Martin Township officials and are public safety representatives will have a special planning meeting Tuesday, May 23, at the township hall to make preparations for the 25^th anniversary B-93 Birthday Bash.

The annual country music festival will return for its sixth straight year at the Martin Motor Speedway June 17 and 18, which also is Father’s Day weekend.

The festival, put together by the B-93 country music radio station, used to be held at the Allegan County Fairgrounds and Ionia Free Free Fairgrounds, but it has found its home in Martin since 2012. It means a lot of work by public safety agencies.

Allegan County Commissioner Don Black Wednesday night told Martin Township Fire Chief Earl Wykstra, “You guys do a really good job organizing this.”

Martin Township Supervisor Glenn Leep quipped, “The township does all the work and we get nothing… except the $1,000 application fee.”

In other business at Wednesday’s meeting, the Township Board:

• Noted a Planning Commission meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 16, to discuss a request for a gravel mining operation permit for a site in the southeast side of the township on 120^th Avenue.

Leep said he’s not sure the proposal will fly, even though the Planning Commission will handle it first and make a recommendation. He said he’s not sure a building already on the site is legal.

This prompted Clerk Rachelle Smit to ask, “How can you keep letting them do something that was wrong to begin with?”

Leep added, “It’s coming to a point where we’re going to have to deal with it.”

• Pledged to continue to get tough on what is perceived to be violations of the blight ordinance adopted not long ago.

Two properties were mentioned as worthy of a visit from Professional Code Inspections for ordinance enforcement. The owners at the trailer park just north of the village and a yard-sale style site across from Weick’s on 124^th Avenue will be told they have to clean it up or it will be done for them at their cost. If they don’t pay, they could be forced to forfeit their property.

• Awarded the bid from CDR for furnishing dumpsters for Trash Day from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 20, at a cost of $395 apiece.
• Scheduled a budget workshop for 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 24, in order to prepare the budget for fiscal year 2017-18, which begins July 1.
• Finally adopted a cost recovery ordinance for the fire department, which enables it to recoup its costs in providing services under certain circumstances.