Salem Township showed the way in dealing with dust control

ACHTUNG: The following is not a “fair and balanced” story. It is an editorial by the editor.

At the risk of being misunderstood again, I submit another example that taxes are necessary evils surfaced this week in Hopkins Township.

I hear tell from the Penasee Globe, some residents appeared at the Hopkins Township Board meeting Monday night to protest dry and dusty conditions of local dirt and gravel roads. They rightly expressed opposition to choking on dust in their neighborhoods, to unsafe conditions resulting from clouds of dust that can hide pedestrians and bicyclers on the side of the road and the unhealthiness of breathing the stuff.

I also hear tell from the Globe that other residents at the meeting presented ta different side of the issue, noting that the brine used in dust control damages cars, trucks and most notably farm machinery. This is not to mention the salty substance finding its way into fresh water streams, polluting them.

Let’s go back four years to Martin Township, where a group of farmers showed up to speak out against the calcium chloride and salt brine eating away at their vehicles while other residents said they needed relief from that choking dust. The dilemma is nothing new.

I was more than curious earlier this year when I noticed Hopkins Township Board members voted to turn away from spending $24,000 a year to apply dust control altogether. I believed all it would take would be a dry spell to bring the people to the meetings to express legitimate dissatisfaction. And it didn’t take long.

As I so often say and write, the most important functions of government are to solve problems and serve as a fair referee. So there have been many discussions about what should be done in order to give rural residents relief from irritating and unsafe dust while at the same time protecting farm, commercial and personal motor vehicles from harm.

The answer that very few want to hear is taxes. Yet it’s true. Each of us, individually, cannot afford to have our road treated or paved. Some of us wouldn’t even want it.

If we look to the north, to Salem Township, we might come to understand some of our neighbors had the insight and intestinal fortitude to get the job done with a long-term five-mill annual levy just for roads — not for dust control, but for paving. So today, Salem Township stands alone in this area as not having this persistent horrible dilemma between dust control and dust.

Yes, Salem Township over the last several years has undergone a massive paving project that at first cost residents big bucks, but today it saves the folks who live on those roads a lot of money in dust control and in saving their vehicles.

Now comes Dorr Township, which through a citizens’ committee is proposing a three-mill levy in August to do what Salem did on a small scale so that it can avoid the not only dilemma, but also the lousy condition of local roads.

We are told so often that we’re being taxed to death, which probably is true, but not by local government units. We have to realize that if we want quality roads, quality fire, police and ambulance services, we have to pay taxes. We can’t afford these services by ourselves, but if we all chip in collectively, we can get it done without breaking our own banks.

Salem offers a beacon of an example and Dorr is trying to join the club. The resistance is always the same — “I don’t want to pay more taxes.” These are the people who have no right to complain about local roads.

So Hopkins Township has been caught in the crosshairs of an issue that really can be solved by that old bogeyman known as tax increases.

I can already envision somebody responding to this by retorting, “Tax and spend Dave never met a tax he didn’t like.”