City Council - Regular Meeting

Call to order this meeting of the Eskanava City Council October 2nd, 2025. Wiser, please call roll. Council member Moore, here. Council member Boscha here. Council member Dubard here. Council member Fla here. Mayor Ammo here. Please stand 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.

At this time, seeking approval andor corrections to the minutes of the regular meeting of September 18th, 2025. So move second discussion. All in favor. Thank you. At this time, seeking approval and or adjustments to the current agenda as written. So moved. Second. All in favor? I. Thank you. At this time, is there any conflict of interest needing to be declared by members of council pertaining to items on the agenda? Hearing none. This time we will hear brief public comment pertaining to items on the agenda. If you wish to make comments, please approach the podium, state your name, place of residence, and keep your comments to 3 minutes or less.

Hello, I'm Judy Owens, Esanaba. Um, good evening to all the council members and to the city manager. On behalf of Old State Development, my business partners, Jim Baxter, Dave Harris, and myself, I am here tonight to present our proposal for the Stone Brook condominium project and to respectfully request approval for the purchase of the partial 5.17 acre city. We submitted our bid on Tuesday, September 28th, as required. I was present at the opening of the bids. Only one other bid was submitted and it did not include a development proposal. In contrast, our submission included not only the purchase offered but also details, a project timeline, letters of financial support from First Bank and and Invest UP. Collectively, we bring a strong professional track record both individually and through past development projects. Stone Brook represents the next step. Designed to meet a housing need in Eskanaba that has gone unserved for too long. These condominiums are tailored for those looking to downsize with a single le level living area, attached garage, personal green space. Every unit sold creates a ripple effect, freeing up family homes for new buyers, which in turns opens up the door for firsttime home buyers. This natural housing cycle streng strengthens the entire local market. Stone Brook benefits the city in many ways, including an estimated $250,000 annually to city tax base for the from the condos alone. Each family home listed and sold as a result of downsizing will add further property tax revenue. The addition of modern

move-inready homes encourages more people to choose Eskanava, boosting the population and helping to attract new businesses. Local job creation and strong stronger economic activity will result as the project supports both residents and future generations. In short, the city grows when they provide homes and opportunity. The demand for Stonebrook is clear. Without any advertising to date, we have already 15 serious interested buyers, all from Eskanaba and Delta County, proving the need for this style of housing. We are committed to hiring local trades contractors, sourcing our materials from local vendors whenever possible. On this 5.17 acre parcel, we will build 25 thoughtfully designed condos with ample green space, wide roads, driveway, and garage parking with the new city utility infrastructure paid for by us. The Stone Brook Property Association will manage all property maintenance maintenance, ensuring the community remains attractive and well-kept for many years to come. Our team is fully prepared. Financing is secured. Contractors, suppliers are ready, and buyers are waiting to sign their contracts. Stone Brook is shovel ready with site work scheduled to still begin this fall. We are ready to move forward. We just need your support. We ask tonight that you please vote and vote yes. Thank you.

Further public comment at this time. Joe Kaplan, Eskanaba taxpayer, uh, For River Township resident. I love what Judy has to present. There's one problem, though. You're not following your charter. I'm going to give you a little history here. In 1972, the city bought 40 acres from the Department of Natural Resources for $1. $1 for public purposes. That was in 1972. Almost all that property has been sold off except for 5.17 acres. And the reason that parcel was never sold out, it was never sold private parties for development for whatever reasons was because it was incorporated into the park systems of Eskanaba. And in order to sell park designated property, it has to go in front of the by charter has to go in front of the vote of the electorate and improve by 60%. That's our laws in Eskanaba. That's the equivalent of our constitution. So it is unfortunate that this council never took those steps so that project could go through without being in contrast or in conflict with our charter. I'm going to read from you how this became a park on April 21st 1977. [Music] So this is what 5 years after it was that 40 acres was bought for a dollar by the city of Eskanaba on April 21st, 1977. This was the agenda item under unfinished business. Report with

