Greenway Trail & Water Bill Increase

CITY COUNCIL 11/28/11 By Duane Donald /-/ The Council meeting this week began with a work session that came just before the actual council meeting. That work session was about the possible moving ahead of the Greenway Trail Project. This is a project that the city has been talking about since the 1970’s and every subsequent council since. This is a proposed trail to connect the west side of our park’s system to the east side creating an ambling pathway from Softball Park (Gump Lake Park) to Wilson Park. So what makes things any different this time? Well it’s a matter of funding.  Considering a project like this with the revenue constraints that the City of Milan is facing over the next few years would not work at all if Milan wasn’t getting some exceptional grant money for just this kind of Parks and Recs kind of project. The primary funding would come from a fund called the Washtenaw County Parks and Recreation Commission (WCPRC). This fund carries $600,000 worth of funding for these kinds of development projects and Milan pays into this fund so we can use that money to help fund our Greenway project.  In addition: Most of the other grants available to this project would require a percentage match from the City of Milan in order for those grants to take effect. The good news this is, we can use this grant from the WCPRC fund to pay down these grant matches from the other available funds that we’ll need in order to pull this project off.  Some of the other grants include: the MDNR Trust Fund which would require a 25% match from Milan. That fund can supply up to $300,000.  MDOT Transportation Enhancement Fund which has no set limits as to money available but, Milan would have to match 20% of whatever monies the city uses.    The Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan has one million dollars available with no set minimums. That would be a great source for this project.   MDNR Passport Grant has $30,000 available but requires a 25% match from the city. Now as I said, these matches would be a significant amount for the city to come up with but we can use the WCPRC grant money to pay those other grant matches so that is another huge burden off the city’s shoulders.  There is also the City of Milan Major Streets Fund that the city will use to reinforce the lakeside area of Wabash St. against further erosion. Contributions will also be a major part of this funding from the area groups here in Milan.  Stantec Engineering is drawing up the official plans for this project. The preliminary plans will go before the council by Dec. 12^th with the final plans laid out on Dec. 19^th for the go ahead. So it’s really looking like this greenway project is going to make it to the construction phase this time.   There will be three parts to the construction. Pt. 1 will run a sidewalk/path along the Saline River and through some wetlands in that area. Part 2 will amount to mending and reconstructing some sidewalks at a junction area before it moves over to Part 3 which will create a promenade area at Wabash St. which as was pointed out earlier, would require some reinforcement from erosion along the Ford Lake side of the road.  This issue did not come up again during the regular council meeting but I am sure we will all hear much more about the Greenway Project in the weeks to come.  The main topic of discussion for this meeting was the vote on resolution 2011-24. This resolution would revise (raise) the official fee for use of the city’s water and sewer facilities.  Before the topic came to the table, local resident, Debbie Suddeth spoke to the council saying that her water bill had gone up forty dollars this last billing cycle and she asked the council to consider the loss of wages to the city residents and how hard the economy has impacted the average citizen before they voted on raising the water/sewer rates even further. She also asked for clarification on the necessity of raising these rates.  The Mayor responded by telling Debbie Suddeth that the discussion was coming up shortly and a clear response would be given at that time.   The original resolution was to be a three year adoption of billing increases running from years Dec 1^st 2011 to Nov. 30^th 2012 (first year) same dates from 2012 to 2013 and finally 2013 to 2014 but Councilman Michael Armitage asked that the resolution be amended to only one year citing that they could not predict water/sewer usage amounts accurately enough to establish a three year increase. He wanted the council to revisit this issue in 2012. The amendment was accepted.  City Administrator Ben Swayze went on to tell the council all the particulars about this resolution. He mentioned how the city has had to dip into its water utility fund this year in order to balance out their water/sewer bills and to continue that president would have negative affects further down the road.  Swayze read down a list of comparisons from surrounding community water rates. This rate comparison placed Milan near the lower half of what the average household pays in water/sewer rates. The majority of local communities pays a higher rate, and in some cases a much higher rate for water/sewer than the residents of Milan.  