Board of Trustees to Investigate Lack of Water in Millrace

More than 25 township residents spent their Valentine’s Day evening giving input at the Oakland Township Board of Trustees meeting at Township Hall.

A number of items were discussed at length during the meeting. Among them: the lack of water in the millrace and property acquisition.

No water in the millrace

Trustee Michael Bailey requested that the millrace be placed on Tuesday night’s agenda at the start of the meeting, and after much deliberation members of the board voted in favor of further investigating options to get water in the millrace. Numerous members of the public commented on the issue.

Residents living along the millrace, members of the board and the Clinton River Watershed Council met mid-January in a private meeting to discuss the fact that there is no longer water in the millrace, as promised by the council as a condition of the Paint Creek Dam being removed. Since that meeting, which still left many questions unanswered according to residents who spoke up Tuesday night, the residents living along the millrace asked a third party hydraulic engineer to step in and give his professional opinion on the project. Bailey helped the residents get in contact with the Anderson, Eckstein and Westrick, Inc. engineer.

According to Jan Olson, an Oakland Township resident who lives along the millrace, on Feb. 2 the engineer met with the residents and a couple board members to tour the property.

“I felt it went really well; I liked what he had to say,” Olson said. “We would like this to move forward. We want some pro-action.”

According to Olson, the engineer advised a number of options to get water back in the millrace including the installation of two larger pipes to replace the 18-inch pipes that were placed during the first phases of the dam removal process. Olson and her neighbors noted that they would like to see the watershed council halt their operations so the problem at hand can be fixed.

“Can we hold off? Can we tell the current group (watershed council) to do nothing more to the millrace, to this area body of water,” Oakland Township resident Judy Spitz said. “I guess they want to continue doing more work and the more they do the more damage they’re creating … and the more costly it’s going to be to come back and fix it up.”

Trustee Marc Edwards spoke up at the meeting and noted that the residents needed to try to find a way to work with the watershed council to come to a compromise, which Olson noted is not something they desire.

“There seems to be a lack of trust with the Clinton Watershed Council, but they are the acting player in this … They need to be a part of this process and if you don’t trust them then I don’t really know how to come to a logical conclusion,” Edwards said. “You have to work together.”

A motion was made by Bailey to proceed with an investigation of options to get water in the millrace. All members of the board, aside from Township Supervisor Joan Fogler, voted in favor of the motion.

“I think we should go forward with some sort of investigation to better understand what the technical issues really are and determine what the next step should be,” Bailey said.

Property acquisition by the township

Board members voted unanimously to acquire the 16-acre property of land located at the northeast corner of Stoney Creek and Lake George roads. The property that is currently owned by Oakland Explorations is meant to pay off the debt that the company, which is now bankrupt, owes the township. According to township attorney Steve Joppich, the company is about $239,000 in debt to the township and the land was assessed to be approximately equal in value.

Fogler noted that there is no intended use yet for the property. Once officially acquired by the township they can find a purpose for the land or they can choose to sell it.

Other highlights from the meeting included:

• A couple members of the public commented on the proposed budget for the fiscal year 2012-13, which is currently scheduled to be adopted at the meeting on March 13. Members of the Historic District Commission pleaded with the board to consider allotting more money to their budget so that they can stir interest with educational programs.
• Final plat approval for the final phase of the Kingsridge subdivision was granted by the board.
• The Memorial Day parade request was granted as well.