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December 2002 Status Report
As we wind down toward the end of the year you will probably find this report shorter than normal. That is because not a lot of new things have come up since the last report, and I will be doing a more comprehensive year-end report for your last meeting in January. I would, however, like to comment on a few items.
1. Construction Projects
We are pretty much finished with our projects for this year. As I am sure you know, we had a very busy construction year. Major projects included the Wastewater Treatment Plant upgrade, the renovation and expansion of the Public Safety Building, and the park trail project. We also bid a large number of street projects from total reconstruction to overlaying a number of streets. We completed a number of sewer rehabs and installation of new water lines. Whenever we could, we relined the sewers instead of digging up and replacing, and directional boring to install new water lines, again so we did not have to do a lot of digging. Both of those new methods have proven to be very successful and cost effective
My compliments to the entire staff for the great job they did in designing, bidding and completing all of these projects over this past year.
2. Tribal Two Percent
We were fortunate again this fall to receive a sizable two percent allocation from the Tribe. With this funding we will be able to continue our highly successful Youth Services Unit. To date the City has received $8.69 million from the Tribe for various projects and capital acquisitions.
3. Washington Street Crosswalks Near Anspach Hall
A few months ago the City Commission raised some concerns about pedestrian safety along Washington Street. Duane Ellis has prepared the attached memo that I provide for your information. If you have any questions we will be happy to answer them at the meeting.
4. McGuirk Sidewalk
As you may recall, a number of years ago the Planning Commission required McGuirk Sand & Gravel to install sidewalk as part of their site plan approval. McGuirk never installed the sidewalk. As we researched this matter further, we found that an issue that needed to be resolved was that there was not sufficient public right-of-way on which to install the sidewalk. This would have required McGuirk to put the sidewalk on their private property. Steve Martineau did a considerable amount of research and found that we could not require him to put a public walk on private property, but rather that we would have to acquire the necessary right-of-way in order for the sidewalk to be built. Steve's research led him to a Supreme Court decision that was handed down a few years ago, that while not directly on point, indicated you could not take private property for a public use without compensating the property owner for that taking. Based on that information, staff and Steve determined that we should approach Mr. McGuirk to see if we could agree on a purchase price for the necessary easement for the sidewalk right-of-way. We were able to negotiate a price and in turn Mr. McGuirk indicated that he would install the necessary sidewalk, using his own crews, this spring.
At a future work session Steve will address this issue in more detail, since as you all know it comes up on a rather regular basis.
5. Beau Pre Sidewalk
During our discussion of the Russell Street sidewalk our research indicated that Beau Pre was required to install sidewalk as part of their site plan approval. A few months ago, I sent a letter to Mr. Devine, the developer of the property, asking him to construct the sidewalk per the terms of the site plan approval. He did not respond, so I sent him another letter. He did respond a couple of weeks ago and indicated he does not intend to install the sidewalk. We will need to discuss this matter further at some future meeting to see how we wish to proceed.
6. Borden Building
There is nothing new to report on the status of this project.
7. Deer Hunt
So far we have taken six deer in the Veit's Woods. I spoke to Sergeant Dan Gaffka, who is administering the program, to get an update. He told me the hunters had not seen any deer in the huntable areas in the last week. According to the hunters, the deer are sleeping just inside the woods and going up into the houses at night. In fact, one of the hunters involved in the hunt this year lives in the neighborhood, and he indicated he sees the deer at night. He also indicated that he has seen people who live in the area still feeding the deer.
As you may recall, I mentioned that I had worked out an arrangement with a biology professor at the University to do some radio tracking of the deer. He indicated he would start the first part of this month. Late last week I noticed they had moved a trap into the woods so they could trap and then collar the deer. Unfortunately, sometime over the weekend someone wrecked the trap. I don't know if their concern was that they thought it was a blind to be used for hunting, or if they just don't like the idea of trapping deer. Of course, it is also possible they just destroyed it for the fun of it. I have not had a chance to speak to the professor to see if this will slow down the trapping process.
If we keep up at this pace with the deer hunt it looks like we will take about the same numbers that we did last year.
8. Temporary Traffic Control Orders
The Traffic Control Committee met on November 26th to review a number of requests. The first was from the southwest neighborhood concerning overflow parking from the University on residential streets. After some discussion the Committee is recommending that additional parking prohibitions should be provided on Highland Street, and on the south side of Sunset Street from the north side of the sidewalk access to Vowles School, to the intersection of Sunset and Stockman. As you know, we put these temporary traffic control orders into effect for 90 days to see what impact-either positive or negative-they have, and then if the results are acceptable they will make a recommendation to make the temporary order permanent.
In other matters the Committee dealt with an increase of employee parking around Central Michigan Community Hospital. The Committee has recommended that on South Drive the existing "No Parking From Here To Driveway" signs be moved to provide a minimum of 30 feet on each driveway entrance into the facility to give better sight vision coming out of the parking lot. Also, a temporary traffic control order will be issued to install "No Parking Here To Corner" signs on the west side of Brown Street, at the intersection of Maple Street, North Drive and South Drive. Again, if the change is positive we will come to you in three months seeking a permanent traffic control order for these changes.