MULLETT TOWNSHIP BOARD OF TRUSTEES PROPOSED MINUTES, AUGUST 2, 2011

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Of Available Versions of Mullett Township Minutes
We have been advised by a follower of our blog that the 
MULLETT TOWNSHIP BOARD OF TRUSTEES

PROPOSED MINUTES, AUGUST 2, 2011
available on-line at the Official Mullett Township Government Website is materially different from the printed Minutes available at the Topinabee Public Library. 

This paragraph is deleted from the on-line version:

Karyn Warsow, of the Marrickar Group. LLC gave a presentation regarding the Tigar Grant. A motion was made by Dennis Dombroski to let Karyn go ahead with a preliminary grant application which will be reviewed by the board before the deadline which is October 31, 2011 seconded by John Brown, motion passed.

We have patiently waited for a correction of the on-line content, but as of August 19, 2011,  Ms Warsow's paragraph remains unpublished.

Editorial comments on the meetings follows in this post.

The minutes without comment are archived on Meetings page.

The Mullett Township Board of Trustees met at the Mullett Township Hall in Topinabee, Michigan at 8:00pm.  All Board Members were present:  Willard E. Morgan, Rachel Osborn,

Karen Morgan, Dennis Dombroski and John Brown.

The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Dennis Dombroski.

Minutes of the July 5, 2011 meeting were read and approved with a motion by John Brown and seconded by Dennis Dombroski, motion carried.

PUBLIC COMMENT;  Dennis Lennox, Bob English, David Ogg, Tony Dauer, Carl Muscott, Patty King,  Paul Chapoton copy of website report attached.        

There was a discussion with Jim Haslock about doing some splits on his property on Davis Street in Topinabee.  He would like to build several pole buildings on same.  The information will be sent to Township Counsel for review,  John Brown made a motion to deny his application to the board for the necessary split, seconded by Dennis Dombroski, motion carried.

There will be a TDA Meeting on September 14, 2011 which Dennis Dombroski will attend.

Dennis Dombroski offered a motion to increase line item 101-276001.2 $3,000.00 to hire a firm to research and reclaim lots in the Burt-Mullett Cemetery.  Burt Township will share the expense for same.  Seconded by John Brown, motion carried.

Once the Beach Grant is scored, the board will have a chance to go over and give the final approval sometime in September 2011.

Karen Morgan is looking into a possible lease with the owner of the lot across from the boat launch.  John Brown offered a motion to offer $500.00/year for leasing the lot with Mr. MacArthur drawing up a lease should the owner accept.  Seconded by Dennis Dombroski.

Motion passed.

Bill Morgan made a motion to table the painting of the townhall and the firehall, seconded by Dennis Dombroski,  motion carried.

John Brown motioned to approve the plowing of the Boy Scout public access by the Cheboygan County Road Commission for a fee of $557.12, seconded by Dennis Dombroski. motion carried.  (this access is used the fire department to use the dry hydrant)

Dennis Dombroski motioned to table the quote from Wade Trim to go ahead with the engineering and etc for Block 5, seconded by John Brown, motion carried.

John Brown motioned to table the quote from Wade Trim to go ahead with the engineering and etc. for the enhancement project for Topinabee.  Seconded by Dennis Dombroski,

motion carried.

Motion Dennis Dombroski to purchase a bike rack for the townhall, seconded by John Brown. motion carried.

Bill Morgan talked about the possibility of enacting a Blight Ordinance for Mullett Township.

Mr. MacArthur will provide sample ordinances for same.

Bill Morgan will be contacting several Engineering firms about the parking lot at the Boy Scout Park and report back next month.

Bill Morgan will be attending the MAPS meeting at the Hack-Ma-Tack on Saturday, August 5 to represent Mullett Township.

The Planning Commission Meeting - August 3, 2011 - Public Hearing for the Topinabee Village re-zoning.

Rachel Osborn made a motion to purchase a laminator for the library at a cost not to exceed $1,600.00, seconded by Karen Morgan, motion carried.  (there will be grants to pay for this purchase)

John Brown made a motion to pay the bills, seconded by Dennis Dombroski, motion passed.

Meeting adjourned at 10:45pm

Respectfully submitted

Rachel Osborn

Mullett Township Clerk

www.mulletttownship@yahoo.com

Public Comments From The Mullett Township Board Meeting -August 2011

The August 2, 2011 Mullett Township Board Meeting was well attended and off to a roaring start when Supervisor Morgan opened the floor to public comment with a limit of three minutes per speaker if you do not please the Board. 

As most public comment at Mullett Township Board Meetings never makes it into the public record, this blog will publish public comments, with our after the fact comments. You will not likely see these individuals recognized in the “Official Board of Trustees Minutes”. Quotes are not verbatim, but we will strive for accuracy in the literal meaning. Corrections are appreciated and welcome. 

