City Council - Regular Meeting

Call to order this meeting of the Escanaba City Council, August 20th, 2026. Mr. DeMay, please call roll. Calls for Morton.

Here.

Calls for Beauchamp. Here. Calls for Dubourg. Here. Calls for Foyle. Here. Marion. Here. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. At this time, seeking approval and or corrections to the minutes of the regular meeting of August 6th, 2026. So moved. Second. Discussion? All in favor? Aye. Thank you. At this time, seeking approval and or adjustments to the current agenda, excuse me, to the agenda, current agenda as written. So moved.

MR. MAYOR, SINCE WE ARE GOING INTO CLOSED SESSION ON NUMBER NINE, LOOKING TO MOVE APPOINTMENTS, BOARD COMMISSION AND COMMITTEE REPORTS, GENERAL PUBLIC COMMENT, AND ANNOUNCEMENTS RIGHT AFTER NUMBER EIGHT UNDER NEW BUSINESS. AND THEN IN ADDITION, LOOKING TO ADD AFTER EIGHT A NUMBER NINE FOR AN UPDATE FOR MR. LAMPE ON THE CURRENT PROJECT OF LUDGINGTON STREET AND CITY CONSTRUCTION.

I'll support it.

Discussion? All in favor? Aye. Thank you.

I do not see that, so we'll skip over that one.

At this time, is there any conflicts of interest that need to be declared by members of council pertaining to items on the agenda? Hearing none. At this time, we'll hear brief public comment pertaining to items on the agenda. If you wish to make comment, please approach the podium, state your name, place of residence, keep your comments to three minutes or less. Hearing none. We have no public hearing scheduled. There is no unfinished business on the docket. New business item number one, approval, water plant SCADA improvements. Water.

Administration is requesting City Council approval to retain the services of FDS Engineering and Electrical Services of Iron Mountain, Michigan for water plant SCADA improvements in an amount not to exceed $3,900. Money is available for the above work. Jeff is here and he can give some more details and answer any questions.

Mr. Lampe, didn't we already do a SCADA improvement while back?

We did. I can't remember what that was, but they're ever happening. There were some things that were missed in the project. Tower alarms, I think. I forget the scope. But they were missed, overlooked. A couple new things came up, and it's something that we just got to ever improve and tweak as we go.

So I guess I don't have a record from previous approval at this point, but were those included in the previous approval that just they missed or we missed or I guess I'm trying to.

No, those were completed and done and this is a new batch of things. Okay. Honestly, we could probably tweak the SCADA every year.

Okay, thank you.

So move approval.

Support.

Further discussion on this item.

Comment, it says money is available, doesn't say budgeted.

Well, we have money budgeted for professional services, but it's a lot easier to say it's available rather than mislead you about saying it's budgeted.

Further discussion on this item? Mr. May, please call roll. Yes.

Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. New business item number two, approval. Wastewater treatment plant, new sewer truck, wastewater.

ADMINISTRATION IS REQUESTING CITY COUNCIL APPROVAL TO PURCHASE THE SEWER TRUCK OF AMERICA 900-ECO 12-YARD COMBINATION SEWER CLEANER FROM SEWER EQUIPMENT COMPANY OF AMERICA OF DIXON, ILLINOIS AT A COST NOT TO EXCEED $373,591.44 AFTER TRADE IN VALUE OF $225,000 FOR THE OLD SEWER TRUCK. MONEY IS AVAILABLE FOR THIS PURCHASE WITHIN THE CURRENT FISCAL YEAR. Jeff can give a lot of details about this one as well. From a budget perspective, this is going to be over budget. The budget was $150,000, which was intended to do more repairs to the truck rather than replace it. Jeff can discuss why it's more important to replace it at this point than it is to repair it.

Yeah, honestly, I never got that memo. If I did, I did not understand it. Mr. McNeil and I spent the least amount of time on this budget that we've ever had in the past. I think we sat down for an hour total. Not my proudest moment about the budget, about $150,000. When I seen the truck go through, I just started proceeding on replacement process. I requested 350, expecting around 200,000 for a trade-in. knowing they're around a half a million dollar trucks. I feel it's important to replace it. If we were to lease a truck and not own it, it would be $12,000 a month for a lease and we get nothing in return. If we have a half a million dollar truck and we get $300,000 back for it or $250,000 back for it, I think it's a good return on our investment. City our size needs a reliable piece of equipment to provide emergency response and maintenance for the sewer system. I hope you all read my memo. I did make a mistake on the budget. I do feel very strongly that it's needed and the operators do as well. Had we traded this in a year ago when I was hoping to, we would have probably gotten more return on our investment and we would have not had some added repairs we had to do in the last year. I would hope that we could replace a truck every five years or so and keep a new reliable truck at the ready for the use in the city. How old is the current truck? It's a 2020. Hi.

