By Teddy Rydquist
Leader Staff Writer
Their second of the calendar year, the Oxford Township Board of Trustees held their regular meeting on Wednesday, February 10, which was conducted remotely via Zoom video conference.
Headed by Supervisor Jack Curtis, the meeting, as usual, featured Trustees Rod Charles, Bill Dunn, Jon Nold, and Margie Payne, Treasurer Joe Ferrari, and Clerk Curtis Wright, with Communications and Grants Manager C.J. Carnacchio and Deputy Clerk Susan McCullough also in attendance.

First reading of food truck ordinance
Officially titled “Ordinance 135,” Nold read what this would entail.
“This will be a newly-created chapter to the Oxford Township code. The purpose is to regulate mobile food truck establishments, mobile food truck establishments would be approved to operate in all zoning districts. This proposed general law ordinance has approved by the following: Ordinance Review Committee, Planning Commission, Township Attorney, and the Oxford Fire Department.”
Moved by Ferrari and seconded by Nold, the board voted, 7-0, to set a second reading for possible adoption during the March meeting.
Even though he voted “yes,” Dunn stated he doesn’t particularly agree with the ordinance but did not elaborate why.

Sharpe engineering report
Township Engineer Jim Sharpe joined the meeting to deliver his monthly report, which contained one piece of information.
“Oxford Township was selected by Egle to perform a (Clean Watersheds) Needs Survey with regards to the water system,” he began. “This is a way that the state then submits, they select certain communities around the state, they submit it to the federal government, that’s how they get a lot of their funding.
“Myself and Connie Sims from the WRC (Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner’s Office) are working on that Needs Survey to put that together, so, there will be a little bit of time expended on that.”

Cemetery maintenance contract
Curtis and Wright met with Sean Vidican of Aaron’s Lawn in Order, who has handled the maintenance at the North Oxford, Oxford Township, and Ridgelawn Cemeteries since 2018, to discuss a new contract with the company.
Vidican proposed increasing the annual amount of the contract from $58,400 to $68,400. In return, he will provide the snowplowing services and topsoiling of the new gravesites, in addition to his regularly scheduled maintenance.
The board unanimously agreed to the terms of the contract, which became effective on February 10 and will last through December 31, 2023.

Gypsy moths
Outbreaks of gypsy moths, which pose a problem because their caterpillars defoliate trees, leaving them vulnerable to diseases and other pests, eventually resulting in the death of said trees, began to occur in the Lower Peninsula in the mid-1980s.
By the early-2000s, their population was under control, but the number has been steadily increasing again since 2019.
Terry L. Gibb, from Michigan State University’s extension program in Macomb County, joined the meeting and informed the board of how suppressing these populations is done. Utilizing an airplane, a chemical called Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki HD-1, Btk for short, is sprayed on the trees.
Addressing a common concern, Gibb reassured the board the chemical is target-specific, and does not pose a threat to people, dogs, or even other insects.
With prices for this aerial spraying coming in at well over $100-per-acre, Charles and Wright, members of Oxford Township’s Gypsy Moth Program, said they would formulate a recommended plan of action to be presented at the March meeting.
Time: The meeting took two hours and one minute to complete.

Up next
The next Oxford Township board meeting will occur on Wednesday, March 10 at 6:30 p.m.
Information on how to access these virtual meetings is available on the township’s website, oxfordtownship.net.