The rate increase comes as a result of a loss of water/sewer flow thus a loss of revenue. Naturally the primary reason for such significant losses is the closing of the ACH/Inergy plant which accounted for ten percent of the city’s water/sewer yearly usage.  If approved, the rate increases would go as follows (per average household): Beginning Dec. 1, 2011 there will be a 5% increase over the current $167.87 bringing the average quarterly bill to $176.26. In Dec. 1, 2012 (if later approved), there will be a 4.98% increase bringing the quarterly rate average to $185.30. And come Dec. 1, 2013 (again if later approved) there would be an additional 6.29% increase bringing the total to $196.66. To reiterate, this vote is only for this coming year (running Dec. 1, 2011 to Nov. 30, 2012).  Ben Swayze made the point that the waste treatment plant expansion bond payment is what’s driving the high costs to consumers. Once that bond is paid off the rates could conceivably come down significantly. The thing is, there is an additional fifteen years to go on that bond rate so it’ll still be some time before the water/sewer costs come back down.  Michael Armitage reiterated that he wanted to see council revisit this issue come next December to see if the pay rates could be lowered at all at the end of the first year. He pointed out that these rate hike averages are based on a worst case scenario and thus should be reexamined next year opposed to three years later. The Mayor said she agreed.    Martha Churchill commented that she was happy that the work on the Crescent/Argyle water/sewer lines was near completion. “Those lines needed work every season and caused men and women to brave the weather to go out there and fix them and it cost the city a significant amount of money every year,” Churchill said.  Joe Chapin mentioned that the communities that appear to have lower rates do not have many of the issues that Milan is facing. Such as the expansion bond we have to pay on with our water/sewer revenue. And again pointed out that even with the rate hike, Milan water/sewer rates are still going to be lower than most of the surrounding communities.  Dominic Hamden wanted to make sure Debbie Suddeth’s question from earlier got sufficiently answered so Ben Swayze went ahead and clarified his earlier statements on the issue. Hamden did not want people to confuse the issue of trash pickup fees (which have also gone up by 3% this year) with the water/sewer rate hike. – The resolution carried.   Bills paid this month came to just over $440,000. Ben Swayze mentioned that this was a little higher than normal monthly bills due to the completion of the Uptown Village improvements and now the construction company would understandably like to be paid. – Carried  Debbie Suddeth once more came to the podium during citizens matters form the floor. She mentioned she was not pleased that the resolution was approved but appreciated that the council would revisit the issue in a year to see if water/sewer rate could be adjusted downward at that time. She also suggested that in the future more information be made available to the citizenry whether by the news media or online.  During closing statements by the city staff, Chief Lewis pointed out that Saturday evening (Dec. 3^rd) is the Christmas Parade and that there would be no parking on Main St. beginning at 5pm that night. And Tolen St. will be closed from 3pm to 8pm that evening.  Mr. Grostick (Building/Zoning Dept.) said that though they were behind a little on the leaf clean up, that overall the city was looking pretty good and all leaves would get picked up very soon and then it will go to a pick up as needed basis.  Russell Dotson had no comments nor did Joe Chapin, Michael Armitage, or Ben Swayze.  Doug Gilson echoed Chief Lewis about the Christmas Parade. “Everyone come out and have a good time.”  Martha Churchill pointed out that Sunday Dec. 11^th beginning at 1pm was the Hack House Christmas Open House. She urged people to come out and enjoy an afternoon at the famed Hack House.  Dominic Hamden made a formal apology to both Moving Milan Forward and Michael Armitage for not being in attendance at the Veteran’s Wall of Honor Ceremony (on Nov 11^th). Mr. Hamden was deeply involved in a very large jury trial that encompassed most of that week and was unable to get back home that night until around 10pm. “Despite any controversy surrounding that project, the Wall looks absolutely gorgeous,” he said.  Also Milan Senior for Healthy Living is sponsoring Bongo next week at the Senior Center just a few doors down from City Hall. Mr. Hamden urged citizens to contact the Senior Center for details.  Mayor Muckler again brought up the Christmas Parade and the issue of throwing candy. In years past people could toss candy to the children from the parade vehicles but it gets dark at that time so one kid darting out for a piece of candy at an inopportune moment could cause a disaster and possibly nix that whole event from that point on. So this year and likely from now on, any candy tossed or distributed to the children will have to come from the people who walk along the parade route with the floats.   With comments made, the mayor told us all to go home because the council had to have an executive session to discuss labor negotiations. So, that did it until the next meeting.  (For a video on this or previous council meetings, go to milanmich.org)