Township residents raise infrastructure concerns
Township residents raise infrastructure concerns
Road not paved in nearly 60 years
By GARRETT NEESE, DMG Writer
PORTAGE TOWNSHIP — A treacherous road and a sometimes marshy subdivision were on Portage Township residents’ minds at Monday night’s monthly board meeting.
Residents Carl Laitila and John Bukovich addressed the board regarding the Corner Road, a 3-mile stretch divided equally between Adams and Portage townships.
Laitila said the county had done no work on the road since its creation in 1948.
“All we get is the runaround — pushed back, pushed back,” he said.
The county is currently tearing up the existing blacktop to install gravel, which Bukovich took as a step backwards.
“I would never have built a home in there if I knew it was going to go to gravel,” he said.
While new blacktop work on the road is currently slated for 2009-10, Supervisor Bill Bingham said he would talk with Adams Township’s supervisor to get the road moved up on the township’s priority lists. Additionally, he said, the Houghton County Road Commission has been good about working with the township on projects.
“I would think you’d want to do it all at once, rather than piecemeal,” he said.
Also Monday, the board voted to meet with the township lawyer regarding the installation of a drainage ditch in the Isle Royale Estates.
Township resident Robert Roose said a culvert put in before the construction of homes on the property has resulted in rainwater collecting in residents’ yards, located downhill.
“It goes through our yards ... because there’s no collection of that drainage water,” he said.
The proposed ditch would run 1,256 feet. Every neighbor he’s talked to agrees there is a need for it, Roose said.
Roose said he would be willing to help in any way possible.
“I’d run the excavator, but you probably won’t let me, since I’m not an employee,” he said.
In other action, the board:
• submitted a wishlist of $723,900 in capital items to Rural Development. Items include $155,900 to reassess the township; $110,000 for a concrete base, new lighting and new boards for the Dodgeville Ice Rink; and $108,000 for road paving in Hurontown and Dodgeville.
• appointed Edrenea “Urda” Ferency to the Portage Lake District Library Board of Trustees.
Ferency has lived in the township for six years, and worked at the library’s youth services area for more than a year.
“I am deeply committed to the success of the library and would be honored to be a trustee,” she wrote.
Garrett Neese can be reached at gneese@mininggazette.com.
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