I understand your concern with wanting a new truck. My concern is it wasn't budgeted in vehicle request as well within the budget. You know, department heads have done this for many years on the budget, requesting vehicle improvements or capital improvements or things like that. I understand it was a mistake. My concern is that, I guess, is it mechanically having issues because of wear and tear, or is it because of employee use? Are they doing it improper? Has it been a problem? Are they trained on it? You know, it's only six years old. So I guess I'm trying to understand what the mechanical issues are that is gonna cause major problems.

Well, we had to have some repairs. The controls on the front didn't work. We had to get that repaired. I cannot tell you this truck wouldn't last 10 more years. I can't tell you it's gonna last 10 more days. Yes, it's reliable, but we are not mechanics. We respond to a call at two o'clock in the morning, and that truck needs to operate and go. Even if that truck costs us $100,000 a year, I think it's providing useful and needed service to the city. Fire trucks are expensive. They get more glory. They're putting out fires. Sewer trucks putting out a fire nearly every day. Nobody realizes it because their toilet keeps flushing. I understand it's not budgeted the way it should be. I take that responsibility. But if we were to go on a batting average, I think I'm doing pretty good, even though this was a failure. And there is money available. I do feel we should buy it, despite the lack of the budgeted amount. So I can't tell you it's not going to last. I will say it's going to need more maintenance as we go through the years. I request and plead that you approve the purchase and get the guys a new truck so they can keep the city as clean as possible through the sanitary sewer.

Is it still workable?

Sure, it's workable, yes.

Could it last another year?

Again, it could last 10 years, but it's going to take more maintenance. And if we keep it another year, it's going to lose value. Trucks are going to go up another $20,000 or $30,000. So next year is just going to be more. I feel that this is a endless cycle of buy and sell, buy and sell. I know a lot of people will buy a truck and keep it for 15 years. And there are a lot of people that buy a truck every two years. and they don't have the maintenance. We're not mechanics again. We need that equipment to start when it needs to go. And I'm not telling you we can't fix it and fix it and extend it. I'm just telling you that it's a necessary piece of equipment for our work. And I also feel it's a very small cost You know, we're spending $40,000 in labor just for, not even in labor, just to get people to respond to emergency call-outs. These sewer trucks in time of main breaks are, Indispensable they're there on the ready they facilitate a main break without the sewer trucks working like they do these main breaks are going to be a lot problematic. I don't know I explain things in my memo I don't know what else I can say I think we need a new truck and I won't tell you won't last I will say the new trucks going to go up and the value of this trucks going to go down. Thank you.

I'm going to make a motion to deny it.

Support.

Further discussion on the second? Mr. May, please call the roll. Council Member Dewar. Yes. Council Member Beauchamp.

Yes.

Council Member Moore.

No.

Council Member Flath. Yes. And Mayor Hamill. Yes.

Thank you.

New business item number three, approval property abatement 208 South 4th Street, code enforcement.

Code enforcement is requesting city council approval to authorize the city attorney to file suit in circuit court against Christopher and Amanda Saunders to abate property maintenance code violations, blight, and fill below grade spaces occurring on their property at 208 South 4th Street. This sort of has come to you in the past. We had brought forth that agreement we were hoping that they were going to sign to take care of the property within a certain amount of time that would have otherwise allowed the city to go on and clean it up and bill them for that service. They chose not to sign that agreement, and so we're at a place now where I believe the property has been partially cleaned up, but not completely. Jude is here to answer any questions or give any other information, but we're at a place now something needs to be done before winter. So we're looking to move forward with the process.

Mr. Van Damme, could you answer a couple questions? I can try. All right. Appreciate that.

I have one question for you. How does the process get to this point? How do you, do you have logs that you, like, come to my house on Tuesday the 19th, and you come back the next month, or how does this process work? That's what I want to know. And if you have logs, you know, do you log everything every time you talk to somebody, or how does that go? Yeah, I got it all right here.

Okay. So, yeah, I mean, as far as the process works, that you, well, they had a fire in February of 23, so the process after that is to make sure that they tear it down and bring the property into compliance. He told me he was going to rebuild there. So I allowed him to leave that depression because it didn't make sense to fill the depression and then dig it back out and put a basement in. So, and that's where it stayed. It never got, nothing ever happened after that. So he's had multiple citations. So it's been dragging on for a while. So the citations, has he paid? I wouldn't, I have no idea. The court would know that.

I don't know either. So the city had agreement with them. Why did they decide to back away from the agreement? Do you know?

He never signed any agreement with the city.

You had kind of a verbal agreement with them, because it came to the council before, and I was just curious what happened, because it kind of collapsed, because it sounded like you had something in the works, and then it collapsed.

Yeah, well, we had something in the works with the attorney for them, for him to sign to allow us to go in and put the property back in compliance, and then he, at kind of the last minute, just decided he didn't want to sign that agreement, so. Make a motion to approve.

