Month: December 2025

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November 24, 2025 City Council Meeting

Introduction:

Links to the video recording and the council packet are at the bottom of this post. Please note any errors or omissions in the comments. Anything noted in brackets was inserted by Clarkston Sunshine.

Agenda Item #1, Call to Order (video time mark 0:00:00):

Sue Wylie said it’s seven o’clock. I’m calling the meeting to order. Nancy Moon said we’ve got to stand up. Wylie said well, we are, I’m just waiting.

Agenda Item #2, Pledge of Allegiance (video time mark 0:00:08):

Wylie said OK, now if everybody please rise, we will say the Pledge of Allegiance.

(Pledge said.)

Wylie said thank you.

(Ted Quisenberry walked to council table and sat down.

Agenda Item #3, Roll Call (video time mark 0:00:27):

Wylie said Item #3 on our agenda is a roll call. (To Angie Guillen, clerk), Wylie said can you call the roll call, please? Guillen said yes.

Sue Wylie, Laura Rodgers, Al Avery, Gary Casey, Amanda Forte were present. Quisenberry said I’m here.

Smith said Jones called just before the meeting saying she couldn’t make it. Wylie said okay, thank you. Wylie thanked Guillen.

Agenda Item #4, Approval of Agenda – Motion (video time mark 0:00:56):

Wylie said Item #4 is approval of the agenda. I need a motion to approve the agenda as it’s presented.

Motion by Avery; second Rodgers.

Wylie said any discussion from council.

No discussion.

Wylie said any discussion or comments from the public.

No comments.

Motion to approve the agenda passed by unanimous voice vote.

Wylie said the agenda is approved.

Agenda Item #5, Public Comments (video time mark 0:01:18):

[Though public comments can sometimes irritate the city council, there is value to both the council and the public in hearing them. While they can’t eliminate public comments entirely without violating the Open Meetings Act, your city council has occasionally decided not to acknowledge public comments during a city council meeting unless the person submitting the comments also appears at the meeting (in-person or electronically) to personally read them. In the past, members of the public have been cut off for exceeding the city council’s arbitrary three-minute time limit (it’s arbitrary because no time limits are required by the Open Meetings Act).

If your public comments were submitted to the council but not read, or if you tried to make public comments but your comments were cut short, please email them to clarkstonsunshine@gmail.com and I will include them in my informal meeting summaries either under public comments or under the specific agenda item that you want to speak to.]

Wylie said Item #5 is public comments.

(Wylie read the rules for public comments.)

Wylie said would anybody like to make a public comment?

No comments.

Wylie said Chet Pardee did send one requesting update to council on Mill Pond’s assumption by Oakland County. Jonathan [Smith, city manager] I am requesting an update to city council on Oakland County’s responsibility assumption. Is this a public comment? Quisenberry said well, I’m just – Wylie said actually, now that I’m looking at it, I’m thinking maybe it’s not. Did you guys all get it? Avery said yeah, we all got it. Quisenberry said is it possible just to enter this into the record that he sent this in rather than read it all? Casey said yeah, we can do that.

Wylie said it’s, I mean, we don’t have that many public comments. I don’t think it’s, I mean, I – Smith said he didn’t title this public comment. Wylie said he does not say it’s public comment. Smith said he just said requesting update and whatever. Wylie said so, I’m assuming maybe it’s not. Because usually he says public comment and I just realized it now.

Smith said so, what I was going to tell him, though, is that I don’t have the answers to these questions anyways. The person that needs to answer them is Ryan Wachowski [no spelling provided] from the Clinton River Watershed, not – Avery said Oakland County. Smith said Oakland County Water Resource Commission, sorry, WRC. And so, I called him two weeks ago for a status update. I called him again today for a status update. I have not heard. But I will invite him to a future council meeting because these are all questions, they’re all questions that should be answered by him.

Wylie said yes, okay. All right, thank you. Since that is not addressed to public comments, I’m not going to read anything else on public comments.

No comments.

Agenda Item #6 – FYI: (video time mark 0:03:07):

Wylie said Item #6 is FYI.

Item #6A – Small Business Saturday, November 29th

    • Small Business Saturday Flyer (video time mark 00:03:08); page 3/30 of the council packet)

Wylie said Small Business Saturday, which is November 29. Shop small, shop local. (To Smith), Wylie said and is there, it seems like my recollection, at one point there was going to be some special contest. Smith said there is a contest, it’s ongoing. And postcards were handed out to the businesses. Wylie said okay. Smith said so, they hopefully have them on their counters. If you take a picture of your favorite business and send it to the, Oakland County, you can get entered into a sweepstakes, possibly win. Wylie said all right. Smith said so that is going on. Wylie said okay, great, thank you.

