City of Ferndale City Council Meeting 1132025

I call this meeting to order at 07:02PM. If you are able, please rise as for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance

to the flag

of The United States Of America,

and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. May we have a roll call, please?

Johnson?

Present. Kelly? Here.

Mikulski? Here. Polica? Here. Weeks May.

Here. Alright. Approval of the agenda.

Madam mayor, I move we approve the agenda with one, amendment. I move that we add a presentation item for a, a presentation of the twenty twenty four holiday lights awards by the Ferndale Arts and Beautification Commission.

Support.

Mhmm. Johnson? Yes. Malika? Yes.

Kelly? Yes. Nikolski? Yes. Leaksmae?

Yes. That being said, presentation for a twenty twenty four holiday lights awards.

Presentation. Hello, mayor, council, city staff, and residents that are attending. My name is Suzanne Janek. I am one of the co chairs of the Ferndale Arts and Beautification Commission. This year, the twenty twenty four holiday lights nominations had over 51 nominations for over the four quadrants of Ferndale.

Thirteen nominations were from one resident. They certainly had the holiday spirit. On December 19, the Ferndale Arts and Beautification Commission climbed into the city bus and traveled around Ferndale to judge judge the holiday lights. We traveled around Ferndale for two hours, and we were very impressed with lots of the wonderful displays out of holiday spirit. We saw 30 foot decorated trees, we saw windows full of nutcrackers, we saw plenty of blow molds and blow ups.

It was a great night. Starting with our Northeast winner of 2024 Hamada. This homeowner loves Christmas. They have been in the house since twenty two two thousand and six, and they said every year they decorate inside, upside, outside, upstairs, and outs downstairs. It's a great mix of the traditional holiday decorations.

They love the neighbors come by with all the oohs and ahs, and they love pulling around the corner into their driveway because it puts them into the holiday spirit every time. Is twenty twenty two twenty two forty here?

Mhmm.

Welcome. Would you like to say something about the lights? Very much.

No. I just, just gonna continue to do it every year. Really enjoy it, you know, had Christmas music going on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. So just like the joy that it brings to the neighborhood. So thank you.

Thank you.

Appreciate it. Very much.

We're moving on to our Southeast quadrant. This corner house on 1544 Chesterfield, they took their opportunity to share their spirit from all sides. The front yard has large light stakes, and the side yard has its gnomed glittering greeting and oversized baubles and lights shining bright. Even the bushes lining the alley and driveway were draped in lights. This house wanted to share its joy with all who went by.

That's 1544 Chesterfield. Are they here? Our Southwest winner, this house is at 1421 Pinecrest and has been on the radar for Christmas and Halloween over the past few years. This year, the owners went with a gingerbread house theme, hand making many of the pieces to enhance their display. Notice the candy cane shutters with frosting window headers and suckers lining the garden.

The lights enhance the architectural details and the soldiers stand proud to announce your arrival. Next up is the Northwest Quadrant 444 West Woodland. This homeowner has added many traditional touches and holiday vignettes for the season. Each window is trimmed out with a wreath and the porch is covered in lighted garland. The front yard has whimsical touches with the twinkling trees and figures.

His friends have told him if it's if it's nailed down, he will mark the steward it. So this has definitely shines on the block. Is 444 West Woodland here? Like to something about the garden or the house?

Just thank you for the

recognition and love to add to

the beauty of the city.

Awesome. Thank you. Thank you.

So we now bring you to the Griswold Major Award

winner. What?

This house at 1661 College is also a corner lot. This homeowner felt like they didn't feels like they didn't leave a spot without a decoration hung from a branch. The front walk, porch, and roof are lined with lights and Santa sits on the tip of top, but turn the corner and you see the side lot is filled with blow ups and bushes festooned with lights. Each tree is wrapped and each window holds a new scene. The Grinch is even sneaking out the bare the back staircase to maybe jump on

the bus. This side of bus holds

the getaway gang for the Grinch with Santa at the wheel. The bus is drivable with lights on it. You might have seen it outside of City Hall tonight. They were supposed to come. This home did let us know that they're planning on opening a Christmas light company for 2025 and did have help putting up the whole display together, but it

is definitely a

sight to see. Wow. One six six

one college. So we are

also doing a quick little, 2024 review for the Ferndale Arts and Beautification Commission. For our Beautification Awards, which include Beautification, Beautification, Coneflower, and Holiday Lights, we received over a 57 nominations from the community. In order to be recognized, you must be nominated by a community member. We also had we also have our social media reach increase increasing every day. We have 300 3,700 Facebook followers and 3,090 Instagram followers.