Support.

Further discussion on this item? Can I just add, in the last couple weeks, though, he has added sand and leveled the property. He cleaned up the rubbish in the yard, and supposedly he has topsoil coming next Friday. so i guess mr van damme do you want us to hold off and give them more time to complete this project well i my suggestion is no because this has happened before and then he's canceled the top so at the last second so um if it gets you know i think we just need to follow our process and go through with it and if it gets done before we have to go do it great okay thank you further discussion on this item

Mr. Domeni, please call roll. Council Member DeBoer? Yes. Council Member Moore?

Yes.

Council Member Beauchamp? Yes. Council Member Flod? Yes. Mayor Hamill? Yes.

New business item number four, approval. Purchase highway street light poles, electric.

Administration is seeking City Council approval to purchase a quantity of 80 streetlight poles to replace the steel poles along US 2 in the amount of $212,320. These poles will be put into inventory and be at the ready when the highway project starts. Jerry's here to answer any questions you might have.

Sure. So if you've driven along the highway between North 30th Street on US 2 towards Walgreens and then head north all the way up to Danforth. All those poles, they're steel poles. You know what happens to steel in the winter with what we put on the roads. They're all rusting. I actually would have replaced these sooner, but with the highway project announcement, we held off. So the reason we're buying 80 all at one time is next year with the highway project, we're gonna be replacing every steel streetlight pole along that route. We chose aluminum. They don't corrode like steel. They're very similar to the poles we put on Ludington Street here. I think the big difference, they're a little bit higher. The arm is a little longer, but they're designed to break away. So MDOT requires a breakaway style pole. If they get hit by a vehicle, they're gonna break. Again, that is a requirement by MDOT. Other than that, I don't really have any other information. Do you have questions?

Is it 80 poles total or are we looking at ordering 80 and do we have extra in inventory also?

Right, so we have some in stock right now. With this 80, we will end up with a few extra in inventory. I'm gonna guess between six and 10 poles we should have left over for inventory, and that'll cover future hits. Interesting, if you're curious, we actually had two poles get hit earlier this week. It happens. Thank you.

Jerry, these are just the poles. Are you moving the light fixtures to the new poles or will you be asking for money to get the fixtures at a later date?

Sure, this is just for the poles. The plan is to reuse most of those fixtures. You know, they're working. There are already LED lights. So unless we take one down and we find that it's faulty, but most of the fixtures will be reused.

Thank you.

So move approval.

Support.

Further discussion on this item? Mr. Domeni, please call roll. Council Member Flah? Yes. Council Member Moore?

Yes.

Council Member Moshe? Yes. Council Member Newport? Yes. Mayor Emel? Yes. Thank you.

New business number five, approval. Two new playgrounds and installation of three playgrounds, public works.

Public Works is requesting city council approval for $97,588.62 in city funding for the purchase of two new playground structures and the installation of three playgrounds, one of which was already purchased, through a community build. Kent was not able to be here tonight. He did provide me with an email with some more information that he wanted me to share. So he is saying although $52,100 was budgeted, the overall parks budget will be significantly lower this year due to several factors. They have excess wood chips remaining from last year, so they don't have to make that purchase. And they had less seasonal employees this year and have also been operating short a couple full-time employees for the past three months. So he's proposing to purchase the two playgrounds this year, and if approved, all three would be installed in October. He's also indicating that if the second playground is not purchased this year, and if there was no grant through the company for that purchase, that the one playground alone would be about $118,000.

Melissa, can you refresh where all three are going? Do we know where they are?

He indicated in, I think, his write-up. The one that I think we have purchased right now is the Westside Park. And we do have some donations to cover a portion of that one. And then the other one is, let's see if I can find it in here. 21st Street and then 18th and 18th Avenue South Park.

Is the 21st Street that small pocket park?

I'm not sure.

Do you know, Mr. Beauchamp or Mr. Mayor? The only reason I question, there's that small pocket park. I thought it was 21st Avenue, 21st Street. So right past the community gardens?

Yes. Oh.

That little pocket park? Is that what they're referring to?

That's the one.

So then I thought, and maybe I'm wrong, I thought that was county.

You know, I really wish I had better information for you. And I don't want to give bad information. I feel like one of them might be the playground behind the community actions place down by the athletic field. I think that's one of them. And then the west side. And so I'm not sure where the third one is. I don't know exactly which one it is.

Melissa, we've been doing the mowing of the grass in that park though, right? If it's a park that Public Works has gone and looked at and assessed the condition of the equipment, we have been maintaining that?

Correct.

Traditionally. We don't know how long, but that's what we've been doing and it's been under our WATCHFUL OR NOT WATCHFUL I FOR SOME TIME NOW TO THE POINT WHERE NO ONE REALLY KNOWS. SO WE'VE SORT OF ADOPTED IT ANYHOW.

