The regular meeting of the Board of County Road Commissioners of the County of Calhoun was held Wednesday, May 17, 2006 at 9:00 a.m. in their office located at 13300 Fifteen Mile Road, Marshall, Michigan.

Present: Commissioner Chester E. Travis, Chairman
Commissioner David D. Veramay, Vice-Chairman
Commissioner Charles E. Monaweck, Member
Joanna Johnson, Assistant Managing Director
Kevin Henning, Finance Director
Pixie Coats, Human Resource Director
Angela Kline, Assistant Highway Engineer
Also Present: Tom Frank, Albion Township Supervisor
Eugene Hamaker, Marshall Township Supervisor
John Neterer, Leroy Township Supervisor
Richard Harvey, Bedford Township Resident
Joe Bramble, Convis Township Resident
Clarence Millard, Newton Township Resident
Maurice Shaffer, Newton Township Resident
Gardy Berezonsky, Marengo Township Resident
Jim Russell, Calhoun County Road Commission
Steve Ball, Calhoun County Road Commission
Robert Volkmer, Calhoun County Road Commission
Hershel Stacy, Calhoun County Road Commission
Dave Fuller, Calhoun County Road Commission
Paul Adams, Calhoun County Road Commission
Erin Cummings, Calhoun County Road Commission
Paul Beardslee, Attorney - General Council

Chairman Chester Travis called the meeting to order at 9:00 a.m. There being no additions or corrections to the regular meeting minutes of April 19, 2006 they stand approved as printed and distributed.

COMMUNICATIONS AND RESOLUTIONS

•  Received a letter from Mr. Ronald Lebeuf regarding road maintenance of Trappers Ridge Subdivision

•  Received a letter from Beardslee Law Offices regarding the law on the responsibility of deer removal

•  Received a letter from BCATS requesting a Resolution to designate May 22-29, 2006 as "Buckle Up America! Week"

•  Received a memo from Angela Kline, Assistant County Highway Engineer, requesting Board approval for the acceptance of Wyncrest Lane from a private road to a public road

•  Received a memo from Angela Kline, Assistant County Highway Engineer, requesting Board approval of Loganwood Acres plat in Pennfield Township

•  Received a memo from Kevin Henning, Finance Director, requesting acceptance of the 2005 Audit Management Representation Letter from Rehmann Robson

•  Received a memo from Tiffany Eichorst, Solid Waste Director, regarding the approval of the Greater Battle Creek Area MS4 Group Agreement Resolution

•  Received a Resolution from Albion Township to include Condit Road from J Drive South going north an additional 2,546 feet to H Drive South, to the 2006 Road Program.

•  Received a memo from Erin Cummings, Permit Agent, regarding requested information on trees in the CCRC right-of-way

•  Received final agreement with the City of Albion and the Calhoun County Road Commission regarding the Albion facility

•  Received a letter from Asphalt Materials, Inc. regarding 2006 prices

NEW BUSINESS

Moved by Commissioner Veramay and supported by Commissioner Travis to approve May 10, 2006 accounts payable for $180,434.17 . Voice vote: Motion carried.

Moved by Commissioner Veramay and supported by Commissioner Travis to a pprove the May 10, 2006 payroll for $142,633.47. Voice vote: Motion carried.

Moved by Commissioner Veramay and supported by Commissioner Travis to approve Resolution 2006-04, "Buckle Up America! Week" May 22 - 29, 2006. Voice vote: Motion carried.

Moved by Commissioner Veramay and supported by Commissioner Travis to approve the changing of Wyncrest Lane from a private road to a public road. Voice vote: Motion carried.

Moved by Commissioner Veramay and supported by Commissioner Travis to approve the Loganwood Acres plat in Pennfield Township. Voice vote: Motion carried.

Moved by Commissioner Veramay and supported by Commissioner Travis to approve the 2005 Audit Management Representation from Rehmann Robson. Voice vote: Motion carried.