So you can definitely find us there, and we will definitely be reaching out beyond social media.

And to continue on with, the things that we accomplished this year and kind of leaning into the arts part of our commission, We, springing from Ferndale Arts and Beautifications Art Collective, we hosted two artists think tanks in May and September at Encabizo. We'd like to very much thank Josh Champagne for his for generously opening his doors to us and also participating in both artists think tanks. And we will have another artist think tank coming up in February or March. The intent behind the artist think tanks was to determine what community artist from music to visual artists needed. There were 60 plus artists in attendance across both events, plus mayor Raylon Meeks, may council members Laura Mikulski, Rolanda Kelly, Donnie Johnson, communications director Kara Sokol, DDA's Summer Riehle, and Jenny Beaker.

FAB commissioners plus several community volunteers helped run the evenings, and we had lots of area businesses donate, food to our gathering that, began the meetings. In September, we had a super secret flash mob at the Funky Frendell Art Fair. More than 20 community members plus our mayor joined us for rehearsals and the performance. And then we rounded out the year with holiday caroling, which was, the brainchild of my cochair, Suzanne, and we welcomed Santa at Shiffer Park in December. We printed lyric books with the help of the DDA, fab commissioners and community members gathered and sang holiday carols with absolutely no rehearsals, which might have benefited us, but we had a great time regardless.

Mhmm. Thank you.

Do do you the winners, wanna get a picture up here with the council and mayor?

Council and mayors. I

got it.

It looks like we have a late arrival.

I'm the school bus lady. Yay.

Well, why don't we let her speak regarding it?

My battery was dead, and I was

like, okay.

Oh, no. But go

ahead and Thank you. Why don't you tell us about your your, before we take a picture. Oh,

I'll have a look.

Opportunity to speak.

Oh, of course, that happened. But, yes, the school bus battery died, unfortunately. But I did bring it. It's parked down the front,

lit up. Oh, okay.

Anyways, I started a new business this year, and it's a Christmas light company. And we were kind of slow because it was my first year. So I had my two employees decorate the heck out of my house, and that's what happened. So love Christmas.

Thank you.

Great. K. Are we already at call to audience? Yes. We are.

Okay. We are now at the portion of the agenda where it's call to audience. Please come to the podium, state your name and your address, and you can speak on anything on or off the agenda for three minutes. And this is a great opportunity for anyone who is being, considered for any boards and commissions to introduce yourselves. Let's open.

Nobody? Nobody? Alright. Okay. Alright.

I will close call to audience, and we are moving on to the consent agenda. Item seven a, approval of the 12/16/2024 meeting minutes. Seven b, approval of the sale of city owned property located at the Northwest Corner Of Browning Street in Chester Avenue. 7 c, approval of the payment to landscape forms in the amount of $10,243.70 for a park bench and trash trash and recycling bin to be placed at Martin Road Park. 7 d, approval of the ProCare service plan for Lifepak thirty five cardiac monitor in the amount of $11,351.20.

7 e, approval to outfit the new fire marshal vehicle in the amount of $16,842.96. 7 f, approval of the listed appointments and reappointments to the city boards and commissions. Seven g, approval of the Ferndale fiscal year ending twenty twenty five second quarter budget amendment. Seven h, approval to issue a purchase order to J. H.

Hart for emergency tree cutting services for $40,000. And seven I, approval of bills and payrolls as submitted by the finance director and subject to review by the council finance committee.

I move we approve the consent agenda as presented.

Report. Johnson? Yes. Kelly?

Yes.

Leaksmay? Yes. Nikulski? Yes. Halligan?

Yes.

Right. Moving on to the regular agenda, item eight a, approval of contract number 24Dash5425 between the Michigan Department of Transportation and the City of Ferndale for sidewalk up improvements and municipal parks.

