Dear Editor:
Is it not somewhat ironic that the Village of Goodrich has decided that they can no longer afford to maintain and operate a library? What’s even more ironic is they have approached the township with their hands out. All of the sudden, they are willing to work with the township. They want the township to do a township-wide tax assessment or millage to support the library. Some time ago, Atlas Township Trustee Barry June suggested that duplicate services be combined at the township to save the village operating expenses. For the most part, his suggestion fell on deaf ears, with the exception of a sarcastic comment by Village Council President Ed York inferring that the village should annex the township and take everything over. In approaching the township board about a tax increase, the village council and our manager went totally unprepared to deal with the issue. They had operating expenses and likewise were unable to explain why we wasted numerous dollars paying our DPW employees for daily inspections.
I was embarrassed to be a party to this scheme.
All they did was hold out their hands, expecting the township to blindly buy into the scheme to raise taxes and give them the money without any questions asked or answered. This is standard operating procedure for York, David Lucik, Pete Morey and Rick Horton. They do as they darn well please and feel they are accountable to no one.
Municipalities statewide are consolidating services to reduce cost.
Not so much in Goodrich.
For the most part, all of the services we provide in the village are duplicated at the township, and they are better prepared to deal with most of those services than we are (i.e., They have all of the voting records, they have all of the assessor cards and files, they manage all of our elections, they handle burn permits and all police and fire department activities. They also collect taxes twice a year and sewer usage fees). The only thing exclusive to the village is our DPW. A short time ago, I suggested that we reduce the hours of our DPW and go to a four-day, 32-hour workweek. The other four councilmembers refused to even discuss the issue, let alone try it. Somehow or another, the county manages to handle three complete townships out of the Atlas Garage, with just a few more employees than the village DPW. We should at least consider cutting back or reducing hours to save tax dollars. We should also take another serious look at June’s offer.
Now, they have become good buddies with the township, but they have their hands out, wanting to partner with them in the cost of the library. The township sold the library to the village for $100 more than 50 years ago and has paid half of the operating cost of the library for that time. We even charged the township for cleaning that was not done or very poorly done by our DPW. The village has used it for office space, meetings and even rented it out to various groups and individuals throughout the last 50 years. Now it’s in need of repair and it’s the township’s fault?
More village residents need to attend our meetings and see for themselves what is going on in our little corner of the world. You need to see firsthand the lack of respect and concern that these four councilmembers have for the voting public.
Patricia J. Wartella
Goodrich Village Council