Brandon Twp.- Residents and businesses along the M-15 corridor as well as a majority of residents near Bald Eagle Lake and Lake Louise can expect to receive a letter from the township this week, along with a postcard that local officials are hoping will be returned with a yes or no vote.
Township Supervisor Ron Lapp says the correspondence is an informal straw poll, intended to gauge the interest in sewers for about 1,188 parcel owners that would be affected by a designated sewer district.
‘This isn’t definitive,? said Lapp. ‘Filling out the postcard does not commit them to anything… The straw poll is to determine if we want engineers to study the design of a sewer system.?
Lapp estimates the straw poll, which includes postage paid on the return postcards, will cost about $1,000 for the township, several thousand dollars less than what a study by engineers would cost for a public hearing on the issue that may not be needed.
The straw poll of township residents was first proposed at a Jan. 30 wastewater treatment plant study session between village and township officials.
Village officials are ready to pursue a location for a wastewater treatment plant, possibly land recently purchased by the township, and need a plant that would accomodate at least 1,000 units for the village. The township would need about 3,500 units for the proposed sewer district, but Lapp said he was uncertain if township residents were currently ready to commit to sewers. Engineers for the village have said it would not be feasible to build a plant large enough only for the village and then expand it to four times its size at a later date.
Lapp is asking residents to please return the postcards, with a yes or no to sewers.
‘We’d like to get a great return,? he said. ‘It will be a good barometer of what the feeling is out there.?