City of Grosse Pointe OKs Police/Fire Grants

The passed two resolutions Monday about .

One grant will pay for 25 percent of . The other grant will pay up to $300,000 toward an .

In order for the second grant to be used, each of the city councils from the five Grosse Pointes must pass a resolution agreeing to use it. The City of Grosse Pointe is the first one of the five to pass a resolution.

Before passage, Mayor Dale Scrace wanted to know whether the resolution is on the other Grosse Pointe council agendas and whether or not City Manager Pete Dame expects the 60-day acceptance deadline is in jeopardy.

Dame sent a draft of a resolution to the other five Grosse Pointes in hopes of making it easier for each to add to their agenda. He said he believes the 60-day deadline will easily be met.

Meanwhile, council members expressed their excitement to get the study started related to complete consolidation of the public safety departments of and the City of Grosse Pointe.

The City sent an invitation to the Farms to inquire about whether they would like to join the study of such consolidation, which is intended to determine whether such a project would be beneficial to both cities and retain proper service levels.

Last week, the Farms council voted against joining the study. Farms Mayor James Farquhar said he felt this study was in competition with what the , which was established a few years ago to evaluate and implement more efficient ways for the public safety departments operate.

Farquhar said he was uneasy with the pace of the study and said he'd prefer to keep with the pace of the ad hoc committee, explaining he'd rather take the slow approach than rush any changes.  

Before the passage Monday, City of Grosse Pointe Councilman Chris Walsh commented on the Farms rejection to join the study, saying officials from the Park and the City are ready to see some progression in this area.

"It's quite obvious that the pace is not going as fast as we'd like," Walsh said. "The cities in a position to pursue (the study)."

Walsh said the Park has been interested in reaching some sort of consoldiation from the moment the ad hoc committee was created and that while the City may not have been ready at that point, it is now. He described the progression of the ad hoc committee as slow at best.

The reason for the invitation to the Farms to join the study, Walsh said, was because officials believe if they had not extended the invitation that residents and others would have questioned why a study for a larger consolidation was not pursued.

He also explained he believes such a consolidation will be achievable with an end result of it remaining "professional" and continuning to give "high service delivery."

Requests for bids have already gone out to several national companies to perform the study, Scrace said. "The process needs to happen," he said of the study.