Q & A

I thought I would submit my own Q & A that will help residents and visitors understand more about my job & Roscommon. Here are a couple questions to start off with, and I will try to address other issues in future posts.


What do you do as Village Manager?

This is a question I get the most, and it is a hard question to answer in one sentence or two. I was appointed by the Village Council, and I serve at their will. I run the day-to-day business of the Village, provide overall direction and am responsible for overseeing our Village Employees. I also provide reports to the Council in regard to ongoing activities within the Village as well as evaluating services and making recommendations for the improvement of operations. I also administrate the policy decisions that the Village Council decides upon. I try to get involved in every Village organization and attend DDA, Planning Commission, ZBA, and the Roscommon County Economic Development Corporation. I also stay in close contact with the Higgins Lake-Roscommon Chamber of Commerce. So while the job is challenging and requires a lot of knowledge on a lot of topics, it is also interesting as I get to work and impact just about every aspect of our community.


What are some of the hot issues in the community?

- Certainly, the economy is front and center. We know we have some vacant buildings and we have had some businesses close down. However, I feel we have some positive momentum currently flowing through the Village. Our Downtown Development Authority (DDA) has implemented a successful Facade Grant Program, which has drastically improved the look and feel of downtown Roscommon. We had a new restaurant open, Matt's Lake Street Grill & Pizzeria, which has been very successful from all accounts. Fred's Bowling is now up and running, and the restaurant is slated to open late September/early October. This will be a major boost to our economy. The group of owners involved has devoted tons of time, energy, and money into this building - both inside and outside. I have been in several times to tour the facility, and discuss future plans. I think everybody will be amazed at the result when it officially opens for business.

- Besides the economy, I think blight and upkeep of property has been front and center once again. I have cracked down on blight this year, and we have issued several tickets and many more letters. We appreciate the cooperation of many of our residents; however we know we still have a lot of work to do to make our community as attractive as possible.

- We are considering a major update of our Master Plan for next year, which will be very exciting and important as Roscommon moves forward. We will be looking for as much community involvement as possible during this process.

- We are in the process of developing a Capital Improvement Plan to better address our Village Roads. We will soon rate our Village Roads and develop a plan for the next few years on how to best spend our Act 51 and Road money based on the conditions of the roads. Gone are the days where we will wait for a road to deteriorate, then completely replace it. We want to be pro-active and use preventive maintenance techniques such as crack sealing, chip sealing, thin-overlays, etc. to extend the life of our roads. This ends up saving much more money in the long run if you keep up what you have, instead of fully reconstructing roads.


Tom Gromek
Village Manager