City Council - Regular Meeting

I pledge algiance 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. Thank you. Uh, roll call, please. Madam clerk. Mayor Beagle. I'm here. Deputy Mayor Gota here. Council member Berman here. Council member Gwin Fox, here. Council member Kennedy, present. Council member ODay is excused. Council member Simmons here. We have qu. Perfect. Thank you. Changes or additions to the agenda as presented tonight? City Manager Brown. Mayor, I do not have any changes or additions. Assistant city manager Benson.

I have none, sir. Any from the DAS? Very good. Moving on. We got one set of minutes approved tonight and that's from the regular city council meeting of January 27th, 2026. Do I have a motion? support.

Any discussion? Seeing none, I got a motion and a second to approve the meetings uh the minutes of the January 27th, 2026 council meeting. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. We have no correspondence. Brings us to the call to the public. I'll read the rules for the call to the public. They are as followed. The public shall address the council during a call to the public which shall be included on the agenda immediately after correspondence and again immediately after new business. The first call to the public immediately after correspondence shall be listed to limited to agenda items only. A person shall not address the council in excess of 5 minutes unless the time is extended by a majority vote of the council present. Persons wishing to address the council shall identify themselves and their place of residence and shall state their reason for addressing the council and all comments by the public shall be made directly to the council. Do we have anybody for the first call to the public? Good evening, mayor, city council, administration. Tom Resnik, 1636 Wayhill Drive. And um I wanted to uh state some concerns about new business item number two, flexible ballards, having been a part and party to the discussion starting in 2024 regarding the uh vehicular u accidents and crashes along Pontiac Trail and owning a business on that stretch. I I do have a lot of concerns about the proposal as is before you tonight. Um may Mr. Mayor, if you don't mind, I'd like to pass around some photographs of the three incidents um that I was able to witness for the council to take a look at.

I suppose permission to approach is what you're supposed to say.

And there's two concerns. Uh number one, um I I know there it wasn't part of the packet, but uh thank you, Deputy Mayor Gotcho, for forwarding me a picture of the graphic for the proposal. Um the proposal included 10 ballards along southbound Wixom Road on the western side um near the trail, but that was never part of our discussion nor of any concern. There's never been an incident there. We never had it as part of our discussion. Our concern was from the railroad tracks along Pontiac Trail to um just beyond the Holcraftoft um driveway where the three incidents had occurred between August of uh 2019 and then June of uh 2024. And if you look at the debris field and the vehicles laying on the trail on the photos that I've sent around, uh those are the three incidents that occurred. My um first concern then is why are we putting ballards in an area that wasn't of any concern and just have a minimal amount at the the start from the railroad track over to the first entrance to country corners where all of the incidents if you see happened west of that entrance. The um second concern I have is the material of choice. Um, my feeling is a 90deree flex decorative baller made out of polyurethane is not going to prevent what could be pedestrian death as a result of a crash. And if you look at the severity of those incidents that had occurred, you could see that had a family been on the trail, which is very very common in the summertime that uh there would have been some pedestrian injuries that would have been involved. So again, I um I believe

that a more uh structural sound uh ballard or if you look at our south side of Pontiac Trail, we have cement planters that are 3 ft high, right? Our light posts themselves are not crashworthy. Uh right, I mean when a vehicle hits them, the light post doesn't move unless they're doing 80 miles an hour, which you've seen in one of the videos. But the um the fact that road commission of Oka County is more concerned about potential liability from vehicular damage versus pedestrian deaths is still appalling to me and I think we need taking a closer look at it. Thank you, mayor. Thank you. Anybody else for the first call to the public? Seeing none, I'll close the first call to the public and move on to city manager reports. Excuse me. We have two tonight. is the first one is the fire monthly report of December 2025. Any questions? Uh the second one is the police monthly report from December 2025. Any questions? You guys get off so easy, man. That's a good thing. Uh consent agenda. All items listed on the consent agenda are considered routine by the city council and will be enacted by one motion. There be no separate discussion of these items unless a council member sole request in which event the items will be removed from the consent agenda and added to the regular agenda at the end of unfinished or new business. Do I have a motion?

Move to approve. I got a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda as presented tonight. All those in favor, please signify by saying I.