Item #6B – Clarkston’s Holiday Market, December 13th

    • Christmas Market Flyer (video time mark 0:03:47; page 4/30 of the council packet)

Wylie said also on FYI, Clarkston, the City of the Village of Clarkston’s Christmas market is Saturday, December 13 from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Depot Park in Clarkston, Michigan. It will include pop-up shops, last-minute gifts, food truck, free activities for the kids, pony rides, s’mores, hot cocoa, games, and a visit with Santa.

(To Rodgers), Wylie said and you want to add something else.

Rodgers said we still are looking for five volunteers to help with walking. We have like two costumed people that walk and pass out candies and treats. And then we have two games that we need manned. And the shifts are 4:00 to 6:00, 6:00 to 8:00. So, if anybody is interested or knows somebody that might be, we still need five more people to help with that. Wylie said okay.

Item #6C – Clarkston’s Holiday Light’s [sic]Parade, December 13th

    • Clarkston Holiday Lights Parade Flyer (video time mark 0:04:35; page 5/30 of the council packet)

Wylie said and our third FYI is Clarkston Holiday Lights Parade, which is the same day. And it looks like the theme is Jingle Bots Rock, which I guess is appropriate because it’s sponsored by Team Rush 27. Again, it’s December 13. It starts at 6:00 p.m. Lately, they’ve been going from the Renaissance High School and the St. Dan’s area. Smith said Calvary Lutheran. Wylie said okay. Old Calvary Lutheran.

Wylie said anything else on FYI.

No comments.

Agenda Item #7 – City Manager’s Report (video time mark 0:05:08):

    • 11-24-2025 City Manager Report (page 6/30 of the council packet)

Wylie said Item #7 is the city manager’s report. And we have many items included in our package. (To Smith), Wylie said did you have anything to talk about or to add?

Smith said just a couple of comments. I don’t need to talk about Miller Road. That is now open.

Smith said sanitary sewer work. Before, I was going to be bringing a proposal to tonight’s meeting, but I got a call the other day from Gary Tressel [resident and formerly of Hubbell, Roth & Clark (HRC), the city’s contract engineering firm], remember Tressel? So, he had some good points. So, I’m meeting tomorrow and then again next week with our city engineer, and I’ll go over those concerns of Tressel’s. So, before I – (interrupting Smith), Wylie said is he retired? Isn’t he retired? Smith said he’s retired, yes. Wylie said okay. Smith said yeah. Wylie said well, he worked for, didn’t he work for, he worked for the engineer? Smith said he worked for HRC. Wylie said HRC, okay. Smith said so, he knows how the workings of HRC and just had some suggestions. Wylie said okay.

Smith said we did, as approved by council, we did purchase our four-by-four, side-by-side, they call them. So that purchase was complete. We are, we got a very good price on it. We’re upgrading it to include a heater and some doors. And then we also have to outfit it with the safety lights, you know, the circling light up on top to be used for municipal use.

Wylie said I’m sorry, you said, did you say the brand name? The brand name. I didn’t catch it. Smith said Polaris. Wylie said what’s Polaris? Oh, it’s Polaris. Okay, that’s – Smith said yep. It’s a really good brand. Wylie said yeah. Smith said low mileage. So, it’s, we’re very happy. Jimi [Turner, Department of Public Works (DPW) supervisor] got a great deal on it. Forte said great. Wylie said do you know how much he paid for it. Smith said $5,500. Wylie said wow, that’s a good price. Okay. I was wondering how you were gonna do a plow and the heater and the lights and all that. Smith said so, yeah, we still have about, what, about $1,700 left in the funds, okay?

