By Tom Gilchrist
For The Advertiser
CARO — The board overseeing the Tuscola County Road Commission will spend $13,000 to spray herbicide to control brush throughout Watertown Township this year, after township leaders financed a brush-control effort there last year.
“If we could kill off any new growth that’s starting to come back now, I think we’d be way ahead of the game” in Watertown Township, said Road Commission Superintendent/Manager Jay Tuckey at a May 8 meeting of the Road Board.
Tuckey said the Road Board could spend the money in Watertown Township “just because of the fact they got very aggressive when they cut their brush last year.” Watertown’s Board of Trustees hired a contractor to cut brush in 2013.
The Road Board voted to keep its brush-control program going by spending the money in Watertown Township.
Brush can grow quickly, as evidenced by a one-mile stretch along Dale Road in Elmwood Township, where workers cut brush several years ago, according to Road Board Chairman Jack Laurie.
“That brush now is 12 to 15 feet high — in two years,” Laurie said. “Unreal. I couldn’t believe it. If they don’t do something with it this year, it’s going to be almost out of control.”
Also on May 8, the Road Board honored David Davidson, retiring foreman of the Road Commission’s Akron Division, for “30 years of loyal service” beginning in 1984. Davidson and his wife, Diane, attended the meeting when Laurie presented Davidson with a certificate. Davidson retired April 30, and the board chose Frank Storm as his successor.
The board approved a resolution sending Storm to a location in Wisner Township to investigate the possibility of improving two non-certified roads, Willow Grove and Gager roads.
The township has asked the Road Board to do maintenance work on the roads. Before the work will receive approval, though, the Road Board is requiring that it receive a positive report back from Storm and Wisner Supervisor James MacFarlane, whom the board wants to visit the site of the potential work.
County Highway Engineer Michele L. Zawerucha said she learned that a resident in the area of those roads “gave our employee a very hard time” in the past. Zawerucha said retiring Akron Division Foreman Davidson “told me that he would require police assistance if we went up to do anything” on one of the roads.
Though the township would have to pay for the road maintenance, Road Board Vice Chairman Gary Parsell said he wants more information.
“The part that bothers me is I hate to send our employee into a situation where he’s gotta have the National Guard go with him,” Laurie said.
In other action, the Road Board approved a $27,780 bid from McDowell Construction of Columbiaville to replace a culvert along Hecht Road in Tuscola Township. Four contractors submitted bids, with the highest at $101,165.
Laurie said McDowell Construction “is a longtime contractor in this county … and does a good job.”