Apologize I didn't preload this today. So I think I'm in the right order. Right, park sidewalk Park sidewalk improvement project is the first one we'll go over. So I'll provide some context, talk about, the cost in the final slide for grant funding. But park sidewalk program, here's a little bit of information.

So the parks master plan, Ferndale Moose plan calls for sidewalks and path improvements that, among other things, improve walking and biking, connect amenities in our parks to parking areas, provide safe access for all people. And we just had some some areas in our parks, and I'll kinda go over the locations where we just didn't have a lot of solid paths for people to get either from our neighborhoods or from the parking lots to the different areas of the parks. So this program was funded through the transportation alternative program, and that is a program that funds projects for trails, paths, sidewalks, bike lanes, streetscapes, and other right of way improvements. So this sidewalk improvement timeline and this is also a timeline for any other TAP grant funded projects that we submit, and we do submit them. The first so about one to five years prior to the actual construction, we develop the concept.

We submit a grant to, SEMCOG and MDOT about eight weeks prior to the ARC, which is the application review committee. They take about nine to eleven weeks to look at it, a funding decision is made, and then project implementation, which includes some design, estimation, and bidding takes about six to nine months. So usually, the plan gets approved, and then you've got about a year or two, year and a half before that project takes place. And if council remembers, we did a letter of support, I believe, the end of twenty twenty three, which doesn't sound right, but I think it was September 2023. And just for future concepts, we've talked about Withington and 9 Mile downtown.

We worked with DDA and city manager's office to come up with a few ideas, and we've kind of thrown those around a little bit, and we're trying to time those with construction. But any project that anyone has can be sent to us through capital improvement, and it will we will look at submitting it for TAP funding. So the park sidewalk improvement locations, if you can see on the map, Harding Park, Mapledale Park, Martin Park, Vester Park, Wilson Park, Oak Ridge Park, which is, less of a park, but it is at the edge of Oak Ridge Street. There's not currently a sidewalk there. It is a park, and Geary Park as well.

All these parks don't have sidewalk and pathways, and we are making sure that they do. So the final slide, park sidewalk improvement numbers, project cost, the, civil engineer estimated and submitted were approved for 283,600. The low bid came in at about 250,000. The grant covers about 80,000 of that, which is 226, and then the city ask is about 56,720. And I will say that this was a group effort, and I wanna thank the parks and rec team for helping with the planning phase, our civil engineering firm, Giffels Webster, and DPW staff that went out and measured and got information and helped with the submission of the application.

And that is it for that one.

Also have any questions or comments regarding sidewalk?

Yes. Through the chair, I apologize if you did mention this, but, you're choosing, Audio Concrete Construction. Have we worked with them before?

I don't believe we have. We are not since it's a tap grant program. MDOT ran the bid process, selected this bidder, from their, process. I believe they have select bidders. They have bidders that they won't use again.

So if you're on this list and you're low bid and their engineers vet it, this is your contractor.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

Right. Yeah. And I think that's important to note that the contract we're approving is not a contract with a vendor. It's a contract with the state. It's for the publics.

I move we approve contract number 24Dash5425 between the Michigan Department of Transportation and the City of Ferndale for concrete sidewalks and sidewalk reconstruction in municipal parks to be funded by road bond capital outlay account number 450000977750 in the amount of $202,122 and authorize the mayor and city clerk to execute said contract as submitted by the director of public works.

Court.

Johnson? Yes. Kelly? Yes. Mikulski?

Yes.

Polica? Yes. Leaksmae?

Yes. Item eight b, approval of the contract number 24Dash5465 between Michigan Department of Transportation and city of and city of Ferndale for pavement improvements on Hilton Road.

Yep. So the 2025 Hilton Road resurfacing project is going to follow a similar format for the presentation, short and sweet. This one's a little more complicated. There are a lot of acronyms. I will do my best to kind of give a little context without getting too far into the weeds.

But the Hilton Road resurfacing information, the city applies for federal funding on nearly all of our major roadway resurfacing. I believe we have 24 miles of major roads. Major roads are your larger connector roads, emergency routes, truck routes, whereas locals are the residential. So in front of your home is probably a local, for the most part. So anytime we do construction on those roads, we apply, for funding.

