This is a rudely formatted, partial transcription of the Town Hall. Two or three editorial comments excepted, the text below is verbatim, said by someone. Click the questions; click the lines of discussion. Clicking anything will take you to the point in the Town Hall video where that sentence was uttered.
A portable copy: 1/14/2020 Town Hall LiveTimeline
Informal Start
What can be done about the amount of dog feces in downtown Whitmore Lake?
Next Question: how smoothly is the application process for marijuana businesses going?
Simple yes or no: Are you ok with wastewater overflowing into our waterways?
[... yeah, I know. What storm sewers? There are none.]
?Audience: So, ironically, I was wanting to ask this question before I knew about the sewer overflowing today, simply because this has been a problem that the Township has been looking at for a very long time. So my follow up question is, are you willing now that there has been a catastrophe, are you willing to make forward momentum with getting a retention basin built?
What would the township like to see in terms of a marijuana retail store?
Why doesn't the Township put Park question on the ballot so all are aware of opportunity, if you're putting out a survey for the park next to the post office?
Why are you giving away the park next to the post office for undermarket value?
If you're putting out a survey about benches, it's all over town - what kind of benches are we going to put on the sidewalk to nowhere, then why can't you put out a survey for the park itself?
- [Editor: Otto weighs in with false narrative about county disinterest in funding a park. The County was asked only about funding the walking path, reduced at this point to little more than a sidewalk around 90 houses. Lying by omission is a cheap and standard political hack. It makes Liars feel clever. If you accept lies, you get Liars.]
- Margaret Riddell: That park was dedicated as a park right after it was purchased.
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- Riddell: and it was said in some of the Board's releases that more than half would be park, so
- Riddell: the only parts that a problem is that everyone else on on the board is wanting to sell it off, not have a park...
- Riddell: ... have a five acre park for 8000 people. That's where it's at. You're talking about seeing what you can do - but only what you can do for five acres. You're not asking the people what they want.
- Wayne Dockett offers to fund a ballot initiative
- Chick: It is so early in the planning of this whole piece of property that it was only recently that we received a legal description of the area that decided we wanted to see as a park
- Chick: we couldn't even apply for anything until we have that information
- Chick: we have to have a plan for the park as well if we're gonna apply for a grant
- Chick: that hasn't happened. and to answer the question about the cost of the property
- Chick: we received an offer but we have not taken that offer.
- Chick: there is no firm price yet.
- Chick: none of this is firm. it's all initial negotiations and discussions. there's no final decision on anything yet.
- Zelenock:
- Zelenock: We did a couple surveys that was before this administration. it went in the tax bills before I became treasurer
- Zelenock: and 390 people responded. So we send aout about 5,300 tax bills, and 64% said they wanted a park only.
- Zelenock: then the same survey was conducted at the trunk or treat, again before this board came into office
- Zelenock: and there was like 93 responses and 61% said they wanted a park only
- Zelenock: then we had some visioning sessions, where about 50 people attended
- Zelenock: and the "Synthesis Plan" came about
- Zelenock: My other concern is when the subcommittee scored it, and that was just recently, it came out to be a D+, as far as meeting that plan
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- [editorial: Check out the faces, Chick and Otto's filled with anger and hate, Chockley's shame, a bent dynamic.]
- Beliger: I'm very pleased with the one developer. I think he's sensitive to the, um, i wanna say to the feeling of the community
- Beliger: to making sure the park can be the best it can be, and even the units he wishes to make to be in accordance with the design and the community
- Beliger: to be. Personable; I wanna say personable, the gentleman seems to be
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- Beliger: There has been no agreement...
- Chockley: I just wanna mention that putting the park on the ballot would be an advisory vote and those are not legal
- Dignan: that's where my question came from. If you're
- Dignan: if you're gonna put something on the ballot like that, especially since the township owns it at this point
- Dignan: would you be willing to put it on there with a funding mechanism
- Dignan: meaning would you be willing to put it on the ballot with a design or phased designs, with a levy
- Dignan: to not only fund, maybe partially fund the construction of part of it, but also the ongoing maintenance, operations, insurance, and so on and so forth
- Dignan: as you put assets on that property you're going to have to maintain those assets on a very regular basis
- Dignan: As you develop that park it has to be ADA compatable. It has to be by law.
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- Dignan: or whether they want it to be just a general open space as it's been used for decades, even when it was owned by the flying dutchman
- Dignan: for event parking, things of that sort
- Dignan: So if you're gonna put it on the ballot that would be I believe that would be the way to present it
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- Beliger: there's something about millages that I'm troubled with
- Otto
- Otto: We have property behind the Township Building.
- Otto: We don't have all of it. We have some of it. We get that property usually because people do not pay their taxes.
- Otto: and it ends up to be at the Township's door to either pay the taxes of purchase the property
- Otto: So there is probably about 33 acres back there
- Otto: Of it there's probably about how many lots? how many do we own back there, about twenty?
- Otto: Cause we've acquired quite a bit.
- Otto: Granted,
- Otto: Granted,it is wetlands back there.
- Otto: Granted,it is wetlands back there. There is no lake back there.
- Otto: But it is property that connects the 7 Mile Road. It would connect the 7 Mile Road.
- Otto: So we learned before that if we ever had a road that went from the development thru 7 Mile right over here it would cost of millions and millions of dollars to do
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- Chick: I just wanna speak to the surveys. um the first two surveys that were taken. i mean, if I had
- Chick: If I had responded and I might have responded at that time, do you want to keep this all park, I would have absolutely said yes
- Chick: It's a beautiful piece of land
- Chick: No one was explained at that time when either of those surveys were taken what the cost to the Township was to maintain that park. ( guess what Janet, they still have not)
- Chick: annually, they weren't told that
- Chick: they were not told the benefit to the Township of actually selling part of it and keeping part of it park
- Chick: they weren't told that
- Chick: They weren't told the revenue that we'll get that will pay for the park, the property taxes that will come in to help maintenance
- Chick: the sewer hookups to help the sewer department
- Chick: and then the annual revenue after that
- Chick: that we will, that the township will recognize so that we can actually provide some more services and amenities
- Chick: and maybe do more for the roads or whatever
- Chick: it is for the downtown area
- Chick: There's a lot that could be done. People weren't told that.
