Belleville approves $550,000 in bonds for sewer rehab

With a bare quorum on Monday, the Belleville City Council approved a resolution of intent to issue $550,000 in general obligation bonds to pay for a sewer rehabilitation program.
Voting unanimously on the action were council members Kim Tindall, Tom Smith, and Tom Fielder. Absent and excused were Mayor Kerreen Conley and Mayor Pro Tem Jack Loria. Councilman Fielder conducted the meeting.
Hennessey engineer Ryan Kern recommended the low bid of Liquiforce Services at $423,043.13 for the work and the contract was tentatively approved. Kern said the cost is $75,000 less than expected.
Kern said the $550,000 bond will cover the actual work of $423,043.13, plus the engineering costs, bond counsel, and other associated expenses. He said the city got a S2 grant of $200,000 that paid for the study of what needed to be done in the project to upgrade the aging sewer system.
The city intends to use revenues derived from the city’s sewage disposal system to pay debt service on the bonds, with a term not to exceed 20 years.
The resolution said the project includes the acquisition and construction of improvements to the city’s sewage disposal system, including rehabilitating certain sewers throughout the city with cured-in-place pipe lining and rehabilitation of manholes, together with all necessary interests in land, rights-of-way, appurtenances and attachments.
Kern said the closing on the 2015 SRF (State Revolving Fund) Bonds is expected in September and they will start installing the sewer liners in October. He said they can work through the winter, but if it’s below 15-20 degrees, they’ll stop.
DPW Director Keith Tackett said the plan is to have it all done before next spring.
Kern estimated three to four months’ worth of work. He said they can do all the work on a section within a day so there will be temporary street closings for a day at a time.
The bonds will be issued without a vote of the electors unless a petition requesting such a vote signed by not less than 10% of the registered electors of the city is filed within 45 days after publication in the Independent of the legal notice to taxpayers on the bonds.
Also at Monday’s 45-minute meeting the council:
• Amended the beginning time for the Relay for Life event on May 30 at Horizon Park to 8 a.m. instead of 10 a.m. Although there were requests to “Paint the Town Purple” with a long banner on the bridge, sandwich boards in open spaces around the bridge and Five Points, and purple ribbons on light poles, the council told them they could not give permission for any of that because there are ordinances against it or because it was township, not city, property involved;
• Approved details and revised hours of of the Chamber of Commerce’s Strawberry Festival carnival at St. Anthony Catholic Church, June 18-21: Thursday, 5-9 p.m.; Friday, 11 a.m.-11 p.m.; Saturday, noon – 11 p.m.; and Sunday, noon – 7:30 p.m.;
• Approved the Strawberry Festival Responsibility Policy and the Strawberry Festival Administrative Policy. A change to the Administrative Policy was to take out Horizon Park as “festival area.” Also Councilwoman Tindall had a problem with the carnival closing a half hour later than the rest of the festival. She also said it was inappropriate for the council to be considering these policies on May 4 when the festival starts June 18;
• Announced that the proposed Joint and Crack Sealing Program to repair and preserve city streets will be discussed at the special meeting at 6 p.m. Monday, May 11, before discussion begins on the 2015-16 fiscal budget. Council members and the public received copies of raw drafts of a budget that contained the requests from department heads; and
• Approved accounts payable of $69,048.73 and departmental purchases in excess of $500: to Hennessey, $777 for engineering gas project trust; to Michigan Cat, $1,553.10 for equipment repair, water dept.; and to Time Emergency, $3,163.24 for equipment replacement, fire dept.