So the FAC is the federal aid committee. They develop and implement regional transportation plans. And government agencies, for in Oakland County. SEMCOG and MDOT use federal funding to invest in transportation improvements in Southeastern Michigan, and that is part of the I should remember this. Oh, yeah.

The Regional Transportation Plan. Sorry. A lot of acronyms. And, TIP is the Transportation Improvement Program, and that is what considers a number of these roadway improvements, and it includes ours. The surface transportation program is the federal program that actually funds the projects that do improve transportation infrastructure.

Hilton Road resurfacing timeline. So like our our parks program, this is for Hilton Road, but it's also for anything that we do apply for. So typically, as a major roadway hits about ten to twelve years old, we apply for funding. We're hoping that by the fifteenth year, because this is a two to three year, application process, we are approved and ready to resurface that road as it reaches the end of its service life. Semcog and MDOT, would should approve it, and they will add it to the transportation improvement program, which is basically the schedule of projects throughout the Southeastern Oakland County area.

MDOT then bids the work similar to the sidewalks. They select the vendor. City approves contract. Construction takes place. And this will take place in 2025 along with our tenth year of our local paving program.

So, road resurfacing projects coming up in the future, we actually have on the schedule. It's already been approved, but we won't have a contract. So we're closer to that date is the stretch of nine Mile between Woodward and Livernois, and that's actually two stretches. It's Woodward to Allen and then Allen to Livernois. Those got bundled together for 2027, and that'll come in later as we approach that date.

East 9 Mile Road, Woodward to West End should be paved in 2030. Hilton Road, Woodward Heights '10 '10 miles, 2030. Hilton Road again, eight mile to nine mile, twenty thirty one. Pinecrest, Livernois, Pinecrest, Woodward Heights, on and on and on. And these, if you were to subtract 15, fifteen to eighteen years from there, you would get the build date for each of these roads.

So for the Hilton Road resurfacing, numbers, project cost, the engineering estimate was $1,113,000. The low bid came in a little under that at 1,068,000. The grant covers, up to $911,493, and the city buy in is $202,000. So that's roughly $80.20. It's a little less, but, like 19 and a half.

Again, this is a group process. I wanna thank Giffel's Webster and DPW staff for putting this together. It really is something that, a lot of different hands go into getting the information that goes into these and makes these applications successful. So that's it.

Through the chair, same question. Proline Asphalt Peaving was selected as the lowest bidder. Have we worked with them before?

It is a good question, and I don't believe so. But I will confirm familiar guy. We'll confirm with Giffles, but that does not, sound familiar.

Yeah.

Through the chair, my question would be, since the state is really the one sort of undertaking the project kind of on our behalf in a sense. Who's gonna be responsible for communicating to residents and visitors the disruptions, you know, the northern part of Hilton is a major corridor, so that being under construction is gonna be disruptive to folks. You know, are we gonna be taking the lead on that? Does the state do that? If the state does it, can we do better?

Yes. We will meet we will meet with them. I hesitate to bring up Woodward, but similar to the Woodward moves, we will work with communication. We will work with the state. We will work with the contractor.

We'll be a part of those construction meetings, and then we will be providing community, information and feedback and a heads up on construction delays. Because you are correct that that is kind of an element that doesn't, doesn't really seem to be the focus when these programs do take place.

It's not their strong suit. And then a follow-up to that. If residents do have some kind of issue or concern, something that happens during this or whatever, they can still contact our DPW. Correct? And and you all can communicate that to the state and

the Yep. Yes. And I will say similar to the Woodward, residents did bring things to us, and we advocated for their concerns on their behalf.

Awesome.

Yes. Thanks, Jim.

Thank you.

I move we approve contract number 224Dash5465 between the Michigan Department of Transportation and the City of Ferndale for removal and resurfacing of Hilton Road from nine mile to Woodward Heights Boulevard to be funded via local roads, major streets, Capital Outlay account number 202000977 in the amount of $202,102, and authorize the mayor and city clerk to execute said contract as submitted by the director of public works.

Support. Johnson? Yes. Polica? Yes.

Kelly? Yes. Mikulski? Yes. Leaksmae?

