6/11/13 - To keep up with deteriorating roadways, two local municipalities are doing preliminary work on road millages to offer voters in upcoming elections. Green Oak Township voters passed a road millage last year to make repairs to county roads. Hamburg officials are now planning to hold focus groups beginning in mid-July to see if their constituents would approve a similar tax and, if so, which roads they would support repairing with the money. Supervisor Pat Hohl says they were prompted by residents approaching the township and asking for a millage to address local failing roads. Work on a possible millage has also begun in Genoa Township, where officials have compiled a list of ten projects on local roads to have priced by a civil engineering firm. Those projects include paving Crooked Lake near Three Fires Elementary, Herbst Road, Cunningham Lake Road, Beck Road between Latson and Chilson, and Bauer all the way south to the Hamburg Township line. They also include widening Latson just north of Grand River and putting in a roundabout or traffic service at Bauer and Challis. The township board would choose which to offer to the public as part of a potential road millage. Township Manager Mike Archinal tells WHMI all of these projects are on county roads, but he does not blame the Livingston County Road Commission for their poor condition. He points out that Livingston County gets less money per capita from gas tax funding than any other county in Michigan, and while the Road Commission is run very efficiently it simply does not have the money to pay for all the necessary repairs. Genoa is considering placing a road millage on the November ballot, while any such measure in Hamburg would be offered next year. (TD)
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