Township Board - Regular Meeting

We'll uh call the meeting to order tonight. Appreciate you all and welcome to those who are here tonight. Mayor Face RJ out there and got Paul Leadford is going to speak to us a little later on about his candidacy. I think every one of our township folks, you've got you've got a vested interest in one or more items on an agenda tonight. So, appreciate your expertise being here if we need them. So, with that, turn to John and ask you.

Thank you, Jim. if you'd bow your heads, please. Our dear heavenly father, we want to thank you for this opportunity to be here and to serve the people of Georgetown Township. We thank you for this beautiful day that we've had. And we we reflect on spring vacation coming and people traveling and families together and some going long ways and some being in our parks. And we just pray for safety for all of them. Lord, we thank you for the people that serve here at Georgetown Township. Uh their dedication. They've just done a wonderful job for us and particularly those that are first responders and willing to put their lives on the line for us. Please be with them and keep them safe. And these six new people that are coming on, please Lord be with them. And we just thank you that they're they find that they want to ser have a servant's heart and they want to work here at Georgetown. Also Lord, please be with our national government and with the world and the challenges we face overseas. It's very very difficult and we pray for your wisdom and your discernment and please be with all of our soldiers and keep them safe. Thank you Lord for this opportunity tonight. Please be with us. In your son's name we pray. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. You stand and join us in 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. Miss Kyper, would you acknowledge the role? They're all present tonight. All right, great. Is there a motion to approve tonight's agenda? Supported. Any comments or petitions? All right. All in favor say I. I.

Any opposed? The agenda is approved. Item six is our communication letters and reports which are received for information and to be filed. Item seven then public comments for the items on tonight's agenda. If anyone's come tonight wanting to address agenda items, this is your opportunity. You've got up until three minutes. Just identify your name and your address. Is there anyone for you? Excuse me. We will have an opportunity for general. Yep. So if it's not specific to a particular point in the agenda, then we'll wait and hear you in a few minutes.

All right. Good. And I think that's Paul when you would fall in as well. Anyone else? All right, sir. Welcome.

Hi, my name is Kevin Hzinger, 2669 Tamarak Drive. Um, I just wanted to speak in favor of uh the water um use restrictions for sprinkling. Um, I've seen a lot of uh cities out by Chicago go that route. Um, it's not a big ask to say, hey, if you live on one side of the street, you sprinkle on certain days, on the other you sprinkle the next day. So, I think that has potential to uh hopefully help uh reduce some long-term uh the peak water usage during summer.

Right. Right. Thank you, Kevin. All right. Anyone else? And seeing none, we'll close the initial public comment period. Item number eight is the consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda? So, support. All right. I think Amy barely beat John on the support there. Any comments? Cuz I'm right next to Gary. Yeah. Hearing none. All in favor say I. I.

Opposed. Okay. Item nine then. This begins a slew of items that came out of utilities. You guys were busy and what I would call sort of the meat and potatoes of what you think of in board governance. Uh not that I'm saying I'm automatically agreeing with everything. I'm just saying it's these are the things that you need to do as I view it in terms of good governance and looking forward. So item nine first off is the GT1 pump station evaluation. Phase two, Prime and New Hoff. Is there a motion to approve Brandon New House's proposal for engineering services related to that phase 2 evaluation? Some support. All right. Moved and supported. Uh this is the the pump station there at Barry and Kenoa.

I'm sorry in N8. N8. Yep. Barry and ETH. Well, Barry Yeah. Barry and ETH. Right. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. It's one of our two tie-ins to uh the pipe that Wyoming, you know, we plug into out there. So, correct. 48th being the other. Yes. All right. We've all read and understand the background. If you've had questions, I assume you've done your homework on this and the other items. So, is there anything that you wish to discuss among the board? Okay. A

comment that this pump station is at max capacity. We've got we've had pump issues there in the past year and it it it's got to be addressed and then we can do is get some engineering on and figure out what we got to do to correct it and make it more efficient. I don't confess to understanding any better than the rest of you in terms of, you know, you learn what's going on, but it runs like crazy and it's pitting and so on. And I'm sure Joel could go into great detail, but um yeah, it gets worked hard and if you don't uh you don't address the things sooner than later, it becomes more expensive. Yep. In the long run.

Yeah. Okay. Um hearing no other comments. All in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. It is carried. Item 10, the crystal lift station pump improvements. Is there a motion to approve the quote from Smith and Loveless? support. Okay. Move and supported board members. Anything behind your own? Would it be good to have Joel come up because it seems like all of these it would be unusual if we voted down any of these. He would just speak for a moment about all of these are a necessity because I know he really likes public speaking.

Are you willing Joel for a minute? I know it's put on a spot there, John. I think principally it's probably 10 and 14 yet. That would be uh specific. So, that'd be the Walton uh health pump station and then what we're talking about now, Crystal Lift Station. Well, we desperately need them, right? Yeah. It makes your job easier. I like the Are those new glasses? Well, they're not new, but I don't wear them that often because I don't really care to wear glasses. But I can read a lot better if I have one. Really smart, especially as the older I get. So, we'll be wearing them more. Crystal and Walton. Um,

so a Crystal lift station pump. Uh, you know, those that pump station was built in 1986 and um, you know, it's it's aging obviously and the impellers need to be changed out. And we came across they have a new impellar design. It's called the axe design. is supposed to help move um we'll call it solids rags uh wipes uh and we have been constantly pulling those pumps almost on a weekly basis and unclogging them and this new impeller design is supposed to uh help take care of those issues. Uh unfortunately with the new impeller design, it needs a higher RPM motor than what's currently there. And so there is a um this is something that we can do. Um and uh yeah, so it will we can bolt it right up to our existing um base there and hook it up ourselves.

And that's the one on Filmore? No, this is Crystal Live Station is on Pete Street. Um, just south of Baldwin. Oh, okay. You you drive right on by. You'd never know. You you it's underground. You you wouldn't see anything besides an empty lot. So, this new propeller system will just chew all that stuff up. It'll save us a Well, I'm hoping for the best, but that's a fortune in your labor. Yes. Okay. So, yes. Okay. And then Walton briefly if you want.

Okay. Our Walton Heath um pump station. I have that in our capital improvement plan for 2028. And um let me see here. Make sure I get my notes. You make me nervous here, John. You put me on the spot. So, our Walton Heath pump station, uh we had some issues. a freak drive went out just recently and we main um blew up main seals in one of our fire pumps and then further looking into it other seals in the other fire pump are going bad also. So we have those things on order and as you can imagine it takes a long time to get these parts and then we have there's three pressure tanks inside this. This station really feeds 110 homes up in the Sunningale Plat area and and so the controls of this station went out in about 15 plus years ago and and it's been always um we'll say past DPW director had it like say uh rigged on a pressure switch with that freak drive. Well, of course, that freak drive went out and so we are really we really need to have this station updated and new controls put in to current standards and where you can get parts. We that's that's the gist of it. And we had it scheduled for 2028, but of course it got moved up because of the issues.

