Council - Regular Meeting

Everyone else

Heat. Heat. Welcome everybody to the special city council work session for May 18th, 2026. Marie, would you call the role? Fritz here. Calio here. Lion here. Dora here.

Manza here. Our uh work session this evening involves the uh an update on the status of the diesel plant project. Uh Dana, would you like to set the stage for this?

Yes, thank you. Um so in after a competitive bidding process in 2023, the city formally uh closed on uh the former diesel plant building and sold that to um CL Red Lakewood at that time. Um since then, um changes to the ownership, uh structure and work behind the scenes to envision an economically viable project have been ongoing. Um here this evening, we do have representatives of the project that are going to speak to what's been occurring behind the scenes. um what work that they've been doing um what some of the challenges and opportunities and share uh where they are in the status of the project and uh make a presentation on um what they would propose for the site moving forward. Um so I'm going to turn it over to them and switch over um to some slides.

Good evening members of council. Thank you for having us. I'm Kyle Angers with Lakewood Construction. Uh whether you were on some of you were on the committee back then. Uh some of you are new. Uh appreciate you guys having us in. Um so like Dana said, a handful of years ago uh we began the process of doing our best to salvage uh the building, reuse it in the existing form. Um and we were we really looked very hard tirelessly for uh the proper tenant. Um we looked at the primary focus was an event center and a restaurant concept with possibly some residents uh on site. We entered two different uh letters of intent with um end users that went through due diligence process uh and ultimately were unsuccessful. uh both were very remained very excited about the project and the opportunity. They still check in from time to time, but just from a financial standpoint, it was very hard to make that all work even with the incentives that we were able to the incentive package that we're able to put together. Um there's never been a time that I haven't remained excited about this project. Uh you can check with a whole lot of people including John who will who will talk next. Um it's been a passion of mine since the first day I saw that uh building come up for uh RFP in 2020. Uh it was about two weeks before that I was down in Florida and experienced a very similar building that was constructed within um about a year of that building. And it's an extremely, you know, exact same architecture, same uh construction type, and they were able to pull that off and and reuse it. It just about bankrupted one of the developers when they did it. So, we spent some time

meeting with them. Uh and so that was that was kind of the vision that we had. Um and we definitely ran down that road very hard to try and see that vision come to fruition. Um but over the last number of years, you know, as we've struck out a handful of times, um the partner that we were working with, CL out of Chicago, uh on the ownership side of CL, there were some health issues, uh health complications that caused them to kind of reimagine their investment structure and pool. And so they came to us and said, "Hey, here's just kind of what's going on in our um organization right now." on and we're looking to divest out of a handful of properties. Um this being one of them. So at at first um I was a little saddened by that. Um but as as the Lord had it, John also was calling me uh within probably a week's time frame of that, not knowing that we were going through that process and talking and having those conversations. and he said, "Hey, Kyle, pretty sure the conversation was pretty close to this. I live right around the corner, as I told you years before. I drive by that every day. And I just I want to be a part of what goes on there." And um I said, "John, as the Lord would have it, uh here's what we're dealing with right now." And so that entered a um a pretty quick phase for us to slide out CL and slide in Capstone. Um through that process, we walked them through the road we had been down. Um showed them the the possible tenants that we had, the letters of intent that you know, all this effort. Um, we figured out the exact makeup and

structure of the roof and the um, structural integrity and we had panels tested. We took concrete panels uh, that were set aside um, outside the building. We found they're kind of covered in reads, but we had those stress tested. So, we knew exactly the pre-cast uh, thickness, structure, the reinforcement that was in there. And then we analyzed each of the roof trusses. Um we figured out the extent of um asbestous uh and yeah again went down that road as far as we could but the proforma just couldn't make it feasible uh and so when we walked through that again with them we said okay why don't we start reinvisioning uh a couple more concepts here um and I think that's what we'll you want to probably talk through here so I'll turn it over to John from capsule Hello. Uh, is this formal my address and all that again?

Yeah, who are you?

Yeah, John Groise, 115 Sherman. So, I am just around the corner. Um, yeah, just kind of going and adding on to what Kyle has spoken to this evening. We actually were involved in with that site several years prior um beginning in 2018 when the BLP um representatives contacted me, contacted Capstone about an interest in that site. So, we actually had a head start um on the rest of the group in terms of where we were at walking through the building and doing some due diligence at the time. So, we've got seven years into this. Um, I didn't really envision a near bankruptcy by trying to uh redevelop the site like Kyle mentioned in Florida, but have always been really excited about the site. Um, I believe I shared with Dana and the mayor four or five months ago an updated proform that we put together and I didn't think it worked in 201819 and it didn't work any better um with current the current environment with costs and so forth. So from that point meeting with Dana and thank you for all our time um we went through a lot of different ideas all of which were outlined in the letter that I um handed in and I don't want to go over each one but we looked at hey could we go back to our original proposal that we submitted in 201920 that was not met with a lot of enthusiasm um so we talked about other things in terms of, you know, from our perspective, even button up buttoning up the building, developing around it. Um, selling the building, which would be a heartbreaker for me after seven years because I really want to see this site revitalized. I want to honor the BLP and

I want it to be something the community is proud of. Um, so we moved on from that fairly quickly. um wasn't but probably three months ago in meeting with Dana light bulb went off and said you know what what if we are allowed to raise it but we rebuild a replica um we try to make this thing look like it did before other than the fact there's new brick um we can pay honor to the BLP with some signage using a flywheel from inside out on the corner and opened any other ideas as it would relate to trying to preserve the uh history and the integrity of what's happened over the years there. Um after all this, I guess I'm here to say what we're proposing is not the way if I had a clean slate that I would go ahead and develop that site. You know, the building uh constraints leave us with very little actually no outdoor amenity for the unit owners. you know, porches would be a deck would be a aberration from what was there before. Building this six, seven units in one building leaves us with interior units that obviously are hard to get light to, which is something we've struggled with our developments in the past. um the commercial component, you know, quite frankly, I uh was a bit surprised that Kyle took my phone call five or six years, you know, ago because although always positive things to say about Lakewood and I knew the history of the company from my banking days down in Holland, um A1 company, we had a little different vision of what we thought would work there in terms of the banquet center and I think I was pretty vocal at the time with those of you on council or working with the city in terms of my reservations with that. And so I was pleased

and excited when Kyle said, "Yeah, hey, let's sit down and have a beer and talk about where we can go with this." Um, because we did not agree with that initial concept. Um, so we're here today. We put a lot of work into this. I just wanted to make that, you know, upfront. Um, I am really excited about it. I'm grateful for the time the city has um taken to talk about it and uh you know to update you on where we are today. I know in the perfect world it's probably not completely ideal, but I tell you what, if we're able to build the building as you've got in your package, it's going to be awful nice and there's going to be a lot of tribute paid to the history of that site. So, guess we'd be um happy and open to answer any questions you guys had tonight that we can can address.

All right. Thanks, John. All right. You've all had a chance to review the packet and um got a little bit of discussion. Anything else from staff on this at this point? Questions from council or comments? Three of us were here when this all started and not here for part of it.

Come and gone. No, I've been here since the building was vacated and it was acquired by the city after the BOP decided to not do anything with it. Um, we did the survey. There were some folks who didn't really think the survey was um was the best of the of what we did, but I I don't know. We had what, if I'm trying to remember right, about 1500 people, I think that responded to it. Um some residents, some that weren't residents. Um I know that they were pretty adamant about what they wanted to see and what they didn't want to see there. um which is kind of why it was sold with some of the stipul stipulations that you're you're very familiar with. Um so to just in one leap move away from that um I'm not quite sure I'm ready to take that step yet. Um, I understand the time, the effort, the money that you spent with many, many developers and trying to come up with something that's feasible for this and not being able to do that. Uh, I also understand we can't save every building in town as much as folks would like to. Um, I did notice in John's letter that um he had given um a copy to Dana. uh he had stated that you know there there are other options but we don't feel like they are the best interest of everyone involved. This is so far the only option I've seen. I haven't heard of any others. I would certainly like to know of others if there are more. Not to say that they're better or worse. Um, I think what you have shown us here is is a very close resemblance to what exists only in modern construction and design. So, um,

I I'm just I'm not quite sure just seeing this over the last couple days that uh I'm ready or the community is ready to say, "Yeah, that's what we would rather have to live with it for a little bit. Mike, you were also here at the time.

Yeah, we um if you if you remember correctly, we did take a lower bid. We didn't take Capstone's bid because they were going to level it because of the uh the uh uh we had everybody that did like you said, Michael, it's 1500 people filled out that and sent it to us and told us what they would like to see there. They didn't want to see what Capstone was presenting to us. It was not not what they wanted to see. It was This is a little bit better view. If you'd done something like this, it probably would have been a lot better, John, to be honest with you. But back then, it was a cons regular construction build on it and wasn't what people in this town wanted. But I'm I'm with Mike. I'm not ready yet quite to uh put a stamp on it for sure yet. That there's other options like you say here. there's other options that you didn't feel that they are in best interest of everybody involved.

But it's still it's kind of sentimental to me a little bit. I spent some time in there with with Mr. Ratimaker when he was in there. So just that's where I'm at. Okay. Not much. Sure. What are your thoughts?

