The Cleveland Township Board held its annual meeting Saturday mainly to approve salaries for elected officials, but the well-attended event also served as an opportunity for township Supervisor Tim Stein and others to catch residents up on upcoming millage proposals, road projects, the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail expansion, and the countywide broadband initiative.
Meeting attendees voted to approve the township’s 2024/2025 salary resolutions, which saw the elected officials’ salaries go up to match 3.4% Consumer Price Index increases. The supervisor’s salary increased from $15,000 to $15,585 per year; the treasurer’s salary went up from $18,450 to $19,170; and the two trustees’ salaries went from $150 per meeting to $175.
The township’s clerk salary increased the most, from $18,500 to $21,650 per year. Stein explained that this raise came at the urging of the Michigan Townships Association (MTA), which advocated for greater compensation for clerks because they have greater responsibilities on their shoulders.
Specifically, with the passage of Proposition Two in November 2022, township clerks will be required to administer at least nine consecutive days of early in-person voting for the first time this year, plus other election functions.
Stein said that, per MTA recommendation, they increased the township clerk’s salary by 10% to compensate for additional election administration duties, and then multiplied that number by the 3.4% Consumer Price Index increases applied to every elected official. The pay increases are effective April 1, the beginning of the next fiscal year.
Approval of the 2024/2025 township budget was the main goal of the annual meeting, but Stein, County Commissioner Gwenne Allgaier, Fire Chief Andy Doornbos, and Traverse Area Recreation Trails Inc. Executive Director Julie Clark also shared presentations and information about upcoming events affecting township residents.
The lengthiest of these presentations was Clark’s, as she answered questions about the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore’s (SBDNL) “Segment 9” trail. The planned four-mile trail extension is set to extend the trail from Bohemian Road to Good Harbor. Although a 2009 study found the extension would have “no significant impact” on the environment, Segment 9 has nonetheless faced some staunch opposition for its cost and the number of trees to be felled in the process.
Although the TART Trails and SBDNL representatives provided updates and some Cleveland Township residents aired their concerns, it didn’t seem like the annual meeting would be the time or the place to resolve the debate. So, Stein moved the discussion along to the next agenda item, which was introducing two millage proposals to appear on the Aug. 6 primary election ballot.
One of these proposals will be a fire and emergency services millage renewal for Cedar Area Fire and Rescue at a rate of 2.5 mills for two years, up from the 2.25 millage rate approved in 2022. The other proposal is for a new road repair and maintenance millage at the rate of 0.5 mills.
The latter proposal may be easily confused with the roads and highways maintenance and repair millage, which has appeared at an identical rate on ballots every two years since 1986, but unlike this millage, Cleveland’s new roads millage would go directly to the township rather than the county road commission.
Stein explained that the road commission maintains county roads – ones with a “CR” prefix – but it falls on the townships to maintain local roads. While the road commission can share the costs of repairing local roads in special assessment districts (SADs), Stein said that he was not fond of SADs because they are “difficult to maintain and difficult to keep track of.”
Stein said he believes a road millage may be a better answer to the problems of maintaining Cleveland’s local roads, about 25% of which are in “poor” condition according to 2023 pavement and surface evaluation ratings. He said that monies from this millage would go towards paying the township’s share of repaving Traverse Lake Road in 2024 and 2025 and repaving the roads in the Scenic Mountain View Estates neighborhood in 2025.
According to the township’s 2024/2025 budget, the township’s current taxable value is $156,996,546, up 9.05% from 2023. The township’s revenue for this fiscal year is projected to be $687,836, with the biggest source of revenue to be the fire/emergency services millage at $392,400. Township expenses are projected to be $731,705 if the millages are approved in August.
