Perry Township Happenings

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Dear Editor and Perry Township residents:

Under old business at the Nov. 14 Perry Township Board Meeting, trustee Dusty Smith reported that the digging out on Cross Road was completed and a fence was built on Barrett Road. Smith thinks that if he tries he will be able to get both the tractor and mower in the township garage. (I don’t believe the planned garage extension has yet been constructed.)

Moving to new business, trustee Dick Wilson said a resident has requested that a hidden drive – 35 mph sign on Barrett Road be replaced. As the trustees could not recall the sign, the resident, attending this meeting, informed that the sign was plowed over last winter and disappeared in the spring. The township will have the sign replaced.

Wilson also reported that a farmer on Barrett Road has asked if a culvert in front of his property could be widened since he has problems with his equipment when meeting oncoming traffic. The township put a thank you note to Ryan Arledge in the Record-Herald for his Eagle Scout project work on the township hall kitchen. On Election Day many voters noted how nice the kitchen now looks.

The part time hire, J.T., said that a resident posted on Facebook that Ghormley Road looks 99 percent better since the township cleaned up the trash. The trustees then discussed the various problems with trash on township roads.

J.T. reported that the recently purchased pickup truck with a plow dies almost every time it is put in reverse. J.T. said that this will be a problem when the truck is used this winter to help plow snow. He noted that the truck is leaking a little transmission fluid on the garage floor, but thinks it might blow fluid when moving. Smith said that he has checked with the seller and the transmission is not covered by a warranty. He will take the truck to Kevin along with the snow plow truck. Smith wants to get a fan to circulate the warm air in the garage.

The resident who was attending the meeting reported problems with the township mowing alongside her property. Although the mowing looks nice, the operator goes beyond the right-of-way and gets in her fences, cuts over the fences with the arm, and scares her livestock. She has no problems with the mowing if it stays in the right-of-way and the arm does not go over the fences. Trustee Smith said that if the operator went over the fence, he did it as a favor to her as most farmers appreciate the trees being cut over the fences. Smith also said that if mowing stayed within the 16-foot right-a-way, people would ask why they didn’t mow the other two feet to their fences.

The resident said it was difficult for the operator, who runs by the side of the road, to stay within the right-of-way since Bonner Road was widened this summer. She said that in checking with the county engineer, she found that Bonner Road was not to be widened, keeping the most at 16-and-a-half feet. The road now comes to 18 feet at some places. Trustee Smith reinforced that neither the township nor the county approved the widening of Bonner Road and added that any extra cost for this was the responsibility of the paving company. Smith explained that this is why the county has a person overseeing the paving work, to make sure that the township does not have to pay for any unapproved work.

I interjected that at the September meeting it was reported that our township had to pay an extra amount ($10,000) over estimate for paving Bonner Road. Smith informed that this extra amount was because the county engineer department misjudged the length of the project and the discrepancy in price was due to length, not width. The trustees agreed to start board meetings at 6 p.m. instead of 6:30 during the winter time change.

Janet Anderson

Perry Township resident

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