July 2024: Cooperation with Alma

“Stronger Together” is the title of a 2016 presidential campaign book by Hillary Clinton. I didn’t support her candidacy, but that title applies to St. Louis and Alma, who have partnered in several ways over the last 16 years.

Perhaps the most important collaboration is the Gratiot Area Water Authority that provides both cities with drinking water from six wells in Alma and Arcada Township since 2013. GAWA was formed following two serendipitous situations in St. Louis and Alma. St. Louis needed to stop drawing water from local wells that were at risk of contamination on account of the Velsicol site. And Alma had more capacity than it needed following the closure of the Total oil refinery in 1999.

The two cities spend $1.8 million/year on water that they sell to residents (following a markup designed to fund infrastructure maintenance). St. Louis along is expected to spend $834,000 on water in the 2024/25 fiscal year.

Solid waste authority

Back in 2008, the two cities partnered to create the Gratiot Area Solid Waste Authority. This permits them to negotiation trash collection contracts together. “We’re confident the opportunity to serve both cities provides an incentive for contractors to provide more competitive proposals than if they were taken individually,” said City Manager Kurt Giles. “And it also avoids the duplication of efforts that would come with each city creating a request for proposals and receiving and awarding bids separately. At this point the cities solicit proposals jointly and enter a three-party agreement for curbside and disposal service, but each city receives a separate monthly invoice from the vendor.”

Bus service

Formed in June 2020, the St. Louis Ithaca Pine River Transit Authority (SLIPR) is a joint venture between St. Louis, Ithaca and Pine River Township to contract for bus service with the Alma Transit Authority. The Authority operates 11 buses that benefit many folks who don’t have cars and/or can’t drive anymore.

In the most recent fiscal year, Alma Transit Center buses hauled 72,316 passengers, including 11,306 from St. Louis. 

A 0.96 millage levy for SLIPR was approved by voters in 2020 and is up for renewal this August.

Shared assessor

Another way the two cities cooperate is sharing the services of Assessor Kathy Roslund since 2019. Assessors are hard to come by, and St. Louis had a revolving door of them before the deal for Roslund’s services was struck. Giles says the city had seven assessors between 2001 and 2019 when the deal with Alma was signed. Giles said the $70,000/year that St. Louis pays Alma for assessing is less than two-thirds the cost of one full-time employee capable of doing the same job.

Police merger?

St. Louis and Alma police departments have had an informal mutual aid agreement for years and frequently help each other on calls. Several Alma officers got their starts in St. Louis, including Logan Bussell, Jake Gulick, Ryan Bahlke, Chris Drury and even Chief Kendra Overla and Public Safety Director Mark Williams. Now they’re discussing a merger of departments and should give city council a report on that one of these days. It’s not a done deal by any means, and there will be public hearings when the time comes. A combined department is expected to be more expensive, but should also improve professional opportunities and retention of officers.

I find this trend of St. Louis and Alma working together a good sign and hope we continue to be stronger together going forward.