 

Dennis Lennox, now a private citizen, politely slammed the “OFFICIAL MULLETT TOWNSHIP GOVERNMENT” “website” developed by volunteers at a cost to taxpayers of $1,000. Mr Lennox was on form and is apparently a web-developer.  He apologized to Mr Chapoton, who was in attendance, but stated the “website” looked amateur and is not a website but a blog hosted by Google. He said a professional website could have been sourced for a similar amount and stated the development should have been, or maybe should still be, put out to bid to any of the many local web developers who do this for a living. He stated a professionally developed and hosted website would also assure data retention and therefore be FOIA compliant. As their “OFFICIAL MULLETT TOWNSHIP GOVERNMENT” blog and this blog are hosted by Google, a word or a whole               can disappear at the push of a               , and you can never prove it was here. Incidentally, Mr Lennox and I are not on speaking terms. People can disagree on many things and yet still recognize a pile of poop when they see it. 

Bob English, Topinabee’s Fire Chief stated the Mullett Lake access at South St, directly East of the Topinabee Hardware, where Topinabee Fire Department fills trucks is getting too narrow. This is a road end that unfortunately legally looses about half its width near the lake. Someone will have to determine if the problem is the fence on the north creeping south or the hedge on the south growing north. 

Tony Dauer asked why, with Topinabee’s history of famous artesian wells, the artesian well at the park had been abandoned while an artesian well at Alanson always has vehicles stopped with people enjoying the excellent drinking water. Good question Tony. The answer is the Alanson well, unlike the Topinabee artesian well, is on private property and the family who has owned it for years were excellent caretakers of the resource.  I spoke many times with the elderly lady, now passed, who grew up there and told me of spending her own money to install piping to meet DEQ requirements, repairing damage from abuse by the public, and meeting DEQ’s water quality standards with frequent tests.  All stuff that Mullett Township is incapable of doing.  

David Ogg provided a progress report on the Topinabee Development Association’s annual application for a Grant from the DNR for improvements to the Topinabee Beach Park. 

Jim Haslock lobbied the Board to add 3 more 40’ x 40’ pole barns to his commercial pole barn subdivision located on E Grand just south of Number Rd. He wanted to split 2 previously platted lots into 3 smaller lots. He presently has 5 pole barns on the site, 3 that are 40’ x 40’ and 2 that are 40’ x 50’ with almost 10,000 square feet under roof. I believe this is already Topinabee’s and maybe Mullett Township’s largest commercial development and it’s all in a residential zoning. Mr Haslock built the first 5 barns after deceiving both neighbors and the Cheboygan County Planning and Zoning Department. 

The story I heard years ago was the barns were to be sold individually with some vacant land to build a home.  Instead, the barns have been marketed as “commercial” properly and/or leased for storage. 

It has now become an eyesore, typically with 3 feet tall weeds left uncut for much of the summer and sitting directly across E Grand from two of the few newer homes in Topinabee.  More seriously, it also adds to the local storm water run-off problem as this property, with almost 10,000 square feet under roof and no onsite storm-water retention. Storm water run-off drains onto E Grand, literally washing out over 600 feet of the road and flooding other properties with every big rain. 

Mr Lennox and Mr Dauer, as well as myself, vehemently opposed any further commercial development of this site. Fortunately, Mr Tim MacArthur, legal counsel to the Board, in attendance for his fifth straight Board Meeting, advised them they could not legally split a platted subdivision lot unless Mullett Township had an ordinance addressing splits. Sometimes it is a good thing that Mullett Township has never “legally” adopted an ordinance and can’t find the few they have passed. 

I have previously stated that I am not physic, but I will wager a small sum that Rachel Osborn puts this public comment in the record.

Mr Paul Chapoton, who with his wife Debbie volunteered to develop the earlier mentioned “OFFICIAL MULLETT TOWNSHIP GOVERNMENT” website, read a list of charitable contributions the two made with the $1,000 received for their volunteer work. 

Friends of the Topinabee Library  $400.

Topinabee Development Association (TDA) $150.

Mullett Lake Area Preservation Society (MAPS) $125.

Topinabee Firefighters $100

Eagle Scout Project $100

Veterans Pier Project $75

Retained expenses $50

All of the above amounts were provided in Ms Rachel Osborn’s August 2, 2011 Meeting Agenda with her statement “This list will go into the record”. It wasn’t much of a wager, was it?

Mr Chapoton stated he had posted the Library Policy and added some more pictures. I certainly know about the pictures.He stated the website was very popular with it's "counter" showing almost 2000 views. Perhaps he should monetize it. Mullett Township and Google can make a few cents. Whenever I look to see if any relevant, government related content has been added, or if the wallpaper has changed color, I always try to accommodate Mr Chapoton's ego by clicking refresh two or three dozen times.It takes only a moment of your time to make a person feel good about themselves.

