Macomb County issued the following announcement on Dec. 22.
The Macomb County Public Works Office has brought in just over $13 million in grant funding over the first three years of Candice Miller’s tenure as Public Works Commissioner. The money has been used for multiple projects in every corner of the county.
“Not only do these grants help to offset the cost of our operations, they also help spur local economic activity as they keep our local contractors busy, generating paychecks for workers in Macomb County,” Miller said.
MCPWO is pursuing several hundred thousand dollars in additional federal, state and agency grants for 2020 as well.
The largest single project financed by grant money came from two federal agencies to support the redevelopment of the Sterling Relief Drain in Sterling Heights. The Sterling Relief green infrastructure work was mostly completed in 2019, with some landscaping work remaining to be accomplished in 2020. More than 500 trees and more than 1,000 other shrubs, bushes and other plants were planted along a 2.5-mile stretch of the drain in the work. The project brought in two grants worth a total of $1.825 million. The granting agencies were the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.
Much of the grant money went to a series of underground storm drain pipe inspections. Under the state SAW grant – for Storm water, Asset Management and Wastewater – MCPWO conducted inspections on dozens of miles of storm drains, many of which had been constructed in the 1960s and had not been inspected in several decades. Based on the inspections, a number of maintenance projects were scheduled. Via the SAW program, these storm water pipes, most large enough to easily allow an inspector to walk upright while in the pipe and running under major roads, were inspected in Eastpointe, Center Line, Roseville, St. Clair Shores, Sterling Heights and Warren.
One recent grant, for $190,285, also from the EPA, will help MCPWO sustain three recent Great Lakes Restoration Initiative projects, on the Clinton River Spillway in Clinton and Harrison Townships, the Gloede Drain in Clinton Township and the McBride Drain in Macomb Township, that were previously completed in the county via past grants.
“Our goals are to enhance the quality of life for our residents and to serve as a critical component of the economic prosperity of our community. We will continue to keep actively pursuing grants, partnerships and other opportunities to continue our progress on these goals,” Miller said.
MCPWO announced the grant tally as it released a video highlighting its 2019 accomplishments. The video is available on MCPWO’s web site, YouTube page and Facebook site. A link is available here: publicworks.macombgov.org.
Original source can be found here.