New Buffalo Elementary School to get new SRO

Members of the New Buffalo Township Board learned that New Buffalo Elementary School will soon be welcoming a new School Resource Officer (SRO) at their rescheduled Monday, Feb. 13, meeting.

Lt. Ryan Sullivan, head of the New Buffalo Township patrol said that, as result of Sgt. (formerly deputy) Michael Troup being promoted and moving on to emergency management, he will no longer be at the elementary school.

Troup has been SRO since 2018.

Deputy Rich Edgerly has been chosen to be the school’s new SRO once Troup leaves. New Buffalo Police Sgt. Russell Tillery is SRO for New Buffalo Middle/High School, which is located in the city.

Sullivan said that next to Julie Flick, a former lieutenant at the Berrien County Sheriff’s Department, Edgerly is one of the “most longest serving New Township police officers.” He said that Edgerly won’t be regularly on patrol for the township anymore and the township will probably be getting “some fresh face from somewhere.”

“He’s been a really reliable person here – he knows the township very, very well but I have no doubt he’ll be an asset over at the school,” he said.

Sullivan said that there’s been lots of turnover at the Berrien County Sheriff’s Office as of late due to recent retirements. Berrien County

BY FRANCESCA SAGALA

Detective/Lieutenant Greg Sanders has been selected as the next chief deputy and will assume the position when Chief Robert Boyce retires.

“There’ll be a new chief up there but hopefully we’ll keep things as steady as we can down here,” he said.

New Buffalo Township Supervisor Michelle Heit said that the township will miss Edgerly, who has been a “very familiar face for us but the school will be happy to have him, I’m sure.”

Board members adopted a resolution regarding the deficit plan for the state for the Pleasure Isle agreement.

Heit said that the Pleasure Isle Marina shows a deficit, as the township borrowed from the Local Revenue Sharing Board (LRSB) and they want to pay that back but “that carries over as a deficit it’s in.”

“We show what our budget is this year and next year to try to show them that there is money there, we do plan to pay it back, but our intent is to pay it back in a couple of years when our payment to the Deputy Foundation is complete,” she said.

Heit said they may have to consider “changing that to just a transfer from LRSB so it doesn’t show this carrying over every year so we can pay it back and we can just pay it back later on.” For now, though, the state needs to see the resolution from the township.

Marina manager Julie Flick said that the marina will be opening April 15 and that she’s currently working on companies for bids for its spring cleanup, as some painting will need to be done like last spring.

Board members approved extending the contract with HydroCorp beginning March 1, 2023, and ending Feb. 28, 2024, at an annual rate of $26,184 for residential and annual rate of $4,176 for commercial.

Heit said that HydroCorp has not completed all the inspections that the township needed for cross connection inspections that the state’s requiring so the they need to extend the contract with them.

The 2022-2023 budget amendments were approved.

Board members approved the third change order and seventh payment application in the amount of $63,262.65 to Selge Construction for the project on lift stations 51 52 and 53. Heit said this is the final payment and that there was a change order that reduced what the township owed by over $20,000.

Board members approved Patrick Donnelly, parks director, attending the Michigan Recreational and Parks Association Conference for a cost that include $385 for the conference and $461.04 for a two-night hotel stay, meals and milage.

At two special meetings held Jan. 31 and Feb. 6, board members approved Julie Monahan as utility billing clerk at $19 an hour.