Water is the most important service a City provides. Every household needs access to clean, safe water. Each property owner in the City is responsible for a water and sewer bill (which also includes refuse). The Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA) provides fresh drinking water to the City (find your water bill here!), and our sewage is handled via the Southeast Macomb Sanitary District (SEMSD). If you need help paying your water bill, please reach out to GLWA via the WRAP program. An optional program, called the Water and Sewer Line Assistance Program (SLAP), is $4/month, and is a program intended to fix the water and sewer lines on your property if there are issues. Please check out the brochure and application.
Funding for roads in the City originates from legislation passed in 1951: Act 51. We categorize our street into Major Streets and Local Streets, and the City Council determines what streets are repaved. Some years we are also able to spend Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding on roads.
Our Civil Engineering firm Anderson, Eckstein and Westrick (AEW), handles not only roads, but also water main and sewer maintenance throughout the City. The City has funding to repair water mains and sewers from funds collected via water bills.
Refuse is handled by Green For Life, formerly Rizzo Environmental Services. Residents pay for refuse via their water bill. The City is party of the South Macomb Disposal Authority (SMDA).