The Martin Township Board Wednesday evening cleared the way for work to be done at South Cemetery.

The board voted to accept bids from Todd Ritchie, $3,850 to deal with perimeter trees in the cemetery and $2,000 to handle two pine trees.

The money will be taken from the township’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) federal fund, which was said to total about $55,000.

In other business, the board:

• Learned that Gale Vanderbrand is the newest addition to Martin Fire & Rescue. The department reported 356 calls have been handled thus far this year and a controlled burn will be conducted Saturday morning near the corner of 114th Avenue and 15th Street in Watson Township.

• Awarded the bold for snowplowing the township hall and library parking lot across the street to Veterans Property Management for $180 per time, including salting.

• Learned that someone left garbage on cemetery property and there have been complaints about thefts of wind chimes and flowers at local cemeteries.
• Was told by Supervisor Glenn Leep that he and zoning enforcement administrator Lori Castello have been going over violations and said, “We seem to be making some headway,” in reducing numbers of those not in compliance.