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St. James Township
Twelve people attended the June 2nd, 2004 meeting, from which
Supervisor Don Vyse was absent –he was at a conference on
Lighthouse restoration in Traverse City.
Two members of the St. James Board met with two from Peaine to
discuss the rock-crusher agreement. No resolution was reached,
so both Townships will buy gravel from a local manufacturer and
let St. James’ crusher sit idle for the next two years. St.
James will save two thirds of its cost for gravel; Peaine will
pay one third less than it would have had to pay if both Townships
paid a per/yard price based on total actual costs; and Peaine
will pay only slightly more than it paid last year.
A legal opinion came back on the golf cart situation. Permanently
disabled people may operate them on the roads as long as they
wear helmets and comply with all driving rules, including having
adequate insurance.
Don Vyse met with Commissioner Shirley Roloff and Undersheriff
Don Snyder to discuss their interest in the former Med Center
building. The county would like to rent two rooms for offices;
the Sheriff's Department would also like two rooms as office space
and as quarters for the second deputy. The rent was set at $1/ft2/month.
Don Vyse and John Works met with Gary Voogt to discuss the problem
of the deteriorating King’s Highway. The next step will be
to sit down with the Charlevoix County Road Commission.
The Township received a $38,000 bill for engineering work done
for the Donegal Bay Road bike trail.
There was much discussion of this year’s parade route: some
people wanted it to be returned to Holy Cross Hill instead of
coming down past Daddy Frank’s. The problem was, with cars
parked on both sides of the first block of Main Street, navigation
is testy, particularly coming around the corner. Creating an official
no-parking zone would require State Police approval: time-consuming,
and unlikely. So the Board agreed to let a community effort take
place that will involve placing temporary no-parking signs, probably
on the east side of the street, where there are more driveway
cuts and less parking anyway. A group of citizens will take responsibility
for this.
Great Lakes Docks, from Muskegon, had the lowest of 6 bids ($893,508)
for the Yacht Dock project (using 4 Island subcontractors.) Pending
approval, they plan to start work around July 4th.
At the last meeting Jim Wojan asked if an inspection would be
done on the new parking lot before the next (the 2nd) check was
issued. A letter was in hand from Gary Voogt, dated 5-28, saying
he had inspected the parking lot work and found it more than satisfactory.
He recommended payment to Schwartzfisher Stoneworks, saying David
Schwartzfisher had been excellent to work with. He also said that
the property transfer with Don and Kay Masini had been completed,
and the transfer with Karnes was awaiting final approval of deeds.
But the request for payment was for about five thousand dollars
more than anticipated, because unstable subsurface materials (rocks,
stumps, logs, and clay) had been found, dug up, removed, and replaced
with an extra 230 yards of sand fill. Jim Wojan pointed out that
the bid documents and contract required a preliminary investigation
to determine if any unexpected conditions might exist, and Tim
McDonough read a paragraph that indicated no after-the-fact extra
charges would be honored. Nevertheless the Board unanimously agreed
to pay the requested amount, and to further investigate this “extra”
charge and make a decision before the slightly-greater retainer
posted by Schwartzfisher had to be returned.
Jim Campbell announced that Kalkaska native Jeff Simpson, never
here before, had been hired for four months as a second Island
deputy.
Connie Wojan requested the board to authorize the BIRHC to apply
to the Grand Traverse Bay Tribe for a $15,000 grant for patient
and staff educational needs and for partial funding of a T-1 line;
it did.
Hugh Mason was retained to audit the Township's books for $3,900
plus $645 for preparing special reports and up to $250 for travel
expenses.
Peaine Township
A bout the Roads: the 23 people who attended the June 9th, 2004
meeting of the Peaine Township Board patiently sat through some
normal business, awaiting Gary Voogt's report about the future
of our roads. The BMX track was on the agenda, but the students
pushing it were not yet ready–although the Board assured
a nearby resident that there would be something like a 10:00 p.m.
curfew.
Bid documents for the new Fire Hall were mailed to ten contractors;
the bids are due on July 9th.
Flight instructor Sue Haney was appointed to replace Chuck Anglin
on the Airport Committee.
A letter of thanks to Anna Steinbach was read, in which it was
pledged to fulfill her three stipulations: the truck will carry
a commemorative bronze plaque; the truck will be stationed at
the new Fire Hall; and it will be built in Michigan if at all
possible.
At the appropriate moment Gary Voogt took the floor to discuss
three matters: upgrading some intersections, repairing the King’s
Highway, and paving additional roads. Saying he would start with
the least complex issue, he announced that earlier in the day
the Charlevoix County Road Commission, still crying abject poverty,
agreed to pay two thirds of the cost to apply asphalt to the first
hundred feet of Sloptown Road and the two roads intersecting the
Highway at Four Corners. This would put the cost to Peaine at
about $7,300, which it said it could pay from its road fund. H
& D intended to come to the Island to pave the Main Street
parking lot by July 4th, but that requires only 250 yards of asphalt
and it needs to set up to install 1,000 yards to make the mobilization
of its equipment economically feasible. (Note: A bequest from
the Welter Foundation in late June will pay for paving the parking
lot at the new Health Center, which will provide enough work to
justify operating the asphalt plant here. The roads running into
the King’s Highway may also get their first 100’ paved
at the same time.)
