Council appoints Flath: A motion was barely made by Ortonville Village Council member Mary Kassuba, before President ProTem Kay Green seconded the appointment of Bob Flath to fill a seat left vacant by Gina Joy Roemer.
Roemer resigned her seat to move out of the area. Flath will fill the seat until the next election, at which time he must run in the election.
Flath said he is very pleased the council gave a unanimous approval to the appointment.
Both Village President Sue Bess and Village Manager Paul Zelenak say Flath’s ideas will be a nice addition to the council.
Flath says he plans on asking a lot of questions.
President ProTem appointed:
By a unanimous decision, council member Kay Green was re-appointed President ProTem of the village council. Each April the council appoints one of its members so that when the president is absent, the protem presides at council meetings and exercises the duties of the president.
Main Street Conference:
Council approved to send village manager, Zelenak to the National Main Street Conference, scheduled for May 9 through the 12. The conference is held in Albuquerque, New Mexico and with $700 left in the manager’s yearly education budget, renewable in July, the council unanimously voted to pay the air fare, and hotel for the three day conference. Zelenak was granted a scholarship from Oakland County to off set the conference cost and while Zelenak offered to use his personal vacation time, to attend the conference, the council voted for him to keep his vacation time for personal use.
Council approves Fire Department list: After Brandon Fire Chief Bob McArthur won township approval for the purchase of a $310,543 pumper truck that is scheduled to be completed in Dec. 2004, the village council unanimously approved the purchase.
The new pumper will be housed at Station 1 and the current rig will be transferred to Station 3, when it’s completed.
McArthur said Station 3 is scheduled for completion around January 5, 2005 but appears to be ahead of schedule at this point.
‘They got an early start on it and are already setting the trusses, which means it should be enclosed by the end of this month.?
The chief also won a nod from the council for the township approval of a credit card to be placed in the chief’s department. McArthur will be the only fire department member authorized to use the card for emergency, or cost effective purchases for the department.
An $8,654 request to renew the technical service agreement with Medtronic, for a two year agreement for technical support was approved by council.
The medtronic agreement will allow for annual inspection, site repair, battery replacement, which the chief says returns the majority of the maintenance cost, verification of instrument calibration, and loaner for off site repairs on the 7 EKG units and charging systems.
DDA gets approval for bond:
Council approved to support the Downtown Development Authority’s continued effort to apply for the re-issuance of an outstanding 15 year bond to reduce the interest rate on an existing improvement bond.
‘This is like refinancing your home loan,? said Village President Sue Bess. ‘The bottom line is the DDA is going to save the village $16,000, which we could use in the downtown area.?
Bess thanked DDA President Robert Renchik for being instrumental in processing the bond renewal.