On Monday, July 15, the Albion City Council approved several items in relation to the Water System Improvement Project.
The first item was a resolution to authorize bonds for Michigan Transportation Funds. Mickey Bittner of Wightman & Associates gave a brief explanation about this resolution and the other items that required council approval to move forward with the project.
“This is all related to the water project, you recently opened the bids on that, and we do have six contracts for which the tentative award is coming up on your agenda,” said Bittner. “The second one is a resolution for selling bonds for the water project. The third item… is a contract for professional services with us.” Bittner explained that the USDA has a specific contract they require for engineering services. “After that is a tentative award for six construction contracts, for contracts A-F.” Bittner went on to explain other aspects of the project. “We will have a grant and loan from the drinking water state revolving fund through EGLE, we will have funding from USDA, and then also as part of the project we’re resurfacing or reconstructing the roads.”
“The scheduled completion date for the project is June 30, 2026” Bittner said. “That sounds like a long ways out, but there’s a lot of work to do here. And there’s an added complexity next year. If you recall, the city also is receiving a grant to do capital preventive maintenance on seven bridges and many of these roads are detour routes for those bridges when they’re under repair so we have some date restrictions.” He explained that they will have to plan certain parts of the project around the bridge maintenance to make sure the detour routes remain open.
All items relating to the Water Project were unanimously approved by Council.
Doug Ferrall, Assistant Director of Community Development for Calhoun County, presented on the Calhoun County Parks Millage Renewal that will be on the Aug. 6 ballot. “I wanted to come to Albion, because we are on the ballot as the same time as the city’s recreation millage and we are the parks millage so there could be some confusion there with voters,” said Ferrall. “This millage, passed for the first time in 2020, is a relatively small millage, a county wide parks millage at .2 mills.”
Since then, monies generated by this millage have been used for various park and recreation upgrades throughout Calhoun County.
Locally, the City of Albion has used these funds to hire 3 additonal seasonal workers, make emergency repairs to the Victory Park play structure, purchased a new lawnmower, added mulch and an ADA compliant walking path in Holland Park. Sheridan Township used their millage allocation on Albion city parks, putting a 35’ flag pole in Victory Park and repairing the shuffleboard courts. Albion Township invested their funds into Menwabek Meadow Park.
Council also approved several permits for various events to be held in the city. Amplified sound permits were approved for Old School Music and Karaoke by Maurice Barry to be held in the Bonner Pavilion in Holland Park on Fridays through September 13 the Sunday Fun-Day Car Show on July 28, at Malleable Park, Difference Makers last day of summer celebration on Aug. 2 at Victory Park, the National Night Out presented by ADPS on August 6th at the McIntosh Park splash pad, and Approved Assembly & Amplified Sound Permit for Albion’s Big Read on October 5th at Holland Park. Malleable Brewing was approved for an Alcohol in Public Places Permit for the August 3, Pedal & Whine Bike Tour, September 20, Festival of the Forks, and Oktoberfest on October 19. Council also approved the placement of Commemorative Benches Downtown to Honor Hazel Lias; Ray Campbell and Cathy Campbell.
The next meeting of the Albion City Council is Monday, August 5 at 7:00 pm at Albion City Hall.
