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October 2000 Status Report
TO: Mayor and City Commission
FROM: Paul Preston
SUBJECT: Status Report - October 2000It is my pleasure once again to submit for your review and information my monthly status report. As you know, I try to hit the highlights of what's happening in the community, so it is not intended to be a comprehensive report. Therefore, if you have any questions about an issue or item not listed here, please do not hesitate to contact me.
1. Project 2000 Tax Case
In my previous status reports I indicated we had not heard anything from the trial judge in this matter. As you will also recall, we were originally scheduled for a hearing in July. Approximately two weeks ago we received a decision from the judge denying the State's request for a summary disposition in this matter in their favor. The judge indicated that there were a number of questions of fact and law which needed to be answered prior to his making a decision in this case; therefore, a hearing will be scheduled sometime in the future. We were somewhat encouraged by the wording of the judge's decision because he discussed at some length the City's position that we had originally bought the land to extend roads, encourage the construction of low and moderate-income housing, and to improve our tax base, all of which in our opinion represent a legitimate governmental purpose. Just a few days ago we heard from our attorney that we would most likely be scheduled for a hearing in either February or March of 2001, with a slim possibility that we could be scheduled for December.
2. Urban Area Traffic Master Plan Update
A few months ago the City and Union Township agreed to appoint a committee to review the ten-year-old traffic master plan. Duane Ellis has served as the chair of that committee and they have been meeting on a regular basis. Duane informed me last week that a draft report has been completed, that the Committee members were reviewing it, and that a final report should be issued sometime during the latter part of October. Once this report is completed we will share it with the Commission and Duane will make a short presentation about the plan at an upcoming work session.
3. Liaison Committee Meeting With Tribe
On Friday, October 13, the liaison committees from the City and County met with Chris Petras, the head of governmental relations for the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe. The Tribal Council has developed a process whereby issues should first be discussed with a Tribal staff member, depending on the issue involved, who will then bring the matter before the Tribal Council. During our meeting with Mr. Petras we laid out some of the issues that were of concern to us, including the current two percent process and the need to meet on a regular basis with the Tribal Council. Chris contacted me on the 18th and indicated he had spoken to the Council, who indicated that most contacts should be made with Chris's office and the Council would be willing to meet with the City and County on a yearly basis. Chris agreed to meet with our liaison committee on a quarterly basis.
4. Census 2000
During the second week of September we received a report from the U.S. Census Bureau regarding a final response rate for various townships and the cities located in Isabella County. I will not repeat all of the numbers here, but would indicate that the target rate for the initial or mail response nation-wide was 70 percent. The report indicated that the final nation-wide response rate was 67 percent. In Michigan the target rate was 77 percent, while the final response rate was 71 percent. The City of Mt. Pleasant's target rate was 72 percent, with a final response rate of 62 percent. The Village of Shepherd had the highest response rate in Isabella County at 76 percent, while their target rate was 70 percent. The lowest response rate was from Coldwater Township at 49 percent with a target rate of 70 percent.
Needless to say, the response rate in Mt. Pleasant was not as good as we would have liked, but it was not for lack of pre-planning and advertising. My compliments once again to Tony Kulick for all the hard work he did in preparing for and marketing the census.
5. MHT Housing
MHT has begun construction of the new 48 units at Chase Run. I would assume that construction will be completed sometime next summer.
6. Public Safety Building
I attended a short meeting this week with Bill Yeagley, Rory Heckman and the architects from Wakely and Associates on the public safety building design. The project is moving along very well. A set of all drawings, including exterior and interior design, has been prepared. The architect told me that once the final drawings are completed, they will send it to a contractor who will prepare a cost estimate as will the architect. Once they receive this information, they will decide if any changes need to be made to the design and layout to bring it within the proposed budget. I would anticipate that some time in the next 60 days we will be able to present our recommendations to you.
7. Income Tax Study
The Michigan Municipal Consulting Service continues their work on the income tax study. As I indicated in my previous status report, the lack of census data and other up-to-date information has required the firm to seek information directly from local employers. This has slowed the process down a little bit, and it now appears that the report should be finished sometime the end of November.
8. Industrial Park-South
With the recent decision to sell ten acres of land to Konwinski Construction Company, we only have 20 acres remaining for sale. According to George Dunn, there has been some very active interest in the remaining 20 acres, so I feel pretty confident that sometime within the next year we will have completely sold out Industrial Park-South.
9. Park Projects
- Eastside Playground: According to Greg Baderschneider, the contractor has been making good progress on the eastside park. It is my understanding that water lines, sanitary sewer lines, and storm sewer lines are being installed at the present time. It is also possible that within the next week or so the subgrade will be installed for the parking lot. We will leave the parking lot unfinished during the winter months to get good compaction, and it can then be paved sometime in the spring.
- Riverwalk Trail Project: It is anticipated that that contractor hired to do the project will begin the railroad crossings sometime either the latter part of this week or the early part of next week. As you know, it is important that we get these crossings installed prior to the end of the year, and it is anticipated that we will have no trouble meeting that timeline.
10. Visit To Mt. Pleasant By Standard & Poor's
As you know, we intend to issue revenue bonds for the construction of the improvements to the Wastewater Treatment Plant. One of the steps in that process is to receive a rating for the bonds from the two major rating agencies in the country, Standard & Poor's and Moody Investor Services. A representative of Standard & Poor's will be in Mt. Pleasant on October 23rd to make a presentation at a conference at the Holiday Inn. We will be using his visit as an opportunity to show him the community and the proposed project. On November 14th and 15th, Nancy Ridley, Duane Ellis and I will travel to New York to meet with both the rating agencies. As you may recall, we followed this same process when we issued revenue bonds for the construction of the water plant. It is important that our rating on these bonds be as high as possible in order to keep our interest costs as low as possible.
11. Pickard Street Sidewalk Project
At the last Commission meeting a question was raised on the status of the sidewalk construction project along Pickard Street. Duane informs me that Kastle is back on site and should have most of the sidewalk finished within a couple of weeks. As you will recall from a previous status report, there is still a question as to how to proceed with the sidewalk in front of McGuirk's property. Duane and I will meet with Steve Martineau shortly to discuss how best to proceed with this issue.
12. Street Striping
The contractor has completed the street striping and parking lot striping contract.
13. Installation Of New Street Signs
The Street Department will begin the installation of the larger street signs after they complete leaf pick-up in November.