The Austin Township Board Meeting was called to order on September 8, 2009 at 7:38 p.m. by Supervisor Kenneth Vredenburg at the Township Hall at 14132 Pierce Rd., Stanwood, MI 49346.

Present were Kenneth Vredenburg, Carolyn Towsley, Elizabeth Carr, John Conforte, and John Brockway. There were two guest present.

Public Comment: When will 180^th be paved? Not at this time, hopefully within a couple of years. Commissioner Ray Steinke-The ‘Goode’ trial is over. It was very expensive. Darwin Booher will be running for the Senate. I hope to bring the local candidate for his seat to one of your future meetings. Marcee Purcell-County Clerk was able to get a maintenance service plan for the tabulator machines at a cheaper rate. The Township would like Mr. Steinke to be aware of the difficulty those involved in the address changes at Canadian Lakes are having with getting the 911 software system to recognize the address changes. Also for Planning and Zoning to pay attention to the needs of our community when approving permits.

Moved by Carolyn Towsley, supported by John Conforte to accept the minutes with corrections. Motion carried.

The General, Fire, First Responder, and Cemetery Funds report was given. Everything is as printed. We are over the FDIC guarantee in Chemical Bank, but we will be cashing out the surplus and using it on roads in October. Carolyn will be staying with the Excel spread sheets in her office reports. Moved by Elizabeth Carr, supported by John Brockway to accept the report. Motion carried subject to audit.

Motion was made by John Brockway, supported by John Conforte to approve and pay the Township, Fire Dept., First Responder, and Cemetery bills.

Fire Depart. Report: The Fire Board Meeting will be next week, September 16, 2009. The Pancake Breakfast is this Sunday at the Fire Hall from 8:00am-11:30am.

Assessor’s Report: The address changes at Canadian Lakes has been a nightmare. 911 is reporting that they can’t manually change the addresses in their system. Everyone must call in so the system will recognize their new address. Kenn will try to put an explanation on the website to help clear up the confusion. There is a plan by 911 to send a post card to everyone explaining what they need to do. A letter was written to Planning and Zoning asking them to deny the permit renewals for the cell towers so we could work with them on a better location. Both permits were renewed however for one year. The cell towers are supposed to be built this fall or next spring.  The tax millage request is 1.2077 this year.

Treasurer’s Report: Independent Bank CD#3290021045 will mature on 9-10-09 I am going to let it roll over at 0.75% for three months. Chemical Bank CD#6422131729 due 10-9-09 will be cashed in and put into checking. The State of Michigan check will be about $15,000.00. Taxes-about 845 are in. That is approximately 51% of the money. It is down 51% from what was paid in by this time last year. Taxes must be in by September 14^th or penalty fees will be added.

Clerk’s Report: Because the paychecks are written totally separate from any other fees, I would like to talk to the BOR member s and see if I can issue them a check for their mileage at the end of the year. I received an e-mail that some of the pension investment funds will be changing. Please see me if you are interested in more details of the changes. Doug Wohlberg needs to do some work on reconciling some of the older QuikBook data with the new program. I will be calling him to set up an appointment for this work. At the last Mecosta County Township Association meeting the association voted to begin collecting dues so we would have the funds to send a representative to any conferences or meetings that we would deem necessary. The dues will be $40.00 annually until we reach a balance of $1,500.00. I have received the first billing statement. I received notice this month that Election Systems & Software, Inc. Has acquired Premier Election Solutions from Diebold , Inc. The board advised the clerk that they would like to purchase the ‘Full Service Agreement’ for $271.00 for the election tabulator and to please find the expiration date on the offer.

Roads: The 180^th road project will end up being in the $125,000.00 range. We’ve already paid aroung $11,000.00-$15,000.00 last year. They are working on it now. The Pierce Rd. project came in 11% under estimate. It should total around $375,000.00. They probably won’t use all of the Federal Exchange dollars so our share should be less also.  They have to wait for the state to ok the bids. The bid was taken by Rieth Rielly. The second brining is done and we should get the bill next month.

Recycle: The recycle day in Morton Twp. went well. It was very organized. They do the unloading for you. We will probably look into going together with another township to have a recycle day at some point.

Meeting adjourned at 9pm.

Elizabeth G. Carr

Austin Township Clerk