Twp. allocates $400K for fixing Pontiac Rd.

It appears Pontiac Rd. is finally going to get the repairs it needs. Photo by C.J. Carnacchio.
It appears Pontiac Rd. is finally going to get the repairs it needs. Photo by C.J. Carnacchio.

It appears a badly-battered stretch of Pontiac Rd. is finally going to be repaired this year.

Last week, the Oxford Township Board voted 6-1 to transfer $400,000 from the general fund’s reserves (i.e. fund balance) to the highway roads fund in order to pay for resurfacing 2,650 feet of Pontiac Rd. from W. Drahner Rd. to the village limits, located between the Oxford Public Library and Oxford Elementary School.

The plan is to have the township front the money to get the work done this year, then be reimbursed over time by Oakland County’s Tri-Party Program, which would ultimately cover two-thirds of the total cost, according to officials.

Originally, the estimated cost for the project was $201,900, but township engineer Jim Sharpe, president of Sharpe Engineering, believes more work is going to be required.

“That number might be a little light,” he told the board. “Initially, when we looked at that, we were just proposing a mill and overlay on Pontiac (Rd.).”

But given “how bad” the road actually is, Sharpe said, “There are going to be some more significant repairs – maybe a little bit of ditching work. So, that number’s going to go up.”

He estimated the project is going to be $350,000 to $400,000.

“The project is designed. We actually have it in for permitting right now,” said Sharpe, who expects to have bids back in time for the township board’s April meeting.

Clerk Curtis Wright agreed the project is definitely needed. “It’s almost a safety hazard now,” he said.

However, he voted against it because the board still had several other potential expenditures that hadn’t yet been discussed at that meeting.

The $400,000 for Pontiac Rd. will come from the fund balance in the township’s general fund. As of Dec. 31, 2015, the township had a fund balance of approximately $2.05 million, according to the audited financial report.

Of that, $1.1 million was previously set aside to fix the drainage and road issues plaguing the Elk View Estates subdivision, a situation the township’s been working to resolve since the late 1990s.

Last year, the township allocated $262,500 from its fund balance to help the parks and recreation department construct a new maintenance facility in Seymour Lake Township Park.

That left the fund balance at $685,143.

Minus the $200,000 for MERS (see “Retirement funding gets $200K bump”) and $400,000 for resurfacing Pontiac Rd., the township is left with an estimated fund balance of $85,143.

However, the township is expecting its fund balance to grow by an estimated $721,726 from unspent revenue accumulated last year.

 

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