News · Bay City
Bay City votes tonight on paving its own streets
BAY CITY, Mich. — Bay City commissioners are scheduled to vote tonight on a $437,000 equipment purchase that would let the city pave its own neighborhood streets rather than hire outside contractors to do the work.
The budget amendment is on the agenda for the City Commission meeting at 6 p.m. in Commission Chambers, 301 Washington Ave., according to the city calendar. MLive reported the money would come from the city’s street fund balance and from United Bridge Partners funding, and would buy a paving machine, a grader attachment and a trailer. The street fund holds about $1.4 million before the transfer, MLive reported.
The plan, called the Local Street Paving Project, would pave about 50 blocks across all nine wards in its first year. City officials say that would be more local neighborhood paving in one year than Bay City has done in the past 22, MLive reported. Commissioners expressed support when the plan was presented Sept. 21.
The pitch is cost. City Manager Rik Hayman told Mid-Michigan NOW the first year would be “approximately a $900,000 investment or expenditure,” compared with “anywhere between 1.4 million and 2.4 million if we contracted that out.” Josh Zimmerman, the city’s Department of Public Works manager, told commissioners Sept. 21 that doing the work in-house could save $500,000 to $1.5 million, MLive reported.
The yearly costs are not small. The plan adds three Street Department positions, two workers and a supervisor, at about $318,000 a year including benefits and workers’ compensation insurance. Materials would run about $431,000 a year, with another $90,000 a year set aside for equipment maintenance and replacement, according to MLive. Hayman told Mid-Michigan NOW the money is already in the budget.
Streets would be picked by what officials described as an objective algorithm that weighs underground infrastructure, traffic patterns, pavement condition, ward coverage and whether a project is ready. MLive reported the first-year list should be out by early January. The city plans to publish the list and a construction schedule before paving begins, and to update residents on completed blocks, ward coverage, costs and pavement improvements, MLive reported. If the commission approves, Hayman said, paving would start next April.
“It’s 22 years plus since we’ve seen this kind of road investment in our community,” Mayor Christopher Girard told WNEM in September. He called 50 blocks a start. “I think it would be great if we could do 100 blocks a year,” he said. “That’s the only way we’re going to get ahead of this.”
Over 10 years, the program could pave about 35 miles, MLive reported. That is 20% to 25% of the city’s 126 miles of local roads.
One resident put it plainly. “Well, it gives you a good shake when you drive on them,” Maru Ellyn Cain told Mid-Michigan NOW. She singled out Third Street.
The same agenda includes a $150,000 agreement, paid from state marijuana tax money, for the Good Samaritan Rescue Mission’s overnight drop-in center, MLive reported.
Sources:
City of Bay City, calendar, City Commission, Oct. 5, 2026, https://www.baycitymi.gov/Calendar.aspx?EID=2892
MLive, “Bay City to vote on funding for street paving equipment,” Oct. 1, 2026, https://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw-bay-city/2026/10/bay-city-to-vote-on-funding-for-street-paving-equipment.html
MLive, “Bay City proposes largest neighborhood streets project in over 2 decades,” Sept. 2026, https://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw-bay-city/2026/09/bay-city-proposes-largest-neighborhood-streets-project-in-over-2-decades.html
MLive, “Bay City to vote on $150K marijuana funding for homeless shelter,” Oct. 1, 2026, https://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw-bay-city/2026/10/bay-city-to-vote-on-150k-marijuana-funding-for-homeless-shelter.html
Mid-Michigan NOW, “Bay City proposal aims to pave 50 blocks of neighborhood streets,” Oct. 2, 2026, https://midmichigannow.com/news/local/bay-city-proposal-aims-to-pave-50-blocks-of-local-roads-local-street-paving-road-construction-street-department-city-commission-road-equipment-budget-michigan
James Felton, WNEM, “Bay City proposes pilot program to pave streets without outside contractors,” Sept. 23, 2026, https://www.wnem.com/2026/09/23/bay-city-proposes-pilot-program-pave-streets-without-outside-contractors/
Photo: Andrew Jameson, “Center Avenue Neighborhood Residential District Bay City MI B,” Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped and color-corrected, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Center_Avenue_Neighborhood_Residential_District_Bay_City_MI_B.JPG
