NILES CHARTER TOWNSHIP — Niles Charter Township’s board of trustees made its yearly decision to fund some township services Monday evening at its 6 p.m. meeting at Niles Township Hall, 320 Bell Road.

Millages for fire department operating and maintenance, fire department capital improvement and general operating and maintenance were all reapproved unanimously.

The general fund millage was approved in 1978, and the fire department millage was approved by voters in 1987.

Millage rates remained the same as last year.

At the time of publishing, the exact amount of funding had not yet been approved by the township, but assessor Carol Hill estimated one mill to equate to about $400,000, as the township had about $400 million in property value. One mill is equivalent to $1 or every $1,000 of taxable income.

The general fund millage was .8646 mills, on about $345,840. The fire operations and maintenance was 2.5 mills, or about $1 million. Fire capital improvement was .35 mills, or about $140,000. About $400,000, or 1 mill, for police services from the Berrien County Sheriff’s Department was approved.

About $33,000 of streetlight funding was also approved.

Supervisor Jim Stover noted that the police millage will eventually need to be increased if adequate services were to be provided. Treasurer Terry Eull said that fire operations and maintenance would have a shortfall of about $100,000 this year and next.

The board decided to approve the funding as it stood and then consider changing them at a later date when specific funding wants and needs were provided by police and fire.

Trails to be connected

An update on Indiana-Michigan River Valley Trail construction was also discussed at the meeting. Construction is expected to be complete by Oct. 28.

When finished, the dedicated trail will connect Brandywine Creek Nature Park to the trail’s end off of Third Street and US-12 and connect Niles’ city trail.

Included in the new trail is a bridge crossing Brandywine Creek, a fishing platform, benches, a bike rack and a finished trail bed.

The project has been over a year in the making and was delayed by bat roosting habits and initial construction bids that were too high.

Trustee Richard Cooper drove through the construction zone at Brandywine Creek with a cart before the bridge was installed on Sept. 12.

“That is going to be fantastic down there,” he said. “When we went in, it was a hot day. Inside there, it was cool, like it was air-conditioned.”

Cooper drove through the zone to check for tires ahead of the township’s tire pickup event at Niles Township Hall on Saturday, Sept. 14.

He said the Indiana-Michigan River Valley Trail had hundreds of rimless tires along it, but the event filled up a full trailer with tires along the trail and from residents.

“It was wonderful,” Cooper said. “We had so many tires. We had to cram them in.”

Other discussions and decisions at Monday’s meetings included the following:

•Approval of $246,368.83 in expenditures and transfers.

• Approval of certificates of training completion for multiple firefighters through the Niles Township Fire Department.

• An announcement that Stover, Cooper and trustee Herschel Hoese would attend a meeting with the Berrien County Road Department in mid-October.

The announcement came as residents of a township subdivision arrived to ask how much they would need to pay for road improvements.

Niles Township and the road department previously had an agreement made where the county, the township and the residents along a stretch of road needing work would jointly pay for a road project.

Managing director of the county road department Jason Latham allegedly told Stover in an email that this may not be the case for subdivision roads.

Frustration was expressed by board members. Some members saw it as a reversal of a previous stance.

“Quite frankly, I think it’s egregious and greedy on the county’s part to say, ‘No, we’re not going to do their road,’” treasurer Jim Ringler said.

Niles Township does not own its roads and has no designated funds for road projects. Stover, Cooper and Hoese plan to get the county road department to provide partial funding.