By Meg Peters
Review Staff Writer
At the Monday night board meeting Orion trustees entered into a neighborly agreement with the City of Rochester Hills.
Once approved by both communities, the Interlocal Service Agreement will allow each government to request the services of the other’s Department of Public Works (DPW) unit in an effort to reduce costs and improve efficiencies.
The agreement will allow Orion and Rochester Hills to share services and equipment pertaining to the maintenance of municipal water and sewer duties, roadways, pathway and traffic related issues among other Public Works services as requested.
‘Any time you can work in a collaborative way it makes a lot of sense. In government that certainly has been an incentive by Governor Rick Synder,? City of Rochester Hills Mayor Bryan Barnett said.
His brother, Orion Township Supervisor Chris Barnett, couldn’t agree more.
‘My brother Bryan and I learned to get along and work together by sharing a bedroom for 16 years. This is just a continuation of that. But seriously, this makes sense on many levels. Anytime we can work together with our neighbors to operate more efficiently and save money is a win-win.?
Rochester Hills is expected to pass the agreement later this month.
A contact will be on call representing either Orion Township or Rochester Hills on a 24-hour-basis, seven days a week. Priority will be given first to the community they represent, however, each community has agreed it will make every effort to provide the services to the other in a timely fashion.
Each community will pay the other for the services provided at the current direct expense rate per hour, and a premium rate during weekends, holidays, or for services performed before or after the regular hours of 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
The idea stemmed from the fact that a particular and expensive piece of equipment Rochester Hills owns would have been mighty useful to cut brush back on trail ways before winter hit.
‘For this particular agreement we may have some DPW fleet vehicles or other pieces of trail equipment, because we are a larger community, that Orion may not have and would be much cheaper for them to borrow,? Brian Barnett said. ‘This is just an opportunity for my staff and Chris? staff to work together to find ways to collaborate and to save our taxpayers money.?