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Mount Clemens has agreed to lease two small buses from SMART for us in its dial-a-ride program.
Photo by Patricia O’Blenes
MOUNT CLEMENS — Savvy seniors and other riders can rest easy about the Mount Clemens dial-a-ride program. The city commission approved a bus leasing agreement with SMART at the commission’s meeting on April Fool’s Day.
“Its small passenger bus(es),” said Jeff Wood, public services director for the city of Mount Clemens. “We offer dial-a-ride services here. Specifically, we offer a lot of transportation services to seniors and disabled folks to get around within the city limits of Mount Clemens.”
Two of SMART’s buses come to the city under the agreement, the terms of which bear no cost to the city for operating the buses and are similar to prior contracts that have allowed Mount Clemens to use SMART resources.
Dial-a-ride buses operate within Mount Clemens and to select surrounding portions of Clinton Township. Schedules, fares and other information can be found online at mountclemens.gov/dialaride.
Audit engagement
On April 1, city commissioners approved an audit engagement contract with Lansing-based firm Maner Costerisan to examine the city’s financial records for the next two fiscal years, ending on June 30, 2024, and June 30, 2025. The city previously hired Maner Costerisan as its auditor of its 2022-2023 financial records. The 2024 and 2025 audits will cost the city $66,500 and $70,000 respectively, which City Manager Gregg Shipman told commissioners was a $4,000 reduction from the prior audit cost while having the same scope of work.
“Everything is the same,” Shipman said to commissioners. “I asked them how the audit went — it was their first year working — and they said, ‘It went great. Everything was prepared well.’ So when they came back this year I said, ‘Well, if it went so great you can probably do it for less.’ And so they did. Be careful what you say, I guess.”
Maner Costerisan was recommended to the city by auditing firm Plante Moran, which was hired to manage the city’s finances beginning in 2023. Records for the 2022-2023 fiscal year were given an “unmodified” opinion, which is the best rating given by auditors.
