A Day of Fixes and Grants for the Wayne City Council

The Council and the city engineer agreed on a start date for the Newburg Road Resurfacing and Watermain Replacement Project.

The project will be replacing an 80-year-old water pipe on the west side of Newburg road. The road portion of the project will be handled by Wayne and the water pipe portion is handled by Detroit.

A meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Wayne Library. The meeting will have all the parties contracted to complete the project.

City Engineer Ramzi J. El-Gharib said all citizens are welcome at the meeting because he wanted all concerns from citizens to be heard.

The plan is going to impact Newburg Road all the way to Glenwood Road. Traffic will be blocked for residents that live near the project.

The water main portion of project is scheduled to begin Monday and end April 16. The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department will be completing the water pipe portion of the project. This part of the project costs the citizens of Wayne nothing.

The water pipe will be placed under the Rouge River. This is because the project goes directly through Michigan Ave. The process by which the pipe is laid is called Jack and Bore.

Once the water pipe is finished, Wayne will begin resurfacing Newburg Road. The resurfacing portion is scheduled to begin April 19. The scheduled completion date for the road resurfacing is July 1.

“Wayne’s portion of the project is going be paid by President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan, Ramzi said.” “The money comes from American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.”

Wayne will receive $500,000 to pay for the road resurfacing portion of the project.

Additional News:

• The City Council approved a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide the Fire Department with new equipment.

FEMA will provide $72,871 to purchase 15 self contained breathing units. Wayne must match the grant with $3,835. The money match is taken from the Fire Department’s operating budget.

The money will be used to replace all the breathing apparatuses firefighters use in the field. With the additional funds, Fire Chief Mel Moore is looking to buy 45 minute oxygen tanks in an effort to improve safety if a firefighter gets trapped in an emergency.

• The Council is also going to use the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant to improve energy usage within City Hall.

The plan calls for part of City Hall’s roof to be transformed into solar panels. The south side of the building will be changed. The change could save Wayne thousands of dollars, according to Assistant City Manager Robert English.

• The Council approved a contract with Cobalt Community Research Group to create a survey about the services provided by the City. City Council wants to use the survey to decrease the debt of $3.4 million. Residents will take the survey to indicate to the city officials which services should be cut or retained in the budget. The cost of the project cannot surpass $8,600.