SO HE'S SAYING THAT IF WE DON'T GET TWO THIS TIME, THEN ONE OF THEM COSTS MORE THAN THE TWO COSTS RIGHT NOW BECAUSE IT'S PROBABLY WITHIN A DEAL WITH THE COMPANY, RIGHT?

CORRECT, YEAH. SO THE COMPANY IS OFFERING A grant or discount on the playgrounds like they have in the past and so Kent is saying we can't assume that there will be a discount next year because we just don't know If they did provide a discount next year He's saying that the third playground or that the second one that he's proposing for this year would be just over 65,000 and so it would be about 20,600 more than purchasing it this year. And I think part of that is the community build. You know, they send some staffing up here to assist our staff to put the parks in. So that comes at a cost as well.

He does say that one of the parks is no longer compliant and has unsafe conditions.

I believe it's that one, the small one.

I'll make a motion to approve.

I'll second that. Further discussion on this item?

Mr. Dume, please call roll. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

NEW BUSINESS ITEM NUMBER 6, APPROVAL SPECIAL EVENT APPLICATION, ESCANABA HIGH SCHOOL HOMECOMING PARADE. CITY MANAGER.

THE ESCANABA SCHOOL DISTRICT IS SEEKING CITY COUNCIL APPROVAL TO USE LUDDINGTON STREET FROM 4TH STREET TO 14TH STREET ON FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9TH, 2026 FROM 5 PM TO 6 PM FOR THE ANNUAL HOMECOMING PARADE. ADMINISTRATION RECOMMENDED APPROVAL PROVIDED THE FOLLOWING CONDITIONS ARE MET. PROPER INSURANCE IS PROVIDED. naming the city of Escanaba as additional insured, and the event sponsors provide all labor and material to clean up at the conclusion of the event. I did have a conversation with Lisa Glisch from the schools, and they do have an alternate route planned in case something happens and they're not able to use Ludington. So if that ends up happening, we would come back with the alternate route for approval.

Move approval.

Court. Discussion. All in favor? Aye. Thank you. New business item number seven, approval, special event application, William Boniface Arts Center, city manager.

The William Boniface Art Center is requesting City Council to approve the partial closure of First Avenue South from 8th Street through the intersection of South 7th Street as well as South 7th Street from the alley south to First Avenue South on Friday, September 4th, 2026 from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. for the Raise the Roof Block Party. Administration recommended approval provided the following conditions are met. Proper insurance was provided naming City of Escanaba as additional insured and the event sponsor provides all labor and materials to clean up the conclusion of the event.

Motion to approve. Support. Discussion?

All in favor? Aye. Thank you. New business item number eight, discussion interim city manager agreement. City manager.

City council will discuss an extension of the interim city manager agreement.

Melissa, do you want to add anything in addition to this?

I guess I would just say that, you know, the original agreement when it was presented and approved, I think the anticipation was that this thing wasn't going to last through our audit, which is becoming increasingly clear that that's happening. You know, trying to do both of these jobs and audit prep and everything is proving to take a lot of time, a lot more time than anticipated, so, you know, I think it was appropriate to bring that back and get some feedback on it.

Is it fair to ask how many extra hours a week you're putting on?

Oh, my gosh. I could go back and look on my timesheets and see, but the last couple weeks I've been working at home on my laptop until 9, 9.30 at night. putting in hours on the weekends, and yeah, it's been a lot. A lot of emails, lots of meetings, lots of phone calls. A lot more than I anticipated, to be honest.

Well, I think you've been doing a fantastic job. I think that this is going to be a smooth transition, and I appreciate all your efforts and your extra hours. I move approval.

I'll support it.

Further discussion on this item? Mr. Dominguez, please call the roll. Council Member Moore?

Yes.

Council Member Mosha? Yes. Council Member Dubord? Yes. Council Member Flod? Yes. Mayor Randall? Yes.

New business item number nine. Mr. Lampe will do his very best to give us a street update because all of the citizens of Escanaba are very anxious to hear about asphalt, which is not something anybody had on their bingo cards at any point in their lives, but we're going to be very excited to see asphalt.

You have to forgive me because I'm winging it. I'm not at all prepared. I'll start with Five Star. They're working on the south side mainly. It's all in restoration stages. All of the construction for lead service lines have halted, and it's all in restoration. Contract ends August 29th. Punch list items go to September 15th. Jeff, what's a punch list item? Issues, concerns. Okay, thank you. And it's long and lengthy and detailed. And you've been hounding them to make sure that our citizens are taken care of, correct? I'm being very, very stringent and keeping a high standard. And I don't think they can wait to get out of town. Good job. We did not get as many lead service lines as we wanted done from the hip. I'm going to think we're 400, maybe 600 shy of what we expected to do this summer. Makes me very sad because it's going to cost us more tomorrow to get that deadline met.

