One of Bingham Farms’ goals for 2023 is to gather information about the condition of local roads.
By: Mary Genson, Mary Beth Almond | Birmingham-Bloomfield Eagle | Published January 11, 2023
As the new year starts out, the Eagle reached out to local officials to see what their plans and goals are for 2023.
Bingham Farms
This year, Bingham Farms is focusing on gathering the information that they need about local roads in order to come up with a future reconstruction plan.
“We know village-owned roads are at the end of their lifespan, and our goal for 2023 is to gather enough data and develop a plan for road reconstruction that is acceptable for residents,” Bingham Farms Village President Lisa Blackburn said.
At this point in the process, they are working on getting very preliminary data on the condition of the local roads in the village. She estimates that the public will have the opportunity to voice their opinion on the direction of the project.
Bloomfield Hills
Bloomfield Hills Mayor Alice Buckley said that each year, the Bloomfield Hills City Commission works with the city manager and staff to develop a list of meaningful and achievable goals sharply focused on improving city services, so it is difficult to choose just one goal to feature.
Road rehabilitation and updating the water service infrastructure have been two of the main focuses over the last five years.
“Our new roads have significantly improved drivability throughout the city, and our water service line improvements have bolstered our fire suppression capabilities,” Buckley said.
Buckley said several of Bloomfield Hill’s goals this year are designed to support the building process as building projects flourish. This includes updating ordinances, creating consistent training materials for boards and staff to use in evaluating requests, and providing a seminar for design and building professionals to assist them with understanding the ordinances and expectations.
Bloomfield Township
Bloomfield Township Supervisor Dani Walsh said the largest project in the township for 2023 will be the creation of a strategic plan.
The township’s last strategic plan was completed in 2009. It expired in 2014.
“When you are thinking one year at a time, which is what I inherited, it doesn’t bode well for sustainability and for long-term planning,” Walsh said. “This way, we are going to set our goals, but the strategic plan will actually give us the strategy and action steps needed to actually hit those goals.”
A five-year strategic plan, according to Walsh, helps a municipality focus on finances, infrastructure, personnel and all of the services needed to meet the expectations of the community. The township plans to release a request for proposals and pick its provider sometime after April, when the township’s budget starts.
“Then, we will be going forward with a full-on strategic plan, where there is community involvement, board involvement, employee involvement and small business involvement. We will bring everybody from the community in,” she said.
The township also plans to bring back its emergency operation command training this year.
“If there is ever a weather event or an active shooter or something like the Temple Beth El incident, whenever there is something that could escalate happening in our community, you have to have a team ready. You have to have everything ready to go,” added Walsh.
Leaders from each township department have already been selected to join the emergency operation command team, and Walsh said they will experience hands-on training this year to help prepare for severe weather, active shooters and other potential emergencies.
“We are doing quite a few this year just to get up and running, and we will probably do one a year, at a minimum, going forward,” she said.
In 2023, Walsh said, residents may notice some innovative measures being added into the workings of the township — including a virtual reality simulator for additional police training, new leadership training for staff, and the creation of a township app later this year. Walsh said she has also been working on restructuring the township’s departments to help streamline processes over the past year, which she said will be completed in 2023.
“Even though things worked well for a long time and this is a wonderful place, if we don’t update certain things, we’ll lose our gold standard, and we want to retain that gold standard,” Walsh said.
Birmingham
In 2023, Birmingham plans to focus on environmental sustainability and supporting the aging population.
“One goal includes looking at how we can support and enrich the lives of our senior population,” Mayor Therese Longe said.
Right now, 17% of the population in Birmingham is over the age of 65, and that is projected to grow by 2040.
Longe said they are looking at creating a task force to facilitate an aging-in-place plan that would provide services for seniors who want to stay in their homes.
Part of their efforts to support the aging population include developing a permanent location for Birmingham Next to provide more space for engagement, enrichment and access to services.
Included in their current efforts to improve environmental sustainability in Birmingham is their decision to create a sustainability board. This way the city has a group whose job it is to review potential sustainability projects, investigate funding opportunities and develop public education.
Promoting resident-led projects is also included in their efforts. For example, one idea is to develop a public education campaign to encourage residents to develop rain gardens.
Beverly Hills
“My goal for the Beverly Hills Council and administration for 2023 is to take the time to assure that we get the boring things right,” Village President John George said.
The village has many new additions, including a new village manager, two new department directors and much of the Village Council.
George said they have many big things they are working towards, but they are also focusing on making sure they have the policies, procedures and planning in place that will help the village to be its best for residents.
Franklin
Franklin Village President Bill Lamott said via email that the Franklin council will start defining objectives for next year this month.
He said he is unable to answer the question of choosing a goal to highlight until that process is complete.