AP file photo of an old home in Michigan that is now considered blight.

ALPENA – The Alpena Township Board of Trustees is going to wait before deciding to move forward with a proposed millage that would help the township address its blight issue.

The board did not establish a millage amount, but it is possible it could be for .50 of a mill and the trustees voted to table the proposal until its next meeting. The trustees have until mid May to approve the ballot language and have it sertified by the township or county clerk to be on the August ballot.

During its meeting on Monday, the idea of a blight millage was introduced to the board. Trustees Russ Rhynard and Norm Poli previously formed a committee to ponder ideas for blight enforcement and the idea stemmed from the committee, although there were some on the committee who were not in favor of the proposed tax.

Blight enforcement is the municipal process of identifying and remedying properties that degrade community quality of life, safety, or property values. It involves enforcing local ordinances against issues like overgrown lawns, junk accumulation, abandoned vehicles, and dilapidated structures.

Enforcement usually involves inspections, warnings, fines, potential remediation, as well as the costs of cases that wind up in court.

The legal council for Alpena Township, Tim Gulden, explained why the idea of a millage proposal regarding blight enforcement was brought to the table.

“Russ and Norm formed a committee to look at ideas to improve blight enforcement, and how to deal with the ongoing issue,” Gulden said. “The idea of a possible millage proposal for this year’s election came up, and I was directed to prepare the resolution that will call for a millage proposal.”

“The amount of the millage was left blank to allow for discussion,” Gulden added.

Rhynard discussed the reasoning behind the possible millage proposal to deal with the blight issue within the township.

“We have a lot of complaints about blight, I’m not sure the exact list but I believe it is fairly sizable,” Rhynard said.

At which point Alpena Township Supervisor Abbi Kaszubowski offered some specific numbers.

“When we left off in the fall, we had 42 or 43 blight complaints.” she said.

A blight committee was formed in the fall to discuss different options for improving blight enforcement. That committee came up with a half mill for two years as a possible remedy.

“We are looking for something specific so that we can fund blight enforcement in a way that will allow us to take better action on some of the most difficult cases,” Rhynard said.

Poli went into further detail on the thinking behind the millage proposal and their goals to combat the issue.

“If in these two years we go out and do a good job and get some of these things cleaned up it will be up to the people if they want to continue with this process and move forward,” Poli said.

Kaszubowski broke down the numbers for a half a mill and what that would generate currently in relation to this year’s taxable value.

For a home valued at $100,000, with a taxable value of about half that, it would cost a property owner $25 a year, if the millage becomes a reality.

“Based on this year’s taxable value a half a mill would be $229,269 and some change per year,” Kaszubowski said.

Township Clerk Michelle Palevich questioned how the enforcement would be devised.

“I guess I want to know how we plan on spending that money, that is a lot of money, are we hiring someone full time, which we know is at least $100,000 to hire another employee, or what is the plan,” Palevich said.

Kaszubowski discussed the issues with blight enforcement she has experienced, and the costs and fees associated with the process.

“The blight case that Tim (Gulden) did the work on recently was months of trying to just get us to that point,” Kaszubowski explained. “It’s not like you just knock on their door and ask them to clean up and they say yeah I will get right on that.”

After much discussion, it was determined that the board would table any proposal for a blight enforcement millage, to allow members of the board to consider all the pertinent information.

The board also agreed on ensuring that any blight enforcement millage is not on the same ballot if a fire millage is brought forth at the same time, out of fear a second millage request could jeopardize the passage of the fire millage.

Late last year, Alpena Township Fire Chief Tim Baker recommended the board seek a new 3.6 mills tax for fire department operations and equipment. If approved, it would replace the current 1.4953 millage

For a house valued at $100,000 and a taxable value about half that amount, it would cost a property owner about $180 a year for the new fire millage.