Worth Township officials attended the Sanilac County Road Commission meeting Wednesday morning to voice concerns of how their road millage funding is being spent and how they can plan for the future.
Township Supervisor Phil Essenmacher asked the board to consider allowing the application of all gravel scheduled for the next two years to be done this year and be allowed to pay for it over two years with road millage funding.
However Engineer Robb Falls explained the increased workload would be more than the county could handle, but they may reconsider later this summer. Essenmacher said the township plans to gravel a total of 52 miles of roads, 26 miles each year, and will spend $140,000 on gravel this year.
“I don’t think that is realistic,” said Falls. “We have 25 other townships to take care of and we have a lot of gravel to haul. Around 100,000 tons or so. To add another 30,ooo ton for Worth would be too much for us to ask of our employees right now, We might be able to look at it again later in the season, but right now, it is not my recommendation to do that.”
“We want to show our township residents we are using their tax dollars the best we can and a big part of that is the road millage (two mills) that they approved a year ago. They were gracious enough to approve it and we need to show them we are being responsible and taking care of our township roads,” Essenmacher told the Road Commission.
Essenmacher also addressed the board about unforeseen “surprises”, saying the township cannot be caught off guard about projects that pop up and be expected to pay their share.
“We just don’t have the money for surprises,” the township supervisor commented. “We want to know what’s coming and if at all possible, a little advance warning so we can try to find money for it. Not just be given a bill for work and not have any idea it’s happening. There needs to be better communication from the Road Commission. We have to answer to our people and make sure we are getting our fair share of the road millage funding. As it is right now, we have no idea what we are getting in return for the money we are putting in. We have a very tight budget.”
Falls gave Essenmacher a spreadsheet detailing the use of funds from the County-wide two mills for primary roads, and how funding is spent on local roads. On the chart from 2016, Worth Township, due to it’s shear size, received nearly $202,000 of funding for everything from winter maintenance, to road work to culvert and drainage work.
Worth Township receives the largest amount of any township in Sanilac County for road funding from the millage. The next nearest township, Sanilac, receives around $166,000 and Speaker Township received just over $160,000.
