Mayor O’Reilly.

DEARBORN — Mayor Jack O’Reilly, Jr. praised the city’s response to the natural disasters that struck Metro Detroit last month. An extraordinary amount of rain caused floods in basements across Dearborn on Aug. 11. The flooding was followed by vicious thunderstorms that caused road closures and power outages. 

In an interview at The Arab American News, O’Reilly said there was nothing more the city could do about the flood, highlighting the efforts to collect flood-damaged items off the city’s curbsides.

“We responded as well as we could,” he said. “You can’t prepare for really unusual things. It was so beyond what we normally expect. We’ve had flooding incidents in different part of the city, but the number of home impacted and the amount of water that we’ve recorded was way beyond anything we have seen before.”

The mayor said the city had to bring in additional equipment and hire two contractors to help with the bulk trash pick up. According to a document O’Reilly handed to the city council, Dearborn collected 5,071 tons in flood-damaged trash in the 19 days following Aug, 11, which is the equivalent of the bulk trash normally picked up by the city over two years.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) completed a damage assessment of the flood last month with the help of local officials and on Sept. 17 Governor Snyder applied for a presidential disaster declaration for the affected areas. 

O’Reilly said that FEMA would subsequently submit its recommendation to the president, who would make the final decision.

O’Reilly also said FEMA is designed for disasters.

“But a lot of the disasters they handle are things like hurricanes, where there are fewer people impacted, but the impact is more severe,” he said.

O’Reilly said while the relatively few people affected by hurricanes are displaced and their homes destroyed, more Dearborn residents were impacted by the flooding. But the impact wasn’t as serious in the sense that Dearborn residents didn’t have to find temporary shelter.”

He also said FEMA compensates for different tiers of costs, so even if the agency does not pay residents impacted by the flood, it might pay business, help repair damaged infrastructure or reimburse municipalities for additional disaster expenses.

“The expectation should be modest as to what FEMA might pay,” O’Reilly said. “The chance of the government distributing checks for an x amount of money to everybody is zero.”

He added that the agency would only reimburse victims for expected basement damages, such as water heaters, washers and dryers; and said the state expects floods to occur in basements because of all the bodies of water that surround us.

“You shouldn’t invest in the basement in a way that you would have major damage,” O’Reilly said. “I read in the paper that some guy paid $80,000 to finish his basement. That’s just a foolish move, because there is no way you will get it back, nor is there an expectation that you should. The basement is never considered a living space.”

Walkout basements have limited flood coverage. Also, FEMA won’t compensate people for damages already paid for by insurance.

The mayor said the city would compensate the victims if neglect by the city was determined as a contributing factor to the sewage backup. He added that the city is required by the state to build and maintain a 10-year-one-hour sewage system, which can handle the maximum amount of rain that would fall over one hour in 10 years, but the unprecedented precipitation on Aug. 11 exceeded the capacity of the system. 

He said the Michigan Department of Transportation built a 100-year-one-hour sewage system for the highways and they still flooded. 

“They were shocked when their system failed,” O’Reilly said. “They immediately drove to Detroit to see if people had messed with the copper. Mayor [Mike] Duggan challenged them and said, why would you come here and think it’s something that our citizens did when the storm was way behind the 100-year storm.”

O’Reilly said the city received more than 6,000 claims for basement floods and estimates an additional 2,000 flooded basements have gone unreported. 

Houses all over the city have been affected, according to O’Reilly. 

He recommended that residents clean and maintain their home sewer system every couple of years. He said the maintenance costs about $60- $100. 

“It’s a modest investment,” O’Reilly said. 

The mayor said the city has not received any lawsuits relating to the flood.

“Once people identify that they have legal counsel, we have to deal with their legal counsel,” he said. “We can’t deal with them directly. Normally what happens is that the lawyers will let them go though our process, then get involved.”

O’Reilly added that he is not worried about lawyers. 

O’Reilly said congestion in Dearborn’s east end neighborhoods has become a serious issue and that the city has buckled down in recent months to pin-point contributing factors to that problem. The city has tackled a recent trend amongst residents involving car dealers who have been selling cars out of their homes and causing a nuisance to their neighborhood.

