May 20, 2025 Board of Trustees Minutes

KIMBALL TOWNSHIP BOARD OF TRUSTEES

2160 WADHAMS ROAD, KIMBALL, MI  48074

REGULAR MEETING

                                                              MAY 20, 2025

Usakowski opened the meeting at 6:30 p.m. with the Pledge of Allegiance.

 

ROLL CALL OF OFFICERS: Usakowski, Jackson, Wrubel, Deland, Bowen, Lokers and Reilly.

 

ABSENT: None.

 

Wrubel would like to add letter G. under New Business, MTA Annual Dues.

 

Deland motioned to approve the agenda as amended supported by Reilly.

Motion carried.

 

Jackson, page 4, Section D, says “building using it “at” a church” should be building using it “as” a church”.

 

Deland motioned to approve the minutes of May 6, 2025, as amended supported by Jackson. Motion carried.

           

III.        CONSENT AGENDA AND COMMUNICATIONS

Usakowski mentioned that we have $113,435.69 for disbursement.

 

Jackson motioned to approve the disbursement of $113,435.69 to pay the bills and file supported by Bowen.

 

ROLL CALL VOTE: YES: Jackson, Bowen, Usakowski, Wrubel, Deland, Lokers, and Reilly. NO: None. ABSENT: None. (7-0-0) Motion Carried.

 

 

Deland motioned to receive and file boards and commissions supported by Bowen. Motion Carried.

 

None.

 

 

Mr. Teltow and Logan Mahawn are here from Fishback as well as Kirk Hershbacker to talk about the Brownfield Request and what it entails. They went over the pros and cons of building there.

 

Jackson went over the agreement and explained how many calls we covered and the areas from last year. $692,157.16 is what it costs for the fire department to cover that area.

 

Deland motioned to approve the Wales Township Fire Protection Agreement of 2025-2026 supported by Reilly.

 

ROLL CALL VOTE: YES: Deland, Reilly, Usakowski, Jackson, Wrubel, Bowen, and Lokers. NO: None. ABSENT: None. (7-0-0) Motion Carried.

 

Usakowski mentioned that the Clyde Township cost from last year was $12,074.12.

 

Reilly motioned to approve the Clyde Township Fire Protection Agreement for 2025-2026 supported by Jackson.

 

ROLL CALL VOTE: YES: Reilly, Jackson, Usakowski, Wrubel, Deland, Bowen, and Lokers. NO: None. ABSENT: None. (7-0-0) Motion Carried,

 

Jackson mentioned that the cost of fire protection for St. Clair Township was $23,810.21.

 

Deland motioned to approve the St. Clair Township Fire Protection Agreement from May 1, 2025, to April 30, 2026, supported by Bowen.

 

ROLL CALL VOTE: YES: Deland, Bowen, Usakowski, Jackson, Wrubel, Rielly, and Lokers. NO: None. ABSENT: None. (7-0-0) Motion Carried.

 

Ordinance 157

Usakowski explained that this pertains to employee benefits. We would amend Section 2 which specifically stated 40 hours, and we added the word documented to the 40 hours. Originally that was 40 hours, and the federal law now is 30 hours, which makes you full-time, so we changed the language there to say 30 hours. In Section 5, if someone waived the healthcare what would they get? It was 50 percent of the cost of healthcare, and this would change that to a maximum of $250 per coverage of each individual and required receipt of proof of coverage through another provider and proof of the premium cost.

 

Bowen motioned to adopt Ordinance NO. 157-A supported by Deland.

 

ROLL CALL VOTE: YES: Bowen, Deland, Usakowski, Jackson, Wrubel, Lokers, and Reilly. NO: None. ABSENT: None. (7-0-0) Motion Carried.

 

Usakowski explained that this resolution is to pay for the supplemental insurance for the billing clerk upon her partial retirement. We had not adopted that in a resolution, but we had approved it by a motion.

 

Deland motioned to adopt Resolution 2025-27 supported by Jackson.

 

ROLL CALL VOTE: YES: Deland, Jackson, Usakowski, Wrubel, Bowen, Lokers, and Reilly. NO: None. ABSENT: None. (7-0-0) Motion Carried.

 

Usakowski explained that we could raise the fee for blight, but we can’t go over $500 per ticket. Do we have any ideas on how to get people to clean up their property?

 

Reilly spoke about how many blight tickets have been written. This is not fair to the rest of the township residents who must live by these people. We should talk to our attorney to see what else we can do.

 

Discussion.

 

Usakowski mentioned that he will talk to the attorney to see what else we can do about the blight problem and for the board members to read over the Ordinance to see if there is anything that needs to be changed. We will bring this Ordinance back to the next meeting.

 

Usakowski mentioned that our MTA Annual Dues are $7,537.54 and we have been doing the Premium Education Package for $1,900.00 for a total of $9,437.54. We do use MTA a lot.

 

Deland motioned to approve the MTA Annual Dues at a cost of $9,437.54 supported by Bowen.

 

ROLL CALL VOTE: YES: Deland, Bowen, Usakowski, Jackson, Wrubel, Lokers, and Reilly. NO: None. ABSENT: None. (7-0-0) Motion Carried.

 

Tricia Bence, 1358 N. Pine River Road: I am here to ask the board if they would allow me to keep my kennel license. She gave reasons for why she lost her dogs. Is there any way I can get my license back?

 

Usakowski asked her if she came into the office to talk to anyone?

 

Bence: Yes, I brought a letter in for Neil.

 

Usakowski: Can you leave your phone number, and I will talk to Neil about it?

 

IX.       OFFICERS REPORT

A.  Supervisor Usakowski

We have been having issues with CN Railroad, and I sent them a letter. The Manager of Government Affairs for CN is flying in tomorrow and we will be meeting with him on Thursday. I am hoping that we can get an answer from them.

 

Discussion.

 

Usakowski mentioned that we will be having a meeting here at 6 p.m. with EGLE to answer questions.

 

Then the following Thursday, there will be the official hearing on the Consent Order. That hearing will be conducted via Zoom. We are going to broadcast it here in our Conference Room if anyone would like to come and watch it.

 

The Fallen Heroes banners have been put up thanks to our fire department.

 

The Township Clean-up went well. We ended up with eleven dumpsters. Thank you to Hammer’s Contracting for supplying us with the dumpsters at no cost to us and his workers for helping also. Thank you, Paul.

 

Board wages will be brought back to the next meeting.

 

We are also having problems with the volume on the recording of the meetings.

I am working on fixing it.

 

B.  Clerk Wrubel     

Wrubel mentioned that the flags are going out in the cemetery. Jake Gregg and his family put them out in Block 3 on Sunday. They also did three other cemeteries. The Cemetery Board and the Fire Auxiliary will be going out tomorrow to place the flags in Block 2 and Block 1. The Smiths Creek American Legion were no longer doing it.

 

With the clean-up, we could not fill one slot, so Jason Hyde came and volunteered his time.

 

Jackson went over the financial reports.

 

No report.

 

Do we have a time limit on the response time for the fire protections for the townships?

 

Jackson explained.

 

Is the manhole going to get fixed?

 

Wrubel said we have approved to get it fixed.

 

Why are the park bathrooms being locked while the baseball games are going on?

 

Usakowski said that he will talk to the attendant about it.

 

No report.

X.       ADJOURNMENT

            Wrubel motioned to adjourn the meeting at 8:09 p.m. supported by Deland.

            Motion Carried.

 

            Meeting adjourned at 8:09 p.m.

 

            Submitted by Becky Wrubel, Clerk