We are looking for Volunteers who would enjoy helping an elderly homeowner in our community get their yard ready for spring!

 

Every year numerous volunteers from the community, civic organizations, schools, and business volunteer to help clean up yards for senior citizen homeowners.

Rakes and yard waste bags in hand, these wonderful volunteers spend 4-6 hours raking and cleaning the yards up yard waste left over from winter. We have several yards this year, and need a few more volunteers to help.

This can be a great opportunity for employee team building, civic groups, student groups, Scouts, sports teams, and families. If you or your organization can give 4-6 hours to help a senior give us a call at 248-370-9353 or email kadcock@auburnhills.org.

Karen Adcock, Director of Senior Services

On Saturday evening, April 28th, I was honored to attend the annual LifeBuilders event, a fundraiser for Oakland Christian School (OCS) here in Auburn Hills. This is the second year in a row that I have gone with our friends who have a student at OCS. The event is centered around the value of a Christian education and showcases the talents of many OCS students. The photos contained herein include students from the middle school choir program and a scene from the schools’ upcoming production of The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe.

 

And finally, the City of Auburn Hills welcomes Mr. Pat McCarty, the new Head of Schools who will be moving to the area in the very near future from his current home in San Diego, California. Welcome to Auburn Hills, Pat!

Congratulations to everyone at OCS for a spectacular and successful event!

 

Thomas A. Tanghe, Auburn Hills City Manager

The 33rd annual Oakland County Economic Outlook Luncheon took place on Thursday, April 26, 2018. Dr. Gabriel M. Ehrlich and Donald R. Grimes from the University of Michigan Research Seminar in Quantitative Economics delivered their annual report. For those who want to learn more, the final report will be available online at AdvantageOakland.com.

In general, jobs growth has been steady in Oakland County as we continue to regain our losses after the devastating effects of the 2008 crash of the economy. It’s hard to believe that the crash that started the Great Recession began nearly ten years ago. A few facts worth noting is the Detroit area CPI is expected to be 1.7% in 2019 and 1.9% in 2020. While job growth has slowed down a bit, it is being forecasted to increase from 1.2% in 2017 to 1.7% in 2018, 1.9% in 2019, and 2.1% in 2020. This is the period of time covered by the outlook. The Oakland County unemployment rate in 2017 ran nine-tenths of a percentage point below the U.S. rate at 3.5% verses 4.4%. There is so much more to the report that goes far beyond the brevity of a blog post. You can learn much more in June by reviewing the report in its entirety at the website contained herein.

 

Thomas A. Tange, City Manager

 

Last week, Dr. Ora Hirsch Pescovitz was inaugurated as Oakland University’s seventh president. The O’rena was filled with overflowing promise and warmth as bag pipes echoed throughout the walls. Student and faculty alike welcomed Dr. Pescovitz with cheers and words of admiration.

Dr. Pescovitz was employed by the University in July 2017, and has already made great strides to create a more inclusive atmosphere and increase involvement with student life. Dr. Pescovitz has an extensive history and experience working in higher education, as well as the medical profession. Graduating as a Doctor of Medicine at Northwestern University in Illinois, she is a distinguished pediatric endocrinologist and leader in civic engagement.

Dr. Pescovitz aroused the crowd by sharing her personal story of being the first born child of a Rabbi and a nurse from Russia. She explained how her parents instilled the importance of education, both in academia and in life. Those values resonated with Pescovitz throughout her lifetime and now she intends to reflect that at the university.

After the ceremony, Oakland held a community reception for the public to meet and greet Pescovitz.

Auburn Hills welcomes Dr. Pescovitz to our community and look forward to her amazing plans for Oakland University’s future.

Construction on Squirrel Road between Chrysler Drive and Walton Boulevard has certainty created some commuting challenges in recent days. We do apologize for the inconvenience; unfortunately, the orange barrels are a necessary part of maintaining our local roads.

Motorists have commented that the condition of that particular section of road is not too bad and question why the work is necessary. While we did resurface Squirrel Road 7 years ago, there is maintenance that is required to protect that initial investment. The concrete panels that are being replaced have cracked, which allows rain and moisture into and under the panel leading to accelerated deterioration at the subsurface level. This maintenance effort was anticipated and will continue to occur from time-to-time to continue to preserve this road.

While considering how much of a burden reducing Squirrel Road down to one lane in each direction has been for our commuters, I couldn’t help but think back to my early days here at Auburn Hills. When my career began here 30 years ago, Squirrel Road was a dirt road between the City Campus and Featherstone Drive. As a matter of fact, there were actually a couple sections that would only allow one car to pass through at a time, so you had to pull off to one side and wait as opposing traffic passed. If that was not bad enough, several times a winter we would have to close, Squirrel Road altogether during snow events to prevent cars from becoming stuck in a valley between two hills that were nearly impossible to negotiate during slippery conditions.

There is no questioning that the traffic demand on today’s Squirrel Road is significantly higher than the traffic volumes of 30 years ago, but the one-lane does serve as a flashback to a time long ago. So today (and for the next few weeks) Squirrel Road is once again one lane.
In closing, we apologize for any inconvenience that is caused by this year’s schedule of road projects and we ask that you bear with us while we preserve and improve our road infrastructure.

Please look for the latest construction updates on our City’s North Squirrel Roadway Improvements webpage and social media.

Don Grice, Assistant City Manager of Auburn Hills

 

 

Don Grice, Assistant City Manager of Auburn Hills

We have officially welcomed AM General to the Auburn Hills Community. Even though they technically moved into their building at 1399 Pacific Drive in October 2017, yesterday gave us a great reason to celebrate with elected officials and employees of AM General.

AM General designs, engineers, manufactures, supplies and supports specialized vehicles for military and commercial customers worldwide. Through its military business, the company is widely recognized as the world leader in design, engineering, manufacturing and logistics support of Tactical Vehicles.

As a leader in global mobility solutions provider, this new state-of-the-art facility houses the engineering, product planning, and prototyping departments as well as business development, US Defense, and strategic marketing functions. It was great to see some of their work on display yesterday and hear from the employees who had a hand in designing and prototyping the latest and greatest in technology.

We wish to thank AM General for choosing to grow in Auburn Hills.