Um, I think that I would love to have the historic council. Um, I would love some input from them just from the sense of what they're trying to work hard at. I think I'm going to have a few steps to this. I think we need to have a more more conversations with historic council to see where we can tighten up some of this so that we can understand eventually where we can get grant money to preserve some of these buildings. Um, on the flip side of it, I think that this is a great representation of kind of like an homage to the original building. Um, I also don't love the fact that you're not building something that you want to build here as the developers, as the experts in what could be the best case scenario um, for this property. So, that's that's a tricky thing. I mean, just the outdoor space, to John's point, is a concern of mine. I think these are very high-end condos, and I hate the idea of limiting something to mimic something that's currently there um and lessen the product itself by doing that. I wish there was a way to incorporate both um an outside space into these. Um what I do love is the fact that there is a commercial space in this. My concern from the beginning has been how do we continue to create kind of connective tissue from our state park to downtown and that currently is a big strip of area that is mostly residential and housing. And I would like to continue to draw people from our

greatest advantage of as a city, the beach, to our downtown and our businesses. Um, and just to keep drawing that. I think this is actually pretty inventive. I think the image I have a feeling if people drove by it and didn't know they probably wouldn't know. They probably wouldn't realize that it was a um a new building. But I I just don't love the idea of you having to develop something to fit a criteria to mimic it completely and then having to lessen your product to do that because if we can't save the building, I'd rather the product be still an homage. I love the BLP signage. I love the marketing that you're associating with it, but um I I don't love that limitation personally.

Yeah. Erin, your thoughts?

Um, yeah. I mean, I really appreciate the thought, like how much thought went into trying to do that homage to the building. Um, I mean, maybe it's not having grown up here, but I don't have any sentimental attachments to the building. So, um, I mean, again, I think it's beautiful, but for me, the first thing I looked at this and I said, "Oh, they built a college campus. Cool." Um, wish we had one. So, if I had driven by this, I would never ever ever have assumed that this was residential living of any kind. Um, I would have thought this was all commercial space just from the outside, right? I mean, I lived um in an old bra factory in Chicago, which was like the coolest thing in the world. Um, and so if that's what we're going for is a very industrial look, that's what I mean, I think that's what this is. But from it looking more like actual homes, I don't think that's what it looks like at all. So, I guess that just kind of depends for me on what we're looking at. Cuz for me, it looks I mean really it looks a lot like what I would expect like a small MCC to look like had it been dropped into Grand Haven, which I think I would love nothing more than for them to do. Um, but I really do appreciate how much went into trying to like literally replicate what that building looks like. And I mean, I understand how hard it would be to truly save that. Watching what little effort went into sadly taking down the old Grand Haven Bank. I mean, the crane barely touched the roof and the entire building collapsed. Um, I mean sad to see it go, but when you look at these old structures, it's hard to see if they are sustainable. Um, I I mean, but again, I just I don't know that the design grabs me, but I mean, I do love an industrial living space. I

lived in one. It was probably the coolest space I ever lived in. Um, I want to know where people are going to park. How is there enough parking here for a commercial space and for all these people to live? Yeah. So, if you look at uh back one slide, I think this is the

each each standalone unit has two parking spaces per unit in the building. And then the larger building there, you can see the parking to my right, um which would be the north, I guess. Each unit there has two parking spaces. nose to tail in the garage. Then I believe there are 15 exterior parking spaces um as you can see outlined there. And Brian can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the parking requirements is one space for So 8 through 19 have parking spaces underneath. Yes. Gotcha. Okay. Two two each.

Okay. And uh we would need I think by code five parking spaces for the restaurant space and we've got 15 there. Did I get that right? We have 15. I just want to make sure I thought those parking spaces were needed for the actual units, not for Okay. appreciate that. I really do. I mean, you guys spent a lot of time.

Okay. All right. So, I want to start by saying that uh I appreciate all the work that Kyle and Lakewood and uh see all Red put into trying to make this work. It was a priority for me in my sense of historical landmarks, significant buildings, things that can be salvaged and used and reused. To me, that's an important thing to try to do. And all along, we went into this with the idea that if it's feasible, let's try to make this building work because people can make old buildings repurposed and work. I appreciate the effort and the time and staying with it for as long as you did. Um, we did when we sold this property, we did sell it at a lower price for because we understood how hard it would be and how expensive it would be to do that. So, we basically sold it for half million dollars less than the next bids or so. I think it went through two rounds of bidding. But anyway, we we sold it significantly less because we knew you would need to invest a lot in it. I appreciate all that effort. I'm disappointed that the way it's gone. I did meet with John and Dana and we talked about what do the numbers really say about making this work and the numbers weren't adding up. Whether they ever added up, I don't know. But as con as as the condos that they're proposing, that would be far too expensive for anybody to buy and live in. That would have been really really difficult to sell. So understand the situation we're in as far as whether the building is sound or not. As far as I know it is, it was built for the ages. It's a it's a very robust building. Uh if it can't be saved, if it's too costly to save or too difficult to turn into something, um the buyell agreement had us trying to save at least a couple of facades. And it appears that that's not worth doing either from the letters I'm reading. Uh so I'm disappointed in all that. And um

at some point you face reality and say, "Well, okay, maybe we maybe we can't do that." So what was important to people in 2001 when we were looking at the proposals and who was um who wanted to do what with the building? Things that were important to us, things were important to people who responded to the surveys were the historic nature of the building, the character of the building, preserving that piece of our past. Maybe a reproduction like this kind of hearkens back enough to that to to save a piece of that sentiment. Um, the other thing people were adamant about was public access to the site and to the building. Uh, people who toured the building loved the space. People who thought that this is a piece of Grand Haven thought, well, it should be the public should be able to get in there. And so, that was another piece of it. Another piece, of course, was that it was like, here's another site that's just going to be more condos. Well, that's kind of where we're back to. uh and that may very well be the most economical economically feasible use for the site. But I I for one would like to see uh a better public access. The commercial space that's in this is small and on the second floor and it really looks like a private space for the building. It doesn't really even look like it's open to the public. So maybe this could be reimagined with a better public access space or larger commercial space or a better plan for it. Uh it looks like basically enough space to make another condo is set aside for commercial space here. Again, that may be the practical nature of it. I understand that we had in our by sell agreement, we had certain provisions which were supposed to survive the closing and um we're being asked to kind of set those aside and go with something that's going to be practical and be a good asset to the to the city. Um, we had a right of first refusal, which has

not come up and which the city frankly doesn't want to exercise that I know of. So, we're kind of in a situation here where we had hoped to see something really significant done at that site, something that would be um kind of a landmark development for us. It's not going to work out that way. So, we have to decide what direction to go with it. So, I would still like to see I like to see the nod to the historic character. And this is to me it's a nice looking building the way they've envisioned it. I'd like to see better access for the public to it. Not just strictly the residential character, but a mixed use of some sort there. Um, and I'd like to see some I'd like to see some conversation around that the fact that we did sell this at a lower price and basically that was for nothing. I I still have some concerns. I think that this is a good faith effort and I think that this could be a very nice development, but I I'm think um we need to build on this because we're probably not going to build on the original concept. So, that's kind of where I'm at with this. I don't have better direction at this point in time. But, um I I do appreciate the hard work everyone has done and I think everybody has acted in the best of faith. So, at that point, I don't I don't know if you were looking for more from council at this time. John or Kyle, would you like to say what you'd like to hear from us at this point?

Yeah, that's uh have to uh think that question through for a minute. Okay. Um we we've got about two more minutes here and then I have to start the meeting.

Yeah, I'm not sure what to ask for. I mean, we can look at making that public space more visible and accessible, I think, in some way. Hopefully. Um, I would like to touch on other things like that survey, but I've done that in exhaustion, you know, seven years ago. Um, I do know the neighbors, the immediate neighbors surrounding this, I think, submitted 20 plus letters in support of our original concept. So, the people that are affected most by what's going to happen here, I don't think we're opposed um to what we're looking at. And I'm going to say it anyways, but that survey that was put out was flawed. Um, it basically said, "Would you like to save the building?" It didn't say at what cost, at what use. Um, it it basically asked for an answer in terms of how it was responded to. Um, I just, yeah, I guess the only thing just some clear direction on what we need to do in your eyes to try to push this forward would be greatly appreciated. Um, I probably gotten as much as I could from Dana over the last six months and and you know, welcome the opportunity to hear from the group here on what we can do.

And I appreciate you presenting this publicly so that the people of Grant even know what's going on. We get a lot of questions. There's been nothing specific for us to address, but coming here and presenting this as you have done. I think that's a a really good move, really good faith effort and appreciate that a lot.

Yeah. I I just want to say I appreciate all your comments. Um we get it. We understand it's been a lot of time and effort. um working through this project and I I just want to make sure it's it's not lost on you guys to recreate this structure and that look comes at a significant cost. Um so, you know, I hear your comments continually relating back to Capstone's initial proposal. In my mind, this is very different. Um, it's a much larger structure trying to replicate a different structure, not small independent structures kind of all over the site, but happy to engage in further conversation there. And you know, when you say public space, public access, uh, I I hear two things and so I just wanted to see if I could get a little bit more out of you, uh, mayor. there's the access to the commercial space up on the second floor and we can certainly um still pay homage to BLP and maybe soften what I heard from uh one of the council members as well soften the look on the front maybe provide some better access to that commercial space but is there also a desire for you know like a small public space on the corner and I think this image is perfect here for you to comment on is there another angle too.

