Exactly How Damaged is West Bloomfield's Civic Center Drive?

The West Bloomfield Township Board voted at Thursday afternoon's special budget meeting to seek bids on the project of repaving Civic Center Drive and its adjacent parking lots.

In hopes of maintaining the flexibility of its capital project funds budget, the board voted to assign the bid process $1.1 million, although it was initially recommended for over $1.5 million. Clerk Cathy Shaughnessy was the lone nay vote in the 5-1 tally, Trustee Steven Kaplan was absent.

The project was thoroughly discussed by the board earlier this year, when in February it was voted to be delayed to 2013, in part to have the opportunity to budget for it as well as for concerns of complications during the elections of this past year.

Development Services Director Marshall Labadie correctly said at the time that the project could be put out to bid in late fall, adding that the pavement at the Civic Center has not had major repairs since its construction in 1988.

However, Shaughnessy said that repairs on more-trafficked roads could be a better spend and that she felt the pavement on the drive and in the parking lots of police department headquarters, the Activities Center, the Main Library and Town Hall is holding up.

"Our residents will not understand new pavement in a parking lot which has virtually no holes on it. I think we owe them Maple Road being repaired. We owe them Orchard Lake Road being maintained. I think these are the main issues which we should be addressing," Shaughnessy said.

Trustee Howard Rosenberg pointed out that the project could be budgeted for prior to a township board vote on whether or not to go through with it.

"I understand if we don’t have the money, we don’t have the money. But in the meantime, we have to look to see much this is going to cost us and whether or not we can afford it and we need to do both concurrently," Rosenberg said.

Read more:

• $1.49M Civic Center Paving Project Could Start in May
• $1.49 Million Civic Center Paving Project on Hold