KIMBALL TOWNSHIP BOARD OF TRUSTEES
2160 WADHAMS ROAD, KIMBALL, MI 48074
REGULAR MEETING
JUNE 01, 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
Sturdevant motioned to approve the agenda as presented supported by Wrubel.
Motion Carried.
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PRESENTATION OF MINUTES FOR MAY 18, 2021
Wrubel: Page 6 B. add “the two unused cases to”.
Ward: The adjournment was motioned by Wrubel and I supported it not the other way around.
Deland motioned to approve the minutes for May 18, 2021 as amended supported by Jackson. Motion Carried.
III. CONSENT AGENDA AND COMMUNICATIONS
A.
Check Register from 04/30/2021 to 05/11/2021
- Revenue & Expenditure Report for Period Ending 05/31/2021
Bills totaling $116,286.37.
Jackson motioned to approve the amount of $116,286.37 to receive, file and pay the bills supported by Ward.
ROLL CALL VOTE: YES: Jackson, Ward, Deland, Sturdevant, Wrubel and Usakowski. NO: None. ABSENT: Hoffman. (6-0-1) Motion Carried.
- BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS
- St. Clair County Depart. of Public Works Minutes for 05/04/2021
- St. Clair County Board of County Road Comm. Minutes for 05/04/2021
Sturdevant motioned to receive and file supported by Deland. Motion Carried.
- PUBLIC COMMENT (Brief Comments)
Richard Brower, 655 Allen Road: Wants to know if you received the money from the state yet and what you are planning on using it for.
Usakowski explained.
Dennis McCallom, 702 Allen Road: Thank you for the weekend cleanup and to Hammers for donating the dumpsters.
- DEPARTMENT REPORTS
- Building
Erickson: Open enforcement items is down to 34 with 24 are in court. June 15 is the next court date and I’ve added six more to the 24 cases.
Beginning of the year we had 83. Since then we have removed over 70 vehicles.
Usakowski: We did get a thank you from the neighbor of 1795 Marlette. She had been complaining quite a bit and said he has been cleaning it up.
Building permits: Last year we had 215 permits and this year we are at 96. Electrical last year we had 110 permits compare to 54 this year. Mechanical last year we had 117 and this year we are at 58 and Plumbing we had 42 last year compared to 30 this year. In total we had 488 building permits in 2020 and right now we are at 216 permits.
- Ordinance Enforcement
Dove Road Mobile Home: The blight has improved there because they have a new owner. They pulled out at least 40 trees and redid all the skirting and black topped the driveway. They have 17 new mobile homes this year.
We’ve add 17 new addresses this year. Lot splits we’ve done 11. FOIA request we done 21 and ponds we’ve done 6.
- Planning Commission
No report.
- FIRE APPEALS
- Invoice #21-138, Cheryl Sherman
Wrubel mentioned that she did get a ticket for this accident so I motioned for this bill to stand as is supported by supported by Deland.
ROLL CALL VOTE: YES: Wrubel, Deland, Ward, Sturdevant, Jackson and Usakowski. NO: None. ABSENT: Hoffman. (6-0-1) Motion Carried.
- Invoice #21-206, Elizabeth & William Harvey
William is here to appeal the fire invoice he received. I appreciates all the firefighters. In my opinion, it was either carelessly or recklessly that they broke out three of the windows that were on the opposite end of the house. The windows were functional and could have easily been opened. I would like to have my bill reduced because I will have to replace the windows.
Chief Gratz explained what happened.
Discussion.
Erickson: He does have permits to rebuild.
Jackson questioned about the insurance on the house.
Discussion.
Jackson motioned that the fire bill will stand as is supported by Wrubel.
ROLL CALL VOTE: YES: Jackson, Wrubel, Usakowski, Sturdevant, Deland and Ward. NO: None. ABSENT: Hoffman. (6-0-1) Motion Carried.
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NEW BUSINESS
- Locations of Required Lawn Maintenance Services
Workers for the Parks are also cutting Station 2 Fire Department and the Smiths Creek School House. The contractor for Station 1 Fire Department is currently cutting their grass and also the library. DPW is currently taking care of the cemeteries. That leaves us with a few miscellaneous things that aren’t being covered right now which are the township hall, the fire hydrants and pump stations. Our previous grass cutters were not able to get fully staffed to provide the service any longer. We have two other companies and one individual that are interested. How do you want to go with this?
Wrubel: I think if we hire somebody to do it, we would have more control of them versus just hiring a company to do it.
Usakowski: I agree with that.
Wrubel: Then we could have that person in between times or other times be able to do other things at the park or at the DPW if we need them. We received several comments on the grass cutting at the cemeteries.
Deland: Is Jake from the DPW doing the grass cutting at the cemeteries or are all four of them doing it?
Wrubel: It’s up to the DPW crew.
Usakowski: It gives us a little bit more of control when it comes to holidays.
We will move in that direction and post for the position.
Discussion.
