The brand new Metropolis Corridor at 20 South Predominant and Mount Clemens’ water infrastructure, together with the wastewater plant, would be the beneficiaries of a $22 million bond program. The town introduced its intention to pursue bond financing on the Oct. 6 Metropolis Fee assembly.
Picture by Dean Vaglia
MOUNT CLEMENS – Commissioners made clear their plans for financing the town’s subsequent main initiatives, approving the discharge of a letter of intent to lift $22 million by way of capital enchancment bonds through the Oct. 6 assembly.
In accordance with the textual content of the announcement, the bond funds can be used for numerous infrastructure initiatives within the metropolis. Initiatives associated to the town’s water system have been talked about first within the announcement, with “stormwater system enhancements, restore and substitute of water and sewer strains, substitute of two sewer lifting stations and set up of a biosolids drying course of” coming in because the named initiatives. Main modifications to twenty South Predominant – the brand new Metropolis Corridor and Hearth Station – marked the second section of the initiatives, utilizing funds starting from “furnishing, equipping (and) renovating” the ability to paying for the development of an addition to the constructing and any subsequent enhancements and demolition wanted to finish the challenge.
Whereas the discover itself makes no point out of how the funds shall be break up between the initiatives, Metropolis Supervisor Gregg Shipman mentioned on the assembly that $7 million can be for the water and sewer enhancements and {that a} $1.5 million “cushion” introduced the entire bond quantity to $22 million. The Metropolis Corridor challenge will due to this fact be lined by at the least $13.5 million of the total bond quantity.
“You’d hate to see your prices improve after which should pay to publish one other discover so as to add to that quantity,” mentioned Jeffrey Aronoff, principal at legislation agency Miller Canfield. “This (including $1.5 million) is only a cushion.”
Though the commissioners unanimously supported the bond’s letter of intent, there isn’t a dedication presently to additional pursue the bond. The bond announcement provides metropolis residents a referendum proper; an election could also be held concerning the bond if a petition is filed with the town clerk inside 45 days of the publication of the official discover. If no petition is filed, the town can pursue the bond because it needs.
Downtown upkeep evaluation
Metropolis commissioners have been break up on approving the particular evaluation for the 2025-2026 fiscal yr for the downtown upkeep program. Commissioners Jill Yore and Barbara Dempsey voted towards the evaluation, which was authorized 5-2.
Yore and Dempsey advocated on behalf of corporations throughout the evaluation space, which had reservations about persevering with this system in its present kind as a result of increased general prices, declines in construction-related revenues and questions concerning the bidding frequency of the providers contract.
“What I am listening to is that they are not positive what providers they’re getting, and so they do not feel just like the providers are of worth. I simply really feel uncomfortable that we have truly gone by way of the difficulty of listening to from the businesses that this service is of worth to them, and I really feel uncomfortable voting to implement this evaluation and take cash out of their pockets when there’s quite a lot of issues which were powerful on them this yr,” Yore mentioned.
Shipman mentioned the upkeep contract for which the evaluation is paid was awarded on a three-year bid foundation; the contract is presently in its third yr and the contractor can lengthen its present costs into the renewal yr. Yore and Dempsey advocated placing the contract out to bid in an try and get a lower cost, which Shipman warned towards as a result of “after we exit to bid, that renewal value normally goes out the window.”
Commissioner Spencer Calhoun advocated taking the extension yr and utilizing the time till the subsequent overview to additional examine and give you a plan for what to do with the overview and providers. Different modifications mentioned for the approaching yr embrace splitting the cost of the evaluation from one invoice to 2 payments and lowering the variety of sweeping days within the metropolis middle. The contract would most likely be written in the summertime of 2026.
