Crockery, Spring Lake voters to see millage proposals Tuesday
Fri, Aug 1, 2008 
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BY MARK BROOKY
mbrooky@grandhaventribune.com
Voters in Crockery and Spring Lake townships will each see a township millage proposition on their respective Aug. 5 primary election ballot.
In Crockery Township, voters will be asked to add up to 0.33 mill for 10 years for road maintenance work. The levy would add $24.75 a year to the property tax bill for a home with a taxable value of $150,000.
According to the ballot language, the millage revenue would provide for the acquisition and application of brine for roads in the township and other road maintenance. Crockery Township Supervisor Leon Stille said most of the revenue from the special tax would be absorbed by brining work, which is the application of oil byproducts and other solutions to gravel roads two or three times a year to control dust.
"We have 32 miles of gravel roads in Crockery, some of which are extremely busy as connectors" to main roads and highways, Stille said.
Brining was stopped a couple of years ago, Stille said, because the township had to trim and eliminate some expenditures after township voters rejected five millages — including one to fund brining roads — in 2006 in order to balance the budget. Since then, the supervisor said, many township residents have complained about the dusty roads.
Should the millage be passed next week, any revenue over costs for brining would be put into a road maintenance fund, Stille said.
In Spring Lake Township, voters will be asked to renew a 0.2271 mill for six years to support the Tri-Cities Historical Museum. The levy is about $17 of the annual property tax bill for a home with a taxable value of $150,000.
The township estimates the millage will provide nearly $155,000 to the museum in 2009.
Spring Lake Township voters, which includes Spring Lake Village residents, narrowly passed the museum millage in 2004 for a four-year period.
Similar museum millages are in place in Ferrysburg, Grand Haven city and Grand Haven township. Those three communities passed six-year millages in August 2006.
