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Elaine Bater takes the clerk reins in Lima Township

File photo of Elaine Bater.
File photo of Elaine Bater.

By Lisa Carolin

The Lima Township Board welcomed Elaine Bater to her first meeting as Township Clerk on Jan. 11 after a celebration just prior to the meeting bidding retiring Clerk Arlene Bareis farewell after 38 years in the job.

Another new face at the meeting was Donna Lasinski, who introduced herself during public comment time. She is a candidate for State Representative in the 52nd District. She has been a Scio Township resident for 20 years and is a school board trustee for Ann Arbor Public Schools.

During the Township Supervisor’s report, Craig Maier told all in attendance that he wants Lima Township residents to make sure they are not paying too much in Home Owners Insurance.

“Since Fire Station 2 was built, everybody in Lima Township is now within 5 miles of a fire station and that can save residents $35 to $400,” he said. “It’s worth a call to your insurance agent.”

In other Fire Department related news, the board voted unanimously 5-0 to table a Chelsea Area Fire Authority Cost Recovery Purposed Ordinance Revision, which will mean that all fire departments in the CAFA use the same verbiage so that there are no problems with billing, a problem CAFA recently experienced.

The legal department for the township is working on the verbiage, and the board will vote on it when each member of CAFA adopts a standardized platform.

Getting copies of records from the township if attached to a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request will now come at a cost. The board voted 5-0 to charge 78 cents per parcel only when a request is attached to a FOIA.

“We had a very ugly situation here recently where a foreign-based company out of California used FOIA to get information about residents here so they could send a mailing to homeowners about getting copies of county records at a cost of $83,” said Maier. “All of that is available for free at the county clerk’s Office. These people were using the information for profit.”

In other action, the board voted 5-0 to get the Planning Commission’s input on a Purposed Drainage Ordinance.

The issue is about drain tiles that run through more than one person’s property.

“If someone cuts a line and corks it, it will create an issue upstream,” said Maier.

He used the example of drain tiles across Freer Road.

“When the high school was built it took months to convince the builders that they were the cause of the ‘Freer Lake,'” Maier said.

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