WORK ON CIVIC CENTER PROJECTS BEGINS AGAIN
Hammers have been silenced since March at downtown site
Construction workers will be back on the job today working toward completion of Royal Oak’s new city hall building and related projects.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, city officials had planned to open the new City Hall on Troy Street early next month. But Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-at-home and other executive orders in March put a halt to nearly all construction projects except those deemed essential. That prohibition ends Thursday.
“We were looking at moving into the new city hall in early June,” said Todd Fenton, the city’s economic development manager. “Now we’re aiming for a new date around July 20.”
Other construction will soon start on the new police station near the Royal Oak 44th District Court, he added.
“We want to try to get police into the new station in September,” Fenton said. “It’s important that they be there, especially if there is the second wave of (COVID-19) in the fall. The new police station is being built to handle the kind of crisis management that the coronavirus has brought to all of us.”
The existing City Hall on Williams Street remains closed to the public and most city officials are working remotely.
“We’re working on a plan to reopen whenever we get the green light from the governor’s office and the county health division,” said City Attorney and interim Manager David Gillam.
A six-story Henry Ford Health System outpatient building, a private development that sits on the former parking lot in front of City Hall, will resume construction this week also. Developed by Ron Boji of the Boji Group, the new medical center is planned to have more than 400 employees, including doctors, nurses and support staff.
The facility is expected to offer services for pediatrics, sports medicine, rehabilitation, radiology, primary care and outpatient surgery and a walk-in clinic.
“Henry Ford is making design changes and will want certain things that they didn’t want before” the COVID-19 crisis, Fenton said, “and the (development) is moving ahead.”
The project is scheduled to be completed in the first quarter of 2021, he added.
Though the city and Henry Ford projects will be able to begin construction Thursday, Fenton noted construction managers and subcontractors will have to gear up to get work crews back and provide them with personal protection equipment against spreading COVID-19.
City officials hope to hear next week whether they will be able to open City Hall to the public. If so, it will probably be on a limited basis.
“We’ve been discussing hav
ing a system, where people who have business with the city would first schedule an appointment,” Gillam said. “If we find out we can open we expect to have social distancing requirements.”
Fenton agreed officials won’t simply open the doors at City Hall to all comers.
“We would put up Plexiglass on service counters to protect employees and customers,” he said. “We would also have personal protection equipment for employees.”
Commercial and residential construction is allowed
starting Thursday as well.
In Royal Oak, city engineering and building inspection employees have been discussing how they can safely meet with applicants for building permits and inspections, Fenton said.
One unknown at this point is how much longer city councils and commissions statewide will have to conduct meetings remotely with video conferencing.
The governor’s order that allowed for remote meetings expires May 12, but she may extend the requirement. Gillam expects the City Commission will be doing meetings by video conferencing for the foreseeable future.