- Chick: So if you don't have, excuse me, if you don't inform the people, the respondents, these are your choices
- Chick: which one do you want? then they're gonna respond with what they like at that moment
- Chick: that's all I have to say about that
- Chick: i appreciate the fact that people answered the survey; i would have answered it the same way
- Chick: but I think that in order to have really good results
- Chick: that mean something you can actually make a decision from
- Chick: you need to educate the public first and let them analyze the information and see which one makes better sense for the township
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- Riddell: Nobody ever asked that question, did they?
- Riddell: you just all assumed, the question, what's it gonna cost and are you willing to pay it
- Riddell: nobody's ever found out. you don't know what it's gonna cost. you don't know if you can get grants.
- Riddell: you don't know how much Kiwanis is willing to put out to help it
- Riddell: you don't know a lot of things but you're going ahead, like ok fine. it'costs too much money
- Riddell: the townpeople won't wanna vote for a millage
- Riddell: believe me; I won't use the park but I will pay a millage to have it, because I think it's worth it to the people
- Riddell: You're getting ready to scrap a beautiful piece of property
- Riddell: and put houses on it
- Riddell: And Janet I understand when you're talking about the surveys but it seems to me
- Riddell: it was much more recent than that than you spending a dollar
- Riddell: you know the little one where everybody was spending a dollar - how would you spend it
- Riddell: And Gee, it seemed to me that parks and open land was right up there at the top
- Riddell: and way down at the bottom was residential development
- Riddell: I just don't understand
- Riddell: the only reason I can figure out you guys don't want to ask the people
- Riddell: if they're willing to do this
- Riddell: is because you're afraid of what the answer is gonna be
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- Otto - so [put it on the ballot, suckers. it will be too late]
- Otto - If you look at the Parks and Rec plan, it did identify that if the North Village was to be a full park,
- Otto - They identified it as costing 3.5 Million dollars.
- [A Bald faced Lie from Otto - That figure includes the original multi million dollar listing price of the Van Curler property.]
- Otto - so when you go after grants, it's not that they just hand you this money; you have to have matching funds.
- ?Audience: Who did this study that said it would cost $3.5 million?
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- I believe that this building is going to be paid off in two more years
- Dockett: the Public Safety Building will be paid off in 2022
- So, if some concerned citizens
- What do we need a Board for?
- Zelenock: I do have one thing. So it's in the Parks and Rec, but as a Board can we address it or either give it to Parks and Rec to hire a firm
- Zelenock: to see what it's going to cost?
- Zelenock: to see what it's gonna cost to put in a beach, if even we can put in a beach
- Zelenock: see what it's gonna cost to put in a dock
- Zelenock: see what it's gonna cost to put in a pavilion
- Zelenock: so at least we have the cost
- Chockley - we need that in order to apply for grants... I...
- Zelenock: Can we add that to our next Board Agenda?
- Zelenock: Can I get an answer?
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- Chick - To Mr Dockett's comment about the $250,000
- Zelenoc - we'll get about $83,000
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Manley - If I can just have a quick follow up on that. The park is in just the beginning stages. Nothing's confirmed.
- Please keep sending us your ideas. We're open. And I think I agree with Lenore. We need to have some kind of study., so we know how much this would cost us.
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Ciccella: When I left as Supervisor
When zoning is approved for marijuana businesses, will you continue to jam up the process?
Manley - Mr Gordon gets the last question
Gordon - I was hoping that this type of question and answer period would not become a one off and would actually become a tradition of the Board
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- Gordon: I was hoping that instead of having the Board simply reiterate their positions on various issues
- Gordon: I was hoping this would lead to some accountability
- Gordon: and my biggest question which obviously there's no time to answer at this point since the Board meeting starts in sixty seconds, is
Gordon: How can you pretend to be public servants when you don't listen to the public?
- Gordon: Marlene, you said that a scientific survey's the only one that really counts
- Gordon: We've only ever had one of those in the history of this Township in 1996
- Gordon: but it identified preservation as the number one priority of the residents
- Gordon: Every single non-scientific survey since then has supported that
- Gordon: yet we spend all our time and money on growth and development
- Gordon: and absolutely nothing on preservation
- Gordon: and look at the budget for 2019
- Gordon: The manager's office who's here to help push development
- Gordon: is a $171,000 a year
- Gordon: Planning and Zoning budget is $151,000 a year
- Gordon: The Community Center gets $128,000 a year
- Gordon: People's Express gets $10,000
- Gordon: Parks & Rec gets $5,000
- Gordon: and the Land Preservation Committee gets nothing
- Gordon: So it's outrageous to me that you sit here saying you're in favor of doing what the public wants
- Gordon: but you haven't done what Mr. Dignan recommended
- Gordon: If the public says they want a park only, then you do a survey
- Gordon: and say what Miss Chick brought up, Did you know it's gonna cost this much?
- Gordon: But you don't know what it's gonna cost because you haven't even run the numbers yet.
- Gordon: You don't even know if you can put a beach there.
- Gordon: You don't know what the maintenence is gonna be, or the insurance, or the liability.
- Gordon: But you're ready to sell off 80% of the park without having done that.
- Gordon: And you can't ask the voters whether they're gonna help pay for it with a millage if you've already sold off the property.
- Zelenock
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