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August 2002 Status Report
It is my pleasure to once again submit this status report for your review and information. If you should have any questions about any of the items listed or would like information on something that I did not cover, please do not hesitate to contact me.
1. State Shared Revenue/Veto Override
As you know, we were successful in getting the House and Senate to override the Governor's veto of revenue sharing. Seven of us attended the rally in Lansing on Tuesday morning that attracted about 3,500 to 4,000 people. I think there were a number of reasons why the override effort was successful. There was intense lobbying almost from the minute the Governor announced his veto. I think a lot of the legislators felt the Governor broke his promise on the budget compromise protecting fire funding and revenue sharing and finally, it is hard to ignore three to four thousand people standing on the Capitol lawn yelling for an override of the veto. I want to thank the Commissioners for your calls and letters to our senator and representative, who as you know voted in favor of the override. I intend to send a letter of thanks to both of them and would ask that if time permits you do the same.
2. Fire Funding
Unfortunately there was not sufficient support to override the Governor's veto of fire funding. As you will recall, the total statewide budget for fire funding reimbursement is about $7 million, and of that we receive approximately $190,000. You may have read in the paper that fire funding has been placed in a transportation bill that was unanimously approved by the House. At this point, I do not believe there was sufficient time for the Senate to take action on this bill, so it is anticipated that when they come back for the fall term this matter will be brought up for discussion. I believe the chances are very good that the money will be placed in the budget; however, it is possible that we will have to do some additional lobbying to secure fire funding for 2003. I will keep you informed of the status of this issue.
3. Wastewater Treatment Plant
The project is beginning to wind down. The new treatment towers have been painted and the area around the towers has been seeded. They are beginning to install the new fencing and have moved most of the construction equipment and trailers off site. As Duane Ellis mentioned in his last status report, most of the work now is focusing on the installation of the controls and wiring systems needed to operate the plant. Hopefully the project will be completed within the next 60 days. The project still remains within budget.
4. EPA Permit
We have been notified by the EPA that they have published the necessary notices for public comment on our proposed permit. At this point in time, we do not have a date for the required public hearing.
5. Public Safety Building
The Police Department has moved over into their new office space in the old fire bays. They are now beginning work on the main entrance to the building. The project remains on schedule and it is anticipated it will be completed late this fall.
6. Dam Project
The project is well underway. Approximately a month ago a portable dam was installed to divert the water away from the old dam. The dam has been removed and a series of five weirs is now being installed. This consists of sheet piling and then large rocks being placed over that to create the rapids. Greg Baderschneider is pleased with the work of the contractor, and the project remains on schedule.
7. Trail Project
The construction of the bike/pedestrian path was started approximately a month ago. The DNR has requested some information that Greg and the engineer are putting together for them now, so the project has been delayed by a couple of weeks.
8. Phone System
Verizon has indicated that they have ordered and have on hand the equipment necessary for the phone changeover. They were at City Hall on August 14th to begin work at this facility, and they have been working over in the new Public Safety Building. There are some issues we need to resolve with them, but it is anticipated that we should have the new phone system installed during the month of September.
9. City/Township Joint Meeting
We are scheduled for a meeting with the Township on August 28th. A couple of tentative items for discussion are the Mt. Pleasant Center Committee as well as the impact of their decision not to pay for a full-time patrol officer from the County. If you have any other items you would like on the agenda, please let us know as soon as possible so we can advise them. The meeting is at 6:00 p.m. at the Township Hall. They will then go into their regular meeting at 7:00 p.m.
10. Sidewalk Projects
J. D. Phillips is now working on the new sidewalk along Broadway Street. They have completed the sidewalk along Russell Street except for some final clean up, and they should be starting along Crawford in the next couple of weeks. Having driven down Russell Street a number of times during the project, I think the sidewalk has turned out very well, and I want to compliment Gary Schwerin for all of his hard work in developing the plan and meeting with the property owners, resulting in a very nice project.
11. Construction Projects
We have had a number of projects this year, including both reconstruction and overlay. Duane Ellis submitted his monthly status report to you at the last meeting, and I would just like to highlight a couple of items.
Two of the major projects this year were the reconstruction of Broadway from Crapo to Isabella Road and the construction of Crawford Road north from Pickard. Broadway Street has been completed by the contractor, and as I mentioned earlier, sidewalk is now being installed along the street. Crawford Road is now essentially completed from Pickard to River Road, and all that remains is a little bit of clean-up. We also either rebuilt or repaved 9 local streets, and portions of 31 different local streets were overlaid with new asphalt this year as well.
In addition to the street projects, we also had a number of water and sewer projects including water main replacement on Broadway Street, Lansing Street, and Locust Street. We used a new directional drilling method for replacing the water lines. This has resulted in less cost and less disruption because we do not need to tear up the street to replace the water lines. We also did a number of sewer projects, and again we used a new method of relining instead of digging up the sewers.
My compliments to Duane and his staff for completing a number of projects this year. It's a tremendous workload for a small department.
12. Project 2000
As you know, Mike Hofer has paid $160,000 toward his obligation to cure his outstanding foreclosure. In addition, later this month he must pay an additional $80,000. It would appear that he does not intend to approach the City Commission regarding reinstating his other options. This means we have some property that we will have to put on the market, and the Property Committee and staff are working on a marketing proposal at the present time.
Jerel Konwinski is in the process of completing his new building in Industrial Park-South. With the construction of that facility we have one ten-acre parcel left. Unfortunately we have not had any interest in that property for the last year or so, which is probably understandable with the economy the way it is at the present time.
The new commercial mall is under construction along Broomfield and should be completed this fall.
13. City-County Meeting
We were not able to hold a meeting in July because of vacation schedules of the participants. We will be scheduling a meeting shortly in order to begin the review process for the Tribal two percent grant requests as well as other items. After we hold the meeting I will of course advise you as to the items discussed.
14. Skate Park
Just this past Monday night you approved the bids for the skate park project. According to Chris, the project will start as soon as possible and should be completed this fall. Obviously this is a project we have all been looking forward to, and I am sure the young people are waiting with eager anticipation for the new facility.
15. SmartZone
According to George Dunn, we have created 24 new jobs in the SmartZone. There are three new companies in the park: SEITI Co. (which is a software developer), Dendretic Nanotechnologies, and Central Michigan Research Corporation. Also, according to George, there are leads for other new companies.
16. Proposed Charter Amendments
The proposed Charter amendments have been reviewed and approved by the Attorney General's office. The ballot language was approved by the local elections committee and sent over to the County. According to Rob, we have completed the steps to get the question on the ballot.
We will need to talk over the next few weeks about what sort of information campaign we will prepare to inform the citizens about the proposed amendments.
17. Update of Web Site
We have updated the web site with all of the City Commission committee assignments as requested.