Curtis Chamber of Commerce Building Will Be Relocated
By Paul Gingras

The Curtis Chamber of Commerce building will be moved by October 31 to a parcel of property at the corner of H-33 and Sandtown Road, reported township assessor Richard Oliver at the Tuesday, October 9, meeting of the Portage Township Board of Trustees.

The chamber building is located in the center of Curtis, on the same parcel as St. Timothy's Catholic Church. A new church is to be built where the chamber building sits.

The chamber has rented the building for years, explained Township Clerk Marcia McDonald, and St. Timothy's has given the chamber until the end of October to move.

The H-33/Sandtown Road lot is zoned for public buildings, and the Chamber of Commerce is a commercial enterprise, but the zoning board of appeals approved the relocation of the building, owing to the hardship involved in finding a suitable parcel of land in time, Mr. Oliver said.

"It was felt that it would not be detrimental to the area, and it would be a good location," Mr. Oliver said. "It would serve the community well for [the chamber] to have a permanent location at that visible spot. A lot of people come in at that intersection."

The chamber's new parcel was donated by Fred Gowen.

Preparations are underway for printing the township's newly completed master plan. Mr. Oliver agreed to contact Eastern Upper Peninsula Regional Planning Commission and inquire about the cost of printing copies. The document is 50 pages long. In addition to interested members of the public, the planning commission, the board of review, and the local library will need copies, said planning commission member Walker Wyatt.

The board is also considering printing copies via compact disc as it receives requests for the document.

Unlike the zoning ordinance, the master plan has not generated a great deal of public demand for copies, Mr. Wyatt said.

In other business, the board passed a resolution to write a letter of support for Regional Planning, which may lose its funding from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC). The township received notice from Regional Planing about the proposed cut and requested the township board to write to its representatives in Lansing and Washington, and request continuation of MEDC funding, Mr. Oliver said.

MEDC funding is not a major share of Regional Planning's finances, but it is a portion, Mr. Oliver said.

"They were a major savings to us in re-doing the master plan," he added. "Right now, in one of the other townships I am involved in, they just put out a request for bids for assistance with their master plan. The two they got back came in at $30,000 and $35,000."

With assistance from Regional Planning, Portage Township was able to revise its master plan for less than $3,000, Mr. Oliver said, and Regional Planning agreed to help the township produce an updated zoning ordinance. Mr. Oliver will provide the board with an estimate of how much money the planning commission will need to revise the zoning ordinance.

The funding would have to come from the general fund. No money was earmarked for the zoning ordinance when the township produced this year's budget, Mrs. McDonald noted.

At residents' request, the Portage Township Board of Trustees changed the name of Dale Lane to Paul Lane.