CORRECTED STORY FOUND HERE – https://bcrnews.net/corrected-berrien-county-commissioners-more-likely-to-fix-niles-buchanan-road-with-funding-from-townships/
By DEBRA HAIGHT
BCR Correspondent
BUCHANAN, MI – Last week’s Berrien County Board of Commissioners meeting at the Buchanan Area Senior Citizens Center featured discussion on several topics, ranging from senior center funding and the county administrator search to local road issues and a drain project controversy in the Coloma area.
The meeting was one of five night meetings being held at locations around the county this year, starting in April. The county board met in St. Joseph in April, St. Joseph Township in May, Coloma in June and will meet at the MSU Extension Service office l Benton Harbor on Aug. 6.
A proposal to change senior center funding in the county was met with strong opposition at last week’s meeting. The issue came up after representatives of the Lincoln Township Senior Citizens Center came to the board’s finance committee last month with a request to change the way the senior citizen center millage funds are distributed.
Currently, the proceeds from the countywide senior citizen center millage are distributed equally to the county’s seven senior centers. The Lincoln Township Senior Citizens Center want to have the millage funds divided on the basis of assessed property values in different jurisdictions rather than equally.
Buchanan Area Senior Citizens Center Executive Director Adam Burck was the first to bring up the issue at last week’s meeting. He was at the meeting with several members of the center’s board of directors and said that they oppose the Lincoln Township request. Representatives of the Central County Senior Citizens Center also spoke against the request.
“We all have the exact same population (in terms of numbers) that we serve and we are able to provide services to all of Berrien County,” he said. “Their proposal is that assessed values should determine how much each center gets, which would give them $160,000 more. It’s like with education funding being determined by head count and not assessed values.”
Berrien County Board Chairman McKinley Elliott said that he has just one vote on the board and that his vote would be no if it ever comes up. “I vote once,” he said. “This has not come up to a vote but if it does, I’d vote no to changing the funding. I respect that people have other opinions but we act as the trustees of people’s tax dollars.”
Finance Committee Chair Mamie Yarbrough reported on the conversation her committee had with Lincoln Township Senior Citizens Center representatives.
“They wanted to have the distribution of the tax dollars done differently,” she said. “I told them that they will have to talk to all the commissioners and that all the senior centers will have the chance to be there … When we meet, you will know it.”
Personnel and Human Services Chair Robert Harrison gave a brief report on the search for a new county administrator. He noted that the board’s second search ended up last month with no contract signed with Greg Vlietstra, the Kalamazoo County resident the board has chosen after two rounds of interviews earlier in June.
Harrison said the county and the search firm, the Michigan Leadership Institute, have received additional resumes since Vlietstra withdrew his application. “We’re taking a pause for a little while and also looking to see if maybe we need a second interim administrator,” he said.
Current Interim County Administrator Mike Sepic has been in that position since early February after Brian Dissette left to take a position in Ottawa County. Sepic is the former Berrien County Prosecutor and retired in 2020. He had initially said he would stay on as the interim administrator until early summer.
Another subject of discussion last week was roads, with people asking when local roads such as South Red Bud Trail and Niles-Buchanan Road would be fixed.
“When can we get money to fix our roads?” resident Dan Carson asked. “We don’t need money going to non-motorized trails before roads. We need good roads before bike trails.”
Elliott said that the section of South Red Bud Trail from the Buchanan city limits south to U.S. 12 actually fall in two jurisdictions: Buchanan Township and Bertrand Township. He said that both that road and Niles-Buchanan Road in Niles Township are primary roads funded by the Berrien County Road Department with contributions from townships.
He said in the case of Niles-Buchanan Road, repairs were put on hold in anticipation of the proposed Meijer’s store on Niles-Buchanan Road east of U.S. 31. “With the store not coming, it’s now up to Niles Township and the road department to put something together to do the worst areas,” he said.
Sepic said that part of South Red Bud Trail from Chamberlain to U.S. 12 is scheduled to be repaved after Labor Day with no date set for doing the section between the city limits and Chamberlain Road. As for Niles-Buchanan Road, he said it could be done in sections as early as next year or as late as 2029.
When some residents questioned why more road work is being done in New Buffalo Township, Elliott noted that they were willing to front more money to the road department to get the work done. “Road problems are chronic and funding begins in Lansing,” he said.
Last week’s county board meeting also featured a discussion of drain issues in the Hagar Township-Coloma area.
Residents are concerned about the Koranda and Perry and Beach Drains in Hagar Township. The first drain district petitions were initially received in 2019 for the Koranda Drain and 2022 for the Perry and Beach Drain respectively with the actual work and assessments on property owners just coming about now.
While residents spoke of “taxation without representation” and questionable actions by the previous Berrien County Drain Commissioner, current Drain Commissioner George McManus and County Commissioners said their hands are tied.
Elliott added that the county board doesn’t have the authority to look at the drain commissioner office and that residents can go to court with their concerns. County Commissioner Chokwe Pitchford urged his fellow commissioners to draft a resolution to ask the state to change the drain code law so the county board can have the legal authority to intervene.
McManus said he had to follow through with the projects begun by his predecessor. He added that the drain commission’s attorney has concluded there was no mal- or misfeasance done and the work has to continue. “If I don’t do the project, I can be sued for not doing it. There’s no easy way out,” he said.