By Shelby Stewart-Soldan
ssoldan@mihomepaper.com
Ortonville — At 6:30 p.m., on June 23, the Ortonville Village Council will host a public hearing to discuss a potential millage to resurface village roads.
The hearing is for residence to comment to the village council about a levy of additional millage rates for the 2026 fiscal year, which begins July 1. This will be prior to their regular meeting at 395 Mill St., Ortonville, the Brandon Township offices.
“I just had a meeting with the Road Commission for Oakland County, and we’re up to a cost of $5 million per mile to completely redo a road,” said Village Manager Matt Ryan. “That’s some $17 million dollars it would cost to redo all of the roads in the village.”
The proposed increase of 2.8 mills would be implemented for a two or three year period and would cover a resurfacing of all of the roads within the village, instead of completely reconstructing the roads. The resurfacing would reduce costs, and would be able to be completed quicker, meaning all of the roads would be resurfaced within the two or three years that the additional funds would be levied.
“Between state and local funding, we can make that happen for about $1 million,” said Ryan. “One reason for that is because the cost has increased so fast, it’s only going to go up, so the sooner the better. And the more you do at one time, the cheaper it is per square foot, because the crew and equipment are already on site.”
Currently, the village levies 8 mills of the 16.5 mills they are able to levy. The increase would equate to $280 per year for a home worth $100,000, or $2.80 for every $1,000 of taxable value.
“What I found would be a workable route,” said Ryan. “I talked to three local pavers, recognizing that the fee to move equipment would be gone because their equipment is already here. And seeing what prep work we could do to reduce the cost. By taking advantage of local folks and by keeping the millings, we were able to get the price down considerably better than the market rate.”
The goal would be to have all the roads at the same quality level, and based on traffic, get a schedule for maintenance.
“In order to realistically maintain the roads, we have to get to a starting point,” he said.