Is there great rationale for why we felt that far short?

I don't want to throw anybody under the bus, but every meeting for the last 18 months, 20 months, we got more crews coming. We got six crews coming. We got this crew coming. Next week, we're going to have somebody here. It was week after week, month after month of what I call, well, I won't call it the same here, empty promises. Regardless, by the time they finally started putting the numbers out, I said, whoa, time out. You've got four weeks to reconstruct and restore. How are you going to get pavement on the ground and sidewalk and curbs? So we had to halt. They're feverishly trying to do restoration. I'm sure that 90% of the people that have five star have complaints about the straw and the grass and the restoration of the topsoil. Regardless, five star is what it is. We're going to get as many as we can get done, good restoration or not. I'm hounding them every day. A lot of the asphalt they put in a couple days ago got removed and rejected to be redone because they didn't meet our standards. So I don't know how many tons they had to pull out of their patches, but We're doing our best to hold them to high standards.

I'm glad to hear that, thank you.

ARPA 1, which is water main and lead service line with Oberstar, went really well. We've exhausted all of that money, and we did really well there. Oberstar is a good company. I hope that they want to come do more work here.

Pause for a moment, just briefly. When you say we've exhausted all the money, for everybody that doesn't do your job on a daily basis, that means that we... used up as much of the grant money that we could, so we maximized that opportunity for our community, correct?

We used every dollar of grant money, and I hope we're going to keep it to around 40,000, 50,000 over. I'm not exactly sure where we are, but they did go over a little bit, but the speed of construction is hard to gauge that dollar amount and make sure it's within limits.

Jeff, but the four or 600 lead service lines that weren't replaced, isn't that grant money that has to be returned now?

Well, it's going to have to be replaced with debt or great money.

Right, but it's grant money that will have to be returned? Correct.

I'm not sure if it's $3 million or $5 million, but it's money that we're not going to be able to take advantage of. And sadly, we have to figure out means and strategies to replace those lines in the future. And we've got like nine or ten years to do this. We'll do what we can. I'll keep looking for any means of forgiveness or grant money as we go along, but it's bleak. I've been pretty sad the last three months on that aspect. Ludington Street, let's just get cheerful. There's supposed to be asphalt going down August 26th, 24th timeframe from 9th Street to 16th. That's gonna get paved and done. There's curb on between sixth and ninth that is happening. All the concrete's supposed to be done there. That asphalt is currently scheduled for September 3rd. Everything goes well. It'll be done by the sixth or seventh. We are trying to get the two different contractors that put the paint down on Ludington to, mobilize quickly so we can paint the street and open it. If we have a long delay between asphalt and paint, we're gonna open up Ludington, but if we have a small three or four, five day window, we're gonna keep it closed to facilitate the paint and then open it up. There's still some concrete, west of 9th that has to be redone. So even though there's going to be some asphalt, there's going to be a little bit of removal done to make some corrective action. But I'm sure everyone's interested in Ludington. And I'm very optimistic, throwing a date out there, September 12th, September 15th, I hope that everything's in. The trees are going in August 31st. There's asphalt going by Lemmer School on 6th Avenue. Tomorrow, weather pending. If that doesn't work, I don't know what we're gonna do for the school because they're gonna be conflicted and bound up. We're gonna have to figure out how to get the buses into the school. Everything's coming together. Everything's really good on... You know, short of the lost opportunity for the grant money, everything's coming to a close. And then Melissa's poor work of closing and doing the reports and all that financial garbage that she has to go through is gonna be at a very rapid pace for ARPA 1 and ARPA 2. Clean water, we have a little bit longer to clean up the paperwork. But between all the punch lists, and anybody has any complaints, I mean, call. Let us know what your concerns are. We take the address, we take the name, we take the phone number, and we send it to the appropriate contractor. We put it on the punch list. Just because you call doesn't mean it's going to get addressed. or mitigated but it's gonna be looked at and discussed and disputed whether it's a valid claim and we do something or maybe the contractor denies it and then it comes to the next level and they put a claim on the city and then the city goes to war. The city meaning Melissa. Right now I'm doing all the battling but when there's an actual claim that's denied by the contractor, it goes to the controller and to the city insurance and then it goes to a higher level. But by all means, if you have concerns or complaints, we're trying to address all the grass, the restoration. We're doing our best, but we don't know of everything. And I hate to tell people to call me, but call. Let us know your issue so we can get it on the punch list. We also have one more portion at Chicago Northwestern Station. It's a lift station by Northern Machine. It goes underneath the railroad tracks. We've been waiting for months for flaggers. We are installing a bypass there so that it's ready-made hookup. So we just hook up a bypass pump and pump it if the station goes bad or if, when we get the money to replace it, we have an easy means of bypassing. So that is still going to happen. Again, everything's going good. Worst case scenario, something really goes bad with paving, and we're stuck waiting for asphalt in October. Worst case scenario right now. That's why we've got plan B with the parade route on October 9th. Looking at the Boniface thing, they're going to be paving those very same days on Ludington at that street, so hopefully it works out well with the Boniface event, but... Again, optimistic. September 12th, September 15th, I hope Ludington's open. Thank you. Questions? Thank you.

