Pentwater prepares to fix its streets.

Pentwater prepares to fix its streets.

#OceanaCountyNews

PENTWATER — Buoyed by Pentwater Village voters’ 2-1 approval of the Street Improvement Plan bond proposal, the Smart Streets Plan Work Group was back at work Nov. 10 to begin mapping out next steps.

“We are deeply humbled by the wide margin of support, and thank everyone who voted yes,” said Norm Shotwell. “It’s heartening to see so many of our neighbors accepting the case we made after engineers we hired concluded that 70 percent of village streets need resurfacing, reconstruction or repair.”

With the source of funding now in place, next steps involve lining up the engineering work to prioritize and design the actual plans. Village Manager Rob Allard stated “We will be doing our best to keep our community regularly apprised as this project goes forward.”

Bonds to pay for the project will be sold to investors in several phases, called tranches, over the next several years. It is expected that the first tranche will be sold and funds available no later than April 1, 2017.

Property owners will see the new millage for the Street Improvement Plan (SIP) on their village tax bill in July of 2017. However, the 1986 Hancock Street improvement millage of 1.21 mils will no longer be on the village tax bill, because bonds sold to fund that project 30 years ago will be paid off this year. So, the net tax increase is estimated to be only 1.19 mills.