Niles Charter Township is moving forward with a plan to place a special assessment on the August election ballot in order to fix township roads.

Although the numbers haven’t been finalized yet, the board discussed going with a special assessment of approximately $75 a year from each of the township’s 6,610 parcels.

It would generate roughly $500,000 a year over the next 10 years or so.

Township Clerk Terry Eull said they would include language that would allow the township to adjust the dollar amount taken from each parcel downward in case they receive additional road funding from the state in the future.

The prospect of placing a special assessment on the ballot was discussed during a special meeting Friday morning at township hall.

No action was taken because Trustee Herschel Hoese and Treasurer Jim Ringler could not attend the meeting.

The board plans to vote on whether or not to place the special assessment on the ballot at a special meeting scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday. It is open to the public.

Eull said the township has to take action by Tuesday afternoon in order to get the millage on the August ballot.

Approximately 20 people were in the audience at Friday’s meeting, which included an explanation of road funding and maintenance by Louis Csokasy, managing director of the Berrien County Road Commission — the governmental body responsible for maintaining Niles Township roads.

Csokasy said the road system in Berrien County is “really challenged.”

“We don’t have the resources to upgrade roads that need to be upgraded or maintain roads that need to be maintained,” he said. “That forces us to make choices.”

Those choices, he said, are based on two things: the condition of the road and how much traffic a particular road gets.

“There are no special deals for anybody,” he said.

Csokasy essentially said if Niles Township residents want anything other than their main roads fixed, they are going to have to come up with the money themselves through a millage or special assessment.

Eull said if the special assessment were successful, 100 percent of the money would stay in the township. The township, he said, would get to decide which roads to fix and in what order, with input from residents.

“We (the board) would like to see it happen,” Eull said. “We really would.”

If the special assessment passes, Stover said work could begin some time next year.

Eull said something needs to be done because the township cannot rely on the state for funding anymore.

Friday’s meeting was prompted by the failure of the state’s road funding proposal in Tuesday’s election.

Also Friday, residents from the Mission Hills subdivision off Niles-Buchanan Road in west Niles Township talked about the poor condition of their roads. Csokasy said the roads there are in such bad shape that they would have to be ground up and turned into gravel roads.

Some Mission Hills residents discussed going for their own special assessment in order to fix their roads.

Stover set a meeting about the Mission Hills roads for 7 p.m. May 21 at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1409 Niles-Buchanan Road, Niles.