The Leelanau County Road Commission elected a new chairman following its annual organizational meeting Tuesday.
In a roll call vote, Bob Joyce was elected chairman with votes from himself and road commissioners Jim Calhoun and Greg Mikowski. According to the road commission website, Joyce will remain in this position for the ensuing year.
The previous chairman, Garth Greenan, received the remaining two votes from the five-member body, with commissioner John Popa voting for him and Greenan voting to reelect himself. Having received the majority of the votes, Joyce was named chairman and conducted the remainder of the meeting.
The other appointments in the organizational session were made unanimously by the entire road commission, with Jim Calhoun reelected vice chair, Brendan Mullane reelected manager, and Susan Boyd reelected secretary to the board.
Also during their organizational meeting, the road commission approved its meeting schedule for the year. As with last year’s schedule, the board will meet on the first and third Tuesday of every month. Meetings scheduled between April 1 and Nov. 15 will start at 9 a.m., and all others will start at 1 p.m. unless otherwise noted.
As part of the regular meeting, Joe Bartlett of the Manistee-Benzie Snowbirds appeared on the agenda under appointments to advocate the road commission granting the snowmobile club a road use permit for a right-of-way on Newman Road in Kasson Township.
Mullane told the Enterprise that road commission staff, and not the Board of Road Commissioners, make the final decision on road use permits. Therefore, no action was taken to permit the trail at the meeting, but the appointment gave the snowmobile club representative an opportunity to discuss the ongoing issues with their proposal with manager Mullane. Over the past two months, the road commission has received communications from both snowmobile club members and county residents with homes along the proposed trail. Some residents opposed the Snowbirds getting the permit over concerns of destruction of property and collisions, while club members claim the trail helps winter commerce and that they will work proactively to prevent damages.
Speaking on behalf of road commission to the newspaper, Mullane said that the proposal still needs to address some “major concerns” before staff are willing to approve it, and the club also needs to obtain approval from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) for their route.
Mullane shared correspondence from mid-December stating that the signage plan for the trail needs more work; the Snowbirds or DNR need to address liability for damage of private property and pavement within trail limits; and the club should obtain agreements from – or at least make “all reasonable efforts to accommodate” — landowners along the trail.
Also during the Jan. 2 meeting, the road commission briefly touched on their intention to appoint road commissioners to visit each township in the county for annual presentations at a future meeting, and to establish a cost share “practice or policy” this year.
