Snowfall and below-freezing temperatures continued through last week, and the Leelanau County Road Commission is still hard at work keeping the roads clear.
Road Commission Manager Brendan Mullane gave an update at the road commission’s Jan. 7 meeting.
“Your plow drivers have been working very hard these past few weeks. And, of course, the mechanics are doing everything they can to keep these trucks moving,” Mullane said. “Over the last 30 days, the maintenance trucks have driven 42,000 miles.”
The road commission treats county roads with sand and gravel mix, and relatively less salt. Mullane said their crews occasionally get asked about why they don’t use more salt – particularly early in the winter, when the roads are at their worst.
“One of the biggest reasons is that we don’t have nearly as much traffic on our roads as in Traverse City. So, if we put more salt on the roads — which is called a hotter mix — without the same traffic, it tends to not evaporate and refreeze, forming black ice. That’s why we don’t use a 50/50 or straight salt mix that often,” Mullane explained.
Mullane also said M-72 is still going be closed near its intersection with M-22 in Greilickville in mid-January, in preparation for a roundabout installation in the spring. The road commissioners briefly discussed public concerns about this project.
Most traffic coming in and out of the county via Traverse City goes through this threeway intersection, and the detours are long. Mullane said that the Leelanau County Road Commission’s biggest concern is protecting their local roads, like Carter, Hoxie, and Lincoln roads, from thru traffic. The Michigan Department of Transportation recently announced public detour routes.
In his Jan. 7 report to the board, Road Commission Engineer Craig Brown said Leelanau County may soon receive state and federal funds for Cherry Bend Road improvements. These funds would come through the Traverse Transportation Coordinating Initiative (TTCI), an organization initiated in 2023 to serve the newly census designated urbanized area.
Pending final approval by the TTCI policy board Jan. 29, the county will receive $1,093,000 in 2026 for Cherry Bend Road improvements and to extend the Traverse Area Recreation Trail from M-22 to Elmwood Township Park. If approved, they will receive another $1,161,000 in 2029 for additional work on Cherry Bend Road from Center Highway to Breithaupt Road.
Brown said the county must provide a minimum of an 18.5% match for the projects. Elmwood Township staff plan to seek additional funding, including a Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP) grant through the Michigan Department of Transportation.
The road commission also held its organizational meeting Tuesday. This involved re-electing Bob Joyce as chairman and Garth Greenan as vice chairman, re-appointing Mullane as manager and Susan Boyd as secretary, and approving their 2025 meeting schedule. The road commission will continue meeting at 1 p.m. between Nov. 15 and April 1, and 9 a.m. otherwise.
The road commission postponed authorizing a 3% cost-ofliving adjustment for all salaried employees, agreeing that they needed to have additional conversations before approving this item. None of the road commissioners seemed to be opposed to the increase, however, with Greenan and the new road commissioner, Mel Black, voicing their support for it.
“Three percent is probably reasonable, given inflation. We tried to make a lot of adjustments to get competitive last year, so I don’t think we need to do that again. But I think we do need to look at keeping up with the inflation that has occurred over the last year,” Greenan said.
“I’m not opposed to the 3% (increase) myself,” Black agreed. “Everything has gone up. You keep reading in the paper about all the increases everywhere. Three percent isn’t even keeping up. I know the costs of everything are going up for us too – as far as buying equipment and buying parts.”
The board also postponed awarding contracts for culvert projects on Alpine and White roads to gather additional information, as well as a funding agreement with the Conservation Resource Alliance.