I guess I was thinking in terms of a play public a place where the public can come in and interact with the space whether it's a commercial space or something else. Okay. To me that would mean something and give people an opportunity to enjoy the site other than just the people who live there. Okay. Seeing a small commercial space on the second floor without a direct access, it's like uh not really. Okay. I wasn't I wasn't sure if we could do something on the corner that would, you know, give some public space. Um, well, maybe there's some imagination that needs to be exercised here. I think imagination is a good word. So, okay. Nope. Okay. Appreciate that. Just throwing out an idea there. Yep. Okay. Thank you.

All right. Um, unless there's something quick someone else wants to say, we do need to start a regular meeting. So, I think we'll move on. If if anyone would like to take this up again a regular meeting, we could or we could say that we've had this conversation. Okay, we're going to close the work session at this point and we're going to open our regular city council meeting soon as I get to the right page in my So, welcome everybody to the regular city council meeting for May 18th, 2026. Marie, would you call the role? Fritz here. Calio here. Lion here. Dora here. Manza here.

Uh let's see. Do we have an invocation this evening? No. Okay. Well, would you please stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance?

I pledge allegiance 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. Thank you. Brings us to the approval of the consent and regular agendas. Can I get a motion, please? Moved and second. Motion by Dora, a second by Fritz. Changes to the agendas. Anyone?

I would um I don't know. Do I have to move or make a motion or um I would like to move the item D um and E to the regular agenda to new business? Yeah, I don't know if D is unfinished business or new business, but um I don't know, Maria, would that be unfinished business then? Um, it would be new business because you've not seen there's not been a motion on this yet. Okay. So, they both go to new business. Yep. Okay. Um, do we have a second for that? Second that.

Okay. Motion by Calio, second by Lions to move items 11D and 11E to new business. Any questions on that? Please call the RO. Calio, yes. Lion, yes. Dora, yes. Fritz, yes. Manza, yes. Okay. Any other changes to the agendas? If not, would you please call the role? Dora, yes. Fritz, yes. Lion, yes. Calio, yes. Vanetsza, yes. All right. Um, was there any interest in discussing our work session any further?

I think I'd just like to make sure that we have a plan that we can have some kind of working dialogue moving forward. Um, I hate the idea of the developers having to leave and not having any clear kind of understanding of what we just discussed. So, I'm not sure what we're allowed to do, but well, maybe like a work like a work session. Yeah, I think we'll staffwise look to meet with the development team and debrief on that dialogue. uh formulate next step plans based on what we heard and then come back to you with where we're at and what we'll look at going forward. Okay.

Yeah. And if we if sitting to go sitting down around a table in a work session format makes sense, we can do that because we didn't give them a whole lot of direction initial reactions. I I I don't feel like we did and I feel like we gave them five kind of different versions. Well, there's because there's five of us. Yeah. Isn't that crazy? as for ask five people. I agree with you though. So you as far as wrapping up our work session, I think that's a good idea to follow up with developers and come back to us and we can arrange some kind of a meeting where we can talk in more detail and with more direction and we can have a better reaction to it. But I thought it was important to get this out publicly.

So thank you again for that. Okay, so that's our continuation of the work session. Brings us to our first call to the audience. This time, members of the audience may address council on any item whether on the agenda or not. Those addressing council are asked to provide their name and address be asked to be limited to 3 minutes of speaking time. Council hear all comments for future consideration will not have a response at this time. Those not physically present who would like to call in by dial 616-9353203 who would like to address councel. Good evening. My name is Cecil Bradshaw. Uh I live at 31 Sherman Avenue, which is in the Sandpiper condos, which happens to be right next door to the subject uh that you just covered in your work session. So, this redevelopment project has been going on now for six years. And um since uh I'm a neighbor and we have a vested interest in what goes on there, I've participated in either by Zoom during CO or in person any publicly announced meeting regarding the development of this diesel plant uh up to up until recently. During that time, my disappointment was that there was no analysis of the impact that each one of these projects would have on this city. And it um the the council received input of 96 people including individual letters as well as several commissions. Even after that the council felt you did not have enough information to make a decision. And so what you did you sent a um survey out in the water bill and that was from my perspective when I looked at that survey it went out it did not explain a lot of anything. It's basically would you like to keep the building or wouldn't you like to keep the building? And so at the council meeting that the results of that survey were uh

presented, uh I was doing the numbers. I was figuring 10,000 residents in Grand Haven at the time. And as a as a consultant was standing here talking in my mind, I said, "Okay, 6% of the residents responded to the survey." Twothirds of those said they'd like to keep the building. So that represents approximately 4% of the city's citizens of Grand Haven. 4%. And so the council said, "We have heard the people." 4%. We've heard the people from people that number one were marginally informed and it was emotionally charged uh reactions to that survey. So anyway, the meet things went on on the agenda, the council meeting January 19th, 2023. Uh that was to create the uh obsolete property rehabilitation district. In the call to audience, I at that point spoke against that action and presented the following information. So this is just part information. By selecting the project that you did, the CL liquid project over the capstone project, the city leaders have already foregone at least 6,19,000 over a period of 10 years, $1,125,000 in original purchase offers, $3,864,000 in construction economic impact, $1,120,000 in real estate taxes. So, three years later, we're coming back with a proposal. Well, not we, but they're coming back with a proposal that's very similar to the one that number one, the Sandpiper Condo Association would much rather have than an event center, anything like that. It's reduced traffic, it's reduced congestion, it's reduced noise, it's reduced smell, it's it's there are 42 units next door to that right direct to that property. So in the in the end, what I would encourage the council to do is unlike what you did the first time,

but to perform a robust disciplined evaluation of the economic impact, the aesthetic impact, the community impact, and not go make decisions based on an ill-stated survey in a water bill. Please do that. We support it. Thank you. Thank you, Cecil. Who else would like to address councel?

Good evening. I'm Dr. Kathy Kramer. I live at 523 Nathan's Way. I've been in this area for over 20 years. A year and a half ago, we made the decision to move downtown Grand Haven because that's where we wanted to be. We were selling our house out of the lake, moved downtown. I'm also a runner. I run 20 to 30 miles a week. That has been a particular challenge for me downtown Grand Haven because of the quality or should I say the poor quality of the sidewalks. A week ago today on Franklin Avenue, two blocks from the channel, this happened. I tripped over a uneven sidewalk on Franklin. It could have been prevented. The city had poured new concrete in one section around a fiber optics box, except it was poured at a lower level than the two pieces of sidewalk next to it. Wasn't done this year. It's was done previously. No one's come back and shaved down the edges of the sidewalk. And I tripped. That's problem number one. That was actually one of the better sidewalks downtown. And that's the condition it's in. Here's problem number two. I'm a 64 year old woman and I laid there for 20 minutes. I was bleeding. I had a knot on my head, damage to my my knee, damage to my shoulder, screaming for help. This is downtown Grand Haven at 11:00 on a Monday morning. How many good Samaritans showed up to help me out? One. In 20 minutes, no police officer showed up. So clearly no one called 911. A wonderful woman stopped and stayed with me until my husband could come pick me up and take me to get emergency care. I will say right at the end, two conservation officers who just happened

to be driving down the street, stopped, got out their kit, and at least patched me up a little bit. But we have changed our mind about downtown Grand Haven. If a person can lay on Franklin for 20 minutes and cars whizzing by, right? And even more cars right now because Columbus is closed at the end and there's the social district at the end of Washington and all that traffic funnels over to Franklin. I'm a stones throw away from this place. No one came to my aid except one person. And that has really soured us on Grand Haven as a community. if this is what it means and we were so looking forward to being in community after living out, you know, out of ways for a long time. We're not going to stay. We're going to move. This is this shouldn't happen. So, two issues. You have rotten sidewalks. You have things that should have been taken care of by the city that were not that caused a woman to trip me and do this. Secondly, you have a community culture issue. I actually have a PhD in rural community sociology, so I actually know what I'm talking about here. But there is a community culture issue here. when the Christian people of Grand Haven who actively worked to get across on Dwey Hill couldn't be a good Samaritan to a woman laying on the street for 20 minutes bleeding.

Well, thank you and I'm sorry that that happened.

Who else would like to address council? Hello, my name is Lita Bazine, 1715 Robbins Road. I'm going to be reading from my notes so that I don't forget anything. I would like to extend an invite to council members as well as the rest of the community, uh, those listening at home to join the human relations commission at our mosaics for mental health. This is an event bringing the community together to decorate the sidewalks with chalk in Central Park to celebrate mental health awareness month. We hope that you guys are able to join and those in the rest of the community. Thanks. Thank you.

Yeah, good question. Who else would like to address council at this time? There will be another opportunity to address council at the end of the meeting, but there are no public hearings this evening. So, if you want to speak to council before we act on things, now's the time. If no one is coming forward, then I'm going to close the call to the audience. And next we have presentations. I have a presentation by Kristen Perowski on the planning for the future of the Grand Haven Schools.

