Today's meeting was opened with the Pledge, and an Invocation by President David Stechholz, and the singing of "America the Beautiful".
Our visitors were asked to stand and introduce themselves. Happy Bucks were just collected, not explained since we wanted to give extra time to our speaker.
Our Club is honored to give a 45-minute break-out session presentation on "Collaborative Club Projects" at District 6400 Assembly on April 26th at St. Clair College, Windsor. The ballots will be sent out next week for our vote on one of the two candidates for District 6400 Governor Nominee-Designate.
Dawn Margretta, Nancy Darga, and Pastor Dave were at a meeting Monday with 4 Rotary Clubs representing Western Wayne County for starting a new hybrid program, Rotaract Club, being started at Schoolcraft College. Graduating seniors in the Interact Clubs will be informed of this new Rotaract Club.
Saturday, April 5th will be the first Road Clean Up for the year.
Our Speaker for today is Mayor Maureen Miller Bosnan. She served as City Council President two times before being elected Mayor in 2019. In that position she is in charge of 19 City Departments. Today the Mayor will be talking to us about the direction the city is taking over the next year and the plans for the reimagining of 5-Mile and Farmington as the heart of a new "City Center". She said she is excited to present it to us before it is presented to other groups because she knows that we will give her feedback on her message.
When she was elected, the people said what they wanted for the city.
Keep people safe. Police and Fire Departments are now fully staffed.
More money for road improvement. Just look around the city at road work being done.
Good jobs for students if they didn't choose to go to college, so they would stay in Livonia. City is working with businesses to offer job shadowing programs, workforce experiences that match students with trades.
The Mayor is happy to report that the main concerns of the citizens when she took office have been met.
The residents of Livonia are aging and the population is decreasing. Focus groups were meeting to decide what could be done with the city to attract residents. The recurring item that kept coming up was a central gathering space and more affordable housing. 5 Mile and Farmington was the ideal place since the City owned the property.
In 2020, the city council approved a Master Plan for the 5 Mile and Farmington parcel, which is 40 acres. This area would give the City a place to build what the citizens wanted. A place to gather, walk, have shops and be bikeable. To pay for this the city acquired 20.75 million in grants. First they will need to take down the aging Senior Center and move it to the Rec Center. This is currently being done with completion stated for December 2025. The builder for the new Senior Center specializes in senior designs, which shows signage and floor design that is directional and leads people around the building. Drawings were shown of what the new Center will look like. The lobby has a fireplace and is arranged like a hotel lobby with a seating area, an area to look for books and games to take to the tables. It will also have a coffee bar. The main floor will have a maker space for woodworking while the second floor a soft maker space for painting and sewing. All the furniture will be moveable. The banquet room will hold 350 people. The new Senior Wellness Center is slated to open in December 2025.
Where are we headed next? With the old senior center torn down, along with the old courthouse and Sam's Restaurant, plus the small building next door, gives the city a lot of space, 9 -10 acres, but still more space is needed. 20 acres are needed for a developer to want to use. To reach this, the City Hall needs to be removed and rebuilt. The current City Hall is 90,000 sq. ft. but only 54,000 SF is necessary since the city has a smaller workforce. The City Hall is built like a chimney with all the heat and cooling being pulled up. It is difficult to arrange furniture because it's a circular building. This will be financed by a bond from retirees' health care saving fund. The exact position of the new City Hall is still undecided.
Phase 1-Senior Center and phase 2-City Hall are checked off. The Police Department needs to be moved near the Court House. The police Department is out of date. Moving it will free up more space near Farmington Road for housing and development. Funding for this will have to be asked for. The Fire Dept. needs to be completely renovated. The other Fire Departments will also be renovated and brought up to date. There are now women in the department, and there are no separate sleeping and shower rooms. The new fire equipment is much larger and can't fit in the bays, meaning the trucks need to be kept outside, which will shorten their life. The F.D. #1 needs to stay where it is. Moving it would cut down on response time.
The Bennett Library also needs to be moved and made smaller. They were working on the air conditioning for it last summer, and the ceiling leaks. The new Police Department might go next to the Court House, so moving the renovated library would make space in this downtown area. Funding for this will have to be asked for. The City Council is working on this and will present ideas to the Mayor soon.
It was in 1967 that the idea of a downtown area appeared in the newspaper. Now years later this idea from 1967 may finally come true.
Susan Paluchniak
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