By Tom Gilchrist
For The Advertiser
DAYTON TWP. — Dayton Township Supervisor Robert Cook had to deal with township Trustee James Satchel before board members approved paying Cook an expense check for $236.98 on Monday night.
Cook told an audience at the township Board of Trustees meeting that he drove 590 miles “in the past couple months.” He submitted a document asking for reimbursement for only 400 of those miles, at 56 cents per mile — part of a total expense check for $236.98, which included about $13 for postage.
Before board members voted to approve paying bills that included Cook’s expense check, though, Satchel urged Cook to calculate the total amount of money owed Cook.
“When you do mileage and you put down your miles, you also put down the dollar amount and you sign it,” Satchel said. “The dollar amounts aren’t there.”
Cook agreed to calculate the amount of money owed him, taking time during the meeting to finalize the document.
“Let’s do it right,” Satchel added. “Let’s not approve something without putting some numbers in. This happens all the time. We need to stop this.”
Cook told the audience he drove to a variety of places during the past couple months, including several trips to and
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from an attorney and a Realtor on township business, several trips to and from Board of Review meetings and training, and various trips to and from the Tuscola County Road Commission office.
Cook, along with representatives of other townships, pushed for the Road Commission Board to keep an annual allowance for townships — used for improving roads — at $25,000 rather than scrapping or reducing the amount. After hearing from Cook and others, the Road Board agreed to keep the allowance at that level.
Cook, joined by leaders of other townships, also recently persuaded the Mayville Village Council to lower the annual rate of cost increases in a new three-year fire-service contract with the townships.
Mayville leaders “wanted (an increase of) 3 percent per year, which would have been 9 percent when the contract was over, and I was able to talk ‘em into (an increase of) one-half percent per year,” Cook said.
Cook on Monday also announced that he obtained a $30,000 price for improving South Road, Helen Boulevard and Sunset Drive in the Shay Lake area. The “chip-and-seal” work could be done after April 1 of 2015, according to Cook.
Board members on Monday also approved a resolution agreeing with plans to replace the Shay Lake Road bridge across Sucker Creek between Reid and Turner roads. The project could be done within the next several years, according to board members.
Also on Monday, Cook pointed out an error in an April 2 article in The Advertiser that stated incorrectly that Dayton Township is spending $126,000 from the township’s general fund on road improvements in the fiscal year that began April 1. Only about $53,000 is coming from the township general fund for road work, with about $48,000 coming from a road tax approved by township voters and $25,000 coming from the Road Commission’s annual allowance to the township, according to Cook.
The township board on Monday didn’t embrace Satchel’s idea of creating a two-year plan and a five-year plan specifying future road improvements.