recommendations from the planning commission of the following. Establishment of a park north of 3rd Avenue South and west of 30th Street. A petition was presented in the fall of 1974, three years earlier, requesting that a park be established in this area. Said petition was referred to the planning commission and they in return referred it to the recreation board. A few months later, the matter was returned to council. There was some discussion as to whether or not the triangular parcel in question should be placed on the master plan. At that time, a question arose to what the consequence would be if that triangular parcel was needed in the future for some other purpose. Then the city attorney replied that it could very well require a vote of the people and as a result of that comment, no action was taken. This matter has been returned to the planning commission and now the planning commission again recommends that the council by resolution set aside the triangular piece for future recreational use. By Councilman Chase, supported by Councilman Lamir, resolved that the council does hereby designate the parcel north of Third Avenue South and west of 30th Street for future recreational use in accordance with the recommendations of the planning commission. Resolve further that this piece of property will be placed within the jurisdiction of the recreation board for the consideration with recommendations to the council for future recreational budgets as to what the parcel should be used for. Let's fast forward to 2021. Last thing I did on for the Eskanaba uh as a as a resident of Eskanaba, I was the chair of the recreation board. I served with Karen Moore and this is how we designated that parcel back in 2021. The city's 5-year wreck plan um identified it as to establish a park north of Third

Avenue South and West Wait a minute. I'm sorry. It was to establish quote a small park for residents on the west end of the city to enjoy end quote. Further identifying the potential for to create a pump track that was accepted by resolution by the five of you in December 16th of 2021. Maybe you didn't see that part, but it has been in the recck plan today. This is not something that happened in 1977. and then it was forgotten. This absolutely is a park which requires by resolution 60 60% of the voters to approve it in order to sell it for other purposes. And if you ignore your charter, you are making a huge mistake regardless of the merits of the project that's before you now. Thank you so much. Further public comment at this time hearing none. We move on to public hearings. We have two scheduled this evening. Excuse me. Item number one, public hearing resolution 25-19, Obsolete Properties Rehabilitation District number 29, 1213 Lington Street. This is our public hearing stage. This is our public hearing stage um of our what would be our 29th Obsolete Property Rehabilitation Act District um for the former Crispy Property. Um when we get to the public hearing, I believe uh Mr. Spalding is here if if you want to hear from him. Um but at our previous meeting, we did set the public hearing.

We did talk in depth of the the scope of this project and um that part of our public support is to leverage a pretty significant amount of state support for the project. Um OPRA's program we've used 28 previous times and it's it's been pretty easy to administer. Um and uh certainly we do have a timeline here with uh having to have this submitted before October 31st. This time we will open the public hearing. If you wish to make comment on this item, please approach the podium, state your name, place of residence.

Kelly Spalding, Esanavo, Michigan. Good evening. My name is Curt Spalding. Um, we're here. Uh, we're the ones that requested the Oprah. Um, we are the current owner or to be the current owners of 1213 Lington Street. Um, it is, uh, scheduled for, as I'm sure most of you already know, a high-end martini lounge. Um, we're here to answer any questions that the public may have in regards to that. And again, we are here um, requesting and asking for Oprah Anybody have any questions?

Any questions for us at this point? Anybody? If you're finished making your comment, you may take your seat. And then if anyone wishes to make question to council, they may do so. Kelly Vanhovven, City of Esken. Oh, sorry. Just clarification. Do you own the property or do you not own the property at 1213 Lington Street? We are should I can I just speak? Can I speak my

I guess my question would be is the obsolete properties rehabilitation district request for 1213 Letington Street being done by Mr. Spalding who does not yet own the property. Thank you.

We have, if I may, I know we've had um Oprah's done both ways before. Uh an applicant who had properties under contract um and we've had Opas done by the property owner. Um, in any event, if a deal falls through, um, Oprah certificates can be revoked.

Nope.

Hearing no further comment, we'll close the public hearing. Motion to approve resolution 25-19. Support. Discussion on this item. Wiser, please call roll. Council member Dart, yes. Council member Flaw, yes. Council member Bossha, yes. Council member Moore, yes. Mayor, yes.

Moving on. Public hearing item number two, resolution 25-20, Obsolete Property Rehabilitation Act exemption, district number 29, 1213 Lington Street. So this is part two of the application. Um first to uh establish the district and then second to actually recommend the application to the state tax commission. This time we'll open the public hearing on this item. If you wish to make comment, please approach the podium. State your name and place of residence.

