Belleville gets $490,000 grant for new fire truck

At the Sept. 19 regular meeting of the Belleville City Council, Fire Chief Brian Loranger announced that the city has been given a $490,000 federal grant for a new fire truck.
He said he was Up North over the weekend and he got a call from Chris Wiggins, who had prepared the grant, to tell him they had succeed.
He told the city council that it is a 5% matching grant, with the federal government giving $466,666 and the city supplying $23,333. He said they have been working on a grant for five years.
He said this truck will replace the 1989 truck that has a stick shift and has been a problem for young fire fighters to drive. He said the last time the city got a new truck was in 1998.
Chief Loranger said he got a call from Congressman Gary Peters for details on the truck.
Loranger said the cost of fire trucks has been rising regularly so he thinks this truck actually may cost more.
In other business at the 44-minute meeting, the council:
• Held a public hearing and then passed an amendment to a city ordinance on Juvenile Responsibility, which mirrors state law but makes city officers able to write it up under local ordinance. It raises the use of tobacco products from 18 years of age to 21 and raises the age to 18 when a person can have repeated absences from school;
• Approved the Witches’ Ball, a fund-raiser for Guiding Harbour (Girlstown), put on by Egan’s Pub under a tent in the Fourth Street Square from 6 p.m. until midnight on Oct. 28. Angel Food Catering will provide snacks and there will be a DJ and dancing. The warlocks are admitted at 11 p.m. and everything is over by midnight, said John Winter of Egan’s. The big tent goes up on Thursday, hopefully, and will be taken down early Monday, he said. Therese Antonelli said she isn’t with the Central Business Community, but couldn’t they leave the tent up until Halloween night on Monday so the CBC could use it for the trick or treat event? Winter said the tent costs them $5,000 and the CBC doesn’t want to pay him back some of the cost. Antonelli said she would talk with the CBC;
• Approved a Great Lakes Water Rate Contract Amendment that provides for contracts to be reopened every four years beginning with 2022. City Manager/Police Chief Dave Robinson said GLWA wanted an increase in water rates of 8.6% for the city, but the city used software and all the records about water main breaks and fires and proved its usage and now the GLWA has lowered the increase to 2.9%;
• Approved a MERS (Municipal Employees Retirement System) Multiplier Provision for a re-hired employee. Robinson said an accounting clerk who had worked for the city for seven and a half years and had a certain MERS percentage had a lower MERS rate when she came back to work for the city. MERS then rolled her old rate with the new rate and she got less which made her suffer, he said. MERS never had this situation with the same city, he said. This new agreement straightens it all out. He said this employee also worked for another municipality with MERS in between her Belleville employments;
• Approved hosting the Detroit Institute of Arts’ Inside-Out Art Installation. The Belleville Council for the Arts applied for the Inside-Out program, which is without charge to the city, and it was approved for next year, beginning in May and ending in October. The city hosted Inside-Out about ten years ago and it was a big hit. Mayor Pro-Tem Ken Voigt said the DIA will provide six to ten Great Masters reproductions on aluminum in frames which will be mounted by the same sign company that has been doing it for years. He said the DIA will be out to check on sites this Friday. He said they can have a dedication ceremony and make a big deal out of it when they are installed;
• Approved accounts payable of $369,685.68 and the following departmental purchases in excess of $500: to B&R Janitorial, $615.32 for supplies for DDA Maintenance, DPW Dept.; and to Goodyear Tire, $863.18 for replacement of dump truck tire that blew out while the truck was loaded during a main break;
• Heard Robinson report that they are hiring a new police officer, Tyrell Robinson who lives in Van Buren Township. He was to be sworn in on Wednesday, with the ceremonial swear-in at the next council meeting. He said Robinson spent the last year at the City of Detroit and he thinks he will be a good fit for this department. He also announced that a lot of dead trees have been taken down in the cemetery so headstones won’t be damaged by falling trees. Also, he said he’s been told the side of the building at the police department where the shop was taken down will be taken care of the first week of October;
• Heard Councilwoman Kelly Bates thank the city for taking weeds off the playground at Village Park and for scheduling the locks to be put on the park restrooms. She also said it was nice that in the moment of silence at the beginning of the meeting, those present were asked to think of the Queen of England who was being entombed that day;
• Heard Councilman Steve Jones say that the last Main Street car show of the season is next week and homecoming at the high school is Oct. 21;
• Heard Mayor Pro-Tem Voigt say he has worked with a lot of reserve police officers and Jim Piper, who was honored that evening, “… is a great guy. We’re privileged to have him”;
• Heard Mayor Kerreen Conley remind everyone that the BHS Band Review is at the high school on Wednesday, Oct. 21, the same night as the Belleville Downtown Development Authority meeting, and she planned to attend both;
• Heard John Juriga announce the library will be open on Sundays starting Oct. 16 and as of Nov. 1 it will be open at 9:30 a.m. instead of 10;
• Heard Tom Fielder report on drug treatment for young people in Western Wayne County and how they may have to set up residential facilities to house them. He also announced the Substance Abuse Disorder group he attends has opened treatment centers downtown and in Livonia. He said strips to test for fentanyl are available and would be a good idea since fentanyl is now in many substances;
• Heard fire fighter Chris Zweng say that Egan’s plans to preserve the Golden Boy sign. Voigt referred to the sign that was uncovered when siding was removed as a “ghost sign.” Winter said the original artist who did the sign was in Egan’s on Monday and he didn’t want to redo the sign, but Winter’s daughter is an artist and she will do it. Juriga asked if John and Thekla Szlinis shouldn’t be informed of the sign being uncovered, since it was their restaurant in the past. Winter said there are gold flakes in the sign and when the sun shines on it in the afternoon, it has a glint. He said there is a “Tops in Taste” sign that used to be on the building and if anyone has it stored in their barn, he’d like to buy it;
• Heard Antonelli suggest they put lights in the trees along Main Street for the holidays, since they all have electric power available. Voigt said a lot of communities leave the trees lit all year. Antonelli was informed that would be a DDA project and she said she will attend the DDA meeting on Wednesday; and
• Heard Fielder say the police have been very, very good at getting people out of the football games at the high school. Councilman Jones said there was 1,300 in paid attendance at last Friday’s game.