,

but they have just started to partner with a new underground contractor to be able to put in a bid collectively and that's why we believe that their bid was as low as it is. So they're normally an asphalt paving company. So, they've partnered with an underground uh company, whereas these other biders are actually underground companies that then contract with a paving company. So, a little bit of a unique situation, but we feel very confident with them. Uh the other thing is by getting this project started uh it will allow us to begin some public engagement on our next phase once these once the state road project gets complete and we know what that uh cost was and getting these bids underway so we can start having some conversation about Boom Road and some other places later this spring or early this summer. Would that allow for earlier completion by giving them the go-ahhead to start on some of the oak? And

so, uh, yes, to be able to get started on the oak, there is some, uh, consumers power poles that will need to be, uh, moved. So we expect we will uh provide them with a notice to proceed that the tree work will be done on both of those sections and that over the next several weeks they will give us a gant chart of what the proposed project schedule will be. So we will know we gave them all the way through I think it was November 15th to do the work so that to give some flexibility to get good bids. Uh but we so we don't yet know whether they'll get right to the work uh after the trees are down or whether they're going to work a little. But as soon as we know, we'll let everyone else know.

Other questions or concerns? Okay, we're going to go ahead and need a motion for this particular award. I'll make the motion to approve Bob's asphalt paving for the bid amount of $1,238,99 for the Hickory Street Rana Street. Trusty Ziggler with the motion. I need a second. Second. Schroeder. Trustee Schroeder with a second. My pen went out. Margaret, can you call for the vote, please? Yes. Yes.

Yes. And the bid carries and the award carries. Good. All right, that's going to conclude our meeting tonight. There's not going to be any board reports or anything like that. So, I want to conclude by saying thank you to the community. Thank you to all of our board members. Thank you to all of our staff, first responders, public works, assessing, business, accounting, you name it. Um, we really live in a wonderful place and we're very, very fortunate just to be in West Michigan. There's no doubt about it. Enjoy the weather that we have and what we have coming. That's for sure. Good night, everybody. Thank you.