Uh Crystal Martin, city assessor. I just want to add just one thing. Um the closing of the property will be done before we submit to the state tax commission at the end of the month. So the property will be in his name when we submit the all the paperwork. Yeah. Yeah. There's a purchase agreement that's signed. So thank you.

Again, if you wish to make comment, please approach the podium, state your name, place of residence. Hearing none, we'll close the public hearing. I'll make a motion to approve the uh OPRA exemption for district number 29. Support discussion. Miss Wiser, please call role. Council member Bossha, yes. Council member Moore, yes. Council member Dubour, yes. Council member Fla, yes. Mayor Elmo, yes.

We currently have no unfinished business on the docket. Moving on to new business item number one, approval. Water wastewater department's ark flash study 2025.

Administration is requesting city council approval to retain the services of Bay Electric of Dollar Bay, Michigan to conduct ark flash studies for the water and wastewater departments. An amount not to exceed 50,500 including 3,000 in contingency. Money is available and budgeted for this type of activity. Um so this is an item that we actually spent quite a bit of time on um during our budget hearings. Um it was one of the items that um my OSHA identified as a deficiency that we had to prepare a plan and then ultimately have a study done. Um the plan bought us time to to get to the study. Um there were several bids. Um, and the good news is this came in um, I don't remember what our original budgeted amount was off hand, but I know this is pretty far under budget.

Motion to approve as it's already budgeted for 50,500. Support discussion.

I have a couple questions for Mr. Lampy if he doesn't mind. Having read through this, I I understand what they're I believe I understand what they're planning to do as far as what the city gets in return after they're done. It looks like on the uh I guess where it lists the final total price, it says our proposal includes labeling specified loads and so on so forth. some QR codes. Are those codes pointing to the city website? The documents that uh I am Zach, our project manager, is wanted the QR codes. But what they're going to do is we're going to put them on a server of some sort that's not linked to the city site at all. So a contractor come in, scan the QR codes and the lockout takeout procedure will be there and all the known hazards so that our outside contractors or our own people can scan that QR code without accessing the city server.

Okay. And then on one of the other pages, it it refers to addendum one, two, and three, which u also references a previous quote from August. Uh I see changed from 50 volts to 15 amp three-phase. What's that all about?

Well, that's a big long conversation. Um initially we were talking about like 125 amps or 60 amps um of of or voltage and through all of these different conversations and meetings um people were up here, people are down here and we took the collective as a group and we said this is our baseline and this is how we're going to protect our people. Um, if Zach was here, he could talk at length on this. Um, as a group and all of our people that came to the RFP agreed that this was a good place for the city to be. All right. Thank you. Further discussion on this item, please call roll. Council member Dubour? Yes.

Council member Moore, yes. Council member BA, yes. Council member Flat, yes. Mayo, yes.

Thank you. New business item number two, approval. CAA lease agreement recreation administration is recommending city council approval of a lease agreement with community action agency for space within the Cath Katherine Bonafice Civic Center. Um so um Kim Peterson was a big help on this and did the bulk of the leg work. Um, but we did sit down with Community Action, the the senior center, of course, already occupying space in the civic center. Um, I I don't think there was really much of a payment at all. Um, and we kind of said, well, we we have work to do on the building. Um, there there's cost with upkeep. We we need to charge something. Um, so we sat down, um, discussed terms. uh we were in agreement and then um the conversation actually led to um also including space for the uh adult day service memory daycare. So um in the end um this ends up being a actually pretty fair deal I think um for the city u to help put money back into the civic center and um it was a good deal too for community action. Um they're they've been very good tenants, very good to work with. Um and you know, we're we're really pretty happy to propose this. Um but Kim really did a lot of the leg work and and knows this uh lease probably better than than me and and how it's going to work in the building. So if you do have some specific questions, I would definitely invite Kim up.

