OFFICIALS TOUT NEW INFRASTRUCTURE
State of the City address: Mayor, school boss and judge outline upgrades
Eastpointe’s first State of the City address since the onset of the COVID pandemic focused on upcoming changes to the 38th District Court, the Nine Mile Road corridor, and Eastpointe Community Schools.
Judge Kathleen Galen, Eastpointe Community Schools Superintendent Christina Gibson and Mayor Monique Owens each spoke Thursday during the event held at the Lutheran Fraternities of America hall.
Galen spoke first highlighting the new courthouse building planned as well as a move toward bringing up-to-date technology to the 38th District Court.
“If the police needed a warrant in the middle of the night, they used to have to knock on my door, now because of the CloudGavel system I get a notification on my phone that a
“We are doing big things in the city of Eastpointe. We are all cultures, races and backgrounds and that is why we call this city a family town.”
Eastpointe Mayor Monique Owens
warrant is needed,” said Galen.
The judge said electronic filing for civil cases will be coming soon to Eastpointe’s district court and that the caseload is such that a second judge could be added once the new court building is completed.
“Eastpointe is the busiest single-judge court in the state of Michigan,” said Galen. “In 2021 there were 25,034 filed; our city has a population of 34,318 so that is almost every member of our community filing or being involved in a court case.
“Our numbers are astronomical.”
Gibson talked about Eastpointe Community Schools building better partnerships with civic organizations and local businesses to expand the classroom outside the walls of school buildings.
“Gone are the days of sitting in a classroom for six hours
and having information poured into you,” said Gibson. “Our schools shouldn’t look like the schools you sat in 20 or 30 or even 10 years ago.”
Building on the district’s “empower, care, succeed” motto, Gibson said the goal for the district is to craft lifelong learners and help to design future employees for the community.
“One thing we see in our community is that we have lost trust in our public education system,” said Gibson. “Your neighbors will display signs that their child goes to Lakeview, or South Lake or another district; this divides us as a community.
“There is an opportunity available to us all and the school district recognizes that we need to build trust back with all of you.”
Gibson said building trust is rooted in reliability and making deliverable
promises and following through on them.
Mayor Monique Owens closed the state of the city address and spoke about the Modern 9 project that will reconstruct Nine Mile Road as well as changes to the city’s zoning ordinance that will allow for more mixed use development on the corridor and throughout the city. She also lauded the city’s replacement of very old water infrastructure, some that is 100 years old, and replacement of lead water
lines.
“We have been very proactive on the replacement of lead lines,” said Owens.
She also talked about partnerships between the city and various organizations including Habitat for Humanity, Metro Detroit Black Business Alliance and the Boys & Girls Clubs.
“We are doing big things in the city of Eastpointe,” said Owens. “We are all cultures, races and backgrounds and that is why we call this city a family town.”