Tuesday, September 8 — 3:00 to 4:00 p.m.
Road Commission of Kalamazoo County · 4400 S 26th Street, Kalamazoo, MI 49048
Google Maps directionsYou do not have to sign up. You do not have to speak.
There’s no advance registration and no sign-up sheet to get on. If you want to speak, you ask during one of the two public comment periods: one at the start of the meeting, for items on that day’s agenda, and one at the end, for general road issues.
If you’d rather just sit there, sit there. A full room is the point. Attendance is what a board counts.
About the time
This meeting is held from 3 to 4 in the afternoon, on a workday. Most people who live on these roads are at work at 3 p.m.
We’re asking the Road Commission to hold at least one evening meeting on this project so working residents can attend. If you can get there at 3, please come. If you can’t, that fact is worth putting in writing — tell them, and copy the County Board.
If you’ve never been to one
It’s a public meeting in a public building. You sign nothing at the door. It runs about an hour. Past meetings are on video at Public Media Network’s Gavel to Gavel — you can watch one before you go if you’d rather know what you’re walking into.
If you want to speak
Two or three minutes is plenty. What lands is specific and local:
- Your name and the road you live on
- How many trees in front of your house are marked, if you know
- One sentence about what those trees do — shade, the school bus stop, the snow, the noise
- What you’re asking for: publish the list of trees, and put the money into rumble strips
- If you are speaking to the county commissioners rather than the Road Commission: ask why the board that appoints these five people did not hear about this project until ten months after the grant was awarded
- Ask for one thing they can actually give you: publish the list of trees, and put a written notice and appeal process in place before another tree comes down
You don’t need statistics. The board has the statistics. What it doesn’t have is you.
Are you someone who looks out for this county?
Most people who show up to these have never been to one before.
After you tell us, we’ll ask three quick optional questions — what time you’ll leave, where you’re coming from, and what you’ll be doing right before. People who answer them are much more likely to actually make it. Nobody sees your answers but us.
Can’t make September 8? Get the summary and the next date. · Sign the petition instead.
Get the summary and the next date
One email after the meeting with what actually happened, and the date of the next one. The mailing list is moving to a new provider this week. Until it’s connected, email hello@savekzootrees.org and we’ll add you by hand.
If Tuesday doesn’t work, here is everything else, smallest first
| What | Takes | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Sign the petition | 2 minutes | Sign |
| Join the list | 1 minute | Join |
| Tell us about your trees | 5 minutes | Submit |
| Write the Road Commission, copy the County Board | 10 minutes | Template |
| Print a yard sign | 15 minutes | Download |
| Send the right-of-way letter for your address | 20 minutes | Letter |
| Pledge to the legal fund | 3 minutes | Pledge |
| Come to the next meeting after this one | An afternoon | Tell me when |