CRYSTAL LAKE TOWNSHIP IN BENZIE COUNTY MICHIGAN

MONTHLY BOARD MEETING: 6 p.m. Wednesday, January 21, 2026 at the township hall. The public is welcomed and encouraged to attend. Below is a list of readable/downloadable documents that the Board will use to consider business at hand. Click on underlines for links. Please note that some documents are very long so you might want to think twice before devoting a lot of ink. Please check back because often reports are late but will be posted as soon as they are turned in.

Agenda: Draft 1-21-26
Minutes: 12.17.26 Draft
Correspondence: Gentle/Invocation
Financials: Complete Dec 2025 Reports; Summary Dec 2025 Report; Warrant Report (*)
County Commission: Report
Fire & Rescue: Report
Blight: 2026 Plan; Scope & App't of members (*); Proposed Budget; 1.16.26 Minutes
Budget: Budget Amendments (*) Budget Process Summary; 1st draft of FY 26-27; Proposed Wages & Salaries
Planning & Zoning: Report
Old Business: MSHDA Grant (*)
New Business: 2026 Priorities

POST HOLIDAY TIPS: 1) Holiday lights, such as those strings of Christmas tree lights are recyclable at the township hall. 2) DO NOT DISPOSE OF OLD CHRISTMAS TREES IN OUR LAKES. Click here for the full article. Too many trees dumped in the water become a hazard to fish, swimmers and boaters. Apparently, multiple branches close together make the tree too dense for proper fish habitat, and pesticides sprayed on trees then leech into our "pure" Michigan waters. Suggestions are to --first and foremost-- remove all decorations before you cut them up and disperse pieces in the woods, or add to your already established miscellaneous timber and branch piles for wildlife refuse and eventual decomposition. Also, Northern Disposal in Thompsonville (231-342-6036 or [email protected]) at 7050 Industrial Park Drive takes them. Click here for the full story.

NO NEED TO CALL US IF YOU HAVE ALREADY PAID YOUR TAXES: If you based the amount owed as it appeared on the first tax bill you received, don't call us. Sit tight as we are in the process of mailing out refund checks for the amount you were overcharged. Do not cancel your original check, do not write another check, or pay again online. It is very important that you cash the small check you receive so that our treasurer does not pull out what is left of her hair reconciling the township bank accounts. All help paying the correct amount is appreciated. Still haven't heard what happened? County 12.5.25 press release

IF YOU HAVE NOT ALREADY PAID YOUR TAXES, please find the second invoice in your mailbox marked "CORRECTED" and pay that amount. You can also look up on our website the correct amount under the TAXES page. Due to a benign clerical error, the Benzie Transit millage set for this year was accidentally combined with the higher amount set for next year, thus was set at a higher rate than was levied. You should be invoiced at .4625 Public Transportation (NOT 1.4455). Benzie County is remailing adjusted tax bills this week and many have already received them.

FILL OUT A "GARBAGE & RECYCLING" SURVEY: Benzie, Grand Traverse and Leelanau Counties are updating their Materials Management Plans (MMPs, formerly Solid Waste Plans) by July 2027 to prioritize sustainable practices like recycling and composting, as required by updated state law. The plans will ensure proper management of all non-hazardous materials, establish guidelines for locations, document existing and future infrastructure needs, and define our communities’ goals for a more sustainable approach to materials management. This survey was developed to better understand local and regional governments’ practices and perspectives, and to receive your input on your materials management needs. Use the links below to access the survey which pertains to you. It should only take 8 to 10 minutes to complete: IF YOU ARE A RESIDENT IF YOU ARE BUSINESS/INSTITUTION IF YOU ARE A GOVERNMENT

NURDLES: Tiny plastic pellets that are the basic building blocks of nearly all plastic products, are being dumped into our waterways at alarming rates. This includes Lake Michigan, Crystal Lake and the Betsie River. Nurdles are polluting our wildlife as well as our human bodies endangering us all in ways both documented, and still being investigated. Few governments have begun to address the problem. Read more about them and many other invasives encroaching on our most precious commodity, our water, on our ENVIRONMENT page.

ELECTION RESULTS: We had a single issue on the CLT ballot this last election, regarding the financing of a new Road Commission facility. Use this link to connect to Benzie County election results from November 4, 2025.

ELECTION KUDOS: We received a letter from the Michigan Fair Elections Institute which stated we were among a select group of clerks' offices to receive their Sunlight Award as a Vigilant Steward. Our township was recently recognized as one among 197 jurisdictions to show no duplicate voter registrations. This goes to show how hardworking, integral and efficient our clerk, Judy VanMeter and her deputy, Sondra Halliday, are in keeping records straight and up-to-date. Your election officials are exemplary.

