Lyon Township Rejects GLUA Proposed District

April 7, 2022

Katie Birecki, Jacob Johnson,

The Lyon Township Board in Roscommon rejected the Gerrish Lyon Utility Authority’s (GLUA) proposed Special Assessment District for their sewer system project.

The GLUA has been working for 4 years to bring a sewer system to Gerrish and Lyon Townships.

“The proposal is a sewer assessment district or a special assessment district for the funding of this project,” said Lyon Township Trustee and GLUA Board Member Eric Carlson. “The entire project is estimated at $130 million and the special assessment district is essentially what will pay for it, as well as grant funding hopefully from government sources.”

The GLUA brought their proposed district map of where the system would be located to both townships—so far, the Lyon Township board has rejected it.

“We had looked at it, we also had our township attorney look at the resolution based on what they had sent over,” said Lyon Township Clerk Doug Schnell. “We feel that there are things that need to be defined a little better.”

There are two main points Lyon Township wanted addressed: how much grant money will be needed for the project, as well as how are vacant lots assessed in the project.

“We need to address how they’re going to assess vacant properties if there’s an assessment on it,” said Schnell. “Then probably the biggest one is to make sure we get as much grant money as we can for that. What we’re hoping for is that it’s defined better, and that there’s some steps that we know for sure are going to happen as far as trying to secure that grant funding.”

“The GLUA will go back to the drawing board,” said Carlson. “We’ll take in the suggestions that the boards give and rework the district hopefully to reflect what the boards want for that district.”

Gerrish Township will give their opinion on the proposal at their township board meeting on April 12.