City council agrees to hire Lexipol grant writing service

The Belleville City Council at its March 4 regular meeting unanimously approved the city manager’s recommendation to hire Lexipol grant writing service to write the larger grant requests that take more time to complete.
For $7,500 annually, for two years, Lexipol will write one big grant a year, doing 85% of the work, with the city taking pictures and doing 15%. He said the consultant will give a grant-writing session, as well, and give assistance and discounts for other grant writing.
Lexipol is located in Frisco, TX.
City Manager Jason Smith said the bigger grants need a grant writer, especially if you want it to be done right. He said the city doesn’t have enough manpower to spend the amount of time necessary for this.
“We left a lot of money on the table,” said Mayor Ken Voigt, referring to past chances to get grants. He said he’s been pushing for a grant writer for three or four years.
When Councilmember Julie Kissel asked which line item the payment will come from, financial consultant Kelly Howey of Plante Moran, said they can take it out of the general fund first and then from whatever department it benefits.
Fire Chief Brian Loranger said the fire department has a grant writer that has written grants for his department and got them a lot of equipment.
Councilman Jeremiah Beebe said he doesn’t have a problem with a grant writer, but he preferred the writer getting a percentage of the grant received rather than being fee-based. He said the city spends $7,500 and there’s only one option. He asked if local communities had suggestions for other grant writers.
Mayor Voigt said the city manager checked with surrounding communities. He said time is of the essence since the deadline for a park grant is April 1.
City Manager Smith said he started on Oct. 16 looking for a grant writer. There is a tight window for the park grant, he said.
Assistant City Manager Steve Jones said the amount of money this company will make off the city isn’t much.
Smith said they will ask for $1.5 million for parks and about $50,000 for Safe Streets for All.
“There’s a lot of money out there,” said Smith. “The little ones I can handle.”
It was noted that Lexipol claims a 40% success rate, double what other firms have.
Councilman Randy Priest asked if the city was working with SEMCOG and Smith said yes and that’s how he found Lexipol.
In other business at the March 4 meeting, the council:
• Approved a resolution of support for the Council of Western Wayne’s funding request for public safety radios for communities within the CWW area. Police Chief Kris Faull said that with the encrypted communication channels put in place by the state and on the new police radios, the reserve officers do not have functioning radios. She said the request is for 12 radios so all the full-time and reserve officers will have functioning radios;
• Heard Howey report in the Quarterly Financial Report that the finances are behind a little because of the computer system crash, but they are working on it;
• Scheduled budget preparation meetings for 6 p.m. May 2, which is a special meeting for police and fire budgets; 6 p.m. May 20 for DPW and administration budgets; 6 p.m. June 3, if necessary; and the regular 7:30 p.m. June 17 meeting for budget adoption. The city manager said the budget has to be approved before July 1;
• Approved assignments of council members to meet with specific departments to gather budget information: Voigt and Kissel, DPW; Beebe and Priest, fire department; Kissel and Bates, police; and Voigt and Bates, administration;
• Received a list of fire department needs for the new truck totalling $55,548.62. The new truck replaces a 1989 model. Fire Chief Loranger said the fire auxiliary had a fund raiser that raised $31,000 and that will be used to pay for some of the equipment;
• Received the EGLE Drinking Water Testing Schedule and DPS Activity Report;
• Approved special event requests for Lake Fest, June 21-23, and Cub Scout Pack 793 flower sale of six-inch potted flowers for spring and Easter at Fourth Street Square, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on March 24;
• Approved accounts payable of $73,548.09 and the following departmental expenditures in excess of $500: to CMP Distributors, $599.50 for police duty ammunition; to City of Livonia, $1,500 for Western Wayne County Mobile Field Force Team Annual Membership for police; to Crawford Door, $750 for repair of DPW garage door; to Miss Dig, $1,296.15 for Miss Dig Membership Fees; to Metro Environmental, $2,142.50 for repair of clogged sewer main; and to All Seasons landscape, $863.65 for repair of mower;
• Heard planning commission member Mike Renaud ask about the Downtown Development Authority buying property that will be taken off the tax roles. Mayor Voigt said last Saturday’s DDA vote on buying 258 Main St. will have to be retaken because it was placed on the agenda wrong. He said the city had a serious problem with the absentee landlord at 258 Main and they didn’t want that to happen again. He said the former hardware store was purchased with property on Fifth Street and the city parking lot will be extended there. He said the DDA will try to re-sell the store;
• Heard Linda LeBlanc say her husband owns the trailer park on Loza Lane and she manages it. She said their $41,000 water bill was on the front page of the Independent as going to be put on their property tax and she had many questions. She said two years ago the city manager who was also police chief told her she had this $41,000 bill. She said her inlaws owned the park in the ‘50s and they passed it on to their son. “We made an agreement to pay $1,000 a month,” she said. She said she talked to Rena, the manager of Belle Villa mobile home park, Monday afternoon, who told her their bill had been $440,000 and they also had an agreement with Dave Robinson to pay that bill. LeBlanc said Robinson said the high bill was the result of an employee that worked at the city. “I talked with my lawyer and he told me to pay it,” she said. She asked why Loza Lane was on the list to have it put on the taxes and not Belle Villa? She said she’s been married for 52 years and, “Why wasn’t this brought up to us before? We always paid our bill.” She said they are not a large corporation. She said she talked to the city manager about this and hopes to get some answers; and
• Heard Matthew Pinneau say he and Christina Davis tried to attend the meeting by zoom, but got cut off so they came in person. He said he won’t speak to the validity of the complaints (about the animals on Davis’ property), but he said he spoke to the city manager about the grey area of noise and nuisance rather than a blanket ordinance against animals, that he thinks is being prepared. Mayor Voigt said the intent is not to outlaw all animals, but it is not uncommon to limit animals and require a kennel if you have many. City Manager Smith said the proposed ordinance is 60% done and will be presented at the next meeting. He said no livestock such as pigs, horses, or water fowl. Maurena Williams, who lives next door to Davis, said roosters bring mice and rats with the food on the ground. She said one mouse in one season can have 78 babies. She said the rooster crowed 28 times on Christmas day beginning at 5:30 a.m., and she has that recorded. She talked about a pit bull beating up a beagle at 2 o’clock in the morning. She told of two pitbulls that ripped another dog apart. “There’s no other place in the city like 100 Henry,” said Dr. Kenneth Williams, who said he believes the rabbit enclosure was on the cold ground all winter. A raccoon got to the rabbits and he heard them screaming, he said.