Sterling Heights City Council OKs $4.7 million for Red Run Park construction

STERLING HEIGHTS — Development of a new “flagship” city park picked up momentum this month when officials approved a $4.7 million construction bid.

The action clears the way for work that will make Red Run Park a major new attraction. The project includes full development of the park, including a concrete parking lot, trails, pavilions, pickleball courts and a dog park. Construction is expected to be completed in November.

Red Run Park is located across the Red Run from Baumgartner Park, which is on 15 Mile Road, west of Schoenherr. Sterling Heights Parks and Recreation Director Kyle Langlois said the 15-acre site “is going to be an amazing compliment to not just Baumgartner Park, but to the community.”

“There’s currently not a park in that section of the city,” Langlois said at the City Council’s April 7 meeting. “

So this is going to fill that kind of neighborhood park role. But I would say Red Run Park is going to be more than a neighborhood park. It’s going to be a flagship park that we can all take a lot of great pride in.”

Langlois said the park will draw visitors from not just the city, but the region as well. He said the park will feature six lighted pickleball courts and the city’s second dog park, along with an interior paved walking trail, satellite library, restrooms and other amenities. Future plans call for a pedestrian bridge over the Red Run connecting the park with Baumgartner Park and nature observation deck.

At the behest of several council members, a basketball court is expected to be added to construction plans.

Activating Red Run Park was a key element of the city’s Pathways to Play & Preservation millage, which Sterling Heights voters passed in 2024. Langlois called the park one of the “cornerstone projects” of the millage and said it will be “a talking point and a model park” for other communities in the state and nation.

 

Contribution questioned
Amidst the positive discussion about the park development, a hint of controversy arose when Councilman Henry Yanez suggested a $2,000 campaign contribution from an executive of the city’s engineering consultants, Spalding DeDecker, to a nonprofit organization that backed the PPP millage was questionable.

Spalding DeDecker reviewed the bids for the Red Run Park construction project and made a recommendation for its award.

“The fact of the matter is, he and other contractors who work for the city, who sell stuff to the city, who have a vested interest in that millage going through (and) your taxes being raised, is now benefiting from his investment,” Yanez said. “What this really comes down to is we lack a level of transparency in this city.”

Yanez’s fellow elected officials disagreed.

Councilman Michael Radtke said he is part of Say Yes Sterling Heights and that all contributions the group receives are disclosed in public records.

“Just like a political campaign, all contributions are denoted and filed before the election because it’s a committee,” Radtke said. “

So the idea that somehow $2,000 hoodwinked the city? The goal was always to build Red Run Park and one of our engineers has to do the work. I didn’t choose which engineer. No one here chose which engineer.

We let the professionals that run the city do that. And the idea that you’re going to sit up here and cast aspersions at a nonprofit group that is trying to benefit the community … is offensive.”

Mayor Michael Taylor also dismissed the notion that the public is in the dark about campaign contributions.

“There’s plenty of transparency,” he said. “We wouldn’t have heard about this if there wasn’t transparency. There are reporting laws.”

The Red Run Park construction award for STE Construction Services, Inc. of Mount Clemens was ultimately approved on a 6-1 vote. Yanez was the lone dissenter.