Mr. McNeel, where was the original memory care center prior to coming to us? believe it was at Bishop Noah home. Do we know why Kim might be able to shed some light on it, but uh I don't know. I'm just curious on the background on I mean not it's a great deal, but I'm just curious on

So the adult daycare um memory center used to be in the civic center back in the early 2000s. They had moved out at that time. they were occupying the club room we call it the last meeting um room space down the hall at that time they were paying about $692 and when they built the structure next to Bishop Noah they moved over there from what I understood is that they were raising the rents and at that same time we were having discussions with the new director at community action so it was perfect timing for them basically um I don't want to say get a deal but um we did give them a deal so they ended up coming back to the civic center

thank Kim, as long as you're there, I'm not uh familiar with all the room numbers at the civic center, but that all of the rooms that they will be using. That doesn't affect your

No. So, right now um we currently the civic center has 26,000 square feet of space and the uh the senior center right now takes about 3,900 square feet and the adult u memory daycare center will take 1,000 square feet. But we do have um you know they do have access to the other meeting rooms and to the game room or kitchen if they need it. But right now all the room numbers are basically the office space. I mean their closets are numbered, the restrooms are numbered. So all the numbers are just a lot of um extra storage rooms I guess you could say. And as far as uh elections polling the civic center is won't affect it whatsoever. The security or what have you that won't be an issue. Won't affect it at all.

All right. Thank you. Motion to approve the CAA lease agreement. Support. Support. Further discussion on this item. Miss Wiser, please call role. Council member Dubour. Yes. Council member Fla. Yes. Council member Gosha. Yes. Council member Moore. Yes. Mayor Ammo. Yes. New business. Item number three, review and possible award of property RFP manager.

City Council will review and potentially award RFP submitts. Um submitts were posted to the city website um on Wednesday, October 1st and they were forwarded to council as well for review um for public interest um that those have not that have not seen it on the website. Uh we did receive two bids. Um one uh name of bidder is Michael Sigorski uh for 55,000. Um and the type of development is listed as no development. Uh the proposal uh discusses it being used as a green space. And the second offer uh was from Stone Brook Condominiums uh 75,000 for condominium development. Um it's quite a bit of information contained in the submissions. Um, happy to talk about those or or answer any questions that council may have.

I think it's good for the public to know what you provided to us too was the direct public benefit from possible development in regards to the taxes and utilities. Uh, if we move forward with a development of some kind that I think the public should hear.

Yeah. Ultimately, when a city sells property, it it should be for public benefit. Um, and you know, certain types of public benefit you can't really calculate. There's certainly a communal benefit, but it might be hard to put a number on. Um, and we don't know what sales or income tax or anything like that would be, but um, you know, just numbers that we do know. Um for once 25 condos would be developed um it's a little over $100,000 in in city property taxes in year one. Um about 54,000 in city utilities and then about another 150,000 in u other property taxes, county, landfill, um all the other taxing jurisdictions. um over a 30-year period, uh that comes out to uh about five almost 5.2 million in city property taxes, um about 2.5 million in city utilities and about 7.2 million in other property taxes. So, um total public benefit uh at 14.9 million. um some assumptions made of course, but um ultimately that's uh what it would pencil out to. Thank you. Looking at the uh contract several times, I recall seeing the the due diligence period of 12 months with a possible six-month extension. Miss Owens says that they plan to break ground this fall. Um there's I didn't see anything in there like the the previous parcels that we sold in that area. There was I believe

something in writing that said they would have all of them done within a certain period of time. Is there anything in this sales agreement that uh if they only put up so many and then uh construction comes to a halt? I I think that would actually be a really good question um for the city attorney. Um I know there's a due diligence period. Uh but once the due diligence obligations are met and a property is actually closed, I don't know what ability we have to enforce um construction uh milestones. Um I I think certainly before closing happens, um it's very easy to enforce them, but um it may be difficult once closing happens. I

I can jump in with a couple of thoughts if you want. Please do. Can you hear me? Okay. Okay, great. Thank you. Um, first I will say uh obviously this agreement is attached and council is deciding whether to move forward. Um, but we'll still give the agreement a thorough legal review once we know what direction the city is heading in. Um, that said, any project whether it's the purchase from purchasing city property or otherwise obviously has other city um, you know, zoning and land use and site plan review. So even if the control is not strictly through the purchase agreement, obviously there's still site plan review and other mechanisms of of city oversight that'll be involved in that.