Thank you for having me. This is a followup to my fall last fall uh presentation on planning for the future of Grand Haven Area Public Schools. Just wanted to share quickly a timeline. We've spent the last 18 months engaged in a robust planning process to address our facil there we go facility needs um in tandem with our strategic plan. The outcome of this process was a facilities master plan approved by our board in November. That plan addresses the next 15 to 20 years or so of facility needs. And now we need bonds to do this work. So, we are exploring a November potential bond for phase one of the master plan, which I plan to talk about uh today. As you may remember, in the fall, we talked about almost 1,400 um community engagement part of a survey that was after some public comments, public visioning sessions, coffee and connect sessions, attendance at all the municipalities. So, this was kind of the end of that. And from that, these are some of the numbers that were shared. Um these are really what look what it looks like for the master plan. These are kind of the four buckets of the long-term plan. So eventually our district would be a 58 campus at the White Pines Griffin site with the Griffin building um not being there. Eventually that would be a 58 campus adding on to the 56 building that's currently White Pines Intermediate under one roof but operating uh as two separate buildings. We would be reducing from our six elementaryaries to five again with absorption of Griffin Elementary so that we can address bucket number one. Grand Haven High School, as uh people might think it's new, it is a 30-year-old building and also would be looking at spaces to utilize for career readiness opportunities as well as arts and athletics improvements. So, we've currently been meeting with uh Moskegan Community College and other um entities in the community about what would it look like to have space there, what would it look like to um leverage uh the

manufacturing industry here and um what could this space look like at the high school partnerships? And finally, the renovation or as we heard from the community, a rebuild of some sort of the Lakeshore site as some kind of an innovation hub, partnership hub, uh part of our offices in potentially alternative education may be there. Um and that would be further down the road. But those were the four buckets that the board approved again for the next 20 plus years. So the three t key takeaways from a scientific survey, it was a phone survey that we did to voters in November. This was I'm sorry, November after we presented to the board. uh was that the community supported uh 73% replacing school buses, 69% furniture and music and 69% for technology upgrades, mostly infrastructure type things that are are desperately needed. As you can see in the upper right, our respondent demographics, 48% primarily 65 and over. So in that same group, we asked what were the top highest supported projects and as you can see here, our elementaryaries renovating versus building new. And that was some of the things that we were teasing out. So these were the most supported projects. You can see the top blue line is our parents and the uh yellow again demographics similar the same as the first one. Some of the other key takeaways were that the large proposal that we were uh teeing up which was really to address Lakeshore Middle School was not supported. Um 56% of the people that were in the survey supported a smaller bond proposal indicating there might be strong support if it was a smaller ask. Top top reason for no votes was tax sensitivity as we can all imagine with the gas prices that were paying that wasn't even happening at that point. um 76% of the voters that we surveyed did not have students so they were more costconcious and so really you know the the practical the high sensitivity to taxes and economic pressure was really the number one key

takeaway that we took so exploring a proposal to the board I want to be clear the board has not approved officially they've asked cabinet team to continue moving in that direction they would need to make a decision by the July board meeting if we were to have this on the ballot in November So, what we're proposing to them right now is phase one of a five-part master plan. Again, over the next 20 plus years, we would start with Ferry Elementary, Peach Plains Elementary, and Rosie Mound. And as you can see from the key at the bottom, we would have, as the community requested, technology, buses, and music instruments would be supported in that. Part of the challenge with us doing this long-term plan is that all of our buildings are in need. We are at 62 years old or more. So Lakeshore is um as the facility condition index showed is is really uh a tough area. But to get to that point we we may have to use Griffin as a what we're call like a swing school for some of the buildings. So for instance uh Ferry Elementary and Peach Plains would most likely be the recipients of of the closure of Griffin. So those students would mo likely be rerouted to those two buildings. Rosie Mound is already bursting at the seams. And so those were part of the reason, but also to hold Griffin time to um close that building and leave it still um physically there so that if we needed to, we couldn't get construction done or updates to these buildings that we could potentially have to move students, let's say Ferry Elementary was the first one into Griffin for a year or two in order to get that done. So that's part of the reason why the project at the 58 campus which is again 36 acres versus the lakes shore site at 19 that we would do later on. So this would be the first phase of that. Um and then as you can see the the

subsequent phases I want to highlight all indicate there's also athletic improvements. So while there's not specific athletic improvements on the first phase, the elementary spaces would be getting gymnasiums as part of that. So we we are working on teeing up some physical structure so that people know what does a gymnasium in an elementary look like in a 21st century versus trying to um refurb a cafeteria space that is super tiny and not really to standards today. So in renovating the three elementaryaries, it would inadvertently uh create more athletic spaces and gym spaces from our athletics department is the number one issue and those that have kids know that we have um practices that are going beyond nine o'clock sometimes um to to address that. So that would that but all four of the other phases do address athletics as well. So what we're looking at in phase one, again, these three would be approximately a $98 million ask. Um the the community said that it was too much the 214. So we're coming back with this knowing that it's going to take us longer than the 20 years potentially. Each of those phases could be expedited. The ones I just mentioned. So if all of a sudden the first phase happens, people see the renovations say why can't we expedite faster? Phases two and three we we could. And we've strategically done them in the order we think that would be the most feasible, but we could tee up one or more of the phases together. So again, just to highlight some of the what's on the proposal, a lot of the um there while there are some student and staff device um renov or updates for technology, a lot of it has to do with infrastructure network infrastructure network and security. Our buses are aging. Um it's kind of a joke like pushing them up the hill kind of thing they kind of joke about sometimes, but uh um shout out to our bus drivers who just endured a brutal winter with buses that you know really need some help. Um just want to highlight some of the things that would be happening in each elementaryaries are pretty similar. Um

at Peach Plains, air conditioning is obviously one of those things that our buildings don't have. So uh the elementary spaces, electrical plumbing, as you know, when you update something that's very old, you now have to put anything that you touch up to standard, up to code. Um and so it's it's really difficult because that's that's happening more and more with the age and stage of our building. So Peach Planes would have safety and security updates for entry. Again, none of our buildings were built for the number of parents who drop off. So, the part the flow of traffic in and out of our buildings is also um would be addressed with each of Rosie Mound would have a classroom addition. I want to go back to Peach. Peach would have a gym addition. So, as I mentioned, the cafeteria would stay. There would be an additional a brand a new gym added. There'd be a gym edition here at Rosie in addition to a classroom and the same other updates that we just mentioned with Peach Plains and Ferry. Again, gym edition and classroom edition. So, as you can see, major things we may need to use, as I mentioned, Griffin Elementary in that scenario. Not that Lakeshore isn't um also in in need. So, with that, I just wanted to briefly update people because I think the biggest thing I can do right now is just help educate our community. We get state aid. So, for instance, if the state says that our state budget in the the state aid bucket is $10,000 per student, we draw in, let's just say 6,000 from non-homestead, then the state gives us $4,000. So, if the non-h homestead that just passed, thank you very much to our community, uh, did not pass. We don't get we don't get that funding from the state. So, that that's just our day-to-day operational budget that happens in the state budget. On the far right, we get about two and a half percent of our funds for at risk funding, special education from the federal dollars, but the middle bucket is where we have to go for bonds and syncing funds to our community. We can't save up in the right or the left bucket um because we have to spend it within the year. So, when a community member had asked me, well, why can't you save up for the, you know, a $4 million

roof at the high school? I'm like, well, we can't we can't do that. That's not how it works. So, we have to and we can't really save up for that. So bonds are what happens when we have major constructions repaid over 20 or 30 years. Um has to align to ballot language versus sinking funds which we do have. Those are for smaller things. So air handlers, boilers, uh renewed every 10 years. And this is great for those small projects but not enough for the big major construction projects. Really, when we have these two things working together, this allows us to have a predictable long-term stewardship of our funds to be able to plan for facility upgrades so that we aren't in the current situation that we're in. Um, what bonds can and can't be used for. I've heard a few people saying that, you know, teacher salaries or maintenance or repair, like those are the things that they can and cannot be used for. And just to clarify a little tax rate comparison, um the regional average is 7.2, the statewide average is 4.3. GAP leveraging our scing fund right now 0.696. Allenalees at 12, Zealand at 8.4. You can see West Ottawa at 7.5, Spring Lake is 7, Fruitport 6.9, Mona Shore 6.5, Holland 58, 0.696. So we are the lowest in the region and among the lowest in the state when you consider bond and what that equates to for those in the regional average at 7.2 they're paying about $90 a month the statewide average folks 5375 a month and again based on an average home value of about 300,000. Our GHAPS millage rate fell off in 2023 that was 4.2 just below state average. And what we're proposing at the $98 million is an increase of 1.95. So that is that's2436 a month in addition to what people are already paying which literally is $8.70

a month. So we're proposing a $336 um six cents per month um uh November ballot. That's that's what we're proposing for our board. So the next steps are going to be continuing to explore this. I actually have multiple cabinet members out tonight in various locations. We've been getting around to municipalities and all of the community events we can um and doing this presentation. We've even asked people in small groups could we come to their homes and do them. We've had no voters show up and ask to do the presentation. So, we're happy to do that. If if there's places to to present, we're happy to do that. But the board again will need to make a decision in July. And once that happen, we will continue just educating and being out doing outreach. Um, one of the questions that keeps coming up is why isn't Lakes Shore Middle School included in the earlier phases? I I started to um to share a little bit of that, but I just wanted to tease out because that's probably the number one question when I get

and really it came back from community feedback. We were ready to go in May until we got the survey and we stopped. We paused. We listened and we did not we realized that you know what, May isn't going to work. There's more work to do. We need to go back to the drawing board. This isn't this isn't going to be feasible for our community. So, we had to look at project phasing. We had to look at logistics. Uh we had to look at really what was the community going to support and again the strongest areas were buses, technology and musical instruments in addition to not new but renovated elementaryaries. And uh moving Lakeshore to an earlier phase would require a much larger proposal that right now the data and our community is saying. That's part of the reason that we've said we're we're doing this plan. Why aren't all elementaryaries included in phase one? Again, um we have five elementary schools. it would be a larger proposal than what the data suggests our community was going to support because we tried to tease that out after the lake shore was too much and it just it wouldn't work. So, we have taken it taken the feedback from the community and are trying to give them exactly what they've asked for and we are like I said almost two years in the making. Um there is more information at the u QR code there or gaps.org on our master plan and I'm happy to take any questions that you might have for me. Well, thanks Kristen.

