City Commission - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call the meeting to order tonight, Monday, February 23rd, 2026 at 6 p.m. in the commission chambers. Uh, please rise for the pledge of 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. Uh, roll call. City clerk. Commissioner Davis here. Commissioner Gotautle. Commissioner Hanley here. Commissioner Larson here. Commissioner Mayor here. Mayor Prom Otawway here.

And Mayor Schlegel here. Uh, commissioners, do we have a motion to excuse Commissioner Gotautle for the evening? Uh, sorry. Commissioner Davis. Commissioner Davis. I move that we excuse Commissioner Gotautlib for personal reasons. Is there a second? Prom. Second. Uh, any discussion? Okay. All in favor, please say yes. Opposed? No. Motion passes six to nothing. Thank you for that. Um, we've got an agenda in front of us. Is there a motion to accept or change the agenda? Commissioner Davis, you want this one again?

I move we accept the agenda as presented. Thank you. Second, please. Commissioner Hanley, I second. Thank you. Any discussion? Okay. All in favor, please say yes. Yes. Yes.

Opposed? No. Motion passes again. Six to nothing. for the announcements tonight. Um, I just we don't really have anything that's coming officially from uh any other work that's being done in the city right now, but I would like to thank all the volunteers that are coming out to help with the uh trying to locate our missing person uh young student from Northern Michigan University. Um we've had hundreds of people come out and assist with that. Um we want to thank them for their efforts. I know that everybody's doing the very best that they can with the resources that they have. They don't necessarily need more volunteers, but the point is is that the overwhelming response is very much appreciated and we're hoping for the best possible outcome that we can come across uh with such a very uh difficult topic. So, thank you for that. Um brings us to boards and committees. We've got a couple of appointments tonight. Is there a motion, please?

Commissioner Haley, I move that we appoint Michael Tumin to the board of zoning appeals for a term ending 215 of 29. Ashley Sari to the Arch and Culture Advisory Committee for a term for an unexpired term ending 61 of 28 and Susan Esler to the Arts and Culture Advisory Committee for an unexpired term ending 61 of 26 and the subsequent term ending 61 of 29. Thank you. Is there a second? Pro Tim second. Any discussion? No. I would just like to really thank everyone for being involved and staying involved. It's always good to see a lot of appointments on our boards and committees. Hopefully one day we can fill them all.

Thanks, brother. That's good. Great. I'd like to just echo that. It's great to see uh three of these come across our desk this uh meeting. Hopefully there's a couple more in the next one. Uh with that being said, all in favor, please say yes. Yes. Opposed? No. Motion passes 60. Thank you. We have one reappointment. Is there a motion? Commissioner Larson. Uh I move that we reappoint Jim Compton to Marquette Area Wastewater Treatment Advisory Board for a term ending 2129. Thank you. A second. Commissioner Mayor. Second.

Discussion, please. Anything? Hearing none. Uh seeing none, I will move that to a vote. All in favor, please say yes. Opposed? No. Motion passes. Six don't.

All right, that gets us to public comment. Um, public comment cannot exceed 3 minutes per person. Please state your name and physical address when you come up to the podium. Anyone for public comment this evening? This is hard to believe. Anyone for public comment? Third time. Public comment is closed. Uh we have a presentation tonight. Exciting to see that we're going to hear from the parks and recreation advisory board and chair Amanda Gobert. Amanda.

