Northern Michigan Community Dedicated to Infrastructure Solutions

Welcome to Melrose Township, a community-focused civil township located in Charlevoix County, Michigan. Established in 1877, Melrose Township serves as a local government hub dedicated to providing essential services and support to our residents through transparent, responsible administration and community-driven initiatives.

Mission Statement

The Sewer Committee is an advisory body to the Township Board. It shall review sewer system operations, maintenance, finance, and capital projects—including coordination with the Township’s engineering firm—and make recommendations to the Township Board. The Committee shall not exercise powers reserved by law to the Township Board or other officials.

The Committee will define and determine the next steps in developing recommendations for sewer system operational areas of improvement.

Walloon Lake Sewer System

Recent History

The sewer system was first installed in the late 1980’s by a private developer for properties he owned within the Village under the name Walloon Sewer Authority, Inc., but never went into service.
In 2004, Louis Mettler acquired the majority of the properties served by the private sewer and engaged Performance Engineers to put the system into service under the SK Utility name.
In 2007 the platted Clifford Street undeveloped road right-of-way easement was assigned and the original North Street drainfield was expanded to 10,000 gallons per day.
In 2013, Walloon Lake Holdings purchased the majority of properties that had access to the private sewer and became the owner of the SK Utility sewer system.
Walloon Lake Holdings continued to acquire property within the Village, and it became apparent that the 10,000 gpd sewer system was the limiting factor to continued growth within the commercial Village center.
In 2016, Walloon Lake Holdings and Melrose Township reached an agreement for SK Utility to be sold to the Township, making it a public sewer system by adding another 10,000 gpd drainfield disposal site on the Township’s US-131 property. This project was funded through a USDA loan for $540,000.
The Township recognized at that time that the total 20,000 gpd of drainfield disposal was adequate to get a public sewer established and meet the immediate needs, but that continued growth would require more capacity than can be achieved through drainfields.
The initial thought was that lagoons would be the most economical solution, and so the Township acquired 40 acres from the DNR off of Holms Rd for a planned lagoon site in 2018.
In 2020, the Township filed an Intent to Apply for funds from the USDA, but as the process unfolded, changes in construction costs from 2018 through 2021, combined with improvements in modular, pre-packaged WWTPs, and more stringent discharge regulations, led to a switch away from proposed lagoons to using a pre-packaged WWTP system.