Yeah. Uh, council members, comments and questions. Yeah, it sounds like you guys have really really done a lot of work. I know that this has been a long time coming. Um, and I know that you've met with a lot of people in a lot of places. Taking a lot of a lot of people's um word to heart. Uh, so thank you for putting this together. Um I am one of those people without children but I mean we need educated children to come behind us to make good decisions for our future. Um so um I was thankful that you know the it was voted yes um at this last vote um for the millillage and um I look forward to see what happens in November.

Appreciate your time. Thank you for your comments. I just want to say thank you for all the hard work that everybody's put in on this. It's a long time coming. Um, Ferry School is older than I am. 1928, Herbert Hoover was president. It was has been there a long time. And Lakeshore, same way. And our high school is not that young anymore either. Everybody keeps thinking it's new, but it's not. It's um, so it's they all need a lot of work. There was a lot of bestus and stuff. I know my brother was

when they went through Lakeshore, he says it was a lot more work than what they anticipated and there's still a lot more to go in there. So, I'm glad you're putting this all together and getting it all out to the people so they understand what we really need here and and make sure our youth has great opportunities to move forward. Uh, that's what our school systems are all about. We need to have good schools. In order to do that, you got to have a good place for them to be educ. Thank you. I want to say thank you for all your hard work and everybody that's put their thoughts into this. And hopefully the voters out there will step up to the plate and say yes, we need something better for now.

I appreciate it. We just need a base hit, man. We just and I do want to clarify somebody asked me about the phases of each phase going up and the plan would be to leverage the 98 million and as the debt falls off then come back to the voters at some point for just a renewal just to keep renewing so that we can plan for those next phases without it being an increase. If the community came forward and said let's expedite on the plan then we could totally do that. But I love that we have a phased plan supported by the board and whoever's sitting in this seat or in the board seat there's a road map for the next 20 to 30 years to follow. and then it can be expedited on more quickly if needed. Thank you.

Thank you so much for the presentation. Um I was a GI HAPS mom for almost 20 years and just recently retired as the kids went to college. But um my husband and I moved to Grand Haven not only because it was on the lake shore, but it was known for having good schools. Um, that is something that we need to continue to be able to advertise as a city because it not only creates educated population, but it creates vibrancy and it creates young families and all of that is very important to continue um what makes Grand Haven great. So, I appreciate this and and also just to support all the staff that work so hard um the teachers and all the staff in these schools. um need to have buildings that they can use functionally and be proud of. I think that's really important. So,

appreciate your comments.

Not a lot that I can add that hasn't already been, you know, been said, but I appreciate you um listening to the voters and taking this in steps instead of going for, you know, one huge huge jump like you were looking at before. And you know as as everyone has said you know educating our youth and technology nowadays changes stuff that you know we're teaching them today is obsolete next week. So to keep up with that is very important and you know I hear a lot from our local business leaders who stress that very same point. They can't find people. We can't can't find anybody that can that can work and do what they want. So, you know, having some of those um classes available that actually teach, you know, we used to have metal shop and wood shop and I mean, auto shop. I mean, kids learned a lot of mechanical abilities in those shops that those opportunities don't exist anymore. I mean, no one works on their car anymore. I mean, shoot, everybody used to work on their cars.

Now, nobody does. I mean, you you say, "Give me a half inch wrench." And they're looking for a wrench that's about this long. So, it's it's very important that we get back to some of the basic stuff. So, we have uh kids who can enter the workforce when they graduate. Not everybody goes to college. Some some people and while I'm here talking about the physical structure of our our buildings, uh we really are working on the internal part of that too with business and industry. Our strategic plan is really pointing us to that direction.

How can we create pipelines for business and industry? How can we get ahead of the AI curve? What does it look like for our kids? and how can we create those opportunities while they're in school and partner with like a Moskegan community college? Maybe this Lakeshore site could be a version of, you know, an extension of a community college with multiple partners um meeting community needs. So, we're really excited about the long-term viability of the actual product, which is what we provide for students on the inside, too. But addressing that is there could be a lot of opportunities from some of the local businesses, too, to pitch in with for sure that funding for some of those things. We are having those conversations. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.

And and I'd like to just add that uh the importance of a healthy school system can't be overstated. It's part of the integrity of the community, part of the future. The community, their children, our future. And even those of us who no longer have kids in the in the school system, we need to support that. Someone once paid for your kids. What's that? Someone once paid for your kids. Okay. Well, you know what? Some someone paid for mine and I'm paying for others and that's okay because this is one big a legacy vote. It's all one community legacy vote mayor.

But u the u I did question the phasing. I wondered why you broke it down that finely. I understand that uh the sensitivity to asking for a big millillage. But frankly I'm embarrassed when I see a chart that says everybody's paying a lot of money to support their schools. We're paying a tiny amount and think what kind of people are we? I just think there's a lot of misinformation.

But you I think the point is that I think there's a sentiment among the community that we can and should do more. We should support our schools. If there's particular things that were unpopular or too large, you've kind of weeded those out. As we've learned, surveys are never perfect. You never have exact information, but you've done a lot. You've you've gathered a lot. You've talked to people. You formulated good plans. They're actionable. If if I had anything I suggest it'd be to try to maybe condense your phases a little bit, try to ask for a little more upfront. But if you've already determined that that's a losing cause, then no, we we can do that. If the community says rises up for that, we can totally do that. You know, that's just me talking. No, you got my vote, but you need a few more.

Um, have a few visuals that I'll leave here deciding. And that's great. I'm glad you came here to present all this so that we know the community knows you're doing a very deliberate process. It's more than just supporting your staff, your buildings, your schools. It's supporting the whole community. So, appreciate your time tonight. This is this is important to do and keep the message going and Okay. And keep keep up the good work. Go Bucks.

Okay. So, then we have a presentation now from Chief Nicole Hudson on Hearts Safe Community Proclamation. Good evening. Uh Nicole Hudson, director of public safety. So before you today is this will be the first of many times you hear the hearts safe community. Um this is something that as a community we are proactively trying to designate as a community to be hearts safe. So last fall, a group of community members, some doctors, some panelists reached out to the chief of Spring Lake Township, Spring Lake Village in Fairiesburg, and myself to try to create a Tri Cities Heartsafe community. And what that looks like is just us trying to be a lot more prepared and responsive and proactive um with the way that we teach handsonly CPR, the way we work together with the community partners. And the goal is to be able to um be more involved in a quicker response for that survival chain. Um so whether it's more AEDs, whe more community events with hands only CPR, um what that looks like, there's 13 different strategies. So we're slowly working through that. I'm on the committee to try to move forward um for the city of Grand Haven. And obviously Dr. FET cannot be here tonight and that is why I'm here um to read the proclamation for um our community. So, and I will answer any questions afterwards. But whereas sudden cardiac arrest is a leading cause of death in the United States affecting more than 350,000 individuals annually outside of hospitals and survivor survival depends greatly on immediate intervention including cardopulmonary resuscitation CPR and the use of automated external defibrillators AEDs. Whereas the likelihood of survival decreases significantly with each moment that passes without CPR or defibrillation,

making rapid community response critical to saving lives. Whereas hearts safe community initiatives promote a coordinated communitywide approach to improving cardiac arrest survival through widespread CPR training, public access to AEDs, and the implementation of advanced emergency response practices. Whereas these initiatives encourage collaboration among local government, emergency medical services, fire, police departments, healthc care providers, schools, businesses, and community organizations to strengthen the chain of survival and improve the outcomes of residents. Whereas establishing a heart-safe community reflects a commitment to public health, safety, preparedness, and resilience, ensuring that residents and visitors alike are better protected in the event of cardiac emergency. Whereas communities that adopt hearts safe standards demonstrate leadership in preventative health, emergency readiness, and community engagement serving as models for others seeking to reduce preventable deaths. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the city of Grand Haven hereby recognizes and supports the pursuit of designation as a heart-safe community and commits to fostering partnerships, increasing awareness, expanding CPR and AED training, and strengthening emergency response systems to protect the lives of its residents. So that is what's before you today.

So thank you. Any questions or comments? Thank you. Thank you. One comment. Um all of this is wonderful and um just when you tour England now, you notice that all of their iconic red phone booths have turned been turned into. So, I think um it just made me think about the ability to have good signage or something unique that people can find this equipment. But, yeah, we're we're hoping to roll out a program called Pulse Point that allows um the community to have an app on their phone.

So, when they are called um to a cardiac arrest or they're in the area, they can actually pull the app and see all the ads located in the community that they're in. um but also looking at trying to see what are the AEDs that we can have in public places within um the cities that we're speaking with. So at some point it's a long lengthy process to become a heart-safe community. um it is not something that is overnight and so we're hoping once we actually get the foundation and we are designated as a heart-safe community then we can look at trying to expand um with Chief Shrader and Grant Haven Township and Crockery um because ultimately we are not Tri Cities um without them and so we're just trying to lay the foundation the groundwork so then that way it's a little bit easier for them

like always thank you for all the hard work that you do to keep our town safe. Thank you. So, so is public safety sponsoring or performing any specific training programs, CPR, AED training, any of that for the public?

