City of Wayne 2024 end of the year report

The City of Wayne administrative team: Finance Director – Katie Sample, City Clerk – Tina Parnell – Community Development Director – Lori Gouin, DPS Director – Mike Szuch, Fire Chief – Mike Stradtner, City Manager – Diane Webb, Police Chief – Ryan Strong, IT Director – Dennis Carino, Asst. DPW Director – Dave Schmidt, Personnel Director – Alyse Leslie, and Confidential Assistant to City Manager – Rebecca Ferris. Photo by Stan Shelton

By Sarah Shurge – On Tuesday, December 19, 2023, the city council selected Diane Webb as the new city manager.
Since then, her focus has been improving the city of Wayne.
“As long as I can be an asset to the city and continue to drive improvements and increase quality of life here, I’m happy going to work every day,” said Webb.
“My administrative team is outstanding. They are all experienced, knowledgeable, and dedicated. They work well together and well with me. We are all focused on moving the city forward,” said Webb. “It’s exciting and refreshing and one of the highlights working in Wayne is working with the level of professionals on my team.”
Szuch, Carino, and Ferris are all new to the team.
“The fresh eyes are exactly what the city was missing,” said Webb.
Webb has a long and diverse career that has centered around the city of Wayne. For the first 18 years of her career, Webb worked in the private sector. She was a technician in Wayne, she did customer service management, project management, and community relations.
Webb served four years as a city councilwoman in Garden City, 11 years on Wayne County Commission, and did government relations with Wayne representatives.
“My first job was in Wayne and my last job will be in Wayne,” said Webb.
Webb has been city manager for 14 months now, so it’s important to highlight the City of Wayne 2024 end of year report.
“The first year was an assessment of where we were at, what’s working, what’s not working, what challenges there are, removing obstacles so we can move forward. Laying the plans,” said Webb.
So, with the start of a new year, comes the start of a new plan.
“2025 is the implementation year. The vision coming to life. The old go away and the new being built. We should see it happen over the next two years,” said Webb.

Here are some accomplishments that have happened over the past year:
-Saved the city $1.6M by bidding out the project to decommission the water reservoir in Goudy Park. Saved the city $43K by negotiating release of former contract and rebid design work.
-Worked with the City Administration, City Council, and DDA formed a Community Engagement Team to design and plan for the revitalization of Goudy Park that will be funded through $2.27M in Grants from MEDC, HUD, Wayne County ARPA, and the DDA RAP Grant.
-Worked with DPW to remove dead trees and the growth of invasive species that closed off the riverfront in Goudy Park from public view. These efforts made the area safer while beautifying the park.
-Restored youth baseball in the city of Wayne by negotiating with leaders from both Wayne Baseball and the Westland Youth Athletic Association (WYAA) to create the Wayne-Westland Youth Athletic Association (WWCYA).
-Utilized Wayne County Park Millage Dollars to renovate the concession/restroom building at Forest Park to enable WWCYA teams to play in the city of Wayne.

Decommissioning the water reservoir in Goudy Park.

Financial overview
of the past year:
-Began the 2024 FY with a $1.2M Budget Deficit and completed the FY with a $746K General Fund Surplus. Increased fund balance in the City’s General Fund from $8,768,153.00 to $9,514,516.00.
-Long Term Debt is listed as a challenge because the city must currently allocate $1,125,000 annually. The city has continued to pay them down and has not issued any additional debt since 2021. Two of the city’s three bonds will be paid off by 2028. Reducing expenditures by $200,000.
“Wayne has been struggling financially for at least a decade, it probably started 15 years ago. We’re not out of the woods yet – it’s a process and it takes time, but we are moving aggressively into the future in a positive way,” said Webb.
-City’s Bond Rating is still below investment grade and has been since 2016. That it is slowly and steadily improving.
-Grant Dollars Received: $9,915,884.39.
“Grants have been absolutely essential to accomplish the things we’re doing,” said Webb. “We don’t miss a grant opportunity.”
-The City received $1,766,961.72 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds which could be used for governmental services. The ARPA funding needed to be spent or obligated in full by 12/31/2024, the city did meet this requirement. The obligated funds must be spent by 12/31/2026 and they are in the process of completing the final project.
-The vast majority of the city’s ARPA funding was allocated to gearing up the Police and Fire Departments and replacing HVAC systems in all four main Civic Buildings: Police, Fire, DPW, and City Hall. The remaining dollars are being used to renovate City Hall.
-The city of Wayne secured $4.9M in State EGLE grants and $960K in Federal EPA dollars to replace lead lines throughout the city. To date, they have replaced approximately 400 lead water services.
“We’ve got the vision and we’re bringing it to fruition. Being lead-free by the end of 2025,” said Webb.
-The Community Development department secured a $50,000 Safe Streets Grant and a $17,926 MSHDA Housing Readiness Grant for facade improvements for businesses in the DDA.
-State paramedic grant has saved the city $96,217 in paramedic costs, another grant has been awarded for 2025-$53,025. (This will cover the last two firefighters to be enrolled in a qualified paramedic program).

Department accomplishments:
-The Wayne Police Department responded to 22,937 calls for service and took 2,565 reports.
-In 2024, the Fire Department responded to 4,606 calls. Of those calls 3,561 were for EMS and 1,045 were fire calls.
-The Fire Department’s new fire truck is now in service. This truck was ordered three years ago.
-The Building and Engineering department issued 410 certificates of compliance, 30 certificates of occupancy, 581 building permits, 237 plumbing permits, 243 mechanical permits, and 295 electrical permits.
-The Department of Public Works (DPW) cleaned and televised 29,303.1 linear feet of sanitary sewers. These sewers range from 6″ to 18″ in size.
“Every department is critical. Some of their work is felt more externally while others’ impact is more internally,” said Webb. “Good government is transparent. When everything is working, you don’t think about it. When your water isn’t working, then you think about it. If your garbage wasn’t picked up, then you think about it. You don’t really realize how great they are until they aren’t there.”

The parking structure will be demolished later this year.

New plans:
-The city’s Administrative Team and Wayne County Commissioner Al Haidous worked with the Wayne County Commission to write and secure a $700K Community Development Block Grant from the county to demolish the under-utilized, dysfunctional, and blighted parking structure and build a new parking lot for the library and make room for new development. (The city will relocate the Peace Memorial near Veteran’s Park at City Hall.)
“People have wanted to see parking structures go for 20 years. I’m excited for grant funding for that,” said Webb.
-The Abbey Loft development is scheduled to begin construction this Spring. Plans include six beautiful housing units with garages attached.
Webb mentioned that in the future she’d like to focus on filling vacant buildings in the DDA, as well as do more with the Rouge River like an ADA kayak ramp from Goudy and trail connectivity.
“I would love for people to launch a kayak at Goudy,” said Webb. “The city has great potential, great bones. It just needed life to be breathed back into it.”
Webb and the administrative team are working on maximizing the city’s potential.
“As great as my team is, we couldn’t do anything without the blessing from the council. The council and the mayor have been very supportive of our ideas. They help us move forward,” said Webb.
Thank you to the city’s administrative team, the support from the city council, the DDA Board, and our community stakeholders for all they do for the city of Wayne!
“I’m really looking forward to the future and seeing our visions becoming a reality,” said Webb. “It doesn’t feel like a job when you love what you do and that’s how I feel, I love what I’m doing.”