The Ontwa Township Board will appoint a seven-member sewer board at a special meeting at 3 p.m. June 19.

The board, in front of a packed township hall, voted unanimously after much discussion about the by-laws for the sewer board to hold a special meeting to make the appointments.

The board will decide from 10 candidates.

They are James Robinson, who is the former village president and member of the township planning commission, ambulance and fire boards; Larry Banghart, who has served on the township’s Waste Water Treatment Committee for the past 14 years; Mason Township Supervisor John Brandt; Richard Peck, who has a degree in civil engineering; Jeremy Waller, director of operations at Niles Steel Tank and Michael Mroczek, who has a degree in business administration and metallurgical engineering.

The remaining applicants are John Bossler, who is retired from Siemens Water Technologies; David Taylor, a former Cass County Commissioner and member of Van Buren-Cass County Board of Health; John Harsh, who is the owner of C.B.I. Engineering Services; and Nick Donis, one of the founders of Save Our Resources and Environment (SORE) and is employed by Irvine Shade and Door, Inc. in Elkhart, Indiana.

Banghart questioned some of the language in the by-laws, which were set to be approved at the meeting in advance of the appointment members of the board. Several items were addressed and the by-laws will be re-written and submitted for a vote prior to the special meeting.

Board president John Brielmaier removed trustee Jerry Marchetti from the Edwardsburg Ambulance Board at the request of the board, which drew the ire of the crowd.

The board asked for Marchetti’s removal after he switched his vote on the ambulance millage in April. He originally voted for the millage and then against it at another board meeting.

“On a 3-1 vote, I was told that it was going to come to the township board for a vote to remove me from the board,” Marchetti said.

He said that he has been pushing to give the ambulance more money ($20,000 annually) to operate with, but that the township board would not do so.

“Knowing that we were not going to give them any money from our regular fund, I voted to support the millage,” Marchetti said. “The following weekend after voting for it, I get the financial report that showed a $200,000 transfer from our fund balance to an 18-month CD at Chemical Bank and that bothered me. With the money in hand, I was bothered that we would ask our taxpayers to come up with more money. I sent an email to John (Brielmaier) voicing my concern about the millage when we had money in hand. I told him I found it hard to support an additional tax on our residents with our township having sufficient funds.”

He added that he felt his dismissal from the board was due to political reasons.

Board treasurer Paula Ralph countered that the board did give $15,000 to the ambulance service and paid for the completion of their remodeling. A new cot was also purchased for $13,782.

In other action, the board:

• Approved a fireworks permit for June-Painter-Christian lakes.

• Scheduled the July board review for July 22.

• Approved a one-time gaming license for the Edwardsburg Sports Complex for a fundraising event.