Moved by Commissioner Veramay and supported by Commissioner Travis to approve Resolution 2006-05, "Calhoun County Road Commission Greater Battle Creek Area MS4 Group Agreement". Voice vote: Motion carried.

Moved by Commissioner Veramay and supported by Commissioner Travis to approve Albion Township Resolution to include Condit Road from J Drive South going north an additional 2,546 feet to H Drive South, to the 2006 Road Program. Voice vote: Motion carried.

Moved by Commissioner Veramay and supported by Commissioner Travis to approve 2006 prices for Asphalt Material, Inc. Voice vote: Motion carried.

Moved by Commissioner Veramay and supported by Commissioner Travis to approve final agreement with the City of Albion and the Calhoun County Road Commission Albion Facility. Voice vote: Motion carried.

Mr. Randolph stated that in terms of our operations, we will continue to still have trucks and salt at the Albion Facility. We will not change the way we take care of business and the roads in that area.

Mr. Randolph stated that crews are being trained on the Infrared machine. This is a good machine and does a nice job on patching. He stated that it would be out all over the County. This machine only takes two people to actually run it.

MANAGING DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Mr. Randolph provided the Board with the following information:

•  Continue to maintain patching on potholes
•  We have some tar and chip units out
•  Cold patch crews are out
•  The Infrared machine will be out all over the county
•  Drainage and ditching work continues
•  Guardrail crews are out working
•  Boom mower has been out
•  They are touching up gravels
•  Traffic Regulators are out with the crews
•  The bids came in for the Pennfield Road project
•  All the material is in for the Union City project
•  Conducting Soil Erosion inspections and issuing driveway permits
•  Working on a lot of safety studies
•  Crews are continuing to work on the tree list
•  Touching up some gravel roads
•  Road work list is finalized

Mr. Randolph said the Pennfield Road project came in at 26% under the engineer's estimate. Everything is coming together nicely on this project.

Surveyors have been out on Verona Road between Raymond Road and 11 Mile Road. Mr. Randolph stated that they are doing the stationing and it will be submitted as part of the Governor's road program. He is waiting on the application forms.

Mr. Randolph was notified that we received the grant for the intersection improvement at 11 Mile Road and Verona Road. This grant would allow us to change the intersection and put 3 lanes in with curb and gutter on the radius. We received $214,000 and will have to match 20%.

Mr. Randolph has a meeting next week with the Custer Bridge project. He hopes to bid this in October.

Mr. Randolph said he has not received an official letter but knows that we received a $200,000 grant from the EPA to do a countywide Brownfield study. This will not cost the townships any money and we will be able to go out and identify any Brownfield sites in the county. Once these sites are identified, we will receive money to clean them up.

Mrs. Johnson stated she had gone to an intersection safety course in Jackson County and found it interesting that many of the other Road Commission's don't use Roadsoft and don't even realize the crash data that's available.

Mr. Randolph said that the paving and brining will begin very soon. He stated that they have been doing a lot of drainage repair maintenance. He mentioned that even though we have had a lot of rain over the last few weeks, we have had very few complaints about flooding. The ditching they have done around the county has really paid off. This has greatly reduced the water calls received.

Mr. Randolph said that our crews have put out 400 tons of cold patch from April 3 rd to May 5 th . This ends up being 9 tons per crew, per day. He stated that we had a very good product.

Mr. Randolph stated that our service program started in 2001, and since that time we have received 575 thank you calls.

Mr. Randolph said that we have had a lot of fatal accidents the last couple of weeks, but they have all been on State trunklines.

Mr. Randolph received a notice that Pennfield Township is having a meeting at the school on June 5 th having to do with the rezoning and special use permits for the proposed Wal-Mart on North Capital.

Mr. Randolph put a copy of the master schedule of work for the federal aid projects in the Commissioner's mailboxes. He said that he would try to keep it updated for them. This year we have several federal aid projects.

