Traverse City commissioners will vote Monday to approve a contract with Team Elmer’s to complete the TART Trail extension along with the company’s reconstruction of Grandview Parkway/East Front Street this year. Commissioners will also vote to approve new contracts with key city unions and the formation of a new city neighborhood association for Morgan Farms.

TART Trail Extension
After previously agreeing to waive the competitive bid process for the reconstruction of the TART Trail downtown and instead directly enter negotiations with Team Elmer’s for the work, commissioners will vote Monday on the actual contract for the project. The motion requires five affirmative votes to pass.

The city plans to replace and widen the TART Trail from Murchie Bridge west to Clinch Park and from the west side of Sunset Park eastward through the Traverse City Senior Center, as well as install new trail on the south side of Grandview Parkway from Division Street to Hall Street along Bay Street. It's the first of multiple potential phases of work that could eventually happen along the downtown TART Trail. Commissioners agreed in March to sole-source this year’s trail work since Team Elmer’s is already reconstructing East Front Street/Grandview Parkway. Using Team Elmer’s will increase construction efficiencies and speed up the project timeline, according to city and consultant engineers, noting that timing is critical so that trail and road work can happen simultaneously instead of having an additional closure in the future for trail work.

An engineering estimate for the project was $867,929, while the bid from Team Elmer’s came in at $1,073,469.05. That overrun was largely due to engineering estimates being too low on materials like aggregate and asphalt. For example, the engineering estimate for the “asphalt unit price was $130, the bid unit price is $196, and the MDOT AUP price for a comparable overall quantity is $180,” City Engineer Anne Pagano wrote in a memo. City Planning Director Shawn Winter says it’s rare now to have bids that don’t exceed engineering estimates given the rising costs of material and labor. “Honestly, in this day and age, (the bid) is pretty close,” he says.

Pagano pointed out Team Elmer’s came in significantly under budget in other areas. “After speaking with Elmer’s representatives and a review of the bid prices, staff is confident that the cost for this project is fair, and that there are cost savings associated with mobilization and site preparation,” she wrote. “For example, the engineer’s estimate for mobilization was $68,340, and the bid price is $35,000, a 95 percent reduction. The engineer’s estimate for site preparation was $19,500 and the bid price is $8,500, a 129 percent reduction.”

The total project cost – including Team Elmer’s construction bid, a $100,925 construction management agreement with Progressive AE, and $68,503.95 for contingencies – is $1,242,898. That is the same budget project partners including the city, TART Trails, and Traverse City Downtown Development Authority (DDA) previously approved for the project. The budget now reflects a lower amount for contigencies than is typical due to the higher bid – 6.4 percent versus 10 percent – but Winter says there are additional contingencies elsewhere in the contract that made staff comfortable with the proposal.

“Additionally, there were other benefits to hiring Elmer’s to do this work other than cost, including the ability to construct the project this summer (which ultimately would lead to cost savings due to inflation), less disruption to the traveling public, less construction traffic, and a more seamless project implementation by the same contractor that is building the Grandview Parkway project,” Pagano wrote.

Almost half the trail cost – $500,000 – is being covered by a state Revitalization and Placemaking (RAP) Grant. The city is contributing $421,449, the DDA $200,000, and TART Trails $121,449. Assuming the contract is approved, Winter says Team Elmer’s will likely begin trail work in the corridor soon, though the exact sequencing and phasing of work will be up to the firm as it reconstructs East Front/Grandview this year.

Union Contracts
Commissioners Monday will consider approving new contracts with several city unions, including the General Municipal Employees, General Municipal Employees Clerical and Technical Unit, Traverse City Police Sergeants, and Traverse City Police Command. The new three-year agreements, which go through June 2027, “incorporate several significant changes,” according to City HR Director Kristine Bosley.

Those changes include market-rate increases to the pay scale: 6 percent effective this summer, 5 percent effective in 2025, and 4 percent effective in 2026. The employee residency requirement has been extended to 30 miles, holiday policies standardized across units (including MLK Day), the probation period extended from 6 to 12 months, and pay scale adjustments made to standardize step increases and percentages in some groups. “Remarkably, the negotiations were discussed and completed in three days,” according to Bosley, with City Manager Liz Vogel calling negotiations “civil and timely.”

While the Police Patrol contract was not yet up for renewal, city management also initiated discussions with that union “in light of several critical factors impacting our police department, including increased vacancies, anticipated retirements, rising external comparable wages, and challenges in law enforcement recruitment,” according to Bosley. A new contract through 2027 is also recommended for that group with the same market rate increases and residency changes as the other unions. Bosley said that all of the negotiated agreements “reflect our commitment to fair and equitable labor practices while addressing critical recruitment and retention needs within our workforce.”

Morgan Farms
The residents of Morgan Farms will seek to become the city’s 12th recognized neighborhood association Monday. The Morgan Farms Neighborhood Association will cover the phase-one homes in the planned unit development (PUD), which are accessible from M-72 and Carter Road. The proposed association map boundaries encompass Shrewbury Road, Pine Bluff Drive, Old Morgan Trail, Aston Lane, Whittington Street, Waterford Street, and Camrose Circle. Owners of undeveloped property are not considered members but will be eligible when there is an occupied home on the lot, according to the proposed association rules.

“Our neighborhood has over 120 homeowners and is somewhat unique in Traverse City as we were developed as part of a PUD and have an established HOA (homeowners association) that deals with issues internal to our development,” committee chair Sandy Mitton wrote in the association application to the city. “The main goals for forming the Morgan Farms Neighborhood Association are to obtain help in identifying the correct city personnel with which to address our concerns, plus to give us more of a voice within the City of Traverse City.”

While recommending approval of the association, City Clerk Benjamin Marentette wrote in a memo: “I want to respectfully point out that the bandwidth of city staff and the ability to be effective in serving multiple neighborhood associations is not infinite. I think we should continue to discuss approaches that would allow us to maintain communication with the neighborhood associations while balancing time availability of city staff.” Several new neighborhood associations have formed recently in the city, including Indian Woods, BOOM (Base of Old Mission), and Triangle Neighborhood. Another neighborhood association is being explored for one of the last remaining unorganized areas of the city south of Fourteenth Street.