By Jim Newell

Review Editor

Now that voters have approved a parks and recreation millage request, residents may be asking what Orion Township plans to do with the more than $1.6 million the millage is expected to bring in in the first year.

Orion Township officials are planning the first renovations and repairs to parks facilities, which includes $400,000 to remodel the Peterson Lodge at Camp Agawam.

More than 57 percent of voters supported the 1-mill request in the Aug. 7 primary election.

“We’re really thrilled that it passed. We definitely did not take it lightly putting the millage question on the ballot. The board has talked about additional revenue for at least the last four budget cycles. We really were going to be at a crossroads as to, Do we need to downsize and sell off some of our assets?” said Orion Twp. Supervisor Chris Barnett.

The township has a five-year plan – the length of the millage – to address needs at the parks. The parks and recreation budget is more than $1.9 million this year, and is expected to be more than $2 million from 2019-2021.

“The millage is going to allow us to do a lot of the things that are in our parks and rec. master plan that we didn’t have the capital to do,” Barnett said. “Nothing is completely set in stone; it won’t be until we adopt our budget.”

Orion Twp. had been funding the parks and recreation budget from the general fund, but officials said the township couldn’t continue that practice unless it made cuts to the parks and recreation department, possibly even selling land.

Camp Agawam on Clarkston Road would have generated the most revenue.

“We didn’t have a for sale sign out front but the one that made the most sense was Camp Agawam. It would be very desirable for a residential builder, it’s on a lake, we could get a lot of money for it and then we could take that money and support the rest of our operations,” Barnett said.

“Since the park millage did pass, we’re going to do work out there. We’re going to renovate the Peterson Lodge to make it an attractive place where people could have a wedding shower or wedding in addition to community events. That will be our first big project in the first year.”

2019 Projects

“The first year is going to focus on things that needed a lot of attention,” Barnett said.

Proposed projects for 2019 include $100,000 for baseball and softball field renovations and resurfacing; $40,000 for accessible pathways at Wildwood Amphitheater; $12,000 for Life Trail exercise equipment; $30,000 to repair the roof of the Friendship Park meeting room; $40,000 to repair and replace soccer goals; $65,000 for green infrastructure projects (tree plantings, Bioswales, solar and wind power); and $475,000 budget for general maintenance and repairs.

See next week’s Lake Orion Review for a full list of the proposed projects over the next five years.

The 2019 plan also notes that some of the projects are expected to generate revenue — like the Peterson Lodge renovation, which would bring in rental fees — while others will potentially save the township on maintenance costs.

“We have really earmarked those millage dollars. We didn’t ask for more money than we thought we would need,” Barnett said.

“We showed (the public) a plan that we would use if the millage was successful. That is still the plan; we’re still going to do the things in the parks that we said we were going to do.”

2019 Fiscal Year Budget Process

The township board is beginning its upcoming fiscal year budget process on Aug. 20 with a workshop with the fire department.

The township’s 2019 fiscal year begins in January.

“From Aug. 20 through October we’ll be going through each department and we’ll probably spend the most time on parks because we have this additional revenue coming in next year,” Barnett said.

“When we went out and asked the residents for a millage, we put together a 12-page document that talked about each facility, every park and each year what we planned on doing if we were successful with the millage.”

“Currently, our parks budget is about $2 million, so they’re still going to be supplemented from general fund dollars. But we have a lot of projects that we plan on doing that will take up a lot of that (millage) money,” Barnett said.

The township’s parks are Camp Agawam, with 140 acres; Friendship Park, 134.97 acres; Civic Center Park, 78.86 acres; and Jesse Decker Park, 24.65 acres.

The township also maintains the Orion Center, Wildwood Amphitheater and owns 76 acres of undeveloped land off Joslyn Road, north of township hall, that is designated for future recreation or open space use.