The Leighton Township Board Thursday evening approved requests for tax abatements for two new industries, both on 147^th Avenue.

The board voted 3-0 (with Trustees John Hooker and Brian Bonnema absent) to grant industrial facilities tax exemptions for Classic Transportation and Great Lakes Heavy Haul, both of which started up earlier this year. The IFT certificates make the two businesses eligible for tax breaks of up to 50 percent for 12 years if they meet requirements to create jobs.

The approval was granted after a public hearing earlier in the evening.

In other business Thursday, the board:

• Tabled for one month a recommendation from Supervisor Steve Deer to initiate an engineering study at a cost of $8,000 to deal with water drainage problems at the Harvest Meadows development.

Deer said he has heard, “Someone’s going to be sued over this. It’s been an ongoing problem since it was built. I think it would be a good investment to get that study started. None has clean hands with this problem.”

Clerk Mary Lou Niewenhuis said she’d rather have the full five-member board vote on the issue rather than just the three who were present Thursday night.

• Watched Fire Chief Matt Weston swear in two new firefighters, Larry Benton and Paul Richards, who recently completed coursework with the Fire Academy. The board also approved the hiring of firefighter Caleb Kiefer, who had been with the Wayland department for six months and had served for four years in Pennsylvania.

Weston said the moves bring the department up to full strength at 28 firefighters.

• Briefly noted there have been reports of a couple of drive-by shootings in Moline over two weeks, but the deputies who cover Leighton and Dorr townships were not present to answer questions.
• Declined to place anyone on a proposed Rails to Trails Commission to connect 36 miles the interurban from the Kalamazoo River to the Paul Henry Trail.
• Agreed to have an aging toilet on the west side of Green Lake replaced rather than repaired.
• Approved the revised master plan after receiving it from the Planning Commission.