Rochester Hills

Tri-Party funds come to city

By Linda Shepard
C & G Staff Writer

ROCHESTER HILLS — Oakland County Tri-Party funds have delivered $200,000 to city officials for upcoming road repairs.

Oakland County commissioners and representatives of the Road Commission for Oakland County presented a check as a re-distribution of Tri-Party Program funds to the Rochester Hills City Council Dec. 3. Tri-Party is a funding program involving one third from Oakland County general government, one third from the Road Commission for Oakland County and one third from the community to support Oakland County roadwork. Each community is entitled to an annual share of the Tri-Party funding based on several factors. For cities and villages, these factors include miles of county roads and the number of accidents on those roads. For townships, a third factor, population, is added.

“Tri-party is the County Commission and the Road Commission,” Oakland County Commissioner Bob Gosselin said. “The third party is Rochester Hills. This money has been in excess for about six years, and we leapt on it to give it to cities.”

“Essentially, it is a program where local dollars and county dollars fund road projects,” Oakland County Commissioner Jeff Matis said. “Due to the economic downturn that we have gone through and are still recovering from, a lot of communities were unfortunately unable to take advantage of the county portion of those dollars. The county decided to open the funds up to communities that were able to take advantage of those funds. Rochester Hills stepped up to the plate big time.

“We thank Rochester Hills for something that is an outstanding partnership,” Matis said. “Oakland County and Rochester Hills have long partnered in many, many ways and do great things. One is the Tri-Party road program. At the county, we approved those requests; then it ultimately led to an amount of money coming here to Rochester Hills. This $200,000 will help support some good projects in the Rochester Hills area.” 

Road Commission Chairman Eric Wilson said it’s always a pleasure to see money spent on road construction. “Rochester Hills, the county and the Road Commission are working together as a team to make the quality of life better,” he said.

“We know you are using it well to fix those spots that have come upon you,” Gosselin said.

Rochester Hills Mayor Bryan Barnett thanked city staffers for their efforts in securing the Tri-Party funds. “Most of the work that happens in our community is because of fantastic teamwork,” Barnett said. “Our city staff represents the City Council and the administration. They are professional. I thank everyone involved on our team.”

You can reach C & G Staff Writer Linda Shepard at lshepard@candgnews.com or at (586)498-1065.