Board receives parking deck design and engineering bids

By Megan Kelley
Staff Writer
LAKE ORION — Lake Orion’s Downtown Development Authority board met July 12 with an agenda that included two items that further progressed the board’s plan to construct a parking deck in the downtown.
In February, the board voted on which priorities to take up during the upcoming fiscal year. Included in the approved priorities were a parking deck, electrical charging stations, downtown lighting, dumpster enclosures and park electrical improvements.
Among these improvements, the parking deck is the item that will require the most amount of work and money, board members have said.
The board approved hiring Rich & Associates to perform a parking study in the downtown area.
The DDA received two bids on the project: Fishbeck, which quoted the Lake Orion DDA at $37,800 for the study and Rich & Associates, who’s bid was $10,570.
“I am in favor of hiring Rich & Associates,” DDA Executive Director Molly LaLone said in her recommendation. “They did the last study. It was clear they were familiar with Lake Orion because they used all Lake Orion photos in their proposal and referenced recent events in their presentation. Not only are they the lowest bid, I believe they will also be the best value.”
The last parking study done in the downtown took place in 2018 before several newer restaurants opened/expanded, before the DDA added additional parking on Slater Street, and before the mixed-use four story building at 120 South Broadway St. brought additional residential space to the downtown area.
According to LaLone, it is best practice to have a parking study done every four to six years.
During board discussion, Vice Chair, Sam Caruso brought forward slight concerns regarding the days the study would be performed on (Friday and Thursday), stating that Saturday is the busiest day downtown and that should also be taken into consideration during the study.
“The problem with downtown is they (the parking studies) always say we have enough parking. We don’t have enough parking downtown and it’s because on a busy day, we don’t have enough parking downtown. On a Monday, we have enough parking downtown. On a Saturday there’s not enough parking downtown. On a Friday, there’s not enough parking downtown,” Caruso said. “The whole problem is, they don’t see the busy day. They may be missing the big picture of: we don’t have enough parking downtown.”
LaLone informed the board that the company’s intention is to get data on the average day in the downtown.
“We want to get the average day so that during the middle of the week, we haven’t wasted money by having way too much parking just so that we have enough on Saturday,” LaLone said.
Because of the issues raised by Caruso, coupled with the fact that the DDA was saving more than $25,000 with their bid selection, the board decided to add into their motion an option to add an additional day, if necessary, at the cost of $1,650 per extra day.
Parking deck engineering and design proposal
The Lake Orion DDA again received two bids; one from Rich & Associates and one from Fishbeck.
Rich & Associates came in at $232,000, while Fishbeck’s bid was $251,200.
Despite the board touting plans to build the one story parking deck above the Children’s Park parking lot, the board decided not to make a decision on these proposals due to their later meeting plans to go into closed session to discuss a possible land purchase.
“This is a contract and if we agree to go with one of these businesses, we will be getting a design and parking deck in the location we specified in our contract,” said LaLone.
“So, for this reason, I feel that we should receive and file at this time and if we come back and decide that this is the location that we’re interested in, then we bring this back and vote to hire somebody, but not today.”
The board tabled the bids and adjourned to closed session, but did not provided any details about the closed meeting discussion.
Under the Open Meetings Act, government boards are allowed to adjourn to closed session for discussion on property acquisitions and sales.
Also in the meeting
– The DDA requested that the board set up a Point of Sale system that would allow employees to take credit and debit cards at events, specifically citing Oktoberfest.
“At our last Oktoberfest, we used the village accounting system to take credit cards and payments and it took a long time. It was not efficient and we had long lines of people waiting to get in instead of being in there enjoying the party and tasting the beer and spending their money and having fun,” LaLone said.
LaLone recommended the board use PNC Bank, as PNC is in the DDA district, to set up a bank account for the purpose of taking credit cards at special events, and to purchase three card reader units.
Several members of the DDA board who are also business owners shared LaLone’s sentiment, stating that a good majority of their own customers pay using credit or debit cards and approved of both setting up a separate bank account and the purchase of card readers.
Board Secretary Hank Lorant cast the lone nay vote, saying that he felt the DDA could stick with cash-only and put an ATM out at events instead, or could partner with the Orion Art Center, who he claims has some of the equipment already that the DDA could potentially use.
– The board also voted to approve a Request for Proposal for the first of two dumpster enclosures. The enclosure in question would be built on the north west corner of the parking lot located at Front and Anderson streets.
Proposals are expected to be received on Aug. 18 and opened on Aug. 19 with the final selection taking place on Sept. 13.
The DDA Board of Directors meets regularly on the second Tuesday of the month at 6:30 p.m. in council chambers at Village Hall, 21. E. Church St.