VERNON TOWNSHIP NEWS
DATES TO REMEMBER
DECEMBER 28, 2009 and MARCH 1st – Treasurer will collect taxes at my home from 9am to 5pm.
FEBRUARY 13 – Treasurer will collect taxes at the township hall from 9am to noon.
REGULAR MEETINGS – 1st Monday of every month at 6:30pm except when Monday falls on a holiday and then it will be held on the following day.
DOG LICENSES
I will be selling 1, 2, & 3 year licenses. The rabies vaccination must be valid throughout the duration of the year to which they are purchasing the license for. Late license fees start on March 1st, payable to Isabella County Treasurer. They usually are double.
HONOR ROLL OF VETERANS
If you were born and raised in Vernon Twp. And served in the military, submit that name to a board member. It will be added to our Honor Roll at the hall.
GARBAGE PICK UP
Remember our garbage pick up is every Friday and recycling is every other Friday. If a holiday falls on week day, then our pick up day will be Saturday.
VOTING – NEW
You must now present a picture I.D. for identification when you vote. This is a new law. Things you can use, driver’s license, U.S. passport, Military card, student card, etc. This went into effect in 2007.
TOWNSHIP BOARD
WEB SITE : vernontownship.org
Supervisor – Jeff Bean 433-2028 email address jeff@jeffbean.net Clerk – Elvis Denton 386-2711 Treasurer – Vicky Louch 386-3338 Trustees – Mike Turner 386-3704 or Jack McConnell 386-3521 .
UPDATE ON ROADS
Vernon Road: As of this writing, the Isabella County Road Commission (ICRC) has completed the rebuilding of the 2 mile section of Vernon Road, from Mission to Lincoln Roads. This project was completed with a combination of Stimulus Funding, contributions from both Vernon and Isabella townships and funding from ICRC. The townships and the ICRC each contributed $50,000 to the $522,000 project. The work consisted of digging out the muck area east of Crawford Road, refilling with sand and fabric matting which was pinned on each side of the dip, rebuilding the entire road bed with reclaimed pavement and gravel, laying of the new pavement, tubes, guard rails, graveling of the berms and seeding. The contractor did a nice job and we hope that it will last for many decades to come. With proper maintenance, it should. With the completion of these 2 miles, we will have completed 3 of the 6 miles that Vernon Road touches our township. As this road is the common township line between Isabella and Vernon Townships, we benefit by our ability to share cost with our neighbor to the south. Vernon Road has also been classified as a Federal Aid Eligible Road, having been deemed a Primary Roadway and as such, has an increased chance of being eligible for grant funding in the future.
Doherty Road
The Township and in particular, the people who travel Doherty Road, were the recent benefactors of a gift of gravel from Mark Carrier (Doherty Road resident) and Pat McGuirk Excavating. Mark and Pat are shareholders in Pat McGuirk Excavating and had the opportunity to reclaim gravel from one of their construction projects. The gravel tested acceptable for reuse and with the agreement of the ICRC and the 2009 gravel supplier Hubscher and Son (who waived contractual requirements), a total of 18 gravel train loads (635 cubic yards) were delivered and spread from Mission to Crawford Road.. The Township paid delivery charges of $2,160. and the ICRC graded the material at an estimated cost of $2000. It is a fabulous donation and on behalf of the Township Board and the residents of the township, I would like to thank Mark and Pat for their generous donation. Township estimates to gravel a mile of roadway generally exceed $15,000. Thanks also to the ICRC and Paul Hubscher for their part.
COFFEE & DONUTS ON US
The Board has been trying to come up with inexpensive ways to increase citizen participation and our interaction with all of you. We are here to serve you and want to do what we can to help everyone understand the duties of the Township, the issues that all of us face together and to be sure that we are serving you as we should. To that end, we are going to have a "Meet Your Township Board" day on February 13th, 2010, from 9:00 AM to NOON, at the Hall. We will be doing it in conjunction with the Treasurer's tax collection day being held at the same time. Kind of a brave thing to do when your citizens are paying their taxes isn't it? Please drop by and spend some time with us. We will have the coffee on and the donuts out.
CEMETERY
A lot has been happening at the Township Cemetery and much of it can be credited to Loren and Julie Cole and their family. Over the summer, they have successfully plotted all the lots, including the new expansion area and are bringing new organization to the process. Row markers will be installed and they are diligently working to verify the records. Roger Dykstra is building a stone pillar in the northwest corner of the expansion area that will match the other frontage pillars and we are working towards installing permanent boundary markers and posting to protect burial plots that are being innocently driven on. We will also be working on clearing a portion of the expansion area of trees and brush. The Township has a very nice asset in its Cemetery and the sextant is doing a great job maintaining it.
REQUEST FOR HISTORICAL INFORMATION
While we always want to focus on the future, it is helpful and humbling to look to the past from time to time. The Township has boxes of old records that we will be sorting through and determining what needs to be done with them. The Board is asking if you would share anything you may have of historical significance to the Township. Maybe it is an old letter or picture. If you do, we would be happy to reproduce it for our records. We would love to hang appropriate items on the walls of the Hall for sharing. It kind of makes you wonder what there will be available to future generations to look back at about these times, with so many things being electronic media nowadays. Just contact a Board member and we would be happy to pick up the item, reproduce it and return it.