BEDFORD TOWNSHIP, MI (Toledo News Now) - Emotions ran high at the Bedford Township building as trustees faced off against each other over road improvements.
At a previous meeting township trustees approved a motion to move forward with an assessment proposing that each property owner would pay $75 a year for five years to fix the roads.
At the start of Tuesdays meeting trustee Nancy Tienvieri made a motion to cancel out that recommendation saying taxpayers didn't want it. Tienvieri immediately took criticism from the other trustees.
Trustee Greg Stewart saying, "It's against everything that you have put yourself in the position to support and I do not agree with it."
And trustee Paul Francis saying, "We didn't say we were going to do it! If we rescind that, then there is not purpose at all of having the public hearing because we have already decided not to do it. It's ridiculous! All this is a grandstand approach to get your name on the TV or in the paper and I just really resent that."
Trustee Paul Pirrone defended Tienvieri saying, "If you guys don't feel the same way then you guys need to clean your ears out because it was overwhelming that people didn't want it."
Pirrone and Tienvieri were the only ones to vote in favor of pulling back from the $75 assessment making the assessment still the board's preferred option.
Bedford trustee Rick Steiner says there will still be a public hearing next Tuesday where taxpayers will get a chance to speak either for or against the assessment.
"If that is the overwhelming majority that says no, then we will probably say, 'You know what? After the public hearing, we will probably stop the process,'" said Steiner.
If the $75 assessment is ultimately rejected the board could use money from a rainy day fund to fix the roads for one year.
