Grand Traverse County Road Commission tackles Bluff Road, roadkill issues
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich., (WPBN/WGTU) -- The Grand Traverse County Road Commission met once again to discuss the now decommissioned section of Bluff Road and how to stop people from traveling down it.
Bluff Road closed to traffic on Old Mission Peninsula three years ago due to erosion.
Commissioners initially received bids to install a permanent fence.
But after talks with Peninsula Township Fire, the department is concerned it wouldn’t be able to send its vehicles down the road in case of an emergency.
"In consideration, those ongoing discussions about emergency response from PTFD, concerns for the residents and also the cost of that bid. We're not recommending the installation of the fence at this time,” Grand Traverse County Road Commission Superintendent Jay Saksewski said.
The recommendation commissioners did approve was putting up permanent signage on the north and south sides of the decommissioned road.
Another topic on the agenda was how commissioners should move forward on dealing with roadkill.
It's an issue that commissioners believe leaves their staff liable to be fined by the DNR, even though the road commission has been dealing with this issue for decades.
"Nobody in the local DNR realm wants to be the person to take responsibility for saying that we're not going to get ticketed or that we're not going to get penalized for doing what we do in pursuit of keeping our roads clear,” Jason Gillman from the Grand Traverse County Road Commission said.
Although this was just a discussion, the commission is still standing by its decision to not pick up roadkill until they know for certain no one will be fined.
Commissioners have also brought up the issue to State Representative John Roth, who is actively working to help fix this problem.
