By Tom Gilchrist
For The Advertiser
CARO — After a Millington Township official urged the Tuscola County Road Commission Board to be “frugal” but not cut the annual allowance it offers the county’s 23 townships to pave roads, the board kept the allowance at $25,000 on Thursday.
By a 3-2 vote, Road Board members rejected Gary Parsell’s motion to lower the allowance to $20,000, with Jack Laurie, Pat Sheridan and Mike Zwerk opposing the motion. Parsell and Julie Matuszak voted in favor of the reduction.
“I’d rather make it $25,000 and cut back on some machinery purchases,” Zwerk told an audience including elected officials from Almer, Novesta, Dayton and Millington townships.
Rather than cut or do away with the “blacktop allowance,” Millington Township Trustee Robert Worth urged the Road Board to stop paying more than $44,000 annually in “longevity” payments to 19 administrative workers — amounts based on their length of employment with the Road Commission.
“For 2012 and 2013, you guys pay out over $44,000 in longevity pay (each year),” Worth said. “I don’t understand what your longevity pay is if you’re worried about somebody leaving — there’s nobody gonna leave,” Worth said.
Worth then questioned Road Commission County Highway Engineer Michele L. Zawerucha.
“Michele, are you not driving that GMC Acadia out there?” Worth asked. “And do you take it home at night? Does the county pay for your fuel and whatnot? You know, some of these things here — why not an old pickup truck to drive around in to save money?”
Following the Thursday meeting, Zawerucha told The Advertiser that the Road Commission gives her use of the GMC Acadia to drive to and from work, and while on Road Commission business. She said the Road Commission pays for gasoline and maintenance, and noted the Road Commission also furnishes use of vehicles for four other employees.
Zawerucha declined comment about Worth’s questions regarding the Acadia. Zawerucha receives an annual salary of $79,618 plus an annual longevity payment of $3,184, for total pay of $82,802.
Road Board Chairman Jack Laurie told Worth the Road Board is putting together a personnel evaluation program “for everybody except the union people,” though the program isn’t in operation yet.
“We have not had what I consider a good formal employee annual evaluation system, which I believe in — I came out of a system like that — and I think it’s a very healthy system for the employee as well as the employer because, annually, you have an opportunity to review the progress of that individual,” Laurie said.
Laurie told Worth that “I appreciate you bringing up being frugal; I think we are, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do more, and that doesn’t mean we aren’t going to look at it.”
Dayton Township Supervisor Robert Cook told the Road Board the $25,000 allowance is vital to completing this summer’s repaving of about one mile of Mayville Road west of Hurds Corner Road. “That road needs it so bad,” Cook said. “I wanted to finish that out this year because Koylton Township has paved theirs and they have thrown the traffic onto Mayville Road that we’ve never, ever seen before.”
A township must agree to spend $25,000 on a paving project in order to get the matching $25,000 allowance, according to township supervisors.
The Road Board is feeling extra budgetary pressure due to record-breaking winter road-maintenance costs. This winter season, through March 26, the Road Commission had spent more than $2 million on maintenance of primary and local roads — about $826,000 more than it spends in an average winter, according to Finance Director Mike Tuckey.
While Road Board members kept the $25,000 allowance to townships at the same level, they voted to do away with an annual $2,500 allowance offered to townships for such activities as dust control and roadside mowing. That saves about $60,000, according to Mike Tuckey.
Tuckey said about 21 of the county’s 23 townships “take full advantage of both of” the allowances.
In other action, the Road Board chose David Kennard for the job of Division Foreman at its Vassar Garage.
Road Commission officials also told of plans to rehabilitate the Ormes Road bridge over Perry Creek later this year, and to replace the Thomas Road bridge over the Allen Extension Drain.