City officials to narrow in on relief spending

Commissioners to meet Tuesday, workshop on $28M in American Rescue Plan Act funding

Royal Oak City Commissioners are getting closer to deciding how the city should allocate millions of dollars in pandemic relief funds.

Commissioners are set to meet at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday for a workshop on the issue, and will get updates on what has been learned from surveys and community engagement efforts on how to best spend $28 million in funding under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).

City Manager Paul Brake said officials will consider and discuss the top areas where those funds should be spent.

A number of city residents and business owners in surveys and a public meeting last month got to choose their top seven spending allocations from among 21 different potential areas for funding.

Those investment areas include infrastructure, public buildings, nonprofit funding for community programming, affordable housing, business development, and general areas of support for losses caused by the pandemic.

Brake expects city officials will look at aiming city spending in three general areas.

One of those spending categories covers infrastructure and underground stormwater retention.

“That will include our lead water service line replacement efforts,” he said. “We have about 31,000 homes in Royal Oak and we have been chipping away at the replacements, but with ARPA funds we could accelerate that effort.”

Thus far the city has replaced 523 service lines, but still has an estimated 2,050 such lines that require replacement, according to Jeff Pierce, the city’s water service materials analyst.

Another area for spending allocations to be discussed Tuesday will broadly cover green infrastructure.

“We’ll talk about electric vehicle charging stations, the use of solar panels and things along those lines,” Brake said, “where we can help move the city’s (climate action plan) forward. The City Commission is very committed to that.”

Royal Oak officials for several years have sought to increase the city’s tree canopy coverage, which is about 30 percent citywide.

This year the city spent more than $250,000 to buy 800 trees that were planted in neighborhoods and some parks throughout the city. Another 800 trees are expected to be planted next spring.

“The tree canopy program is pretty popular,” Brake said.

Healthy tree canopies help absorb stormwater, mitigate pollution and cool air in the summer. The effort to increase the variety and number of trees is one the city’s strategic goals for its sustainability and climate action plan.

Beyond improving the appearance of residential streets, trees help bring cleaner air and water, improved property values, less storm water runoff and flooding, and lower energy bills through reduced heating and cooling costs.

A third area of funding for the city’s ARPA involves Royal Oak expanding partnerships with third parties for buildings for everything from a new city recreation center in partnership with the Detroit Metropolitan YMCA, to a new city animal shelter building.

“We’re still having conversations with the YMCA,” Brake said. “They have an aging facility, but they want to look at a new building and we want a community recreation center.”

Similarly, the city’s small animal shelter is about to move to a new updated building as part of a land swap the city did with Matthews-Hargreaves Chevrolet on 12 Mile Road.

Royal Oak is hoping to pay only 20 percent of the $1.1 million cost for upgrading the new animal shelter building. The city’s portion of the cost would be offset with federal funds Royal Oak expects to get through efforts with Congressman Andy Levin by the end of this year.

The new animal shelter building, with 5,000 square feet on Bellaire, will allow shelter staff to adequately serve residents and animals, Brake said.

Though none of the money for the animal shelter in the parks millage voters OK’d this month would pay for infrastructure, it will provide funds to adequately staff the shelter, where employees will be able for the first time to segregate cats and dogs.

“We anticipate having a formal real estate transaction in the next month or two,” for the new animal shelter building, Brake said.

In the coming weeks city commissioners are further expected to discuss recommendations from an agingin-place task force to make living in Royal Oak better for senior citizen residents.

The task force’s report includes suggestions for improving senior transportation options and accessibility to parks with sidewalks and pathways.

Brake said there is a possibility that ARPA funds could be used toward the costs of those efforts as well.

“There may be some other projects of interest from city commissioners,” he added.