Council agrees to wait for road-condition study before reshuffling road funds; mayor pledges to seek extra money if needed

Council members spent substantial time reviewing capital priorities for roads and sidewalks and agreed to defer major reallocations until a professional inventory and road-ranking analysis is complete.

Staff described a near-term contract with a vendor who will map roads, signs, trees and sewer assets and provide a 0–100 condition ranking for each street. That report, council members said, will let them determine acceptable condition thresholds and the realistic annual spending needed to reach those targets.

"Once we have the ranking, then I would recommend every council member take the list," Mayor (Speaker 2) said, describing a process to set a common standard for what constitutes an acceptable road and how many miles the township can reasonably address in a year. The mayor said he is "close to signing up" the vendor and expected an analysis within about a month.

Council discussed a possible reallocation between collector and residential road lines. Staff provided the existing numbers: between residential and collector roads the budgeted total is roughly $2.737 million (about $1.25 million for residential and $1.0 million for collectors, plus grant funding). Several members urged maintaining the current management-line amounts until the study is complete rather than moving funds preemptively.

Members also discussed the Van Cleef roundabout concept and were told engineering has not yet provided a draft concept plan. Staff said some TID (development) funds may be available to pay for that project, but council asked for the engineering analysis and cost estimate before any design or budget vote.

Next steps: staff will finalize the vendor contract, provide the road-condition report to council (estimated in about a month), and then the council can consider bond or supplemental ordinances to increase road funding if the study shows a larger need. The mayor said he will attempt to identify additional funds if the council decides to expand the program.