Household Hazardous Waste Day

The Roscommon County Solid Waste Recycling Committee will be collecting household hazardous waste Saturday, September 6, from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., at the Roscommon County Health Department parking lot (please enter from M-18), in Prudenville. They will be accepting aerosols, auto liquids, cleaners, corrosives, fertilizers, glue, herbicides, medicines, oil-based paints, pesticides & solvents (Marked with Caution, Corrosive, Danger, Flammable, Poison, Reactive, Toxic & Warning). We will NOT accept explosives, bombs, fireworks, smoke alarms or smoke detectors. Call for specific handling of these items.

SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
Please keep these items separate from hazardous waste) batteries (all types), cell phones, computers, ink jet cartridges, PAINTS of ALL types (good, usable and container must be at least ½ full), televisions, and TIRES (on or off rims) up to 4 per household FREE, $2.00 each after that. This service is FREE for Roscommon County residents only. This community service is being sponsored by the Crawford-Roscommon Conservation District. For more information, call 989-275-3163.

Q & A

For the residents or visitors that have been consistently reading my blog, do you have any questions about myself or the Village?

Feel free to ask anything & I will post some responses in a Question & Answer post. I would like to hear suggestions, improvements, complaints - anything you may have to share.

Thanks.

E-mail me at tom@roscommonvillage.com


Tom Gromek
Village Manager

Yard/Garage Sale Poll

I added a Poll on the upper right portion of the blog. We just completed our 2nd Annual Village Wide Yard Sale last weekend. All indications our it went well and brought many people into town. However, a few people expressed interest in moving the date of the sale to earlier in the summer.

I encourage everybody to vote in the poll and send comments to me at tom@roscommonvillage.com about how their sale went, along with any suggestions or improvements you may have for our 3rd Annual Sale in 2009.

Thank You!


Tom Gromek
Village Manager

Manager's Report

VILLAGE MANAGER REPORT
August 25, 2008



▪ In order to comply with the State of Michigan Elevator Safety Division, we will be required to update the elevator in our DPW building. I have put a copy of the letter in the communication folder we received in March detailing the process. We had an inspection performed by the State last week, and we will have a few months to complete this work. It will most likely be done by Central Elevator Company.

▪ I continue to pursue ways we can better plan out our future road work. I received an example of the Village of Dexter’s Capital Improvement Plan, which is simple, basic, but a very valuable resource. This work was done with assistance from OHM, a civil engineering firm in the Metro Detroit area.

▪ We are straightening out a matter with the IRS regarding our payment schedule of federal payroll tax money. To sum up a complex issue, we were making monthly payments to the IRS, and we were told this was acceptable. When we were notified we needed to make weekly payments, we immediately followed those orders and have been since this notification took place. We recently received an invoice from the IRS stating we owe them money for penalties. We do have to pay these penalties to the IRS now, but we are disputing these costs, as nobody in this office knowingly violated any rules. The IRS will be reviewing our dispute shortly. I will keep the council updated on this matter.

▪ I will have a brief report on how our Village Wide Yard/Garage/Sidewalk Sale went.




Calendar
August 27th – Planning Commission – 5pm
September 1st - Labor Day – Village Offices Closed
September 8th – Council Meeting – 7pm


Tom Gromek
Village Manager

Council Meeting Agenda - August 25, 2008

Here is the proposed agenda for tonight's council meeting. Agenda items that are bolded will be discussed, while items that aren't bolded are skipped over until a future meeting when new information arises on these topics.


VILLAGE OF ROSCOMMON
MEETING AGENDA
August 25, 2008


1. Call to order, roll call of Council, Pledge of Allegiance and Invocation

2. Approval of the Regular agenda

3. Brief public comment on Regular Agenda items (Two minutes per speaker)

4. Approval of Consent agenda:
Minutes of the August 11, 2008 Regular Meeting, Bills to be paid and Checks written since last meeting.

