CLINTON TOWNSHIP — The Clinton Township Board of Trustees approved a resolution to add Juneteenth and Martin Luther King Jr. Day as paid holidays for township employees at its Nov. 14 meeting.

Passed by a margin of 4-1 with Township Supervisor Robert Cannon the lone vote against it, the resolution calls upon the township administration to “take all steps necessary” to have the days be holidays, with the extra step of designating an alternative weekday as paid time off, should Juneteenth fall on a weekend.

The resolution also called for Columbus Day to be reassigned as Indigenous Peoples’ Day, which Cannon said would “embarrass” Italian Americans within the township and was among his reasons for voting against the resolution, along with concerns about how the township would fund the additional holidays. Clerk Kim Mentzer expressed a desire to maintain some kind of Italian American recognition by the township either along with Indigenous Peoples’ Day or as its own day, but she voted for the resolution and encouraged Cannon to vote for it, as well.

“The initial draft of this resolution was written by a group of members from the Diversity Committee back in 2017,” Trustee Mike Keys said. “That’s really where the concept of talking with the HR department about the fact our employees did not have Martin Luther King Day off came about, and those committee members took it upon themselves for the next two years to organize events for Martin Luther King Day for our employees to be able to take part in, and even our residents, in certain cases.”

DPS grants approved

The board unanimously approved the pursuit of several grants for projects through the Department of Public Services on Nov. 14.

The first approval was for a $5,000 grant to help build a disc golf course and pedestrian crossing along the Clinton River Spillway. The Department of Public Services and the Macomb County Department of Roads would each provide a $12,500 match if the project is selected.

“The spillway was originally designed to be…