U.S. Army may help clean up streets in Harbour Pointe

Tony Melendez, an Army recruiter, was in the audience of Monday’s regular Belleville City Council meeting and at the end of the meeting he introduced himself and offered to have the U.S. Army help the city with one of its problems.
The council had discussed at length the terrible conditions of the streets in Harbour Pointe subdivision, the worst in the city.
“That place is a nightmare,” Mayor Pro-Tem Ken Voigt said when the council started discussing Harbour Pointe. “I’m surprised we don’t have people with pitchforks and torches in here” complaining about the conditions to the council.
“It’s May 1 and we have not cleaned that up,” Mayor Pro-Tem Voigt said. “It’s a major failure on our part.”
He said he did not blame Building Official/DPW Director Rick Rutherford because Rutherford has few workers and little money to address that project.
“We’ve accomplished very little and in my opinion a lot of things are let go,” Voigt continued. “All the streets in the city are fair to horrible. It will take $6 million for Harbour Pointe and we can’t afford to bond for that much money.”
He said he would like the city to concentrate on the “U” streets that go in, through, and out, since they are the worst.
“World War II. It looks like the Russians were shelling us,” Voigt said.
Rutherford had presented a list of road repairs needed in the city and asked the council to prioritize them.
After much discussion, Mayor Kerreen Conley summed up what they were going to do now. She wanted them each to have copies of the engineer’s report on the street from about seven years ago, when a special assessment district had been proposed, knowing all the streets will be worse now.
Also, council members who want to go out to look at the streets can do so, making sure they don’t go as more than two at a time to comply with the Open Meetings Act.
Rutherford was directed to get a proposal from a company who would do all the work that was from sewer or water breaks and so the Water and Sewer fund money could be used for those because the fund is very healthy. Rutherford will bring the proposal to the council.
Rutherford said he was seeking direction from the council and that’s what he got. Voigt and Beebe agreed to sit on a subcommittee to consider the street situation with Rutherford.
While discussing the Harbour Pointe street situation, Rutherford had said that the street sweeper is still not fixed because they are waiting for a part.
Councilman Jeremiah Beebe said that it would be a waste to fix the street sweeper and then take it in to that subdivision and get it broken again. He suggested having a Clean Harbour Pointe Day and invite Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, clubs, convicts, and others to bring their brooms, shovels, and a dump truck.
Rutherford had explained the concrete was laid during the time concrete throughout the area was being made in a substandard way and it is now crumbling. He said every time he patches a hole in Harbour Pointe, the sides crumble away.
When recruiter Melendez spoke, he explained that he has an office in Southgate and he was present, with his young son also named Tony, to learn what his unit can do to help the community.
“We’ve got soldiers who can take care of that,” Melendez said of cleaning up the Harbour Pointe streets, adding he will talk to the city officials after the meeting to set up something.
He said he comes to Belleville High School regularly to discuss the Army life and took part in the school’s recent Job Fair.
In other business at Monday’s meeting, the council:
• Approved the annual Memorial Day ceremony at 11 a.m., May 29, at the Veterans Memorial, to be put on by Veterans of Foreign Wars 4434 and Polish Legion of American Veterans 167;
• Accepted the Downtown Development Authority budget for 2023-24 as approved by the DDA at its April 19 meeting. It is part of the city budget that is being prepared;
• Approved accounts payable of $29,538.27 and the following departmental purchases in excess of $500: to Blue Ribbon Contracting, $1,940 for repair of a broken curb stop at 83 N. Edgemont, and $4,516 for repair of broken sewer in road at 328 Church St.; to Hennessey Engineering, $2,678 for a portion of the Water Reliability Study; and to HeyGov!, $4,000 for the city’s HeyGov! Website module;
• Heard Fire Chief II Chris Zweng invite everyone to an open house at the fire hall from noon to 3 p.m. on Saturday, May 6. He said they will show off the improvements at the fire hall, spray water for the kids, and have other activities;
• Heard City Manager/Police Chief Dave Robinson announce that the County Assessor Michael Dittmar will be in the city from 8:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. on Mondays (not Wednesdays) and will be assessing Huron Township, Sumpter Township, and Belleville; and
• Was informed the Inside/Out artworks from the Detroit Institute of Arts were set to be installed on May 2. Also, the placing of flags on veterans graves will be at 8:30 a.m., May 20, at Hillside Cemetery. Volunteers are asked to call the clerk to sign up.