Middlebury Township PO Box 622, Ovid, Michigan 48866 Regular Board Minutes Middlebury Township Hall 7627 W M21, Ovid Michigan Monday June 22, 2015 at 7:00 pm Call to Order: Supervisor Herendeen called the meeting to order at 7:05. Board Members Present: Supervisor Michael Herendeen, Clerk Susan Tomasek-Swan, Treasurer Carolyn Stevens, Trustee Gary Kiger and Trustee Richard Givens Guests Present: Lynn Givens, Matt Tribfelner and Rose Brown Scheduled Comments: None Public Comments: Opened at 7:07 pm Closed at 7:07pm Motion to Approve Agenda: Treasurer Stevens made a motion to approve the agenda as presented. Clerk Tomasek Swan seconded the motion. Yes: All Nay: None Carried Business: Cemetery: Sexton job description. Sexton’s job is contractual. Only employees would have a job description. Contract for Sexton. Sexton has a copy of a contact from Maple Grove that has been given to the board. Herendeen agrees it needs to be formalized. Matt Tribfelner reviewed a sheet which had a cost break down for increasing the mowing to every week verses our present contract. Matt also gave a quote for maintaining the records for the cemetery after the database is established and a quote if the database needs to still be added. Opening/Closing- Ron Felker does the opening and Matt is closing. Ron charges a $175. 00 and Matt Charges $100.00 to close. Ron will be a separate contractor. Givens wants to clarify if Ron Felker has insurance if an accident happens. The township should be include on the Sexton insurance or Felker’s. An addition of the township can be placed on the insurance policy. The issue is Matt does not have digging or excavating insurance. Givens feels the point he is trying to make is to make sure we have insurance in case something happens. Matt tried to clarify with Givens what type of insurance he (Matt) carries. Matt stated he can’t dig below 18 inches. The wood lot owned by the township was discussed. The person we had purchased it from stated they had a handshake deal with the former township board to clear the woods for firewood. Matt would also drop the trees for the wood. Ron Felker would like 75.00 per hour to remove stumps. Givens wants the cutting done in an organized fashion. Givens feels the maintenance cost increase with having trees in a cemetery. Givens pointed out there are some trees in the proper cemetery that also needs to be taken down. Bushes are starting to be pulled and a courtesy call to the plot owner let them know the bushes are being pulled. Givens wants the board to know that we were spending more on our cemetery. There will be an increase in cost for this line item. Givens said the expense are increasing. We need to do this to get the cemetery where we need it. Lot markers: Matt feels there may only be a handful of markers left on Part A and B. Matt feels it won’t be worth the township money to remark. Lynn wants to mark so the outside lots can be sold. Rich is going to Landmark Survey tomorrow morning to find out what can be done. If the road is straighten out, the walk way won’t be crowded out. Matt said he can move the drive when the lots are plotted. Herendeen suggested to do one or two trees per month. We don’t close it but in the rules for the cemetery states dusk to dawn it is closed. Rich wants signage to state the hours. Currently we don’t close the cemetery for winter time. Herendeen didn’t see a problem with having signs to label the cemetery. Resident verse Nonresident was discussed by the board. We charge more to nonresident than resident because the resident pays taxes which goes towards cemetery. Rich propose to sell lots to everyone at one price and then at the time of opening and closing they pay more. Herendeen grappled with the resident verses nonresident. He feels if they had lived here at one time and paid taxes they should be residents. Givens feels if they are a nonresident on the day they die they are nonresident. Clerk and Deputy Clerk will be getting together to update the cemetery rules. Fence is looking pretty bad. Options are to replace board by board or totally taking the fence down. There is PVC fencing option and wrought iron style. There is also the steel fencing that looks like wrought iron. Herendeen feels the new section should have flat stones. It will be a saving for mowing. Herendeen even feels all future sales will need to have a flat stone surface. Treasurer Stevens would like to eliminate fake flowers. As soon as the weeds are as tall as your flower, they are weed whacked down. A week after Memorial Day, Mid-Summer and Mid Fall, fake flowers should be removed. Matt stated the water pump is getting old and hard to pump and will be replacing it. Removal of bushes and trees…Time spent on landscaping for the equipment. Write check for July payment. $2, 250.00 Herendeen made a motion increase cemetery landscaping to weekly mowing during the growing season with additional 13 mowing to add $325.00 per month to increase to $890.00 per month to Family Tree and Landscaping. Treasurer Stevens seconded the motion. Aye: All Nay: None Carried Final Comments: Opened at 8:56pm Closed at 8:56 pm None Motion to adjourn the meeting: Adjourned at 8:56 pm Without objection the supervisor adjourned the meeting at 8:56 pm. X Susan Tomasek-Swan Middlebury Township Clerk