City Council approves taking $3.5M road project to voters

The Belleville City Council voted unanimously at its Sept. 5 meeting to take the question of whether to levy less than one mill for 15 years to bond for $3.5 million to bring all of the roads in the city into good shape.
It’s too late to get it on the November ballot, so the council foresees putting it on the February ballot at the earliest.
As part of the project, the city would put $180,000 a year into the work from the Act 51 revenue and local gas taxes it gets to help keep the costs down.
The levy is expected to be around .95 or .98 mill, depending on interest rates.
Financial consultant Kari Blanchett had conferred with the council at a previous meeting and she provided charts for the Sept. 5 meeting and was available by zoom for questions.
The item “Road Funding” was on the agenda, but a discussion was expected. The council discussed the issue yet again and then unexpectedly opted for a decision.
Mayor Pro-Tem Ken Voigt was absent from the meeting because he was in Alaska. Voigt is the only candidate running for mayor in the November election and is likely to be in charge of the big road program if voters approve it.
DPW Director Rick Rutherford said $3.25 million would be enough for the work, which would take two construction seasons to get most of it done, especially with the Harbour Pointe component.
He estimated it would take $2.5 million to do the work in Harbour Pointe subdivision.
Jason Smith, who had been named new city manager at a previous meeting, joined in the discussion, saying the city could borrow from Water and Sewer. He said about 25% is fund balance and when that amount gets to a point, it is too high and you have to spend it down.
Smith said if you do all the roads in one year, then in 25 years you’ll have to do them all again in the same year. But, he noted, costs are going up so it’s best to do the work as soon as possible.
Mayor Kerreen Conley noted that the Downtown Development Authority bonds for the Main Street work will be paid off sometime during this new bond issue.
Martha Hanoian, director of the Belleville Area Chamber of Commerce, said she was a new resident of the city. She asked if any of the millage would be falling off soon.
Mayor Conley said she doesn’t see any lowering of the public safety millage.
Councilman Tom Fielder, who also is not running for reelection, said the city is capped at 20 mills, but with the Headlee provisions, it now is at 18 mills.
Councilman Fielder said for the last two to three years, residents have been telling the council they want better roads.
Councilman Joshua Beebe, who lives on Church Street and is running for reelection, asked how much of the total it would take to fix Harbour Pointe streets and Rutherford said it was a little over $2 million.
Councilman Beebe asked if there was any way to have a special assessment for those in Harbour Pointe so they would pay more than others in the city for the project.
Mike Renaud, a resident of Harbour Pointe, said the council looked at that.
Mayor Conley, a resident of Harbour Pointe, said they found the special assessment would be tied to the property and people had to pay it off before selling their property. Residents were against it.
She said her share of the special assessment would be $10,000 and she was willing to write a check for that.
Councilman Beebe said a big part of the bond is Harbour Pointe, so maybe those residents could pay more.
“We’ve exhausted that,” Rutherford said, referring to the public meetings and proposals in the past.
Mayor Conley said if you don’t get Harbour Pointe residents to agree, everything else falls apart.
Beebe said it seems kind of crazy that he would be paying for the Harbour Pointe street repair.
Renaud said that Harbour Pointe pays more taxes than anyplace in town.
“We haven’t seen a reduction in taxes over the last 20 years as the roads deteriorated,” Renaud said. “It was considered a premier community in 2000 … Because they’ve been ignored for so long, they’ve gotten worse … A lot has been done in the city, but not at Harbour Pointe.”
He said the three massive trucks coming through the subdivision streets every week do damage to the already deteriorated streets.
Fielder said he lives on Henry Street, a dead-end street, which gets little traffic.
He said there is a saying, “If nobody’s happy, it’s probably the best way to do it.”
“Well, fine!” Beebe conceded.
Mayor Conley said this proposal has higher likelihood of bringing roads into good shape throughout the city.
Fielder said since he isn’t on the ballot, he would make the motion to bring the proposal to the voters. The motion passed unanimously.
In other business at the Sept. 5 meeting, the council:
• Approved the special event application for the Community Art Walk, from 12:30 to 6 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 16, starting on the Fourth Street Square. The event is to highlight the various artworks in the city. Live bands at the Fourth Street Square and docent-led tours of the DIA “Inside/Out” works at 1 and 3 p.m. Event is sponsored by Councilman Ken Voigt and Belleville Area Council for the Arts;
• Approved the special event application of Egan’s Pub for the Witches’ Ball from 6 p.m. until midnight on Oct. 27 in a tent that will be erected in the Fourth Street Square. John Winter said the masquerade party for women event is a benefit for Guiding Harbor;
• Approved the special event application for Winter Fest, Nov. 30 through Dec. 3, sponsored by the Belleville Area Chamber of Commerce. Hanoian said the title for the Saturday parade is “Christmas Characters” and participants should not dress as Santa or Mrs. Santa. She said it is Van Buren Township Fire Department’s turn to bring Santa to town. She said there will be no ice rink this year and that will be replaced with a Holiday Village where kids can go from place to place. She said they will have inflatables if the weather cooperates and a soup crawl. She asked for the closing of Fourth Street Place for activities from Thursday evening through the weekend. There will be carriage rides on Saturday and Sunday and a CARE drive on Sunday. And, fireworks from the Denton Road Bridge causeway. The approval included extension to midnight on Friday and Saturday of the DORA (Designated Outdoor Recreation Area) hours;
• Heard Fielder report that the Festival of Holiday Trees is back at the museum which is reopening and will be a great background for the Central Business Community’s visits with Santa. Acting City Manager Steve Jones suggested the city decorate a tree at the museum. Mayor Conley asked if the city wanted to do a float in the parade and a tree, as well, implying it’s usually hard enough just to get the float in place;
• Approved allocating $59,931 for new police department encryption radios, with the purchase of Kenwood Radios from Spectrum Wireless. There is five-year total warranty for all equipment;
• Removed a proposal from the agenda to approve the EV Charging Station contract until the attorney reviews it. It will be placed on the next meeting agenda. The contract places the EV stations in the parking lots at Horizon Park, N. Liberty Street, Victory Park, Village Park and Belleville Area District Library;
• Approved accounts payable, with a corrected figure, and the following departmental purchases in excess of $500: to Mueller Company, $2,915.89 for annual software maintenance renewal and $1,378.98 for water meters, DPW; to Safety Track, $2,584.06, installation of tracking devices on police and DPW vehicles; to R&R Firetruck Repair Inc., $45,491.34, the final payment of the city’s portion for the fire truck; to Lexipol LLC, $1,650.06, training site for fire and EMS; to ESO Solutions, Inc., $2,502.40, for software reporting program for fire and EMS; and to Safety Track, $629.55 for Fleet Management for DPW and PD vehicles;
• Heard Fire Chief Brian Loranger explain that the city was responsible for part of the grant for the new fire engine. He said an engine is usually good for 25 years and their engine is 35 years old;
• Heard Acting City Manager Jones thank John Winter and Egan’s for supplying pizza and sliders for all the first responders at the shooting in downtown Belleville on Aug. 31;
• Heard Councilwoman Kelly Bates comment on Winter’s daughter Mary who stopped the bleeding of the man shot. Bates said she herself has been trained to do that and it’s really intense because you have to get down in the wound. It’s as important as CPR, she said. Bates also thanked newly selected city manager Jason Smith for joining the meeting as part of the audience, driving an hour from his home in Jackson;
• Heard Fielder say the Van Buren Public Schools is up 400 students this fall and the Marching Band is close to 200; and
• Heard Beebe say that when Redemption Church met on the Fourth Street Square there were 80 members there and their reception made the city look good.