Not ALL of the projects are bad ideas (Hughes Road repave), but many are. However, this is an all or nothing thing as of now. If you don't want all of these projects or to pay for all of these projects, vote no, and tell them to come back with something reasonable.

I also don't see what's necessarily bad about gravel roads, especially in certain areas. The township manager was complaining about replacing "ball joints". I've done that twice in 19 years of driving on dirt roads, both on older vehicles. Every time I go to my parents house, go hunting, commuted to law school (shortcut),  or go up north, I take dirt roads. You can also get that in potholes too, which happen on paved roads as often as dirt roads, especially if they aren't maintained, and if there's a lot of construction traffic.

The projects are as follows. Costs are estimated by the township (probably on low side).

Crooked Lake - New Paving. $2.8 Million probable cost. From Chilson Road to Lakewood Shores Dr. This is largely farmland here. Part of this is plans with the new I-96/Latson interchange and likely expectations for big developments.

Latson Rd - $1.85 Million. Widening and repave. Legitimate project. It's also one of the less expensive ones proposed.

Beck Rd - $2.95 Million. New Paving, Chilson to Nixon Rd (South end Latson). This is planning due to the Latson Rd interchange.

Conrad Rd (and far end of Challis) - $1.39 Million. New Paving. Clifford to Dorr Rd This one's a waste of money. This is so Oak Pointe (where the Twp Supervisor lives) can have another shortcut to Challis avoiding dirt roads instead of taking the main roads of Brighton or Chilson Rds. You have about two residents on Conrad which don't want the paving. There's no need to pave, widen, and carve up the farmland for the Supervisor's convenience. There's even less need to raise taxes to do so.

Challis/Bauer Rd Roundabout - $1.8-2.3 Million.  Much more expensive than a traffic light.

Herbst Rd - $3.9 Million. New Paving from Grand River to Sylvan Glen. I'm not that familiar with Herbst Road, but it goes in rural areas. It's paved currently from Dorr to Sylvan Glen. I don't see a reason to pave it from a tax standpoint.

Hughes Road - $2.55 Million - Repave. An actual legitimate project.

Bauer Road South - $1.25 Million - Bascially an extension of Cunningham Lake project. Paved from Cunningham Lake/Pine Creek to Hamburg Twp line. Besides taking away from the rural character - Why? There's two houses. Why pave to Hamburg Twp line? Waste of money.

Cunningham Lake and Bauer (North) - $3.65 Million - That's my old neighborhood. Residents have lived here a long time. I've known some of them my entire life. This is what Cunningham Lake Road looks like - same as it did in the 70's and 80's. That road looks in real bad shape, doesn't it. /sarcasm

Combining Bauer and Cunningham Lake's projects, the township wants almost $5 Million in tax money to pave areas that mostly look like this picture (outside of the wetland/swamp between Walnut Hills and Bauer). They want Bauer paved to the township line and Cunningham Lake Rd paved to Stonegate. Cunningham Lake Rd does not need to be widened and paved. Bauer does not need to be paved further.

 From the Bauer standpoint, Pine Creek already has paved access to two main roads and a side road (Bauer). You have few houses there covered with new paving.

Cunningham Lake is the township line past the one big curve. Stonegate is in Hamburg Township. They don't have to pay one red cent for this project if it passes. Walnut Hills, Mystic Hills, and Prairie View also already have paid access to Brighton Rd.

I measured the width of the road. Including the shoulder, it is about 19 1/2 ft. They are proposing two 11 ft lanes, and as far of a shoulder as their right of way allows (6ft each side for Bauer).  Picture that being widened another 10-15ft. Add a lot of concrete gutters and sewer pipes due to drainage issues (will that be followed by sewers and city water?) They also specifically recommended getting rid of the trees. This area recently lost a lot of trees in a tornado. I'm sure they want even more trees cut off their property for a paving project they don't even support. You don't even have to be a treehugger to have a problem with that.

There's also safety concerns. On this road, you have pedestrians (many from the subdivisions), dog walkers, cranes, deer, and hills. People drive fast enough on the dirt road. Many a time have I heard people slam on the brakes during a day to avoid hitting a crane or a deer. If this is paved, you'll see people doing 65 here on the straightaway and someone's going to get hurt, be it a pedestrian or a driver hitting a deer.

1.5 Mills for 15 years for all of this (About $22 Million in projects), most of which is not needed. About 20-25% of this is the Cunningham Lake and Bauer projects.  The only way this will get revised is for this to fail at the ballot box. These road projects are almost always an all or nothing deal. Take nothing for now, and have them come back later with something reasonable. Take out the new pavings and deal with the main roads that are needed to be fixed. Grand River, Chilson, Door, Brighton Rd, Challis, Coon Lake, Hughes, Latson. Not rural country roads.