City Council sets special meeting next Monday to discuss close of fire dept.

On Monday, a large crowd — many in fire department dress uniforms — filled the Belleville City Council meeting room and spilled out into the hallway.
They came to discuss why the city fire fighters had been pink-slipped en masse in order to turn over fire services to Van Buren Township by Jan. 1. And, why it has yet to be discussed publicly by the city council.
But, the item wasn’t on the agenda and nobody spoke to the council about fire fighting, although some had written lists of questions in their hands.
At the end of the 28-minute meeting, Mayor Kerreen Conley announced a special meeting for 7:30 p.m. next Monday, Dec. 4, with only one item on the agenda: Consideration of an intergovernmental agreement on fire services.
Mayor Conley said, actually, the two newly elected councilmembers — Jesse Marcotte and Tom Fielder — will be sworn in at the beginning of the meeting and then everybody can talk about the fire department.
She said Monday’s meeting will begin in the city council chambers and move over to the Commons at Belleville High School if the crowd is too large to hold at city hall.
Van Buren Township Trustee Sherry Frazier stood in the audience to say she was looking forward to working with the City of Belleville to provide the citizens with the best services possible.
“I did hear this morning, ‘What’s going on?’ which spoke of a lack of transparency.”
Trustee Frazier said change is difficult for every organization and the more there is involvement of citizens, the better things work.
In other business at Monday’s meeting, the council:
• Opened one sealed bid for the seawall replacement at Doane’s Landing. It was from E.C. Korneffel Co. of Trenton and totalled $339,230 for the project, plus $2,790 to edge the drain with geotech fabric. The restoration of the soil, concrete walks and removal of the benches and fence to save would be done separately. The council’s breath was taken away by the high figure and the bid was turned over to the administration for study, to see if it is complete, and to recommend what to do next. Building Official Rick Rutherford said he was quite surprised that only one bid came in because other companies spent a good bit of time at Doane’s Landing coming up with bids. Rutherford said a seawall should last 50-70 years and the reason this one didn’t is because of poor engineering. When asked, he said this bid is for the city seawall only and not the part owned by the condos;
• Approved the final one-year renewal of the existing contract with WCA to do assessing for the city. Brian Shaw said the 2.1% increase in cost makes the fee $22,432, up $450 from the current price. WCA has been doing assessing for the city for seven years and represents 24 communities in Wayne County;
• Approved the mayor’s appointments of Jason Mida to the Downtown Development Authority, with a term to expire Dec. 31, 2019, and Claude Partridge, Jr., to the Parks and Recreation Commission, with a term to expire Dec. 31, 2020;
• Approved accounts payable of $134,971.28 and the following purchasees in excess of $500: to Dominion Voting Sys., $7,476 for election equipment; to Oakland Co. Treasurer, $2,768.50 for CLEMIS fees/modems (police); to Emergency Reporting, $1,668 for annual fee (fire); to Wise Technologies, $801.50 for computer support (police); to Election Source, $730.50 for ballot testing; and to Bound Tree, $607 for EMS Suction Device (fire);
• Received a check for $1,123.83 from Karen Mida, president of the Belleville Area Chamber of Commerce, for the city’s participation in the recent golf outing;
• Heard City Manager Diana Kollmeyer announce that while the last pickup of leaves at the curb is this week, a dumpster near the street at the DPW yard will be available 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, for residents to bring paper bags of leaves for disposal; and
• Heard Mayor Conley announce that while the winners in the city’s October scarecrow contest will be called up in front of the council to be honored, they won’t get their plaques picturing their scarecrows until later because they aren’t ready. Honored as winners were Healing Forest Massage & Wellness, Jackson and Jillian Widman, BHS Class of 2020, and Belleville Area Garden Club.