New Buffalo Township approves budget resolution for 2021- 2022 fiscal year

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New Buffalo Times

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CITY OF NEW BUFFALO JOHN HUMPHREY, MAYOR CITY COUNCIL LOU O’DONNELL, IV. MARK ROBERTSON, JOHN HUMPHREY, ROGER LIJESKI, BRIAN FLANIGAN City Council meets on the 3rd Monday of each month at 6:30PM CITY OF NEW BUFFALO PLANNING COMMISSION MEETINGS to be determined NEW BUFFALO TOWNSHIP BOARD PETE RAHM, MICHELLE HEIT, JUDY H. ZABICKI, PATTY IAZZETTO, JACK ROGERS Board meets on the 3rd Monday of each month at 7PM NEW BUFFALO TOWNSHIP PLANNING COMMISSION Meets on the 1st Tuesday of each month at 6:30PM

NEW BUFFALO AREA SCHOOLS BOARD CHUCK HEIT, PRESIDENT HEATHER BLACK, VICE PRESIDENT JOHN HASKINS, TREASURER LISA WERNER, SECRETARY JOYCE LANTZ, TRUSTEE FRANK MARGRO, TRUSTEE PATRICIA NEWSTON, TRUSTEE CHIKAMING TOWNSHIP CHIKAMING TOWNSHIP BOARD DAVID BUNTE, PAULA DUDIAK, LIZ RETTIG, RICHARD SULLIVAN, BILL MARSKE Chikaming Board meets on the 2nd Thursday of each month at 6:30PM CHIKAMING TOWNSHIP PLANNING COMMISSION Meets on the 1st Wednesday of each month at 6:30PM THREE OAKS THREE OAKS TOWNSHIP BOARD Meets on the 2nd Monday of each month at 7PM VILLAGE OF THREE OAKS BOARD Meets on the 2nd Wednesday of each month at 7PM GRAND BEACH VILLAGE OF GRAND BEACH COUNCIL Meets on the 3rd Wednesday of each month at 7PM MICHIANA VILLAGE OF MICHIANA COUNCIL Meets on the 2nd Friday of each month at 1PM

New Buffalo Township approves budget resolution for 2021-2022 fiscal year

After a public hearing, members of the New Buffalo Township Board adopted a budget resolution as presented for the 2021-2022 fiscal year, as well as 2020-2021 budget amendments, at their Monday, June 21, meeting.

Board members adopted 2021 millages, which included the general operations millage of .3923 mills and the park millage of .2311 mills.

Board members approved a 3 percent wage increase for all full-time employees as well as for the fire chief, assistant fire chief and all firefighters, the code enforcement officer to $20 per hour, building inspector to a $1,000 monthly salary and $43 per hour and township hall maintenance to $21 per hour.

Supervisor Michelle Heit said that the building inspector’s salary is currently at $600 per month and that it was recommended by Estelle Brinkman, building and zoning administrator, that it be increased to $1,000.

A resolution establishing the township officers’ salaries, which sets the supervisor’s, clerk’s, and treasurer’s salary at $48,000 per year, was adopted.

A resolution regarding the extra voted millage for public safety services, which Heit said states that the township isn’t collecting the second public safety millage this year, was adopted.

The seventh payment for the public safety building project in the amount of $315,933.67 was approved.

The seventh payment to Roggow Construction for the Union Pier Trailhead Project in the amount of $17,423.31, which is New Buffalo Township’s half (it’s a shared cost with Chikaming Township) was approved.

The fourth and fifth payment for $77,877 and $10,728 and the second change order

BY FRANCESCA SAGALA for the lift station and controls upgrade project were approved.

Board members approved rescheduling the July 19 board meeting to 4 p.m. Thursday, July 15, which Heit said will be an in-person meeting.

Board members approved the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh payments for a total of $97,737.35 and the third and fourth change orders for the Exit One Project. Heit said she talked with Grand River Construction (which was awarded the work on the project) why the township was just now getting the invoices and the change orders weren’t approved. The project had been finished last fall.

Eric Neagu from Antero Group said that it was known there was going to be a couple of change orders for additional concrete for the backing for the sign because of the sign that was selected, and it was hoped there’d be savings in there. He said he believes that $4,000 or $6,000 worth of money was cut out “kind of eating that cost,” but the “field conditions and how the sign that they selected shaped out, they needed to do additional concrete to support the backing and then that also extended the footing.” “So, most of this is materials and some labor for that,” he said.

Neagu said one of items is for “retainage.”

“Typically for any construction project, you retain 10 percent so throughout the project, every time they invoiced, we retain 10 percent so that that was sitting there until we approved the final project… We did the walk through, the punch list, they cleaned all that up and frankly, they just dragged their feet on sending these invoices,” he said.

Heit said she wanted to get them the money that is owed but she was concerned with the concrete part and “why they didn’t give a number to us and get that change order approved.”

“Now really to pay this, we have to approve these two change orders,” she said, adding that one of the orders was a deduct.

An additional services addendum for Brooks Architectural for $29,500 was approved.

Heit said when Chris Brooks did his drawings for the public safety building, TowerPinkster did all the drawings for the technology services.

“He paid for that and was adding that to his bill…This was all figured out in the very beginning, so it is part of the budget but to make this cleaner, Skillman had suggested that instead of us just paying him he add an addendum to his service contract saying that this is included in there rather than have him just bill us,” she said.

A Berrien County Lease Agreement, which Heit said will allow the Berrien County Sheriff’s Office to use the new public safety building as a substation, was approved.

Board members approved contributing $1,000 toward the Friends of Berrien County Trails’ Berrien County Hike, Bike and Paddle Trails Master Plan being put together by Abonmarche.

A bid from Rocky Troxell for $91,000 for the old fire station at 19001 U.S. Highway 12 was approved, pending the township’s attorney’s approval.

Heit said that the township’s annual Public Safety Day will be from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 1, at the township’s new public safety building on Highway 12 and will also be an open house for the new building. She thanked a grant from The Pokagon Fund that allowed the township to purchase the school supplies.