City officials should probably start planning now.
This winter was rough all around, as everyone knows, but especially so for our streets. Potholes are everywhere, and so far there is only temporary cold patching planned.
Emergency Manager Cathy Square said she doesn’t have enough time to come up with a long-range plan to resurface the streets, and will leave that up to whoever she hires as city manager.
A city manager is expected to be hired within the next several weeks. That leaves plenty of time for the city council and mayor to begin researching how to go about fixing our streets as well as help identify funding sources.
Unfortunately, this will be a big and expensive job because in the past Hamtramck has been hit and miss when it comes to road maintenance. What needs to be done is to create short and long-term plans.
It’s not the most interesting work in the world, but it’s one that is needed and will resonate with the community.
While they are at it, our elected officials also need to lobby state legislators to open the purse strings and allocate funding for road repair because there is no way the city can independently pay for the work.
The council and mayor have complained about being left out of the decision process by the emergency manager. Here is an opportunity for them to exert leadership.