And so this is um engineering for prime. And so I would expect that maybe we have it out in forbids in November and then construction of updating that station would happen during this next winter. So we'd be foolish not to approve all of this. Well, that's that's my take. Yeah. Okay.

Any questions? I was going to ask you about timing just because I've seen the timeline for a lift station parts right now and it's it's very extended. So I was just curious if this was just for engineering when did you expect to be able to actually order the parts then and get the work done?

Yeah. So I I don't know that's we'd have to see what we're going to do. You know things have greatly improved since then. We don't need these big there's three 1000galon tanks in there pressure tanks. We don't need those anymore. There's freak drives now that run the pumps and wrap them up and so we can probably get by. I'm I'm making this assumption with something small like a 55gallon drum instead of a thousandgalon tank. Those bladders are are shot in two of them and we're operating on a third anyway. So we can we definitely get by with a lot less there and update the controls and everything there. And yeah, the seals that we've ordered took are taking 16 weeks to get.

Wow. Four months just to get seals for those pumps. Great. All right. Thanks, Joel. Appreciate it. Okay. So, the motion is in front of you on item 10, the crystal lift station. Any further discussion among the board? Hearing nothing. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Okay, we're up to item 11, which would be a resolution for uh increasing the hydrant fee schedule. A motion to approve that uh schedule resolution.

This is when hydrants get used uh I don't know by contractors like the one who's been around it seems forever, but the last couple years who's still here, who's the one putting in the help me? Yeah, Metron that uh it could be AT&T, it could be whatever, but they've got to pay what they use and so we're trying to estimate that better and keep current. Any comments, right, resolution? So, roll call vote. Belink, yes. Yes. Kelly, yes. Det, yes. Hypers, yes. Grassman, yes. Laringa, yes. All in favor?

All right. Item number 12, the DPW good bids. Someone wish to make a motion to approve the bid for those trucks. Some move. Department of Public Moved by Gary, supportive. Uh Rod is here. Should anybody wish, but I know these are two items that were included in the 2026 budget. These are not a surprise. It's a a my deal where we discussed that at length a couple months back. gets us a a really good price here locally. Um, anybody had any questions or concerns about that? Whether it be among the board or for Rod or No. Okay.

Just like with Gary, shouldn't we have Rod tell us why he needs these trucks? Did that with our budget? Oh, I'm sorry. Joel, you know, he wants to come back up. No, but it was uh it was presented for our budget last year and and we agreed that that was a necessity and and now it's time. So, all right. All in favor say I. I opposed. Passes. Item 13 2026 recommended odd even lawn sprinkling. Is there a motion to approve a recommendation of odd even lawn sprinkling? I move

support. Okay. This would be a a guess voluntary participation, but sort of an expectation of being a good resident uh as a way to try to address begin to address these increased costs that we have with the city of Wyoming because of our heavy heavy water usage during the four months of the summer season. I I think the major thing is that it's voluntary, that they don't have to do it. And Justin had mentioned if we can as people are programming for the summer, if they know that they would be good stewards if we did this every other day or to reflect on um daily usage and because we are build on our highest consumption of water and if we can get that down that could help us with our overall bill with Wyoming. So this is just I think it's a wonderful idea and it was being very proactive.

I agree. And I guess the big thing to stress to people it is voluntary but if we can all take and consume less water for particularly lawns and we have some residents that u they have beautiful lawns. My best friend he spends a fortune on it. Uh he has uh dramatically cut back And uh this would be a way to cut back and and maybe get that overall peak down and save us a tremendous amount of money eventually. Justin mentioned it's about every 3 years, maybe five years that they look at what our peak is. And if we can bring that down historically, that would help us.

They look at every year, but it's a rolling average of five, right? If you I guess Chelsea, if you want to scroll down, uh let's see here. Oh, to let's see Georgetown Peak hour data. You got you've got a presentation for us.

Yeah, I got that too. But I want to highlight this. So Pat gave me this. This is the I guess our high water mark, no pun intended, uh for uh our water usage and what time it occurred. So, there's a general um I guess theme that happens through this is that it happens between 5:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. and it's happening during the summer. So, the goal is is looking at this these highs and then we can maybe adjust our demand to try to even out our system. And I think that's the goal that we need to focus on as we move forward. Um, we're going to have studies done on our system and what capacity is and what capacity looks like. But also, I believe this is a component that we need to think about as we are looking to develop as we grow and as we have agreements in place with other communities and what their growth looks like and how we can balance that out. So, Chelsea, if you can uh jump into I guess there any questions over this at all, this data that Pat gave me. No, Chelsea, if you can put the PowerPoint. I'm going to give a quick kind of highlevel over overview of lawn sprinkling, what this is and and what um what we as a community can do. So, odd even sprinkling. So, this I mapped the last three years of Georgetown and we have a very prominent spike that happens really between May and October. And this spike um is really where our system is built on where we have to look at and say historically we're using about two billion gallons of water. If it doesn't matter if it's 2023, 24, we're using a dramatic amount of water in the summer compared to our

low water mark in the um other times of period of the year of October to May. So looking back at our contract that we signed in 1988, a very high level view of it is a roughly a 3:1 ratio. So our summer average uses to winter usage. So I went through as I talked to numerous homeowners here in the last 9 months uh 10 months and um kind of broke it out. This is also kind of our rates and what's happening. Uh we do you know I think there was confusion by some people that we do bond in a secondary market through out of county public utilities infrastructure. So now on our bill and this is one from July. Our July bill was almost $850,000 and there's a breakout between our debt service and our water usage. So, our debt service is what we're paying for improvements like the third transmission line and peak demand capacity as the plant gets bigger to meet demand as we're using more water. So, I broke it down to there's really four distinct neighborhoods or communities that we've built and that use water. This is I would identify as the uh senior citizen group uh that doesn't irrigate their lawns. that are just live in their house. They are using very low water, very consistent, and high of nine, low of eight, and they're very consistent uh quarter to quarter. This household too, uh has a high of 47, a low of 17. They're keeping with that ratio that we signed 3:1. uh you know this household is actually a household of six and uh they have a new water meter and um they are um basically stay in the boundaries that we have that