I opposed. Motion carries. We have no unfinished business tonight. So, we'll move on to new business. New business number one is a recommendation to accept the Simcog safe streets now grant for the Pontiac trail pedestrian refuge project in the amount of $190,400 and authorize a design engineering proposal from Hubble Roth and Clark Engineering for amount not to exceed $41,950 from the DDA special studies account number 248-729-956.481 481 as recommended by the Wixom Downtown Development Authority. Do I have a motion?

A second. All right, I got a motion in a second. Assistant City Manager Benson.

Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, members of city council. uh for the benefit especially of some of our newer council members. Um just to give a little bit of history behind this particular project and this uh uh proposal in front of you tonight in 2024 um SAMCOG or the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments uh helped cover the cost of a road safety audit specifically for our downtown district. Um so that was covering um from our east and western boundaries where these refues are included uh down to Old Wixom and up to to West Maple. As a part of that project, uh contributions from city administration, planning, parks, uh parks and recreation, police, public works, and the airline trailway council along with the DDA and the road commission were all taken in. Uh the crash data was evaluated and a series of recommendations were provided as part of that report. Um that was delivered to the city in October of 2024. Uh along, you know, with that report, there were some key projects or recommendations that came out of it and were presented to the DDA. Um those included a proposal to widen the sidewalk along Pontiac Trail between Chambers and Wixom Road along with bearing the power lines to accommodate that widened sidewalk. Uh considering uh uh you know, safety improvements for things like Ballards, you know, something we'll be talking about later. and additionally the pedestrian refuges that are proposed here tonight at the eastern and western boundaries of downtown as a part of the DDA's annual strategic planning processes and their budgeting process. They budgeted for these projects um in this fiscal year or they budgeted in this fiscal year for fiscal year 2627. Um and from there, you know, we've we've slowly been kind of moving this forward. Um this is also reflected in the city's budget is um all of our safety path and sidewalk improvement projects are funded through the transfer to safety path fund. So that's just a reference of how

the kind of dollars move between these things. Um so fast forward a little bit in October, uh Southeast Michigan Council of Governments announced their um safe streets now program. Uh, and this is a grant opportunity specifically for projects like this, really pedestrianoriented and um, you know, road safety improvement projects. They're looking for shovel ready opportunities that are well vetted, supported by data and and you know, fit the criteria that they're looking for. Fortunately for us, we felt that the specifically the chambers to Wixom Road and the pedestrian refugees fit the criteria and would be good candidates. So, we presented to the DDA board in October and they authorized staff to proceed with a grant application for those two separate projects. Um, both fortunately and unfortunately, we did receive notification in December that SECOG would authorize the pedestrian refuges. Um, unfortunately, we were not authorized for the Chambers to Wixom Road sidewalk. Um, it's a little bit of a longer story, but essentially uncertainties with DTE continue to make that project difficult. So fast forward and that that brings us to our agendum item for you tonight. Um the proposal is for these two pedestrian refues. Um one would be on the eastern end of downtown right at the edge of the district in front of the post office and one at the western end of downtown. Um so basically at the Gibson House crossing um and would take you to the airline trail. Um, you know, the the these types of installations can provide a lot of different types of benefits such as helping um um identify that the speed limit changes from 35 down to 25 as you enter the district. Um, offering pedestrians an opportunity to have a safer crossing um as well as help vehicles recognize that that is a location where crossings are intended to happen. Uh for all of those reasons, we we feel that um you know, in our

downtown area, we're trying to promote walkability, that these would be welcome um installations. So, with all of that in mind, uh you know, we bring this item for you tonight. Uh we are not seeking authorization for uh the installation of this project. We are merely seeking authorization from city council um to take the DDA's recommendation to accept the award and authorize the expenditure from the DDA to begin the formal design engineering process. If authorized, we would move forward with finishing that design process throughout this year, bidding late this fall for a a late, you know, early 2027 award. So that would come back to the DDA into city council for final authorization and uh you know potentially construction in spring of 2027. Uh we do have representatives from Hubble, Roth, and Clark who helped us prepare this this uh grant application um and really have been a part of of all of these infrastructure conversations over time. So u and I'd specifically like to give some credit to uh Sarah Plumemer. Uh you know, really nice job helping put this together. So, if you have any questions, we would be happy to answer those. Um, we do have representatives from SAMCOG as well as from a few of our representatives offices. They're obviously very excited and if there are any questions on that front, they may be able to help answer as well.

Any questions? Council member Kennedy, I was looking at this and is there any part of this that has uh some something set aside for ongoing maintenance so it doesn't just deteriorate debris?

