Residents in the Birdland neighborhood are asking for help from township officials — help in the form of money to help fix streets.
“Our street’s falling apart,” Kingfisher Lane resident Greg Batchik said at the Tuesday, Nov. 4 Independence Township Board meeting.
Batchik said he and his neighbors have gone through the petition process with the Road Commission for Oakland County, with an estimate of $130,000 for the needed repairs.
The request for township assistance is based on residents’ claim that Kingfisher Lane is used not only by local residents, but also by those who use a walking path off of Goldfinch to Clarkston Middle School. Vehicles often drop off students at the path for a quick walk to school, Batchik said.
“Resurfacing the street benefits not just the residents of Kingfisher Lane but also a good percentage of our community,” he said, requesting a 20 percent match toward the repair work.
Supervisor Dale Stuart said the typical township match for such projects is 5 to 10 percent, but there may be more help in the future.
“You can expect us to do at least [5 to 10 percent],” Stuart said, but, “We are looking at a much bigger program to do more within the township.”
Stuart later said he is exploring a program in which the township might sell bonds to gather funds earmarked for road repair. From such a fund, the township could provide between 20 to 25 percent of the funding for subdivision street repairs, with a special assessment district to collect the remainder of the cost.
By coordinating multiple street projects, it should also be possible to get better prices, Stuart said.
Batchik said a meeting of local residents was scheduled Thursday, Nov. 13, but Stuart said the new program is still in the exploratory stages.
“We’re in the process of studying that now,” he said, but the Kingfisher Lane request will be on a future meeting agenda. “It doesn’t mean your program would have to wait for that.”