City Council to consider $10 million project to upgrade city streets

The Belleville City Council will take the next four months or so to consider a $10 million project to upgrade all the streets in the city to stop the deterioration.
At Monday’s meeting of the city council, DPW Director Keith Tackett presented the Pavement and Surface Report on every street in the city which rated each street from 10 (worst) to 1 (almost new).
He presented three- and five-year plans and noted, “Either way, you’re looking at $10 million.”
Tackett said the city’s portion is about half of Greylock by Edgemont School at a cost of about $100,000 to upgrade. The rest of the street is owned by Wayne County.
The asphalt streets are proposed to be upgraded by the mill-and-fill process and the concrete streets by overlay or sectioning.
When asked about Main Street, Tackett said that street will have joint and crack filling every three to five years, as needed.
Tackett said concrete prices are so unstable there is a prediction of a 10-15% increase in concrete prices in 2016.
Tackett said both the three-year and five-year lists are laid out from top priority on down.
Tackett said sewer work started in the city this week by a Canadian firm and they will be gone by Christmas. The other work that needs to be done under the streets will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, he said.
City Manager Diana Kollmeyer said Ryan Kern of Hennessey Engineers will be at the next meeting, Nov. 16, to discuss “how we are going to pay for this.”
Mayor Kerreen Conley said the council also wants to know how much it costs to fill in the ditches along East Huron River Drive.
Tackett warned the mayor that the city doesn’t get Act 51 money for county roads and that’s what East Huron River Drive is. Conley said she wanted the cost, anyway.
Councilman Tom Fielder said he would like to have a special session of the council to explain to the residents why the council wants to go into debt to do a long-range plan on roads.
Tackett said it will take at least six months to digest all the information and go out for bids in the spring for work to begin after that.
Mayor Conley said the council learned a lesson when the city wanted to do Main Street. She said they talked about it for a long time.
“When we finally came to doing it, people didn’t know what was going on,” she said, saying she agreed with Fielder. She suggested there be a roundtable discussion at some location in the city to explain the project to the residents.
“It’ll take four to six months to get it all ironed out,” Mayor Conley said.
“Didn’t you do that with the Main Street project?” asked Fire Chief Brian Loranger.
“We started to go forward on the bonds and we had to go back…” Mayor Conley said. “Lesson learned.
In other business at Monday’s meeting, the council:
• Approved the Jingle Bell 5K Fun Run/Walk from 9:45 to 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 5. The race starts at the Horizon Park gazebo on High Street and heads up High to Main to Denton Road and back and involves some street closures. It is sponsored by the Van Buren Public Schools Education Foundation;
• Approved the Canton Lions Club fund raising on Main Street, from Five Points to Third Sreet, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Nov. 6 and 13. Lion Bill Van Winkle said his club has provided nine pairs of glasses and three hearing aids to people in the Belleville community since he came to the council last spring;
• Took no action on St. Anthony’s request for approval of their activities during Strawberry Festival, June 17-19, as well as approval of their carnival. Sharon Pokerwinski of St. Anthony said they have been unable to come to an agreement with the Belleville-Area Chamber of Commerce, who won’t return their calls. Pokerwinski said St. Anthony is being taken out of the chamber’s contract and, “We heard we will get less percentage.” She said the chamber doesn’t help them when they need help during the festival. That’s why St. Anthony is asking to do its own contract for its own carnival. Mayor Conley said she didn’t think it was the council’s place to get between St. Anthony and the chamber. “We can’t get anywhere with them,” Pokerwinski said. “It’s getting worse.” City Manager Kollmeyer said the city wants them to bring all the festival plans to the council at the same time. Chamber Executive Director Paul Henning and Chamber President Randy Brown were present but made no comments. Strawberry Festival Executive Director Joan Bodnar was ill and not present;
• Approved the request of William and Sharon (Stalmack) Dubisky to plant a honey locust tree in Horizon Park in memory of the late Ronald E. Stalmack with a plaque to be placed by the tree. Randy Brown of Gardener’s Choice will plant the tree. Tackett said it will be planted in the far west end of the park that could use a few more trees. Councilman Fielder said the city should put together a policy on tree planting since others might also like to do this;
• Approved Winter Fest activities and the 6 p.m. Dec. 5 parade with “A Norman Rockwell Christmas” theme, as requested by the chamber. At the end of the parade, Belleville Fire Department will bring Santa to town. Main Street, from Third to Royce, will be closed from 2 to 9 p.m. for various activities throughout the day, including singing on a stage at Fourth Street;
• Approved Winter Fest fireworks from the Denton Road bridge after the parade, as requested by the chamber. The bridge will be closed from 8 to 10 p.m.;
• Approved the chamber’s use of Fourth Street behind the viewing stand during Winter Fest for various activities with the exact times to be determined by the chamber and to be approved by the city administration;
• Approved the BYC’s request to use the Fourth Street Square from morning of Dec. 4 to early evening of Dec. 6 for the portable skating rink. Skating will be from noon to 9 p.m. on Friday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday, and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday. Fire Chief Loranger, representing the BYC, asked for permission to park their semi overnight on Main Street at the square so it could be unloaded on Friday morning and the rink assembled. He said the BYC did that last year and got a ticket. Councilwoman Kim Tindall said she is sure there was at least one complaint and that the semi was parked over the pedestrian crosswalk;
• Heard Police Chief Hal Berriman explain the figures on estimated 2015 auto repairs on four police cars. He noted there may be some errors in the figures since they were not entered by VIN. He said he would be back with more precise numbers, but he could use two new cars to replace the two oldest cars that will take a lot to repair;
• Approved accounts payable of $91,673.87 and departmental purchases in excess of $500: All Seasons, repair mower, from cemetery fund, $2,166.05; Blue Ribbon, emergency storm drain collapse repairs, from Major/Local Street funds, $6,000; EJ, hydrant repair, Water fund, $1,456.92; Election Source, machine testing, Elections budget, $690; Lonnie’s Auto Repair, truck repair (undriveable), Major/Local Streets funds, $1,410.43; SLC, replacements/stock (water meters), Water Department, $939.63; and Superior Auto, equipment maintenance, various departments, $695.74;
• Heard Councilman Fielder tell of Mayor Conley’s participation in the New York Marathon Run last weekend. He said she got VIP treatment and was given a ride in a special vehicle; and
• Heard all the council members comment on the success of Booville this year, with plans for an improved event next year. Chief Berriman said at least 100 people took their picture with the toy Booville police car in the garden at city hall during trick or treat on Main Street. He said the special car was put together by parttime employee Carol Smith.