The Watson Township Board Thursday evening adopted an annual budget of just shy of $250,000 for fiscal year 2019-20.
Watson officials anticipate revenue and expenses of $247,300, with a fund balance, or rainy day fund of $335,376.78. The millage rate, which started at one mill, has been rolled back by the Headlee Amendment to 0.7673.
The biggest source of income for the township is $171,815 in state revenue sharing.
The budget expects to spend $46,550 for dust control and $231,050, the latter coming from the special road fund of 1.928 mills.
The board voted to continue with M & S Lawn Care for lawn mowing services for township hall and Miner and Hick Cemeteries. M & S came in with a bid of $9,700, the same as last year, and two of the other four bidders, Property Revolution and Lawn Factor LLC, had slightly lower bids.
“To me, that’s not that big of a difference,” said Trustee Michelle Harris. “And they (M & S) have been doing a good job.”
Clerk Kelli Morris agreed, saying, “M & S has been very responsive (to our needs in the past).”
In other business at Thursday night’s meeting, the board:
• Learned from Trustee Chuck Andrysiak, liaison to the Planning Commission, that Professional Code Inspections is reviewing special use permit requests for two gravel mining operations.
• Approved service agreements with the JC Wheeler Library in Martin, for gravel work this summer and culverts for the following fiscal year and dust control with Michigan Chloride Sales.
• Approved an agreement with Flies & Vandenbrink to pay $10,800 for testing groundwater wells at the former dump site on 115th Avenue near the expressway.
• Approved a one-year commitment of $1,250 to the Lakeshore Advantage organization for economic development services.
Supervisor Kevin Travis, said the amount is a tiny fraction of the nearly $250,000 budget and Lakeshore might come in handy in writing a grant to help defray costs of the environmental cleanup at the old dump.
• Scheduled Spring Cleanup for Saturday, May 11, and Fall Cleanup for Saturday, Oct. 11.
• Agreed to move the first Thursday meeting from July 4 to July 11.
• Agreed to pay $1,299.31 to HQ for repair of the flooring in the kitchen at the township hall.