VBT board approves McBride Road for paving project

If all goes well, crews will be paving McBride Road this September, with McBride Middle School traffic using the Beck Road entrance during the work.
At the regular meeting of the Van Buren Township Board of Trustees on April 18, the agenda item on use of the Wayne County Local Township Roads Initiative Program was changed to approve McBride Road’s request to participate in the program.
This was a little confusing for some board members, since the day before in their work/study session they were given the information on the McBride project along with four other requests. Board members thought they would get to choose who would get the funds.
Homeowners’ associations had seen the call for applicants for the $750,000 in Wayne County funds for road upgrades and applying were: Robinson River Park, Andover Farms, Walden Woods, and Charter Club Estates.
But, overnight, it was decided the McBride project was the winner and that was the only choice presented.
Board members agreed they were in support of the McBride project in front of the school which would benefit parents from all over the school district since this is the only middle school.
During the work/study discussion, it was pointed out that if they chose all four of the subdivision projects, instead of McBride, the total would be $336,000 of grant funds used and there would be $414,000 money left over and it would have to be sent back to Wayne County.
Supervisor McNamara said he is against sending money back to Wayne County.
The McBride project would use all of the $750,000 in county funds, with matching funds from $90,000 approved by the school district on Feb. 27 and a special assessment district for property owners on McBride. The county grant is for 80% of the project, with 20% in matching funds.
The McBride project is estimated at $927,035 with the 20% required matching funds estimated at $185,407.
Also, in order to get the county funds, the project has to be under way this year and McBride already has $13,000 worth of preliminary engineering work done from last year when it was considered for the project. That project fell through because the school board approved the use of sinking fund money and then found out it had been misinformed by its staff and the sinking fund could not be used for road paving.
The SAD payments are estimated at a total cost of $2,891.12 per each of 33 single family homes or $578.22 per year for five years (not including interest) or $289.11 per year for eight years.
Daniel and Ashley Clay and Bonnie Coughlin carried the petitions for their neighbors to sign and got the more than 50% needed to proceed with the special assessment district. Supervisor McNamara’s assistant Dan Selman helped to contact property owners near the end of the petition drive.
Ron Akers, director of planning and economic development, said 63% of the frontage signed and so the SAD petition can proceed.
The project is 4,806.38 lineal feet of McBride Road between Quirk and Beck roads.
“It’s a clear majority,” Supervisor McNamara said. “It needs to be done. Homes will escalate in price.”
“I’m ecstatic,” said Clerk Leon Wright. “We’ve had many people in my office complaining about McBride. It’s a win-win situation.”
“When will we make the decision on the homeowners associations?” asked Trustee White.
“The group decided on McBride,” McNamara said. “If you don’t like it, vote against it and then we’ll proceed to the next proposal.”
Trustee Sherry Frazier also serves on the Van Buren Public Schools Board of Education which had voted on giving $90,000 to the project so McNamara asked her to recuse herself and leave the room during the discussion and vote by the township board, which she did.
It was pointed out during the work/study that Clerk Wright would have to recuse himself if they discussed or voted on roadwork for Andover Farms. Wright is president of the Andover homeowners’ association and he applied for the funds.
Also, Trustee Martin would have to recuse himself if they discussed and voted on roadwork for Charter Club, since he represents the homeowners’ association there.
At the work/study meeting, McNamara said he approached developers to use some of the county money being offered, “But, they’re too shy for me and I have to get going. We’ve got a month or two, but we have to get going.”