Dear Editor:
(In response to: ‘Hadley Township representative of grass roots government,? The Citizen, May 17, page 8) At first I thought Mr. Dutko must have mailed his letter to The Citizen before the Tuesday, May 13th township board meeting, since he failed to relate the outcome of the meeting. In further reading his letter, it appears that he just left out important pieces of information. One would be that the township board, initiated by Trustee Bigler, forced a vote on the paving of Brigham and Gregory roads, saying the timing and residents? opinion does not warrant that this project be pursued at this time. The board passed a motion (3-2) to exclude Brigham and Gregory roads from paving consideration. A big thanks to Mr. Bigler, Ms. Daly and Mr. Brandt for listening to the community.
What was very interesting and informative was that Mr. Rick Pearson, from the Lapeer County Road Commission was in attendance at the meeting, and introduced himself after this vote was taken. Residents were able at ask him questions, and it came to light that road borings that would have been conducted on Brigham and Gregory roads would NOT apply to the rest of the township roads as Supervisor Dutko had maintained. Further, those borings would only be viable for the year they were taken, as the road bed changes from year to year. Therefore, either Mr. Dutko did not understand the procedure, or he withheld that information from the residents.
As for the survey, Mr. Dutko had a prepared, written statement he read to the audience at the May 13th meeting with the proper amount of outrage and indignation in his voice, where he impugned the integrity of the surveyors because he and his wife had not been offered the chance to sign the petition. Well, sir, the petition sits in your hands, take it home, have your wife sign it and you sign it. The results will not change with your two signatures. Another board member, who lives on one of the roads in question, was approached, that board member declined to sign because they felt it would have been a conflict of interest. So thanks, Mr. Dutko, for putting in print your obviously biased opinion on the paving of Gregory Road.
People of Hadley, please re-read the ‘We the People?, don’t EVER give up? pamphlet you received in January. (Thanks to whoever sent it, it was a real eye opener.) It applies to us now more that ever – our fight for our rural way of life is still at stake. The supervisor and the planning commission are well on their way to turning us into another Troy.
I know I prefer the rural, wide open spaces of Hadley; how about you?
Maureen Shoemaker
Hadley