News
Public Notice: Zoning Ordinance 6.02A Modification
NOTICE
During its Regular Meeting on December 20, 2023, the Watersmeet Township Board of Trustees finalized and approved language modifying the Watersmeet Township Zoning Ordinance. Specifically, Section 6.02A has been modified to read as follows:
6.02A Primary uses (Without Special Approval)
11. A Seasonal Trailer Coach may be on the property year-round provided that the trailer coach maintains
current registration and license plates and provided the trailer coach remains road worthy.
The entire ordinance can be viewed at the Watersmeet Township office, N4689 1st Street, Watersmeet, Michigan on weekdays from 9 am to 3 pm. The modifications to Section 6.02A will become effective 30 days from the date of this posting (3/21/24).
Questions or comments may be forwarded to Julie Mathiesen, Watersmeet Township Clerk, P.O. Box 306, Watersmeet, MI 49969.
PUBLIC NOTICE: Proposed Fiscal Year 2024-2025 Budget
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING
FOR
WATERSMEET TOWNSHIP
The Watersmeet Township Board of Trustees will conduct a public hearing on Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at 4:30 PM. The hearing will be held at the Township Community Center, located at N4689 1st Street, Watersmeet, MI. The purpose of the hearing is to review the proposed Fiscal Year 2024-2025 budget and support the Truth-in-Taxation process. The property tax millage rate proposed to be levied to support the proposed budget will be a subject of this hearing. The regular monthly Board of Trustees meeting will be held after the hearing with the budget approval as an agenda item.
Copies of the proposed budget will be available at the Township Offices, also located at N4689 1st Street, after March 18, 2024. Comments on the budget will be accepted at the hearing or can be submitted in writing to Julie Mathiesen, Watersmeet Township Clerk, P.O. Box 306, Watersmeet, MI 49969.
PUBLIC NOTICE: Watersmeet Township Board of Review
PUBLIC NOTICE
Watersmeet Township
Board of Review
Organization Meeting:
March 5th, 9:00 a.m.
First Meeting:
Monday, March 11th, 3:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Second Meeting:
Friday, March 15th, 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Meetings take place at:
Watersmeet Township
Community Center
N4689 First Street, Watersmeet MI
Notice of Public Hearing: Watersmeet Township Master Plan
PLANNING COMMISSION
Public Hearing
Date: Wednesday, March 13, 2024
Time: 5:00PM
Location: Watersmeet Community Center
Purpose of Hearing:
5PM Public Hearing: The purpose of the hearing is to allow public review and comment on a revised Watersmeet Township Master Plan. Watersmeet township is providing this notice of public hearing in accordance with the MICHIGAN PLANNING ENABLING ACT Act 33 of 2008, Section 125.3843.
Both the Planning Commission and Township Board have approved a proposed final draft of the revised Master Plan. We encourage attendees to read this ahead of time and be prepared with written comments.
Public Hearing Agenda:
a. Call to Order and Roll Call
b. Summarize Purpose of Meeting
c. Enter Public Hearing
d. Public Comment – 3 minutes each. State name and address for the record.
e. Exit Hearing
f. Planning Commission Deliberation.
g. Adjournment
New Search Engine Added to Website
A new search engine has been added to the Watersmeet website which now allows a user to search for key words not only in pages and posts but documents as well.
We hope you will find this addition helpful when navigating the website.
Gogebic County Public Notice – Establishment of Early Voting
In November 2022, Michigan voters approved a constitutional amendment that gives voters the right to vote early and in person before statewide and federal elections. Early voting takes place for a minimum of nine consecutive days, ending on the Sunday before an election. Early voting sites must be open for at least eight hours each day during the early voting period.
At least one early voting site must be available to all voters in every city and township. Local clerks may partner with other cities and townships, or their county, to run an early voting site together. This decision is based on population density, site accessibility, and expected voter turnout.
For the 2024 election year, Watersmeet Township has partnered with Gogebic County and several other townships to share a single early voting site, located at the Gogebic County building in Bessemer. Voters from more than one precinct, city, or township can vote at this single site. The schedule for early voting at the Bessemer site is below.