Members of the audience agreed that Paid een Og's Road's intersection
was more dangerous than those to the north because of the hills
that hide oncoming vehicles. A request for treating MaCauley's
Road was also made. Each of these two was likely to cost $6,000,
Gary said, so if the same formula were accepted, Peaine would
have to pay another $4,000. The Board was in favor of upgrading
all four.
A more difficult problem was the breaking down of the seal coat
on the King's Highway. Gary briefly reviewed the history of its
repair. The CCRC is required to maintain all of the Island’s
primary roads, which include the East Side Drive from Four Corners
to the section line south of the airport, McCauley’s Road
and the section of East Side Drive between McCauley’s and
Hannigan's, and possibly the route to the Township Airport. But
when called on to do its duty, the CCRC has usually claimed it
was broke.
That led to a lawsuit ten years ago in which the CCRC was sued
for tearing up the King’s Highway and not installing new
pavement. The judge threw out the case, requesting the two parties
to “work it out,” which was done when a federal grant
for repaving came through. But the method used, a “prime
and double seal,” essentially provided a 1 ½"
coating to protect the packed gravel underneath from the erosive
effect of wind and rain–but not from groundwater surges caused
by beaver. The stretch running out of town was made 26' wide to
Four Corners, where it narrows to 20', to provide two 3' bike
paths, but the CCRC could never afford the paint needed for two
stripes.
Last year H & D gave a bid of $469,000 to repair all five
miles of the Highway (with no widening or added culverts.) Because
the one mile in St. James starts at 51' wide and is no narrower
than 26', whereas the 4 mile stretch in Peaine is 20' wide, if
the cost, with a few extras, was $500,000, the split would be
$150,000 for St. James, and $350,000 for Peaine. Gary thought
the road to Four Corners should be widened by 2' on both sides
to make the bike paths 5' wide. The key to getting this done would
be to keep the pressure on the CCRC, which is legally required
to maintain this road. It has just retired other debts (primarily,
for new storage buildings), so it was possible the CCRC could
sell a short-term note to get this done now.
The really tough nut was the possibility of paving more roads.
The effects of dust on the environment, on computers and other
equipment, and on human health have become a major concern, and
people realize that if the roads were paved, there would be great
savings in grading and dust control costs and the expense of constant
car repairs. A recent estimate by H & D was that paving, Island
style (paving 20' without clear-cutting and shaping a 66'-wide
swath), would cost $263,000/mile (on the mainland, asphalt costs
$35 a ton, but here it's $65.) No one has yet said which roads,
but Gary felt some Island roads should never be paved. Perhaps
7 miles should be, he ventured.
Gary suggested this two-million-dollar elephant should be eaten
one bite at a time, with additional teeth obtained by creating
partnerships. The first, he suggested, should be with the CCRC,
which might agree to pay for the top inch of a 3" surface
under its mandate, which would cover about $60,000/ mile. The
next candidate would be the Charlevoix County Commissioners, which
would be allowed to levy 1 mill throughout the county to establish
a road fund of $1,000,000/year (for its 13 townships.) It has
never acted on this because “everyone has been afraid most
of the money would go to someone else.” He urged us to take
an active role in creating and distributing this fund.
Another approach might be to sell a “special assessment
bond” (like the sewer system in St. James), which would be
repaid by collecting a surcharge from property owners along the
newly-paved roads. The surcharge could be levied on a footage
basis, or simply by shares based on driveways. On a footage basis,
someone with a 100' lot might be assessed an extra $1,000 over
ten years; the increased value of the property being on a paved
road would exceed this.
Judy Lanier reported that the gravel-crushing agreement with
St. James was being put on hold for a trial period of two years
because at the moment it was cheaper to buy gravel from a private
contractor (who had much better equipment.) Several comments were
made about gravel quality. John Works said he had tried for years
to get the clay content up from 7% to perhaps 10% to hold our
roads together longer. Gary explained that the 22A designation
allowed a range of gravel types, and that other important factors
in getting “good gravel” were the crushing of each included
stone, to provide flat surfaces, and the mixing of equal proportions
of several size groupings. Gary Morgan pointed out that if the
crusher sits idle for two years, its belts and bearings could
be damaged. Terry Saxton asked if the crusher could be leased
to a private contractor, who might then offer the gravel he makes
at a competitive price. The crusher was thought to be too delicate
for this.
Denny and Mary Cook were present to ask for support in the effort
to create a nuisance ordinance, which they felt was needed to
protect them from unruly neighbors. The Planning Commission had
been asked to draft one, taking St. James’ new nuisance ordinance
as a starting point, but Judy Lanier reported that it felt it
was already overburdened with its master planning duties. John
Works directed the Board to collect information relevant to creating
this draft, and to report at the next meeting. Such an ordinance
would require appointing an enforcement officer– another
thorny question.
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