“We busted about 10-11 people who have been running dealerships out of their homes in residential neighborhoods in the east end,” O’Reilly said. “We met with the state— with the people who enforce this— and we are now working with them because they want to bust those people who aren’t doing it right.”

When news surfaced of the city’s stance on the issue, many community members expressed concerns that it was just another reason for the city to target residents. A growing number of drivers have also been navigating around town with dealer plates, but O’Reilly said that’s not a major concern for the city.                 

“I’m not worried about the ones who are driving on the roads; I am worried about the ones who are parked on the streets,” he said. “I’m focused on what is distributing people and what is creating a problem. It’s creating chaos. They are creating a bigger nightmare with parking than what already exists. It’s becoming a nuisance and I just want them out of the neighborhoods. That’s all I’m trying to do.” 

While Dearborn has one eye on revitalizing the neighborhoods, O’Reilly said that the city is also coming up with a plan to strengthen its business districts, particularly in the west end.

Downtown West Dearborn has been plagued with deserted buildings and frustrated business owners who are vocal that paid parking is driving customers away. 

At least 23 vacant stores had lined the half-mile stretch of Michigan Avenue between Military Street and Oakwood Boulevard. Many of those buildings were owned by Businessman Hakim Fakhoury and his company Dearborn Village Partner, which over time had developed a strained relationship with the city as plans to open several vital businesses in those lots had crumbled. 

However, according to O’Reilly, a recent court battle has led to new ownership of several of the buildings. This new owner has opened up lines of communications with the city in regards to future business investments.

“The situation now is that there is an owner who is marketing the properties and we are seeing some traction,” O’Reilly said. “It was really erratic, because there was no clear ownership and that was resolved in the last two months. The court ruled that there was one owner and he’s already met with the council a couple of times.”  

O’Reilly said his next goal for the area will be an attempt to get rid of paid parking altogether by assessing property values to subsidize the maintenance for the parking lots and making it a fiscal responsibility for the West Dearborn Downtown Development Authority.

O’Reilly noted that unlike business owners in the rest of the city who have to pay for their parking lots, insurance and lighting, business owners in west Dearborn don’t have that burden because of paid parking. He said he believes business owners could have even reimbursed customers for parking, especially if it’s a business that customers frequent for a brief time period. 

“Those business owners in west Dearborn don’t pay a nickel,” he said. “They have an advantage over business owners in other parts of the city because they don’t pay anything. My argument is, you guys don’t pay what other business pay. Let’s stop feeling sorry for businesses in west Dearborn.”

With winter fast approaching, O’Reilly said the city is already preparing for the season by securing salt through participation in a state program. 

According to the mayor, the value of salt has increased by 220 percent in recent years, as the state has faced a shortage of supply. If the city is thrust into another harsh winter this year, the budget could be impacted negatively to cover the costs. 

Last winter, hundreds of residents were cited during snow emergencies for parking their vehicles on the streets, making it a tedious process for plow trucks to navigate the roads. Due to the unusual amount of declared snow emergencies, the city also had difficulties consistently enforcing the rules.

“When we do snow emergencies, we only enforce getting the cars off the street,” O’Reilly said. “I don’t care if they are on your grass, I don’t care if they are blocking your driveway, I want to get the streets cleaned.”

This year the city is launching a couple of economically beneficial projects. Moving city hall from its current location into the ADP building is expected to save hundreds of thousands a year on utilities and maintenance, due to the downsizing of space. 

In addition, the $28.2 million intermodal passenger rail station project is expected to launch this fall, which the mayor hopes will attract visitors into town and open up an easier commute to Detroit. The rail station is expected to connect to Detroit’s M-1 Rail line, also currently under construction.

Mayor O’Reilly also wants to strengthen relations with the city of Detroit as it revitalizes its neighborhoods and business districts.  He said he’s already had brief discussions with Mayor Duggan on executing joint development planning to strengthen the corridor along Michigan Avenue that trails from Downtown Detroit and into Dearborn.

“We have a more linear border with Detroit than any other city,” O’Reilly said.  “What I would like to do is some joint development planning. It would be an example of cooperation with the suburbs and Detroit, where we would actually do an integrated plan for development. It would be good for both communities.”

O’Reilly acknowledged that the atmosphere at the Building Department is not pro-business, but he cannot hold its employees accountable because of unions, so he is considering privatizing the department.