Moving on to appointments. I'm going to list off current vacancies because there are conflicts with the processes on both the Escanaba Tree Advisory Board and with the Housing Commission that we will have to sort out, so we will postpone appointments to another meeting. So at this point in time, there are still three vacancies available on Escanaba Tree Advisory Board. There are applications coming in, but if you decide that this is something you wanna do, you can apply. or you can take one of the two vacancies on the Housing Commission, or one vacancy on the Planning Commission, or one of the two alternate vacancies on the Zoning Board of Appeals. Moving on to Board Commission and Committee Reports.

The Planning Commission met last week. As we're all aware, the Planning Commission declined or denied the homeless shelter rezoning the property. I'll leave it at that.

I attended the Housing Commission on Tuesday. We did go ahead and pass the fiscal year budget, so it goes into effect October 1st.

We have no reports. Do we have announcements? I hope everybody paid attention when we read off the date and the time of the homecoming parade, because that always seems to be a great point of confusion on the day of. Also, if you didn't notice, the UB State Fair is in town, so please be aware of the traffic load on that area. This time we'll hear general public comment. If you wish to make comment, please approach the podium, state your name, place of residence.

Hi, my name is Kim Strom. I live at 202 North 15th Street in Escanaba. And I'm also the Homeless Services Outreach Worker for Community Action Agency. And I wanted to share a little bit about what we are doing. We've got a couple of new programs. And we've got some new information to let people know what we're doing. But between the programs, we can only serve about six to eight households of the longer term programs that are called master leasing and rapid rehousing. And I typically work with about 30 households. So it definitely falls short. But I also wanted to share a success story of somebody that did spend some time in the motel and was able to get a lot done. But if I could hand these to you, if you'd care to. See what we're doing, that's that. So last winter in January, there was a real serious cold snap. And during that time, we called all of the clients that we knew were sleeping in their cars, sleeping in places not meant for human habitation, and we got them in the motel. Despite it depleting a lot of our funding, we ran out long before the fiscal year ended, but we had to make sure that those people were safe. So we got a letter from one of the people that we put in the motel during that time. Says to the community action team, I want to take a moment to express my sincere gratitude for the support you provided me during one of the most destabling periods of my life. On January 9th, I lost my job. Within days, I also lost my housing. what could have easily spiraled into long-term homelessness and crisis instead became a period of stabilization and rebuilding, largely because of community actions intervention. And I just want to pause and say this is an exception to the rule. This is a very well-written letter, and he, yeah. So I'll just, the emergency motel placement during the extreme cold snap was not just a roof over my head, it was the difference between survival mode and functional recovery. Because I had a warm private place to sleep, shower, regulate, think clearly, I was able to take meaningful action instead of simply reacting to crisis. During the period of assistance, I was able to file and follow through on my unemployment claim, secure Medicaid within the first week after job loss, complete required identity verification documentation, engage with Michigan Works and resolve compliance issues, apply for housing opportunities, obtain my SNAP benefits and stabilize food access, refill and maintain necessary prescriptions, apply for multiple jobs, schedule and begin consistent therapy sessions, and maintain his vehicle and insurance so he could legally travel to appointments and job opportunities. Most importantly, I remained regulated, proactive, and engaged with every available resource. Rather than becoming overwhelmed or incapacitated by stress, and exposure to severe winter conditions. And this gentleman was sleeping in his truck at the time. The motel vouchers did more than provide shelter. They provided stability. That stability allowed me to function with dignity, maintain momentum, and continue participating in the systems designed to help me regain independence. Because of your assistance, I am now receiving weekly unemployment benefits and am positioned to pursue sustainable remote employment while working with vocational rehabilitation services. I have housing options, income in place, and a clear path forward. I genuinely believe that without the timely support from community action, my situation could have deteriorated significantly. Instead, I am rebuilding with structure, accountability, and hope. Thank you for being the kind of organization that steps in at precisely the moment where intervention changes outcomes. Your work matters in real, measurable ways. So, um, I just wanted in, um, you know, I saying that that's exactly what, what shelter is meant for to stabilize a person. So they're not worrying every night to night where they're going to sleep and, and consumed with that. How can you get anything else done? Um, and, uh, you know, he, he used it wisely. Um, he had a vehicle though, and he was able to do a lot of things that a lot of our clients aren't able to do because they're on foot. Most of them are socks are the biggest request I get. because they have foot issues, they walk so much. So we hope that wherever there's a homeless shelter, where it's placed, that it's not a barrier to accessing services that they need. A lot of them are downtown, like Community Action, DHS, Secretary of State, Michigan Rehab Services, which is like Michigan Works, but they work with people with disabilities. St. Vincent de Paul, you know, and other, yeah, so those are the main ones. Legal aid is down there. But yeah, we just, we hope that when a shelter does come to Escanaba that our clients are, or their clients are able to get done what they need to get done and get to where they need to go. and that they have a place to rest so they can do those things. So I appreciate your time. Thank you.

