By Megan Kelley
Review Writer
LAKE ORION — As public improvement projects continue to mount in the Village of Lake Orion, village Manager Darwin McClary requested that the council review a draft special assessment policy to assist in funding ongoing and future projects.
McClary made the request at the council’s meeting on Monday but the council took no action on the request. The council is expected to further discuss the policy during its scheduled budget workshop meetings on April 12 and April 22.
The village currently has three large public improvement projects in need of attention, including the Clean Water State Revolving Fund project (sewage), water main replacement project and an abundance of recommended road repairs.
None of the three projects comes with a cheap price tag: phases three and four of the water main replacement project, which are currently on hold, are estimated at $5.347 million, according to village documents.
Additionally, road repairs based on the recent Pavement Surface Evaluation Rating (PASER) evaluation are estimated to cost more than $20 million, with the last 2019 study projecting about $34 million in repairs needed, said Carol Thurber, the village’s engineer with Nowak and Fraus Engineers.
Of the 11.6 miles of village-owned roads in Lake Orion, 144 out of 166 segments of roads are recommended for repair within the next five years, according to the PASER report presented to the council in March.
On a scale of one to 10 with one being the lowest rating, two road segments are rated one, 33 roads have a rating of two, 67 roads have a rating of three, 33 roads have a rating of four, nine roads have a rating of five, 11 roads have a rating of six, eight roads have a rating of seven, one road has a rating of eight, one road has a rating of nine and one road has a rating of 10.
The evaluation was completed for 157 road segments and for nine segments of Flint Street, according to the report to the village council.
The Clean Water State Revolving Fund project, which includes rehabbing sanitary sewers and manholes, repairing all mechanical and electrical parts of existing lift stations, corrosion protection for all structures, repairing/replacing force mains and relocating electrical stations is projected to cost just under $7.3 million, said Wendy Spence, senior project manager for Nowak and Fraus.
As these projects and project costs begin to add up, the village does not have the means to pay for all of these necessary improvements, said McClary.
If these projects are continued to be ignored, the issue will only increase, the engineers warned.
For example, according to Spence, if the clean water state revolving fund project does not move forward, it is highly likely that there will be a sewage leak in Lake Orion lake.
While these are the three main projects the village is looking at currently, the list does not stop there, as McClary points out.
“You’ve heard tonight about a variety of infrastructure needs that the village has. You heard that streets alone are probably $20-$30 million but we have other needed improvements as well. We have to start thinking about a comprehensive sidewalk improvement program. We have to be looking at resurfacing or reconstructing our public parking lots. We have to be determining how we’re going to fund seawall projects and retaining walls that provide the stability of our roads and storm drainage system improvements,” McClary told the council.
With all of these projects and not nearly enough money to pay for it, the village now has to look at alternate ways of affording these improvements that have been avoided for so long.
“This draft policy is intended to get that conversation started on how we look long term and how we are going to address the funding issue for all of these needs that we have. There is absolutely no question we have to make these improvements. We have to make these investments in our community. We cannot allow our community to continue to deteriorate,” McClary said. “Relying on the general operating tax dollars that we collect will not even begin to scratch the surface of providing the funding that is needed to address these issues.”
Council member Michael Lamb was vocal about his position on the matter stating that he is “totally against” special assessments.