5. Manager’s Report

6. Council Member reports

7. Unfinished Business:
Sale of Industrial Park Property
Planning Commission/ZBA
Master Plan
Road Project

8. New Business:
Lake & 6th St Project
Fund Balance
MML Representation

9. Public Acknowledgement (Two minutes per speaker)

10. Items for the next agenda:

11. Adjournment

Any Council member shall have the right to submit items for the regular agenda before it is approved.

Community Events Facade

(click on photo to enlarge)

This appeared on the front page of the Roscommon County Herald News this week. Everybody is really excited on the potential for this facade.

Tom Gromek

Village Manager

Village Garage/Yard/Sidewalk Sale

Nicole is currently compiling a list of all the residents and business who signed up for the Village-wide Garage/Yard/Sidewalk Sale which will be taking place this weekend, August 22nd & 23rd(Friday-Saturday).

You may pick up the list of sale locations along with an attached map starting Thursday afternoon and all day Friday. If you want to give Village Hall a call this afternoon or early Thursday morning, there is still time to sign up to be included on this list.

We look forward to a wonderful Village event!


Tom Gromek
Village Manager

Wallace Park

(click on photos to enlarge)

Have you noticed all of the changes at Wallace Park this season? We have a new dock, new stairways, and new bathrooms. Many groups and individuals worked hard to make these improvements a reality. The Roscommon Rotary Club donated the bathrooms, the Roscommon DDA funded the new dock/steps construction, while the Village paid for the new electronic locks, signage, and other miscellaneous items to finish up the project.

All in all, the park looks wonderful, and certainly is a great asset to our community. It is encouraging to see the cooperation between different organizations and individuals for the betterment of the Village. Improving the park did not happen overnight, and it did not happen by accident. With careful planning and dedication from the above mentioned groups, we were able to successfully improve Wallace Park.

I encourage residents and visitors to visit the park during the late summer/fall season, or at the very least, click on the above photos and see the beauty of Roscommon.

Tom Gromek

Village Manager

November Elections

For those who do not have access to the Houghton Lake Resorter, here is an article which deals with the Village elections and who officially filed before the August 12th deadline. I am sure the Roscommon Herald will have coverage on this issue in their next issue, but I thought it would be newsworthy to update residents and interested parties in advance of that.



In other political news, six candidates filed by Tuesday's deadline for four trustee positions on the Roscommon Village Council. On the non-partisan ballot in November for the four-year terms will be incumbents Steven Morris and Joan Murphy and challengers Jerry Cousineau and Michael Butler. Incumbent Don Dixon is not running for another term. Butler, who resigned from his council seat in June, was a councilman in the 1970's and from 1991-95. He was elected to a four-year term in 2001 and was appointed to a vacancy shortly after losing a bid for reelection in 2005.

Seeking a two-year trustee term created by Butler's resignation are appointed incumbent Dawn Dodge and challenger Ivan Willett.

Unopposed for reelection to two-year terms are Village President Jesse Carlson, Clerk Kathy Murphy and Treasurer Janae Ostling.




Tom Gromek
Village Manager

DDA Meeting

The Roscommon Downtown Development Authority (DDA) Meeting is this Monday, August 18th at 8am at Village Hall in the Council Meeting Room. This meeting is always open to the public. They always meet the 3rd Monday of the month at 8am at Village Hall.

As I have touched on before, our DDA is phenomenal in their efforts to improve the downtown through a variety of projects. A major project this year is the DDA Facade Grant Program. Other projects they have done include:

- New Dock & Stairway at Wallace Park
- Lake Street Building Demolition
- Roscommon County Courts Facility Funding
- Downtown Railroad Parking Project
- New Roads in the Industrial Park
- Flowers in the Village

Downtown beautification projects including:
- Sidewalks, lightpoles, trees, flower boxes, brick pavers, landscaped Village of Roscommon welcome signs, lightpole banners & town clock.

So, as you can see, the Roscommon DDA is extremely dedicated to improving our wonderful community.

I encourage any resident to attend a DDA meeting or if you have any comments or questions on the DDA, e-mail me and I can pass them along.


Tom Gromek
Village Manager