MARCH
I would like to thank the volunteers and residents that have been working this winter to provide a break from our monotony with outdoor family events. A few weekends ago organizers held the annual Londo Lake Ice Fishing Tournament. This event began many years ago as a part of the Hale Winterfest and grew into an event of its own. The organizers have prizes and giveaways from donations made by local businesses and sponsors. The kids especially enjoy the time as they have always had trophies and prizes just for kids. This year a new event kicked-off last weekend at Long Lake. Again a group of local residents wanting to break-up the “long winters night” hosted an even on the Long Lake Village cove at the west end of the lake. They had a hockey area, ice skating, sled races and the perennial favorites winter time event, the polar bear swim. There were many brave souls that got into the swim of things and took the plunge. I know our firefighters enjoyed the time as they were able to work with their ice rescue gear and relax with the local residents. The music, warming fires and warmer beverages made the event one to be repeated. Congratulations to both groups and thanks from the community for giving us that much needed wintertime break. I forgot to mention that in addition to these outside gigs, we also had two new inside gigs. The Lions brought a show called Dueling Pianos into the big hall and it was hilarious and entertaining, everyone had a great time and enjoyed the evening. A few weeks later the Hale Education Foundation held a Trivia Night that saw competing tables vying for minutiae dominance. The competition was tight but the winning table, educator heavy, showed their trivia knowledge. Congratulations to the Hale Education Foundation for such a great event to break our winter monotony. We hope to see all these events repeated in the upcoming years.
As the winter wanes remember that the roads are going to get nasty. Rough and soft, muddy and slick so be careful and be patient. The road commission will be out on all of them eventually and they will settle down once the weather stabilizes and the frost goes.
Don’t forget that Board of Review is coming in March and your new notice of assessment is in the mail. You can only protest the assessed value on this notice. The taxable value is set by law. However, if the assessed value drops below the taxable value, the taxable value will drop also. Read the notice and it will tell you how, where and when you can protest these values, and be sure that if you do protest that you have comparable parcels to verify your numbers. Protesting just because you think it is to high is not enough to make a change, you need to prove it is to high in comparison to similar parcels.
Please remember you cannot plow your snow from your driveway across the road. It is illegal to do so and can result in a $500 fine for each occurrence if you’re caught. It causes the road to have speed bumps where the overflow lays in the road causing hazardous driving conditions for other travelers and is dangerous for the plow driver as other drivers on the road are not expecting to encounter a truck, plow or snowblower across the road while traveling. So please keep any snow on your own side of the road.
The new Michigan State Police Hale Detachment is not a manned office. Their offices in our community provide a location for office procedures, report writing, statement recording, scheduled meetings and equipment changeout. You may not be allowed in without an appointment. If you need immediate assistance call 911 and they will direct you or for an appointment call the West Branch MSP desk at (989) 345-0956.
The waste site is open Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 10 AM through 4 PM and Sunday from 9 AM through 2 PM. We are open on Memorial Day, July 4th and Labor Day.
The Garden Club is still looking for anyone interested in assisting them in caring for our planters in the downtown but the person to call is now Kim Kocher(989-899-1066) or Bev Mason(989-305-8823) Again I want to thank these hard working volunteers for what they give to keep our community looking beautiful.
As always if you ever have any questions, comments or concerns regarding our community please contact me. I am in the office Monday – Friday 7:30 – 4:00 at 989-728-2811 or my cell at 989-984-7073 or by email supervisor@plainfieldtwpmi.com.
Fred Lewis – Supervisor Plainfield Township
