WHITEHALL — The Whitehall Township board accepted the resignation of John Duff as Department of Public Works director and appointed Duff to the planning commission during Monday's regular meeting.
According to Township Supervisor Dennis Kroll, Duff will replace Tim Hicks on the planning commission. Hicks is a retired Muskegon County judge who lives in the township, but Kroll said Hicks has been enlisted to do a lot of recent work as a substitute for other judges, which has kept him from being able to be as active with the commission as he'd prefer. That led to his resignation. Kroll's appointment of Duff was approved unanimously by the board.
The township board also approved the Brownfield Authority members, which Kroll said will briefly meet over the course of the next month to formally sunset the Erdman property, which comprises the township brownfield. Kroll said the board has not met in some 15 years, and the loan the township had been paying through the authority has been paid back. Therefore, the authority will meet to shut down the brownfield and dissolve the authority.
The board further approved committee members already in place to serve as the township's representatives on various boards, such as the White Lake Ambulance Authority board, the White Lake Fire Authority board, the White Lake Area Solid Waste Authority and others.
Kroll responded to a public comment expressing concerns about the millage increases that are on the ballot in the township. The township is requesting approval for two separate millages - up to two mills for general township operations for the next 20 years and for up to 1.5 mills for road improvements over the next 10 years. Kroll said currently the township collects one mill for its own operations, and the money collected has not been enough to attract people to serve the township, which led to the requests.
"The word 'volunteer' doesn't exist anymore," Kroll said.
The same commenter also requested the township board hold its meetings later in the day so that people who work 9-to-5 jobs can attend; that request was not addressed.
Another public comment expressed concerns about data centers in the township; Kroll assured the commenter and others present that no one on the board is in favor of bringing a data center there.
