June 8, 2000 Meeting:
Zoning Change: The zoning change that would allow fraternal organizations on agricultural land was approved. This allows organizations such as equestrian clubs, sportsman's clubs, and specifically the shiners to have their facilities on agricultural land. Theaters will still be prohibited.
Recreational Opportunity: The owner of Rick's Bait believes he can get private funding to stock Willow Creek with Trout. This will give youths in our area a change to fish over several weeks rather than the short time allotted by the fishing rodeo. I applaud the effort to get privately funded recreational opportunities off the ground and encourage any of you who are willing to help.
Equipment: The arm mower has basically been a black hole for money and needs to be replaced. Arrangements have been made to lease a mower for the balance of this season.
Weed Ordinance: A small number of residential properties do not have their grass cut yet. As of 6/15 they will be in violation of the weed ordinance. If this persists the township will cut the weeds and property owners will be billed.
Stream Relocation: My motion to have a technical review of SDE's stream relocation failed to get a second. The relocation of the stream will make room for the proposed park, and hopefully eliminate the frequent flooding of several of the homes in Limestone Village. SDE has designed the relocation, but does not specialize in this type of work. I proposed that we have Dr. Givler, P.E. do a technical review of their design. Dr. Givler is a civil engineer in his 60s who has specialized in this type of work. The review would have cost less than $1,600, a small percentage of the cost of the project. Failure to design the stream relocation properly is likely to result in maintenance costs for the township. A good design will not suffer erosion or fill with silt. SDE has, however, agreed to have another one of their engineers, Mike Pohronezy, look at their design.
Retirement Village: The Village at Maidencreek is a proposed retirement village off Wesner Road. They propose 112 unit gated community. Each resident will in fact own 1/112th of the whole. The property including internal roads will be maintained by a not for profit corporation. The residents will pay maintenance fees to this corporation. I find it unfortunate that in a free country these people had to come before the board of supervisors to ask for waivers so that they could have their curbs and side walks the way they want them. The purpose of the township preferring stepped curb over rolled curb is the township's belief that stepped curb is cheaper to maintain, but the maintenance of this road will be at the expense of the gated community. They should be allowed to choose their preference based on their aesthetic tastes and their opinions as to safety for their residents. The only good to come of this is that it does give the township some leverage to ask them to participate in improvements to Wesner Rd. I think it is only fair that the new 112 units help offset some of the negative externalities of their addition to our township.
paid for by Roy Timpe