So, it's typically a request. Um, we do handsonly training. Um, and so as we work through what this is going to look like, we're going to try to offer more events like that. So, we've got our craze training this week. Um, and so we're also hoping to incorporate a citizens um workshop like a mini police academy in the fall. So, we'll also offer some hands-only training for that. So, we will definitely be rolling out a lot more and trying to be more involved and intentional with our trainings and neighborhood meetings and whatnot. And any person that we can train hands only, um it's potentially life save, so it's worth it.

Yeah. And repetition is important, too. People don't use it every day, but knowing how to respond in an emergency, it needs to be second nature. Absolutely. So, thank you. Okay, Matt, do you have something? I just want to say uh thank you very much. I was hoping that Dr. Fett would have been here tonight so I could at least, you know, see him. I went to school with him and all and he called me on this whole matter also. And um thinking back about Randy Pool, Officer Pool without the AED and when he's at the hockey game, he wouldn't be with us today.

Absolutely. I think uh Vic or uh patients are becoming younger. Um, so it's definitely not the older population. Um, it could be any one of us. So, it's really important to really start at a younger age. Um, and so we're excited to partner and and look at what we can do to try to bring this forward. And, uh, it's going to be a longterm collaboration so we can continue to be a safety. This is a good start. So, thank you very much. You're welcome. Thank you. And

next up, we have a National Public Works Week proclamation. And rather than call on Mr. England to read this, I'll read it. Whereas public works professionals focus on infrastructure, facilities, and services that are of vital importance to sustainable and resilient communities and the public health, high quality of life, and well-being of the people of Grand Haven. And whereas these infrastructure, facilities, and services could not be provided without the dedicated efforts of public works professionals who are engineers, managers, and employees at all levels of government in the private sector who are responsible for rebuilding, improving, and protecting our nation's transportation, water supply, water treatment, waste, solid waste systems, public buildings, and other structures and facilities essential for our citizens. And whereas in the it is in the public interest for the citizens, civic leaders, and children of the Grand Haven to gain knowledge of and maintain ongoing interest in understanding of the importance of public works and public works programs in their respective communities. And whereas the quality and effectiveness of these facilities as well as their planning, design, and construction are vital vitally dependent upon the efforts and skills of public works officials. And whereas the year 2026 marks the 66th annual National Public Works Week sponsored by the American Public Works Association and Canadian Public Works Association. Be it now now therefore I Robert Manata, mayor of city of Grand Haven, do hereby proclaim the week of May 17 through 23rd, 2026 as National Public Works Week. I urge all citizens to join with representatives of the American Public Works Association and government agencies in activities, events, and ceremonies designed to pay tribute to our public works professionals, engineers, managers, and employees and to recognize the substantial contributions they make to protecting our national health, safety, and quality

of life. And no one should underestimate the work that these folks do and how they make civilized life possible for the rest of us. And I have one thing to say. Yes. Thank you. Appreciate it greatly. Okay. And that is our last of our presentations. In these presentations, the the last two will be on our um consent agenda for adoption. Which brings us to our consent agenda. Marie, would you like to read that?

Item A, approve the regular city council meeting minutes of May 4, 2026. Item B, approve the special joint city council board of light and power meeting minutes for May 7, 2026. Item C, approve the bills memo in the amount of 1,32,66049. Item D has been moved to new business. Item E has been moved to new business. Item F, consideration by city council of a resolution to approve task order 33, task 42, north channel CCR removal project with HDR of Michigan in the not to exceed amount of $221,162 contingent upon the board of light and powers approval. Item G, approve the heartsafe community proclamation and item H, approve the national public works week proclamation.

All right. Can I get a motion? So move. Second. Motion by second by Calio. Any other comments or questions on the consent agenda? Please call the role. Fritz, yes. Calio, yes. Dora, yes. Lion, yes. Manza, yes. That brings us to our first item of new business. Item A, consideration by city council of a resolution to approve a Michigan grant in aid program boating access site development project agreement with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources for the FlyHive Boating Access Site Project. Administration recommends approval. Can I get a motion? So moved.

Second. My door, second by line. Um, is this Oh, Mr. England. Well, I'm pleased to bring this in front of you. Back in March, we talked about this. Um, we were able to receive a $163,000 grant for Fleh High Boat Launch. It's a match. Um, Emily and I do have it budgeted out in the 2728 budget to do this project. Just need your support to move on and use the grant. Okay. And this is a rebuild of the the docks, the approach, everything out there to make that a and dredging well and dredging to be a well functioning boat launch. Correct. Yep. Okay.

Well, it's I can tell you it's do even launching a kayak there is a challenge. Yep. We're excited for it. Needs some needs some serious help over there. Okay. Comments or questions? Just my standard one. We're all aware what the stipulations of the grant require and we're ready to meet them. Okay. anytime we can uh double our money. Appreciate all the hard work you guys put in on all this too as well. I think it's um dedicated to a very fine individual that we had in our public safety department and to his legacy. It it deserves to be a place that's truly functional. So, appreciate it. Yep. Thank you for your hard work.

No problem. Thanks again. No problem. Okay. And then next thing is get to work. All right. There are no other questions and please call the role. Dora, yes. Lion, yes. Fritz, yes. Calio, yes. Manza, yes. Next item, please. Item B. Consideration by city council of a resolution to approve the Grand Haven area water and sewer extension agreement. Constration recommends approval. Can I get a motion on this one? So move. Second. by Fred, second by Dora. Is this a Dana question?

Yes. And I just tried to steal the microphone from Maria while she was mid-sentence. So, my apologies. We're sharing microphones this evening. Um, so this evening before you um we are attempting to um set in in uh stone, if you will, a sewer and water extension agreement with Grant Charter Township. Um the idea being that this would provide a framework for us moving forward as we look at various scenarios where we may need um amongst border parcels um to extend water and sewer um between our jurisdictional boundaries. Um, previously we have handled those on a case-byase basis, but as we are seeing development on both sides of our boundary, we're wanting to establish an agreement that we can utilize moving forward for those extensions. Um, so this agreement outlines the um scenarios and uh the policy around um such actions and then also lays out um the administration or administrative process um for future agreements. So we wouldn't necessarily be coming back to city council with each new um extension scenario um provided it's within the framework of this agreement. Um so we did include two projects as a part of this approval process as exhibits. Um the first is the Robinson Landing project which has already been constructed but we did not utilize this methodology and process. We've been handling it um between our um utility departments and our staff. It's been working well, but we wanted to formalize that agreement and also prepare for uh work that the township may be pursuing with a future development adjacent to Robinson Landing. And then we are aware of one future u development which is the South Village plan unit development um where we would be um extending services

from Grand Haven Township into the city for that particular development. Um but both entities would uh receive any necessary fees um and billing necessary as well as owning and maintaining um that extension as if it were our own. So um we have reviewed this uh with the township and are in alignment. Um their board will be also considering the same agreement um moving forward. All right. Thank you. Comments, questions? We figured out how to coordinate our fees because I don't think they're the same in each jurisdiction, right? Yes.

We do have an understand and we've been doing this um we'll be looking to clean up some of our process moving forward, but um in terms of billing, but yes, we have made sure that we have a fair approach to how we do that. Yeah. And this this is truly an administrative function. Yeah. To to bring that to council as a separate item every time it comes up, right? No, this this makes a lot of sense. Yeah. any anytime we can collaborate with our surrounding communities to help make all this a lot easier. Let's go. All right. Just call the role, please. Chris, yes. Dora, yes. Calio, yes. Lion, yes. Vanessa, yes.

All right, next item, please. Right. New business item C. Um, approve the proposed fiscal year 202627 budget, millage rates, 1% tax administration fee, fee schedule, and capital plan for the city of Grand Haven fiscal year beginning July 1, 2026 and ending June 30, 2027. All right. Can I get a motion on this? So move. Second. Motion by Fred, second by Calio. Um, this has been the subject of an extensive process. See, Emily is here to present it up to us all over again. Um, Emily, go ahead.

Emily Green, finance director. I'm here to um present the budget so that for for approval tonight. Um, we had the work session on April 15th and then we had the bud the budget pro um public hearing uh at the last meeting. And so this is the final step of the budget and approving that. what you what's in front of you is the amended budget for the current fiscal year 2526 and then the budget for next fiscal year 2627. I will be bringing budget amendments the final for the current fiscal year to you on the June 15th or at the June 15th meeting. Um just to highlight some of the changes between the public or the work session that was in April um and then brought to the to the public hearing at the last meeting. There have been no changes since the last meeting to now. The documents the same but changes between the work session to now this final approval meeting. Um the fee schedule, building inspection permits and fees, additional permit feeased $300.

