From the Moors Family
Dear Editor,
We would like to express our thanks and appreciation to everyone for all the love and support you have shown our family during this difficult time.
We are grateful to have so many, many wonderful friends and your overwhelming kindness will never be forgotten.
Douglas “Dozer” Moors will be dearly missed by all who were fortunate enough to have known him.
Thanks again.
The Moors Family
Bicycling a hobby not necessity
(In response to, Township seeks Iron Belle Trail input, The Citizen, Aug. 12, page 1)
Dear Editor,
The township is asking us to vote on the trail without being provided the 2012 AASHTO Guide Lines for Trails which tells how trails should be constructed. At a recent meeting an Oakland County representative said we could purchase the guide at a cost of over $100 per copy. This information should have been provided to our board for free but wasn’t. They want a vote on this without all costs and guide line information, similar to any of us making a large purchase not knowing the extra costs that come when the deal is done. I got my information from the 1999 guide on the internet for free, though outdated the same considerations apply.
If you refer to the AASHTO Guide for Development of Bicycle Facilities the amount of driveways, ditches and obstructed views will cost extra to conform with. The guide states a path has to be five feet from a ditch with a forty-one inch barrier between ditch and path – that puts it over the thirty-three foot easement from the center of the road. Under these guide lines the trail could end up on our private property. The Oakland County representative stated that a bridge over wetlands cost is $1 per linear foot. There is 4.7 miles of wet lands on the Sherwood/Sashabaw/Hummer Lake Road route meaning around $12 million dollars just for bridges. This representative still maintains the route will only cost around $7 million in total. Any costs above the allotted amount are taxpayer responsibility.
Also at a previous board meeting I was told the ITC trail route was taken off consideration because 51 percent of citizens didn’t want it and if 51 percent of the Sherwood and Sashabaw Road residents say they did not want it this route would be removed from consideration too. A signed petition was turned in on Aug. 9 with over 51 percent against the trail without asking the Hummer Lake Road residents yet.
Bicycling is a hobby not a necessity for all who live here yet all who live here are expected to fund the extra costs and maintenance and give up their privacy and “in the country” atmosphere we came here for.
Rick Gibbions
Vote on trail
(In response to Township seeks Iron Belle Trail input, The Citizen, Aug. 12, page 1)
Dear Editor,
Hello to all my Brandon neighbors. I enjoy riding bicycles. It would be a great pleasure to be able to ride/walk/exercise safely on a dedicated path. I suppose it is a decision of what kind of community we are in. There are many that want a low cost rural community. I accept this point of view. Consider that Brandon is on a continuum of the spectrum from woodland to farmland to rural to suburban to city. I am sure that the creep from Woodland to where we are now has been a constant struggle of the people that want to hold onto the community that was here when they arrived, and those that want to move to the next stage.
Consider the things that have come before, each of them was considered in the same way: Roads, traffic lights, schools, fire department, library, septic systems, bike paths. I believe that neither is good nor bad. If the population grows, then it will not be possible to remain rural. If the population declines, then remaining rural is possible. In my own case, I have been in Brandon for just under 20 years. My daughters have passed through our schools, and are now in college. No matter the decision, please vote.
Tony Emerson

Trump impeached?
Dear Editor,
Many, many people have asked when can we expect President Trump to be impeached. I have figured it out, believe me. It is sad. Very unfair that we don’t have a date when we can see him in orange coveralls, not good. Great, great friends, amazing people, really amazing, have asked me how I can be so sure that the rule of law will win. They will be so tired of winning when they see him behind bars staring out at us, a loser, very, very low energy.
Huge, huge clues…Terrific clues. Tremendous clues from the failing so called president himself.
“It’s like Trump is following the pattern that links the illiteracy rate of third graders to the prison population,” famed literacy coach, social justice advocate and longtime Brandon Township resident Dorinda Hackenback shared. “Journalists have written that states build prisons based on how many kids can’t read by the third grade. Rather than teach them to read, the theory goes, states plan to have prison beds ready for them by the time they reach adulthood and inevitably become felons. Now that I think of it, Trump’s aides probably read these articles to him, modifying the text into words he can understand : ‘Say ‘jail’ instead of incarceration, and yeah, change illiteracy to ‘can’t read’.”
Just because Trump speaks with a third-grade vocabulary, thrashing about incoherently, repeating the same pet phrases, the same single syllable words, does that mean he will end up in prison?
Me, I am counting on Trump’s personal third-grade illiteracy to lead to incarceration, putting an end to our national nightmare…Bigly!
Bonnie Beltramo
Thank you Susan
(In response to: ‘Goodbye and thank you,’ a column by Susan Bromley, Aug. 5, page 7)
Dear Editor,
Thank you to Susan Bromley for enriching the pages of The Citizen, and so our community. Susan allowed us to see others’ lives through a sometimes different lens than our own, and we all could use more of that. We send best wishes to you, Susan, in your future ventures. Keep shining the light.
Angie Adamec
Thank you Brandon Fire Department
Dear Editor,
We would like to express our gratitude to the Brandon Fire Department for the quick response to our house fire on Aug. 7. Outstanding job.
The Marsh family