So on the front side note, there is no uh specific funding set aside. really that's um that's part of the benefit of having a downtown development authority is is a lot of these infrastructure you know infrastructure installations that are beyond you know the average um the DDA provides a a mechanism to help address those so that same applies to streetscapes and lamp posts and those kind of things that we only do in this district thank you plus it's not a dedicated employee but the DDA does um pay for one of our DP So, so that that could be added to the cleaning of the uh garbage cans and things like that as we go.

No, that's absolutely correct. The day-to-day maintenance um yes, we can handle through DPW and then they do contribute to our DPW costs. Okay, Council Member Bman,

thank you. Um I got a couple questions. Uh the first one just from the layout of this agenda item uh is there a reason why this is one agenda item versus two separate ones? I suppose it could be um really I guess we view them as being one comprehensive decision. They don't have to be right. if there was a um as an example an interest in accepting the grant but uh you know we're not sure about HRC's proposal those could be moved separately if if it desired I mean it almost appears that this is just something that I mean lack better way to put it hiding a no bid opportunity for HRC um and looking at the bid I I just I feel like was it 360 hours to do two sidewalk crossings seems extremely excessive. Uh and perhaps this is an opportunity of something that should be bid out. Um I mean perhaps they have a better understanding of why I mean we already have the designs of the the two crossings here. What's going to take 360 hours? Well, I think one of the key things to keep in mind, and I apologize I I had it in my notes, but I didn't point this out. Um because this is a federally funded program, there's 120 hours included in here just for dealing with um uh essentially the required review processes in the same way that we've had to do for the West End Commons. So um and I apologize, I forget what the acronym NEPA stands for, but um along with shipos of the state historic preservation office, there are all sorts of reviews that we need to do to verify that there won't be environmental impacts um even for projects as small as this. So there's 120 hours or $13,000 estimated just for that portion. Um and that's that's what comes with trying to

access uh higher higher level of government funding, right? So the uh federal resource funding just results in strings that cost extra monies. Um so that's a downside of that, but obviously the plus side is the dollar amount being awarded as a grant. Mike Darger from HRC is here tonight. Do you want to add anything to that or

I think uh I think assistant city manager Benson covered it. Um a lot of the extra cost in there is for the environmental uh reviews and this is bid through MDOT so you have to follow MDOT's requirements and there's submitts. Okay. Um, so how much time does HRC already have into this already doing the preliminary design?

Everything we've done has just been on aerial photos. Um, like we still have to go out there and get too and work on grades and stuff. So there there is no it's conceptual at this point. There's no real design yet.

Understood. Um, okay. Well, I think that answers my question in a way. I I feel like perhaps, at least from my perspective, maybe in the future, this should have been two separate agenda items. Um, because it was asking for two separate things. Um, my view on the traffic going through downtown, um, obviously that we've talked about and the next item is also dealing with traffic. And I'm I'm done with you. I'm not sure somebody else will want

I can hang out here. Um, I I I think this is a concept that can help slow down the traffic coming into downtown from both directions. Um, that being said, like I take a look at these traffic islands that are in Novi and other communities on Beck Road, for example, and after a year or so, they look horrible because there's just constant debris and road debris in them. So, I mean, I'm fine approving this conceptually for this to be built, for to get the design work for this to be built, but this is something that is going to take a lot of maintenance on behalf of our DPW. And our DPW has to be willing to take on that maintenance if we're going to install this because it's going to have to be swept at least once a month. It's going to have to be m They want to know why they have to paint it once a month cuz the cars are always hitting the curbs. Uh, I mean, it's just it's going to be a lot of work that we're going to be assuming by doing this. And I guess it's going to be more of something for Tim that that Tim's department is willing to take this on. This is what we're going to do.

Absolutely. And and just to for that point, I I think during the design process, and that's really where we'll have the opportunity to evaluate some of those things. There's different ways of doing the uh pedestrian refugees. There's not just one setup. And I think you bring up a great point that how how is it painted, how is it set up um in and with the road geometry, how do we make it as low maintenance as it can be? I think that's I appreciate the comment. It's a great point and I think when we have the final as we get closer the one on Beth Road, for example, I think of that to drive by a lot. the way the curbs are done there, like it just it catches every little pebble and stone that that comes off a car and it's just it's constantly it just looks bad and I just don't want the entrance to our downtown in both directions to be an eyesore. Does that make sense?