Good evening everyone. Um I apologize in advance. I'm in the process of getting over bronchitis. So, if I start coughing in the middle and step away for a moment, I apologize for that. As stated, my name is Amanda Gobert. I am the chair of the parks and wreck advisory board. Uh we meet the second or third Monday of each month in the citizens forum at Lake View Arena at 5:45. Uh presented before you is our list of board members. We currently have 13 board members. We in the last couple of years combined the parks and recre advisory board, the harbor advisory committee and the Prescy Park Advisory Committee. And by doing so, our board size did greatly increase. We do have direction that our board needs to be down to 11 members by 2027. At this point, we're not thinking that's going to be an issue. We do have a couple who've expressed the fact that they are ready to be done and also some are going to term limit out. So we should not see any issue with that moving forward. Our general purpose is to oversee implementation and guidance on the parks and recreation master plan within the city of Marquette as well as to offer our support or suggestion to commission approved and recommended things within the park system and recreation system within the city. We currently have seven rentable facilities and 21 parks within the city. Um that's approximately 2810 acres. That's a lot of park.

We also have a community garden. We actually have two with 75 garden sites available. We provide outdoor athletic fields in the form of baseball and softball, soccer and basketball as well as quite an extensive trail network in partnership with the Nikon trail system to groom. The parks and recck advisory board offers um feedback on project development, grant information, and all of the recommendations that come directly from the commission in regards to projects throughout the city park system. I know that this is very small to read, but the items that are listed in yellow, we're working on grant and funding and items in green are either projects that are currently in progress toward completion or have been completed. Some of the highlights of that over the course of time are projects at um Kids Cove was something big for this up past year. Um in progress are some replacement and things at Lake View Arena. Um you'll hear some about this later, but we're working they're working diligently to fund a new Zamboni. Um desperately needed. We are also um in supporting the projects at the cultural arts and trail center as well as the band shell out at Prescy. So over the course of 2025, we completed the five-year parks and wreck master plan. Uh we solicited community input. We worked diligently as a group to

review and offer input into that. We helped with supporting the amendment of our special events policy. We did some naming things with the skate park as well as the naming rights to the bandell and the support for the fundraising effort for that. We have supported although we love dogs in the city and all of us are dog lovers on our group. Um we did recognize that with the poor in place safety services at the playgrounds dogs are not a good environment for that and so we did support an ordinance to not allow dogs directly on those surfaces. We're currently working on grant funding um support of grant funding to replace the peers at the Cindermon Pond Marina. And we also had three members of our group who volunteered to participate in the recently completed ebike task force and they provided monthly input directly back to our committee and took our committee suggestions to that task force to attempt to bring some regulations and such to the commission for consideration for this upcoming year. We want to continue to work with the city on those changes for the ebikes and other forms of transportation on the city trails and paths. We are in the process of working on a recommendation for a fiscal policy for the city marinas as well as the capital improvements that are going to be needed in the short and long term at those locations. We support grant initiatives as they become available and put our input behind issues and concerns as they do arise. Lastly, we do have a few things that

come up on the issue and discussion list for us within our group. um we realize that grant funding and such is not always going to be available and so we're looking at the possibilities of other ways to outside fund some of the projects that we want to fund um whether it be private fundraising or other alternatives such as charging the user groups that are using those facilities. um to continue with the implementation of the five-year plan. We are looking to definitely make sure that we are protecting the balance of natural resource out there as well as still allowing development to happen. Um a very good example of that is the building of the bandell at Prescy Park. Prescy is a natural beauty and with the building of the band shell, we did not want to see that interfere any more than the band shell originally had been implemented into there. So, we did offer a lot of suggestions to help them with that. Uh, parking lot paving is always on the top of the list. Um, the potholes even on the city's streets sometimes get to be big enough to swallow your car. Um, definitely something that needs to be looked at. Continued concerns for the multi-use path and how to best regulate to allow all members and all users to be able to use those safely. Um, there are some issues with unpermitted uses in our public parks. Um, weddings happen at Prescy on a regular basis during the summer and technically that's not allowed unless you've gotten that approved prior to doing so. Not to mention the fact that the parking at Black Rocks is only so big. And when

you have an entire wedding group that wants to go down there to take pictures and you're interfering with other people who are visiting the area and locals who want us to participate there as well. Um staffing is always an issue. Staffing is an issue everywhere. The city is no exception and it makes operation and maintenance difficult. And so we have definitely had several conversations about is there a better way? Is there something we could suggest? And lastly, that did not make it onto the slide, but one of the things that we also had brought up was the fact that um communication, although it is getting better between the commission and the boards, still needs to be improved. We're finding we get a lot of recommendation questions very few days before our meetings and we don't have the information to make an educated decision. and we want to be able to represent the residents of the city of Marquette in those decisions and it's very hard when we don't have a chance to ask questions.

