Mary Bednar is Clinton Township’s public services director.
By: Dean Vaglia | C&G Newspapers | Published January 9, 2023
CLINTON TOWNSHIP — The Clinton Township Board of Trustees handled two Special Assessment District public hearings at its Dec. 19 meeting.
The two districts encompass North Miles and South Miles, essentially one U-shaped residential street that connects to Little Mack Avenue at two points. Though the area is fundamentally a single road, Public Services Director Mary Bednar explained to the board why it is handled as separate SADs.
“The project was divided into two … so that we could, if we had enough support for those projects, we could submit for a grant for the Department of Roads and be able to leverage money and hopefully get a grant for a 50/50 match,” Bednar said.
Those grants are only for road projects up to $1 million, and a single project for North Miles and South Miles would be around $2 million and only eligible for a 25% match.
However, the process of getting the project approved became complicated as some who previously agreed to the North Miles project have since rescinded their signatures, bringing its level of local approval down to 44.4% of affected residents at the meeting’s start. There was an attempt to encourage more signatures for the North Miles project, while the South Miles project was discussed and improved, but that was unsuccessful.
Police acquisitions
On Dec. 19, the board handled two purchasing requests for the Clinton Township Police Department.
First, board members approved an amendment to an order for six new Ford Explorer vehicles made earlier in the fiscal year. The department was going to pay $195,264 in total for the SUVs, but supply chain issues led to the order being changed to newer and more expensive models. The approved amendment allows the department to purchase five Chevrolet Tahoe vehicles for $198,285, an increase over the original purchase but cheaper than remaining with Ford.
The board then approved a reallocation of $22,000, originally made for the purchase of hostage negotiation phones, toward the purchase of a drone.
“It has come to my attention that, due to advances in technology, these funds would be better utilized to purchase a multi-purpose drone designed specifically for law enforcement use,” Clerk Kim Meltzer said, reading a letter to the board from Police Chief Dina Caringi. “A drone of this caliber would not only be able to be used for crisis negotiation, having two-way communication capabilities, it could also be utilized with search and rescue missions, having infrared and/or thermal tracking technology. These are only two examples of how this type of equipment would advance our mission of utilizing technology to better serve the needs of the community.”
The drone is a Brinc Drones Lemur S and features a 31-minute flight-time and a 10-hour hovering-time, and it takes about 45 seconds to deploy.
Kentucky Street sewer repair
The board also approved an unplanned change in scope regarding work on the sewer beneath Kentucky Street.
During a regular television inspection and cleaning session, workers with the Clinton Township Water and Sewer Department discovered “an excessive amount of concrete” blocking the pipe that was unable to be removed. Contractor T.R. Pieprzak was called in to remove the blockage for a cost of $24,383.50.
Trustee Julie Matuzak inquired about whether an investigation could be conducted into the improper dumping of concrete in a residential neighborhood.
“This neighborhood has suffered this sort of dumping continually, and it is costing us a lot of money (and) it is costing the neighborhood,” Matuzak said. “I am upset that we allow (this), that this stuff goes on.”