Yes. Yeah.

Thank you.

Yeah. Yeah. L 10. If there's any other surprises, I think we're moving on to call to counsel. So I open it up to, interim city manager to, help facilitate department head updates.

Yes. Thank you, mayor. Good evening, everybody. We're gonna start with, Phil from the finance department to give an update on the water billing issue that we experienced last week.

Yeah. It's been a fun week. Good evening, mayor and council. I just wanna kinda wanted to touch base with everyone that hasn't checked our website or been on social media, regarding a a billing error that went out last month for bills that are due in February. There was an incomplete file that was sent to the printers, and that's what actually went out and hit the mailboxes and email inboxes.

Staff are currently working, diligently, I promise you, to, correct the, to adjust the bills to what they are. Because what happened was all the bills that went out went out as estimated bills. And so, we've, as you can imagine, received a lot of phone calls over the last week and a half about these estimated bills. And so our staff are working to actually correct those bills, make those adjustments, and then they, any anybody anybody in section three and four can go in and check their status because the bills are being updated, not as we speak because everybody's gone home, but they're being updated. And they're more than 75% through.

We target to be done by Thursday, so everything will be corrected by Thursday. I just kinda wanna give everybody an update as far as where we were with that. And again, the cause for that was, a bad file that came over from Neptune into BSNA. And the fun part of this whole, scenario is that when we got on the phone with BSNA health support, they deleted the file. And so it could not be corrected.

So that's part of the reason that it's taken us so long to kinda get everything corrected. But, the target date, again, is Thursday. I'm hoping to get it done before then. But if anybody has any questions or if they wanna get a copy of the actual bill, they'll need to come in the city hall or just check the, the city's website and go to their account. Any questions?

If their bill was already paid and there was would you credit back?

Yeah. We're working on, doing credit back for for those folks who already paid. Because it it it's not fair for them to have to pay the estimated bill and they have to pay any type of say, if they didn't if they pay the penalty or whatever, we're working on a a process to get that corrected as well.

Thank you. Thanks, Bill.

Questions?

Thank you. Alright. And tonight, pinch hitting for parks and rec is our communications director, Kara.

Evening, mayor and council. Yes. Parks and Rec, they're having some difficulty getting here tonight. So they wanted me to remind you that the little princess's dance will be Saturday, February 1. Registration for this is already open on the website, so you can hit that up and get your tickets now.

They are also looking for help doing, setup for the dance on Friday the thirty first and earlier in the day on Saturday the first. So if anybody is available and interested in, giving them a hand, they would sure appreciate it. And you could reach out to anybody from the parks and rec department if you are able to do that, or you can reach out to me, and I can put you in touch with them.

And then our DDA director, Jenny Beaker, is gonna talk about her entourage and their success last week.

We do roll deep in Downtown Ferndale. Everybody knows that. Yeah. So, starting off the year with really good news, we were awarded an extra $2,000 in project funding from Main Street Oakland County for our participation in a board training last week. So this is really exciting in addition to all the other supports and funding that Main Street gives us and also the guidance for, administering one of America's greatest downtowns.

This is really helpful for us to execute some more projects. So we are gonna be looking at a few different options to apply that funding. But just thanks very much to our board members, resident volunteers, our city partners who attended with us. It's great. We always enjoy having more perspective for Downtown Ferndale and what we can be doing better, in response to everyone's, wants and desires for Downtown Ferndale.

That said, we are also recruiting a new board member. We did have a resignation from someone who was moving out of the area. So we are looking to recruit a new board member if anyone is interested. You do not have to be a business owner. You do not have to be, represented in the direct downtown.

You can be a Ferndale resident at large. You just have to have a a connection somehow to Ferndale and a passion for downtown Ferndale. So if you're interested, there is our, we did our information session, I believe, at the November, council meeting. People can review that and see a little bit more we're about, Or I'm happy to speak with anyone if they have questions about how they can get involved. And even if being a board member is not the right fit, if you're interested in being involved with us over the next year as we do any number of projects, from nine on nine and, other engagement opportunities to downtown sidewalk design.

So if anyone is interested, please reach out. We would love to have you, join us.