I would note too um this will have to go in front of the planning commission. um would require a reszoning um to u I assume it'll be a or uh to the same zoning district as Bishop Noah um or or possibly a planned unit project, but um it will be in front of them and and would require their approval. I would think that um since um Miss Owens said that they have 15 people that are already interested and more than interested that the things would move ahead pretty fast. I think this is a win-win situation for the city. Um when has this happened before? Um we've we've been talking about um building condos and housing for years and this group is answering one section section of the needs that we have and uh they are we need to respect their professionalism. They know what they're doing. They've been real estate agents. They know what the need is. Um like I said, they have people interested. Um, and they're well funded. Lots of times with with um projects around town, the lots of the developers or whatever depend on grants and and government loans and things, which is great, but in this case, they're ready. And I think that this is an excellent uh project. It fulfills a need and uh it's a chance to

use our city land in a useful you know needed, productive and um profitable way. So, what I would say procedurally and uh city manager feel free to jump in if you disagree is if if council were to um move forward with the um with the condos tonight, we would then do again we did not invest in a you know thorough line by line review of the legal agreement because we did not know if what which direction council would go with it that we would do that and bring it back for final approval of that document at the next meeting.

I would agree. I'll make a motion to um Let's see. You need a motion to formally accept the um their development group's RFP. I I would accept the RFP and um ask that a purchase of the agreement be brought to the next meeting. and ask that a purchase agreement be brought to the next meeting. And I'll support that motion. Discussion on this item.

I'll just point out that uh council decided to sell this property. So that's we're not revisiting or haven't been asked to revisit that issue. I could point out briefly that in that actual recreation plan, it is referred to as a parcel. The recreation department, the recreation advisory board did refer to it as a parcel only and that it had potential to be developed into a small park.

Miss Wiser, please call ro. Council member Moore. Yes. Council member Fla, yes. Council member Bossha, yes. Council member Dubour, yes. Mayor Ammo, yes. Moving on to appointments. If you would like to get involved in this beautiful community that we all call home, you have the opportunity to do so by taking the one vacancy on the historic preservation committee. You could take the one vacancy on the housing commission or you could take the one full vacancy or one of the two alternate vacancies on the zoning board of appeals.

Moving on to board commission and committee reports. Have none top of the month. Everything is next week. Um I attended the housing commission. We did go ahead and approve uh next year's fiscal year budget for within the housing commission. So that has been approved. And I attended the solid waste authority board meeting. Um everything's running as it should at this time.

I did attend the DDA board meeting. Um there's always a lot of healthy lengthy discussion at that meeting. Um it's a very interested and active board. Mostly it was covering a lot of the successes of this past summer season and tourism season. We've had a lot of activity going on in our city. I'm sure you've all noticed it. And we're looking like a lively little place to live and visit, which is fantastic. Um, but I'd like to note that Mr. Bcha's wife, Janice, works very hard on our Christmas parade. So, if you are so inclined to help your community by helping her in any way with Christmas parade, please contact her and offer your services, be they labor, time, or money. But you don't need to offer ideas. He just needs help with the things are already going on. This time we hear general public comment. If you wish to make comment, please approach the podium. State your name and place of residence.

It's okay. It just makes a lot of noise. You can still tip it up.

Sure. Hello everyone. Grateful for the opportunity to speak to you all. My name is Jaylen Sims. I recently moved to Escanaba in August of 2024. So I've been living here in this community for about a year now. And I moved from Ishbaming. Before that, I lived in Marquette and I'm originally from downstate Michigan. And with my public comment, I would like to bring up the uh issue that was voted on in December of 2023, I believe, with the uh allowing the ability for residents to own chickens and or different types of fowl in the city limits. I just want to bring it up because I think it's pretty important to support people who are interested in homesteading and sustainability. And as food prices continue to go up, natural disasters continue to uh kind of take out or even affect different areas that may be uh hosting crops or different food sources for people. I think it's important for uh residents to be able to have the ability to supply for themselves, not be forced to go to the grocery store and uh basically, you know, supply for themselves is the biggest thing and the the whole point in all of that. So, I'm currently in the research phase still. I've got a lot to uh look into. I've been researching different cities here in the Upper Peninsula that do allow chickens, uh different ones that do not, kind of compiling a list, uh gathering their different ordinances, and I would be uh looking to send that to an email to all of you in the future once I get a solid list compiled together. And then I also would like to move forward with creating a petition and getting uh different residences ideas or even uh opinions and uh if they agree I would like to have them sign that pet petition and uh yeah just want to bring up the

idea to you all again. I know it was a couple years ago that it was voted on and uh just asking that you potentially revisit that and then I would like to bring more information to the table as I collect it. And that's pretty much all I got. Thank you.

