VBT asks public to apply to use $750,000 in county road funds

When Van Buren Township spent some $750,000 of Wayne County Local Roads Initiative funds in 2015 to renovate Venetian, Dewitt, and Jeanette streets and the entrance to Walden Woods, other subdivision residents complained.
“Why didn’t you offer it to us?” they asked and township officials said next time they get money they will ask for applications for all qualified projects.
VBT Supervisor Kevin McNamara wants to make sure that everyone interested in using this second round of county money to fix their streets knows they can apply for consideration. Deadline is March 3.
Ron Akers, director of the VBT Department of Planning and Economic Development, said the county has for a second time allocated $750,000 to repair, resurface, or reconstruct existing local township residential zoned roads under Wayne County’s jurisdiction within VBT.
The county requires 20% matching funds of the total cost of the project and in the first project the residents paid that percentage.
Homeowner associations can apply and those roads without HOAs may call Akers at (734) 699-8913 to discuss their applications.
Akers said McBride Road, the gravel road in a residential area in front of McBride Middle School, is estimated to cost about $900,000 to upgrade and would take the whole county allocation.
He said he has talked to a couple of residents on McBride who may circulate petitions asking if they are interested in forming a special assessment direct to fund their share.
The roadway is usually rutted because of the heavy school buses that travel to and from the school and the poor drainage of the road. Parents regularly complain about how difficult it is to get to the school in their cars.
In the spring of 2016, the school district thought it could use sinking funds for its share of the roadway reconstruction, but had to back off the project when it learned sinking funds could not legally be used.
“It is the township’s intent to allocate the project funds as equitably as possible for the project,” Akers said.
“If there are more applications than can reasonably be funded, the township will review the requests based on eligibility, the condition of the roads, and the amount of funding which can be provided by the subdivision/homeowners.
“Using this method, the township will make a determination as to how the eligible funding will be allocated.”
Akers explained the road situation.
He said local residential roads in VBT are either public roads owned by Wayne County or they are private roads which are owned privately by the owners who front upon it.
For public roads owned by Wayne County, the county receives money from the State of Michigan (Act 51 funding) in order to provide ongoing maintenance of the local roads.
Due to the large amount of paved roads in the county and limited financial resources received from the state, Wayne County has not always had the resources to pay for improvements to local residential roads in townships, Akers said.
Historically, if residential road improvements needed to be made, the residents would have to pay for improvements to local residential roads in townships, he said.
“Due to this there have been many local roads which are in need of repair or restoration,” Akers said.
He said the county funds are required to be used to repair, resurface, or reconstruct existing Wayne County owned residentially zoned roads in townships in Wayne County. These roads must be determined by Wayne County to be ineligible to receive federal aid funding or are determined by Wayne County to be federal-aid challenged.
Wayne County considers federal-aid challenged roads to be roads which are technically eligible for federal aid funding, but will likely never be chosen for federal funding due to factors like low traffic counts, right-of-way constraints, lane-width restrictions, etc. Most Wayne County owned residential roads in VBT qualify for these funds, Akers said.
The application letters should include the name of the subdivision interested in the program, contact information for a representative, and the amount of funds the subdivision can contribute toward the potential road project.