ISLAND ROAD PAVING BEGINS SOON!! UPDATE 5-6-2014

JFPowers · Post by **JFPowers** » Thu May 08, 2014 9:04 pm

We brought it up at the end of the meeting in public comment. If you have access to Joe Moores website I would suggest you watch. There is no planning at this point going into additional paving. No one was there with any plan or proposal. The board said they will look at it in the future but planning needs to be done ahead of any work. Talking about it is interesting but no group is actively working with township officials or the engineers about it at this point.

Post by **Gillespie** » Fri May 09, 2014 8:04 am

As previously stated I have done a lot of research. Pretty much no township official has contacted me but the research was incomplete. It's as far as I can take it now. The engineer is coming during the day Thursday and staying through the weekend, it is hoped that township officials will get together and work with him to put this in gear. Again, if the boards agree to go further this could collapse at the bank but that seems unlikely.

The continued support do all of you is important. There is nothing to restrict this except a failure to act. When asked the pavers simply stated "we are in the paving business". They said they wouldn't care if local help were used to get the road edges ready on any extended projects.

I did not present this to the town boards but all of the information is here. If you want to resend your emails send them to peainetownship@gmail.com or jlawn@tds.net. I don't know of any topic that has ever had this many hits in a little over a week. If this does not happen we will all have our dust or rutted road complaints for another long stretch!

sbsp · Post by **sbsp** » Fri May 09, 2014 2:14 pm

I sent correspondence to St. James Township (clerk) with support and recommendations on behalf of Port St. James for paving Donegal Bay Road. I do not believe it was even presented as correspondence. I contacted the clerk and was informed that paving was not on the agenda, therefore, only a public comment was made at the end of the meeting regarding paving. I would suggest that paving be placed on both township agendas for the next meeting and then rally public support to attend the meeting(s).

Cheers - Kirk

Post by **Gillespie** » Sat May 10, 2014 9:33 am

If you read through the prior posts you will see that the next step is some township officials need to meet with the engineer this coming week. This could be done in a couple of ways. They meet with him informally (no quorum) but with enough people to get the information organized and call a public meeting the next day at which time the township boards could vote to borrow up to the limit allowed under our taxable equalized value (1.25 %). That vote would include in the motion (I should think) the requirement that the facts and figures need to be boiled down so the actual numbers needed are known and the destinations are approved. It would also authorize availability through research of low interest loans.

Once that information is collected the boards could have a public hearing to get input from citizens and voters. If all that goes well, they could have the road commission take bids to get the actual costs, if they exceed "expectations" we back off or do nothing.

I have stated that I have put plenty of effort into this and would like to see it for the betterment of my community, the road to my home and business is paved, we love it. Time to help others and improve public safety. The only risk here is that we may do nothing, that would be sad.

If you have questions please post them here, I will try to answer. Thanks for your support, we will hit 6500 views of this topic today, absolutely amazing!! Jeff, have we ever had anything (Perhaps Emma's story) get this many hits like this??

sbsp · Post by **sbsp** » Sat May 10, 2014 10:57 am

Rich -
It sounds like a plan but who is heading it to assure there is commitment by township board members to meet with Gary to review the details? Have any township officials agreed to meet or shown any support for additional paving? It would be good to put some names to the plan so at election time the public can know which candidates are for or against paving improvements. Elections are about promises but more so should be based on accomplishments. It's all about accountability and responsibility of carrying out the public will.
Keep up the good work, you appear to have lots of support. As a back up I would make sure the topic is also on the agenda of the next township meeting.

Cheers - Kirk

Post by **Gillespie** » Sat May 10, 2014 11:08 am

The Supervisors, if so inclined can meet with the engineer on Thursday when he arrives (if everything is good). They can invite whomever they like as long as they do not have a quorum and as many interested parties as they might like for a round table discussion.

They could post a joint meeting for sometime that following Friday in case there is interest in moving forward. Even if they vote yes to borrow the funds from future millage and take a risk we all might enjoy they still can hold a public hearing but do not actually need to. It seems that the public is very well informed and interested given the hits that this thread has seen as well as emails, etc.

As it was described to me, the board was elected to make the right decisions, that is what the public voted them in office for. If the public approaches the boards as you might say has been done in this thread then I feel that the boards should respond to public input as in here. It will now be up to them to make the next move. Continued input from the public is the most important thing I can think of.

This little town needs a boost, needs some makeup, this can help a lot. In Port St. James alone think of the potential increase in property values and new folks, something we do need. People are moving away, tired of nothing being done but taxes increasing. Business people, including myself, tired of a few months of business and then nothing for many months.

