City seeks bonds for sewer repairs

Sewer repairs will begin within the year, which will hopefully end basement floodings after heavy rains.

By Charles Sercombe
The days of basement flooding are drawing closer and closer to being plugged up.
The city is now seeking bonds worth $7 million to begin making repairs to the city’s aging sewer system.
Work could begin by fall.
It’s one step toward an estimated $40 million worth of repairs that will eventually be needed.
The catch to these improvements is that there will be an extra fee attached to water bills. No one in city hall is saying what the initial fee will be, but based on discussions held last September, expect anywhere from $5 to $17 to be added to the monthly water bill.
The city is being forced to make repairs as part of a court agreement with residents who sued the city a few years ago over continued basement flooding whenever there were heavy rains.
The city recently received a state grant to complete a study on the condition of the city’s sewer system, and armed with this knowledge work can proceed.
Besides fixing leaks here and there, the city needs to tap into a major sewer line that runs along Conant.
This isn’t a new problem for the city. Back in the 1950s voters here rejected a tax increase to once-and-for-all fix the problem. Since then, residents have suffered from frequent basement floodings.
For some it has meant the destruction of a lifetime of memories of photos and other family artifacts.
There were two historic floods, one in 2008 and another in 2011, that prompted a class action lawsuit against the city. That resulted in a settlement agreement that cost Hamtramck property owners a total of $1.6 million that was paid through a court-ordered tax millage.
The $7 million in bonds the city is seeking will allow the first phase of repairs to begin.