Understood. Have you seen any ones that you like that look good? No. No, I haven't. So, Mike will we'll charge Mr. cargo we find the maintenance proof design or as close to it as we can get and I'm not making fun of the concern. It's a valid concern. I mean the conceptual design with the the the beacon lights looks nicer than the one on back road but that doesn't mean that you know it's all going to be maintained I think. Thank you.

You're welcome. And this is not to succeed amount exceed amount and I'm sure Mr. Doer and HRC are going to come in lower than than that price and save us some money there. So, Council Member Simmons, uh, question I guess maybe for the DDA uh, business, downtown businesses, uh, their response to this. Well, we have a downtown business owner. We have two downtown business owners if they want to speak as well.

Well, let's hear from you. Um, thank you. Um, from my conversations with downtown business owners, they want the traffic slowed down. So, we are trying to come up with ways to do that and this was from the road safety audit. We felt this was probably the first step in doing that. Sure.

The I will say part of our application package um we did receive from actually Mr. Garma. Um we did do some solicitation of letters of support. So for the project, the airline trail u uh Wixom Liquor um the road commission u all submitted letters of support. Um in a perfect world we would have had more time and got more letters. But um we did at least get you Mark. What a guy. We got funded. It was a perfect playbook. I don't know what he's talking about. Thank you.

Council member G Fox. Council be or council member Beerman brings up some good points and um just to to HRC if you could take that into consideration when you're doing those designs and maybe look at the ones in Novi that are very pretty and do something different. Thank you, Council Member Gotchel.

Thank you. Um the first I want to verify the beacons will only be flashing when somebody presses a button, right? They're not going to be like building like ones that are constantly replacing. Okay. Thank you. Um the next set of comments questions is it I'm going to preface that because I was made aware there would be a check presentation at some point but it didn't sound like it would be tonight. Um and it seems a little bit early in my book. Um this isn't my comments aren't against SAMCOG. It's more of like the process and timeline to get us here as a city. Um, and where this came to council at the very end, not uh with a lot of consultation ahead of time or as much as I would have liked, I think. Um, I understand wanting to use DDA funds for a project like this. Um, but neither of these locations particularly make the most sense to me. Um, primarily the, um, one in front of the post office. been a lifelong resident. I've never seen an individual cross on a trail there. Um but frequently see people cross from like the the Duncan um shopping center to the villages. Um so I to me this should be more of a a city project outside of the DDA. Um and looking at areas where we actually have residents crossing a busy road. Um we had similarly a number of years ago someone hit crossing Beck Road from the village to the uh three shopping centers on the other side of Beck Road in Novi. That's the kind of stuff that I think we wanted to talk about safe streets. That is where we actually have people crossing right now. We could go sit out on Pontia Trail and watch people run across the road tonight and probably count on more than one

hand. um 38 years, never a single person crossing to the post office. Um the G, as it was explained to me, the Gibson house wanting to use the parking lot for um the trailway. I kind of get up to a point, but there's already a signalized crossing at Old Wixom and Pontiac Trail um with access to the airline trail. We also have a trail head in Gunner Metalla. Um, so it doesn't like I understand wanting access to grant funds, but this seems like we're doing something just to do it. Uh, and in terms of wanting to slow down traffic in downtown, putting it at the edge of the BCA isn't usually like when you're going down Wixom Road into Milford at their post office and it goes from 45 to 25, people aren't slowed down until the stop sign at whatever road that is. And that like this isn't going to get people to slow down. People are going to speed because they speed. Um, I think putting police officers out there would be a great way to get people to slow down, but I don't want to see more visual pollution with three beacon signs in a few different spots right in the heart of our downtown. Like, that is the gateway. That's what people will get to see is three new signs with three new lights with curbs in an aesthetically um displeasing manner that collects gravel and other things and weeds grow. It just it doesn't strike me as the best idea for the city. I appreciate SEMCOG and their grant funding. I wish we would have moved this outside of the DDA and looked at it from a city perspective instead of a a DDA VCA perspective. and

put these in um spots that I think make more sense for our residents. Um as it is though, I I don't I'm not I can't support it. I'll make a motion to table it to see if we can I mean I know um administration I talked to them ahead of time. they kind of spoke with SEMCOG and maybe there isn't a way to uh adjust the plans, but instead of just voting no first, I'll have a motion to table to see if we can address it or how council feels and then go from there. I go through I've got a motion and a second to table uh new business number one. Uh all those in favor please sing.

