Updates happening around Walbridge

Walbridge mayor Ed Kolanko is excited about several recent updates and improvements around the community.

The Railway Park playground equipment installation is starting to develop. Installation crews are on site, and they will be doing work over the next couple weeks. The equipment will be off-limit until the work is done.

“That’s something positive we are looking forward to,” Kolanko said.

Kolanko said the village is applying for some NatureWorks grant funding and that they are looking to get some new playground equipment at Loop Park, too.

“We’ll give it a shot, see if we can get some state money to help with that,” he said.

The poles on the tennis courts in town recently came out from the ground, which is requiring repairs. Kolanko believes that kids were bouncing up and down on the nets, which caused the damage.

“It put quite a bit of strain on the poles and caused them to pull out of the ground, so we took them out to prevent any further damage and make sure that safety is of importance,” Kolanko said. “We will get those stuck back in the ground here pretty soon.”

The village has also upgraded all the trash cans around the community.

“It's a small difference, but it's a good difference,” Kolanko said. “As much as it kind of somewhat sounds boring, the old ones were pretty aged, and it was time for an upgrade. It’s just another little thing to try to make the village look a little better and more modern and up to date.

Kolanko and his crew are also continuing work on fixing leaning electrical poles around the village, including a big one on Main Street that he said was referred to as the leaning pole of Walbridge.

“The new pole has been installed, and the services have been moved over,” he said. “Now we do recognize that that's not the only leaning pole in town, so we continue to work with our partners at First Energy as well as AT&T to get some of these poles on the horizon and get those upgraded as well.”

Road repairs on Tyler Street are also in motion, and Kolanko had a pre-construction meeting on May 8 to discuss a joint road project with Lake Township, which revolves around the Walbridge Road repairs.

“Walbridge is the lead on that,” he said. “We're probably going to see Walbridge Road replaced I think in late June, early July. We do have a couple other roads in town that we're working on getting some other estimates on, and it looks like we'll be able to do a few more roads here in town as well.”

The village council had a first reading for an ordinance on its May 7 agenda for changing the way they give tax credits to every municipality. It is currently at one percent, and Kolanko said they are looking to drop it to 0.75 percent.

“We’re not increasing the tax rate, not changing our tax rate in that respect, but just changing the credit,” he said. “You know, like every community, we're starting to see some costs going up, but our revenues are staying pretty flat. We're looking at different ways to do things to make sure we can provide the services that we do for our residents.

Kolanko said the change will put Walbridge more in line with Millbury’s rate, and that they will further discuss the matter over the next couple meetings.

The village will also be recognizing National Police Week, which takes place May 11-17 with a proclamation and signs around the community.

“We're going to be giving our police officers a little high five with a proclamation, and that's pretty cool,” Kolanko said. “I've never really seen anybody else do it. My admin team, we're getting about 100 yard signs made in appreciation of our local police department, and we're going to make those available for anybody in town who wants to display one in their yard as a show of appreciation for the police department.”