ROTHBURY — The Rothbury Village Council unanimously approved a contract with Muskegon Township to handle zoning enforcement responsibilities at its regular meeting Tuesday.
The village will pay the township $10,000 per year for the enforcement, plus $80 per hour for work that takes place after hours. The township was the only municipality to place a bid of the few the council contacted.
During council discussion, trustee Dylan Zuniga noted that Muskegon Township also provides these services for several other nearby municipalities, including Whitehall, and it seems to work for them. Village president Mike Harris, who was serving as zoning administrator, said there have been uneventful times in that position but as of late it's a more time-consuming job. Trustee Denise Kurdziel said making the move now is a proactive move and hopefully will avoid excessive complaints being made by village residents.
The council also voted 6-0 to approve trustee Troy Voorhees as the new zoning administrator (Voorhees abstained from the vote). The council was previously advised by its lawyer that Harris should not be in the role while also serving as village president. Harris did say that Voorhees is welcome to consult him for advice if necessary.
With the Electric Forest music festival set to take place next week, the council received its annual visit from Chad Cheek, the vice-president of business strategy for AEG Presents, which operates the festival. Cheek addressed recent social media rumors regarding parking at the concert, saying parking, camping and campground tickets are all sold out (they are separated, he said, to control capacity, which is on course to be back to 2024 levels after a slight downturn in attendance last year).
Cheek said it's possible some attendees mistakenly bought extra parking passes without realizing only one per car is required, but said the festival is aware some of those are being sold as well. An addition to this year's festival is hotel packages for those staying off-site, with about 800 people purchasing those. Shuttle and ride-share options are in place for those utilizing those packages. An off-site box office at the Winston Speedway this year may help alleviate traffic on the first and last days of the festival.
The council addressed its Electric Forest wristband policy, voting 6-1 - Kurdziel dissented - to accept them under the village's ordinance regarding their being used solely for oversight of the festival and not to be transferred to others. Of the council, Jim Fekken, Juan Cano (who was on the planning commission last year) and Autum Drake reported they had utilized the wristbands for last year's festival. Kurdziel did not appear to think the wristbands for the council were needed. Voorhees said "until last year," the wristband program for the council had not been abused; the council censured former president Vern Talmadge last fall for doing so.
The council turned down management of a new drinking water system purchased by the new owner of the Greenlawn mobile home park, identified as Four Rs LLC. This was a required step, operations director Scott Beishuizen said, in order to leave management of the system to the new owner. During discussion, it was noted that the new owner plans to improve the aesthetics of the park and reduce it from its current 40 sites to 25.
During the treasurer's report, treasurer Deb Murphy and police chief Ethan Walker reported that the village is able to take advantage of nearly $3,000 in discounts if it pays for equipment necessary to make its new police vehicle ready for use within 30 days of billing. As the amount has already been budgeted, the council did not need to take action on the matter, but expressed a desire to secure the discounts.
