TRAVERSE CITY -- Fred Joles doesn't have an answer for constituents who ask him if they'll be taxed to support Grand Traverse County's septage treatment plant.
It's a legitimate question: Officials from the county and five urban townships who oversaw construction of the financially troubled plant are considering an annual property tax assessment on all septic tank owners.
Joles, supervisor of Fife Lake Township, and other leaders of the county's rural townships say they've been left out of the decision-making and information loop, and they're not pleased.
"I need to know how to answer questions coming to our board. I need to know how this assessment is going to work," Joles said during a Thursday meeting with township and county officials.
But answers will have to wait, said one county official in response to Joles.
"Don't tell them anything," said K. Ross Childs, interim manager for the county's Department of Public Works, which operates the plant. Childs said rural townships and their taxpayers need to wait for meetings he plans to schedule at a later date.
But supervisors from those townships are tired of waiting and having to rely on media reports for information, said Green Lake Township Supervisor Paul Biondo.
They've put the county on notice. Joles, Biondo and supervisors from Grant, Long Lake, Mayfield, Paradise, Union and Whitewater townships hired an attorney and warned in a June 15 letter the townships will suspend ordinances that require septage to be treated at Grand Traverse County's facility.
"This has gone on too long; let's get some sensible people around the table and figure this thing out," Biondo said.
The rural townships' letter alleges the county Board of Public Works breached its agreement with them because: it hasn't done a full facility audit in four years; hasn't annually met with the townships; hasn't established charges sufficient to cover plant operation; and hasn't taken control of the plant from the firms that designed and built it.
"I cannot find a single material obligation placed on the BPW that the BPW has fulfilled," wrote attorney Matthew Vermetten, who drafted the letter.
Union Township Trustee Connie Stone said she doesn't understand how the county can set fees for treatment when it hasn't conducted an audit to determine how much treatment costs.
"It's ridiculous," Stone said.
Vermetten also wrote the county misrepresented the plant's cost, cost of treatment and who would pay for it.
The townships of Garfield, East Bay, Elmwood, Acme and Peninsula guaranteed repayment of the $7.8 million loan to build the plant.
"When the five townships thought it was a money-maker they didn't need us, but now they don't make money (and) they want us to come in and help pay for it," said Paradise Township Supervisor Marie Dean.
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