Hi, my name is Jim Sankovich, business owner, Sankovich Installers, Sankovich Homes. Retired to my son. Father, mother, Rosemary John Sankovich, born and raised in this town. For those who don't recognize it, or let's go on here. I am one of the founders of Hope on Horizon 906. along with Lori Caskey Hammer, veterinarian. We had a calling of a need for shelter in our community. Started the process about two and a half years ago with the city manager and Joey upstairs. Told them what we were thinking about. So the city did know about us doing this two and a half years ago. It's not something that was out of the, I was here in this city hall having a meeting the other day with a commissioner about a housing shortage. Wanted to put some houses in around $300,000. I didn't see any problem with that. We can do that. But the problem that we found out with Mr. Lampe was there. that the land that was there is more of a shallow wetlands type for the development that we need would have to have foundations and that type of thing, where you would have to go slab on grade, which I call those whole barn dominions, which they're out there, but they're not a qualified house to a home. You have cold floors, insulation problems. So in the two and a half years, we had been looking for a building that we could do it, talking to Joey, things weren't in there. Then he calls us and tells us they found a master plan that this was in 2013, but it was in the cloud. Somebody buried it? I have no idea. But being on the business side, building, the building that we did find, It's been sitting empty for two and a half years on 10th Street, decaying. I keep watching buildings fall down, burn down, that type of thing. We're here to try to make an amazing building out of something that is decaying for people that are in this community that are in need. We are trying to give them services, community action, the others. But I want to just make a point that my name is Jim Sankovich so that you can put a face with me and with Laura Caskey-Hammer and the other people that are behind us 100%. And with the meeting that we had the other night with the Planning Commission, there were a lot of people here for the meeting, for us. Thank you.

Hi, my name is Shelly Wagner. I live at 9109 Bayshore Drive in Kipling, Michigan. And I'd just like to say that I have strong support for Hope on the Horizon. We need this facility desperately to offer support, safety, and shelter to our homeless people. This location is great, offering services much needed to the homeless that are nearby. The building is just sitting empty. And wouldn't it be a wonderful thing to bring a wonderful opportunity for the homeless people of our area to have a place to get warm and off the street. We wouldn't walk by a dog on the street that's freezing without calling the Humane Society and asking them can we bring it over so it can have warmth and food. We need to be more caring and loving towards our neighbors. There's many people homeless from all walks of life. It's just not because they don't want it that they're on drugs or they don't want to work. You've got women and children and husbands, people who've lost their jobs. Many, many circumstances, mentally ill. We don't have mental health facilities anymore. Prisons just lock people up. And I think that what Lori is wanting to implement is the most wonderful thing. They want to stabilize the homeless people and they want to offer them life skills so that maybe they can get back on their feet and do something with their life. And I know Lori and if she is committed, if anybody is committed, Lori, and they are just the people to do it. I'm willing to volunteer and help in any way that I can. Our winters are brutally cold here, as we all know. And so I'm just praying that there is some way that this can move forward and we can provide a home for these people. It can be temporary. Let's just get them off the street for a night, get them fed, get them warm. You just can't let people just wander with no hope. And I'm just praying that people will want to help and be part of this cause. And I'm in support and I feel blessed to be part of this cause and I'd like to help them moving forward. Thank you.

