Clinton Township Supervisor Paul Gieleghem speaks to Public Services Director Mary Bednar during a discussion about furniture for board meetings at the Feb. 9 Clinton Township Board of Trustees meeting.
By: Dean Vaglia | C&G Newspapers | Published February 24, 2026
CLINTON TOWNSHIP — In its sole meeting for February, the Clinton Township Board of Trustees got a preview of accessibility updates coming to the township’s website.
Meeting on Feb. 9, trustees were given a rundown of accessibility changes being made to the website in order to comply with “Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1” as required by updates to the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“There are some tools we can (use to) enhance the experience for the disabled, or we can go back to a basic format website with just text links and those types of items,” said David Pearce, the township’s information technology director.
Pearce went over some of the tools the township could use to improve the website’s accessibility along with the costs associated with those tools. DocAccess, which costs over $16,100 per year for a three-year contract, would convert PDF documents on the website into HTML documents that are compatible with screen readers and search tools. AudioEye, which costs $14,200 in its first year, allows website users to tailor their accessibility experience. Cablecast, a captioning service that costs around $3,300 for 500 hour blocks of work, provides federally compliant closed captioning for all of the township’s videos (YouTube captioning is not compliant).
The website will also be generally refreshed as part of its current hosting contract.
Documents hosted through CivicClerk will be brought up to ADA standards by CivicClerk.
The estimated cost of the update services is $35,000 in the first year with annual renewals estimated to be $38,000 along with 5% service price increases. Captioning costs will be handled on an as-needed basis.
The federal mandate to update government websites is required for all communities with over 50,000 people.
Tables and chairs
On Feb. 9, trustees tabled the purchase of new tables and chairs for the board chamber at the Robert J. Cannon Civic Center for a month.
Trustees were quoted with a roughly $42,500 bill from Lansing-based contractor Innovare for 13 desks, 13 signs and 12 chairs that would replace the current furniture in the board chambers. Trustee Bruce Wade was the first board member to bring up postponing the purchase in order to consider if the last set of board chamber tables, which are in the possession of the Clinton Township Department of Public Works, could be used once more.
“We actually did install (the old tables) after COVID,” said Mary Bednar, public works director. “They were installed for about, I think, one board meeting. However, they are much closer and … (the tables) would meet the need but you all would have less space, so previously the board said they didn’t want that.”
Trustee Julie Matuzak expressed concern about the cost, while Trustee Dan Kress opposed the purchase.
The motion to table the issue passed 4-3.
Township Supervisor Paul Gieleghem said he wanted to move away from the “wedding reception tables” to “present a professional board meeting room to our community.”
Clerk Kim Meltzer opposed tabling the purchase. She cited her experiences with the old desks, a lack of cheaper alternatives and a desire to make the chambers more accessible ahead of a scheduled knee surgery for Matuzak.