Page 8/The Sun and News, Saturday, September 10, 2022Yankee Springs board approves
security system, video
recording unit for township hall
Greg Chandler
Staff Writer
As construction is moving
ahead on the expansion and
renovation of Yankee Springs
Township Hall, some addi-
tional items have been added
to the project.
The township board
Thursday approved the
installation of a security sys-
tem, video cameras and
recording equipment for the
building, which was not in
the original project budget.
The board passed the instal-
lation of the building entry
and motion equipment, to be
provided by EPS Security, at a
cost of $10,310 plus a service
agreement that will cost an
additional $1,932 annually,
and approved the purchase
and installation of the video
cameras and recording equip-
ment from Ocean Inc. for no
more than $3,500.
“The day has come where
we needed to approve that
addition to our service, an
upgrade to our service,”
Township Clerk Mike
Cunningham said.
EPS will coordinate with
Mugen Construction, the
contractor on the hall project,
for the installation of the
security equipment.
Board members Thursday
also approved a series of
change orders to address
issues that have been discov-
ered since work began on the
hall expansion and renova-
tion in July.
“We were already talking
about getting an upgrade in
our security system, both
entry and motion detection,
and video recording (before
construction began),”
Cunningham said. “We got
an estimate from EPS on
both. Their pricing on the
video was quite high. Ourcurrent (information technol-
ogy) provider (Ocean) was
able to give it to us at a much
lower cost.”
The building entry and
motion sensing equipment
will consist of five entry card
readers, four motion detec-
tors and two pass-through
window sensors.
“Right now, we just have a
keypad and regular keys (to
enter the building),”
Cunningham said.
The township had been
paying EPS $504 a year for
security service at the town-
ship hall, Cunningham said.
Cunningham compared the
new system to a similar secu-
rity system now in place at the
Thornapple Township Hall.
“This is a step forward,
better protection,” he said.
Change orders for the hall
project that were approved by
the board Thursday included:- A revision that will allow
for installation of a drop
box, where people can drop
off absentee ballots, taxes or
other information when the
office is not open, at a cost
of $2, - Electrical demolition and
reworking of the existing
lighting in the basement, on
a time and materials basis
not to exceed $1, - A hall storage closet door
opening, for $ - Additional concrete going
to the existing storage shed,
for $1, - Adding a water softener or
conditioner, for $2,020 plus
a filter for $1, - Repairs to the structural
pilasters, which are rectan-
gular support columns for
the hall, for $2, - New siding on the east side
of the existing office, for
$3, - Two additional windows on
the north side of the new
office, for $4,- Routing incoming power
underground rather than
overhead, for $5, - Removal of the chimney
and installing roofing, for
$
The board rejected a pro-
posal for additional painting
in the hall entry, a $3,
expense, and tabled a deci-
sion on purchasing a new
generator, at a cost of more
than $63,000.
The township had pur-
chased a backup generator in
2019, but the township has
since realized the unit’s lim-
itations.
“We’ve learned that, when
we were designing everything,
that it is not big enough to han-
dle the air conditioning load, if
there’s a power failure for both
the hall and the office,”
Cunningham said. “The office
has air conditioning currently
in a power failure like we had
the last couple of weeks, but
you can’t run the hall (air con-
ditioning) also.”
The township could sell
the backup generator to offset
a portion of the new unit’s
cost, Cunningham said.
Construction on the
1,700-square-foot addition
that will serve as additional
office space for the township
is well underway. The expan-
sion and renovation had an
original price tag of nearly
$1.08 million, factoring in the
construction bid by Mugen
and design and engineering
work by Fleis & VandenBrink.
The township is financing
$600,000 of the project cost
through an installment pur-
chase agreement with
Highpoint Community Bank
of Hastings, with the rest of
the money coming from the
general fund.
Abortion ballot measure: What
Proposal 3 would do in Michigan
Jonathan Oosting
Bridge Michigan
Michigan voters will
decide the future of legal
access to abortion in the state
when they decide Proposal 3
on the Nov. 8 general elec-
tion ballot.
A “yes” vote would write
a broad new right to “repro-
ductive freedom” into the
Michigan Constitution, inva-
liding a 1931 abortion ban
and potentially other existing
regulations.
A “no” vote would leave
abortion access up to elected
officials in Lansing or judg-
es, who have so far suspend-
ed enforcement of the state’s
91-year-old ban under rul-
ings that abortion opponents
are appealing to higher
courts.
The Reproductive Freedom
For All ballot committee
began its petition drive in the
spring and collected more than
735,000 valid voter signatures,
an effort energized by a June
decision from the U.S.
Supreme Court that struck
down Roe v. Wade and ended
49 years of federal protections
for legal abortion access.