Go ahead. Question on the motion. Um is there a time limit on accepting the the grant that we could be jeopardizing by getting more information? I do not know right off hand. Um no not necessarily. I would say within 6 months would be good. Oh, usually usually our administration's quicker than six months. Thank you, sir. We appreciate that. Okay. Thank you. That was just want to make sure that we weren't shooting ourselves in the foot by asking for more information.

Okay. Any other questions? Okay. I got a motion in a second uh to table. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Opposed? I Okay. Council member Gotchel. Yes. Council member Berman. It was I in favor of the table. Yes. Yes. Council member Gunland Fox. Yes. Council member Kennedy. Yep. Council member Simmons. Yes. Mayor Beagle. No.

Yes. Pass. and passes table. Okay. So, we're tableabling new business number one and we'll move on to new business number two is a recommendation to approve the installation of flexible ballards at the mid northwest corner of Wixom Road and Pioneer Trail intersection along the Michigan Airline Trail for a cost not to exceed $13,600 from the safety path construction account number 223-55-971390 as recommended by the Wixom Downtown Development Authority. motion.

Okay, got a motion and a support. Uh, any discussion? Council member Bman. Um, I I like to thank the u retired deputy mayor for coming this evening and sharing his uh concerns. Um I I too uh share his concerns that I think um a P plastic um bowlard is not what we were looking for when we sent this out. I would much rather SC invest in potentially seeing if we could do some some flower planters like we have on the other side of the street. um at least from you know the railroad track to the entrance to country corners because that seems to be the entry point where this has happened in the past. Um I I just don't see how uh piece of plastic is going to create pedestrian safety. And then, you know, more importantly, coming down Wixom Road and looking at the two to three feet of snow that is piled up, uh, exactly where these ballers would be on the sidewalk. I mean, this would be every spring we'd be out there replacing these things. They'd be snapped in half and and again, it's just spending money to spend money and it's not solving the problem that we asked to be solved. So, if if Oakland County Road Commission isn't going to allow us to put something that we want to protect our residents, let's figure out what they will allow us to put that will protect the residents. Clearly, they allowed planters on the other side of the street. So, let's do them on that side of the street and and and protect the people on the trail, but uh not just spend money to spend money on on on pieces of plastic. Council member Kin Fox,

I also had some of the same concerns. Not necessarily the placement, but definitely the material that they're made out of. I don't know. I I understand where um the road commission was coming from. I don't agree with it, but I understand it. But I don't think that those ballots are going to do anything. I I I really I really don't. So, whatever it is that we can do or options that we can look at, I' I'd rather see some other options. Thank you, Council Member Simmons.

I echo that. I think that I'm not sure. Uh it seems like it'd be better just to do nothing than to do this. Uh it doesn't seem like it's going to get us what we're trying to get. Um but those are my thoughts. Council member Gota,

thank you. Um the to echo um Mr. Resnik, former deputy mayor Resnik, I I agree um that the locations aren't what he and I had in mind and we've had kind of advocated for this for a number of years. Um I understand that we've had a difficult time working with RCOC staff to get something approved that they've kind of um not agreed with planters on that side of the road. They don't want um hardcape that will prevent cars from getting or that would cause cars to get damaged. They don't want um hard ballards that would cause to get cars damaged. Um yet in practice the the metronet stations that have been going up like Pontia Trail kind of where within the same distance of the roadway that we would love this there are I didn't count them but probably upwards of eight concrete ballards that were put up. So I don't know whether RCOC understands that in practice by allowing that but saying oh you can't do that you're valuing fiber optic internet cable over human life which is an insane premise and president for the future. Um having done quite a bit of research about the flexible ballards the the 50 mph crash rating is just until they tear off. It doesn't. The U manufacturer actually has on their YouTube um different tests of cars idling over these to 90° and then continuing to idle over them. Um and then when they speed the car up, it's no like nothing's there. Um goal is to protect people before something bad happens. Thank God nothing bad has happened other than property damage up to this point, but we're we want to build ourselves as a trail town. We want to fill the trail with walkers and

