By Pat Maurer
Correspondent
In recent months there has been some questions/suggestions about changing Grant Avenue to a primary road and forcing the Township to drop the truck restrictions on the road. This will not happen, Grant Township Supervisor Dan Dysinger said recently.
In August the Clare County Road Commission began talks considering a change in status for Grant Road for approximately 2.25 miles between Old US 10 (M 115) and Surrey Road, Grant Township, Supervisor Dan Dysinger reported in his memo for the September 10th Grant Township meeting.
In his memo, Dysinger said the suggestion to change the portion of Grant Avenue from a local roadway standard to a primary roadway was made by Road Commissioner David Coker, Jr., who reportedly said that making Grant Avenue a primary road could relieve truck traffic through downtown Clare, and provide an alternate route through the city when special events are held in the downtown area.
“Mr. Coker’s analysis,” Dysinger wrote, was, ‘this [change] addresses safety and a bypass route for traffic in Clare’.”
Dysinger said the Grant Township Board was against the change in Grant Avenue, which is presently restricted from truck traffic. “This change would likely require a reconstruct, widening and substantial repaving to raise the standard [from local to primary].”
He continued, “My estimations of cost, based on past reconstruction costs, would peg the change to north of $1 million. Funding sources are unknown.”
Dysinger said he attended the September 3rd CCRC meeting because the matter was an agenda topic for that meeting. He said, “The Road Commission engaged in further discussion. While official estimated costs are still unknown, it was revealed that the suggestion to change from a local roadway standard to a primary roadway was from Road Commissioner Coker.
Dysinger said, “Of course Grant avenue is a restricted route for trucks under the Grant Township Truck Route Ordinance. The exception to the truck restriction is [from Old US-10/M115] to in front of the stockyards. It is primarily a rural residential neighborhood roadway, [and] portions are also reduced speed restricted.”
He continued, “I was allowed to engage in the [County Road Commission’s] discussion and indicated that the initial feedback from the Township Board was not positive. I also asked that review of Michigan Constitution Article 7, Section 29, MCL 257.726 and MCL 247.652 should be followed. Attention should focus on the Oshtemo Township versus Kalamazoo County Road Commission legal case. Oshtemo Township prevailed in the case of established truck routes.”
Dysinger said he had contacted Township Attorney Bill Fahey of Fahey Schultz Burzych Rhodes PLC “for an answer to my question and additional detail.” Dysinger said he had been told by other Engineers that “primary roadways could not be restricted.”
In the Oshtemo case, all of the contested roadways were primary roads. “As Bill pointed out, ‘he is not aware of any law that prohibits a primary roadway from being restricted’. Again, he referenced the Oshtemo case.
Dysinger concluded, “Because there are substantial questions by the Road Commission Board, it is likely further discussion of the topic is more distant. More recently I learned that the topic has been removed from discussion by the CCRC.”
He added, “So for now, Grant Avenue from Ann Arbor Trail to Beaverton Road will remain a local roadway and restricted truck route.”
In another recent matter, A special meeting was held September 24 called after Dysinger found that the Township audit results were being held up due to a lack of information submitted to the auditors.
The required information from the Township Treasurer was received by the auditors last April but the information from the Township Clerk was five months late, Dysinger said.
At the special meeting, a discussion included whether a temporary or assistant Deputy Clerk was needed to keep up with the duties of the Clerk and eliminate the chance of this happening again.
Dysinger said the required paperwork was turned in to the auditors by the clerk in mid-September.
