By Tom Gilchrist
For The Advertiser
KINGSTON — Road improvements will take place in the coming weeks at two spots in Koylton Township, and township leaders on Thursday night outlined work that has taken place this summer.
“There are some people out there who appreciate what we’re doing with roads,” township Supervisor Doug Kramer told the audience at Thursday’s Board of Trustees meeting.
Dennis Nelson, who lives along Harris Road, is one such person. Nelson attended the meeting to thank the board for its decision to place crushed limestone along one-half mile of Harris Road west of Clothier Road.
“You can really tell the difference between the half mile (workers) did and the other half mile,” Nelson said.
Township board members said workers plan to place crushed stone soon along one mile of Denhoff Road from Kingston to Phillips roads, and on one mile of Shay Lake Road from Phillips to English roads.
Township voters have approved a 2-mill tax to provide money to improve roads. Township officials have used some of that money, along with money from the township’s general fund, to pay for improvements that have occurred along Harris Road and in the following locations: 1.5 miles of Clothier Road south of M-46; one mile of Cartwright Road off Kingston Road; and one-half mile of Centerline Road west of White Creek Road.
Gabe Lewis, the township’s zoning administrator and enforcement officer, told the board he has received two complaints about vegetation blocking the view to the east for motorists heading south on Phillips Road and stopped at the intersection with Mayville Road.
Motorists traveling east or west on Mayville Road have the right-of-way.
“I just about got hit there today,” township Clerk James Borek said.
Borek said bushes growing in a ditch on the northeast corner of that intersection block the view of southbound motorists trying to cross Mayville Road or turn onto it.
Cars “fly down Mayville Road and you cannot see” to the east, said township Zoning Administrator Gabe Lewis.
Borek said he has cut plants at that corner two times to try to improve the view.
In other action on Thursday, the board voted to rescind a decision to pay $900 to the Tuscola County Road Commission to place a culvert beneath English Road at the intersection with Shay Lake Road.
Trustee Scott McCool noted workers already have finished other improvements at that intersection.
“Unfortunately, I think (placing the culvert) is impractical now,” McCool told the board. “As much as I don’t like to go back to the residents and tell them ‘We’re not gonna do what we said we’re gonna do,’ I don’t think this is something that — at this point — we can continue.”