By Pat Maurer
Correspondent
At Tuesday’s meeting, Grant Supervisor Dan Dysinger reported that the township hall expansion project is nearly complete. He said, “Our building project is nearing 100 percent with only a few remaining items to be completed.” He noted that MDL Construction of Bay City has requested a payment of $116,904, which completes payment of their total construction amount ($323,000) except for a $9,439.21 which is being withheld until the final work is completed.
Sill to be completed is air modifications, concrete and canopy repairs, installation of lighting fixtures presently on backorder and electrical additions.
Additional costs – office furniture and shelving will be paid for with township funds. Dysinger said he will have to set up permanent connections with Spectrum for phone and internet.
Dysinger told the board that one “hitch” in the project completion was due to Consumers Power who installed new underground service to the building on Friday, September 29th, but their crew left without installing the meter leaving the hall without power until the following Monday. “The Township’s experience was not good,” Dysinger said.
The Supervisor said, “The project (township hall expansion) is a welcome addition to the hall, [that] the Township will benefit from for many years. When the hall was constructed in 2000, the Board at that time couldn’t have imagined how our changed world would make such an addition necessary. The money for this addition was from ARPA, but because the ARPA funding was US debt obtained, taxpayers will be paying on this for decades.”
In another matter, and following a public hearing, the Township Board approved two requests for property transfers from Grant Township into the City of Clare submitted by Jim Paetschow. The transfers, once approved by both the City and Township, will allow the property owner to access City services.
The property transfers are according to the Urban Cooperation Agreement between the township and City several years ago.
The UCA allows petitioners to transfer from one unit of government to the other. As part of the agreement regarding a transfer from the township into the City, the township continues to collect the same amount of voted tax millage, which totals approximately 3 mills, reimbursed to the township once a year.
The property being annexed into the City includes two properties on the east side of Old US 27 (South Clare Avenue) which is the future location of Aldi’s. The second property to be annexed is a small parcel on the west side of Old US 27 adjacent to the Tobacco Ranch property
The transfer date for both properties will be January 1, 2024.
In other business at the meeting:
Dysinger reported that Barry Vanbuskirk has announced he will retire, but will remain to help with reviews. Eric Cotton, who is licensed as a building inspector has applied for his license as a Building Official, now a state requirement. He will handle building inspections and Bryce Vanbuskirk will handle electrical inspections. Because of the increased workload they will each get a base pay of $400 each month.
Invoices for half of the summer roadwork (chip seal projects) have been received from the Clare County Road Commission and the board approved $75,000 for the Kapplinger Road project. Dysinger said, “We anticipate that our projects this year will most likely be under budget.”
- contract with Isabella County Community Development for mechanical plumbing inspections was approved.
An Election Service Agreement with Clare County was approved to administer the nine days of early voting.