The bipartisan Board of
State Canvassers certified
the abortion rights proposal
for the ballot on Sept. 9 upon
an order by the Michigan
Supreme Court, which ruled
that the two Republicans on
the board had previously
overstepped their authority
by rejecting petitions over
limited spacing between
words.
The November ballot will
include a summary of the
Michigan abortion proposal,
but the full language can be
found online.
What the proposal would do
Proposal 3, sponsored by
Reproductive Freedom For
All, would amend the
Michigan Constitution to:- Guarantee that “every indi-
vidual” in the state has a
“fundamental right to repro-
ductive freedom.” That
would include the right to
make decisions about abor-
tion, but also prenatal care,
childbirth, postpartum care,
contraception, sterilization,
miscarriage management
and infertility care. - Still allow elected officials
to prohibit or otherwise reg-
ulate abortion after a fetus
reaches “viability,” which is
generally considered around
23 to 24 weeks into a preg-
nancy. However, the state
could not prohibit any abor-
tions that a medical profes-
sional deems necessary to
“protect the life or physical
or mental health” of the
pregnant individual.- Only allow the state to
restrict abortion rights if the
restrictions are “justified by
a compelling state interest
achieved by the least restric-
tive means.” - Prohibit the state from
penalizing or prosecuting
an individual based on
“actual, potential, perceived
or alleged pregnancy out-
comes,” including abortion,
miscarriages and stillbirths.
Opponents argue the pro-
posal would also invalidate
other existing abortion regu-
lations, including a parental
consent law for minors that
lawmakers approved in 1991
after a separate petition drive
by Right to Life of Michigan.
The fate of those laws is
murky and may depend on
future court rulings.
When should you adjust
your investment mix?
There are no shortcuts to
investment success — you
need to establish a long-
term strategy and stick with
it. This means you’ll want
to create an investment mix
based on your goals, risk
tolerance and time horizon
— and then regularly
review it to ensure it’s still
meeting your needs.
In fact, investing for the
long term doesn’t necessar-
ily mean you should lock
your investments in forever.
Throughout your life, you’ll
likely need to make some
changes.
Of course, everyone’s sit-
uation is different and
there’s no prescribed for-
mula of when and how you
should adjust your invest-
ments. But some possibili-
ties may be worth consider-
ing.
For example, a few years
before you retire, you may
want to reevaluate your risk
exposure and consider
moving part of your portfo-
lio into a more conservative
position. When you were
decades away from retiring,
you may have felt more
comfortable with a more
aggressive positioning
because you had time to
bounce back from any mar-
ket downturns. But as you
near retirement, it may
make sense to lower your
risk level. And as part of a
move toward a more con-
servative approach, you
also may want to evaluatethe cash positions in your
portfolio. When the market
has gone through a decline,
as has been the case in
2022, you may not want to
tap into your portfolio to
meet short-term and emer-
gency needs, so having suf-
ficient cash on hand is
important. Keep in mind,
though, that having too
much cash on the sidelines
may affect your ability to
reach your long-term goals.
Even if you decide to
adopt a more conservative
investment position before
you retire, though, you may
still benefit from some
growth-oriented invest-
ments in your portfolio to
help you keep ahead of —
or at least keep pace with
— inflation. As you know,
inflation has surged in
2022, but even when it’s
relatively mild, it can still
significantly erode your
purchasing power over
time.
Changes in your own
goals or circumstances may
also lead you to modify
your investment mix. You
might decide to retire earli-
er or later than you original-
ly planned. You might even
change your plans for the
type of retirement you want,
choosing to work part time
for a few years. Your family
situation may change —
perhaps you have another
child for whom you’d like
to save and invest for col-
lege. Any of these eventscould lead you to review
your portfolio to find new
opportunities or to adjust
your risk level — or both.
You might wonder if you
should also consider chang-
ing your investment mix in
response to external forces,
such as higher interest rates
or a rise in inflation, as
we’ve seen this year. It’s
certainly true that these
types of events can affect
parts of your portfolio, but
it may not be advisable to
react by shuffling your
investment mix. After all,
nobody can really predict
how long these forces will
keep their momentum —
it’s quite possible, for
instance, that inflation will
have subsided noticeably
within a year. But more
important, you should make
investment moves based on
the factors we’ve already
discussed: your goals, risk
tolerance, time horizon and
individual circumstances.
By reviewing your port-
folio regularly, possibly
with the assistance of a
financial professional, you
can help ensure your invest-
ment mix will always be
appropriate for your needs
and goals.
This article was written
by Edward Jones for use by
your local Edward Jones
Financial Advisor.
Edward Jones, Member
SIPC