Tag: Public Service

Staying in the Know with Severe Weather

Posted on by Carolyn Demates

Recent severe rain events prompt me to provide this update. It’s important to be in the know, even when we might not always want to be.

Nixle Alerts

Clinton Township has an emergency notification system that provides residents Emergency Notifications via text message or email.  The system is called Nixle and is specifically designed to provide Township residents important updates on things like severe weather, unplanned road closures, real-time public safety notifications and important community alerts.  

Signing up is quick and easy. Just text your ZIP code to 888777 from your mobile phone. Once sent, you’ll receive a confirmation text and can customize your alert settings by creating a free user profile at www.nixle.com. All alerts are targeted geographically, meaning you’ll only get messages relevant to your area within the Township.  This free service will keep you informed by delivering alerts and other urgent township advisories straight to your phone or email.

Nixle is trusted by over 7,200 government agencies across the country and has exclusive partnerships with NLETS, Google, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and the National Blue Alert Network. This ensures both unmatched data security and an expansive reach for emergency and community information.

Whether it’s a safety advisory, missing person alert, or important township notice, Nixle is designed to keep you connected when it matters most.  

Here is a recent video with Trustee Bruce Wade on Nixle.  As a former Police Chief, Trustee Wade was helpful to our team when we revised our policies on when and what types of alerts should be sent, which is sometimes, a delectate balance.  We don’t want to bombard people with texts or emails regarding useless information, but do want to provide our residents with helpful alerts and emergency notifications.  While this policy has helped guide us on many of these judgment calls, Nixle is also partnered with the National Weather Service and those alerts happen automatically and sometimes come more frequently than most people prefer, but that is only in the case of severe weather.  

 

Perspective on Flooding

When it comes to severe weather, I want to dispel the myth that the Township has emergency pumps that will somehow alleviate flooding and redirect stormwater.  The township has the responsibility of maintaining a sanitary sewer system that takes wastewater from our sinks, toilets and shower drains away and directs it to a county and regional system for treatment by the Great Lakes Water Authority.  While stormwater does have an impact on that system, the township has made great strides at considerable expense, in building additional retention capacity and tightening up our system to reduce rain and ground water from infiltrating the sanitary system.  

Stormwater drainage is an entirely different system.  When your home was built has a significant role in determining stormwater flow.  Older neighborhoods are mostly gravity fed to direct run-off to the catch basins in the neighborhood along the street, which then flows to a series of drains or flood plain areas that then flow to the Clinton River and then directly to the lake.  Since all public roads in the township are under the jurisdiction of the County Department of Roads, those systems also fall under their jurisdiction.  

Newer homes, mostly built in the ’80s or after, usually have rear yard drains that were built to be maintained and fall under the jurisdiction of the homeowners or neighborhood associations, if they exist.  

In both cases, the storm water system required in older versions of the building code, were built to accommodate 10 year rain events, which were considered to be more normal at the time.  People also change the grade at their home, or they plant trees in the backyard that can damage those rear-yard drain pipes.  However, even with that, accumulations of standing water mostly dissipate within 72 hours.   In areas where they don’t, the Township may be able to help.  While the Department of Public Services may not be able to solve the problem for you, we may be able to help you identify what might be causing standing water, and provide you advice on what you can, should or must do about it.  Calling DPW at 586-286-9300, or emailing me at p.gieleghem@clintontownship.com, is a good place to start.  

In all of this, it is important to recognize that whether you believe in climate change or not, objective science concludes that it is real and increases in severe weather is the result.  This summer, so far, our community has faced two severe weather rains that exceeded the 100 year event threshold.  If this is the new normal, the infrastructure costs exceed any local governments capacity to resolve.  Whether we like it or not, two things are certain: 1) water seeks its own level and 2) solutions will require both public and private resources.      

Please let me know if I can be of service on this or other Township related matters! 

Respectfully,

Paul Gieleghem
Supervisor

Tomorrow, I’m asking for Your Support for our Township’s Public Safety

Posted on by Carolyn Demates

 

Keeping our community safe and protecting residents and their property is the single largest responsibility of Township government. As your Township Supervisor, I’m reaching out to ask for your support tomorrow to maintain police services in our community: The millage renewal question—despite the legal wording—does not raise your taxes. In fact, it actually results in a slight decrease in the millage rate we currently pay. This proposal ensures that our Police Department has the officers, technology, and training needed to keep Clinton Township safe now and into the future.

