Leighton may spend half million on bridge, road repairs

New Leighton Township firefighters Brian Denny, Cody Sanchez, Ben Offringa, Misty Sherer, Dale McGarry, Mike Jahnke, Cody Williams and Shane Veldheer were sworn in during the Township Board meeting.

Major expenses for a bridge on 140th Avenue and road repairs promise to be big expenses for the Leighton Township Board to handle this year and next.

Board members Thursday night noted that a new bridge on 140th Avenue will cost about a quarter of a million dollars and top priorities for crack sealing and fog coating roads are like to carry a price tag of $230,000.

Supervisor Steve Deer admitted to his colleagues that he had thought 140th Avenue didn’t have a lot of traffic to warrant the bridge. but a study showed 226 vehicles crossed the bridge in a 24-hour period.

The roads identified for repairs and fog coat paving were 137th Avenue between Kalamazoo and Division, a very small stretch of 10th Street, Sixth Street north of 146th Avenue and West Shore Drive. This i not to mention 144th Avenue, which was supposed to be done in the summer of 2018, but had to be delayed.

Treasurer Char Troost said, “Some of these roads we are very close to losing, so we have to have them done this year.”

Allegan County Road Commission will perform the work.

On a different, but related subject, township officials decided to take a chance and purchase a new printer from Applied Images for $4,500 to replace the two aging units in the office. Accelerating the option was the news that printer prices will go up starting in January by as much as $500 to $600 each because of looming tariffs.

Deer, with tongue firmly planted in cheek, quipped, “All we have to do here (with the decision) is accurately predict the future.”

In other business at Thursday evening’s meeting, the board:

• Agreed to buy $400 worth of cyber security insurance.

• Was told by Deer he recently did a six-hour ride-along with one of the local sheriff’s deputies. He said, “They do a lot of things for the township that don’t get reported.”

• Received the monthly building inspector’s report that showed six new residential units at a total value of $3.3 million. For the year to date, covering 10 months, Leighton has seen 38 new units for a value of $13.4 million.

 

 

1 Comment

  1. dennis longstreet

    What happened to Garden Street, Lilac Street, Aster Street — must be 60 homes down there all crumbling. All pay taxes in Leighton not the elite of Green Lake or Moline. I like the police tax we pay, never see them.

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