we signed a contract for. Then we get to household three. So this house was built in the last 10 years. It's uh has a high of 98 low of 13 and there's a vast dramatic usage between the winter and the summer. So what happens is is we are build and we have to design for our system built on the high demand that we have in our entire system and on the extreme end we have household 4 uh that's using roughly 15 times their water versus the winter versus the summer. This is an extreme example, but this I guess curve is very similar to what we have in our mapping out our two billion gallons of water is that during the summer, we're always going to use more water, but we have to be conscious of how we're using our water and what long-term ramifications of using this much water will lead to. So, I had Pat uh generate some numbers of average uh customers per day and what that looks like. So, Georgetown Township, we have 15,733 customers. Uh, this is at the end of uh June of 2024. Um, Holland Township has roughly 500 more customers, but they use a dramatic amount of more water, static water throughout the year. And that's because they have more industry than we do. We are a bedroom community. And we have to be conscious of being a bedroom community. what the ramifications especially with this agreement that was signed in 1988 and what that turns to longterm and how we're building houses and how we're approving homes. Uh one outlier like to point out is like out of London uh average per day customer is 5,000 and this is because they have uh Tyson and industries like that. So change is needed. If we continue to use water like households three and

four, we'll continue to pay millions in interest in principal for lawn sprinkling storage. Potential tiered rate system as we evaluate our rates. I'm going to have Pat uh from the county is going to come in July to give us a quick update. And then after that point, we can decide uh what direction we want to go with the township and if we want to do a tier grade or if we want to do continue to do status quo. Residents need to step up and control their summer usage. Um, and again, this is a recommended. So, when people are getting their systems online, they can, you know, most people have the box inside their garage. Um, odd even, they're like, "Well, how do I do that?" Well, I would air on the side of caution. So, if you're irrigating five times a week, just irrigate three days a week and try to adjust your hours of watering to not happen between 5:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. Uh, increase base usage throughout the year to allow for growth, future growth, uh, to include industrial park. So, our neighbors to the west um they're looking at developing and looking at what development looks like and maybe in their master plan they include a industrial park to offset their growth. Should we look at ordinance changes? Uh we have a moratorium that's in effect right now. Should we incorporate water usage, peak demand usage into um our ordinances for development? And the amount we pay for utilities or water, sewer will outpace taxes. Um, what an average citizen or Georgetown township, they pay in taxes, not school taxes, Georgetown taxes. We need to get this utility thing right because what we're going to have to pay long term between um bonding, storage, capacity, all this will far outweigh what we spend on taxes. And growth has costs. So as we continue to grow, we have to be mindful

that yes, we do have to spend money on 48th a transmission line. That has to be a part of our our process that we maintain the services that we have in our township. Um people ask me like, "So what are you doing?" Well, I worked with Representative Slaw in the past six months and we put a request in to $10 million to the state of Michigan so that they can help with infrastructure. Other communities um around us got a free fire truck 32nd of line due to with state funds. I think it's our turn. We need help and we have a request. Uh just for reference, I did go to Lancing week and a half ago for the firetruck and I'm hoping to get a call soon to go to Lancing to testify on the $10 million.

Good. Thank you, Justin. And this is the flyer communication that we are going to um communicate to people. Um again, it's not mandatory. It's recommended. And just be awareness of as people turn on their systems and what that could look like. All right, that's it. If anyone has any questions, would it be good to add the phrase in that last one, help all of us bring down, you know, future rates or something to that effect? Yeah, we can tweak it. Not sure if people would understand that that would affect that brings some pressure on neighbors, you know, affecting my rates long term. Yeah,

it's hard to I guess explain it because there's so many layers and so complex. And would you put in the communication to maybe not water between 5:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. if you can help it? Yes. Like to stagger maybe. That's in our FL our flyer. So Mhm. Okay. That's kind of tough cuz every landscaper will tell you the best time to water between five. Yeah. And you want to mow your lawn at 10 o'clock. 4 a.m. to 4 a.m. And don't do it at night because that'll give you fungus and everything else. Do you plan to mail that out? That's going to go out with like a newsletter.

Uh communication. I don't um I guess I wasn't. We'll do it through our newsletter. Our newsletter online and just uh general. I wasn't going to do a direct mailer to everyone. Our next newsletter is when? Uh I went to the printer already. Uh no, it' be Oh, April. It's going to hit mailboxes here next week. Okay. And that's in there. or what? It's not because it's too late to get It's too late. Yeah. Okay. So, the next one would be uh June be June. Well, it's still probably a good time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Or you could do an email, you know, people who sign up for a season

in other communities and have reached out and uh they they agree like um people don't like it, but it again it's not mandatory. It's recommended just to bring education to what the problems we have in the township. I think it'll help. Do you know how many households are representative of your example, households three and four? Like is there a way to run a program that identifies those high user households? I'm going to say right now with the issues that we're having with our billing, um it's working fine, but to add on those reports, I think we could put it I can try to do that report, but

I probably Claude could run it for you. You could put in a summary of last year's usage. I mean, you could put it all into Claude and it would probably create you a table of exactly which what those households are. The only reason I ask is because I I guess I'm sort of struggling with what we think the outcome of this is going to be. It feels like it has good intention, but it's lacking a lot of meat on the bones. Um, if it's not a mandate, if it's just recommended, I'm not sure how we're incentivizing the worst users on our system to change their habits. I just feel like somebody who's using to that level uh will say okay and move on. Um and so that's why I ask that this this feels like it has good intention but it's like step one of what we really should already be on step 10 of combating our water usage. And so I just feel like rather than a feel-good motion, can we not just outright look at households three and four in a real capacity and charge a search charge or immediately immediately work towards a tiered system? I mean, I'm just struggling with what this is actually going to accomplish in terms of our water usage because it doesn't feel like the people who are the worst culprits of this system are going to care that we're kindly suggesting they stop watering so much.

My recommendation is to educate people and give them the chance to put it on the people to understand what's happening before you impose a a large scale like tiered rate to people. although it will then impact the people who are the issue rather than asking the entire township to bear the burden of just a few people

and that's what we've been doing historically and until the Wyoming infrastructure charges have been ramping up their plant capacity. Um this is going to take all of us. It's not just the board. It doesn't matter if it's this board or the next board. We're going to be dealing with this for years to come. I very well see the tiered rates as being a likelihood from next summer, the one after this. I bet. I'm just guessing. It'd be interesting to see how much peer pressure affects the odd even. We have to start somewhere though. Well, and I think that we haven't seen a summer yet with the increased rates. I wonder if there'll be a natural shift because people will be hyper sensitive with the higher water rate.

Well, fun fact, we use more water in 2025 than we did in 2024, but the rates didn't go into effect yet, right? I mean for the bulk of for the second half of the year the second half of the year but so we had a heck of a three years we've had significant rate increases and usage is still at two billion gallons a year. I ju I think I just on the whole struggle with penalizing the entire township for what has sort of my understanding was painted as a picture of a a certain population of our township. Well, I'll try to get those reports and see what we can do.

