VBT residents ask board to stop all development until water issue solved

Rick Williams and Bob Manier of the 44000 block of Tyler Road, just east of Meijer, asked the Van Buren Township Board of Trustees to stop all development until the water issue is worked out in the township.
This was at the Feb. 4 meeting.
Williams of 44521 and 44429 Tyler Rd. said over the last 22 years the ground around his houses has been getting wetter and wetter.
“My house has a pond next to it after a rain,” he said.
He said he contacted the township and Director of Public Service Matthew Best said the problem is with the drain and is partially Williams’ fault.
“I can’t rent my other house and water is seven feet from my house,” Williams said.
Manier of 44401 Tyler Rd. said he has a water problem, too, and all he gets is the runaround from the road commission and drain commission.
He said there are 24 inches of water right next to his house and his crawl space is at ground level. Many pieces of equipment in his out building have been destroyed. He put in $3,000 worth of work last year.
“I can’t sell my house,” he said, referring to plans to move to Florida to be near his grandchildren.
He said the drain line needs to be reestablished.
Manier said the township came in its blue truck and sucked up the water and then the truck got stuck. After they got unstuck, he said they told him they’d be back, but they never came back.
He said the Meijer drainage pond is 938 yards from the county drain and it needs to empty there instead of on the surface.
He said he has five acres of land in back and he can’t go there because of the water.
“I’m the last one at the end of that drain,” he said.
Manier said he tried to backfill his land and after he dumped soil in back, the township said to stop or he’d be fined. He said they wouldn’t let him move the dirt and he had to level it where it was, which made conditions worse.
He said the one to blame for all of this is the VBT engineer who approved that drainage pond. Manier said they try to say it’s his fault.
Manier said the Speedway parking lot on the corner of Tyler and Belleville roads drains across Tyler Road and comes down the road to his property.
“It’s disgusting,” he said.
“We are concerned,” said VBT Treasurer Sharry Budd who was chairing the meeting in the absence of ailing Supervisor Kevin McNamara.
Treasurer Budd said she is asking Director Best to give a report to the board and, “We’ll see what we can do to help. We will try to help to figure it out.”
“Who is responsible?” asked Trustee Sherry Frazier.
Manier said the drainage pond is 938 yards away from the county drain and the pond should be draining into the drain to take the water away.
“That’s ridiculous,” said Trustee Frazier, adding she’s sure Director Best will be able to help.
“Just dig the trench all the way to the Cleary Drain,” Manier said, adding they would have to make sure the drain was cleared so the water could flow. He said there are trees in the drain now.
“We will get back to you,” Budd said.
In other business at the one-hour-and-ten-minute meeting on Feb. 4, the board:
• Approved on a roll-call vote the second (final) reading of the rezoning of a small strip at 8001 Haggerty Rd. from C-1 General Business to M-1 Light Industrial to make the whole acreage the same zoning. The township had asked for the rezoning;
• Approved purchase of a 2020 Ford F-350 for the Fire Department from Atchinson Ford for $47,736.60 to pull the now heavier dive team trailer and serve as an off-road brush fire truck. The current F-350 did not have the power to pull the heavier trailer. That truck will be kept in use for field fires and other uses;
• Approved the maintenance agreement with US Signal which outlines its responsibility to maintain the sanitary connect to the township’s sanitary manhole at 9275 Haggerty Rd. The original plan for the sanitary connect was not possible because of huge boulders, utilities, and fiber optics found in the pathway;
• Approved the supervisor’s appointment of Penny Young as an alternate to the Board of Review with a term to expire Dec. 31, 2020. She fills the unexpired term of the late Loretta Speaks. Young had served on the Board of Review in the past;
• Approved the supervisor’s appointment of Patricia Tumas to the Endowment Committee with a term to expire Jan. 15, 2022;
• Approved the supervisor’s appointment of Eileen Parent to the Water and Sewer Commission with a term to expire June 1, 2020. This also fills the unexpired term of the late Loretta Speaks;
• Heard Trustee Paul White say the $101.90 for the employee Christmas lunch on the prepaid voucher list out of the supervisor’s office is not proper since townships cannot legally spend public funds on employee lunches. Treasurer Budd said there were no township funds spent and that was reimbursed by donations from vendors. Trustee White asked if the township had a list of the donations and Budd said she believed they did. “We cannot comingle donations,” White insisted. “There is no proof of donations, no list,” he said. The Jan. 3 prepaid voucher list was approved on a 5-1 vote with White voting no and McNamara absent;
• Passed the prepaid voucher list of Jan. 30 on a vote of 5-1 with White voting no and McNamara absent. White had this list taken off the consent agenda so it could be discussed. There was $42.82 spent for party decorations. In response to a comment from White, Budd said, “We do not have a habit of spending wildly,”;
• Passed the voucher list of Feb. 4 on a 5-1 vote with White voting no and McNamara absent. White had a question on the $2,667 spent for the interior stonework on the fronts of three offices. It was approved last fall as part of the capital improvement project (CIP) spending of $750,000. White asked, “Was that necessary?” Clerk Leon Wright said most municipalities build new buildings when they want to upgrade, but VBT renovated. The last renovation of the building was in 1996 when the Downtown Development Authority did the work; and
• Heard Mary Ban of Sumpter Township explain her efforts to get Kroger to put a grocery store in the vacant Kmart on Rawsonville Road in VBT. She thanked Director Best for giving her demographics on the Kmart building, but she said she needed to get the date of the figures to know it is current. “Many people feel VBT is not meeting the needs of residents in the south end,” she said. She said people have expressed dissatisfaction with all the traffic on Belleville Road and said, “They don’t like to shop like that. Going across the bridge is something else.” The information she has shows there are 234,030 people within 10 miles of Kmart. She also said residents in this area need a laundromat and have to go to Milan or Canton for a laundromat. Trustee Reggie Miller said she called Schostak, which leases the property housing the old Kmart and they told her that people across the country have been asking Kroger to move into vacant Kmarts. “We have been proactive on the south side of town,” said Trustee Miller. She asked Ban to come up and talk to the board after the meeting if she had any other ideas.