By Sue Moore
The Schoolcraft Village Council has pledged $2500 for the 89th annual July 4th celebration even though they only have $1250 budgeted for it this year.
The organizing committee for the event, led by Jon Krum, made the request for the additional funds at the council’s recent meeting. Other monies which help offset the cost of about $10,000 for the fireworks come from donation jars around the community.
Village president Keith Gunnett told the group the village would try to find enough money to fulfill the request.
Krum also said that Chip Mongrieg who has been in charge of the fireworks for 16 years is retiring and turning the job over to his assistant, Randy Palmer.
Gunnett urged Krum to recruit new volunteers so the event would continue far into the future. Krum said they were actively seeking new people.
The Village has also accepted the responsibility of sponsoring the Car Show in Burch Park as part of the July 4th festivities, an event previously sponsored by the Kiwanis Club.
“We don’t have a budget for it, so we are hoping to break even,” Cheri Lutz, village manager said. There will be a DJ, door prizes, lots of old cars with registration beginning at 6 a.m.
Lutz and the other village employees are looking for community volunteers for the event.
In other discussion, Gunnett asked village clerk/treasurer, Faith Akert, to explain the error in Best Way’s billing which led to the village being billed $9,000 for the spring clean up, an amount that was way over budget.
“Best Way acknowledged an error in their computation and adjusted the cost down to $4,948, a 58 percent increase over last year and $1,748 over what we had budgeted for 2014,” said Akert. “Their tickets showed they had the tonnage so we couldn’t argue any further.”
Lutz said that maybe people from outside the village dropped off their refuse.
“We’ve got to get more control over the situation,” she said. “It’s a great program but we are going to look at other options in order to afford it in future years.”
In other business, Lutz reported on a barn at 311 Robinson Street that council members had been concerned about because of its deteriorating condition.
“We had it inspected and since it is closed now to casual entry, they wouldn’t declare it a dangerous structure,” she said.
A structure at 123 E. Eliza, has been declared dangerous, however, and the bank is waiting for approval to hire contractors to fix it up, she said.
Lutz urged council members to educate themselves and the community to get out and vote in the primary on August 5, on Proposition I which asks voters to approve the removal of the personal property tax on businesses.
“We are still concerned about how this money will be replaced for local government,” she said. “We have been assured that it will actually be increasing by 2 ½ to 3 percent possibly, but there are no guarantees.”