I I think the price is the price. I don't think just because you use 12,000 gallons in a quarter versus 80,000 gallons in a quarter. I mean there's there's no difference to bring the water to somebody's house than it who uses more or less. I mean the water cost is the same either way and you just make an honest, you know, I guess a decision to decide whether or not you're going to go every other day. I have a neighbor across the street who's probably in that group three and four easily and come across the street with his water bill shaking his fist. And I said, "I'll cut it in half for you. Water every other day. I'd cut it in thirds for you. Water every third day. I mean, and then my son worked for SNS here in town for four different summers. And I asked him about it last year when we're going through everything. I said, "How many systems have a a rain shut off where they have a water gauge where if it rains, it shut off." He says, "Very few that we work on doing repairs." The other one was, "How many people know how to change their clocks?" Very few people know how to do it. They go out every spring and set people just turn it on for people. Well, you're just click now. It's on. You're good to go. And that's $459.95, you know. But but still, I I think education goes a long way. And if we do our best to get the know to get the news out there and say, "Hey, listen, we don't want to go to a tiered system. We don't want to charge, you know, people that are that are abusing the system. What we're trying to do is say, hey, let's play this, you know, play the front nine, right? Let's make sure we give everybody all the education that they need. And if if if they don't change their their usage habits and they don't make differences, then when we go to the back nine, then guess what? We're going to we're going to charge them more. But I think we at least have to give a summer where they they see the new rates and they have the opportunity to make a conscious decision whether or not they

want to curb their usage before we just say, "Bang, here you go. Now, here's the new rate and here's a tiered system and we're charging you more.

I agree with Kevin. I think this is a great introduction to it and I think people they they will see how important this is. I think many people will convert over, some won't, but maybe Jim had mentioned and Kelly that you know this will pro this could be coming. I wouldn't do it right now. I would educate people, bring them along. I think this is a wonderful way to start out. There's going to be a lot of questions about what do you mean by odd and even and there'll be a lot of people really upset that this is a right I have. Well, you are costing us when we hit those spikes a tremendous amount. But they don't know that yet. And so I I I think this a great way to get it rolling. And many communities have gone to a tiered system. Um, I don't know if we'll end up there. People may really step up and we could see things dramatically change. Let's try it.

I I agree. I'm I'm okay with going the out this year, but if it doesn't change behavior, we're going have to go to a truth system. And the reason is is because I'm in household one. I use four units of water. But when we replace the pump at GT1, the use of that pump is being wore out quicker by the heavy users than the light user like me. But we're going to all share the cost on that, right? We're all going to say, "Yeah, it's a $2 million upgrade, so we're all going to share that." And I'm like, "Well, just because you used all that water, use that much more use of that pump." So, I'm I'm okay with trying this a year. Everybody has to understand, you know, we're we're given a little bit of leeway here, but if they if we can't control behavior, we're have to do it a different way.

And that's when pure tier system is going to come. Yeah, I I completely agree with everything you just said. And I do think it's an important point that you made to say

the usership is not just on the gallons of consumption, it's also on the pump. Those higher users are actually using the equipment more than the low users. And I would go so far as to say that um those household ones, if we go to a tiered system, we could potentially reook at the rates for those household one users because we did hear that feedback pretty significantly that the lowest end users, the minimum consumption users are being charged a pretty hefty amount. And I would think in a tiered system, you might be able to relook at even the lowest users to portion them out

uh based more on their consumption than just sort of this flat fee that we were forced into. Needs to be consensus. Yeah, I agree with all that again, but I just think last year we ran into the quite a big of a buzz saw the with the public outcry because we didn't give them information up front. We didn't say, "Hey, listen, you know, this is costing us more. Wyoming is charging us more." We just went, "Well, here's a new break. Here's a new rate, and that's what you're going to pay." And and I obviously the public uh, you know, spoke and and I think this is step one of saying, "Hey, we listened. Here's what we're trying to do this year to curb that."

And and if it doesn't work, then we got to go to step two. And I agree with that as well. that if it's a tiered system or if it's a hey here's our top 10% of users here's our next 25% of users whatever it might be do you know uh quarterly or or or cortile um yeah but you're correct there's there's usions cost and then there's also equipment cost for those who are you know pumping 200,000 gallons in 3 months to water their grass so

can we just make sure it really gets out there You know, I I would even go so far as to see if Jiselle Valentin would put it on, you know what I mean? I just in order to really get it out there, I think we have to really make an effort. I'm concerned that by just putting it on our Facebook page, on our website, there's still going to be a huge portion of the population that doesn't see it. Yeah. And I think before June, right, cuz people are turning their sprinklers on here in another couple weeks. Adding it to a bill99, you know, call a water bill. I think this will be newsworthy. I'd be shocked if this isn't in the paper and it's not on Well, it may be the news. Yeah. I mean, this is newsworthy. Yeah.

I've had a gentleman reach out a couple times and I told him, "Let's see how tonight goes. See what the board direction they want to go and then we can communicate after that." So, okay. Is there uh more comments? Otherwise, there's a motion before you. All right. All in favor say I. I. You opposed item 14, the Walton Heath pump station, which Joel addressed here earlier. Is there a motion to approve Prouhoff's proposal for engineering services? Support is supported. Questions, comments? Jo did a good job. Thank you. All in favor say I. I. I.

Opposed. All right. Item 15, township board meeting time. Uh there's a suggested uh time here. Does anybody wish to make a motion as for the suggested time of 6:30 or do you want to have discussion first and see where things coales have discussion first? All right, the floor is open. We currently meet at 7:00. Obviously, we have for some time uh not forever, but we have for quite some time.

Well, I believe Byron Center, Kelly mentioned, meets at 5:30. I think the Ottawa County Board meets twice a month. One time at 8:00 a.m. and the other time at 6:00 p.m. So, I think a lot of the boards are starting to go a little earlier because so many things go into the night. And then if you have meetings after the meeting, you know, you're here at 10:00, 10:30 at night. So, I think starting earlier would give a lot of the residents maybe time to stop on their way home from work. um jump in a meeting. So, I am for an earlier start time, but I would probably say 5:30

because our staff is here all day and it's a really long day for them and a lot of them, correct me if I'm wrong, you guys don't go home and they stay here waiting for 7:00. So, I think it would be better for our staff that works all day long and then is here so that they could get back to their family earlier. Kelly could tuck her kids into bed. All right. Thanks, Amy. Some of the