Election Day in-person voting for Watersmeet voters will continue to be held on election day, at the Watersmeet Township Community Center. Absentee voting will continue as it has in the past.
For additional information about early voting, please visit the Michigan Secretary of State website at: https://www.michigan.gov/sos/elections/voting/early-in-person-voting, or contact Julie Mathiesen, Watersmeet Township Clerk, at 906-358-4501.
GOGEBIC COUNTY PUBLIC NOTICE
ESTABLISHMENT OF EARLY VOTING
To All Qualified Electors in Gogebic County
Notice is hereby given by resolution of the Gogebic County Board of Commissioners under authority granted in Public Act 81 of 2023, that the location of early voting site for all Federal and Statewide election dates will be the following:
| Name: | Gogebic County |
| Address: | 200 N. Moore Street |
| Conference Room (Basement) | |
| Bessemer, MI 49911 |
All qualified electors in Gogebic County have the right to mark a ballot and deposit the ballot in a tabulator beginning the second Saturday before an election and ending the Sunday before the election. Early voting will be available at the early voting site for the following (CST) hours:
| Saturday | Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
| 8:30-4:30 | 8:30-4:30 | 8:30-4:30 | 8:30-4:30 | 8:30-4:30 | 8:30-4:30 | 8:30-4:30 | 8:30-4:30 | 8:30-4:30 |
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the Clerk’s Office at 906-663-4518: Email: clerk@gogebic.gov
Watersmeet Fire Department Emergency Response Call Statistics – 2023
Watersmeet Fire Department Emergency Response Call Statistics
2023
| Month | EMS | Fire | Auto | Snowmobile | ATV | Total Runs | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 | Year To Date | 189 | 33 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 215 |
| December | 17 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 18 | |
| 16 | November | 11 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 13 |
| 15 | October | 13 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 18 |
| 14 | September | 20 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 26 |
| 08 | August | 29 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 32 |
| 07 | July | 20 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 20 |
| 06 | June | 7 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 9 |
| 05 | May | 14 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 17 |
| 04 | April | 15 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 17 |
| 03 | March | 20 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 20 |
| 02 | February | 11 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 11 |
| 01 | January | 12 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 14 |
Notice of Public Hearings: Zoning Board of Appeals 1/11/24
NOTICE OF HEARING
The Watersmeet Township Zoning Board of Appeals will conduct a hearing on Thursday January 11, 2024 at 6:00PM in the Watersmeet Township Community Center, N4689 1st Street, Watersmeet, MI. The purpose of the hearing is to consider a dimensional variance requested by Gary Dalsbo to replace a dock at 21935 Crooked Lake Rd. Parcel No. 27-06-57-001-200, in Watersmeet Township. The variance request involves the minimum distance of a dock from a property line.
The public may express its views at this hearing or send written comments to: Chairperson, Watersmeet Township Zoning Board of Appeals, PO Box 306, Watersmeet, MI 49969 by Monday January 8, 2024. Documents associated with the variance request may be examined during normal business hours at the Watersmeet Township offices, also located at N4689 1st Street.
THE COMMUNITY CENTER IS HANDICAP ACCESSIBLE
NOTICE OF HEARING
The Watersmeet Township Zoning Board of Appeals will conduct a hearing on Thursday January 11, 2024 at 7:15PM in the Watersmeet Township Community Center, N4689 1st Street, Watersmeet, MI. The purpose of the hearing is to consider two variances of the Watersmeet Zoning Ordinance requested by Mark and Diana Sullivan at N3716 Musky Rd. Parcel No. 27-06-30-502-720, in Watersmeet Township.
The first variance request is a Dimensional Variance of setback requirements for a garage from a property line. The second variance request, a Use Variance, is to allow the use of an outfitters tent on a permitted structure on the property during and post construction of the dwelling.
The public may express its views at this hearing or send written comments to: Chairperson, Watersmeet Township Zoning Board of Appeals, PO Box 306, Watersmeet, MI 49969 by Monday January 8, 2024. Documents associated with the variance request may be examined during normal business hours at the Watersmeet Township offices, also located at N4689 1st Street.
