Consent Agreement Continued

January - I have finally gotten a chance to listen to the last 2 Board Meetings. In January a consent agreement with Bisco's was discussed. Without any information being given to those in attendance, our supervisor asked everyone if they thought the board should approve it. How can anyone agree or disagree without the needed information. After a poll was taken of the audience (18 in favor, 2 against) the Board voted. By a 3 - 2 vote the consent agreement was turned down.

February - Our supervisor spent more than 5 minutes talking about how bad it is to have such disagreement on the Board. He said that he believes that if they were doing their jobs, the votes would almost always be 5 - 0. I guess that I must disagree. If the board is always in 100%agreement, I think there would be something wrong. Each member should have thoughts of their own. Even husbands and wives do not always agree. Healthy debate is a good thing. Secondly, I wonder where all this harmony amongst the board was for the last 4 years? Talk to those that have been there and hear that almost every vote had been 3 - 2 in favor of what the supervisor proposed. Therefore, I believe that Mr. Rushing's new found spirit of togetherness has more to do with the fact that he has been on the losing side of some votes now.

After bemoaning the fact that the Board has not been agreeing, again a consent agreement for Bisco's was brought to the table for discussion. It was said that the board had received the latest proposal less than 2 hours before the meeting. When it was suggested that perhaps this should be tabled because most of the members had not had time to read or digest the contents, our supervisor plugged forward. He insisted that a vote be taken to accept this agreement (based on Mr. Birkenshaws attorney telling everyone it was the best thing to do). When this agreement did not pass, our supervisor held another vote on the agreement not passed in January. Although this again failed, I wonder why he would even bring it up a second time?
I've had other residents tell me that sometimes it seems that he (Dave) works for Mr. Birkenshaw, not Riley Township. Maybe more people need to come to these meetings and decide for themself.

Consent Agreement?

I understand that the first meeting with the new (and improved) board lasted almost four hours. The bulk of the meeting was taken up by, once again, talk of reaching a consent agreement with Bisco's. Our supervisor (Dave Rushing) and the Riley Township attorney claimed to be pushing for this settlement for the good of the Township. After much talking, his base argument was that we can’t afford to continue. Now, I may not understand all of the financials of our township, but I do know that the residents have spoken several times and stated loudly and clearly that we do not want a consent agreement that will give away our rural character! We do want representative government and have voted our preference in Linda Belesky for Trustee to help us gain that. We do not want to settle when the court date is only two days away with a man who has not lived up to his obligations under previous agreements. Mr. Birkenshaw has shown that he cannot be trusted to do what he promises, following the ordinances of Riley.

It was interesting that even while our board was in executive session, Mr. Birkenshaw told his lawyer that he wanted to change the consent agreement that was being discussed in private. After hearing this and listening to what the changes were, Dave Rushing and Linda Hazelton still wanted to vote for the agreement, just without the new changes. This is astounding! How could they still believe that they could trust this man? Thankfully we had three on the board with enough wisdom to vote no. Perhaps we need more changes to the board in six months?

TRIAL DAY
I hear that yesterday at the trial, it has been delayed for at least 30 days to give both parties a chance to come to a meeting of the minds. Judge Deegan will be giving his ideas to the attorneys for what he would like to see, if an agreement can be reached. I am betting that at the board meeting in January this topic will be discussed again. Those of you interested, I hope will be there again to voice your opinions and be heard.

Thank You Riley Voters

We would like to thank all of the voters in Riley that supported the endorsed candidates. With your help 3 of the 5 elected officials have views in line with our goals. It is understood that all things cannot happen with a snap of the fingers, but with the right people in place we should start to see some changes and progress. We hope to see commitments now lived up to. This includes:
Improved zoning for the River Conservation District
A better ditching program to help preserve our roads
Another look at Farm Preservation, working with the county & state to conserve that land
Topography to help with water runoff
A good road ordinance for construction of new roads
Assistance where needed for Neighbors helping Neighbors
A stop to the nonsense with Bisco's, we want to maintain our Rural Character

THE ELECTION IS THIS TUESDAY

We would like to remind everyone to vote on Tuesday November 4th.

