Portage Twp. Pushes for Control of Elementary School Building
By Paul Gingras

Township ownership of Curtis Elementary school is expected to be made official soon, reported the Portage Township Board of Trustees Tuesday, March 11. The Tahquamenon Area Schools board, which has operated the school for decades, is agreeable to turning over the building to the municipality, Trustee Pat Abram reported. This came as welcome news to the Three Lakes Education Committee, a local group planning to use the building for a charter school.

The building will be closed as a pubic school in June.

Mr. Abram and trustee Mark Devereaux met with Tahquamenon Area Schools Superintendent Alice Walker Friday, February 29, and concluded that neither the township nor the school district have been able to locate documents proving that the building was ever transferred to Tahquamenon by the nowdefunct Portage Township School Board of Education.

Now, Tahquamenon will decide if it will charge the township for temporary buildings on the property or for recent renovations to the kitchen that cost about $7,000. Since the renovations and portable buildings were paid with taxes, Mrs. Walker admitted that it may be inappropriate to charge the township, Mr. Abram said.

Tahquamenon plans "to have a proposal for us before our next month's board meeting," he added.

Tom Clock of Three Lakes Education Committee encouraged the board to move quickly to obtain documentation from Tahquamenon confirming township ownership of Curtis Elementary. Doing so will help the committee get an authorizing agent to start the charter school.

"We are trying to get it reopened by fall. Every week we miss moving forward is going to hurt us in the end," he said. "April to September does not leave us much time, and it is going to be tough to get somebody to take a hard look at us as a charter school if we do not have proof that we own that building."

"The board will do the best we can to have a proposal [from Tahquamenon] in our hands by the next board meeting," Supervisor Donald Ferris said. If a proposal is submitted beforehand, the township will call a special board meeting to consider it, he added.

"There has been a lot of discussion on starting a preschool right away, maybe even this summer. [The goal] is to maintain that building as a school," Mr. Clock said.

Mr. Ferris sent a letter to the Tahquamenon school board, following the meeting between the trustees and Mrs. Walker, noting that all parties are positive about returning control of the building to the township and asking the board to do so with all reasonable haste.

In other matters discussed by the township board, an accident that injured a snowmobile rider on South Manistique Lake in early February has prompted the township discuss amending its fire ordinance so it can charge for fire department rescues.

With specialized equipment, firemen are able to manage more rescues, but the ordinance addresses billing only when the department extinguishes a fire, said Township Clerk Marcia McDonald.

The board discussed a proposal to build a new road between H-33 and Straw Road, with the long term goal of extending it to H-42. The route is to be called North Curtis Road. It is expected to be useful for the fire department because it could bypass two bridges in Curtis.

The township is in the last stages of acquiring land for the road, Mr. Ferris said.

Funding is available for new road construction. Once completed, it will be maintained by the county, Mr. Abram said.

Lacking a second corridor through Curtis, an accident blocking Main Street would require rescue workers to take a long, timeconsuming route to reach the other side of the village, said Mr. Devereaux.

Dumpsters will be available for spring clean up Saturday, June 7, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., the board announced. Mrs. McDonald will advertise for someone to pick up scrap metal.