Township Board Approves Pathway Construction, Repaving Shadbrook

The board of trustees have approved several new  projects including the repaving of a few streets and the  of the Northville Bennett Arboretum Pathway.

The  arboretum project will connect the city of Northville and Northville Township with an asphalt parkway. The board praised Wayne County Commissioner Laura Cox for her help in getting funding.

“The project is unique and very well thought out,” said trustee Marv Gans at the board's meeting last week, who went on to say that he hopes it will be “both educational as well as a very desirable facility to connect Northville Township and the city of Northville.”

According to Don Weaver, township director of public services, it will run along Sheldon Road between Six Mile and Seven Mile roads, meandering into Hines Park on the east side of Sheldon Road. Included in the construction, he said, will be various elevated board walkways over wetlands areas, and a pedestrian bridge over the Johnson Creek.

He also said that numerous signs will be posted along the half mile path identifying various biological features, including gardens.

Weaver also provided the following figures for the cost of the project: Wayne County will provide $500,000 toward the pathway, which will also be augmented by a $450,000 grant from the River Rouge Project. The city of Northville will pay $20,000 and Northville Township will pick up the remaining $161,470. The total cost for the pathway will be about $1.13 million.

Construction – which was awarded to Pro-Line Asphalt paving company, of Washington Township –  is set to begin in the first week of June, and should be completed by the end of the summer, according to Township Supervisor Mark Abbo.

“It’s a great, unique and different project,” said Cox, who was on hand for the meeting. “It was a privilege to be a part of it.”

The donation of numerous newspaper scrapbooks to the was also approved. The scrapbooks will be filled with old newspaper clippings from years past in the township, many of which have been locked up for years.

“We’ve been keeping these records for as long as I have been on the board,” said Treasurer Richard Henningsen, who applauded the board for the effort to make them available to the public.

Other agenda items:

• The repaving of Shadbrook Street and Pinebrook Drive were also approved, as well as the implementation of water and sewer piplines under those streets. The pavement cost for the project will be $310,000, and the water main costs – which also includes the adding of fire hydrants – is $361,000. Construction for the project was awarded to Sinatech Construction of Lake Orion. The Shadbrook neighborhood was built in 1963. The project will begin in June and be completed by the end of the summer.
• The board gave a green light to the replacement of eight fire department bay doors, for a total cost of $13,000. "They are going up and down every day," said John Werth, director of public safety. "That's why it's important to get them done now." The fire department also received $22,005.90 for a new defibrillator.
• A partner, Martin Olejnik, from the audit and accounting firm Plante & Moran also presented the township audit, which was performed for the year ending on December 31, 2010. He praised the township board for their fiscal responsibility as he laid out the audit's figures, which remained mostly unchanged from the previous year, or showed improvement.
• Wayne County Commissioner Laura Cox also advised the board that it would be receiving clean-up services from the Wayne County Alternative Workforce, which employs those people who have been resigned to community service duties through the courts. "I thought it would be a nice opportunity for you to have some clean up," she said.