At its July 26 meeting, the Sumpter Township Board of Trustees approved the site plan for a new repair facility at the rear of Fox Auto, 8111 Rawsonville Road.
The planning commission had unanimously recommended approval of the project at its July 14 meeting.
Joe Fox and his son Bill said they would like to build a fifth building on the site at the corner of Rawsonville and Bemis roads, where the business has been for 26 years.
The 54’ x 123’ (6,642-square-foot) detached garage would be built to the northeast of the 25-acre parcel, behind the present long building along Rawsonville.
The building will be a repair station to do wheel alignments, transmissions, etc. No oil change is planned at that site.
Joe Fox said since they started offering auto repair at their auto salvage business, they have become very busy and the auto repair is taking up more and more space.
He said since several area auto businesses have closed, Fox has been able to hire from an large available field of skilled mechanics.
The Fox family business started in 1973 at 5340 Bemis Road in Augusta Township. In 1985, the business moved to its present location in Sumpter Township.
The board also approved a site plan for additional cement on the northeast side of Sam Nasser’s Sunoco gas station at 17441 Sumpter Road, which also was unanimously recommended by the planning commission.
Nasser told the planning commission that the state required him to put his diesel and kerosene fuel underground. Deputy Supervisor Craig Moody reported that the building inspector checked the site, along with the State of Michigan.
This additional hard surface is causing cars who park there in the evening to shine their lights into the neighbor’s yard.
Planning Commissioner Matthew Oddy asked Nasser to get a signed, written statement from the neighbor agreeing to have shrubs as a barrier. Nasser said he will bring the statement to the clerk’s office to be on file.
In other business at the township board’s July 26 meeting, the board:
• Approved the first reading of the Medical Marijuana ordinance, with attorney Rob Young saying it will be changed slightly before the final reading and adoption to require identification of caregivers. Resident Mary Ban had questioned the part that said a license application did “not require the name, home address, or date of birth of patient or caregiver.” While the patient’s name is still confidential, the caregiver will be identified. This ordinance is modeled after the City of Dearborn ordinance and requires intensive police oversight, Young said. Annual license fee will be $500;
• Approved a duty disability retirement for Police Sgt. Michael Czinski as of Dec. 1. Young said the request takes about three months to process through MERS (Michigan Employees Retirement System) and the board must approve it before the process can begin. He said Workman’s Compensation suggested the retirement and Czinski went along with it since he has tried several times to return to work and has been unable to continue. Young said with the retirement, Czinski will be off the township insurance. Czinski wants enough time to get all the approvals necessary before making it final, which could be before the December date;
• Approved the appointment of Virginia Belinski as an alternate to the Zoning Board of Appeals;
• Approved purchasing park signs from Safety Signs.com at a price not to exceed $800;
• Approved replacing the roof air conditioner at the police department, with the work being done by Keep it in the ‘70s at a cost of $4,675;
• Heard Supervisor Johnny Vawters report that officials are meeting to study the increase in water and trash rates from providers and will decide if user rates need to be raised. There are a lot of unpaid water bills, he said. Vawters also reported progress in the AFSCME union negotiations; and
• Heard Trustee Peggy Morgan question the number of police officers on the force, noting, counting Czinski, there will be three that are “gone gone” and two or three more on medical leave. She said the department is down around five and this makes a lot of over-time for the others. Chief Jim Pierce said just that day they had interviewed two officers for part-time duty. The department has three part-timers on the payroll and one female officer has been approved by the union to work full-time hours. Trustee Morgan suggested they advertise for more part-time officers.