some of the discussion we had at the finance meeting also was um we got to do what's good for our constituents too as far as getting them here and maybe that getting home by 5 5:30 get something to eat do some of the kids or whatever and then have time to eat here. I think what um when I look back it looked like when things got changed is about 3 years ago or so as we went from the 4:00 service and finance or not finance finance has always been a but utilities um was at 4:00 in the afternoon because I think what makes it long and I think what everybody's major problem is if I read between the lines right is the extension of how long goes once we get done with this meeting we got to go into another meeting which could be a half hour or an hour and a half. So if we spent two hours here, hour and a half here, go there and spend an hour and a half. I think that's where the issue is. So would we better off maybe keeping it here at 7 or 6:30 and um reschedule those other meetings back to like a 4:00 in the afternoon thing, which we have those once a month usually or two meetings, finance and utilities. So it's not like it's putting too much extra burden on doing in the afternoon for people that are have work and stuff, but that's just something I think was brought up and to have a discussion on or whatever that

utilities and services used to meet twice a month and that was when we'd meet around 4:00. Um, but we've pretty much always had the meeting right after this one because often there would be people that would be in the audience that would be here for the meeting and then afterwards they'd have utility concern. Uh, historically we've we've pretty much always done that. And in finance, we we had a pretty strong discussion in a positive way and said to Justin, uh, if it seems like we need to go back to having meetings again, uh, at around 4:00, we're for that. Uh, if you see a need where services or utilities should be meeting, um, I'd be all for that. Um, so we can get the business done that needs to be done. But frequently we'll have meetings that will go quite a long time. Sometimes they'll be an hour and a half, two hours, and then we'll have the utilities or or services right after this, and it can become an incredibly long night. Um, I I um strongly I I agree with Amy that it can be really challenging after a while. And that's why I think we should explore this. Uh I like the idea of maybe making it we looked and we said can we try it what would be least controversial? At least that's how I felt about it. Well, let's start with 630. Try that for the fiscal for the year and see if that's a positive. And then I wouldn't be against taking a look at starting at 6 and maybe we'd even consider 5:30 if it seemed

like it was going well. And if it seemed like it was going well with the public, uh, it is challenging at 7. So there's unknown factors whenever you make a change it usually is um there's repercussions and so we thought let's look at 630 try it for the next 8 n months whatever it is um I'd like to see us go that route but I'd like us to keep an open mind that we take a look at at the next year of do we go back to 7:00 6:30 :30 and we would we try maybe look at 6:00 and see if that would be better. Would that serve people better? But I really like the point of uh our people have to stay and this is an incredibly long day

and there are days that um Andy and Justin they get here really early and then they're here the next day too and I bet you I bet you they're putting in 14 15 hour days um and then coming right back the next day. So, this I I think I'd like to see us try it. Um, but I'd be like I'd like to see us start at 6:30. Should we hear from Andy and Justin at all? But I'm not Amy, I hear what you're saying and I'm not saying you're wrong. So, the discussion in finance was to do um committee meetings prior to a 6:30 board meeting or No.

Is it just for the board meeting 6:30? Just make the board meeting 6:30. But there was some questions about, well, gosh, it used to be at 4:00. Well, we used to run two meetings. Yeah. When I was when I first started, I was in utilities and we had a meeting uh 4:30 in the afternoon. But it was changed in September of 21. I think you and John were on that committee at time it changed and but it wasn't so much like we voted on that. it was well we don't have really um is there that much pending can we take care of this right after the other meeting right um that's how it kind of fell into place

should we go back but we've we've historically had it at utilities and services I think for you know so right now the discussion is just whether have the board meeting at 6:30 it is nothing with committee and keep things going the way they are. And then right after this, you'd have your services. Is a half an hour enough? I mean, well, let's hear from the others. Yeah, there's three others that haven't spoken to it.

I be I'm in favor of moving the the meeting up, but I I don't think you could have the services at 4:00 or 4:30 or utilities because what if that gets done in half hour and then you're waiting around till 6:30 for for the next meeting? I mean, so I think you should still have them one follow the other, but and again, I've been the, you know, one of the individuals here as 11:00 at night this year a couple different times with utilities following uh a very lengthy board meeting. So, um I'm in favor of moving them forward, moving it up, I guess 6:30 to see how that goes. Um, but I'd still keep the the uh, you know, committee meeting following only because I I wouldn't like the gap in between the two if we did the the committees at 4:00 4:30.

If we got done early, we could order a pizza.

Well, okay. Now, now it's a different language. Ellie, what do you think? Um, from what I can tell, the rationale for wanting to move it by 30 minutes is because our board is inconvenienced by a 700 p.m. time. And I'm not sure that that's a good enough reason to make it more challenging for our constituents to get to a meeting. as the only person who is part of a twoperson working household with kids under 10 who play sports and have conferences and have after school commitments. Um, I can't imagine doing that to the huge portion of our population who is in my same boat who has to get home after driving, getting out of work at 5 or 5:30, depending on what's going on that day, driving 30 minutes home, needing to pick up my kids and make sure that they get a healthy meal, and then having to rush up here even earlier. I just think that our job is to serve this community. And I think there's a huge portion of this community that wants to enjoy their family time and has to work outside of the home and commute home. And I I just don't think 30 minutes to make our board feel better is a worthwhile change. I think 7:00 p.m. is fine. It's working for everybody. We just all would like to get home a little bit earlier. It'd be nice, but I just don't think 30 minutes is uh worth it for the population who might uh be impacted by that time. I don't think our board is impacted enough in my opinion.

I'm the only one. Gary, do you have your say? Okay. The other part is that I can go either way. I'm not How about It's not a hill I would die on. So,

first I'd say I I I'm a late nighter by nature. I it doesn't affect me, but I realize I'm the aberration in that respect. I have looked at it kind of like Kelly did in the sense that we we have to be available to the public. And I think anything earlier than 6:30 just isn't very realistic for the public to be able to attend. Much as we might wish that you could go home sooner and perhaps we weren't out as late, I think that overrides the concern. I do think a half an hour uh to get here by 6:30 is still a reasonable ask for those who uh in the community might wish to attend. I think 6:30 is reasonable. I think 6 would be too early. 5:30 would be too early. But 6:30 seems reasonable. You say, "Well, it's only a half an hour." I think that could make enough impact on the back end that instead of finishing, let's say at 10:30, you finished at 10:00 with your subcommittee meeting. Um that's not terrible. Um, I think as I stated in finance, if we were to go to 6:30, continue as Kevin is saying with the committee meetings afterward and being open, much more open than we have been here in the last several years to a second meeting in a given month for utilities or for services on an as needed basis. So that if it looks like we've got a heavy agenda or we really need to follow up on an item sooner than waiting another month that all of us should be available within our committees to be uh asked to come to a second meeting in a given month. Probably one that would occur at 4 or whatever 4:30. That those don't have to be evenings and it wouldn't be the same day as a board meeting to your point Kevin. Uh it'd be it'd be a different day. Um, I I think sometimes part of what we're dealing with is a lot of diminishing returns. It isn't, "Oh, poor me. I'm here till 10:30." It's, "Hey, my brain isn't functioning the same way at 10:30 as it was at 7:30. These are kind of important issues. We want to be at our best, whatever." So, I can see where trying to rush and get work done in one committee meeting a month ought to be we

