Jackie Lallier
Wyoming Township Reporter

Resident Sean Wagner attended the Tuesday, Jan. 9th meeting of the Wyoming Town Board to continue his complaint regarding the trees and vegetation removed by the township from his property following reports of branches of trees hitting vehicles on the road.

Wagner contends he should have been notified in accordance with state statute before the clearing was done and is seeking compensation for the trees and remnants from the wood.

Since there seemed to be a question of exactly where the right of way exists, a surveyor visited the area and found the actual "center line" is six feet "off" from what the township map shows.

In the past, the township has not notified property owners when clearing roadside brush and was not aware of any law to notify residents of intentional clearing.

It was reiterated last week that this work is done by using rental equipment and is done during a short time period in the township's clearing time of year.

State law requires 14 days notice be given for clearing on platted right of ways and addresses "town" roads. Wagner's trees were in a non-platted area but the town board agreed the township should have a notification policy.

Board member Pat Fandel recommended the township find out exactly how many trees were in the right of way, it should be determined how many trees were outside the right of way for compensation purposes and that Wagner should receive an apology.

Wagner said he does not want to take up any more town board time but would like to get a couple of estimates for trees from nurseries and investigate if the township can obtain them for a lesser amount of money. He said he would like to "work with the Board and get this squared away."

Since Wagner did not receive the remnants of the wood, the township agreed they can get him an appropriate amount of wood chips that he would have used for mulch.

Wagner was agreeable to this solution and will work with Street Superintendent Byron Olson to plant the trees in the spring. In order to make sure this plan goes through (in the case of the city/township merger soon), a motion was made and passed for this project to be on record.

Another motion passed to make a policy of following state statutes in regard to right of ways and clearing of trees.

Other news

The Wyoming Township Planning Commission has been invited to attend the Wyoming City Planning Commission meeting on Monday, Jan. 22nd when they start working on the comprehensive plan update.

An announcement was made that the park and recreation board has two positions that are up for reappointment if applied for, plus a one-year unfilled seat and a two-year unfilled seat.

The planning commission also has two positions up for reappointment if applied for, plus a two-year unfilled seat.

Township elections for the town board seats now held of Ron Swenson and Jeff Eiffler was open for filing from Jan. 2 through Jan. 16.

Top of Page