W. Long Lake Drive Residents Struggling with Address Snafu

By DIANNE ALWARD-BIERY

Cleaver Senior Staff Writer

HARRISON – All Clare County Commissioners were in attendance for their Sept. 16 meeting, save Commissioner Jacob Gross whose absence was excused. After approval of previous meetings minutes, the agenda moved to the opening of a public hearing on the county’s proposed 2027 budget. And, while it remained open for the majority of the meeting, no one offered any public comment on the budget.

General Public Comment did see several people address the Board regarding an unannounced change to the name of their residential street: West Long Lake Drive. Without notice or explanation, it had been changed to West Long Lake Road which had resulted in not only confusion, but legal difficulties. [The segment concerned drops down from East Long Lake Road along the west side of Long Lake.]

Resident Renee Fabiano spoke first, explaining the many concerns that change had wrought, describing it as more than a messing up of addresses. She noted at least two West Long Lake Drive residences that have the same addresses as West Long Lake Road, which is a small segment that lies between Bringold and Old State avenues.

The obvious problem of actually receiving their mail is being addressed by Harrison Post Office workers who are going in to work about an hour before they’re scheduled in order to sort through it.

“Our mail is getting directed out to Summerfield Township,” Fabiano said. “We’ve had two people on our drive who’ve been invited to come out and vote at Summerfield Township – they’re Frost Township residents. That’s a problem.”

 Another concern noted was emergency response time: whether fire department, ambulances, police could quickly find the correct address.

Also noted was the inability to get items delivered [cited was Home Depot] because there is no longer such address. Fabiano said her health insurance has been changed to “Road” as well.

“I didn’t change it,” she said. “Credit card statements. Consumers Energy has been changed to Road. Property closing: we even had an issue with someone trying to sell property and the issue with it ‘not existing’ [deed address not matching site address]. We don’t have an address six miles away from us where our address would say we were at, but other people do.

“We’re concerned about federal and state documents like Medicare, IRS being able to submit our taxes, paying our taxes,” Fabiano said. “Our tax bills would say Drive but they’re sent to Road, same address.”

Fabiano said she wanted to be sure there is awareness at County that their 1.6-milelong road affects about 54 taxpaying homes where something has happened to the addresses. She referenced the official Clare County map [including the GIS map available on the county website that shows a small segment of West Long Lake Road between exists Bringold and Old State avenues, as well as West Long Lake Drive] clearly denoting two separate entities.

Fabiano expressed her thanks to Commissioner David Hoefling and Administrator Lori Phelps for their assistance with the problem, adding, “There’s something going on in our county, and we don’t know what’s happening to it. We haven’t changed our addresses, and we haven’t been notified of an address change.”

Two other residents also spoke. The first described herself as a Snowbird who said she receives all her bills by mail and is worried about what would happen once she was not in residence. “If I start getting bad credit, it’s because the bills are going to a woods.”

The second noted his computer background and spoke of the Central Database used by USPS [and others], and his belief that database is incorrect. He stated he was certain it was not a local problem, but described it as “a significant problem.” He added that the switchover has far-reaching implications and how complicated and time-consuming it will be to correct. He also noted the issue seems to have begun in April of this year.

Dewayne Rogers, Road Commission managing director, informed the group that a committee had been started in an ongoing effort to do address corrections. That group includes the County, Road Commission, 911 Dispatch, Equalization Department, and the Building Inspector. He said there is an ongoing effort to do some address corrections because of the snarl of addresses that has happened over the course of time.

Rogers said he knows that changing a road name or an address affects way more than an Amazon package delivery, adding that he was well aware of the issues the residents had just mentioned. He urged them to speak with him after the meeting.

Phelps said she had received word on some of the issues the day prior, and she would fill Rogers in on a possible solution.

Also addressing the Board were Eric Karbowski, MSU Extension director, and Renee Sanders, 4-H program coordinator, to update commissioners on what’s new and ongoing with MSU Extension programming.

Karbowski provided a condensed overview of the program in what he described as a 50,000-foot view of the annual report. Sanders spoke at length about what has been happening with 4-H, the young people involved, and their participation opportunities and successes.

Later in the meeting, under Physical Resources and Economic Development, the Board moved to approve the Fiscal Year 2027 Agreement for Services with MSU Extension