The public works outdoor dining section was added um showing the barricade rental and sparking parking space rental charges. um building permit fees, ICC valuation under other inspections and fees, the updated fee to $75, which is now the actual cost of that. Um that'll be updated this year. Changes to the capital plan. Uh we removed the property acquisition because nothing is planned at this time. If we need to add it in the future, we will. We removed the temporary farmers market electricity lighting. Uh the cost for the temporary electrical updates is below the asset threshold and so there there's not a need to have that on the capital plan. Uh the snow mount boilers replacement, we added a placeholder of $ 1.5 million in the fiscal year 2829 on the capital plan. Motorpool trucks 6516 and 5016. Um between the work session and the public hearing, we had we received figures for updating um with upfitting the costs of those vehicles and so those increased costs were added and we also included a tenative street resurfacing plan at the end of the capital plan. Um changes to revenue and I have a little bit I guess more details on the changes to revenue than I gave you last at the last meeting. Um first thing is the community the LCSA community um stabilization act revenue. We still we don't get that until May or June. So that will come forward. We should have that by the time that we have the budget amendments brought to you in June. But at this point we don't have those funds. So we don't know what that is. Um other revenue though, Duncan Park, the invasive species remediation treatment that will be reimbursed from the community foundation. And so that revenue is now included, the expense is

included and the revenue is included um in in that to cover the costs. And then miscellaneous other increases. Um there's an organization an entity that we create um that we uh HR finance and um admin fees are calculated post audit and so those line items were increased and that kind of hits the revenue other than various just you know small amounts. Um, and then expenditures. The general fund expenditures were offset where we could. So, I look at, you know, departmentto department. If there's something that I can increase by $2,000 by $2,000 to offset that, then that's what I do. Um, but just I'll hit on a couple of these. Um, Duncan Park, again, those expenditures that was included in that. We spread wages and benefit expenses from waterfront operations um to various other departments. So our waterfront staff, the seasonal waterfront staff create uh prepares or does work in the dumpsters, mulligans hollow and depot the depot, excuse me. Um and so we spread those out of the waterfront ops and into those other three departments as well. So you'll see the offset from that. um miscellaneous various other expenses such as we had costs for stump grinding and tree debris removal. Um cleaning staff expenses moved between wages and professional contractual if for for that service. Um the waterfront and US 31 corridor lawn care. Um we're going to complete the painting on the train. We've got lighting around town that we're switching out to LED lights. Um we've added the anchor storage house rebuild um GIS services and then we have an extensive list that we can share

after the meeting if you um want that. But those are kind of a couple of a few items where the expenses were increased. That's really all I have. Okay. Thank you. So Sarah, you asked for this to be moved. Yeah, I think um I just felt like it was a nonconsent agenda item because I think it's something that we should Yeah,

it's a good way to present it to the community again just to have it as clear as we can and then um to be able to talk about it a little bit. So, I didn't really have any other issues besides that. Um, but thank you for the update on these um and the balancing of it and I know how I mean there's just so many parts to this budget that I don't think people really understand. So how many line items that you're actually going through and making sure that we're fiscally balanced is very difficult process. So I appreciate it. All right. Thank you. Anyone anyone else? Thank you. Yep. Appreciate it. Lots of hard work. Yeah.

Yeah. It's been a long time coming, but here we are. Here we're here. We managed to succeed and get in a budget that works. You guys do a lot of work. It's just the average person would have no idea until you've actually gone through it page by page and seen all the meetings and all the stuff you guys do in the background and you make it work and make it work well. So, appreciate everything you do. Well, the departments do their part. So, yes, couldn't do it with everybody else. Well, it's all one big system here. Yes. All right. There are no other questions. Would you please call the role? Fritz? Yes. Calio? Yes. Dora? Yes. Lion? Yes. Vanessa? Yes. Okay. Next item, please.

New business item D. Direct the city treasurer to issue fiscal year 202526 snowmelt invoices in the total amount of $114,16.94 to the applicable downtown snowmelt customers as designated on the annual snowmelt building billing 2026 list provided. All right, I need a motion. So moved. Second. Motion by second by Calio. Um see Emily has stepped up again. How would you like to explain all this to us?

Sure, I will do that. So, annually um the there's per ordinance the operational costs are supposed to be shared with between the city and then all of the property owners along Washington. Um that basically the length of that snow melt system. The bills are what we do is um take the charges from April 1st of the previous year. So, April 1st, 2025 in this case through March 31st of 2026. And then we calculate the operational. So, we're talking about maintenance and utilities. Calculate that. And then we have the square the linear footage of the snow melt system and we divide that out. the city per the ordinance um that port the city's portion is 25% of the costs and we all know we had a very tough winter and this year the operational costs were quite high compared to prior years um probably the actually the highest that it's been since I can remember but costs have gone up so um before you is that billing the annual billing we do this in May it it goes out um we send the invoice out to each of the owners that are listed on this attachment um with the amounts that are charged. Um and so what we're looking at is billing the $114,16.94 to the owners.

All right. Well, that's how it works. And it's been we established this system way back in 2010, I believe. Yes. Um, of course we had a coal fired power plant and we were using surplus heat from that and it was a lot cheaper to operate and over the years it had become with the departure of the stems plant and then substituting gas fired boilers and a system which was supposed to be an interim system being the only system

the costs have gotten significantly more. And as you say we had a hard winter. Sometimes we have an easy winter but even our easy winters now the costs are dramatically higher than where we started dramatically higher than what we conceived we put this system in. And unfortunately as Mr. Fritz has noted as we all are aware that it's a very strong structural component here that the snow melt system is integrated into the pavement of the road and the pavement of the sidewalks and that you can't simply turn it off and walk away from it.

Right? So, here we are billing for an expensive system to operate. Um, I guess I'd open it to the council for any questions or comments on this.

So, again, it was it wasn't as much I wanted to be able to have a conversation about this item, too. Um, and not the process of how you've gotten the billing as much as just an awareness of the costs associated with this. So, yeah. Um, in 2019 2020 it was $40,000. Um, because that was all uh thermal from the Sims power plant. Um, with the Sims power plant gone, we're at $130,000. Um, and a large portion of that is natural gas. Um, that was based on a hard winter. um gas prices haven't weren't even a part of that conversation yet. So, that's a big concern of mine moving forward. Also, um and then we're having a 1.9 I think when you said 1.9 million

uh placeholder in 28 29 1.5 1.5 for um boilers, some some type of snow, some type of something. Yes. I would add that they're also still paying the assessment for the installation of snow melt.

Correct. Yeah. So that's not included in this portion of it either. And I I just think this is probably when we have the snow melt conversation, we should be having it in a more in a non non-consent agenda format to make sure that we're explaining this clearly. Um I do think this again needs to have a working session and conversation about um what we do to move forward. Um in the budget meeting there was discussion about where it's placed now was based on having a coal fired plant that's no longer there losing a lot of efficiencies because of that. So I just I think that we need to have kind of an a larger conversation about this whole thing. I mean, I love it. I love having the sidewalks clear, but it's a lot of shoveling.

114,000, a lot of shoveling costs. So, so yeah, that's that's my point on it, but not anything about really the budget or what this has to do with it specifically. So, okay. I was going to have it taken off and put on new new business anyway. So, thank you. Thank you for doing that. You did. Anyone else?

I mean, same thing. I'm glad we did talk about it in our budget session and you know, if there is a way to make this more efficient and maybe I mean, maybe that will help a lot with these costs going forward in the future with an investment now. I mean, I think it's disappointing that we're still paying for this now and there's an investment that already needs to be made back into it, but I I would like to keep the conversation going. Yeah, it's it's difficult to assess the the fees onto the the property owners and and the business folks who are actually trying to operate down there.

You know, the the downside of that is with the construction of the streets and the way everything was made in order to transfer the heat. Of course, the roads are thinner and the asphalt's thinner and to shut it down is is a very very expensive proposition, probably in the millions of dollars to redo all that and take it out. So, to try to find a way to make it a little more cost uh obtainable or or palatable, let's say, for the the folks who are down there, um I'm not quite sure of an answer for that. Um, moving it a little closer will probably help some, but probably not a huge amount, but it definitely deserves more conversation. I I will for sure vote for that.

Yeah, it was always hard to have like your first decent weekend and then get this bill in the mail. I have to tell you as a business owner. Yep. It was really hard.

Yeah, I have to agree, Mike and Sarah. We probably need to be updated a little bit. I don't it's more like for staff is going to be working on this anyway so they know it's going to be doing but find a new location more efficient boilers or whatever we can do and if we can rotate like they said at our meeting would be a great thing but it's something that has to be stuck on our radar. I was originally the one that voted no for this because it the whole presentation that was given to us was supposed to be free. It's free heat is what they were telling us all the time. And I at the time I said, "No, nothing's free." As we see right now today, it's a lot more than free. So, anything we can do to help our businesses downtown, if we have to find another location, if that does bring it down or even the boilers or whatever, we in a few years, we're going to have to replace them. So, we need to do whatever we can do to try and help everybody in the downtown area. It's a great asset, don't get me wrong. after it's in there. I was at the ribbon cutting ceremony and one of my council members says, "What are you doing here?" You know, because you voted no. I said, "No,

that's why I'm still doing it. I'm the only one standing here and supporting it yet today. So, we just got to make it so we can make it more pliable for our downtown merchants and that to use it because I'm walking down here every night. I'm My wife and I, we walk downtown through there. It doesn't matter snow or no snow. takes me longer to get from my house, which is two blocks away just to get down there because the sidewalks weren't plowed. But other than that, it was really it's it's something that a lot of people enjoy because I go down and I meet my neighbors down there, talk whatever we need to do. Thank you for the presentation and why it's costing that it everything. It was a very brutal winter. I mean, we all know it was really, really cold and anytime you got to stoke it up a little bit, it's makes a big difference. So, thank you for taking it off the consent agenda and having us talk a little bit about it. I appreciate it so much. Anytime.