Any questions for me? All right. Thank you, Amanda. Um, want to run down the line? Anybody have anything down this end? Good. Mr. Larson, I don't have any questions. However, just uh you know, you certainly have a large group of folks there and I certainly understand certainly to shrink it down, but you know, it just goes to show that you know, parks parks are really uh you know, the commons, you know, of the city and they they belong to everyone. And so, I know everybody's trying, you know, having a large group being able to help make some of these decisions is really looking out for the best interest of the community. And so, thank you for doing that. And I appreciate the presentation tonight.

Thank you. Yes, Commissioner Davis. Thank you, Amanda. Excuse me. Your committee has a lot going on, especially after combining all three of those groups. Um, I noticed that on your list of members that some of them are assigned to specific things like the waterfront or hockey. And as you decrease the number in your of your committee, do you maintain that those representatives will stay there or do you just take whoever has to leave?

We will be aiming to keep representatives within those specific areas. um whether someone who's on the committee wants to step up as a specific representative because obviously waterfront is a is a big one. We had many members from the other two committees that and one being the harbor advisory committee who joined us if they're not technically currently listed as a waterfront member and someone steps down, they want to step up or those would be spots we would attempt to fill because we really do want that repres representation and that is still the intent of having individual spots for those. I'm glad that you do that. So I on your the list of the capital projects, how often do you renew this list? Because as I look at, you know, the green ones, some of them were done several years ago. So I'm wondering why they just haven't been taken off the list. That was a question that we had asked and apparently it has something to do as I was explained that there is a very lengthy spreadsheet and by removing line items from the spreadsheet before it's imported into the presentation it tends to degrade the spreadsheet itself. So um our city liaison is actually looking at a better way for future presentations to be able to pull more pertinent information and not projects that have been done for five or six years. be nice to see the, you know, the the things that have been done in the last two or three years.

And we we did mention that as well. Okay. So, you're thinking like I am. Okay. Good. It's just it's as I looked at that, it's like it's a long sheet and there's a lot to do. Um, but those that are done, you know, we we like I said, we did discuss that and and unfortunately spreadsheet integrity was important at the immediate moment, but we are looking at better options for future presentations. So, next year's presentation might have a better update. Good. I'll look forward to it. Thank you so much for the work that you do on this committee and I know it's a very active committee and a lots to do. Thank you.

Yeah, I've got a couple things. Um, first of all, you kind of touched on the main topic of joining all these groups together, all these other advisory roles. So, my question is is how is that um working out for you as far as the new group? Has it uh been pretty smooth or are you finding that maybe you it was a good idea versus a a not so good idea? What do you think?

We are actually finding that it is a very good thing. Um, it gives a better opportunity for first of all those voices from those other groups to be heard within the whole group because as we viewed it, Parks and Rec kind of oversaw them to begin with. And so this way they feel like they've got a greater voice in what's going on with decision-m that's being directed to the parks and advisory board. And it actually has spawned some pretty decent discussions within our group because they offer different perspectives that some of the rest of us who are not avid boers or not, you know, actively involved in certain other things might not think about. So, it's actually helped stimulate some pretty intense discussions actually.

