Middlebury Township Regular Board Meeting February 11, 2010 at 7:00pm 114 E. Front St. Ovid, Mi 48866 Ovid Municipal Building Meeting minutes for Township meeting—February 11, 2010 Start Time:7:01 pm Steve Loomis: Reports that everything is good. Smooth running. Dan Stewart: Absent (no call to Tony about attendance) Kristy Chavart: Newly appointed. Football 24 kids. Baseball 30 kids. Paul thanked Kristy for taking on responsibility. Paul asking what programs are there for the girls. Kristy explained that baseball includes softball. Football roughly 150 kids total for program. Baseball roughly 175 kids total for program. Board is set for money requests for any sport program. Public comments: Brent Jones: Shiawassee Economic Development. Giving update on program. Rough economic year. Change the focus from 2009 to working with local businesses to help them thrive. They had 250 meetings with local meetings. Worked on 10 local projects with local businesses. Trend that they saw was a good year for agricultural businesses, fertizilizer and tractor supply type of companies. They continued to work on trying to bring in new businesses. They have been promoting heavily on Facebook and Linked In. This allowed them to increase promotion without increasing budgets. They have seen an increase in financial services by bringing in credit unions to the county. There are 8 townships now on board. Fairfield recently was added. Public responder concerned about the amount of red tape that the racetrack must go through as an existing business in order to have an event. Concern that the county is trying to close them down and what that would do to the tax base for Middlebury Township. Attorney Bowne explained that this is a County Zoning issue and not SED. Attorney encouraged SED to lobby for the racetrack. Richard Semans reports that he requested that Chief Brown attend to discuss last months discussion. Brown discussed the SOG (Standard Operating Guidelines). The first person on scene arrives he sets up command. The guidelines were established by OSHA. The firefighters all have velcro tags on their helmets, as they arrive they place their tags on the clipboard. As firefighters are assigned to tasks the tags are moved to the appropriate clipboard. When you see firefighters standing around it is because there is staging occurring. OSHA has set up standards of safety for weather conditions (hot, cold) for the staff. There are SOG's on everything that they do, no matter what the situation. These SOG's have allowed for better organization and effectiveness/success. There are backups for every person on a task. If you have 2 in the fire, there are 2 out to relieve them and for safety. Approve agenda. Erin moved, seconded by Paul. All approved, motion carried. January minutes. Not completed and tabled until next month. Motion to accept Treasurer's report: Paul moved to accept as printed. Carolyn seconded. All approved, motion carried. Motion to pay bills: Paul motioned, Tony seconded. $6,881.20, checks 2530 through 2545. All approved, motion carried. Communications: Request by Norman Caldwell, our surveyor. We have not have had a real survey done in many years. The surveyor is trying to complete this. They are asking for financial assistance with this matter, of any amount. The Board is going to wait to make a decision regarding this for when it is Middlebury's turn. We have received census requests. We have to complete some paperwork and it has been presented for clerk to complete. Tony requesting that citizens complete the census for their own households as it will effect Middlebury township. Unfinished business: None New Business: Amend budget for Emergency Services: Tony reports that at the last OMESA meeting with the attorneys it was decided that they would be doing away with the $5 per capita. Mike Herrendeen explains that it will be moved to an ad hoc. Attorney Bowne indicates that it would be good for the board to make a motion to remove the $5 so that OMESA can request certain dollar amounts instead of the per capita requests. Carolyn is leery about pulling funds from OMESA for this year because of all the improvements that have been made and the savings that have occurred to Middlebury township. The discussion is that it will not be a part of the contract in the future. It is agreed that a decision will not be made until the other issues with OMESA are worked out. Motion to take $1000 from the unallocated fund and move it to the Emergency services. Motion made by Carolyn, seconded by Paul. All in agreement. Motion carried. Amend budget for Street Lights: Motion made to amend budget for the $700 from the unallocated funds to street lights. Motion made by Carolyn. Seconded by Erin. All in agreement. Motion carried. Amend budget for attorney fees: Motion to take $2,000 from the unallocated funds to the attorney fees. Motion made by Carolyn, seconded by Tony. All in agreement. Motion carried. Road Commission: Lonnie Latunski attended. Tony reports that Tony, Lonnie, and Paul met 1 or 2 months ago. Tony reports that the board continues to place high value on conditions of Middlebury roads. Please see the attached page that Road Commission provided. Discussion ensued regarding the newer service that the Road Commission is contracting, Brush Spraying. Other townships in our county are participating in the program. It is not currently a part of the proposed 2010 township road budget. Many of the townships are doing test projects of $1000, which would be about 4 miles. The company states that the brush is usually dead about 4 to 5 years. Tony is recommended that we budget $1000 to test the effectiveness to determine if we would like to participate in more next years. Lonnie is recommending that we wait until Road Commission is able to get firm prices from the company before we make a commitment. Sealcoat is being bid right now. Gravel and mineral well brine is firm. Carolyn is inquiring about when bridges are going to be built on Hibbard. Lonnie states they will be built 2011. Lonnie states that Sciota is interested in working in cooperation with Middlebury on the road issues. Accept Bob Cappiello's resignation from Board of Review. Tony accepts resignation and thanks him for his years of service. Tony appoints Mike Herendeen to Board of Review. Discussion on OMESA: Attorney Bowne reports that there have been 2 meetings to discuss the Articles of Incorporation. He states that they are moving forward with concessions. They are discussing language issues. Each of the entities have language preferences. Communication from Ovid Township is that they will continue to participate on a month to month basis. The biggest issue is to fashion a Service Agreement. The language preferences are small in comparison to early stages. There are concerns about the building if commitment is based on the term of the millage. Attorney Bowne addressed these concerns and the need for them to be built into the contracts. Semans continues to advocate for the commitment to be reflected for 14 years based on the millage that was voted on. Plans for the building are stalled until the legal issues are resolved. If Ovid becomes a city then they become their own entity and OMESA would have to be reformed to include them. It would take 1 to 1 ½ years for this to occur. There is no discussion of loans at this time. Resolutions of Board of Review for 2010. Concerns from Board members about the dates as they conflict with other meetings. Clerk to contact Diane Dowler regarding these dates. Request the 10th and 12th. We will table approving the resolutions. Adjourn motion by Erin, seconded by Tony. All in agreement, motion carried. 8:51 pm Minutes submitted by Shawn Dilts Deputy Clerk