KIMBALL TOWNSHIP BOARD OF TRUSTEES
2160 WADHAMS ROAD, KIMBALL, MI 48074
REGULAR MEETING
AUGUST 17, 2021
6:30 P.M.
Usakowski opened the meeting at 6:30 p.m. with the Pledge of Allegiance.
ROLL CALL OF OFFICERS: Usakowski, Jackson, Wrubel, Sturdevant, Deland and Ward.
ABSENT: Hoffman.
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APPROVAL OF AGENDA
Usakowski: Add under New Business B. Resolution 2021-12.
Sturdevant motioned to approve the agenda as amended supported by Wrubel.
Motion Carried.
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PRESENTATION OF MINUTES FOR AUGUST 03, 2021
Wrubel motioned to approve the minutes for August 3, 2021 as presented supported by Deland. Motion Carried.
III. CONSENT AGENDA AND COMMUNICATIONS
A.
Check Register from 07/29/2021 to 08/11/2021
- Revenue & Expenditure Report for Period Ending 09/30/2021
Sturdevant motioned to approve the disbursement of $253,337.63 to pay the bills receive and file supported by Jackson.
ROLL CALL VOTE: YES: Sturdevant, Jackson, Usakowski, Wrubel, Deland and Ward. NO: None. ABSENT: Hoffman. (6-0-1) Motion Carried.
- BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS
- St. Clair County Depart. of Public Works Minutes for 07/06/2021
- St. Clair County Board of County Road Comm. Minutes for 07/06/2021
- Zoning Board of Appeals Minutes for June 08, 2021
Sturdevant motioned to receive and file boards and commissions supported by Deland. Motion Carried.
- PUBLIC COMMENT (Brief Comments)
Kristina Nelson, 7263 Smiths Creek Road: She felt productive at the last meeting. Zoning Commission will put forth an ordinance that they think is best and then that goes out to make sure that is legal and then it comes back and this is the board that it would go to for adoption.
Sturdevant: It is actually the Planning Commission draws up the zoning.
Nelson: Would next week’s meeting be the one that decides.
Usakowski: Yes it would be next week’s meeting which is the Planning Commission meeting. We do have one tentatively drafted. It’s definitely not going to get approved that quickly. There are steps and processes that have to be followed in amending that particular ordinance including publication. They will probably review it Tuesday night and then send it back to the attorney for further review by him before we move forward.
Nelson: Talked about property values, smells from the property and variables.
Usakowski: Do you all know how long this has been going on? This has been going on for the last 13 years. We have been aware of this since 2008. This is something that we have been watching since then. 2008 we adopted a Moratorium against Compassion Care Centers immediately upon passing of that law. Then our Planning Commission adopted a zoning change. 2018 we had the Commercial Marijuana Acts and the recreational that passed. We adopted an ordinance to opt out of all of those. We still have the Patient Caregiver which we haven’t been able to regulate at all. However we have lodged legislation to see at what point we can do it. In 2020 the first case made it all the way to the Supreme Court of Michigan. It ruled in favor of municipalities as far as their zoning.
Smells can be tested. Lighting nuisance can be addressed. We don’t have an ordinance to set perimeters.
Discussion.
Nelson: Is the township responsible for the pollutants and run offs testing?
Usakowski: We don’t test the creek at all. It is the EGLE (formally the DEQ) do all of that now. They are aware of that but haven’t gotten back to me yet. I have talked to health department, they said that one of their concerns is the run off. They are not too concerned on the draw on a well. The discharge is what they are more concerned with. DTE haven’t responded yet.
Matt Crowe, 7261 Smiths Creek Road: Questioned about the regulations of the township.
Discussion.
Crowe: Who is going to regulate the smell and the proper disposal of material?
Usakowski: Under the nuisance ordinance you can file a complaint.
More discussions.
Crowe: Neil said that, I believe that he himself would be responsible, that he has to go and knock on the door and they have to let him in to survey it and make sure they have the right amount of plants.
Usakowski: It depends on how we write that ordinance.
Citizen: In the ordinance that is being proposed, is something like that going to be zoned where that would be considered commercial where they can’t be in the middle of a residential area?
Usakowski: That’s the idea behind the zoning ordinance is to place that type of business into a zoning district that fits that type of operation. I don’t know what the Planning Commission is going to decide. That is up to them to decide. That is the whole idea of the zoning.
Wrubel: How many caregivers can there be in a building?
Usakowski: That is what I’m not sure of. I did put that into the ordinance that I recommended is that we limit it to one per parcel. I asked the lawyer that question and I have not received a message back yet.
Citizen: How many patients can a caregiver have?
Usakowski: A caregiver can have five patients. So they can grow 72 plants.
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DEPARTMENT REPORT
- Zoning Board of Appeals
- Zoning Board of Appeals
Sturdevant: At the last meeting we had a Class A Designation for the orange hotel in Smiths Creek at Henry and Main Streets for insurance purposes as well as financial reasons. It is a commercially zoned property that is being used as a dwelling for people living there. In order to get a mortgage you have to get a Class A Designation and that is what they are doing.