Forte said did you talk to the guys about doing snow, like what they thought of that? Smith said I did. So, first of all, they said, even with a machine like this, it would take a while. So, you’d have to probably hire another person to do that. So, we’d have to do all kind of a cost analysis on this. You’d have to hire a third person because Turner and Carson [Danis, DPW laborer] had their work cut out for them just getting the streets done. Secondly, a plow, even if you angle it, two concerns. One, if you hit a crack in the sidewalk, it could literally throw you through the windshield if you’re going any speed at all. So, you’d have to look maybe at a brush instead that doesn’t, you know, hit a crack so severely. So, but that’s a possibility. We can look at that. The other concern is some of our sidewalks are literally only this wide (gesturing). So, we would have to find something, I think, probably on a smaller scale that would just be this wide because we would really upset some. Some of our homeowners take great pride in their grass. And we would potentially really tear up some lawns. Forte said yeah. Smith said so, it’s something we’ve looked into before. It’s a challenging one because of all the pros and cons of it.

Smith said Tuner and Danis did get all, I was telling Wylie before the meeting, they did get, and Avery, the snowflakes all completely rewired. So, they’ve done this for about, in their spare time, about three weeks, getting them all completely rewired. The frame’s repainted. And so, they’re all rejuvenated now and up and installed. So that was great. Thanks to Turner and Danis.

Smith said and then lastly, our LRIP, Local Road Improvement Program, is a grant I get pretty much every year. This year it was for $3,170. That was to be used on 2025 road improvements. With all the traffic in town, as you know, we didn’t do any road improvements this year. But I called and said, in light of all the traffic in town because of MDOT [Michigan Department of Transportation], could we redeploy these funds to next year, so I don’t lose them? And they said yes. So that was good news. So, we’ll add that $3,170 to the $117[,000] grant that I got. So, we’re about $120[,000] before we even touched any of our money. So that’s great news. So that’s all I have.

Smith said Guillen’s got an update on the election certification.

Wylie said can I ask one more question though? Smith said yes. Wylie said on this fund redeployment. This $3,170, is that a matching grant? Do we have to match that? Smith said no, that’s not. That’s a free one. Wylie said okay, thank you.

Guillen said I did also want to piggyback off Smith’s comment and recognize the DPW supervisor and his staff for doing whatever tasks are asked of them and doing it happily. Like he had Christmas music playing, he had his hat on, and it really made it fun for them too and the city is beautiful. We’ve got a lot of comments on our Facebook page and people just thanking them for their hard work.

Guillen said and then we got certified from Oakland County for our election. We have zero errors. They certified with the voter canvassers. We did get our official seal today for the council members that were reelected. Your new certificates are on the wall there with the next date. And now they’re working on the state audits, but we have not been chosen to be audited. So, we’re good to go. Forte said good. Avery said excellent.

Wylie said okay, great, thank you.

Agenda Item #8 – Consent Agenda (video time mark 0:10:55):

    • 10-27-2025 Final Minutes, Regular City Council Meeting (page 7/30 of the council packet)
    • 11-10-2025 Draft Minutes, Regular City Council Meeting (page 9/30 of the council packet)
    • 11-24-2025 Treasurers Report (page 11/30 of the council packet)
    • 11-17-2025 Revenue and Expenditure Report for the Period Ending 10-31-2025 (page 12/30 of the council packet)
    • Rosati, Schultz, Joppich & Amtsbuechler, P.C., October 2025 billing (page 22/30 of the council packet)

Wylie said all right, Item #8 is consent agenda. This includes the final minutes of the October 27, 2025, regular meeting; draft minutes of the November 10 regular meeting; treasurer’s report from November 25 [report is from November 24]. And I will need a motion and then a second to accept the consent agenda as it’s presented.

Motion by Quisenberry; second Rodgers.

Wylie said any discussion, comments, questions from council.

No comments.

Wylie said from the public.

No comments.

Motion to approve the consent agenda passed by unanimous voice vote.

Wylie said the consent agenda is approved.

Agenda Item #9, Unfinished Business (video time mark 0:11:36):

I have to skip a bunch. And now we are, yes. Unfinished business, there’s none.

Agenda Item #10, New Business (video time mark (0:11:46):

Item #10A – Presentation: Clarkston Area Youth Assistance (video time mark 0:11:48):

Wylie said Item #10, presentation Clarkston Area Youth Assistance (CAYA). And we have some guests. Nice to see you ladies again.

(Two women approached the podium.)

Wylie said I heard you guys were at Independence Township board meeting recently and it was very inspiring. I think, what? Did you say? Yeah, Forte was there. And she said it was very inspiring and interesting.

