NILES CHARTER TOWNSHIP — The Niles Charter Township Board of Trustees decided to continue providing protections to the municipality’s property and liability while supporting other townships Monday at the Niles Township Hall, 320 Bell Road.

An annual contract with BHS Insurance, which has locations in west Michigan, was renewed in a unanimous vote.

The BHS plan stems from the Michigan Township Participating Plan, or Par Plan, which is meant to provide a stable insurance market for small and medium-sized government entities that would normally have to pay high prices for limited coverage, if they received coverage at all.

“At one time, townships had a really, really tough time finding insurance,” treasurer Jim Ringler said. “Nobody would insure them.”

Ringler also emphasized that choosing to stay with the Par Plan would support other townships. If townships dropped out of the member-driven system, which has 1,300 members, prices would go up and coverage would go down for participating townships.

“As a pool, they treat us very well,” Ringler said. “We get refunds, a lot of times, just by managing risk. I just think it’s important that we support our own townships.”

Supervisor Jim Stover said increases in BHS insurance costs would be minimal.

After trustees approved the insurance contract, they discussed the potential future of the decades-old township hall they conducted the meeting in during comments from the public and committee reports.

Trustee Richard Cooper said the hall likely needed three new furnaces, which he guessed could cost about $20,000.

The board asked Cooper to gather bids on the project to ensure they were getting the best deal.

“The smart thing to do would be go through this building and find everything you’re going to have to do in the next eight years and figure out whether it’s worth it,” Ringler said.

That likely included a basement wall caving in, a lack of space and poor roof insultation on top of a new furnace.

“You got a barn here that’s been added on three times,” he said.

Ringler said the township may be due for a bigger, better hall that would last longer without needing frequent updates, such as furnace fixes.

He envisioned it being more efficient in space and having more room for currently cramped employees, some of whom work outside the hall.

Costs were suggested to be a few million dollars, but Ringler said no taxes would be raised if the such a proposal was ever approved.

Township resident Richard Robb asked the board why they would consider potentially spending money on one building.

Ringler replied that the current hall, nor anyone at the building, would be around a century from now, but a future township staff serving residents would be.

The Niles Township Board will next meet when it hosts a 2020 budget workshop special meeting open to the public at 9 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 7.