Recent social media posts appear to have the goal of misguiding voters by implying a ‘Yes’ vote will result in an increase in property taxes. What this proposal really does is combine two millages that were previously approved by Clinton Township voters and extends them into one millage for a period of 10 years.

While this confusion is being fueled by political extremism, and state law requires it to mention the word ‘increase’, the language also clearly states ‘as a renewal of a portion of the 1.5 mills previously authorized by the [voters] in 2006, and .9875 mills previously authorized by the [voters] in 2018, …for police operations…’. This renewal simply restores the 2.4 mills of funding you previously approved, but at a smaller rate of 2.3766 mills, due to automatic rollbacks under the Headlee Amendment.

The above chart, pulled from an insert I created and that has been carried on by the new Treasurer to include with your Summer tax bill, shows that while schools, the county, and other millages are approved in the Summer tax bill and then distributed to those entities, the Township millages are collected on the Winter bill. The Blue on the winter collection is specifically for Police Services. The Red is specific to the Fire Department. The  Yellow sliver is for general operations of the Township. What that means is that everything the township does that is not related to Police, Fire, and Water & Sewer is funded by less than 1 mill of your tax bill.

Voting against this proposal will reduce our Police Department budget by nearly a third, or $9.6 million. These are dollars that cannot be made up from other funding sources because they simply do not exist. It would cripple police services and likely result in severe cuts in the number of officers, and dramatically erode the ability of the Police Department to adequately serve our community.

The bottom line is that by voting Yes, residents will not see a tax increase and they will maintain police services in our community. Voting No will result in a drop in taxes, but that reduction will come at the expense of public safety.

Thank you for taking the time to stay informed, and for standing with us to keep Clinton Township a safe place to live, work, and raise a family.

Respectfully,

Paul Gieleghem

Help Us Improve Trash Service: Report Missed Pick-up

Posted on by Carolyn Demates

Help Us Improve Trash Service: Report Missed Pick-Up

You may have seen Clinton Township in the news lately.

Over the past several weeks, Clinton Township, along with many of our surrounding communities, have experienced delays in trash, recycling, and compost pick-up service by Priority Waste. These delayed and missed pick-ups are unacceptable. In addition to being an inconvenience for residents and the Township, they can also lead to a health and safety issue in our neighborhoods. In response, we’ve created an online form to make it easier for residents to file a complaint with our Department of Public Services, so we can advocate for you to receive the service you should be able to count on. I’ve also spent a considerable amount of time:

  • Meeting with other community leaders and waste industry experts to assess all of our options,
  • Talking with Priority Waste management to assess their ability to improve service and meet the terms of the contract,
  • Working with our staff, and the Board to hold Priority Waste accountable.

Substantial penalties have been assessed against Priority Waste for these service failures, and we’ve received assurances that delivery of new trucks will lead to better service for the current week and beyond. With your help, we will continue to monitor performance and take appropriate action. In the meantime, I apologize to you on behalf of the Board, and thank you for your help in communicating your concerns.

Respectfully, 

Paul Gieleghem

 

Click Here to Report a Missed Pick-Up

 

Lowering Costs for Seniors

Posted on by Carolyn Demates

Making Water Bills Fairer

I once had a boss that hung a sign on his door that said: ‘When entering this office, never utter the phrase, “Well, we’ve never done it that way before!”’ 

When first elected to serve on the Clinton Township Board of Trustees, I learned that when Clinton Township issued water bills, the minimum bill was five units of water.  Use five or more units, you pay for what you used. If you used two or three units of water, you paid for five.  

“Really?” I asked.  “That doesn’t seem fair.”  

It was explained that the Township had to cover three different costs: 

  1. the amount of water that our community purchases from the Great Lakes Water Authority, 
  2. the amount of sewage we sent to their wastewater treatment plant, 
  3. the cost of maintaining a reliable network of underground water and sewer lines.  

This five unit upcharge on those that used less, was then used to cover the fixed costs of maintaining the system.  That meant that one or two-person homes were subsidizing me and my family that used more, by covering our share of the fixed costs.  

