Ortonville- It appears unlikely that sewers will be voted on this year in the village and a timeline for sewers has been scrapped altogether for now.
‘We will probably put a vote for the village residents on sewers off until at least February,? said Village Manager Ed Coy. ‘I don’t like any of this delay, but it’s pretty much unavoidable. We have to do due diligence on a property purchase before we commit taxpayers? money.?
The village council is currently considering a wastewater treatment plant agreement offered by township officials.
Major points of the proposed agreement include establishment of a Brandon Ortonville Sewage Authority (BOSA) for the purpose of ‘collecting, conveying, treating and disposing of municipal sanitary sewage.? BOSA board members would consist of equal representation from the township and village and would meet at least four times per year.
The BOSA would also ‘layout a property agreement for the use of the Charter Township of Brandon’s property for a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) and conveyance system that will eventually provide sanitary sewer service to the designated sewer district, which includes the Village of Ortonville and portions of the Charter Township of Brandon.?
The property that the village and township is interested in is a 66.1 acre parcel, located off M-15 and adjacent to Brandon High School, that the township purchased last year for $1,955,000, using fire department funds. The primary reason given for purchasing the land was to build a new fire hall to replace Fire Station #1, although use of some land for a wastewater treatment plant has often been cited.
Village council members offered to buy 3.6 acres of the property in April, however, township officials have said they aren’t interested in selling the property. Instead, they offered the agreement in which they could tie in to the system at a later date.
Those plans no longer have a timeline. After three such schedules since 2005, Coy says the timeline has been dumped.
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