ought to be flexible enough to say, "Call on audible in a given month. We're going to have a second meeting this month of the services. Hey guys, you know, we're gonna choose four o'clock on the, you know, third Monday instead of whatever, right? And and so we get more of our work done. And that way too, you might address your concern, Amy, and hey, we don't have to get through all of this tonight in this committee meeting because we're going to meet again yet this month. Um, and then you don't get out so super 11 night, right? But but again, I could live with seven, but I I could also live with shaven in a half an hour is sort of a way to to get a little something back, you know, from the

and to Kelly's point about, you know, we're here to serve the public, which I I we said we mentioned that in finance when, you know, I said in that meeting and the other part of that is we're also asking our public to stay here some nights to 10:30 or 11:00 at night, too, because we do have people come into the the second meetings. So I guess what I mean it's fair to us, fair to them, fair to anybody. I think it's it's a matter of let's make it convenient for everybody. May maybe they would we would get more than two or three people coming to utilities or services uh after a board meeting if we weren't there till 10:30 at night. You know, I I don't know that. But again, I I just think it it does make it more accessible for for everybody, whether it's the board, whether it's it's our constituents. It's I think it it opens the door for more um by changing the times that way as well.

Well, I've talked to friends and residents too that say they would like to come and speak at a public comment, but they look at the agenda and there's a lot of things and then the public comment is later and they're like, I'm not coming out at 8:00 at night to speak because I don't need to sit through all this other stuff. you know, if they want to talk about a specific thing and maybe it's not on the agenda where it's early in the in the um meeting, so they just say, "I'm not going to come." Cuz they don't want to come that late at night. And like before when we were talking about other things in services, they're like, "Oh, well, the services meeting isn't going to start till probably 9:00." They're like, "I'm not coming." So, I'm just thinking even a half an hour might make more people come and speak and be involved in the township and then, you know, we're serving more people.

Is there a motion? I was just add just sounds like though the issue is the second meeting after the board meeting, not necessarily the start time. And so, if that's the consensus, I think we should be addressing the services and utilities committee meeting then, not necessarily the start time of the board. We don't have to have those meetings on a Monday, do we? I mean, Kevin said, you know, hanging around because that meeting got done early. Does can't that meeting be on a Wednesday or something at 4:00 or whatever and just make it a different night? So, you're not hanging around or whatever. It could be, Gene, if you get four votes. That's what we're looking for.

It's It's the thing. It's like looks like we got a couple I mean I'm over overstating it but there's an issue for one on on one way and one on the other way. The rest of us are you know pretty neutral on the whole thing. Um we look at what the process how many people we do get unless it's a major water issue or something like we had this fall but otherwise our our uh our family out here is a little bit small but maybe that would change if we moved it too. Not sure. But um what are I guess that gets to be what Kelly kind of said too. What are we doing it for? Are we doing it for us for comfort or are we doing it because we want to help our constituents?

Well, one way or another, we all knew what we were getting into when ran ran for this seat. Right. Exactly. Wholeheartedly. But when I ran for it, it was a 700 p.m. start time. So now the on me and that sort of feels like, you know, if if we change it, it's fine. and I just might have to go on records to say there are nights when I don't get home from work until 6:00 p.m. And if I have an obligation and I need to get home and quickly eat something, I might not be here until 6:40, even if the meeting starts at 6:30. But to me, that's an excusable absence because I didn't sign up for this job with it not being at 7:00 p.m. I could make We all knew what we signed up for starting. It was a 7:00 meeting and possible utilities or services following. So,

I'm I'm okay either way. It doesn't bug me either way. Is there a motion from someone who feels strongly enough? Yeah. I mean, if we'd like to address the secondary committee meetings though, I don't know that we can come to a consensus on a day and time right now. So, can it be a motion to leave the board meetings at 7, but come up with an alternative schedule for services and utility committee meetings? Again, it can be anything that four votes can. I'd like to see this try the 6:30. bring it back to finance for um adding the utilities on that as more of discussion overall package rather than just this.

I feel like we I feel like we beat that horse a bit. Not that we won't talk more, but Kevin was in there when you were gone and then two others. We've had at least four outside of committee talk about it twice. Um but I'm not I mean it's whatever again what four of you want to do. John, I hear you saying you you feel strongly enough about one thing. Is there anybody who supports John's uh position of a 6:30 start time? I would. So, is that a second? Yes. Second. Okay. And I think it helps our staff who's here all day gives you know there it's a lot big and this would be to try it to try it the rest of the for the rest of the year and if we get to the end of the year and

it's not working or we can we can re-evaluate it. Anyone else? Yeah, I've been in many organizations and often 6:30 is when people get together. You find that a lot at church. Ottawa County 6:00 is their evening one, but they go a lot longer. All right. It's not a hill to die in, right, Gary? I I hear you. I can flow with either either of them. Yeah, go with flow.

Well, we're not asking for it to be permanent. We're just asking, can we try? And we're looking at a half an hour. Okay. I'll say that um for my part, I guess Amy, you made some some headway with me in terms of thinking about those that come. I would like to see a committee meeting continue to follow

the Monday evening meeting because I think there is some convenience to that in terms of being out just the one night. But I also want there to be a real openness to a second meeting whether it's automatically scheduled and then you cancel as needed each month or whether it's hey we're going to call a special one and um oh by the way we never saw that board meeting going two hours. Now here we sit in services. Tell you what, guys, let's get through part of this agenda and let's table the rest and let's meet, you know, next week Tuesday or whatever, right? Um, I agree with that. Well, that makes some sense to me. Mhm.

So, I could support what you're saying. Half an hour change. Okay, I can call a vote. All right, I will call then at this time. Why don't we do a roll call just so we know it's going to be too close. Okay, let me write these out quick. Should be a motion to move the board meeting time to 6:30 beginning May or beginning already in April. Then what would fit well public and we would make it May. Make it. So we're starting in May. Time then for people to okay see that and so on if it passes. So Kelly, no. Duet,

no. Grassman, yes. Kyper is no. Schwam, yes. Belink, I'm going to say no. Wearing yes. Four no votes, three yes votes. The motion fails. All right, we'll keep it at 7:00 and we'll still address the uh question of of a second meeting each month as needed like we used to do for services and utilities. All right. Um on now to second public comment period. So those wishing to address the board at this time, you can either address things we went over tonight or things that you just came that were on your mind. I see Paul beginning to move. Paul, you want to step forward and tell us about your candidacy?

Sure. Welcome.

