In March 2025, I walked from my house at 1146 Bear Creek Ct. across Bear Creek Nature Park, through Oakland Farms, south on the existing safety path on the west side of Rochester to the corner of Snell and Rochester, crossed Rochester at the signal by the church and then down some possible routes to Stony Creek Metropark. I took photos of trail conditions inside the park.

I had intended to make a better edited report than the 49 pages posted below. But I never got around to it. Here it is with imperfections. This may be especially useful for those who have not been in these areas of the park. Scroll down to see all pages

Current data from the RHPL budget and SEMCOG population shows Oakland Township and Rochester funding the library at $71 per resident and Rochester at $64. Please comment if you feel this data is incorrect.

I was surprised to learn recently that a friend had not heard of the Oakland Township Association. This non-profit organization was in play from 1970 to 1982. I heard bits and pieces of it from Alice Tomboulian and Peggy Johnson, who were heavily involved and from Chris Munk, whose father was involved. Also we heard from former Clerk Carolyn Phelps who spoke a little about it at a board meeting about 12 years ago. I always meant to research its history further, but found no time. Barbara Barber’s mother was a member. Attorney George Googasian helped with Parks land acquistion. Many others were involved who I do not know about. There were enough people that they formed various committees.

As I recall Carolyn Phelps’ comments at a Board meeting, when Avon Township, now Rochester Hills began cutting down many large old trees at Adams and Walton and similar trees were cut on one of our roads, by DTE, residents became alarmed and organized to make our Township remain more rural. Members got elected to the Board of Trustees. A Planning Commission was formed who created our first Master Plan. They lead the formation of the Zoning Ordinance, Tree Ordinance, ZBA and Parks Commission. Peggy Johnson told me that what got her involved was a Board decision that her lot was too narrow (200 feet) for her horse. Alice Tomboulian was a force to be dealt with in Parks and Recreation. Alice and Peggy and one man made the Paint Creek Trail come into being – quite a feat. (See the small plaque along trail near Paint Creek Cider Mill.)

It would be great if some author researched the entire history and wrote a book. Oakland Township Historical Society has records stored at Cranberry Lake Farm. Maybe someone on OTHS would consider it?

The Michigan Township Association has established (how?) criteria for being an excellent Township. Only about 3 of 1240 Michigan Townships have applied for this and been awarded recognition. Of course it is possible that some townships meet all the criteria but see no reason to apply, but leave it up to their residents to judge. Former Trustee Maureen Thalmann suggested in a board reports comment that we pursue this. It was never discussed in public. One Board member commented that sometimes pursuing to get a box checked may lead to “fake conformance”. I’ve seen that.

Nevertheless we are, in my view, far short of the criteria which can be seen here on the MTA website.

Click below on “HOME” below and then look for “Township of Excellence” in the “About” drop-down menu.

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In the previous post below I got exactly one volunteer, a board member. If we can’t form such an organization, we can’t improve in my view. We need three to incorporate at a non-profit. I make one. We need two more minimum on the way to 1% of voters being members or about 170.

In addition to this Citizens Board being advisory; it would be my intention that the Township Board ignores our advice only with great danger, as we will survey township voters to be sure our recommendations have support of a majority. Ignoring what voters want will then lead to replacement by recall or no re-election, depending on seriousness and urgency.

At the time I wrote this, I got this comment:

“Interesting concept. A much simpler approach would be to do what other Charter Townships do and have these Board positions be paid full-time positions. Up until 2000, the Township Supervisor, Clerk & Treasurer were full-time paid positions. Those people serving in these positions at that time wanted to retire, so they had the Board make them part-time positions with minimal pay. Of course our Township was quite smaller in population so this made sense.”

note – Population – Year 2020-20,067, Year 2000 – 13071

I think we should do both things. The Citizens Advisory Board is needed to perform a responsible effective watchdog role. This is necessary and to me is required in “self-government”.

The Oakland Township Sentinel is sent to about 470 email addresses. Also 20 direct subscribers went to our website and arranged to get it (also free) as soon as a post is made. We had 17,028 registered voters in Oakland Township at the time of the November 2024 election. So we reach, at most, about 3% of voters.

If you can help spread the word among your friends and neighbors, it would be appreciated.

It’s easiest for us if they to the website and arrange to subscribe. Our new Outlook in Word 365 “chokes” on 470 emails at once so we divided it up into 13 separate distributions to get it out. We can send two of these at once. That is time consuming, and even with that we can’t feed them too fast. We have to wait until the first batch of about 80 has successfully gone out before sending the next.

If anyone can recommend a good free service for sending mass emails, please contact me. There is lots on-line, but a recommendation would be golden.

Bob Yager at yagerra@comcast.net

At the October 28^th, Board of Trustees meeting, Trustee John Casadei made these 2-minute remarks. See them at minute 1:09:57 on the video. I believe an accurate and complete transcript is below. I wholeheartedly applaud this idea.

Trustee Casadei said –

“I’d like to start on a regular basis an informal open Trustee meeting, to be held the third Monday of every month 3 to 5 PM here in the Board room at Township Hall. The first meeting is scheduled for November 17^th with three of the newer Trustees, myself, Trustee Campbell and Trustee Langlois. I’m hopeful that we will rotate Trustees as their schedules permit.

Having been on the Board of Review for ten years, I thought it was very valuable to have these informal meetings and listen to residents from every corner of the Township. It was informative, educational, and quite honestly, I think it lead to better decisions.

I’m hopeful that this gives residents, business owners, staff, or employees an avenue where they can come in – no video, no podiums, no mikes, no three minute timer, just come in and tell us what is important to them. Get to know us;  we are your neighbors, we are residents. I think the better we communicate and have dialogue between us the better this township will be. So, I’m hopeful that this is the start of something we will do on a regular basis.

This is Trustee John Casadei’s first term as a Trustee. You may recall that this is his 2024 election campaign signs said “Closing Zoning Loopholes”