TWP TREES COMING DOWN: We have had a multitude of queries and complaints about the trees currently being bulldozed on properties in close proximity to the township hall. All tree removal is being done under the direction of either the Frankfort City/County Airport Authority, or the Frankfort Pines (assisted living facility.) All inquiries and comments should be directed to them.

SHORT TERM RENTALS PACKETS: Crystal Lake Township's Short Term Rental policy is now in full effect. As of September 15, 2025 at 9:30 a.m., applications for a permit, and updated as of 9.23.25, are downloadable if you click here. For a copied of the Short Term Rental Ordinance [as amended on 9.17.25] click here. To take you to the Short Term Rentals webpage, click here.

ATTENTION CRYSTAL LAKE TOWNSHIP VOTERS: Please check with our clerk or deputy clerk to verify your mailing address. This is especially important if you are on our permanent absentee ballot mailing list. This will help with any confusion with those who have multiple addresses (i.e. alternate winter addresses.) We would also like to update your email and phone numbers, as many are missing from our files. Contact information is [email protected] or [email protected].

ROAD IMPROVEMENTS: Last fall we finished up capping/sealing all our township roads. These are your road millage dollars at work. Here's some background: In November of 2024, the majority of our constituents voted to renew the Crystal Lake Township 5-year (up until 2029) road millage of up to 1.0 millage to maintain/improve the asphalt roads within our boundaries. [Note that this is a different millage from the county-wide road millage.] With the accumulated monies in our dedicated CLT Road Fund, the Benzie County Road Commission applied "chip-n-seal" to the following: Adams, Airport, Bacon, Bellows, Bridge, Carlson, Casey, Cox, Didrickson, Elm, Figg, Forrester, Glory, Graves, Marquette, Martin, Michigan, Mollineaux, Nelson, Nugent, Palcich, Pautz, Robinson, Runway, Shorewood, Sunset, and Thomas. The exact cost billed to us was $772,891.41 and was 99% paid for with taxes already collected. After all the work was completed, the Road Fund was depleted. In order to build it back up for the next round of maintenance --hopefully not scheduled until many years down the road, no pun intended --the CLT Board has decided to continue in 2026 to collect the 1 mill or .9831, with the Headlee Rollback factor applied. Special thanks to our dedicated Road Committee members: Bruce Walton, Al Popp and Judy VanMeter for offering their advice and monitoring the roads, and for the good people at our county road commission for executing the labor.

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES: Click here for our Employment page as we are looking for a few good people: 1) a Deputy Supervisor to learn all duties assigned by law and many more tasks that are "assumed" 😮. It's a golden opportunity to get earn a little salary, be active and get involved on a quarter-time basis with your local government; 2) an Assistant CLT Zoning Administrator, to shadow our current ZA and learn this all-important township job. This is possibly a commitment that could lead to the applicant being hired full time when our ZA retires. We hope for an applicant who already has experience as a ZA. But if not, we appreciate that an applicant will need time to learn the job, thus be provided time and salary as an "apprentice"; 3) several Election workers who are interested in getting trained and taking a shift or two in any future elections. It is serious commitment AND fun! The Township is a congenial, people-and-task based place. Want to know more? We're here to answers questions. And ask anyone who works there about the rewarding experiences of serving our beautiful community.

TRANSPARENCY IS OUR MIDDLE NAME: No secrets. Your local government reps at CLT want you to know what we know, what we do, what we are planning. If an issue takes you by surprise, maybe that's because it has taken us by surprise but it is not because we are trying to keep secrets. Democracy needs not only our board and staff members but also our constituents to be interested, involved and informed. It is true, but ironic, that in this day and age of so many different types of non-stop-in-your-face media we are still having trouble communicating with one another. We are on the record as very much wanting to communicate with our residents. How do we currently do that? We send out newsletters twice a year. We update this website several times a week. Draft and, later, approved minutes are always on our website to read or download. If you stop by, we're ready to answer your questions in person. We also video record view CLT Board meetings which you can then view via our YouTube channel. Every once in a while we screw up the mechanisms of videoing, but we only do that rarely and as a result, you have access for your viewing pleasure to official board business as it was being decided. If you have any other suggestions on how to share township information with you, we are all ears.

THOUGHTS ABOUT YOUR TOWNSHIP BOARD: Political geography in America today is largely defined by a variegated patchwork of rural red and urban blue localities. Given this, one might expect most local governments to be dominated by one political ideology or the other. And yet, a recent survey --taken by Civic Pulse and supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York (CCNY)-- of elected officials from counties, municipalities, townships, and school boards reveals this is far from the case. They found the majority (58%) have some degree of ideological pluralism represented on their board. Crystal Lake Township is reflective of that majority. Not only do we have a mix of party affiliations, we have a mix of world views, outlooks and opinions within those party labels. The important thing is whether we are representing the township constituency and doing our work to serve you in a respectful, legal and ethical way.