Jan Scislowicz said see that Lauren. For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Jan Scislowicz and I’m a past chair of Clarkston Area Youth Assistance and I’m the current advisor. And this is Lauren Klos, our caseworker. We’re here tonight to ask you to be our sponsors. Up until or through 2009, you were our sponsor. You sponsored Clarkston Area Youth Assistance. And in 2010, the funds were not available. So, you weren’t able to do that. We are hoping to rekindle that relationship. Each year you gave us either $1,000 or $1,500, depending on the year, of course. And what we do with that money is it’s our base. It’s our foundation. We’re able to maintain our office with that money and keep our one employee, Sherry Snudden at this time. She’s our office assistant.

Scislowicz said so, from that foundation, we build a base. That’s when our volunteers take over and create and implement programs, such as family education and our new podcasts. We have music mashup, which is now in a second elementary school in Clarkston. Skill building, which it looks like, I was just looking at it. We sent 19 kids to day camp and how many to overnight? Oh, 22 to day camp, updated, 13 to overnight camp. We do many other things with the skill building. Klos said so, we have 28 scholarships for skill building. Scislowicz yes, yes, total, yes. And then Youth Recognition Award, you’re familiar with that, and Pinwheels for Prevention.

Scislowicz said so, if we can maintain our office without having to worry about doing that dollar-wise, we can continue making these programs and implementing them. So, I don’t have a lot to say other than that because I wanted to make it short and sweet. I knew that Klos had given you a presentation. Was that this year, earlier this year? Yeah, and I know how comprehensive she is. So, if you have questions, we’re here to answer that, but we would be very grateful if we could kind of make that relationship again and have you as our sponsors. We’ve never taken your name off of anything. It’s in every event, every presentation that we do because we were honored to have that and we understood that times were hard, but we’re feeling like it would really be a benefit to us in the community if you would consider doing that.

Scislowicz said do you have any questions for us.

Wylie said is it community [development] block grant money [CDBG]? Is that what we’re using? Scislowicz said that’s totally different. Wylie said no, I thought maybe that was the money we were getting and using for you guys. Smith said no. We do do the, the last couple years, we’ve done $3,500/$3,500 for the bus center and CAYA. So that’s out there, but that is separate. What they’re asking for is a sponsorship. Wylie said oh, okay, okay. Scislowicz said the sponsorship always (unintelligible). Smith said CDBG is no money out of our pocket that comes through from the federal government. It’s just a pass through, but they’d be seeking other monies from the operational budget.

Smith said so, we do our budgeting in February, March, April timeframe, so we can certainly put this in the queue and see if it makes the final cut. That’s kind of what we’re at. Scislowicz and Klos said thank you very much.

Klos said yes, and we did, I believe, send along our annual reports electronically. Smith said yes. Klos said so, we have all of that electronically. And our annual meeting was just last month at the end of October, where we were able to present on our legacy, our long-term impact. We’ve been around since 1961, and we were able to share a couple of inspiring stories of some students who received our services. We had one student share on his impact with casework services. It was beautiful. Like, everyone was in tears. It was just so powerful. And then we had a video recording of a student who received pretty much everything we have to offer at Youth Assistance. She grew up with CAYA, and she shared about her experience and how much it impacted her life. And now she’s doing great things in Washtenaw County. Scislowicz said she has a master’s degree, right? Klos said she has a master’s degree now. Her video is, I think, posted on our YouTube channel. So, if you do wanna check that out, it was Amy Coomer who shared her story and the impact that we’ve had. So, and those are just two beautiful stories of the impact we’ve made all throughout these many decades. So, we appreciate the partnership and relationship we have with you at the City of the Village of Clarkston, as well as Independence Township, Springfield Township, and of course, Clarkston Community Schools. And of course, the Sixth Circuit Court Family Division, all working together to really make a positive and powerful impact for the kids and families right here in our backyard. So, thank you. Avery said excellent. Wylie said thank you.

Wylie said I went to the recognition ceremony. Scislowicz said yeah. Wylie said not the most, I went ‘24. Scislowicz said yeah. Wylie said yeah, and it’s inspiring what, I mean, everyone walks out with a glow when you see how those kids benefit. It’s really something. Scislowicz said yeah. Try to come to our annual meeting next year when you get the invitations. I’m sure you get a lot of invitations, but it really gives you a lot of information about things people may not already know, just by coming and the different speakers that we have. And that was just a tearjerker. I mean, it was really touching. Klos said and we will have our annual ceremony kick off again in March. Scislowicz and Klos said March 12. Klos said and then our youth recognition ceremony will be at the end of April again, too. Scislowicz said right. Klos said so those invites as well. Wylie said thank you very much.