- Locations of Required Lawn Maintenance Services
- Certificate of Zoning Compliance Instructions & Procedures
Erickson: Kelly Timm, Ed Gratz and myself worked on this for a month and it’s called The Certificate of Zoning Compliance. What was happening was people would lease a building out without even talking to us and then we would have to show up and tell them that they are not in that zoning. This way they would have to complete a checklist. They can apply for it and it will be granted in seven to ten days. Now we can track it. Ed gets a copy and the new assessor will get a copy and that way we have the information of what they are storing and what their product is so we would have a safe building when our firefighters or anyone goes into that building. I wish you would adopt this because this is a great tool for our three department.
Usakowski: Also it would help with the DPW and Cross Connection.
We would have to bring it back in an ordinance because we can’t do anything with this without an ordinance.
Sturdevant: We have some businesses that have expanded beyond what their sight plan was approved of. These businesses need to update their sight plans.
Erickson: We can address this at the next meeting.
Discussion.
- Assessor Resignation
Usakowski: Our assessor was recruited by Troy. We have posted for the position and hopefully we will hear something soon. This is a tough spot to fill. There are not a lot of qualified people out there. I would like to retain Assessor Timm through July 2 which is when we have to sign off on a few of assessing items. Her last day here in the office is June ninth.
Sturdevant: Kelly was always approachable and easy to work with.
Deland: What about our assistant assessor Mark?
Usakowski: He may be interested. I’m thinking that he probably is interested. We would have to see what we get as far as applications. He hasn’t overseen a municipality yet in full. He meets the letter of the law as far as certification but I think that experience wise, I’m not sure that he is ready yet.
- Crossover Culvert – Ravenswood
This culvert needs to be replace and the cost of that is $5,500. It does need to be done. This one is not the big one.
Usakowski motioned to approve the work order to replace the crossover culvert on Ravenswood Road for $5,500 supported by Sturdevant.
ROLL CALL VOTE: YES: Usakowski, Sturdevant, Deland, Ward, Wrubel and Jackson. NO: None. ABSENT: Hoffman. (6-0-1) Motion Carried.
- Fact Sheet: The Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds
Usakowski: This is just some informational things for you. Hopefully you will have a chance to read it over. It is in regards to the American Rescue Plan. The first couple of pages are somewhat of a summary of what the program is. Starting on page 56 of your agenda under number one are the uses that these money can be used for.
Discussion.
- Published Policy Accessible to Taxpayers-Assessing Department
Usakowski: We would have to adopt this policy but will have to change some of the contact information that relates to the new assessor. This would meet the AMAR requirements. I would encourage us to adopt this policy.
Sturdevant motioned to adopt this policy supported by Ward.
ROLL CALL VOTE: YES: Sturdevant, Ward, Usakowski, Jackson, Wrubel and Deland. NO: None. ABSENT: Hoffman. (6-0-1) Motion Carried.
- DPW – “Confined Spaces” Training
Wrubel: We have the opportunity to have all four DPW workers to go to the Confined Spaces training class which is an eight hour class. The cost is $800 for all four workers to go and it is on June 22.
Discussion.
Sturdevant motioned to approve the $800 for the Confined Spaces Training for the DPW workers supported by Deland.
ROLL CALL VOTE: YES: Sturdevant, Deland, Ward, Wrubel, Jackson and Usakowski. NO: None. ABSENT: Hoffman. (6-0-1) Motion Carried.
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AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION
None.
XI. OFFICERS REPORT
- Supervisor Usakowski
We are getting a lot of complaints on paved roads. The National Highway Safety Transportation Board are the ones that classify roads either as local, minor artillery, major artillery, freeways, highways etc. Anything that is not at least a minor artillery is considered local roads and costs get split between the township and the County Road Commission. I’m not sure how some of these roads are listed the way they are. I am looking into this.
- Clerk Wrubel
I gave everyone a copy of the rules for the cemetery. I just want to know what you all think of them. I have a lot of grave sites that people have put little fences around or put decorated stones down, planted bushes and have taken the grass out about three to four feet from around the stone and planted a garden. It is very hard for the guys to cut the grass around these things. These are rules that were made several years ago. What I would like to do is send letters to the families who own the lots and tell them to clean them up.
Usakowski: I think that we have the rules there for a reason and we need to be consistent and these people know what these rules are. The rules are posted right at the cemetery. We really need to be consistent with this problem.
Wrubel: I’m going to send letters out then.
We are up right now to replace five computers. The DPW really needs to get their computer updated for the mapping system.
Usakowski: Can you bring us back a quote?
Wrubel: Yes.
- Treasurer Jackson
The USDA wants our figures because we have loans and grants through them.
I have received three bids for the pieces of property of the nine we put up. I’m going to wait a couple more days to see if we get any by mail.
My new deputy is doing a good job and getting caught up.
Financial Review: Update on the financial report.
- Trustee Hoffman
Absent.
- Trustee Deland
We got a positive response from the cleanup. People are hoping we will do it again in the fall but add tires to the list.
Usakowski: We will look into doing something with the tires.
- Trustee Sturdevant
Fish fry at the American Legion on Friday for take-out only.
Trustee Ward
No report.
XII. ADJOURNMENT
Wrubel motioned to adjourn the meeting at 7:40 p.m. supported by Deland.
Motion Carried.
Meeting adjourned at 7:40 p.m.
Submitted by Becky Wrubel, Clerk