That's good to hear and I would I would hope that that was the reason for doing it and I'm glad to hear that that's the the resolve. Um, one of the items that I'm passionate about is the dog park or the dog recreation space and I know that there's uh property that's been allocated for this for the future and that there is a design that's been put together and I'm wondering if there's going to be a time for public comment on that or some input from those people that are u you know part of that that uh group that goes and and takes advantage of the the winter dog park at uh uh tourists There absolutely is the plan to have um a public announcement go out when we further discuss this. At our last meeting, we approved the recommendation to have the city commission um continue to explore and to further put their plan together based on what was presented to us. And we decided as a group that once we had um a little bit more information on um cost and um true layout and things like that, because we didn't get a lot of information until a few days before the meeting, we do want to put it back on our agenda to be able to invite the public to offer their input. We do have several dog park users on our board who actually have already expressed their opinions to us and have decided we we know we need to hear from the general public as far as what their interest and how they feel and thoughts on the whole subject. So yes,

that's good to hear. Um biggest issue that I'm running across with conversation that I have with people when I'm there with my dog is, you know, who's going to pay for it? Obviously, um it's the obligation of the the users to to pay for it, um to fund raise, and that's going to take a little bit of time. So, uh the sooner that that can be uh there can be a package put together that that we can finally put a group of people to to kind of champion that, the the the better because it's going to take a lot of money and a lot of effort on on those people's part to do that. And uh uh I just think that the sooner the better because you know we're I was hoping that that that group might be able to start working on things yet this season knowing that we're going into a very short summer. Uh it would be great to to see some traction there. So if you

and and we are definitely looking at that. I do believe the topic was discussed potentially for our next meeting um to have a further discussion on it and hopefully by at the latest our April meeting to have an open forum with the public to let them know that we're going to talk about it. Good. And I think um I'm glad to hear you talking about communication. I know when I was on Prescott Advisory many years ago, um not to say that wasn't effective, but there's always um room for improvement when it comes to that communication. and I hope that you kind of put the cattle prod to whatever it takes to get that uh energized a little bit. So,

we very much appreciate the fact that the form was designed for us to use when we had something to come to you guys. Um that I found has helped our group a lot because we can put something in concrete writing and we know it gets there. Whereas previously it was okay well so- and so is going to go ahead and take care of making sure that the commission hears that we talked about this and then it's did so and so forget and who did they talk to and there was no paper trail and I know in the age of electronics I'm still all about the paper trail whether it be an electronic paper trail or a physical paper trail I like to know that the communication is happening to be able to say

what happened to this did somebody did this get lost so on and so forth And so we know it's a work in progress, but things have improved and we're hoping for further improvement. Good. Well, thanks for the presentation and please go back to the uh the board and let them know how much we appreciate the work they're doing. We'll do. Keep up the good work. Thank you. Perfect. Excellent. Uh moves us on to the consent agenda. Looking for a motion for the consent agenda, please. Mr. Larson. Commissioner Larson, please. I move that we accept the consent agenda as presented. Is there a second? Commissioner Mayor second.

Thank you. Any discussion? Okay. Seeing none, uh, all in favor, please say yes. Yes. Opposed? No. Motion passes. 60. Uh, that brings us to new business. We have one item of new business. And are we going to get some background on this or do we want to I can I can read a paragraph to you. That'd be great. Thank you.

It's a short paragraph. Thank you, mayor. Uh due to an anticipated scheduling conflict involving multiple commissioners, the first regular city commission meeting in March needs to be rescheduled. The proposed rescheduled date is Monday, March 16th, 2026 at 6 p.m. Fiscal effect none by this action. Recommendation approve rescheduling the first regular city commission meeting in March to Monday, March 16th, 2026 at 6 PM. Alternatives as determined by the commission. Thank you, city clerk. Uh, is there a motion? Commissioner Davis, didn't see the hand. Sorry.

I move that we approve rescheduling the first regular city commission meeting in March to Monday, March 16th, 2026 at 6 PM. Thank you. Is there a second prom? Second. Any discussion? I don't think I have any. Thank you. I don't have anything. I would just like to say thank you for everybody to work around the schedule. Um there were a number of us that were going to be out of town. It would have been a pretty pretty close to not having a quorum. So, I think that uh it's the best thing for us as far as getting effective business done and look forward to moving that meeting forward. Uh, with that being said, all in favor, please say yes. Yes.