Wylie said any questions or comments?

No comments.

Wylie said anybody in the public, questions or comments.

No comments.

Wylie said thank you again for coming. Scislowicz and Klos said thank you.

Item #10B – Motion – Appointment of District Library Board Members (video time mark (0:18:01):

    • Motion – Appointment of District Library Board Members (page 26/30 of the council packet)
    • 10-14-2025 Memo from Julie Meredith, Clarkston Independence District Library Director re: Request to Reappoint District Library Board Members (page 27/30 of the council packet)

Wylie said Item #10B is a motion appointment of district library board members.

(Wylie read the motion.)

Wylie said and Nancy (Moon) is here. Julie Meredith [Clarkston Independence District (CIDL) Library Director] is here from the library. And we need a motion and a second to reappoint city residents, Nancy Moon and Maggie Sans, to the board of trustees of the CIDL as representatives of the City of the Village of Clarkston for the term of January 1, 2026, through December 31, 2028. Would anybody like to make that motion?

Motion by Casey; second Quisenberry.

Wylie said and any discussion or questions from council members.

No discussion.

Wylie said from the public.

Wylie recognized Forte for a comment.

Forte said thank you for volunteering. It’s such a great library. (To Meredith), Forte said thank you for all you do. It’s fabulous. I go all the time with my daughter, and the programming’s phenomenal, and there’s so many services. We go to several libraries up north and downstate, and Clarkston is top-notch. It’s really a gem in our neighborhood. And it’s really enriching my life personally. And I just can’t say thank you enough. I know it’s not a small feat, but it’s really appreciated. Every mom I talk to just loves taking their kids there. So seriously, it’s great. Meredith said thank you. Wylie said thank you.

(To Moon), Wylie said did you want to say anything.

Moon said actually, I may have some comments. It’s really rewarding. It’s a great group that we have on the board. And we are augmented by Friends of the Library, which is the group that does the book sales, that has the funds that they make available to the library for the programs that you’re talking about. So, we’re very fortunate in that aspect to have the Friends, which is a non-profit, to help us out. Wylie said all right, thank you.

(To Meredith), Wylie said anything to add or – Meredith said no, I’m just a hometown girl. I’m 19 years old. (Unintelligible comments.) Wylie said did you start off as a volunteer when you were in high school? Meredith said 12, yeah. Wylie said 12.

Wylie said okay, so we have motion by Casey and seconded by Quisenberry, and I don’t think we need a roll call.

Motion to reappoint Moon and Sans to the CIDL Board approved by unanimous voice vote.

Wylie said then Moon and Sans are appointed once again to the library board. Thank you very much. Moon said thank you. Avery said thank you.

Item #10C – Discussion: Annual MML [Michigan Municipal League] Loss Control Audit (video time mark (0:21:09):

    • Michigan Municipal League Loss Analysis Reports (page 28/30 of the council packet)

Wylie said and Item #10C, discussion annual, MML Michigan Municipal League, is that it? Smith said yep. Wylie said Loss Control Audit.

Smith said so this was about as fun as the title sounds. (Unintelligible comments and laughter.) Smith said Loss Control Audit.

Smith said so, the MML sends out every year an analyst that does just that. He looks at kind of our trending rate on how we’re making claims and sits down and just talks with us about things we could do to kind of reverse the course if we’re heading in the wrong direction. Fortunately, this year’s report, and actually the last two years, is showing that we’re heading in the right direction.

Smith said so, this first slide is about workman’s compensation funds. So, these are injuries on the job. Mainly applies to Turner and Danis out there. But I mean, you could get a paper cut in the office, I guess, so things can happen in here, too. But it’s mainly protecting Turner and Danis. And he shares some pretty awful stories of things that have happened in other municipalities, and it really gets your attention. So fortunately, we have not had any claims since this chart shows the 2023. You want to be at 1.0 or below is what you want your modification factor to be. And this is an insurance term. So we are, the last three years, we’ve been at 0.94, which is really a good modification factor. So that’s on workman’s comp type injuries.

