Sawyer Road construction rolling out next week

BY FRANCESCA SAGALA

ork on Sawyer Road will commence next week, David Bunte, supervisor of Chikaming Township, said at the township board’s Thursday, April 13, meeting.

The first phase of the project will start from the railroad tracks to Flynn Road, during which “eastbound traffic will be only directionally allowed,” Bunte said. There will be access to businesses throughout the course of the project, so the road won’t be closed completely; however, westbound traffic will be detoured at Flynn Road to Harbert Road

Bunte said plans are to have the downtown area completed prior to the week before Memorial Day. After that, Phase Two work will be done from the tracks west to Red Arrow Highway.

A meeting will take place at 5 p.m. Monday, May 1, at Section House, which is located at 5896 Sawyer Road in Sawyer, for the public to provide feedback on the Sawyer Road Streetscape Enhancement Plan.

A library agreement with Bridgman Public Library, Three Oaks Township Public Library and New Buffalo Township Library was approved.

WDue to the referendum that passed last November, a library millage will now be placed on residents for full access to all three libraries; however, Bunte said the state still needs the agreement in order to “continue this relationship.”

He said there will be an equal split of the township’s millage among all three libraries and that the penal fines will be split equally as well.

Bunte will sign off on the agreement and send it off to all three libraries for final signatures, so it can go into effect July 1.

Board members approved a resolution stating that the road millage renewal question will be moved to the Aug. 8 ballot.

The question was scheduled to be on the May 2 ballot; however, due to Like Michigan College moving its millage question to August, Bunte said that board members had decided to save taxpayers money by not having two elections this year.

Bunte said the request will ask residents to renew the current millage, which is .9875 per taxable value, and that it will run for six years, from 2023-2028.

Board members approved the conditional hiring of Wesley Jaspering as full-time police officer, pending he passes the police academy, which begins in August.

Police chief Todd Taylor said that approving the hiring of Jaspering, who’s native to the area with a military background, will put him on the payroll so he can be paid while he attends the academy.

Board members approved hiring Justin Ellis as fulltime parking enforcement officer. Taylor said that Ellis interviewed with Jaspering and he felt that he could “get his feet wet” in law enforcement by dealing with the public as an enforcement officer.

Board members approved the request from the police department to purge used and damaged equipment and to burn and destroy old uniforms.

Board members approved a motion authorizing clerk Paula Dudiak to negotiate with the local community and county for early voting for future elections.

Due to the statewide approval of Proposal 2, Dudiak said Michigan now has nine days of early voting before state and federal elections, and all clerks in the county are “trying to get together to be on the same page and would like to see that all of us do exactly the same.”

She said the state would like to know that she’d have approval from the board to make decisions, such as with regards to negotiating if contracts need to be signed and to “act upon what I’d need to do at the time instead of bringing every little individual item to the board.” Upon request from the county’s emergency operations center, board members adopted a resolution appointing Taylor as the township’s emergency contact for the emergency management office and Bunte as the backup.

Board members approved budget amendments for the 2022-203 fiscal year. A permit for the fireworks at Woodlawn Beach for July 2 was approved.

Joe Martin, director of parks, said that there are a “lot of projects on the docket” for the next couple of weeks. Harbert Community Park and Preserve has recently been graded and the driveway still needs to be graded. He’s ensuring that the dog park is smooth, and any patches are filled. While there’s a beaver problem at the pond at the park, “everything is now under control.”

“I know we’re getting into the busy season here so there’s exciting stuff on the horizon,’ he said.