Further public comment at this time. Joe Kaplan. I'm going to read directly from the recreation plan that was adopted by this council in 2021. There's 21 properties uh listed in the recreational inventory. Number 21 is Future Park. This parcel is located between 1 and 3rd Avenue. Third South Avenue is along Willow Creek and is owned by the city. There is potential to create a pump track or to develop it into a small park for residents on the west end of the city to enjoy. All the times I've come up here, now this is I think the sixth or seventh on three different properties I've talked about this charter. That memo by your attorney does not address what I read out of the the council minutes. They listened and sent back they knew the consequences of designating this a park and they sent it back to the planning commission that then doubled down and said we want a park and the council accepted it even though the city attorney said this may require a vote of the people. That memo that was provided by your attorney, I think who we heard over overhead as if it was coming from heaven did not address in that memo the legalities of that charter. It is plain English. You don't need an attorney's opinion to tell you what the right thing was to do here. I hope that going forward that we learn a lesson about where your line is drawn and where we start to recognize what our charter dictates for the sale of park properties. Cuz today it's on the west

end. Tomorrow condos would look great along Letington Park. They would they'd look fantastic. There's so much open land there. We should start building condos so we can look a lot like Marquette. I came from a place that got overdeveloped and I don't want to see that happen here. There's lots of private property. Government's role in development should be to stay out of the way of free markets, free enterprise. They shouldn't be subsidizing development. That's not the role of government. Government is to be small and not seen. Thank you.

Further public comment at this time. hearing. None. We move on to announcements. I have too. Of course you do.

Um, as everybody knows, the Pearl Cruises come here. They've been coming here for a couple years now. And if you look at a map of where they go, they go all over the Great Lakes. And a friend of mine was talking to a couple that actually went on the cruises and their their comment was Eskanaba was at the highlight of their entire cruise. And so I asked them why and they said they visited the tree farm in Hyde which they thought was interesting. And then they visited the museum at the chamber which they thought was fascinating. And of course they like the flowers on Lennington. So, I wanted to pass that on. And then as a extra bonus, um American Cruise Lines, which is a very big cruise um line that goes all over the United States, is now going to do um Great Lakes Cruises. And next year, they've chosen Eskanab as a stop. So, we're going to have two ships here. So, this is really fantastic news. And for people that um have a hard time believing in Eskanava, I think this is great news because visitors and tourists believe in us and they want to come here. So, I think that's good news for our city. We're doing things right.

And then, okay, there's another one. Yes, there's

there was a big pause, wasn't it? And then I was um recently at a symposium for America in Bloom over the weekend and America and Bloom is the is the organization through Canadian National that um funded um enhance Eskanava's beautifification projects downtown and they give awards every year and they're national awards and there's there were there were people from all over the United States there and we won and Hans Eskanaba won an award the The category was called eyepopping pots, best use of pots in a landscape. So the beautiful pots downtown that are in the cement that the cement pots that I that I submitted for um um for consideration and we won. So I'm we're pretty proud of that. So

congratulations to all of enhance Eskan. Uh the only announcement just to remind people that uh Friday, October 10th is homecoming uh here in Eskanaba. So there'll be the homecoming parade and then the varsity football game afterwards at 700 p.m. for our varsity homecoming football game. Does anybody know what time that parade's at? I think it starts at 5. Five, I'm assuming. Parade games at 7. So

just remember that we have a parade on the street. We close the street so we don't run our children over. So please be advised that you will not be able to travel on the street at 5:00 p.m. on Friday, October 10th. root for your team and your school. And u one more event too, just the it'll be in front of us at our next meeting, but the events right after our next meeting. Um the spooktacular trunk or treat. Yes. Um will be on the 19th um from 4 to 6. Um so more coming, but put it on your calendar. Gosh, we're busy around here. It feels good. Seek a motion to adjurnn. So move second. Have a good night.