Thank you. My name is Paul Leadford. I've met several of you already. Some of you I I know uh from the neighborhood and whatnot. Um, I am running for the 58th District Court uh judicial position that is currently open. It is an open candidacy. Uh, that means that I have to collect signatures in order to get on the ballot. So, I'm going around to a number of different township offices simply to introduce myself. A lot of folks that I've met at the township offices I know, especially if they're attorneys, um, I've I've dealt with over the 30 years of my practice. Um, I have practiced in the areas of real estate, estate planning, uh, business, uh, contracts, transactions, as well as criminal defense during that 30-year period of time. So, I've got a good amount of of, uh, of experience. The other thing is is that um I am running because I have seen a trend happening here in Ottawa County that I don't like um and that has followed the trend that's already begun in Kent County, Moskegan County, and a number of other counties around us. and that is to treat criminals, people who have been convicted of a crime with more kid gloves than the concern for the victims uh of that crime. Um and and this is especially true and especially apparent when criminals have been or people who have been convicted of a crime are then later on put on uh probation. So, they've been given the grace and the mercy of probation. And at that point in time, they are told that if they violate probation that they are going to be very possibly serving the rest of their time uh in jail. What has been happening in Ottawa County is they are not serving the rest of their time. They're not even serving anywhere close. They're getting

a slap on the wrist and putting back on the street. And as we all know that 80 to 90% of crime that gets committed is from recetivism, which is of course criminals going back out on the street and committing crime yet again. Uh my position is as a judge, we've got to tamp that down. We've got to make sure that people who are legitimately convicted of a serious crime, they have to have the consequences and they have to be held accountable for their actions. Now, granted, there is a there there is a um a tension between keeping Ottawa County safe and keeping Ottawa County free. And another part of my my position is is that citizens have liberty, they have rights, and we have to preserve those. Um, like it or not, CO came in 2021. Um, I was one of the few attorneys in the county that helped stand up for folks uh who were exercising their their right of free speech or the right to open a business. But my time is done. Um, I stood up for those folks whether you agreed with those things or not. That was a right of of people and uh that was my position and as a judge I would understand and follow that tension.

Do you have literature for us, Paul? I have literature. Yes, I can put it on the table back there. I know that you guys are going into a closed session here pretty soon. I will stick around. Like I said, I am collecting signatures and I would love to get anybody's signature um on uh on my on my petition. Thank you. Thank you. Uh oh, yeah. Oh, where are you from? Yeah, sorry. Uh yes, I consider uh Georgetown my home. I live in at 60 6088 West Bay Court uh over at the um Georgetown Shores. Okay. I'm frankly a a neighbor a couple of streets away from John.

Okay. So, and as to the watering, we water out of the lake. So, you're one or two. You're not three or four in that example. All right. We got them three signatures on.

Anyone else? R.J., you look to be rising. Are you Yeah, this would be a good time, too, ma'am. Yep. Cool. All right. our Jool 7503 Lupine in Jennison. Mr. Supervisor, Madame Clerk, Mr. Treasur, members of the board, Mr. Superintendent, thank you for the opportunity to share a few things tonight. First of all, I'm a veteran and I'm proud of that. served in the army for three years and so proud of the things that are happening here in Georgetown Township. I'm also a cancer survivor. Got a report 3 weeks ago that it's in remission. But after almost $900,000, Katruda and chemo, it side effects are really taking me down. My eyesight, I'm not supposed to drive. I put my car on automatic pilot. I landed between the two lines where I parked for 12 years. Right. I can drive. I couldn't drive for two days, but I can drive now. But uh it's sure a blessing to be part of this township. I'm also the program chairman for a group that meets in Grand Rapids that's been meeting for 69 years. I've been involved for 15 years. I get 50 speakers a year and was privileged to have Mr. Winga some months ago as a speaker and Mr. Schwam some months ago as a speaker and Justin Robach will be my speaker in a few months along with Sarah the prosecutor. I get members of the police department in Grand Rapids, the mayors of all the cities. And when Steve Moss from Granville comes, he comes 15 minutes early. He plays the

piano for the guys for 15 minutes. And I also had the there were two people that came every year. Steve because he could play. But the chief of police, Eric, became a dear friend and took a lot of abuse and uh we're going to miss him. Anyway, um yes, I'm here to uh encourage members of this board to give some consideration to provide parking at the memorial. For years, I told people where I live because I have a project and I'll talk about that in a minute at my home. And I say, you know, it's just west of Myers and now I it's seven blocks west of Myers. He says, now it's eight blocks west of the memorial. I use that icon uh many many times because we appreciate as veterans, we appreciate that which was built to honor us and to all the members of the military. I have some great grandchildren. They're young. We didn't think we'd be alive to see them, but we have six and we got one on the way. And it's going to be a privilege for me to be able to take them down to that memorial and show them what it means as a veteran and also what the American flag stands for. But you know what? There's no place to park. And as a not a but a handicapped person, it would be a long ways to have to walk across the street or from that parking lot where businesses are now. And they probably wouldn't appreciate that. So, I understand there's some committees that are looking at a project to provide some parking there, maybe a sidewalk, and I would certainly certainly encourage that. It would be wonderful to be able to park a few cars there and to get out and walk around and show the great grands what that means and says there's great grandpa's stone cuz great grandpa

bought a brick a long long time ago. Thank you. Yeah. Okay, R.J. you're a good public speaker. We appreciate it. We wish you had more than three minutes. Yeah, you come again. Okay. Yeah. Am I done now? You are. Okay. Had a couple more things, but I can Well, you know what? speak again at the next meeting. Pardon? Can you come back to the next meeting? Uh, probably can. Okay, sure. Thank you. See you again. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your service. You bet. Archie was our clerk for 12 years here. All right. Yep.

Yes, ma'am. Hi there. I'm Laura Dystra, 6652 Waterberry Lane Southwest. And that's Granville. Okay. And as a Christian, I'm going to open. I'm just going to put my petition before the Lord. Then I'll speak. So, dear Father in heaven, I come in your name and in the name of God the Son. Please anoint by the Holy Spirit. My petition, Lord, is to end senior property taxes and end second government pensions to government employees. Your name. Amen. So, I'll give away my age because I'm really not ashamed of it. I'm turning 62 this year. 50% of Americans retire at age 62 to draw Social Security. Often this is due to health reasons and it's really the reason that I retired. I'm just not feeling well. So I paid off my condo in 2025 to be debtree and positioned to retire in 2026. Then I opened my mail on March 13. I saw an overinflated SEV assessment increasing 9.5%. From my 2025 purchase of a $245,000 condo. So it increased they say to a $268,400 market value. And then I read on that form that that overinflated SUV must be appealed by March 11, a deadline I missed. I checked my mail like once a week or once every two weeks. Going to the mailbox is a big deal for me. I wasn't given 30 days notice. I own a

condo in the waterfront condominium community. There are 111 condos in our 55 and older community. A tax assessor cannot fairly reach outside my condo development to find a higher comp. No such comps are truly comparable. Studies show that 55 and over age restricted condos have a market value 17 to 22% lower than similar unrestricted condos. Generally condos appreciate in market value more slowly than houses. The fair measure of my condo's 2026 SEV would be the comps of the 20 most recent sales in waterfront condos from February 2024 to February 2026. And I saw and I did a a spreadsheet that 2025 sale prices dropped 12% from 2024 prices. Extrapolating that downward trend into 2026 would have decreased my SUV 12% less than my purchase price. So, we're going on a trend. It didn't continue. It didn't honor the 12%. It leaped 9.5% in less than a year.

