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Time to Act
By Wayne Trotter, Tecumseh Countywide News
March 2004
Walk around Tecumseh's streets. Or, if you have the nerve, drive around them. They're in bad condition and certainly won't get any better all by themselves. If you set out to pick a "pothole of the week," you could keep the series running for years … and it wouldn't be easy to decide which piece of broken pavement to cite first.
Part of that stems from the "end of winter" blues, a condition which afflicts almost every city this time of year. But most of it is the result of long-term neglect. Although Tecumseh continues to grow, its sales tax revenues haven't kept pace. They are flat or shrinking and have been what way for years. The revenue crunch has forced the city to make do while its streets slowly get worse and worse.
The problems get worse. While bid notices are out on four road projects, everyone will agree that's a drop in the bucket. The city also has to deal with high-dollar needs at its sewage treatment plant or face the wrath of the state and possibly federal governments. Tecumseh is under a consent order to fix or replace it and the price tag will come to about $2.5 million. That's a tall order for a city of 6,000 plus people.
That's not all. As City Manager David Johnson noted in an interview published in last week's edition of The Countywide News, Tecumseh's water and sewer system is also in bad shape. It makes no sense to spend thousands paving a street only to have to rip it up to repair the lines beneath it. The four projects the city is about to do were chosen partly because the lines beneath them are considered sound.
Are there answers? Yes, but most of them mean money out of your pocket. With the help of the Chamber of commerce and other interested city leaders, efforts are being made to secure whatever federal or state help might be available. The paving that will be done is being partially funded by a Rural Economic Action Plan (REAP) grant from the state and 11 sewer lines are being replaced under a Community Development Block Grant. Those sources have probably been exhausted for the foreseeable future but there may be other help out there and rest assured efforts are being made to secure it.
But the long-term solution, as always, rests in doing this ourselves. Part of the underground infrastructure problem can be eased by increasing Tecumseh's monthly sewer fees. The base rate here is $8.40, which is a whopping $6.75 below the state average. A Mr. Johnson points out, that fact alone will make it hard to get grants and loans. The City Council simply must get about raising those rates and because Tecumseh is so far below the average, the increments will just have to be larger than anyone would like. That's simply a fact of life and economics.
Past that, there will have to be a bond issue to deal with infrastructure problems above and beneath the city's streets and at the end of the sewer lines. That will mean a slight but real increase in property taxes, but there is no other reasonable way to raise the funds that are clearly needed. Everyone keeps hoping the city's business base will eventually begin to catch up with its residential growth but at best that's a long-term proposition. Hopes don't pave streets; money does.
Tecumseh ahs a good history of supporting bond issues if the need is explained and the city is specific about the results. It will be necessary for the city to say exactly what it intends to do with the proceeds and to follow through in a businesslike manner. History says that if the choice is between crumbling streets and a few cents on a monthly mortgage or a few dollars on an annual tax bill, the citizens will respond. Water and sewer improvements, alas, are harder to sell which is why the two will have to be bundled together. Besides, as Mr. Johnson says, it's pointless to pave a street that will have to be ripped up shortly after the blacktop dries.
That is the challenge. The time to do it is as soon as possible. The time to start planning is now. As the interview with Mr. Johnson indicated, the city is planning. The rest will be up to the voters.
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