And if I may, I just wanna point out that, one of the newest board members was a volunteer. So, it's an opportunity to get involved if if anyone's interested.

Thank you.

Alright. And then fire chief Robinson is gonna come up and express some excitement for a long awaited arrival.

Yes. So you might remember some time ago, council approved ARPA funds to purchase a new ambulance because we did need new ambulance for our fleet. And I'm happy to say on January 22, we'll be making the trip down to final inspection and driving it back. So we have everything set up, for to get all the equipment loaded. Again, so it should be in surface service, in the first half of by the February is my goal.

So I'm at I wanna have it in service two weeks after we receive it, so we're getting everything going, but it will finally be here. And if you don't know, we ordered it before the fire engine, and we're getting it after. So, usually, they're built much quicker, but it's finally gonna be here, so it's very exciting.

Oh, congratulations, chief.

And then just a couple, notes for next week. Just a reminder, the city hall will be closed on Monday in observance of Martin Luther King Junior Day. And then we'll be holding that special meeting next Tuesday night at 6PM, to talk about, the Headley millage and a possible May, election. So with that, mayor, I will turn it back to you. And Okay.

Start of the New Year. I'm going to my right. I'll start with mayor Pro Temakulski.

Mayor, I have nothing additional tonight.

I just wanted to give a shout out again to, Jenny and Summer for representing at that last training. It was really cool to see how many people showed up and to, Roger and Kyle from our CED department for showing up and Riley from communications, all our board members. It was really cool, and we had $2,000. So that's awesome. Thank you for rallying the troops.

What's an echo call again?

Two items. I guess three items. The first one is this Friday, 8PM is a Schitt's Creek trivia event at, Bee Nectar. It is a fundraiser for Ferndale Pride. So if you, are a big Schitt's Creek fan, you might wanna come down.

I think tickets are $15, but, you can always go to Ferndalepride.com and go to the events page to look for more information. And then the week after, which would be January 24 on a Friday, is the psychic self care party, that's gonna be held at the Boston Tea Room. And, again, more information can be found on the, Ferndale Pride website. And finally, I wanted to let folks know that, Ferndale Pride is still looking for a event sponsor. It's the, highest position.

We we call it the naming sponsor. So it would be your company name, your name presents Ferndale pride, with a lot of, companies starting to pull back on their DEI and, pull back on on their funding and support, organizations and events like Ferndale Pride are having a hard time getting sponsorship. So, if there's anybody out there, a company, please contact Julia Music, or you can contact me, and I can get you in touch with Julia Music. And that's all I have.

And council member Pawlika, isn't there a open house for affirmations this Friday?

I don't have that on my list, but it's very, very possible.

Yeah. That's okay. Alright. Okay. Alright.

Johnson member Johnson. I have nothing. K. Alright. Well, I just want to give a well, first, I'll speak of, something that, council member Kelly spoke of last time at last council meeting regarding giggle pickles.

They are still looking they are still seeking support. That's the robotics team for the middle school. If you'd like to support their efforts, you can go to, You can go to www.gigglepicklesrobotics.org. They are seeking support so that they can go to their the championships in I believe it's where is it in? Texas.

Houston, in April. So support that team. They have been getting lots of donations. They've had a bottle drive and and then, of course, donations coming through for them. And, they're raising money.

So, this is a first for them, so let's support them. And two, I'd like to to give a shout out to the Ferndale Middle School coed swim team. You don't always hear about them, but, I just wanted to give a shout out to, Evan Murray, who has qualified for The States in the 200 freestyle. Earlier this season, Ava Gasparat also qualified for The States in the 50 fly. And, also, the Ferndale High School boys team secured a victory at their home meet against centerline.

So shout out to them as well as I'd also like to acknowledge that this month is, the Ferndale school excuse me, school board. It's a school board education month, so just a shout out to them. I'd I heard a comment earlier today how we really need to build relationships with the schools, and I just wanna acknowledge all the things that that are happening in Ferndale schools. Me being a parent, a a couple of us are parents of Ferndale school students. So just acknowledging the good things that they're doing, and I just want to shout their praises.

I do not have anything else. And with that being said, this meeting adjourned at 07:39, which is odd to say.

That hurts that hurts for me. Yes.

Thank you.