In initial public comments at the December 14. 2021 Board of Trustees meeting, Eric Warner, 4795 Gallagher Road, expressed concern about possible plans he had heard about to pave Gallagher Road. He was most concerned that if it is paved, speed limits should be enforced as he predicts traffic will triple. He asked how to find out more about this decision. Supervisor Abatte suggested he contact Manager Kline. Manager Kline offered that the best way is to set up an appoinment with him. He suggested that he can be reached at akline@oaklandtownship.org. Trustee Giananngeli, who previously proposed paving Gallagher as a recommendation to the Road Commission said that this will be discussed at budget meetings in next two months as it will be a 3-4 year out budget item. Clerk Buxar said that this will only be a recommendation to the Road Commission.

It sure would be nice to know what was discussed / concluded in the closed session discussion of a written attorney opinion on this subject in the December 14, 2021 Special Meeting.

The Planning Commission will hold a public hearing January 4th, 2020 to consider whether to recommend to disallow consideration of any variances, special land-use, etc. as long as a property has outstanding code violations. See the letter from Township Planning Coordinator, Don Mende in the meeting packet below.

Required public notice of this hearing was published in “The Record” weekly newspaper (available by annual subscription – $40, or at the news box in front of the Paint Creek Cider Mill – $1). The township no longer publishes public notices in the Rochester Post. The Manager’s stated reason is that the Post stopped being reliably a weekly publication during Covid pandemic and weekly is needed to meet some state law noticing requirements. I believe The Record is the only weekly newspaper available in Oakland Township.

Of course one can also find out about such things by daily review of the township website looking for upcoming agendas.

Click to access 635395972.pdf

See their message with links to their key planning documents on the township website home page under “News and Highlights”

http://www.oaklandtownship.org/

See it on home page of township website under “News and Highlights”

http://www.oaklandtownship.org/

This issue contains some important history on how we became a beautiful township with much parkland and minimum distruction of the natural features and beauty of the land. It was done with huge and sustained volunteer effort of a few people. See pages 2, 16-18.

There is also a wealth of information and photos on land preservation, parks programs, Cranberry Lake Farm and other topics.

Click to access 634738067.pdf

See the agenda and Board packet at the link below. I recommend you follow this process in order –

1 – Review the agenda for anything of interest to you. I suspect many will be interested in Pending Business Item #7, Cider Mill Concessionaire Contract. You will likely have to click on the “+” button at top to increase the size for legibility.

2 – Read Township Manager Adam Kline’s summary of the agenda items that interest you on pages 289-290 of the packet

3 – If you want more detail, read the packet information starting at the page shown to the right fo the agenda item. For example the information on Vistas development (item #3 in the Consent Agenda proposed to be approved without debate) starts on page 72. Not every agenda item has packet background material.

4 – If you want to comment on an agenda item, attend the meeting in person. You are allowed a 3 minute comment after the Board finishes discussing it and before voting.

5 – You can comment on anything relevant to Township affairs, but not on the agenda, at the beginniing and end of the meeting.

6 – You can watch the meeting on CMNTV Channel 17 live, or later (all or part) on videotape on the township website.

Click to access 634879222.pdf

Click to access 633518826.pdf

We recently got our Winter 2021 tax bill. This sometimes raises questions. There are many answers to be found by exploring these three places:

Oakland Township website:

Treasurer’s Page and sub pages – (Go to http://www.oaklandtownship.org/, then Township Departments, then Treasurer’s Department at bottom of menu) – There is a vast wealth of information here including explanation of tax rates, assessments, challenging assessments, millage ballot language that was approved by voters. and nuch more

Property Information Page ( click on picture icon at bottom left of township website home page- history of several years your taxes and anyone for whom you have an address, name or property I.D., also past sales date

County website

Oakland Property Gateway https://gis.oakgov.com/PropertyGateway/Home.mvc – click on property outline on a map to find tax I.D. for any property, use that in Property Info above to find owner and taxes

There is no agenda as yet on the township website; however I expect that the following will be main items –

Completing Gallagher Road path

Selecting next project

We will continue to monitor for an agenda on the township website here:

https://ecode360.com/documents/pub/OA3183/Agendas/?subCategory=Safety+Paths+and+Trails+Committee