The evening of 2026-11-09 was a meeting of the Mendon Town Board.
We were reminded, Veterans day will be Wednesday 11/11. With the usual ceremony occurring at the Village stoplight at 11AM. See you there.
In the interests of full disclosure, I still provide services to the Town, and they still pay me for doing so. Mentioning as I was in the Vouchers.
Moving the unspent funds from 2025 was tabled. From the discussion, likely not going to be addressed until Mar/Apr of next year, as the money is earning good enough interest where it is. Thus 2025’s leftovers get to sit out 2026, before being allocated in 2027.
Mendon Youth Center roof was discussed, and it sounds like the core question centers around what the long term plan for the building is. Without a clear plan, the expense of a real fix is harder to justify. While that is being considered, mold tests were conducted. Results not yet known.
Eric from Eveland Group gave a health insurance presentation. His proposal sounded like it would lower costs to the employees by shifting to a higher deductible plan, with the Town using an HRA to cover that deductible. This would move all the plans to Bronze tier, instead of the current mix of Gold/Silver/etc. When he compared to the current plan, it didn’t feel like an apples to apples comparison. But to his credit, he did admit his proposal would cost more under certain situations. Which he said would be unlikely, but he was upfront about it. Likewise in pointing out there would potentially be more paperwork burden on employees. But the end result should save the Town money.
Fittingly, afterwards was another health presentation. This time from the Village on their Ambulance department. While the name includes ‘Volunteer‘, and volunteers still do what they can, it was pointed out the majority of the ambulance crews are paid.
They started off with some background, and how it has been a joint venture since 1966. And now they are looking to bring in West Bloomfield on an equal footing. Call volume is at ~1300 a year, with ~3 hours waiting at the hospital on drop off. Which seems highly inefficient. That delay may be much of the motivation for wanting to do a test of running two crews. But that would be a separate contract, likely to come before too long.
Due to different budget schedules between the Town and Village, this contract is paying for last year’s service. In other words, it’s not paying for future work to do, but work that has already been done.
In the end, both ambulance and fire contracts were approved.
Property Tax Exemption for Totally and Permanently Disabled Veterans was approved, without any comment from the public. I thought about commenting, but was mixed on the topic. On the one hand, our veterans did put their lives on the line to protect the freedoms we enjoy. We should do what we can to help them, and this is one of the least things we could do. On the other hand, one of those freedoms is equal treatment before the law. Granting some people special exemptions is not consistent with equal treatment. In any case, it is expected that the tax bills of the qualifying veterans will add up to ~$3k. Which will then be distributed among the rest of us, because that’s how the levy system works. I wouldn’t be surprised if it averages out to a dollar a house or some such.
Preliminary budget was tabled. Stated reason involved questions from the Village around equipment. If I heard the dates right, a budget workshop was set for 11/16 and a Public Hearing for 11/23. Both should be at 7PM. Or not, I would suggest double checking the Town’s website just to be sure.
A Recycling Memo to Town Employees was adopted. I only mention this because the talk about points has me thinking of games. With the apparent expectation of financial benefit down the road, once enough points have been accumulated. I would assume in grants and such, as opposed to more direct payments. Either way, I’m of the opinion you do things like recycling when they make sense. And don’t when they don’t. The recycling shouldn’t be in and of itself the goal. Which, if the goal is turning points into money, I guess applies here too.
The idea of a physical Townwide Newsletter had a brief discussion. Which included the amusing question of if this was in next year’s proposed budget. To which the answer was not currently, but it will be. Credit for transparency on it’s current lack. While at the same time using the budget process for it’s intended purpose, making these sort of adjustments and tweaks in advance.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the November 09, 2026 meeting of the Mendon Town Board.