Mr. Randolph said that at the last meeting, he commented about the Blue Cross cost and how costs were going down. He said that this is only part of the insurance cost that we pay. We paid $1.1 million dollars in premiums this year for Blue Cross/Blue Shield, $463,000 for liability insurance and $27,000 for life insurance, we paid a total of $1.49 million dollars in insurance payments and last year we paid $1.37 million dollars for the same insurance programs. This is a decrease of 8%. These figures show that we have taken a lot of action to insure lowering the cost of our insurance premiums. Mr. Randolph stated that Mrs. Johnson has done a nice job taking action and now with Mr. Henning here, our efforts to watch those costs will be even better.

COMMISSIONER'S COMMENTS

Commissioner Travis asked Mr. Randolph if they are keeping the beaver problem under control. Mr. Randolph said yes, it seems like we are in pretty good shape.

Commissioner Veramay asked Mrs. Johnson if she remembered getting correspondence from the State saying that it was the law for the Road Commission to remove dead deer from the road right-of-way. Mrs. Johnson said that she did receive that information. She also stated that recently St. Clare County Road Commission sent out a survey to all the Road Commission's via email, regarding the removal of dead deer from the road right-of-way. Mrs. Johnson will be putting the information into a spreadsheet for the Commissioners. Mrs. Johnson commented that the majority of the Road Commission's don't remove dead deer. She said that some of them drag them off the road and put them into the right-of-way to get them off the road, but they don't remove them.

Commissioner Veramay stated that the State is not going to do anything to alleviate the finance problems for the roads. He has come to the conclusion that our organization has to do something to protect the roads. We have to come up with a way to get the money to maintain our roads or the roads will just fall apart. We have to do something as a group.

Commissioner Travis stated that he was in Battle Creek yesterday and the price of gas was $2.95 a gallon and when he came back to Marshall, it was $2.79 a gallon. Commissioner Travis stated that he has a hard time believing that there is that much of a difference from Battle Creek to Marshall.

SUPERVISOR'S & PUBLIC OFFICIAL'S TIME

Mr. Frank asked if the fatality at the Jackson County Road Commission would affect their insurance premiums. Mr. Randolph stated that it would affect their premiums for the next five years. Mr. Frank asked why on D Drive South and M99 at the top of the hill, do we have a green and white sign that says D Drive South, but we don't have the yellow and black sign saying D Drive South going north and south? Mr. Stacy said that he would check into it for him. Mr. Frank stated that he likes the new newsletter.

Mr. Hamaker stated that they had a very good road committee meeting and once again the cooperation with the Road Commission was exceptional.

Mr. Bramble stated that they had a few potholes in his area but nothing very serious.

CITIZEN'S TIME

Mr. Millard stated that he traveled down some gravel roads that he hasn't gone down in a long time and they are in great shape.

Mr. Harvey stated that they were happy in Bedford Township and they don't have any problems that the Road Commission doesn't handle.

Mr. Shaffer stated that he disagrees that the gravel roads are in good shape. Q Drive just off 12 Mile Road needs grading. On B Drive South and 8 Mile Road after looking back in the minutes, Mr. Rice complained about that intersection and wanted some trees removed. Since that time we have had another accident. Binder Park Golf Course put in a green close to the road on B Drive South. When they did that, they blocked the drain and now the water comes close to the road. He was wondering if that would damage the road in the future. Mr. Shaffer asked what Calhoun County Road Commission's liability will be when all the dead elm trees start falling; there are several on B Drive South that need to come down.

Mr. Berezonsky stated that the Road Commission accepted more responsibility when the Board accepted this private road to a public road. Will this take more money away from snow removal or will the driveway permits take care the extra cost for the road? Commissioner Veramay stated that until the roads becomes certified, we don't get any money but once it is on the certified list we will receive money from the State. Mr. Berezonsky asked if the roadwork list was completed and if the roads he didn't think needed to be done were still on the list. Mrs. Johnson stated that the list is complete and yes, the roads he is referring to are still on the list.

The next regular meeting of the Calhoun County Road Commission Board is scheduled for Wednesday, June 7, 2006 at 9:00 a.m. There being no additional business before the Board, Chairman Travis adjourned the meeting at 10:03 a.m.