JACKSON, MI - Funding a new water main in Jackson might come at the cost of some future construction, city officials said.
The Jackson City Council voted down a pair of special assessments, periodical charges to homeowners in the area, during a meeting Tuesday, Jan. 14.
The assessments were proposed to fund construction efforts on two downtown Jackson streets - East Pearl Street from Cooper Street to Waterloo Avenue, and East Avenue from Michigan Avenue to Plymouth Street - to install a replacement water main.
Related: $1.7M federal grant will help Jackson with water main replacement
Following public hearings full of opposition to both assessments, councilmembers unanimously voted against the Pearl Street proposal. The East Avenue assessment also failed in a 1-6 vote, with Councilmember Connor Wood voting yes.
"I hate this conversation, I hate the fact that we have to have this conversation," Wood said. "Most of all, I hate that for longer than I've been alive, previous councilmembers have said 'Let's take the easy way out and not do this road repair - let's let someone else worry about it in the future,' which is why we're in this situation. I didn't get elected not to fix the roads."
Vice Mayor Freddie Dancy opposed the assessments due to concern they might cause issues for the Salvation Army center at 806 E. Pearl St.
"I understand there needs to be something done to the streets, but my biggest concern is the hardship we'd be putting on Salvation Army and their mission," Dancy said.
Larry Filipczak, a business owner with commercial property in the 600 block of Pearl Street, spoke during the public hearing to criticize the city for allowing an assessment "cap" for residential properties in the area while commercial properties had no upper limits to their assessment.
"The street's been neglected for the decade that I've owned this building," Filipczak said. "It's third-world quality right now. I think us business owners are being penalized pretty hard for this."
The water main project will still go forward without the assessment funding, said City Manager Jonathan Greene.
The roughly $601,000 of the project cost that would have been paid for through assessments on the affected streets will instead be taken out of water, sewer and street funds, Greene said.
"What that means functionally is in the future there will be a project we haven't even figured out yet that won't happen," Greene said. "Something will come off the table, but I couldn't tell you what it is now."
Later in the Tuesday meeting, the council approved a contract with the Jackson-based Dunigan Brothers Inc. construction company. The current estimate cost of the project is about $7,549,605.
The city plans to dedicate about $2.2 million from water funds, $2.1 from sewer funds and $850,000 from local street funds to the project. Jackson also accepted a $1,760,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in October to help fund the project.
The replacement water main will be constructed along five streets in Jackson: