City Council - Regular Meeting

I guess I know she didn't ask me. Good evening, can you hear me OK? Thank you.

Call order this meeting of the Escanaba City Council September 17th, 2026. Spicer please call roll.

Council Member Dubard?

Here.

Council Member Beauchamp? Here. Council Member Flath?

Here.

Council Member Moore? Here. Mayor Yamal?

Here. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. At this time, seeking approval and or corrections to the minutes of the regular meeting of September 3rd, 2026. So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. Thank you. At this time, seeking approval and or adjustments to the current agenda as written.

Mr. Mayor, looking to remove new business number four as we have found an internal solution. Support.

All in favor? Aye. 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. At this time, we'll hear a 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. Currently have no public hearings on the docket, no unfinished business on the docket. Moving on to new business item number one, approval grant match commitment, city manager.

City Council will consider a renewal of a grant match commitment of $37,000 for the purchase of a variety of flowers, pots, and baskets to be placed on Ludington between the 200 block and 900 block. Enhance Escanaba will seek out a grant for $25,000 to cover the remaining costs. The city may be named as a primary applicant of the grant with Enhance Escanaba as the co-applicant if needed. This commitment should remain in effect through the current fiscal year ending June 30, 2027. In October of 2025, Enhance Escanaba had already received a commitment of $37,000 for this grant, but it's been a year now, and she's ready to start looking for some other funding opportunities, so it was a good idea to bring this back for a renewal of the commitment of city funds.

DDA Director, are you in support of this? Thank you.

I just want to add, too, that $25,000 grant would be the minimum. If I end up finding a larger grant, then less of that $37,000 would be used. So that's kind of seed money. Commitment from the city. We have a huge commitment from the DDA. And then, of course, Enhance Escanaba is going to participate, too.

So move approval. I'll second it.

Karen, I think I mentioned to you one of the comments or feedback I'm getting from the public is that they see city crews with a tanker truck out watering. Can you help explain that?

Yeah, and Craig can confirm this. So the watering duties for the flowers comes from the DDA, and the DDA pays the city employees to water. And if you see the city employees watering trees down in the park, Enhance Escanaba has paid them to do that too. So there is nothing that is coming out of city funds for watering.

Thank you. Further discussion on this item? No. So as you please call roll.

Council Member Flath? Yes. Council Member Dubor?

Yes.

Council Member Beauchamp? Yes. Council Member Moore? Yes. Mayor Yamo?

Yes. New business item number two, approval hosted phone lease, IT administrator.

Administration is seeking council approval of a five-year hosted phone system lease with DS Tech of Escanaba, Michigan. The new phone system will include installation, setup, labor and training. This will replace our current system that will expire along with the new phone system warranty support. We have three payments left on the current system. The current system has been a bit problematic for us and so we're really looking to move into something that's going to be a little bit more user friendly. So Phil did demo a couple of different options. and selected the option with DSTEC.

One comment or question. I have the background information that Mr. DeMay provided. He referred to remote workers. Please tell me we don't. Yeah, we don't have any remote workers.

Okay, thank you. Thank you. We do not.

Motion to approve. Support. Discussion? Supervisor, please call roll.

Councilmember Dubor?

Yes.

Councilmember Moore? Yes. Councilmember Beauchamp? Yes. Councilmember Flaa? Yes. Mayor Emel?

Yes. New business item number three, approval alley paving of 200 and 400 blocks off of South Leadington Street. Public Works.

Administration is seeking council approval to hire Payne and Dolan for $42,875 to pave two alleys located on the south side of Ludington Street between 2nd and 3rd Streets and 4th and 5th Streets. So these alleys were in fairly bad condition. And then we had lead service line replacements through the alleys as well. So they are currently gravel. They should have been paved last year and they got missed. So we're looking to get those done with Payne and Dolan before the snow flies this year. And some of that will be covered by the water department for the area that they disturbed for the lead lines.

So we'll be paving these with asphalt?

Yes.

Repaving. Correct. They were paved. They were paved previously.

They're gravel right now. They will go back to asphalt, yes.

I'll make a motion to approve.

Support.

Discussion.

Swizer, please call roll.

Council Member Beauchamp. Yes. Council Member Moore. Yes. Council Member Dubourg. Yes. Council Member Flott. Yes. Mayor Amel.

Yes. Moving on to appointments. We have. Two applicants up for council approval for the Housing Commission. We have Linda Heitman and Christine DiSalvo.

Council?

I have no objection. Okay. Does this notification come from the clerk's office to them or from the manager's office to them?

I think it comes from the clerk's office.

Okay, so you'll make those notifications to them?

Yes.

Thank you very much. And that's going to cover the two vacancies. There, we still have one vacancy on the Planning Commission and we have two alternate vacancies on the Zoning Board of Appeals. Moving on to Board, Commission, and Committee Reports.

Okay, me neither.

General public comment, if you wish to make comment, please approach the podium, state your name, place of residence. Hearing none, move on to Announcements.

all right come on who wants to say it you can i i did yesterday i was what the luddington street i was just going to apologize for for missing it hey you should it was your idea i wasn't expecting it to be scheduled the day i'm out of town no but thank you thank you for the suggestion i think it worked out well mr warhol

cooperated with the high school. We got the marching band down there, which is great. A lot of the kids came out from the U, the little kids, and they participated in the countdown, which I think was the most meaningful part for them, because they had to count down. But they did a great job. They really did.

I was surprised at the turnout, looking at the daily press and stuff, the photos.

So the cupcake people said they brought 600 cupcakes, and they left with none.

Perfect. That's great.

And I just want to say, this is just a, Huge, wonderful example of small town celebrations. It was perfect.

It went off very well.

The only other thing I would mention is, again, I've got a prior commitment, so I won't be at next Thursday's meeting, joint meeting with the Planning Commission.

Very good. Anything else? Karen, you're not going to be here October 1st? No. Just a reminder, the homecoming parade will be on October 9th. That's a Friday on October 9th, it's at 5 p.m. We're just gonna get that out there several times, because there's always questions of when is the homecoming parade, and it's Friday, October 9th at 5 p.m. Seeking motion to adjourn. So moved. Second.