Mr Chapoton also vigorously defended his work on the “OFFICIAL MULLETT TOWNSHIP GOVERNMENT” website as “not amateur”. Doesn’t every proud parent think their child is pretty or smart? Yes Mr Chapoton, you certainly do have a very pretty “website”, it's just not very smart. As you stated, the Board, and specifically Township Clerk Rachel Osborn has to now do something with it that will allow you to exit this fiasco.

TOPINABEE PUBLIC LIBRARY BOARD

PROPOSED MINUTES, AUGUST 2, 2011

The Topinabee Public Library Board met at the Mullett Township Hall at 7:30pm on August 2, 2011.  All Board Members were present:  Willard E. Morgan, Rachel Osborn, Karen Morgan, Dennis Dombroski, John Brown and Warren Meyer.

Bill Morgan opened the meeting and a discussion was entered into about a book sale within the library which the librarians would hold for several days.  They would need to add some hours for Connie to run this sale.  A motion by Dennis Dombroski to approve the extra hours needed and seconded by Bill Morgan,  motion carried.

Patty King said she would be contributing $500.00 from the TAC funds for flowers next year if we could hold the money in the savings account.  Yes, we can hold the dedicated funds until needed and she will remind us in the Spring when the flowers are planted.

The bid from Oxley cannot be continued at present and with a motion by Warren Meyer to start the bidding process and Architect Forum advertise again for bids, seconded by Bill Morgan, motion carried.

Patty King reported on the circulation of the library which has been quite high.  She is keeping a log of people visiting and of people actually using the library and the computers on site.  The Summer Reading Program has been very successful and Friends of the Library are supporting same.

There was a discussion of the automation system which will be needed in the library in the future.  It was decided that Roger Mendel should help us find a suitable vendor for the automation purchase since he has a lot of experience with library systems and MelCat.

The board is sending a motion to buy a laminator up to the regular township board for approval by Dennis Dombroski, seconded by John Brown, motion passed.

Meeting adjourned at 8:00pm

Respectfully Submitted

Rachel Osborn

Mullett Township Clerk

Mullett Township Library Board Does What?

This blog advertised this meeting as a summer re-run and it was, but with a cliff-hanger ending thrown in to keep us coming back. The Mullett Township Board sat as the unelected Mullett Township Library Board on August 2, 2011 at 7:30 PM. Township Clerk Rachel Osborn’s posted agenda consisted of another attempt to sway the other four Board members to agree with her choice for a vendor for a library automation software system. 

Public comments were supposedly limited to 2 minutes, so you have to talk really fast, but the floor was never formally opened to public comments. Her next meeting may require the public to summit written comments only. I know, I shouldn’t give her any ideas. Quick now, in ten words or less, my problem is…

Township Clerk Rachel Osborn did unfortunately coerce the Topinabee Library staff to publicly denigrate the vendor chosen by majority vote in January 2011 with hearsay comments. These remarks and additional comments from Ms Osborn might be seen as slanderous to a business’s reputation and I think the vendor is fortunate to not have to deal with the Mullett Township Clerk. Ms Osborn should not ask Mullett Township employees to do her dirty work. 

In the end, the Board did make the right decision by passing a motion directing her to again research and find at least two qualified vendors of suitable automation software for the Topinabee Library. I’m on the edge of my chair waiting to see how this all ends. 

Automate or back to the old card catalog? Wait, the Topinabee Library has never had a card catalog. Started and always operated as someone’s pet project, adopted by the Mullett Township Board in some primordial haze, it has never been legally organized as a Free Public Library under Michigan Laws and now is illegally sucking $58,000 a year out of the Township’s General Revenue Fund. I’m a supporter of libraries, but libraries under Michigan laws must operate with a millage approved by the electorate and oversight by an elected Library Board. More on this later.  

The Library Board again passed a motion to have Architects Forum advertise for half a dozen electrical outlets to be installed in the library and some service outlets at the Park Pavilion. This bid process was originally budgeted at $1,400, but may eventually exceed the actual project cost. It is just another case of over-engineering a simple job.

The two hard-working Librarians, Patty King and Connie Ogg presented the most recent Library usage stats to the Board. It was good and better and visitors have left nice comments about the great location on Mullett Lake. This blog tips our cap in salute to them for all of their hard work. Patty King will be ordering a big laminator, to laminate book dust jackets, at a cost not to exceed $1600. 

The Mullett Township Library Board adjourned shortly after 8 PM, and after only lifting their butts from their chairs for the Pledge of Allegiance, sat down again as the Mullett Township Board of Trustees.