Road advisory panel recommendations discussed
By Dana Casadei
Discussions continued around the Road Advisory Committee’s (RAC) recommendations at the Monday, November 9, Bloomfield Township Board of Trustees meeting. The board mostly focused on the RAC’s recommendation to replace the safety path millage with a supplemental road millage of the same amount.
With the current safety path millage scheduled to expire during the 2027-2028 fiscal year, the RAC recommended taking the $2.6 million raised by the millage and putting it towards a supplemental road millage of the same amount. Those funds would then be directed towards repair, maintenance and overall improvement of subdivision roads within the township.
“The safety millage has changed the community and created more sense of community,” said trustee Neal Barnett said. “I’d like to see that continue, I don’t want to change that and utilize that money for the roads. I think we get significantly more out of the safety path.”
Supervisor Mike McCready – who is a member of the RAC – said this wouldn’t get rid of the safety path millage completely, it would just put it on pause so they could use those funds towards Bloomfield Township’s subdivision roads. Voters would be the ultimate deciders on this if it were to be on the ballot.
The idea of splitting the safety path millage and taking a portion for the roads was discussed as an idea, which multiple trustees seemed in agreement with instead of moving the entire safety path millage to a road millage.
“We’ll keep talking about it,;we have some time,” McCready said.
Of the RAC’s other recommendations the board also discussed the construction impact fee first raised at the October 29 meeting.
This fee – which the RAC currently has set at one percent – would go into place after collecting data to determine if permitted construction in neighborhoods has a negative impact on local road conditions. If it has been determined that a negative impact did occur, there would be consideration of a one percent fee on permitted construction for the impact. Any funds generated through this type of fee would be dedicated to the local neighborhood roads where the construction occurred that had a negative impact.
At the October 29 meeting treasurer Michael Schostak said, “In theory what you’re describing sounds reasonable, but I want the board to consider the administration of that policy. If you’re talking about tracking hundreds of new homes that are being built on the streets that they’re on and allocating the cost from that permit to that street, who's gonna track that?”
“Personally, I think tracking this would be a nightmare. Administratively I don’t see how we can do this,” Schostak said.
Schostak was not opposed to the idea fully and said he would support it if the money went into a general fund instead.
According to the most recent Road Commission for Oakland County (RCOC) Pavement Surface Evaluation and Rating (PASER) analysis, 80 percent of the township’s 213 miles of subdivision roads – 176 miles paved and 37 miles of gravel – are in poor condition.
That number may no longer be accurate because the PASER analysis is only done every three years, with the most recent report being conducted in 2025. Having the township request the RCOC perform an annual PASER analysis within the township was one of the RAC’s recommendations.
The RAC also recommended the continued allocation of $250,000 annually to the road fund, which Bloomfield Township already does; and $250,000 annually or more towards special assessment districts (SADs) within the township. The latter would only be for new and upcoming SADs and not past ones.
Some of their other recommendations are less complex than others, such as Bloomfield Township staff continuing their close coordination with the RCOC on the roads that Oakland County owns, and remaining in regular contact with elected officials in Oakland County, the state of Michigan and the federal government.
The last of their recommendations discussed Michigan’s new neighborhood road legislation, which went into effect last October. Through this legislation, the RCOC is anticipated to receive $45 million for neighborhood roads. According to Salz, none of that $45 million has been allocated yet. The RAC asked that the board monitor the release and distribution of those funds and advocate for roadway improvement priorities in Bloomfield Township to receive consideration.
Long-term recommendations by the RAC consisted of evaluating and suggesting changes to PA 51, which was enacted in 1951; and doing further research into how Headlee legislation can be interpreted.
“I think we can constantly have this conversation every board meeting going forward until we’re ready to make a decision,” McCready said. “It could take us three months, it could take us six months, but I think we need to start following up on the homework that’s been done and see where we go.”
The Bloomfield Township Road Advisory Committee (RAC) has been looking at the township’s road conditions in hopes of finding solutions for one of Bloomfield Township residents' most talked about concerns for the past year. The RAC was formed in March 2025.
Meetings were held with Noah Mehalski, Bloomfield Township Director of Public Works; Gary Piotrowicz, Road Commission for Oakland County (RCOC) Deputy Managing Director; Jason Theis, Bloomfield Township Finance Director; Lori Swanson and David Anason, MDOT TSC manager and Project & Contracts Engineer; Corey Almas, Bloomfield Township Engineering & Environmental Services; Michael Siegrist, Canton Township Clerk and Donni Steele, State Representative.
Members of the RAC include chairman Jeff Salz, Dr. Gary Assarian, John Cervenak, Steve Harris, Jeff Hockman, McCready, Fred Nadar, Mindy Richards and Dr. Jay Shah.
No actions were taken at either meeting.
The board plans to keep the RAC recommendations on the agenda for the foreseeable future. There is also a staff meeting set up to begin further discussion with township staff.