Instead of assessing me 245,000 that I paid for my condo or 12% less, it was 9.5% higher. I want to give you a chance just in a couple seconds if you'd like to wrap up, but that's our time. Just just a sentence. All right. I said that was unreasonable and it deeply offended me, infuriated me. In fact, you know, I don't like to be unkind to anyone, but I'm letting you know how I feel about it. Thank you.

And Miss D, we have a gentleman named Connor here from the county who has an office in our building who handles assessing and uh your comments would be well directed to him because you make them well. So, thank you. Anyone else? Again, my name is Kevin Hzinger, 2669 Tamarak Drive in Jennison. Um, speaking about the water, um, the sprinkling, um, I guess I'm just I would have, uh, personally thought that it would maybe be more than a suggestion. Um, given the $50 fee, um, I know some cities um, give you a warning or two warnings um, before any type of fee. Um, I thought that might have been a good approach. Um, but I think that maybe um speaking to any of the schools or the golf courses um kind of those big properties that are watering um could be a good approach as well. Um I'm not sure how many of the golf courses use private wells versus public water. Um but then also um perhaps using message boards. Um I don't know if the township has any to kind of get that out there. Um cuz I think it is something that would be difficult for people um if your water bills on auto bill auto pay. Um not everyone's looking at the township letters unfortunately that come um but changing topics. um not to be the dead horse, but um I would hope to get some clarification about uh the inclusion of clerk Kyper in uh discussions about the moratorum um as it appears that it was inconsistent with board policies um that

state that you all should avoid creating even the appearance of impropriety. Um at the February meeting of the initial reading, East Brook Holmes had a representative present speaking in opposition to it. Um then at the March meeting they once again had a representative present um who stated that uh there would be some financial um hardships on the company and potentially putting food being able to put food on their tables for their employees. Um and then additionally uh for that March meeting there was also a letter sent by uh legal counsel from Eastbrook Homes um that brought into question uh if the moratorium would even withstand judicial scrutiny. Um, I think that these comments, um, kind of raise question of, uh, are there financial ties that potentially should have been disclosed, um, with Clark Kyper being employed by Eastbrook Homes and, um, should she have been involved in those conversations, or if it is appropriate, um, should it still have at least been disclosed?

Thank you. Message boards. Yes. the phone. Yeah.

Hello, Pete. Plowman, 6877 Creek Ridge Court, Hudsonville. Just a couple quick items. Um, since he brought it up, which I thought was a great idea. R.J., our local veteran. Since I'm a father of a Marine, I think some parking by the Veterans Park is a great idea because you can't get there from the across the grass and especially if you're handicapped. Um the other thing I one thing that I noticed on this uh agenda was the trucks that we have. I understand that this truck that we're buying was a snow plow truck. Is there a way that we can extend the life or usage of those trucks so we're not because we buy a lot of vehicles since I've been coming to meetings. We spend a lot of money on vehicles. Our tax dollars are not stretching as long as they used to. Can we look at maybe instead of getting new vehicles every 100,000 miles, we can extend those to 120, 150,000 miles. Um, can we look into that? Good thing on the water. Um, we already have a tiered process already. We have a tiered process on the low end because if you don't use 12 units, you pay for 12 units. So, I'm thinking you should go to a tiered process right now since we already have one and um have it at the high end. Those 25% users that drive our volumes up, we should do a tiered process on them as well. Those households three and four, let's say, in your example. Um or if you're not going to do that, if you do the volunteer, I mean, this year you're going to have less watering because you tax something, you get less of it. So, um you should um get rid of the low end if you're not going to do it for the high end and let those veterans living at home, those seniors, not have to pay those type of bills when they're not using it. If

you're gonna pay on usage, then have them pay on their usage, not on a tiered system on the bottom end. The other thing is is about tax assessments. A lot of people don't know that we go to Ottawa County for our assessor and we pay 400 or 500 $540,000 a year for that. What what's called a level four assessor. I hope you're starting to evaluate whether we need a level four assessor and maybe we can hire our own level four assessor. Pay them, pick a number out of the sky, $250,000. You will save half of what you're paying Ottawa County. And I've heard many times here that we get nothing from Ottawa County with our tax. Our tax dollars go there and nothing comes back. Well, why don't we just take our tax dollars back and not pay it out of accounting and get our own assessor? Those are my points. Thank you. You

Thanks, Pete. All right, seeing no one else, we'll close that second public comment period. This time, discussion and general information among the board before we go to close session. Appreciate R.J.'s comments very heartfelt and uh I know we've been looking at what could be done down there over the years and I think there was some movement a while back possibly with some of the local businesses down there that parking might be a possibility. I don't know where that stands right now but

didn't come to fruition, but it seems like something we could make another run at perhaps and change the ratio, you know, cuz they didn't like our number. I I think the businessman wanted a chance to get to new know the new owner down there so they could do a partnership, but we have been working on it. Anyone else? Okay, hearing none, we'll move to item 18, close session for property acquisition. Is there a motion to go into close session? So move. Support. Supported. Roll call vote. Wet. Yes. Ellie, yes. Swam, yes. A yes. We wearing yes. Feldink, yes. Grassman, yes. All in favor.

Okay. So, we're going to go to close session here in our small breakout room. Um, I'll often tell the public if I think there might be action afterwards so as not to necessarily. I think there could well be. So, if you care to stay and know what that action is, do so. Take the mic off. Okay. Thank you.

All right. Is there a motion as it relates to authorizing the purchase of property? I will make the motion to adopt a resolution authorizing the township supervisor and township clerk to execute an offer to purchase real estate at 254 Church Street in the amount of $225,000 and proceed to close on the purchase on behalf of the township. Support move and supported. This is according to the terms of a purchase agreement be attached to the minutes attached there too. Any uh any further discussion? Otherwise, we'll take a roll call vote. Can we do that?

Schwam, yes. Dipers, yes. Det yes. Veringa, yes. Belink, yes. Kelly, yes. All in favor? All motion to adjurnn. So move report. All in favor say I. All right, we are sir.