Smith said and then the next one is just general liability pool. So, these are insurance claims that we may have made. It’s not personal injuries. It’s more about property loss and property damage. And fortunately, here again, since 2022, 2023, we’ve had zero claims. So that bodes well. Now, I don’t really know what our rates will be for next year. It’s premature to say what that is going to be, because they account for the whole industry. How are costs going up? Building repairs or windshield replacements or whatever you might have, vandalism in the bathroom. Those costs go up every year. And those are things out of our control. But at least our rates are saying that they’re not going to add on to that. It could be a doubling effect, not only the national rates going up, but our individual rates are going up. So, it could be kind of super, or a perfect storm of things adding together. But at least our rates are not going to increase it at all. It’s just going to be depending on what the national rates are.

Smith said so just wanted to give you an update on that, that this is good news. And here’s actually the very minor claims that we’ve had over the last three years. We had monetary relief on a FOIA request that didn’t end up costing us anything. So that was good. We had a cracked windshield. And we had a damaged water fountain. So, all those were just really nothing. So that’s the only history we have.

Smith said the next thing that we went into was kind of a long discussion about a new website that MML has launched, particularly in this loss control unit, if that’s what their title is. And it’s a whole library of videos. And you can pick and choose. There’s got to be over 200 videos. I’ve gone through the list. Everything from how to avoid a back injury on the job, or how to avoid a sexual harassment lawsuit. Anything, anything in between. There’s just a huge variety of training videos that are available. Some that I think are applicable to Turner and Danis in the garage. A lot of it applies to them, snow plowing, being out on the road in city vehicles. And some of it applies to staff. Certainly, a lot of it applies to me as the manager, making sure things aren’t happening that shouldn’t be. And then there are things that I think are applicable to council.

Smith said so, I am currently putting together, you can put together a custom library out of these 200-some videos. I’ll be putting together a custom library. And I’ll have one for Turner and Danis, one for office staff, and one for council. And I think for council, I’ll probably only have two, maybe three videos. And what I would like to do, the staff might have a dozen or so videos to go through, is you take the videos, and then there is an automated system where you can show proof that you watched the video. Because where this helps us if there was a lawsuit, if there was a trip and fall in the city, or somebody you know, somehow was injured by the result of something going on in the city, we could be sued. But if we have proof that Turner and Danis and myself, we took the training class, we knew about this potential risk, and we acted, and we signed off saying that we took the video, we agreed that we’re going to be careful in making sure the sidewalks are salted, this kind of thing. I’m kind of making this up, this particular example. But the point remains is that if you have proof in court, if you have proof to say that you’ve taken precautions to avoid this, that’s going to help you. You might not win entirely, probably still lose in a slip and fall case, but at least it’s going to somewhat mitigate the damages.

Smith said slip and falls, why I’m on that subject, by the way, are now back in an area of concern. There were many years where, and Gerry [Fisher, city attorney] asked if I needed him here tonight, and I said, no, I think you could skip this meeting and save some money. But for many, many years, slip and falls were not suable. It was kind of understood that governments are doing the best they can, and they cannot be sued for a slip and fall accident because somebody tripped on a tree root or something, or a curb, or what have you. But that has gone away. About two years ago, that changed. Might have been three years ago. And now municipalities can be, once again, held responsible for trip and falls, especially if you knew about it, and you did nothing. That is the key. So, if it’s something that we’ve never known about, we didn’t know that that tree root suddenly popped up over there on East Washington, and therefore the slab in the sidewalk popped up two inches in a windstorm or something. If we didn’t know about this, we truly didn’t know about this, then the courts will take that into account. But if somehow it had been pointed out to us, like, yes, you knew about this, and you did nothing, that’s the worst-case scenario. In the same way on, say, workplace violence or sexual harassment or things along those nature, if you knew about them and you did nothing, those are the cases that we don’t, we don’t want to be in court, those kinds of things. So long way of saying that these videos will help us in the training, being prepared, and say that, yes, we did take the course. We signed off on this. And we’re doing the best we can to ensure that type of event never happens here.

Forte said with the sidewalk issue, I remember you walking around and, like, measuring the, like, how, do we document that somewhere? Smith said I do, indeed. Forte said OK. Smith said I have a spreadsheet. And I’m doing that now every March. (To resident Chet Pardee), Smith said if you were here, would say, you didn’t do that. You didn’t do any sidewalk repairs this summer. I didn’t because I did it last summer. Forte said yeah. Smith said and this March, I did my walk around, April, I guess it was. And I made note of things. If they were requiring change, I’d make note of those. And I’m doing that every year. Forte said okay. Smith said and that is, I think that documentation is important. Now, if you document it and do nothing, you’re not really helping yourself. But you have to document it. And within six to nine months is what he told us. Within six to nine months, you have to get that repaired. Does it have to be done tomorrow? No, but six to nine months is kind of a reasonable time for a municipality to get that repair made. So, sidewalks relative to trip and falls, I think that’s where we’re going, is super important.

