Township Board Minutes

MINUTES OF THE CASCADE CHARTER TOWNSHIP
REGULAR BOARD MEETING
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
7:00 P.M.

Article 1. Supervisor Beahan called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.
Present: Supervisor Beahan, Trustees Lewis, Koessel, Goldberg, Fox, Treasurer Dood and Clerk Goodyke.
Absent: None
Also Present: Manager Cousins, Planning Director Peterson, Kent County Sheriff Deputy Jason VanDyke and those listed on Supplement #1.

Article 2. Supervisor Beahan led the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.

Article 3. Motion was made by Clerk Goodyke and supported by Trustee Fox to approve the Agenda as presented. Motion carried unanimously.

Article 4. Approval of Consent Agenda
a. Receive and File Various Meeting Minutes
1. Regular Board Meeting Minutes of 02/25/2009.
2. Kent County Road Commission Minutes of 01/27/09 and 02/10/09.
b. Receive and File Communications
1. Letter from Comcast re: Changes to the Channel Lineup.
c. Receive and File Various Reports
1. Building Department Monthly Report for February, 2009.
Motion was made by Clerk Goodyke and supported by Trustee Koessel to approve the Consent Agenda as presented. Motion carried unanimously.

Article 5. Financial Actions
a. Consider Approval of Payables, Payroll and Transfers for February, 2009.
Motion was made by Trustee Koessel and supported by Treasurer Dood to approve the Payables, Payroll and Transfers for February, 2009. Discussion followed. Motion carried unanimously.

Article 6. Public Actions
a. Public Hearing - Consider Amending the East Imports P.U.D. Ordinance and Site Plan.
Motion was made by Trustee Koessel and supported by Treasurer Dood to adjourn from the regular meeting and go into Public Hearing. Motion carried unanimously.
Planning Director Peterson reviewed the amendment proposed.
Trustee Goldberg questioned the plan name being Delta Imports. Planning Director Peterson explained that when it was originally approved, it was named East Imports as the Township recognizes it. Planning Director stated that if it was OK with the owners it wasn't a problem to change it on the Township's side. The consensus of the Board was to change it to Delta Imports.
Motion was made by Trustee Goldberg and supported by Trustee Koessel to close the Public Hearing and reconvene into regular session. Motion carried unanimously.

Article 7. Public Comments
Officer VanDyke introduced himself to the Board.

Article 8. Unfinished Business (None)

Article 9. New Business
019-2009 Consider Amending the East Imports P.U.D. Ordinance and Site Plan.
Motion was made by Clerk Goodyke and supported by Treasurer Dood to approve the Ordinance Amending the Delta Imports P.U.D. Ordinance and Site Plan. Motion carried unanimously by roll call vote.

0020-2009 Consider Hiring Landscape Architect for Burton St. Park.
Planning Director Peterson reviewed the process that had been taken to determine the Landscape Architect for the Burton St. Park.
Motion was made by Trustee Koessel and supported by Trustee Lewis to accept the recommendation to hire Progressive A&E in the amount of $7,895.00 to do the project on the Burton St. Park.
Trustee Fox asked to be excused from the vote as she is employed by one of the Architect firms quoting the project. Motion was made by Trustee Goldberg and supported by Treasurer Dood to excuse Trustee Fox from voting on the above mentioned Bid. Motion carried unanimously. The motion regarding the acceptance of the recommendation to hire Progressive A&E was carried unanimously.

