Road and bridge levy to appear on Nov. 3 ballot

by Emily Canning-Dean

Sept. 8 township trustees meeting

Township Administrator/Police Chief Vito Sinopoli announced that Bath Township’s road and bridge levy should appear as Issue 48 on the Nov. 3 ballot.

“This is a 2-mill levy with an increase of 1.4 mills and will help fund the maintenance of our 62 miles of roadway,” he said. “It will also fund essential seasonal services such as snowplowing and salting township roads. The proposed increase was necessary as the cost to maintain roads has increased significantly.”

If approved, the levy is expected to generate $2.29 million per year and will cost property owners an annual $94 per $100,000 of property valuation. The levy will also help the township maintain its workforce of nine full-time employees, a service director, assistant service director and two administrative assistants as well as help fund the replacement of aging equipment.

“The levy is intended to provide us with a stable source of funding to maintain the roads and respond to winter weather,” Sinopoli said.

Township news

Bath will hold a township-wide Trick or Treat on Oct. 31. Sinopoli said the police and fire departments will host an open house Halloween party from 3-5 p.m., with Trick or Treat following from 5-7 p.m.

Trustees approved a motion to hire Rachel Thompson as a full-time administrative assistant in the zoning department. She will start Sept. 28 at an hourly rate of $32. Planning Director/Zoning Inspector Bill Funk said Thompson is not new to the township.

“Rachel previously worked for the township as a dispatcher,” Funk said. “When she saw this position was open, she was interested in coming back and stated that she had enjoyed working for the township. We had a really good pool of qualified candidates and Rachel rose to the top.”

Police cruisers

Sinopoli recommended the replacement of three police cruisers, including cars 14, 18 and 19.

“We will be replacing these with Ford Explorers or similar models,” he said. “We won’t receive those until summer 2027, but by that time all three of these cruisers should have mileage of more than 100,000. These cruisers run 24/7, so we put them through quite a bit.”

Trustees approved the measure.

Park improvements

Parks Director Jeff France announced that his crew installed a new parking spot in Bath Nature Preserve near the Bath Community Garden.

“We had some help from the road employees and now we have a spot that can fit two cars,” he said. “I see us using it a lot, too, when we fill up rain barrels and it is nice to have the extra parking.”

Also at the nature preserve, park employees planted grass on a path near the trailhead.

“This was an area that required a lot of maintenance,” France said. “We were always doing a lot of spraying to try to get rid of weeds, so we did some landscaping and put some grass down and a new pad for picnic tables and we are hoping it is a good spot for some new trees in the future.”