Au Train Township officials are wondering which direction to go after an unusually low turnout for the municipality’s most recent survey. Just 70 people responded to the township’s recreation plan survey, which is less than a third of the responses from the last recreation survey in 2012.

“The lack of participation is not good,” Au Train Township Trustee Tom Balmes said. “We wanted to get more but just didn’t get any more to respond.”

Former township zoning administrator Jason McCarthy was tasked with creating the township recreation plan, which is used to help identify recreational programs that could receive state or federal funding while benefiting the public living in the municipality. According to discussion at the township’s regular monthly meeting on Monday, November 14, non-motorized trails were the top request and it was suggested that board members make a push for more possible recreation opportunities.

Unfortunately, the lack of participation soured the discussion. Au Train Township Supervisor Michelle Doucette was concerned about whether or not the volunteerism would be there for more non-motorized trails.

“When you see these trail networks, there is a lot of work that goes into that. What (Munising Bay Trail Network) does in Munising and the township is great and we have to figure out if we can do that,” she said.

The low response on the recreation survey also alarmed Barnes on future projects.

“We got the new master plan coming up and that’s more important than (the recreation plan). We got to have better response because we need to know what the people want on the master plan,” Barnes said.

The survey was released at a busy time for the active township, which has dealt with the election and the early stages of enforcing its new zoning ordinance that was enacted in September. Contact for township officials is available at the township website for any further comments regarding a new recreation plan for Au Train.