City Council - Regular Meeting

[clears throat] [snorts] [snorts] call to order this meeting of the Eskanaba City Council January 15th, 2026. Mr. May, please call role. Councelor Moore

here. Councelor Bushawa here. Councelor Dubour here. Councor Flo here. Mayor Ammo here. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [cough and clears throat] At this time, seeking approval andor corrections to the minutes of the work session of January 6th, 2026. So moved. Second. Discussion. All in favor? I I this time seeking approval and or adjustments to the current agenda as written. So moved.

Support. Discussion. All in favor? I. Thank you.

At this time, is there any conflict of interest needed to be declared by members of council pertaining to items on the agenda? Hearing none, we'll move on to brief public comment. If you wish to comment pertaining to items on the agenda, please approach the podium. State your name, place of residence, keep your comments to 3 minutes or less. Hearing none, move on to public hearings. Item number one, [clears throat] public hearing, citizen participation, 2026 27 fiscal year budget preparation. Each year, council holds public hearings to facilitate input from citizens for the upcoming fiscal year 202627 fiscal year budget. This is the first of five scheduled public hearings. This time we'll open the public hearing. If you wish to comment on the 20 26 27 fiscal year budget, please approach the podium, state your name, place of residence. As a reminder, this is the first of five scheduled hearings. If you happen to be watching at home and you wish to make comment on this, please, these are the times to come and give your input on the city budget hearing. None. We will close the public hearing. We currently have no unfinished business on the docket. Moving [clears throat] on to new business item number one, approval water treatment plant boiler replacement. Water department

administration is requesting council approval to hire and retain the services of Burgger and King of Eskanava, Michigan for the water treatment plant boiler replacement for a total not to exceed $141,341 including $4,000 in contingencies. Uh, and I know Mr. Lampy did hand out some additional information. Um, it talks about and know we've talked about it in a couple years now too during our budget prep of u boiler issues. It's aging. It's failing. Um, I don't know. Sometimes the pictures too can tell a lot and and you can definitely kind of tell the age and and the memo does talk about some of the uh the failures as well. um as well as some of the you know kind of what the upgrade means for redundancy and and some of the efficiencies to of course with a a modern boiler. Um overall it it does come in I think we had estimated 120,000 in the budget. This is more than that um but still essential work.

Did we get bids on this or just Yep. Um, this was bid. Um, it's in this packet. It was in the email. That's right. Okay. Yeah, there were three bids. Um, and this was the low bid. Is it just one boiler or two boilers in there, Jeff? We are. We have one now, but we're going to get two in [snorts] place of it. We've got I don't know. It's a It's a big boiler. I think a million and we're going to get two 1 million BTUs. So, we have the redundancy. Okay.

And if you look at the bid tab, you can see that they all bid uh on the 750s and they had an alternate bid for the one 1 [clears throat] million. So, this is the low bid across the board on the bid tab. Okay. Motion to approve not to exceed $141,341. Support. Further discussion on this item. Mr. May, please call RO. Close for Newport. Yes. Councor Flaw. Yes. Council member Moore. Yes. Counc. Yes. Mayor Ammo. Yes. Thank you. New business item number two. Approval. [snorts] Contract award for geotechnical evaluation. Electric.

Administration is seeking approval to award a contract to Guiles Engineering to perform a geotechnical evaluation for the Whitetail Solar Farm in the amount of 14,860. Um this was bid out. This was the low bid. It met all the requirements. Um the project so far has been coming along pretty well. Um the preliminary wetland evaluation is has been completed. The the modules have arrived. Um everything was on time. So um so far it's it's been good and um we're excited to keep it going. Motion to approve in the amount of 14,860.

Support. Discussion. Mr. May, please call RO. Counc Dart. Yes. Counc. Yes. Counc. Yes. Counc. Yes. May.

Yes. That concludes new business. Moving on to appointments of which we have none. But if you find yourself wishing to [snorts] find an avenue to serve your community a little bit more, you could take one vacancy on the board of library trustees. You could take one vacancy on the historic preservation commission. You could take one vacancy on the housing commission or one full vacancy or one of two alternate vacancies available on the zoning board of appeals. Board commission and committee reports. The planning commission meeting was cancelled due to a lack of agenda items. The zoning board of appeals heard uh a request from a resident who bought a house in the mid 90s uh having an irregularly shaped lot. Um the garage that was [snorts] there in the 90s was torn down, but the cement floor was still there. and uh they'd like to build a new garage using the same uh floor um same location, nothing changed. And so the uh the board approved that request and then the electrical board met uh this week. Um they had the usual departmental updates. Uh they will be looking to um get a new energy contract going out. I I think it was uh 2030 time frame. they always like to stay ahead of it. Um, so they'll be doing that, looking at that. Uh, and then there was a report on the, uh, airport solar project. Apparently, there was a lightning strike out there last fall that damaged some of the modems and two of the inverters. Um, they're working on a plan to replace those.

And, uh, believe that's it. Oh, they also the, uh, the White Tail Solar Project. Um all the clearing's been done and they've discussed this uh request going before us tonight. Thank you. I have not done nothing at this time.

I attended the housing commission meeting on Tuesday. We went through our fiscal year end report from the auditor and then had an update on their boiler system. They are getting the repairs done with that and setting up different temperature zones in the building which will help regulate the heat in the harbor tower. Um still discussing some of the um [clears throat] known bed bug issues that are still addressed uh at the harbor tower as well. Um does that really sum that well? I have nothing to report at this time. We'll hear general public comment. If you wish to make comment, please approach the podium. State your name and place of residence. Hearing none, we'll move on to announcements. Seeking a motion to adjourn. So move. Second.