Woodhull Township sets ambulance levy Oct. 7; park costs still unsaid

Woodhull Township residents who got an ambulance assessment postcard in the mail last month will find out Wednesday night how it lands on their property. The township board meets at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 7 at the township hall, 7315 W. Beard Road near Perry, and its new business list has two items in a row on the subject: "Approval of Special Ambulance Assessment to spread the levy" and "Approval to accept the roll for the District Special Ambulance Assessment." Spreading a levy is the step that puts the charge on the tax roll; accepting the roll is the board signing off on which parcels pay.

The agenda does not state a rate or a total. The Current reported from the Sept. 2 proposed minutes that the postcards were going out and that two public hearings were set for 6 and 6:15 p.m. Oct. 7 — both ahead of the 6:30 board meeting, in the same building. The board approved the LSW fire and ambulance budget on a 5-0 vote at its Aug. 12 meeting, according to proposed minutes we reported in August.

The other line residents should watch is three words long: "Park Commission," listed under committee reports. That is the first scheduled chance on a board agenda to put numbers on work at Woodhull Township Park that has gone unpriced in public since summer. The park and recreation commission voted Aug. 10 to buy a portable pickleball net and paint pickleball lines on the playground basketball court, but the minutes gave no price, no painter and no completion date. The same minutes recorded that the green dog-waste station at the park had been damaged and that a replacement was being ordered; the cost, who approved it and when it arrives have not been reported.

Two other park questions are still open from our earlier coverage: what the $1,620 recreation-plan expense the commission flagged in July was spent on and who authorized it, and when ROWE will deliver the finalized recreation plan. The July 20 minutes showed three of five commissioners meeting and approving the budget 3-0 pending that $1,620 question. None of those figures appear on Wednesday's agenda, which lists the park commission only as a report.

Also on the decision list: approval of the monthly bills and approval of a snowplow contract bid. Snowplow contract bids were on the board's Aug. 12 agenda as well, as The Current reported at the time; the October agenda lists a single bid approval. The amount and the contractor are not named in the agenda. Under new business, the board will also take up a printer purchase for the clerk's office, again with no price given.

Roll call covers the five-member board: Supervisor Daunt, Clerk Maize, Treasurer Warfle, Trustee Ryan and Trustee Turner. Committee reports also include fire and ambulance, the Laingsburg Library report, the planning commission and the monthly Freedom of Information Act report. Old business is blank. Public comment is taken twice — on agenda items at the start and generally at the end — and is limited to three minutes per person. The agenda notes the meeting "will be recorded for Clerk's use only," so there is no public recording to fall back on.

What happens next: the two ambulance assessment hearings start at 6 p.m. Wednesday at 7315 W. Beard Road, with the regular board meeting at 6:30 p.m. The assessment rate, the snowplow bid amount, the printer cost and any park figures should come out in the room; the written record follows when proposed minutes are posted, typically the month after. We will be asking the park questions again.