Yes. Opposed? No.

Motion passes 60. That brings us to public comment number two. This is it. We can do it. Uh, again, comments cannot exceed more than 3 minutes per person. Please state your name and physical address when you come up to the podium. Anybody for public comment? It's a quiet night. Too many too many hours shovel and snow. Any other public comment? Okay, seeing none, public comment is closed. That brings us to comments from the commission. We're going to start with Commissioner Larson tonight. So, I think you've you've already said, you know, the the mayor how the community has really come together tonight uh or these last few days uh in search of our our missing the missing student here. So I just want, you know, want to express my gratitude uh to all the volunteers, to the police, to everybody uh that is that is putting forth the effort to do it. It really shows that our community cares uh about those uh that live here and are able to kind of put out the effort uh to um put aside, you know, differences and times and schedules out of their day uh to really uh step up and and help this family that's in need. So I certainly appreciate that. So thank you.

Thank you. Commission Mayor.

Yeah. I mean, uh I don't think I really have too much more to add to that. Just, um it it really has been incredible seeing the community rally to help find Trenton and uh um the amount of different agencies that are all collaborating together. And big shout out to uh our chief of police and our city staff here that have been coordinating with a lot of different agencies, both localhole and state and technically federal. Um, and uh, you know, it's there's so many people out there looking and it's fantastic. Uh, if folks are watching at home, if you know people are out looking, uh, just, you know, maybe check in on them later today and make sure they actually got back home from searching, especially as it's getting darker out. Um, yeah. Other than that, thanks.

Thank you, Commissioner Davis. Yeah. Well, I will ditto both of those comments, but I also want to recognize all of those that are keeping our streets cleared. It's a huge snow year. I like to see this. Even I'm getting a little tired of it, but um the work that's being done to keep our roads cleared and the machines going is is just really phenomenal. And um I know that people get frustrated and garbage cans get tipped over by snow plows, but but we can all just be a little more patient and appreciate that we have that service. Surely, thank you, Commissioner Hammock.

I don't have much to add that everyone already hasn't said. Again, thank you to the community for coming together and all of the staff. And also, I know that no one else in this room that's not in this room looking this way can see it for the amass of snow year that we're having, but I just glanced at our window in the corner and realized the snow is all the way up to about maybe 3 in of the top of that 4 in. And it's overwhelming. Uh, and we're seeing that everywhere. We don't have places to put snow. We don't have things we can do. And the plows are having the same issues on the roads trying to clear snow when there's no place for that snow to go. So, just be a little bit more forgiving of our city staff who's working tirelessly to try and clear those roads and do what they can. I know it's taking longer, but it didn't stop snowing all weekend. At any point that I saw, it just kept snowing. And as much as I like winter sports, I want to be warm again. So, I'm ready for summer now if anyone's taking requests. Um, other than that, that's all I have.

Thank you, Pro. Yeah, I'll echo the the other comments from everyone. Um, it's it's very prideful to see our community come together in a time of need. Um, in South Marquette today, I I witnessed numerous uh probably NMU students walking up and down streets um really looking for the missing person and it it just once again echoes to the type of community we live in. Um, so huge thank you to to Chief Grim who's who's leading that effort and I hope we we get some good news uh later on. Um, one quick announcement. Uh, Market Area Public Schools has two upcoming open houses uh to provide information for their bond proposal uh that will be on the ballot on May 5th. Uh it is very important that you educate yourself uh because that will be on the ballot and you're going to have the opportunity to do that whether you want to support that or not support it. Uh they're going to try to provide information that's factual to to really get out there what that uh those bond proposal or that bond proposal is for. Uh March 2nd and March 3rd at both and market senior high school. Uh there will be a tour at 3:30 p.m. followed by a presentation at 5. Um, I urge all members of the public, uh, all voters to get out and and listen to what the the public schools has to say. If you can't do that, uh, go ahead and look online, try to research the information yourself, and, uh, most importantly, make sure you vote, uh, on May 5th, uh, because that is a very different time for people to vote. So, uh, there's something important on the ballot, be present. Thank you.

