Sheridan Township Board of Trustees Meeting
January 19, 2021
7:00 pm
I. Call to Order: The meeting was called to order by Richard Porter at 7:00 pm.
Present: Roll call: Randy Fisher, Scott Frederick, Hayley England, Stephanie Craig, and Richard Porter.
Absent: None
Audience: Gary Tompkins, Lance Lohrke, Dennis McMillan, Harold Badger, Noah Benoit
II. Approval of Agenda: A motion was made by Scott, 2nd by Randy by to accept the agenda as written. Roll call vote; all in favor. The motion passed.
III. Approval of previous Township Board Minutes: A motion was made by Scott, 2nd by Randy to accept the December 10th meeting minutes as presented. Roll call vote; all in favor. The motion passed
IV. Payment of Bills: A motion was made by Randy, 2nd by Scott to approve the payment of the bills. Roll call vote; all in favor. The motion passed
V. Treasurers Report: A motion was made by Randy, 2nd Scott by to accept the treasurers report as presented. Roll call vote; all in favor. The motion passed.
VI. Correspondence:
1. Wild Flowers Crossing. 214 homes will be going in. There will possibly be Rentals for the solar company employees. This is just for informational purposes since it is not in our Township.
2. Pine Gate. The Solar company will possibly be bringing paperwork to the Planning Commission in February or March. They would like to start construction in June or July.
VII. Committee Reports
1. Planning Commission/Roads – Scott Frederick. No in-person meetings have been held. There was a telephone meeting for the road dept. The County’s 5-year plan is to put 13 miles of our roads back to gravel. The Township doesn’t want to do that; we will not agree to that. The County needs to address the bridge problem. We have businesses on that road and having a bridge out makes it difficult for customers to get to those businesses. It is also not good for our resident’s property values.
2. Fire – Chief Lance Lohrke. Chief Lance goes over his November and December calls (see sheet for more information). Training was cancelled in December due to Covid-19. November training was for the new grass rig. Fire Act grants are open for the year. Chief Lance is thinking of applying for a new tanker truck through those grants. The truck would be acquired for 5% of the actual cost. The old grass pick-up truck sold for $8,200.
VIII. Public Comment: Gary Tompkins says that he was unimpressed with the road department meeting also. Going back to gravel seems to be the new trend, but he does not support that idea. As for our bridge situation, he spoke to the water resources commissioner, Ron and he is going to go out and look at it and give feedback. Gary went over Covid-19 vaccine information. He also touched on the dumping issues that we have been having in our area. He talked about his newsletter, page 4, the Contract Patching vote. He voted “yes” after his recommendation for a postponement was defeated. He wants to make sure that we have a plan for what we are going to do with our roads before we tell them that we don’t want them to patch. They will develop an evaluation system to inspect the quality and quantity of the work that is completed during the patching process. He points out that there were no changes to the millage rates except the parks which was voted in in august 2020. Scott asks about roads going back to gravel. Is the county getting money for doing that? The answer is “no”. They are looking at cost effectiveness, not what the residents want. He points out that if they can’t maintain what we have today, how will they be able to maintain the gravel roads?
IX. Unfinished Business: None
X. New Business
1. Review and adopt new Sheridan Township web site. Noah goes over the new website with us. A few edits and changes are suggested. Noah informs us that the mobile design will be the last step. After this is approved we have 30 working days to make changes and additions (about 6 full weeks) free of charge. This 6-week time will also be for training for us on how to use and edit the site. A motion was made by Randy, 2nd Scott by to adopt the new Sheridan Township website. Roll call vote; all in favor. The motion passed.
2. Adjust Fire Department Budget Items. A motion was made by Randy, 2nd by Scott to adjust the Fire Department budget as outlined by Chief Lance. Roll call vote; all in favor. The motion passed.
3. Discuss beginning discussion with City of Albion to provide fire protection for the city. The city doesn’t have enough workers. We are running a lot of calls for them. We need to work something out with them. It is costing us money to do all of their runs with no compensation. They aren’t meeting the minimum for crews, and we are worried about our firefighters going out with untrained firefighters from the city. Chief Lance and Richard Porter are thinking about going in to the city to discuss this. We can’t keep fighting their fires, they need to participate in some way. The safety of our employees is imperative to us. There definitely needs to be some sort of compensation and they need to improve the training of their firefighters. Everyone agrees that a meeting and discussion needs to happen with the city. There needs to be a deadline for the resolution of this problem.
4. Approve 2019-2020 budget adjustments. A motion was made by Randy, 2nd Scott by to approve the budget adjustments as outlined by the clerk. Roll call vote; all in favor. The motion passed.
XI. Adjourn: A motion was made by Randy 2nd by Hayley to adjourn at 8:25. All in favor; the motion passed.
Respectfully Submitted,
Stephanie Craig, Secretary