Wylie said that makes those aprons concerning. Smith said very concerning. We know about them. And we haven’t fixed them yet. That’s exactly my question. Wylie said I figured that’s where you were at. In your brain, anyway, that’s where you’re heading. Smith said so, we, I’m actually meeting tomorrow, as a matter of fact, with the engineers that helped me get that grant for East Washington. They’re going to come back in. We’re not even going to talk about East Washington. We’re going to talk about a new grant that we might apply for that might help us get these aprons done.

Forte said what’s their name again. I can’t remember. Smith said it’s Fleiss and Vandenbrink. Van-din-brink. So, they’re an engineering firm, a competitor to Hubbell, Roth & Clark. So, they did this on the first one. They’re going to do this, like this meeting I’m having with them tomorrow. It’s all no charge, with the hope that they get a grant and get funded. Some of their work can be funded by the grant. So that’s a great deal for us.

Wylie said how’s their relationship with Hubell, Roth & Clark. Smith said it’s not what it used to be when Tressel was there. Tressel and I talked about that when he called the other day. He says, well, hasn’t somebody called you about this? And I said, no. And this particular topic, which I won’t get into right now. But we talked at length about HRC. And in my opinion, it’s changed a little bit. I don’t want to say anything bad about HRC. They’re a good company. They have very knowledgeable people there. It’s just, my sense is that we’re kind of small fish to them. Not maybe worth the trip. If I call them, they call me back. But I don’t, there’s no proactiveness on their part. Fleiss and Vandenbrink is very proactive. They’re calling me saying, how are things going? What can we do for you? What kind of challenges are you facing this week? Those kinds of phone calls. So, it’s very refreshing. Wylie said I met them. They were nice guys, really nice guys. Smith said yup.

Wylie said anybody have anything else to say about that.

No comments.

(To Smith), Wylie said did you have anything else to add.

Smith said nope, that was it.

Wylie said that’s everything on our agenda. Did anybody have anything else to talk about?

Wylie recognized Forte for a comment.

Forte said yeah. I just wanted to give an update on planning commission, if that’s all right. Smith said absolutely.

Forte said so, we are making the updates to the master plan. And within the next, I was going to talk to Julie [Meredith, CIDL] at some point. We haven’t yet gotten to that point. But about doing community engagement. So, there’s obviously been some questions about what people want on that corner lot, about ADUs [Accessory Dwelling Units], all these things. So that would be part of our public engagement that we would hope to do at the library when that time comes. Meredith said of course.

Wylie said did you see Smith’s email. Forte said which one. (To Smith), Wylie said when did you send it? Was it last week? Avery said it was just finance committee, I thought. Smith said oh, well, last week I did send out an email. An update relative to the master plan and our hope that we could do some of this internally. Forte said yeah, so that’s what I’m saying.

Smith said so, I did talk with SEMCOG [Southeast Michigan Council of Governments], by the way. Forte said great. Smith said and they do have a resource, a person that that is their focus is getting census data for demographics. And they actually have a master plan update team. So, I think we can get some resources from them, some help. Forte said okay, great. Smith said in fact, she said today, if you can send me the charts that you’re looking to get updated, I can do it for you. Forte said hopefully. Smith said so that was really encouraging.

Forte said great, yeah. So, planning commission is just updating the master plan. But a big part of that is community engagement. So, we’re going to try to get that going in the new year and then simultaneously, we’re looking at updating all the things that we can easily update on our end. So, we’re just in the working phase. Smith said save some money. Forte said yeah. Smith said some things we can do internally. Forte said totally. So yeah, it might take us a year, but we’re working on it.

Wylie said master plan’s a huge undertaking. Forte said yeah. Wylie said that’s a huge undertaking, yeah. Forte said so, I’ll keep updating where the planning commission is.

Wylie said okay, anything else from anybody.

No comments.

Agenda Item #11, Adjourn Meeting (video time mark 0:35:38):

Wylie said then I need a motion to adjourn the meeting.

Motion by Rodgers; second Forte.

Motion to adjourn passed by unanimous voice vote.

Wylie said and we are adjourned at 7:35. Thank you, everybody, for coming.

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