Thank you. Uh, great, uh, great point. Thanks for bringing that up. Um, I've got a couple things. Number one, on on the brighter side, we had an amazing event with the uh sled dogs last week. And I just want to thank um Ross and and his crew for putting on such an amazing event. The hundreds of uh volunteers, the the vet techs, the trail bosses, the you name it. I mean, it's just a a bottomless pit of effort. I I just I don't know how they can make that thing go off without uh uh seeming like it's, you know, it's really second hat for him. So, that was an incredible event. Um I've got comments from one of our residents and I kind of wanted to just kind of bring it up. You know, as we deal with all the snow and all the plowing and all the wind that comes with these types of weather events, people are talking a lot about the trash bins and things and it's pretty sensitive topic. I get a lot of contact in regards to these uh these bins and they said, you know, why don't we just have them wait to put something out a week? And I thought, you know, I think we're all smart enough to figure that out. But I thought I'd bring it up anyway to just say, you know, if you got a half a bin, then you don't have to put it out and you know that the weather's not going to be great. Save us uh save yourself the the effort and and maybe wait a week. Um little things like that or positioning your your bins in a fashion that uh the the heavier trash bin is can be buffer buffer the uh the snow plow as it comes by with um instead of taking out the lighter recycling something you know along those lines just little uh tidbits of advice that people might or may not uh have thought of but just thought I'd bring it up because I can and uh kind of go from there. Uh that's all I have. City manager, do you have anything? I thought when you were talking about social media and the snow, you were going to talk about my shoes maybe. Um but uh while we are talking about the snow, um I I do want to just mention

that it's been a wild winter here and um city crew it actually I've heard it's been a normal winter, but that's we'll we'll call it wild for now because we're still in it. But um city crews have been working extended hours throughout the winter um to keep up with significant snowfall that we've had. and we've have a night shift that does um work and they started working um at the end of November, early December and um we have a a full team um working uh pretty much around the clock. So um heavy snow comes when it wants to come. We can't plan it all the time. So uh this last snowstorm brought in very heavy snow and um working uh our our eight um routes takes longer sometimes than the 10 to 12 hours um that we have on shift. So sometimes we can get through an entire route, sometimes we can't. Um, but we do eventually get to those areas. So we are asking for a little bit of patience when it does come to the heavy snow. I also just wanted to mention because we've se we've received several emails about this and and social media posts we do see. Um, our plow truck drivers are not um out to plow you in your driveway. um maybe only me, but um they they are not out there trying to to plow all of you in. So um it is very frustrating and I hear all of you. We we very much understand um how frustrating it is to clear your driveway and then have the plow truck come by a few times. Um so we are working on on other strategies in the future, but um for now those are the plow routes and we are are working through it. So, um, help your neighbors out, help each other out. Um, I'm willing to come and lend a hand if need be as well. So, um, just please, um, the snow is making everybody go mad. So, let's, uh, let's take a breath here and and and see the beauty that we have outside that's covering up the dirty snow. Now, um, we, uh, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I I think I've covered all of

that. Um, the sidewalks are still being worked on as well. our our um school routes um are obviously first priority and our bike path or our multi-use path um sometimes ends up being a little bit last, but we do recognize that people use it for transportation or travel. So, we are working on getting that cleared as fast as we can, but roads are going to be first priority and those snow banks are coming in as a hot second. So, um you will uh we will start getting to those snow banks here um very shortly, possibly even tonight. So, um, keep an eye out for that. So, great job to our plow truck drivers and our our road crews out there. So, thank you.

Thank you. And with that, we are adjourned at 6:34.