Moran Township Considers Closing Brevort Voting Precinct; Sets Public Meeting for Feb. 19
By Paul Gingras

A voting precinct may be closed in the village of Brevort owing to the difficulty of finding election inspectors and rising election costs, the Moran Township Board of Trustees reported at its meeting Wednesday, February 6. If the precinct is closed, Brevort residents will have to travel more than 20 miles to Moran Township Hall to vote, or vote by absentee ballot.

The public will have a chance to discuss the idea at a special township meeting Tuesday, February 19, at 6 p.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church in Brevort.

It has become increasingly difficult to find election inspectors from Brevort, and inspectors closer to St. Ignace do not want to travel to the village, said Township Clerk Kris Vallier, noting that they have to be ready to work at 6:30 a.m. on election days.

"If we can get more election inspectors, we could keep [the precinct] open," she told The St. Ignace News.

There are 158 voters in the Brevort and Ozark areas.

The municipality has maintained voting precincts in Brevort and at Moran Township Hall on US-2 for decades. Most voting now takes place at the US-2 location.

The Brevort Community building, formerly used as a polling station, is for sale and is not handicapped accessible. Following the November 2006 decision to sell it, the township began holding its second precinct elections in the basement of Trinity Lutheran Church.

Traveling challenges for voters in these areas are easy to solve, Mrs. Vallier said.

Residents at the Brevort and the Ozark areas live 20 miles or more from their voting precincts, making them eligible for absentee ballots, she said. The ballots are available three weeks prior to an election.

Another rationale for closing the precinct is the cost of programming cards for new, state-required, electronic voting machines. Running an election in two precincts costs the township about $1,000, Mrs. Vallier said. Running the election in one precinct will save the township about $500, said Township Supervisor Jim Durm.

The township board voted not to pay a $437.50 invoice from the law firm Young, Graham, Elsenheimer and Wendling for work allegedly done by former township attorney Harry Golski. The board will send a letter to Mr. Golski's office explaining why they chose not to pay the invoice.

Over the past 1.5 years, board members have noted several times that Mr. Golski has not responded to requests for information. Eventually, the board hired a new attorney.

Mr. Golski was to handle paperwork regarding repayment demands by Enbridge Energy and Edison Sault Electric Company. According to his office, Mr. Golski received information from the companies' attorneys and reviewed it in October 2007, but nothing was received by the township board, said Trustee Mark Spencer.

"We have no proof that he did anything," he told The St. Ignace News.

Owing to the lack of correspondence, the township did not have sufficient time needed to assemble information to fight an appeal by Enbridge Energy, which alleges that it was overtaxed on its personal property in the township from 2003 through 2007, Mr. Spencer said.

In related news, the board voted to pay its portion of a personal-property tax repayment demand by Enbridge Energy. It amounts to $17,716.91. The total is broken down as follows: $8,325.02 will be drawn from the general fund, $7,058.70 from the road fund, and $2,333.19 from the recreation fund.

The decision was made at the recommendation of township attorney Tom Evashevski.

Treasurer Sue Dionne noted that the repayment does not include interest or penalties.

The board discussed but did not take action on a $12,000 repayment demand from Edison Sault Electric Company, which also claims to have been overtaxed on its personal property in the township.

Paperwork from the company cites taxes collected from 1999 through 2005. The township needs more information before making a decision, Ms. Dionne said.

Rather than pay off a $360,000 loan, taken out at 4.7% interest from First National Bank of St. Ignace for an overestimated re-paving project on Pte. LaBarbe Road, the township will keep the money in a U.P. Credit Union savings account, at 4% interest for future road projects.

The original estimate by the Mackinac County Road Commission for Pte. LaBarbe was $688,250. The township's portion was expected to be $475,750, with the balance covered by state, federal, and county sources.

The invoice from the Road Commission was $267,051.06. The board voted to pay it.

The board chose to take out the loan to get the project done and to improve safety on the route by including a bike path, board members said.

Since the project cost much less than expected, the township could pay back the loan this spring, Ms. Dionne said, however, processing fees for the loan cost the township about $10,000 and took three months. Keeping the money in the account will allow the township to avoid another processing fee, members noted.

Road committee member D.J. Goudreau said the money was borrowed in good faith. Although the township will lose 0.7% in interest each year on its money, it will be cheaper than paying another $10,000 processing fee, making the choice to hold onto the money a good resolution to the issue, he said.

The north shoulder of Pte. LaBarbe is exceptionally wide, but the four-foot bicycle lane never materialized, Ms. Vallier said.

Board members cited changes in management at the Mackinac County Road Commission as the cause of the mistake.

Now that the road lines have been painted, the bike trail will not be a part of the project, Mr. Durm said, adding that guard rails that were supposed to be added were not, further decreasing the cost.

Karrie Abbitt, manager of the Road Commission, attributed the savings to cheaper asphalt. She was not aware that a bike path or guard rails were to be parts of the project, she said.

Bids came in cheaper than originally estimated, noting that the Road Commission got better-thanexpected prices for asphalt in the fall, she explained.

Trustee Mark Spencer is a road committee member and official liaison between the township board and the Road Commission. He said he did not understand why the final cost of the project was so low. Mr. Spencer said he planned to attend the Tuesday, February 12 Road Commission meeting, at which Pte. LaBarbe was to be discussed.

The fiscal year for the township is coming to a close. The 2008/2009 budget will be voted on by Saturday, March 1, Mrs. Vallier said.

The board voted on amendments to its current budget.

Owing to publishing costs for advertising zoning board of appeals hearings, the board voted to raise the budget for this expense from $300 to $1,000 a year.

Owing to several recent road projects in the township, Mr. Spencer has been attending more special Road Commission meetings. To compensate for this, Moran Township voted to raise its transportation budget for meetings from $500 to $1,000 a year. Mr. Spencer receives $45 to attend one road commission meeting a month. He receives $45 for special meetings. The township may not need to use $1,000 for him to attend Road Commission meetings next year, but if it does, the board will not need to adjust the budget, he said.

At the request of Mr. Spencer, the township's supervisor, clerk, and treasurer are investigating the possibility of increasing compensation for its two trustees. Moran Township trustees receive $85 per monthly meeting and are not salaried. Mr. Spencer cited this compensation as unusually low, after reviewing surveys by the Michigan Townships Association, which compares the compensation of elected officials in townships with similar populations and property values. Moran Township's population is 1,080. Its State Equalized Value (SEV) is $120,229,907. Its taxable value is $80,406,837.

Owing to a number of appeals by energy companies, this number could change slightly, said Mackinac County Equalization Director Jim Fenlon.

Going by SEV, trustees in townships comparable to Moran Township are usually paid salaries which range from $1,300 to $2,000, Mr. Spencer said, noting he usually receives less than $1,000 a year.

The board voted to pay the City of St. Ignace $1,704 for repairing a water-line break on Portage Street, just north of St. Ignace Area Schools. Residents in the area were without water for only a few hours, said Township Supervisor Jim Durm. The line was repaired Tuesday, January 15.