I live in a four-person household.  My short-and-rapidly-thinning hair is low maintenance, so I have the luxury of steering clear of the bathroom used by my wife and daughters, where shelf-space is lined with multiple variants of shampoo, conditioner, lotions and potions!  Family dinner means running the dishwasher almost daily…and for whatever reason, if an article of clothing hit the floor, it required a return trip to the laundry room.  

We have a lot of one and two person families in this community.  That means less showers, less dishes, and less clothes to be washed. Residents, who use less, should pay less.

When I questioned this, I essentially received a response that sounded a lot like ‘this is the way we’ve always done it!’

Finally, in 2019, we hired an accounting firm, to study the five-unit minimum bill and explore other models that allocate costs more fairly.     

This led to reducing the per unit amount of water and sewer used.  Regardless of all other factors the per unit charge is the same for everyone and you pay for the number of units used.  Use less this month than last month, expect a lower bill. 

To cover the maintenance costs, a ‘ready to serve’ fee was created, with the fee based on the size of the water line coming into your home.  Older homes that tend to be smaller, generally have a ⅝” line coming into the house.  Newer and larger homes generally have a 1” line. 

Under this new system, almost all households that use less than five units of water in a month, saw a significant drop in their water bill.  Most people with a ⅝” water line coming into the home also saw their water bill drop significantly.  Those with a 1” line coming into the house saw a plus or minus bill, depending on usage.  

Paul & resident, Nancy Ventimiglia
“I only use two or three units of water at most, but the Township was charging me for five units a month. I know Paul Worked to change that. I was grateful when I saw my water bill go down.” – Nancy Ventimiglia, Woodward St.

The reality of serving in government is that if you raise a bill, expect the phone calls to come in.  Lower one….crickets!   

When my friend Nancy Ventimiglia, from Woodward Street called, I was very pleased to let her know that the five-unit minimum bill was gone and the new system would lead to some very real savings for her and many other seniors.  

As Clinton Township Supervisor, I will re-examine all township charges to make sure they are fair for all of our residents.

I’m Running for Township Supervisor!

Posted on by Carolyn Demates

Last week, I filed to run for Clinton Township Supervisor.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve had conversations with family, friends, trusted advisors, community leaders and supporters about where we are now as a community, where we think we want to be, and what we need to do to get there.    

 

They shared concerns about our community: the divisions that exist, the uncertainty we face, and the economic shifts that are all around us.  We talked about the need for a sense of direction, leadership, and a vision for the future that includes everyone!  

 

I believe we can build a better Clinton Township, focused on serving residents in all of our neighborhoods, from all age groups and with all abilities.      

 

This has been my focus as Treasurer.  Advancing issues like:  

  • Passing a comprehensive Ethics Ordinance that makes our government more transparent and accountable to those we serve. 
  • Lobbying for more road dollars and adopting a scoring system so our limited road dollars are appropriated based on objective scoring criteria like road conditions, traffic volumes and crash data instead of arbitrarily by elected officials.  
  • Helping to drive the development of an Inclusive Playground as a place to play for everyone, but especially the most vulnerable among us.” 
  • Securing grants and engaging residents to help plant trees in our neighborhood parks.
  • Getting houses built on township-owned properties so they can be sold to families and benefiting the community.   

As Supervisor, I’ll focus on economic redevelopment, transition the Township to address environmental change and work to build a prosperous community that everyone can be a part of.  

I’ve represented Clinton Township in the Michigan Legislature and on the County Board of Commissioners.  Those experiences provided me with a wide-angle lens on how to bring people together to solve problems and get things done in a responsible and collaborative way. 

I grew up in this community, graduated from Clintondale Community Schools, and earned degrees from Macomb Community College and Wayne State University.  My wife Sara and I chose Clinton Township as the community to raise our daughters and build a life together.  What I want for my family is what I want for all of the families in Clinton Township.  

I hope you’ll join me on this campaign.  With your support, we can build a better vision of the future for all of Clinton Township. 

Please feel free to call me at 586-945-7285, or send me an email at pg4supervisor24@gmail.com,  if I can answer any questions or to get plugged-in to our campaign!

With Appreciation, 

Paul Gieleghem

Photo by: Brian Sevald – brian@briansevald.com