hikers and everybody else. And um it's a matter of time based on what we've experienced, three or four accidents over the last handful of seven years, I think it is. um and speeds getting up to what we recall being like 80 m an hour in one case. Um and the crash photo from that looking down the street is kind of like apocalyptic the amount of damage that was done. Um, so I would be in favor of moving this beyond RCOC staff and I'm comfortable going to if they have RCOC commissioner meetings to address them and bring this to their attention that we're having this difficult of a time um protecting trail users instead of cars. Um, I would also be in favor if it's needed to go to uh Oakland County Commissioners meeting since they're the ones that appoint the road commission um commissioners. But I I think this needs to get moved beyond a staff level at the county. Um, I mean, most recent example, somebody driving through the Magnamera terminal doors at the airport and immediately concrete median barriers went out to prevent that from happening again. And we've been discussing this for years with the county and they're more worried about car safety than human safety. And it's um doesn't work for us. So, I um will make another motion to table this item until uh we can work out a better plan. And if we can't for whatever reason, then I can come up for vote and vote it down or do whatever. But motion to table.

All right, I got a motion to table new business number two. Do I have mo uh second discussion on that motion? Second first. Oh, I second it. All right, Council Member Bman, I see no reason to table this. I'm fine voting this down as proposed this evening.

Uh I feel I feel the same way. Um no no need to table this. Uh let's vote it down. Go back to the road commission. I mean we've been kicking this can down the road for a long time now. And if they haven't changed their mind by now, they're not going to change it in the future. we need something there um if they don't want to uh have it so our residents can safely uh use a bike path without u fear of that we're going to have to come up with something else but I just we've been doing this way too long it's either and if you don't think the road commission is going to change their mind on something then let's vote it down and move on. I was just major Benson from a staff perspective I I don't think that there's a much of a reason to table right a motion to deny is is fine right um and honestly it's helpful this conversation and you know any these directions from council help with our conversations with the road commission um we have shared and it's part of the reason we haven't brought this conversation to you sooner is we've spent a lot of time making the same arguments so I think um a motion to deny to deny I is appropriate. And what we really should be looking at is as a part of our next budgeting process, you know, working with the downtown development authority and the city council on alternative design ideas. Um, you know, if we know the ballards aren't going to happen and we know that the flexible, you know, delineators for the sort of visual barrier don't meet what we're looking for, then absolutely, I mean, we need to go back to the drawing board and come up with with a new solution. I think we can do that. It will just take time. So to try and table it first.

All right. Any other discussion on motion? I got a motion and a second to table new business number two. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Opposed. I I council member Bick. No. Council member Gland Fox. No. Council member Kennedy. No. Council member Simmons. Yes. The table. Mayor Beagle. No. Deputy Mayor Penny or Gotcha? Yes. Motion.

Okay. Motion failed. Any other discussion on new business item number two before we go to a vote? All right. I got a motion and a second to approve the recommendation to approve the installation of flexible ballers at the northwest corner of the Wixom Road and Paneet Trail intersection along the Michigan Airline Trail for cost not to exceed $13,600 from safety path construction account number 223-55-971.390 as recommended by the Wixom Downtown Development Authority. All those in favor, please signify by saying I opposed. No. No. It's unanimous.

Unanimous. All right. And that concludes the new business portion of the meeting tonight. We'll move on to the second call to the public. The call to the public rules are the same as uh earlier with the exception of you can speak whatever is on your mind. Do we have anybody for the second call to the public? Tom Resnick. uh 1636 Wayhill Drive. Thank you. This is my first time ever doing this. Had to come up twice. No, I want to thank uh council for um really considering what we what our original intent was um on new business item number two, and that is the protection of the pedestrians along that trail. And I said, timing is everything. Thank God that they owning a business right there. I see families all through the day in the summer riding their bikes. Families of five and six towing trailers behind their bikes with two little kids on tricycles and everything following them. And if one of those would have occurred from the photos you see, the vehicles did end up on the trail itself on the trail proper in all three of those instances. So, thank you for uh denying that and uh sending it back to the drawing board. The other comment I know um Councilwoman uh Simmons asked if there were any other business owners at input on the pedestrian uh call or the uh islands. Uh yes, we've been talking about anything that will calm traffic along that area. When people see the green light in the 25 mph zone, they speed up to 55 before they even hit Old Wixom Road. And that is a lot of the problem. One thing you might want to consider uh when you go and look at the new locations is there is going to be a 72 unit development going in between the Gibson House and the BP station and residents there will want to cross the street to go to country corner

businesses or down further toward Dairy Queen or whatever. So that might be one of the considerations. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else with a second call to the public? Seeing none, I'll close a second call the public and move on to city manager comments. City manager Brian may be Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead.

