FRUITPORT CHARTER TOWNSHIP, Mich. — A crumbling Muskegon County roadway has long prompted complaints from locals.
Now that plans are in place to fix it, some Fruitport Township homeowners were surprised to learn who would cover the cost.
“The road is in bad shape and has been for years and it's needed to be redone. We've been calling.”
That’s roughly 25 years of rough experiences driving down Kendra Road.
When it comes to navigating rough roads, Donna Wilson has some 25 years of experience under her belt.
Yet, the Kendra Road homeowner never expected the township to ask herself and her neighbors to help foot the bill when it finally came time to make the fix.
“The road has been deteriorating all this time and they've had all this extra development,” Wilson said. “I thought all along, that would be paid for by our tax dollars.”
“I feel bad for the residents,” Fruitport Township Supervisor Todd Dunham related. “I've apologized to them for this having gone on so long. It's in shambles.”
Dunham admitted the can had been kicked down the proverbial road for too long.
Without a dedicated road millage on the books, however, Dunham said he had to find the money elsewhere.
“It's fair,” he said of the township’s plans to fund the repairs. “I can't find any other any other way to do it except for the way we're doing it.”
Under the plan currently in place, Fruitport Township would pull approximately 25% of the project’s more than $200,000 total cost from its general fund, leaving Kendra Road homeowners and businesses on the hook for the other 25%.
The county road commission would make up what’s left, paying the maximum 50% allowed under the law.
“We're anxious for it to happen because we've been spending a fortune out there trying to at least keep it passable,” Ken Hulka, the Commission’s managing director related. “It's not pretty, but it's passable.”
Despite concerns regarding how the Township planned to fund the work, special assessments, Hulka said, were fairly commonplace elsewhere, especially in communities without a specific millage designed to cover the costs associated with such projects.
The work on Kendra Road would occur via the establishment of a ‘special assessment district,’ under which most would be required to pay approximately $500 in extra taxes, which could be assessed over a five year period.
For condo owners who live in the nearby Stillwater development, the cost would be $175.
“That's probably the best scenario is a split cost,” Hulka explained. “Truthfully, local roads, the people should have been paying something for them since the law changed in the 1930s.”
Pointing to concerns raised years earlier amid zoning changes and new development, Wilson wants greater transparency.
She suggested Fruitport Township residents be assessed equally, not merely local homeowners, given the road is public and frequently utilized.
“Particularly during a time when things are getting more expensive, the road has deteriorated to this point and with all the extra development, how many years before it has to be done again,” Wilson questioned. “How much will we be asked to pay then?”
Special assessments require petitions signed by the majority of those affected prior to their establishment.
If Fruitport Township receives that approval, it said it expected the project to launch within several months.
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