The first and third Tuesdays of each month are the days when Ypsilanti has its City Council meetings. The calendar worked out this month such that we didn’t have a meeting. Having been jonesing for a fix of local politics all day, I did what anyone in my position would do. I went to the clinic and got some methadone.

Or in my case, I went to the Ypsilanti Township meeting.

Okay. That’s a long way to go for a methadone joke, but because our two communties’ governmental meetings are on the same night, attending a meeting on a off-night is a pretty good use of free time.

The highlight of the meeting from my perspective is when one of the Township Trustees suggested they offer the use of their Fire Marshal to the City on a contractual, as-needed basis at a rate lower than what we currently pay.

That’s damn near genius.

Currently, we have our Fire Chief performing both the duties of the Chief and Fire Marshal since the retirement of Jim Roberts back in February of this year. Fire Marshals are really only needed when the damage caused by a fire is over $10K. There could be union implications because the Fire Marshal is a union position, but in the spirit of regional cooperation and building bridges with our neighbors, it’s worth a serious look.

Those Township people aren’t really as bad as the Ann Arbor News makes them out to be.

I guess the ball’s in our court now.