The Berrien Township Board of Trustees met on Tuesday, April 14, 2009 at 7:00 p.m. at the township hall. Supervisor Paul Bixby called the meeting to order and opened with the pledge to the flag.

 

Roll call: Supervisor Paul Bixby, Treasurer Paul Sprung, Trustees Kevin Klug, Ross Rogien, Harold Bishop, Julie Burke and Clerk Mary Jane Dean.

 

Also present: Fire Chief Tom Stiles, Township caretaker Bill Fisher, Emergency Management Rep. Julius Grau, Medic I Director Jack Fisher, Medic I Chairman Pete Sinclair and resident Earl Hansen. 

 

Paul Sprung made a motion seconded by Julie Burke to remove the fire bills from the agenda and approve the agenda as amended. All ayes. None opposed. MOTION CARRIED.

Medic I Director Jack Fisher and Chairman of the Board    Sinclair (City of Hartford) gave a presentation for Medic I. Medic I began in February 24, 1977 covering 10 cities and Townships. There are now 16 municipalities that own Medic I and 3 municipalities that have contracts. The annual subsidy is based on population. Medic I consists of 12 licensed paramedic ambulances, a licensed paramedic Supervisor first response vehicle and several support vehicles. They operate out of 5 stations located around the County. There are 8 wheel chair vans for scheduled non-emergency transport. Medic I working with Lake Michigan College have a training and education dept. for training up to and including paramedic level. Medic I is the only ambulance service in Berrien County to attain national accreditation. They transport between hospitals. They must respond whether they will receive payment or not. Average respond time is 7.9 min. Jack will check on the response time to Berrien Township.

 

Berrien County Sheriff report on the Township for Feb. 2009 had 40 complaints, 11 tickets were issued and 4 arrests. B. County had 1114 complaints, 390 tickets issued and 194 arrests.

 

Ross Rogien made a motion seconded by Paul Sprung to approve the March 24, 2009 minutes with one correction. The sentence should read: The Dept. should stop going into Berrien Township, EXCEPT for emergency calls. Question was asked what had been determined about the liability on Township property being cleaned by Bryan Bixby. Paul Sprung had checked with insurance agent and was told all we need is a short term contract with liability being waived. All ayes. None opposed. MOTION CARRIED.

 

Julie Burke made a motion seconded by Kevin Klug to approve the township bills in the amount of $30,932.26 for payment. All ayes. None opposed. MOTION CARRIED.

 

B. C. Road Commission sent the Board a list of roads that have spring potholes included was the cost for patching, the length of the road, the cost for seal coating, the total cost and traffic count for each road. The labor would be supplied by the Road Commission. The roads listed were: Huckleberry north of Smith, Hipps Hollow east of Laberdy, Smith east of Pucker, Jones south of Pokagon and Snyder west of Jones. Board members are to drive the roads in question and discuss at the May meeting with a road commission rep. Drain Commission should be contacted in connection with Jones Rd. as Fire Chief Stiles has previously measured 18 ins. of standing water.        

 

Also received an estimate of costs to install a culvert crossing Franklin Rd. located 1.1 miles east of Pucker St. The bottom of the culvert is rusted out and fails to drain properly. This will be discussed at the May meeting also. Since this drains into Smith Lake and houses have been under water because of poor drainage at Smith Lake the Drain Commissioner in Cass and Berrien needs to be involved. Jim Hoover has contacted Roger Zilke concerning Smith Lake drainage and waiting for a response.

 

Paul Sprung made a motion seconded by Julie Burke to grant permission to the Berrien County 4-H clubs to raise funds for their local 4-H clubs and the Berrien County 4-H Alumni Scholarship. The will be selling plants from March 30 through April 22, 2009. All ayes. None opposed. MOTION CARRIED.

Fire Dept. had 30 calls of which 19.5 were in the township for a total of $3,972.00 in March. Henry Young was named Fire Fighter of the Year. Hank has been a member of the fire dept. for 36 years. Chief Stiles reported on MABAS (Mutual Aid Box Alarm System) this is a state wide mutual aid plan.

 

There was one burial since last meeting. The Board needs to have a meeting at the cemeteries when it gets warmer to discuss some maintenance. Franklin addition needs to have the first phase of graves platted out.

 

Township park caretaker reported that the park is open for the summer. Supervisor asked Bill if he would look at the area known as the interurban and bring to the Board some ideas for improving so it can be used by residents as a park.

 

Planning Commission is still working on the Zoning Ordinance updates.

 

Julius Grau reported on a table top exercise about severe weather. He is working on getting information on a pole and a siren that could be installed on the Township property on the corner of Deans Hill and Huckleberry Rd. He reminded the Board about the 2009 Emergency Planning Conference presented by Berrien County Local Emergency Planning Committee on Tuesday, April 28, 2009.

 

Building Inspector issued 7 permits for an estimated building amount of $31,800.00 for the month of March. Electrical Inspector issued 3 permits for a fee of $288.00.

 

Fiscal year 2008-09 ended with revenue at $585,588.23 plus about $15,800.00 interest that hasn’t been added to show on the financial statements and expenses at $595,275.76.

This statement shows a deficit of $9,687.53 but when interest is added it should change to a surplus of about $6,000.00 for 2008-09 fiscal year. Our purchases included a new fire truck $56,277 (our share) we started a fire dept excess trust fund $23,489.78 and purchased 2 parcels for $5,210.71 on Deans Hill and Huckleberry Rd. General Fund that includes all of twp. Equity accounts presently shows $960,641.61 after interest due we should have about $976,440.00. The following costs centers were amended: Trustees $14,919.00; Supervisor $18,642.00; Tax Admin. $21,147.22; Clerk $20,757.60; Board of Review $869.04; Treasurer $18,929.00; St. Lights $8,777.89 and Community Service $64,391.83. Ross Rogien made a motion seconded by Kevin Klug to approve the adjustments of the aforementioned cost centers. All ayes. None opposed. MOTION CARRIED. 

Julie Burke made a motion seconded by Mary Jane Dean to approve the 1^st. Qtr. Financial report for 2009-10. All ayes. None opposed. MOTION CARRIED.

Comment was made that we need projection equipment so the audience could see what the Board was discussing.

 

Paul Sprung made a motion seconded by Mary Jane Dean to adjourn the meeting at 9:09 p.m. All ayes. None opposed. MOTION CARRIED.