I guess just for the record to I'll reopen a call to the public. So, okay.

Good evening, esteemed council, uh, honorable mayor. My name is Katrina Calman Ramos. I am a reluctant citizen here in Wixom. I am currently having issues with the uh the village apartments and Edward Rosenson um company. I cannot say that I live there any longer. Uh, the structure that I was in, I do formally believe that it should actually be condemned. The foundation itself has 3-in geysers of water that comes through it every time it rains. That leaves 12 of my fellow neighbors wet every single time it rains. That is one structure out of 47 maybe 48 but you all can do the numbers. Um along with that one structure there are eight other foundations that are identical having extremely thorough meaning all the way through fractures to the ground. The sidewalls are actively caving in. The foundations are actively sinking. And yet the building department says it is just fine. Because of these situations, the water coming in with the fractures and the instability of the structures as it is. Oh, sorry. I apologize. I just realized I didn't get the address. It is 30711 at Beachwood Street. Apartment 46209.

Building 45 is the same way. Building 46, 47, there's a large cluster that looks like it was constructed during the same time frame as an addition to the back. Um so with all these issues of the foundation that perpetuates raging infestations. I to date had received over 2 and 1/2 years 20ome fumicant experiences that were documented. The undocumented ones done by the staff without notice. I have personally been bugged bombed 16 times. 16 times. And yet the structure is still infested. We are dealing with cockroaches. We are dealing with um termites, fleas, and silverfish. During that time that I was there, I actually moved out. That was my Christmas present. I was electrocuted again, the third time from my electrical panel. Yet again, more maintenance. Edward Rosen's son chose to tell me that it was fixed. They sent somebody. No one was there. I was there the whole day. And yet again, maintenance says on the record that they came to the apartment, they fixed it, and it is in proper working condition. These issues have gone on for over 2 and 1/2 years. During which time, my life has been threatened by maintenance staff because I refused to accept a fire hazard, a

filter that had been cut and manipulated to fit the furnace. After five times of denying this, he threatened my life. But hey, what's one more woman? Let's see. There is also 12 illegal entries into my apartment. I was not given 24 hours notice. For some reason, these regulations set forth by national standard have not been regarded. I have marked the issues that have come up as far as Edward Rosen Son's actions with their maintenance, their lack of

one minute

regard for human life. My emergency egress was denied during the whole time I was there. I was promised the first month I moved in that my siding door would be fixed. It is still frozen shut. I've got this documented. Fire department had been involved. Also, fire department had been involved with my furnace. Um, furnace issues still stand. Our furnace, the way I was bug bombed was that the tenants underneath had left. There was issues with um all the infestations and we have an open closet for our furnace. The pipes going out for exhaust are not enclosed. I've got nice big gaps in my furnace cubby. Or at least I did. I did move out. So, let's see. In closing, I do hope that this council in this city is able to go forward to correct not just for myself, but for all of the citizens, and this is thousands of individuals who consistently deal with infestations, sinking structures, sinking structures, and being told that they are wrong. Now, the things that I did file mysteriously disappeared. There is no record.

Okay, your five minutes are up. Thank you, mayor, for your time and thank you, council, for listening to my concerns. I appreciate it, and I look forward to one day not being forced to be a resident of Wixon. Thank you for your time. Anybody else? Second call. I'm going to close it now, then. Go back. Uh, city manager comments. City manager Brown.

Yeah, thank you, your honor. Um, one thing that I had in the city manager update regarding uh our subscription to our weekly Friday uh reach out through our uh contacts to people when they sign up for service. Um, we're happy to report that our uh Friday emails are now over 3,000 subscribers for the first time. So, that's uh that's good news. Um, and we have some other uh additional outreach that we're we're looking into to try to grow that count further and also to uh effectuate some changes in how we can reach people uh in emergency situations as we experienced in the past. Um, so that's something that we're actively working on, but we're having some good good uh results in terms of expanding our reach with uh with that particular tool. Uh the other thing that I wanted to mention uh state of the county um we were asking for our uh request for an RSVP. If you want to attend the state of the county address um please get back to us probably tomorrow uh if you're interested because told that tickets are becoming fewer and far between. So um let us know if you're interested in attending. We do have some RSVPs already processed. Uh but if you have yet not yet contacted us and indicated your interests uh we'd appreciate if you do that tomorrow so we don't miss out on the opportunity. So that's all I had. Thank you.