Article 10. Manager's Comments
Manager Cousins offered the following comments:
" When can the infrastructure committee meet next. The naming policy is rewritten and we also have an issue with some drainage on Burton St., that I would like to review with the committee. It was determined to meet on Tuesday, March 24th at 7:30 a.m.
" The fireworks for the next two years is not going to be able to be at Forest Hills Central High School due to a construction project. We have been in discussion with Ada and Grand Rapids Township about finding another location. George Haga from Ada Township has been able to secure a property that is on M21 across the street from Alticor and just east of Bank of America just past the Village Area.
" I have distributed at all your stations a copy of a Business After Hours to salute elected/local officials on Thursday, March 19th. If you wish to go let me know tomorrow by phone or e-mail and I will send in your registration for you. It is at the River House Condominiums downtown.
" The Building Authority met yesterday, we spent some time planning the rating agency visits. We are looking to approve our Bond Rating and the visits are set for March 24th by Moody's and March 25th by Standard and Poors. We will be meeting with them from approximately 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. We are tentatively planning on having lunch at Watermark and you are all invited. If you would let me know if you are able to make it. I will send you the times in the weekly report. It will be approximately 12:00 - 1:30 on both days.
" This morning the Grand Rapids Metro Council had legislative committee meeting. The Metro Council is planning a legislative luncheon in Lansing on May 5th and they would like as many local elected officials to attend that day. The plan is to meet with your Legislatures in the morning and the afternoon but then be at the Capital at noon for a luncheon with the local legislatures from this area. I will get more information to you on that.

Article 11. Board Member Comments
Trustee Lewis offered the following comments:
" Just to keep the Board informed, this Board was told that the ZBA had a request to the Planning Commission regarding signs for a charitable organization down here on the corner. It was presented to the Planning Commission to start the request to have the Ordinance re-done. The Planning Commission level it was felt by unanimous vote that may not be necessary. The feeling was that it only has come up three times in the past year and how often is it going to be…how much work…plus the fact it has opened up a can of worms trying to right an ordinance dealing with signs..let sleeping dogs lie is about our attitude now. I think the Township would be better served if we just leave things alone and do it the three times a year. Our sign ordinance seems to be meeting the requirements of the Township. I don't think we should be making any changes. You will not be getting any requests from the Planning Commission as far as re-doing that Ordinance.
Trustee Koessel offered the following comments:
" A couple of meetings ago that has been on our discussion a couple of times is the infamous house on Laraway Lake Dr. I think what we had decided to do with it, because we were concerned about the storage issue. We were going to send it back to the Planning Department, so they could look at what other communities do relative to that. I just wondered if there was any update on this.
Planning Director Peterson stated that it was probably redirected to Sandra since that is not a Zoning Code issue. She has done some work on similar types of Ordinances from other communities. The Planning Commission has not taken it up. Like I say it is not a zoning code issue.
Trustee Koessel stated that maybe Manager Cousins could check with Sandra on the update on what other communities might be doing giving those situations.
" On a personal note, my daughter was commissioned as a Captain in the United States Army tonight.
Treasurer Dood offered the following comments:
" I am going to Lansing tomorrow and spend the morning with Justin Amash and some other legislators talking about declining property values and the impact of that on municipal revenue.
" The auditors have been in for the week…they should be close to finishing up their field work this week and seemed that everything was going smoothly.
Clerk Goodyke offered the following comments:
" Remind the Board that the Cascade Business Association is doing a couple of things that will directly benefit the Township in that this month we are having the meeting at the Centennial Country Club where we will have the Right Place in attendance. The next month it will be Amash, Hardiman and Parrish for Breakfast to talk about things at the State level and the County Level. If anyone wants to join in, we would love to see you there.
Trustee Fox offered the following comments:
" Would like to express my gratitude for the love and concern that you all gave me during the recent passing away of my brother. It was very heartfelt and greatly appreciated.
Trustee Goldberg offered the following comments:
" The ZBA meet yesterday and heard the Planning Commission's response and were fine with that. I think Steve also expressed that since the Planning Commission had made that decision, there were going to be a couple of other people that were going to be coming to the ZBA for variances on this issue.
" I have received one of the e-mail updates from Lansing. Revenue was down 31.5% for the month of February at the State. We need to be watching our budget closely in light of that.
Supervisor Beahan offered the following comments:
" A list of the 2009 Proposed Goals was distributed this evening. They will be presented at the next regular meeting.
" The light on Thornhills and Thornapple River Dr. is now activated and working.
" The Board of Review has been meeting the last three days and have been very busy.
" Would like to thank Steve and Andy Albright, one of our firefighters for picking up the illegal signs. Andy has been calling the business's that have been in violation and making some real good headway on that.

Article 12. Adjournment
Motion was made by Trustee Goldberg and supported by Trustee Fox to adjourn. Motion carried unanimously.

Meeting adjourned at 8:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Denise M. Biegalle
Deputy Clerk

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