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NEW BUSINESS
- New Parks Ordinance
Usakowski: I went through the parks ordinance to see what needed to be changed. The signs and the ordinance don’t match. What I would recommend is to keep the ordinance and make adjustments to the signs. The park hours were 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. So I would recommend that we make it 8 a.m. to dusk. I think that glass containers should be eliminated altogether. Also the speed limit says 25 miles per hour and should really be 5 miles per hour. Dogs can be at the park but not in the water or on the beach and also on a six foot leash.
Citizen: What about a service dog?
Usakowski: We can’t do anything about a service animal. We can bring this back to the next meeting.
- Resolution 2021-12
Usakowski: We are working with our attorney on this which is putting a Moratorium on patient caregiver facilities. It would not impact anything that already has a building permit which is maybe two of them. What this would do is it would stop other facilities until our Planning Commission has a chance to review and decide what they want to do with the zoning. It’s a limited time frame resolution of 120 days. We wouldn’t be able to issue any building permits, electrical permits, plumbing permits, etc. on anything that doesn’t already exist for that 120 days.
Wrubel: Is this eliminating anyone who wants to build a barn right now.
Usakowski: No.
Sturdevant: Can we get an extension if the ordinance isn’t ready in the 120 days?
Usakowski: I think that we can add an extension if needed.
- New Parks Ordinance
Usakowski motioned to adopt Resolution 2021-12 supported by Sturdevant.
ROLL CALL VOTE: YES: Usakowski, Sturdevant, Deland, Ward, Wrubel and Jackson. NO: None. ABSENT: Hoffman. (6-0-1) Motion Carried.
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AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION
Matt: How many number of horses are allowed per acre?
Usakowski: I think it is one horse per five acre. I’m not really sure.
XI. OFFICERS REPORT
- Supervisor Usakowski
Last meeting we had an outdoor gathering and never came back.
Christine: Yes he did. He gave us his liability insurance and the map we requested of him
Our audit was completed and it came back very good. They did include one thing that they want us to work on is who has access to make changes in the general ledger or working at the window too much. We reduced that by 60%. They don’t want a person taking a payment for the area they work in.
Solitude Links have filed for the Tax Tribunal again this year. We did issue a proposal to them and they came back with a counter proposal today.
- Clerk Wrubel
The two last guys that we hired for the DPW both have passed their S-4 test. Which by their contract they move up a step. One of the DPW working is retiring at the end of the year.
Pitney Bowes machine is up to renew the lease agreement. The cost is $432.24 a quarter. We need to approve a new lease agreement and the last one was $413.58 a quarter. The new machine will do exactly what the old one does.
Deland: Is that a machine we can purchase out right?
Wrubel: Not with Pitney Bowes. We are doing a lot of price matching now and found that the supplies for the machine are cheaper through Amazon.
Sturdevant motioned to approve the purchase of the Pitney Bowes Mailing Machine at a cost of $432.24 quarterly supported by Deland.
ROLL CALL VOTE: YES: Sturdevant, Deland, Ward, Wrubel, Jackson and Usakowski. NO: None. ABSENT: Hoffman. (6-0-1) Motion Carried.
George Adams is no longer working with us for Cross Connections and we found Robert Jarvis is will to do the job for the same price.
Usakowski motioned to contract with Robert Jarvis for Cross Connections supported by Sturdevant.
ROLL CALL VOTE: YES: Usakowski, Sturdevant, Jackson, Wrubel, Deland and Ward. NO: None. ABSENT: Hoffman. (6-0-1) Motion Carrier.
Usakowski: We had an agreement to settle in the arbitration case with Mr. Nelson. There is a line in there that says that he would not file for unemployment. The agreement came back with that scratched off. They did remove that from the agreement. We need to bring it back to make sure we were still okay with moving forward with this agreement.
Wrubel: We need to let unemployment know that he received a settlement.
Wrubel motioned to accept the agreement supported by Ward.
ROLL CALL VOTE: YES: Wrubel, Ward, Sturdevant, Jackson and Usakowski. NO: None. ABSENT: Hoffman. ABSTAINED: Deland. (5-0-1-1)
Motion Carried.
Usakowski: We won’t get the money from the State of Michigan until the end of September now.
- Treasurer Jackson
Financial review of accounts.
- Trustee Hoffman
Absent.
- Trustee Deland
How is the farmers market going over at 25 Range Road? It’s open on Fridays and they have already outgrown the parking lot.
Wrubel: They only have one vendor doing vegetables.
F.
Trustee Sturdevant
Breakfast at the Masonic Lodge is the second Sunday of the month. We are going to continue to try it. We didn’t have a big turnout. Fish fries on Friday at the American Legion is still takeout only because we don’t have enough help for cleanup.
Trustee Ward
No report.
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ADJOURNMENT
Wrubel motioned to adjourn the meeting at 8:41 p.m. supported by Ward.
Motion Carried.
Meeting adjourned at 8:41 p.m.
Submitted by Becky Wrubel, Clerk
