The City of Bloomfield Hills is embarking on its fourth year of the local road repair and reconstruction projects. The 2010 program is just as ambitious as the 2009 program, where we saw major improvements in the Long Lake Road / Vaughan Road intersection.

For 2010 all of the road repair and reconstruction work will be in the Lone Pine Road / Cranbrook Road area. Here is a brief description of the projects slated for this year.

• Lone Pine Road – between Lahser Road and Woodward Avenue. This will include replacing the deck on the bridge, just east of Cranbrook Road. The culvert just east of Lahser Road will be replaced to meet current engineering standards. Water mains near Orchard Ridge Road, near Cranbrook will be replaced. Water main will also be replaced on Lone Pine, between Linda Lane and Woodward Avenue.
• Cranbrook Court - This will include improvements to some of the storm water drainage improvements within the road right of way.
• Cranbrook Road - north of Lone Pine Road to a point just north of the Cranbrook Kingswood Entrance. This will include bridge repairs near the Kingswood entrance.
• Linda Lane, Linda Knoll and Linda Court - These local roads will be repaired or reconstructed. The City plans to replace existing water mains in the neighborhood, which do not have sufficient pipe diameter to address today’s water needs.

The City also met with the residents on Brady Lane to discuss interest in paving their road. Residents were strongly in favor of having their road remain as a gravel road. The City will defer to their wishes; however we will explore the costs of making drainage improvements. Before any of these improvement plans are finalized, the City will meet again with the Brady Lane residents to assure all parties understand the improvements being proposed.

The 2010 road projects will begin in early spring with work concluding by October. Construction work in the vicinity of Cranbrook Educational Community is being coordinated with them in order to minimize impacts on their “end of school” activities.

People change. Methods change. Materials change. When it comes to buildings and properties, the constant thread that runs through all change is that codes and regulations remain to protect the public from injury and harm. Compliance with building codes and ordinance regulations is always in the best interest of the property owner.

Building codes are updated every three years and Michigan’s 2009 version is being studied for adoption at this time. The Oakland County Building Officials meet regularly to make sure that the codes are addressed uniformly across the region to meet current standards.

The City of Bloomfield Hills is in tune with the rest of the county and has implemented permit requirements in 2009 not previously regulated or required. These updates now require permits for roofing, basement waterproofing, window replacement and siding/veneer replacement Check our website for all permit applications.

Keep in mind that any contractor who enters into an agreement to construct or alter a residence must hold a current State of Michigan license. Not only does the permit process require inspections of the work, it also includes license verification…all in your best interest!

If there are any questions as to licensing, permit or inspection requirements, contact the Building Official at (248)530-1408.

On January 12th, the City Commission held a public hearing to seek residents input on a proposal to have a single waste hauler provide pick up services to all residential properties. This proposal was brought forward out of concern about the wear and tear the City’s local roads experience from waste hauling trucks.

In 2006, the City Commission asked city engineers at Hubbell, Roth and Clark to develop a long-term plan to repair and / or reconstruct the deteriorating local roads. The plan also cited concern about the toll heavy trucks had on our local roads. Later that year, the City Commission adopted the Road Improvement Plan, an ambitious 10-year $10 million repair and reconstruction program.

In the fall of 2009, the City Commission once again began discussing the feasibility of having a single waste hauler for the City. City Commissioners reviewed studies and comments about single waste haulers and eventually placed these materials on the City’s website, so residents could review them.

The public hearing drew a sizeable crowd by Bloomfield Hill’s standards. Approximately 60 persons attended. A majority of the residents expressed strong opinions favoring the current system where the resident privately contracts for their own service. Many residents questioned the need for a single waste hauler, citing that no matter who does the service there would be heavy trucks providing service. Many residents also indicated loyalty to their current provider because of the high level of service provided to them.

A few residents were in favor a single waste hauler. They felt a single hauler would help improve their neighborhood’s appearance by reducing the time in which a trash cart stood out by the roadside. Other cited increased opportunities for waste recycling.

Following the public hearing, the City Commission voted to keep the existing waste hauling system in place. The City will review their current regulations on waste haulers. New regulations limiting the weight of waste hauling trucks will be explored. Increased opportunities for recycling will also be investigated.

The New Year is here and the Department has initiated new programs. The first is a web based communication system called NIXLE (nixle.com), intended to keep the community posted on events, alerts, tips and prevention notices as they become available. This system requires you to create an account on their site to receive the messages sent out by the Department. The process has started and is intended to be up and running by March 1st.

The second program is resident use of the Department shooting range. The use of the range requires you to call the Department to insure one of the Department range instructors is present when you would like to use the range. We require that you provide unleaded ammunition in order to shoot. Since the range was built, we have kept it lead free. Maintaining an unleaded range minimizes the officer’s exposure to high levels of lead dust. Call the station to schedule a time to shoot.

Did you know? Over 50% of our residents take advantage of our free House Key program (savings to you is between $50-$300 if we have to break into your house for fire, police or medical reasons), approximately 25% of our residents utilize our free house watch program when they go on vacation or are away from home for an extended length of time, and about 10% of the community utilizes the free basic alarm monitoring program (savings to you between $300 -$600 annually). Information on all these programs is available on the City website at: bloomfieldhillsmi.net or just call the station and talk with me, Chief Rick Matott, or one of my Command Officers.

As I write this, Old Man Winter is about to drop the first significant snowfall. Remember to leave for appointments earlier than usual and drive defensively because the other guy isn’t. We have at least 10 more weeks of potential slip sliding around driving.