Hello, my name is Lori Caskey-Hammer from 14th Road in Escanaba. I am with Hope on the Horizon 906, helping to start a transitional housing facility in Escanaba. I dedicate my efforts to my son, John Carl Hammer. He was a 2013 graduate, top in his class, Lead in the school play, voted most likely to become a president and make a million dollars. He was scouted by Harvard, Yale, and MIT. At 18, he developed pot-induced psychosis. Cannabis made his brain not work correctly. Abnormal thought patterns, abnormal behavior, and paranoia. Went undiagnosed for approximately eight years. Finally diagnosed on the healing path, he was killed in 2022. He taught me a lot in those eight years about life, when it turns against you. when you are no longer accepted when everything you thought you had in front of you is taken away from you, when you had no path forward that you could see, when depression takes over, when you question why you exist, when you cannot hold a job to make enough money to live anywhere so you take to the streets, when the disability money you did start to receive can't pay the rent, alone let food, clothing, utilities, or basic expenses be met, how he had gotten from being a favored friend to someone that no one would respond to. How he'd learned to look away, look down when passing people on the street, as if it was easier to avert his eyes, he said, than to see the discomfort in the face of those that tried to avoid looking at him. Well, deep in the midst of his illness, He went to volunteer feeding people at Room at the Inn and the Salvation Army. He said he was grateful that he had us, his parents, to rely on for help during bad times, as most of these people in shelters had no one to count on. Whether they were in the shelter due to mental illness, lack of money, addiction, life hardships, aging issues, or chronic health problems, everyone deserves dignity, respect, and basic human kindness, as well as shelter, food, and water. In 2023, we started researching homeless shelters and looking at properties. In late 2024 and 2025, early on, we met with the city manager and the planning administrator. It has been a lesson in misdirection from the city from that point till now. We researched the needs of this type of facility and found everything we needed in the building at 113 South 10th Street. It is an E. neighboring Zone C, and this building allows the space we need. We requested rezoning to C. The Planning Commission recommended to turn it down. We are allowed by right to be in C with no restrictions, so we will start on that path. The attorney that has been guiding us in the formation of the nonprofit agreed. If the city does find alternative property and it meets all of the listed needs we discussed at the zoning meeting and it is spot zoned to C with no restrictions, we will gladly work with the city. Our concern is the city planning commission and the city council working to change the existing non-restrictive zoning allowance in C to make it difficult to establish that type of facility in C when it is allowed now by right. Together, let us be the solution. Thank you.

Hi, Chris DeSalvo, 620 South 9th Street, Escanaba. I was one of those people at the Planning Commission meeting who witnessed the opposition to doing something in that area for the homeless. Many were like, I'm all for helping the homeless. I just don't want it by me. That's not a good, that doesn't go together. That area has all the resources like they said. Winter's coming. This is another fact that's gonna face everybody. They've got a plan. This group's got it together. They've been working toward this. I think we need to really think long and hard about how we help our neighbors and support this system that they have in mind.

Hello, my name is Andrew Hayes. I live at 2517 South 2nd Street in the city of Escanaba. I'm standing here today because I'm running for district court judge for Delta County, but I had heard about the discussions about homelessness and wanted to speak on that issue as well as my candidacy. I come from a family with a lot of privilege. I am an attorney. I have two brothers who are attorneys. I have a sister who is a doctor, a sister who is a librarian, cousins who are engineers, preschool teachers, and the like. Our great-grandfather died on a park bench downstate because he was homeless, he was suffering from mental illness, and he died of exposure. So I very much appreciate the efforts of the board in looking at all the issues. I know it's a complicated topic. It has a lot that goes into it, but it's an issue that touches not only, you know, people who you think of as other, but people who in this community who, you know, it affects normal everyday people. I'd like to speak on a related topic that's part of my platform because homelessness and mental illness often go together. Many people who are experiencing homeless also experiencing mental illness. We've seen a lot of success in district court with the drug court with the ability to give resources to people who are looking for betterment of their lives and to get over the substantial substance abuse issues that they have. I'd like to, if I were elected judge, to expand upon those successes that Drug Court has seen and offer the same opportunities for those who are dealing with mental illness. for our veterans who are dealing with PTSD. We have the infrastructure as part of the courts in order to deal with these issues, having Judge Parks made Drug Court and all the people that worked hard to make sure that it was up and running. We can use that same infrastructure to bring the same successes two more people uh if i were elected i'd also like to see a public interest internship come to the courthouse specifically for the judges uh i'm originally a troll uh i came up here and married my wife uh darby beckon now darby hayes um she's an eskanaba lifelong resident parents, Sue and Brian Beckin, grandparents, Jean and Frank Barris. But I got indoctrinated to the Uber way and to the indisputable fact that this is God's country. And I'd like to take a couple of young bright eyed trolls who are going to law school, indoctrinate them the same way that I was and bring up some new attorneys in town to be able to provide services. Because if you talk to our elected prosecutor, you talk to our public defenders and everyone else in town, there isn't enough representation to cover all the issues that Delta County citizens, that City of Escanaba citizens have. And I'd like to bridge that gap. Thank you very much.

Further public comment at this time? Seeking motion to go into recess.

Yeah, motion to go into recess before we go into closed session.

All in favor?

Aye.

Okay, so.

Yeah.

You're going to do a separate closed session motion after the recess, right?

Sorry?

You're going to do a closed session motion after the recess, right?

Yes. Yep. We're going to go to a closed session, yes. Once we get back. Perfect.

Just want to make sure.

Motion to come out of recess.

Support. All in favor? Aye.

Make a motion to go into closed session to consider material exempt from discussion of disclosure by statute under MCL15.268C, identified as negotiation of a collective bargaining agreement. Support.

Discussion? All in favor?

Excuse me.

Roll call, please. Council Member Duborg? Yes. Council Member Flaa? Yes. Council Member Moore? Yes. Council Member Beauchamp? Yes. There I am.