Very good. Assistant City Manager Benson. Yeah, just uh as a followup to uh city council direction in November, the planning commission has scheduled a public hearing for their February 18th meeting to consider um draft ordinance language related to data centers. Um if anyone if you or anyone you know is interested in um you know just trying to spread the word about the public hearing on that uh if if uh approved at that meeting would then come to you most likely at your March 10th meeting. And that is all I have. Very good. Council comments. Council member Simmons. Thank you, Mayor. Uh I am looking forward to uh attending the my first I guess Oakland County state of the county. So, thank you, Steve, for that.

We got you.

And um I did get an opportunity to tour the city of Wixom uh yesterday with our fabulous department heads. Um and I've got a lot of Wixom swag. So, I'm going to be Wixom out uh walking around town. So, uh, if you see me, say hello. Um, and I also, uh, I did not bring that bring it up and I'm probably mentioning it at the wrong time, but, uh, for consent agenda item number three, it is I'm fine obviously with consent agenda, but I do I would like to, um, explore whether it's with parks and recck or, uh, city manager's office or whoever uh, to look at. It's it says in our um packet here that uh we get when approved these licenses uh allow uh municipalities to sell spirits, beer, and or wine uh up to 12 days annually. And it appears that we are only using four of those days. Um and that seems like a waste. uh especially as somebody who attends uh the Wixom uh summer concerts and things like that where we have guests uh and a lot of people who like to have a good time. So, I'd be curious about uh maybe trying to see what we can do for that. Uh in addition to uh also trying to make sure uh or understand what's happening with Polaris and Alex's and them becoming part of the social district or what that looks like for our guests who are at the summer concert, being able to get the goods quickly. That's all. Thank you. Councelor Arber Kennedy. Good. I just want to say that I'm glad that we voted down the Ballard issue tonight. It felt kind of silly for me to put in some plastic barriers that wouldn't do anything and just walk over and come back up and then we're in charge of maintaining them after that. Uh other than that, nothing.

Very good. Thank you, Council Member Grenell Fox. Thank you. I wanted to uh pass along my uh sincere condolences to um Nate and Christ um in the passing of Nate's father. So, we're thinking about him. Council member Barman.

Um only thing I had this evening was to pass along my condolences as well, Crystal and Nate. Um, but listening to uh a public comment this evening, um, I I would be interested if if we could get some sort of a report from city administration on complaints uh from any complaints that have been coming from uh the apartment complexes just just so we can understand cuz um I'm not personally familiar with uh you know the complaints that were mentioned this evening, but I'm sure, you know, our city staff is wellversed and I think that'd be information that all of us on council would be interested in in hearing more about and seeing whether or not there is something more that we we need to be doing.

Yeah, we should be able to do that is uh I think we can get that together for the next set of monthly reports through the um building and code enforcement do them together. So, we will aim to have that for you at your next meeting. Thank you so much, Deputy Mayor God.

Thank you. Um wanted to also um extend my condolences and thoughts to Nate and Crystal um for Nate's father passing. Wanted to um apologize to the SEMCOG representatives. I know um you have a check here, not the way um things are supposed to work out or everybody hopes they um work out. It was more just how the the timeline to get to um city council and kind of the lack of our input up to this point, I guess. Um as you can see, so I I do apologize for um what happened catching you guys off off guard there. Um, in terms of um, Miss Ramos's comments, are we doing annual rental CFO inspections for every unit or is it just by building or is it every few years? Like what is the I believe with with our apartment complexes because we have so many total units. Uh, I believe we only do a portion of them every year. Um, I know that they do have some some percentage that are done annually, but it's not every single unit. if we in I guess whatever will be prepared. Um as Councilman Bearman asks if we can look at or include information how that differs from like a single family rental residence because they should be registered as well. Um like if we're doing those annually or whatever the I know every city is different. Um so whatever the case may be, but that information will be helpful as well. Thank you. Very good. And I too just want to pass my condolences on to Nate and Crystal on the passing of Michael Palco. And um with that, do I have a motion to adjurnn?

I got a motion and a support to adjurnn. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I opposed. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you everybody.