KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – It appears a struggle between the Road Commission of Kalamazoo County and township homeowners over the fate of hundreds of roadside trees will continue, as the Kalamazoo County board has rejected a resolution that would have put them in the middle of the intense dispute.
After hearing from a dozen local citizens and the impassioned arguments of county board chair Jen Strebs to formally call for a moratorium on the tree cutting, an extensive public engagement process and exchange of data, she could only convince one other commissioner to vote yes for the resolution.
Six others voted no.
This despite altering the document to remove language that would have given the road commission more time to comply and removed language that some said threatened the road board.
In the original resolution, the county board would have taken up the idea of having road commissioners elected instead of appointed, if they failed to comply.
That stirred up opposition from township supervisors, who like the road commission just the way it is.
Supervisors Jeff Sorensen and Jerry Vander Roest say they have gotten great service from this road board, and they don’t want that to change.
Right now the road commission maintains paved surfaces only in the 15 townships.
Electing them would require that voters countywide, including the cities of Kalamazoo and Portage, would also have a say in who got picked, among other complications.
Road commission chair Dave Pawlowski says that would politicize the process.
County board vice chair John Taylor said he could never go along with that.
Taylor says it’s not over, and he pledged to work with all the parties involved to see if they could still collaborate on a solution.
But homeowners were quite disappointed and let the commissioners know it.
Pawloski says the Safe Streets for All grant requires that they make the roads safer, and that’s what they intend to do.
Exactly how the conflict is going to sort out is yet to be determined.
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