Leighton Twp. Board awards bid for Moline school demolition

The Leighton Township Board Thursday night decided to award the low bid for demolition of and asbestos removal at the old Moline Elementary building for $129,120.

The bid was awarded to Pro Tech of Grand Rapids, which has been known in West Michigan for its work with Corewell Health.

The board last year decided to use its federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA)funding of $630,000 to buy the old building and property and have its removal enhance the current park in Moline that is home to softball games. The idea also was to perhaps add a pickle ball court and improve on concession stand accommodations.

Board members insisted on keeping the “Moline Agricultural School” sign at the entrance and leaving the flag pole untouched.

They also asked about somehow salvaging contents inside, but Clerk Rachel Fennema indicated the company believed “nothing in there is worth saving.”

The board also insists that the work be done sometime in the fall after the completion of the softball seasons.

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

• Noted the shuffling of Zoning Board of Appeals membership. James Kooistra is moving up from alternate to regular member, Ronald Schrotenboer is retiring as a member, Hank Baweja is coming on board as an alternate, Bob Skinner is scaling back from member to alternate and Rod Alderink remains as a member. Chairman is Steve Shoemaker, vice chairman is David Gould and John Roodvoets stays on as a member.

Declined to sign on to a new concept, “Text MyGov,” for $4,500 per year  Fennema reported other area townships “had a hard getting people to sign up for it.”

• Tabled a request by Michigan State University to install a water monitoring well near the fire station at Green Lake. “It’s definitely not for our benefit, ” Fennema said.
• Was surprised to learn there were no building permits processed for May, but there have been 22 for the year thus far.
• Learned from Fire Chief Matt Weston that the number of call the department has received over five months has increased by 19 percent from 2023. He said 57% of the calls are medical.
• Learned that the Planning Commission Wednesday night handled requests from Sporting You to expand its business on Electric Drive, and from Tunisan Concrete to construct a new building in the industrial park.
• Accepted the final bid for this year’s paving projects from the Allegan County Road Commission, through the final tab was more than $50,000 more than expected.