All right. So, I was going to have it taken off for a slightly different reason. Everything we've talked about is the correct thing to talk about for the future, for ongoing system, replacement of the thing, keeping it going. It's a great asset. I'm not disagreeing with any of that. When we set up the ordinance as it in its pre present form, we started out with the city was absorbing the avoided costs of plowing of street repairs of potholes and all that that you get with resaw cycles. And that was kind of the basis for their original sharing of cost with the between the city and the merchants or the property owners. And then at some point um previous city manager turned that into a 25% of the energy cost which seemed like a kind of an arbitrary way of doing it. I didn't see a rational basis other than it's kind of easy to do and I voted against that at the time because I said that's not the way it should be done. I still don't think it is. I don't think that the um city share of this has been appropriately assessed for a long time. I think that when we lost the SIMS plant and suddenly had to start heating with natural gas and suddenly tripled the cost of the system or more than doubled more than doubled the cost of the system that that really came into play that this has gotten really expensive our merchants not just down the road when we replace things but this bill in front of us this is really high it's our highest ever because of the bad winter but it's been getting higher every year. I would uh I would like to have a conversation around changing the city share of this cost. I think we should be paying more than 25% of this or I think we should be capping the cost that we charge to the property owners. One or the other. I'd be open to either idea, but I think that we can't keep escalating this cost and passing it along. And uh it won't get better. It might get more efficient down the road when we build a whole new system, new

boilers, new location, all that. We might gain a small efficiency, but it's still going to be expensive. And the price of gas is not going to go down. It's likely to go up. So, we need to really have a serious conversation. I'd be willing to have it now with this bill as to can we assess this differently that the list we've got as part of our packet with all these charges for each property owner. I'd like to see the city pick up more of that right now. Um, I think that'd be something we should have talked about a long time ago. We haven't. And I know that there's some resistance to the city paying more of it. But in reality, the way people use this system, to some degree, it helps drive traffic downtown. In the winter time, people go down there and they walk. They walk their dogs. They walk up and down. Uh, some of them some of them may actually shop. I don't know. It acts kind of like a public park the way it's used because people go out there and use it for a walking park. Those people aren't necessarily driving business downtown, but they're enjoying a city amenity. The city's providing at the expense of the property owners. I would like to see us change our proportion or cap the cost at some reasonable number, which I don't have. I mean, I'd be pulling a number out of the air just like previous city manager did. Not this one. But, uh, I think that there's a there's got to be a rational way to do this and come up with something that's easier for them to pay and more fair. And, uh, and really, this isn't this isn't sustainable the way it is. I would, I would encourage us to take a look at that before we agree to this assessment. If we're not going to do that, then uh, we should certainly look at it going forward. And my understanding from what you told me earlier, we actually pay this bill and then we seek reimbursement from the property owners. So the bill is paid and now we got to go back and get the money from property owners.

So there's there's time to fix this or there's time to kick it down the road and fix it next year and maybe it won't be so bad. But I would rather fix it now. That's why I wanted to pull this off. I want wanted to have a continued conversation about this particular bill and all bills going forward. I don't know what the rest of council feels about that, but I think we ought to take a really hard look at that. I I would personally support a further conversation on exactly what you're talking about. More than happy to sit and talk about it. Um I would have no reason to not. So you got my support to talk about.

Feels just like law school. Like I missed this like by like one year. I think MSU became a public law school one year after I graduated and everybody got half the tuition costs. Like it's all going to happen one year after I got rid of my business and I was like the best thing. Yeah, of course. Like I I've always wondered why the businesses were paying so much money, so much of the burden when um honestly, as much as Yes, I think it does bring business downtown, it is used more as as an amenity. I think it is um than it is to drive business downtown. So, I would love to do any I would love to do anything we can to help our businesses downtown thrive.

I agree. Okay. Um, what I would like to do, I would like to postpone action on this and have um, staff come back with something, an idea kind of representing what I just rambled around on, but something that would be kind of a rational way for us to pick up more of the cost as a city. I say there's there's different ways you might do that. I don't have all the best ideas, but I just don't think we should do this. So, okay.

I would love to hear uh I would love to hear a motion to postpone and come back and revisit it either at our next meeting or at least very soon. I'll make a motion to postpone until the next meeting. Second. Okay. A motion by door, second by lines to postpone and revisit the distribution of costs for this and future snowmill buildings. Exactly what I said. Yep, I heard that. Perfect. Thank Any qu any questions on that motion? You please call the role. I'm sorry. Who motioned and seconded for that? Uh Dora and Lions. Lion. I'm sorry. Dora, yes. Lion, yes. Fritz,

yes. Calio, yes. Manza, yes. And that concludes our business for the evening. That brings us to a report by city council. Who would like to go first?

Wow, what a weekend, huh? I don't know if anybody else was out there, but I tell you what, just to go from uh downtown to Grand Avenue, it took you anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour to get there. It was just crazy. I tell you what, the kite fest was absolutely fantastic. They had nice breeze out there and the kites were flying. It was beautiful. The pub crawl was busy too. So that that was very good. Our town was just packed. It was nice to see when the sun shines, Grand Haven shines. That's my saying is. So thank thank the good Lord for giving us the sunshine this weekend and the wind for the kites. And I'm not going to talk about the Tigers too much. Boy, they're hurting. I tell you, that's all I can tell you.

Okay. Thanks, Mike. That's quick. I would just like to say a thank you to all of our servicemen and women um as we enter into Memorial weekend this next weekend. Um so I hope everybody has a safe Memorial weekend. Um very thankful for the sunshine which I'm hoping means that we are headed into summer eventually since we went from like 35 degrees to 85 degrees in a matter of three days. Um but very thankful for that. Um, and as we're headed out of here, I would love to hear what the date for the Mosaics for mental health is. It is May 30th. May 30th. Saturday, May 30th from 1:00 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Saturday, May 30th from 1:00 p.m. to 3 p.m. Mosaics for mental health.

Add that on my list. You beat me to it. Yeah. I want to make sure. I hope um everybody that is traveling this upcoming weekend does so safely. Um remember those that uh that fought for the freedoms that we all have and and paid the ultimate price, many of them for the things we enjoy today. So I look forward to the events coming up on Memorial Day and participating in them as well. And hopefully we'll have some nice weather that'll last. And I'm not going to talk about the Tigers either.

Thank you. Thank you, Mike. Yeah, I just want to um say that also and I think just a good reminder for all of us as our town gets busier and busier um to take good care of each other and um help when we can and uh yes, just um thank you so much to those have that have served and those who are currently serving and what a difference you do make in all of our lives. Um and yeah, thank you.

Okay, thanks. Yeah. And uh, of course, Memorial Day coming up, the Memorial Day Association always puts on an outstanding ceremony, the parade, the ceremony at the Waterfront Stadium and at the Eternal Flame and in the cemetery. Encourage people to take part in that. Really appreciate the day and the sacrifices and uh, and the hard work put on by the local people who want to make that honor. Um, the other thing I wanted to mention was that last Tuesday I went to the Building Michigan Communities Conference for a uh uh I was I was signed up for four hours of training on the elected officials track, but they have really a very large conference every year on um a lot of things that have to do with building community in physical senses. I I attended sessions on affordable housing, attainable housing, how to finance these things and some of the pitfalls, some of the information. I thought that was really good information. and I've been on the uh EDC Bar for a number of years and I kind of picked up on some of this over the years, but this is a really good summary and it's I thought it was kind of eye openening and I would encourage uh I mentioned to Ashley earlier that you know if we can have some of that stuff brought here and presented locally I think we'd all benefit from knowing more about it. But it was a great session and I appreciate the ability to go and uh spend a few hours studying that. Plus they have at this conference they have a lot of other breakout sessions that I didn't have time for but you kind of have to take a whole team there to cover everything. So anyway I found that to be very very informative and um I know that we have had a lot of discussion around u projects and incentives and getting things done and why is it so hard to get things done and there's reasons why it's so hard to get things done. The more you learn about it the better. And that's pretty much all I've got for today. So,

I'll turn it over to the city manager.

Thank you. Um, all I wanted to do really was just again express gratitude to Emily and her team and all of our departments for the effort that goes into the the budget process being a a several month um, endeavor and all the thoughtfulness and intentionality and effort that goes into it. Um, and as well as express my gratitude to council for their uh, thoughtful review of it as we look to align our budget with your strategic direction as well. Um, and then just again a reminder, it's it's May, so we're still kicking into the the spring summer season um with our departments and getting the parks ready and all the projects started or wrapped up. Um, we just wrapped up a number of different projects with our Department of Public Works, including the charter docks. So, that was a great improvement. Um, so again, appreciate yours and the public's patience as we get back into the into the swing of things with our seasonals just getting started for the season. So that is the only I believe the only thing I had for tonight.

Okay. Well, thank you. And that brings us to our second call to the audience. This time members of the audience may address council on any item whether in the agenda or not. If you would like to address council, please come forward, give us your name and address, and limit your speaking time to three minutes. Okay, Matt, you didn't sit through this whole meeting for nothing. I know.

My name is Matthew Braggington. I live at 319 Maple, Fairiesburg. Uh I am the caretaker of the 1223 Pier Marquette locomotive downtown. Uh as we even this evening have heard and discussed about losing more of our historical buildings, um more of our history as as the Tri Cities. Um, I wanted to encourage you to consider the line item in your budget for repainting the train. It's a necessary and very simple way to preserve the history that is already here. Um, it's been taken care of by my family for four generations and I want to pass it down to more generations past that. Um, it's a draw to our city. They are trained nerds that do that. It does draw, but they spend they spend good money here, too. Um, I just wanted to thank you for considering the line item. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Matt. Thank you for everything you do.

All right. Well, then if there is no one else and if there's no further business, then we are adjourned. Thank you for coming. I'm going to miss