Officials of Suttons Bay Township are gearing up to hold a March 10 public hearing on the proposed establishment of a Suttons Bay Township Fire Special Assessment District.

Establishment of a special assessment district (a SAD) would eliminate voter-approved property tax millages that currently cover the township’s share of costs for operating the Suttons Bay-Bingham Fire and Rescue Department.

Under a SAD, the fire and rescue department would present its budget to the township board; and the board would decide annually whether to fund the budget through a special tax assessment on all properties in the district, in this case the entire township – without a vote of the people. The March 10 public hearing is one of the initial steps the township must take toward establishing a SAD.

Neighboring Bingham Township, which shares in the cost of operating the joint fire and rescue department, has opted to hold a township-wide vote in May to determine whether it should establish a SAD to fund the department.

Acting at its regular monthly meeting last week, the Suttons Bay Township Board voted 4-0, with trustee Jerry Bergman absent, to adopt a “resolution of intent to create a fire special assessment district and to schedule a public hearing.”

Township treasurer Cathy Herman said that she and Tom Nixon would collaborate on preparing a “public information” brochure that will be mailed to voters throughout the township prior to the public hearing, explaining the process for establishing a SAD and why the township is pursuing the process. Nixon, who is chair of the township Planning Commission and president of the Suttons Bay Board of Education, had previously expressed opposition to establishment of a SAD.

Suttons Bay Township’s public hearing on establishment of a SAD will be held on Wednesday, March 10, at 7 p.m., at the fire hall on St. Mary’s Avenue at First Street in the Village of Suttons Bay.

In other business at its Feb. 10 meeting, the Suttons Bay Township Board:

• Set the township’s annual budget hearing for March 10 at 5 p.m., immediately preceding the regular monthly township board meeting at 5:15 p.m. Suttons Bay Township board meetings, open to the public, are held in rented office space at 321 St. Joseph Ave., the “Radio Shack” plaza, in suite C.

• Briefly reviewed a draft budget for the coming year. A proposed 2010-11 budget anticipates roughly $1.4 million in revenues and $1.1 million in expenditures. In the current fiscal year, projected revenues were some 30 percent higher, at nearly $2 million, with anticipated expenditures some 12 percent higher at nearly $1.6 million.

• Adopted salary resolutions for the new fiscal year beginning April 1. The resolutions, adopted in 4-0 votes of the township board, indicate that elected township officials will receive no raises and will be paid the same salaries they have received for the past two years. Township supervisor Rich Bahle will earn $17,301 annually; clerk Sandra VanHuystee, $25,286; treasurer Herman, $26,590; and the two trustees, Bill Drozdalski and Bergman, $1,489 each per year.

• Approved contracts totaling $800 with Suttons Bay Public Schools for administration of youth soccer and tee-ball programs for township residents later this year.

• Reviewed a preliminary draft of an “invasive species” ordinance that will outline the township’s involvement in an effort to eradicate the fast-spreading weed phragmites along the Grand Traverse Bay and Suttons Bay shorelines. Bahle said a public hearing on the draft ordinance would likely be held in April.