Clinton Township Trustees discuss early voting

CLINTON TOWNSHIP — Early voting remained the topic of discussion among the Clinton Township Board of Trustees at its Oct. 30 meeting, which saw the trustees broach the subject two times that evening.

Early voting first came up as the board approved amending a grant application to include a build-out of the Civic Center meeting room.

“That would make this room more accommodating and allow us to offer early voting in this location here,” Clinton Township Clerk Kim Meltzer said.

Amending the grant application to include the build-out does not lock the township into actually going through with it. If the right funds are provided in the grant award, the most significant effects of the build-out would be the replacement of pews and the sloped floor for a level carpeted floor.

Having the Civic Center be an early voting site will make the process more convenient for election staff, which will increase its early voting footprint to two more sites for the August and November 2024 elections. Reconfiguring the room would allow it to be used for other purposes beyond board meetings.

“I would like to see this room that is used once every two weeks or not very often because of how it’s configured to be more of like a modern building, which is modular, and you can use it for a lot of different things,” Clinton Township Trustee Julie Matuzak said.

Trustees then discussed early voting again by adopting the Clinton Township Senior Center at 40730 Romeo Plank Road as its new early voting location. The township originally set the Civic Center as its early voting site but had to change places once it was determined it could not physically support hosting early voting.

 

Moravian Drive project
Trustees also approved a plan to repair Moravian Drive between Hayes and Garfield roads, splitting the cost of the work with the Macomb County Department of Roads for $1.4 million.

The work will link up with Moravian Drive improvements being done by Sterling Heights. The work originally called for repairs up to Utica Road, but the poor condition of the Utica Road-Garfield Road stretch made extending the work northward a priority.

Formal cost-sharing documents will be brought before the Clinton Township Board of Trustees at a later date. The initial documents outlined a 50/50 split with the county.