By Brian Marshall
Review Staff Writer
It was like a graduation at Monday’s Orion Township Board of Trustees meeting.
A pair of fledgling firefighters, who have been on-call employees with the Orion Township Fire Department, were approved to full-time status by the board after a request by Chief Bob Smith.
Jonathan Jones and Steve Martin drew full support of the board and personally accepted their new status as applause broke out. Smith reassured the board that the fire department had the needed money to make the hires.
“We started looking at the end of last year, hoping the funds were going to be there,” Smith said. “We were able to move forward with it. I’m trying to be frugal as much as I can, yet I have to protect the community. It’s a balancing act.”
Smith said the average number of runs per day for the department is about seven. Factoring in the ongoing, road-clogging construction on M-24 – often featuring turned off water – and tending to fires has become more challenging than ever.
“We’ve had these nights where they’re shutting the water off all night and I don’t sleep,” Smith said. “I’ve got to worry about if something happens, where am I going to get the water from? This is going to help out a lot. I was having to borrow manpower. It’s constant now.”
Another piece of business that elicited emotions was the request for financial help for the residents of a portion of Central Drive. A resident relayed to the board the obstacles and challenges she and her neighbors face daily, including crumbling edges, “lake-sized” potholes and standing debris that makes riding a bike impossible.
The board proposed to allocate 10 percent of the funds needed for the resurfacing up to $56,000. The cost has been estimated at $100,000.
Residents would account for the balance. The board asked Central Drive homeowners to collect signatures for pledges before further considering the possibilities. If approved, board members said work on the street probably would not begin until 2017.
The board was unanimous in pledging opposition to the Regional Transit Authority (RTA) of Southeast Michigan, stating that the North Oakland Transportation Authority (NOTA) is better suited to the area’s needs.
NOTA provides free or low cost transportation services to senior citizens, handicapped and some low income residents in Lake Orion, Oxford Village Orion, Oxford and Addison townships and Leonard.
The RTA plan would provide transportation routes along Woodward, Gratiot and Michigan avenues, along with connector lines going east to west throughout Wayne, Oakland, Macomb and Washtenaw counties. It would provide virtually no services to the township.
Voters will be asked to approve an as-yet undetermined millage for the RTA on the November ballot.
Treasurer Mark Thurber brought to light what he said was inaccurate accounting involving a handful of events put on by the Community Programs department. The amount of the discrepancies was pegged at $100 or less.
“I’m not blaming anybody and I don’t want to embarrass anyone,” Thurber said. “It’s my job to let the public know where our money goes and that’s why I’m bringing this up.”
After a fair amount of discussion, the board moved to continue to look into the situation. Community Programs supervisor Lisa Sokol requested a chance to address the situation at a future meeting.