Something has to change! Thanks!!

sbsp · Post by **sbsp** » Sat May 10, 2014 11:32 am

The glory of this Forum is that it is a real time basis for the public to know what is happening and also a great opportunity for public officials to keep the public informed on what they are doing for the electorate. This is an appropriate time and means for our elected township officials to publically state their position on either side of the issue. What better town meeting can you have than this Forum. It would be my hope that some have the courage to step up at this time. If not, the voters should file the fact of a non response away until the next election. With regard to silence, the tax payer can rightly assume, "not perceived, not received".

Cheers - Kirk

sbsp · Post by **sbsp** » Sat May 10, 2014 12:50 pm

Public officials can simply state that they are willing to meet and listen to the paving proposal before rendering a decision. That would be a great beginning and a position we expect of our township officials.

Cheers - Kirk

Tuneman · Post by **Tuneman** » Sat May 10, 2014 1:07 pm

This little town needs a boost, needs some makeup, this can help a lot. In Port St. James alone think of the potential increase in property values and new folks, something we do need. People are moving away, tired of nothing being done but taxes increasing. Business people, including myself, tired of a few months of business and then nothing for many months.

Something has to change! Thanks!!

Rich is right in that things have to change in order for more people to move to this island, and for the businesses to have business for more than just a few months out of the year. For this to happen you need to be able to transport people and goods and vehicles of all types to and from the island 12 months out of the year.
We have suggested the purchase of a Hovercraft to fill that gap. When things like this are suggested it falls upon deaf ears. No one even checked into the feasibility of such a craft, and then you say people are leaving the island, and there is NO businesses coming to the island. You tell me what person is going to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars for a return of 3 months out of the year. The same is true when we suggested the enzyme treatment for the roads. The roads would look like dirt, but be as hard as blacktop, which would cut down on dust control, and the roads would be hard so therefore NO muddy roads to contend with at 1/3 the cost approximately.
You be the judge.....Are our elected officials serving the people or just self serving???
This is one of the reasons why we don't go to the town meetings anymore is because any suggestions falls on deaf ears.

Mike & Sharon.

Terry Frysinger · Post by **Terry Frysinger** » Sun May 11, 2014 6:24 am

I'm surprised to read how unhappy some full time residents are about life on Beaver Island. As a seasonal resident and property owner I'm very happy with things as they are now, bumpy dusty roads and all, just drive slower. Even the property taxes are reasonable. I don't look at adding more people and faster smoother roads as an improvement.

sbsp · Post by **sbsp** » Sun May 11, 2014 10:37 pm

Is the meeting you referred to for May 15 or 16 with the engineer still scheduled?

Thanx - Kirk

K.A. Pike · Post by **K.A. Pike** » Sun May 11, 2014 11:31 pm

As a yearly/summer guest I would love to see this project expand and include some of the roads suggested. I also will acknowledge that most of what R. Gillespie has suggested and the funding options are way past my pay grade. I just step back and wonder if it was known that at some point Kings Highway as going to get paved, why wasn't expanding the project suggested last year, or the year before? It seems like there could've been a lot town hall meetings to gain a pulse of the residence and taxpayer and a plan could've been in place to proceed at the time the paving schedule was released.

In the same breath I'm thinking if this doesn't get done is it the fault of the current Supervisors and township boards. Has anyone seen an elected body put a project of this size into place in a couple of days. I'm sure there will be those that bring this up at election time as a reason not to vote for (_____fill in the blank____)

Most of us have come to expect to hear from a vocal few who find it easier to criticize others then to put their name on the ballot.

bigbuck · Post by **bigbuck** » Mon May 12, 2014 9:28 am

â??If I were to remain silent, I'd be guilty of complicity.â?
― Albert Einstein

Tuneman · Post by **Tuneman** » Mon May 12, 2014 10:16 am

How true Bigbuck.

Mike.

medic5740 · Post by **medic5740** » Mon May 12, 2014 10:37 am

I am willing to video record anyone who is willing to stand up for either side of this issue. I will post the videos on News on the 'Net. The only requirement is to be civil to another point of view, and contact me to set up the interview.

I believe that all comments made without denegrating the persons making an opposing view are worthwhile. Give me a call 2416.

Joe Moore, editor
Beaver Island News on the 'Net.

Beaver Island Michigan

ISLAND ROAD PAVING BEGINS SOON!! UPDATE 5-6-2014

Two sides of an issue?