Current and future owners of short-term rentals in Schoolcraft Township must now obtain a license for the business.
An ordinance approved at a July 14 meeting of the Township Boards will require owners to provide information including the owner’s name, contact information, address of the rental property, proof of liability insurance and floor plan.
The short-term rental license is good for three years and then may be renewed. For violating the rules of the ordinance, owners will be fined between $100 and $500 for the first offense and between $250 and $1,000 for a subsequent offense.
The fees for the license application will be set by the Township Board now that the ordinance has been approved.
The ordinance becomes effective 30 days after publication – in mid to late August.
The ordinance will be posted on the Township’s website, schoolcraftownshipmi.gov. Residents may also contact the Township office for a copy of the ordinance.
In other business, the Board approved the Vicksburg Historical Society’s request to conduct tours in the Vicksburg Cemetery on W Avenue on October 3.
The 30-45 minute tours will feature gravesites of Civil War era citizens. Volunteers dressed in Civil War-era attire will be at each gravesite to tell that citizen’s story.
“These tours are very well organized,” said Trustee Tamra Stafford, who is president of the Vicksburg Historical Society.
Information about signing up for the tours and ticket prices will be available at a later date.
“This was very popular last year and we anticipate it will be again this year,” said Stafford.
Treasurer Teresa Scott brought up the issue of archiving township records by having them digitized.
“We will probably shred the old records after we’re done,” she said. “We will not shred anything that is a public record.”
The Board approved having Scott move forward with getting prices for the digitizing process.
The Board also approved an amended investment policy and a draft audit.
Regarding the investment policy, Scott said they needed to add NCUA (National Credit Union Administration) to the document since credit unions are not covered by the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation).
The draft audit was provided by the Portage accounting firm of Siegfried Crandall. The report showed that the Township had a net position of $2,164,835 at the end of the fiscal year in March, 2026.
The Board approved a request from Kalamazoo Experiential Learning Center giving permission for bicyclists participating in the Midwest Tandem Rally to ride through the township the weekend of September 4-7.
“The Road Commission needs a resolution from each Township to allow the riders to ride through the Township,” said Clerk Eska Brown.
Justin Ferrell, parks and recreation director, asked the Board to approve the purchase of a used brush hog from Home Depot at a cost of $1,917. He has been renting a brush hog at a cost of $150 each time.
Trustee Jennifer Sportel said, “Long term, it would be a good purchase.”
After discussing where the funds would come from in the budget, the Board approved the purchase.
Ferrell also reported that fireworks had been set off in the Township Park in violation of the rules which require a permit for the use of fireworks.
He said the park was littered with cardboard and debris following the Fourth of July.
For the Board’s future consideration, he provided a quote from Michigan Security and Lock to upgrade their camera system and to add two cameras. The new cameras would be aimed at the driveway entrance and the parking areas.
With artificial intelligence, the cameras can be told to focus on specific issues such as dogs in the park who are off leash or on license plates of cars in the parking lot.
The board discussed how the Township would respond to the information gleaned from the cameras but made no decision on Ferrell’s request.
Reporting from the South Kalamazoo County Fire Authority (SKCFA), Sportel said they are interviewing people for the administrator’s position. As of the meeting date, four candidates had been interviewed.
She also said that the SKCFA will be discussing how to move forward financially since the departure of Brady Township and Wakeshma Township this year, which leaves only four departments in the Authority: Schoolcraft Township, Village of Schoolcaft, Village of Vicksburg, and Prairie Ronde Township.
During public comment time, Madison Ring, executive director of the Kalamazoo Drop-In Child Care Center, spoke about the countywide child care millage which will be on the August 4 ballot. After providing statistics about child care issues in the County, she explained the three goals of the millage – create more child care openings, lower child care costs, and increase wages for child care providers and teachers.
The cost of the millage for the average homeowner will be about $50 a year, she said.
Randy Thompson, a member of the Board of the Road Commission of Kalamazoo County (RCKC) reported on the compromise reached regarding the removal of trees along county roads. The original plan was to remove 8,000 trees as part of the Safe Streets for All program.
That proposal had drawn significant criticism from residents who had spoken at an earlier township board meeting.
However, Thompson reported the plan has now been scaled back to 4,000 trees.
“It’s a good compromise,” he said, “but not everybody is happy.”
The RCKC has received a $25 million dollar grant from the federal government’s Safe Streets for All program for the project, which is expected to take about four years.
At the end of the meeting, the Board moved into closed session to discuss a personnel issue.