THE COMMUNITY CENTER IS HANDICAP ACCESSIBLE
Highline Internet – Construction Update
Highline’s partner, AEG, has crews very busy laying cable to the West end of the Township. Highline’s project manager, Jake Stedman, recently issued the following construction update on November 14, 2023:
As of yesterday (Nov. 13), the crews are finishing up getting fiber placed along Thousand Island Lake Road. There is around 2.5 miles left to place in the existing conduit and then the path will be complete all the way back to town. Splicing has already started on the fiber that they have placed. They still have to finish the public portion of Maplewood Road and build Crooked Lake Road. Other than that, they are still working down Roddis Road toward the very southern end of Cisco Lake Road.
Highline is hoping to get a contractor on Deerpath Road and the private portion of Maplewood Road before the end of the year.
Crews have also started working on the Cisco Lake Road leg on the west side of the zone. One contractor has nearly completed the entire path on Old US-2 from Thousand Island Lake Road to Cisco Lake Road. Crews have gotten fiber down Cisco Lake Road to Sylvan Isle Drive where another crew had already built the public road portion and placed fiber last week.
Production may be a little slower this week with some crews taking a few days off to hunt, but they are trying to shuffle crews around to compensate.
Next Steps:
Once the cable is laid on the roads, Highline will be calling MISDIGS to mark utilities for all the driveways of homeowners requesting Highline internet service on the roads noted above. Homeowners are also encouraged to mark any underground services that they installed privately (i.e. sprinklers, irrigation, invisible fence, electric lines not run by We Energies, etc.). As the driveways get marked, Highline will be phoning all those homeowners and letting them know crews will be installing the fiber down their driveways (homeowners need not be home).
After the fiber is laid to the house, Highline will be calling homeowners again to arrange a time for a Highline technician to come into the home and connect the fiber to a Highline provided router (homeowners will need to be home to allow the technician access). For those homeowners unable to be present (snowbirds, etc), Highline will be back in the spring to finish the installations.
Also in the spring, Highline will also be back to Watersmeet to connect the rest of the Township that qualified for the RDOF grant to lay fiber optic cable.
Any questions – please call Trustee Yvonne Clark at 906-477-3029.
Watersmeet Broadband Task Force
Yvonne Clark, Trustee
John Oliver, Trustee
Bob McGuffin
Greg Clark
Planning Commission to Hold Town Hall Meeting – Zoning for Marijuana Retail Sales
The Watersmeet Planning Commission will be holding a Town Hall Meeting to receive input from Watersmeet residents and property owners on a proposed zoning change. The proposed zoning change involves allowing for retail marijuana sales within the township. A proposed zoning change has NOT yet been drafted or submitted to the Town Board. Retail marijuana sales can be a controversial issue and could have substantial effects on the township. We are inviting the public to give direct input on this subject before the Planning Commission votes on a recommendation for a zoning change. The meeting will be hosted at the Watersmeet Township Community Center on December 6th at 5:30 p.m. and will also be available online for those individuals who have subscribed to Watersmeet News on the township website: www.watersmeet.us.
Before the start of the public comment portion of the meeting, the Planning Commission will provide a brief history of the township discussions involving this issue and a summary of research into the topic. Residents and property owners will then be allowed to ask questions and offer their preference of being in favor of or against this proposal. Attendees will be allowed to speak and ask questions in turn and will have a 3-minute time limit. While non-residents and non-property owners are welcome to attend the meeting, we ask that they not speak as this is a Watersmeet Township issue.
If you intend to speak or ask questions, we request that your comments be kept brief and to the point. The audience could potentially be large and we would like to give speaking opportunities to as many people as possible. This meeting will be conducted in a courteous and respectful manner.
If you are unable to attend this meeting, written comments will also be accepted by mailing them to: Watersmeet Township Planning Commission, PO Box 306, Watersmeet, MI 49969, by Wednesday, November 29, 2023.