By Megan Kelley
Editor
mkelley@mihomepaper.com
INDEPENDENCE TWP. — Officials in Independence Township received news recently from the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) indicating its intention to reconstruct the intersection at White Lake and Dixie Highway.
The township Board of Trustees has spent the last several months reviewing potential ways to utilize the excess funds which, in March of this year, totaled around $2.477 million dollars.
While some residents have requested the township return the money to taxpayers, trustees have maintained that they would like to use the money for something else.
“We all agreed that the money would be better spent on the roads that (it was) intended for, since it’s a significant amount of money, and that it be used to pre-identify roads and potential others with similar characteristics as were used to establish the original list,” said Trustee Sam Moraco during a presentation to the board last month.
Recently, the board discussed using the money to pay for a traffic study at the intersection at White Lake Rd. and Dixie Highway.
“As you know, there have been multiple accidents for many years and people say it’s the worst intersection in the township,” said township Supervisor Jose Aliaga.
When looking into a potential traffic study at the intersection, it was revealed that MDOT was already planning to make improvements to the intersection which included adding another left turn lane on northbound White Lake Rd. onto Dixie Highway.
“The planned improvement will be adding an additional left turn lane on northbound White Lake Rd. turning onto Dixie Highway. This additional lane will expand White Lake Rd. to the west at the intersection both north and south of Dixie Highway,” said project manager Jordan Rutkowski in an email to the township. “If everything goes according to schedule, 2026 is the current planned construction year to implement these changes. This project is very early on in design, so there may be some changes as we get further into the design process, but I can keep you updated as things progress.”
With MDOT handling the intersection improvements, the township is back to square one in deciding what to do with the excess road millage money.
“We need to start looking at other projects that we can do with the leftover money, which is a good problem to have at this point,” Aliaga said.
The township board is expected to continue to discuss potential uses for the funds at an upcoming meeting.