Leonard is getting a helping hand from Oakland County in order to repave and reconstruct one of its primary roads next year.

The small village in Addison Township recently secured $1,409 in funding through Oakland County’s new Local Road Improvement Pilot Program.

This program provides limited financial assistance to cities and villages for repairs and improvements on local roadways under their jurisdiction.

The county Board of Commissioners allocated up to $1 million in matching funds to launch the program this year. Communities are allocated a share of these funds based on road miles, population and crash data.

Leonard will put the money toward the reconstruction and repaving of Elmwood St., from Whitehead St. east to the village limits. The road serves as downtown Leonard’s main street.

“We evaluated the existing street, both east and west to the village limits, and felt that this was the best use of construction dollars at this time,” said Leonard President Mike McDonald.

The project involves a little more than a half-mile of road and will cost an estimated $725,034, which includes construction and engineering.

Leonard is receiving approximately $475,000 from the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) for the project.

The village is expected to contribute $150,000 from the proposed issuance of general obligation bonds.

“That’s the plan,” McDonald said. “We’ll probably be acting on that at our September meeting.”

The remaining $100,000 would come from the village’s general fund.

The design and construction engineering portions of the project are expected to cost a combined $129,125. “We have an arrangement as far as we don’t have to pay (a) lump sum (to) the engineers. We can pay it over time,” McDonald noted.

McDonald hopes to solicit and receive bids early next year.

He noted the $725,034 cost estimate is a “worst case scenario.”

“We are hoping that we’ll do better than that,” McDonald said. “We’re planning for the worst case scenario, but in the best case scenario, we’ll get lower bids than projected.”

“We have to live within the budget, so if we have to change the project in order to do that, that’s on the table, too,” he added.

McDonald described Elmwood Street’s condition as “poor” and to the best of his recollection, the last time the eastern portion was resurfaced was sometime in the early 1990s.

The existing road will be milled, repairs made to its base and then, it will be resurfaced with asphalt.

“We’d really like to get (the work) done in the springtime rather than late in the season,” McDonald noted.

McDonald called the project a “mirror image” of the type of work Leonard did on Forest St. in 2011.

“It’s not quite as extensive because that project was a mile long,” he said.

The project will also include repaving the on-street parking spaces in front of businesses along Elmwood St.

MDOT “does not cover that,” said McDonald, so that portion will be paid for by the village.

McDonald is grateful to county Commissioner Mike Spisz (R-Oxford) for helping to secure funding through this pilot program. “He was very positive and very helpful getting us there,” he said. “He kept an eye on it down at the county.”