Thank you for your support during the primary election back in August. With your help, six of the eight candidates that were endorsed by Friends of the Belle River are now on the ballot this Tuesday. Our goal remains the same. We support those candidates that have shown or expressed their concern for the issues we know are important to all of us. This includes: River Conservation, our Rural Character and a Commitment to use the resources of Riley Township for the good of all of its citizens.
RIVER CONSERVATION
As an organization, we would like to have the River Conservation District expanded for additional protection, or at the least have the new district adopted as proposed by the Planning Commission. Any plan to reduce or eliminate the areas of protection would be unacceptable. Some on our current board did not support this additional protection for the Belle River. This proposal has been tabled for more than a year while some on the board have continued to ignore the issue. Our state representative Phil Pavlov has expressed an interest in coming here and discussing the State Water Compact as passed by the legislature.
RURAL CHARACTER
In order to maintain the rural character of our Township, we believe that there were two ordinances proposed by the Planning Commission that would help. The first was a road ordinance that would have regulated how and where a road could be built. This was changed by a 3 vs. 2 vote to accommodate builders and developers before passing. The second was a topography ordinance that would regulate the building process by maintaining elevations and ensuring that there would be proper water run off, protecting all of the current property owners. This was also defeated by a 3 vs. 2 vote. These need to be in place as originally proposed. We would also like to see Riley Township participate in Farm Preservation. This topic has now been ignored for four years.
RESOURCE COMMITMENT
Although we realize that there are limited resources (funds) in our Township, we also believe that the needs of the residents are paramount. This would include the proper maintenance of all our roads, ditching where necessary, and working within the community to establish a “Neighbor Helping Neighbor” group. This would be coordinated by volunteers to help our neighbors that need temporary assistance and could be accomplished with minimal help from the Township offices. Many of our candidate recommendations have already proven their commitment to Neighbors helping Neighbors by donating time and money to our schools.
FRIENDS OF THE BELLE RIVER is a bi-partisan group of township residents. As such, we recommend that two of the current board members are re-elected. We support Linda Waddy (D) for clerk and Linda Belesky (D) for trustee. We also support and endorse the following new candidates for election: Kitty Slamka (D) for supervisor, Lou Angeli (D) for trustee and either Jennifer Baranowski (D) or Nancy Dudek (R) for treasurer. Both Jennifer and Nancy have the background and the integrity needed for the position.

Meeting the Candidates

I know that the primary purpose of this site was to promote River Conservation, commitment to helping others and maintaining our Rural Character. I promise that after the elections, we will focus more on those issues. However at this time we believe that the elections will have a major impact on how we proceed.

Last Thursday was meet the candidates night in Riley. All of the local candidates were there as well as many of our county and state candidates. It was interesting, but a shame that so few citizens showed up. Most of the evening there were more politicians than residents in the hall. The most interesting thing to happen was when it was overheard "I didn't really want to run and I don't really care if I win." I am told that this was said by Al Titus, one of our republican candidates for Trustee. If this is true, why should we waste our votes on a candidate that has shown his complete disinterest at the meetings. Now maybe we know why.

Now, going back to our last township board meeting, I found it fascinating when the supervisor (Dave Rushing) came out of executive session and stated, regarding the consent and temporary restraining order for Birkenshaw's; "that at no point has this board considered or o.k.'d anything other than letting the courts decide." I suppose that we are all supposed to forget that it had been discussed at a board meeting on a prior month. We are to refuse to believe that we heard with our own ears at the public hearing that the board had considered a consent agreement with Mr. Birkenshaw, and were considering removing the temporary restraining order that the judge had imposed. We are to believe that Mr. Damon (the lawyer for Birkenshaw) is a liar when he said that he had sat down and discussed this with Mr. Rushing and came up with an agreement that Dave said he could bring back to the board. Personally, the credibility of our supervisor is questionable. I will believe what I heard.

Riley, the River and Our Community

1st of all, I stand corrected. The Meet The Candidates Night will be from 6:00 till 9:00 this Wednesday at the Riley Township Hall.

If you are going to meet our local candidates there are questions that could be asked:

Why has the changes to the River Conservation District waited for nearly a year while Dave, Al and Linda Hazelton continue to want to discuss water quality? What does one have to do with the other? If the water is bad, we should want to put in measures that may help to clean it. If the river quality is good, let's protect it. What does one have to do with the other?

Dave: Now that we have won the appeal against the blight at Bisco's station at M-19 and I-69, when will citations be issued? Why haven't they been issued since the case was originally decided in April? Couldn't we use the fines we could (should) have received to offset our attorney costs?

Al: Are you sure that you want to be on the board? You appear to be unprepared most times and continually asking for further explanations on seemingly routine items.

I'm sure you all get the idea. What have these folks done to protect the river? What have they done to preserve our rural character? What have they done to promote community?

A lot of questions from me. I'm sure you all can think up others.

Neighbors helping when needed

On Wednesday, October 8, Friends of the Belle River donated much needed clothing and some school supplies to both Memphis Elementary and Capac Elementary. We have been in contact with both schools and their request was for sweatpants, socks and underwear for the children at their schools. Together we were able to deliver those items that otherwise teachers and educators would have to purchase on their own or do without. This was able to be done only because of donations received from other Riley residents and friends who took the time to shop and deliver the clothing as well. Supporting the "Friends" were Linda Belesky, Linda Waddy, Jennifer Baranowski, Lou Angeli and Kitty Slamka. We appreciate the help and support that these and others continue to give to us and their community.
Pictured are: Kitty Slamka, Jennifer Baranowski and Lou Angeli at Memphis Elementary.