GALIEN TOWNSHIP NEWS – GERALD MAST NAMED AS NEW TOWNSHIP SUPERVISOR

By DEBRA HAIGHT
BCR Correspondent
Galien Township has started the 2022 with changes in township board membership and perennial issues such as roads and marijuana still on the agenda.
Gerald Mast has been named the new Galien Township supervisor after the death of longtime supervisor Bruce Williams late last fall. Mast had been a trustee on the board since 2016. Since it is the middle of Williams’ unexpired term, Mast will run for election to the remaining two years of that term this November.
“Yes, I will have to run this year for re-election to that role as the appointment only goes until the next time there is an election,” he said. “ 2022 is an election year for the Governor and the mid-terms for Congress, so I will be on the ballot.”
Mast is a certified public accountant and corporate tax director. He said he’s running out of a desire to serve the community. He has lived in Galien for 22 years. He led the township’s road committee before getting elected to the board.
In addition to elevating Mast from trustee to supervisor, board members have appointed newcomer Sheila Koudelka to fill the rest of Mast’s term as trustee. The last two years of that trustee term will also be on the November ballot.
Perennial issues including marijuana and roads remain on the board’s radar, Mast said.
The township has had a road assessment or millage levy for two decades and he reported that the township board is looking to put a renewal on the ballot sometime this year. He said board members are debating whether to put the renewal on the August or November ballot this year.
The township board’s minutes from December indicated that members were discussing whether to put the renewal in the form of a one mill levy or a per parcel assessment. The township has funded road repairs by both methods over the years. Members were also questioning how long to have the renewal run for.
Within the last decade, township officials saw a road millage defeated in 2015 and then approved less than a year later in 2016. That one mill levy ran for four years until 2020. Voters then approved a two year assessment of $60 per parcel in 2020 that expires this year.
Relative to marijuana, Mast noted that the township board opted in for medical marijuana in 2017 and approved three licensees for grow and processing facilities. At the same time, they passed a moratorium on further licenses and have extended it several times since then.
“The intent of the moratorium was to temporarily suspend any future licenses until we have a chance to see how the granted licenses are operating, as well as how the state licensing process as a whole is working,” he said.
“We are now at the point where we are considering stopping any future renewals of the moratorium and just moving forward without one in place,” he added.
Mast noted that the effect of ending the moratorium would be minimal, as they don’t have any further grow or processing licenses to grant, and the board never bought into issuing any dispensary licenses from the beginning.
Like many entities that opted into medical marijuana, Galien Township has found that it has not been the boon that it was supposed to be at the beginning since now only municipalities allowing recreational marijuana are receiving any of the state marihuana sales taxes from retail sales.
“This was not how it was supposed to be in 2017 when we opted in, but the law on that piece changed when recreational marihuana passed, cutting us out of our portion of the retail marihuana tax,” he said.
Mast also reported that the township is expected to receive around $92,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds when all the money is distributed. “We have not spent any of that at this point,” he said. “ARPA funds don’t need to be used until Dec. 31, 2024 so there is plenty of time to determine what the best use of those funds.”
Possible uses of that money include putting it toward replacing aging fire equipment or spending it on improving broadband coverage. He noted that the cost of the fire equipment far exceeds the $92,000. As for broadband coverage, he said the township has some of the worst in the county.
“So although the board hasn’t made a determination of precisely what the ARPA funds will be used for, there are needs well beyond the amount of our ARPA funding,” he said. “I expect that we will have a series of discussions over the next 6 months on what is the best use of those funds.”