City Council - Regular Meeting

Hello. No, I think it's Call to order this meeting of the Eskanaba City Council September 18th, 2025. Mr. Demay, please call role. Councilor Moore here. Councelor Bush here. Councelor Dubour here. Councelor Floff here. Mayor Emma

here. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I aliance 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 4th, 2025. Second discussion. All in favor? I. Thank you. At this time, seeking approval and or adjustments to the current agenda as written. So moved. Support. All in favor?

I 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. At this time, we will hear brief public comment. If you wish to make comment, please approach the podium, state your name, place of residence, please keep your comments to three minutes or less. Hearing none. We currently have no public hearing scheduled. We have no unfinished business on the docket. Moving on to new business item number one, setting public hearing. Notice of street improvements, 20th Avenue South to 22nd Avenue South on South 18th Street. Public works. The city of Eskanava received a petition for the construction of 24 foot wide double chip seal roadway overlay treatment from 20th Avenue South to 22nd Avenue South on South 18th Street. In accordance with the city charter, the city of Eskanab is required to conduct public hearing on the proposed special assessment improvement project. Administration is requesting city council to schedule a public hearing for October 16, 2025 so that any comments or objections to the improvements can be heard. I should mention the uh planning commission uh had uh heard the petitioners uh last week. There was only uh one of the neighbors that was opposed to the uh special assessment. I forget how many signatures they had. Motion to schedule the public hearing for October 16th of 2025.

Support discussion. Do a roll call. I'm sorry, Phil. Roll call. I I screwed up there. Mr. Mill, please call roll. Council Dart. Yes. Counc. Yes. Council member Moore. Yes. Council member Boschawa. Yes. May.

Yes. New business item number two. Setting of public hearing. Obsolete Property Rehabilitation District number 29 1213 Letington Street assessor. So I think this might make a little more sense to put in layman's terms than what's written on the agenda. Um, so we did receive an application um from an applicant for 1213 Lington Street. That would be the former Crispas building um to be rehabilitated into some sort of um cocktail lounge. Um we've been talking with them for a while um in support of them trying to secure a grant from the MEEDC. Um there is a letter of intent from the MEDC and part of receiving that funding is some sort of city support. Um so u that discussion has really led to what would be an Oprah um something we've done for a long time. As you can see this is number 29. Um we do have to move them together, the district and the application. Uh because October 31st is our deadline. Uh so time is of the essence, but um we will do the district prior to the actual application um in that order. Um and Crystal Martin, our assessor, has been to the property um evaluated it for qualification into Oprah. um did verify it it does meet the criteria and she can tell you a little bit about that.

Yeah. So, in your agenda packet, I included pictures of my inspection. Um not to mention like the plumbing, the electrical, all of the interior is going to be redone. The roof is definitely a necessity. Um it's definitely more than 50% obsolete. Um, so it does qualify and we just need to have the district established first and then the exemption approved after and then I could submit everything to the state by the deadline which is October 31st and next year is the last year that we'll be able to do any OPRA because they're they're doing away with it. It's the sunset year at the end of next year. I guess my only question and and to understand is this going to be future

uh process or procedure we're going to do is is do a approve a district and then right away go into the rehabilitation exemption. I've been noticing this more and more and my question is is that going to be standard procedure going forward for everything we're going to be doing uh just because it's not until August October 31st. So I'm kind of looking at we should have do number two first and then have held off on number three. But are we just looking at an extreme deadline or is this going to be standard procedure is what I'm trying to understand. We are the hallmark of government efficiency. Yeah.

Um but there is some time. So I think we did get confirmation from the state that you can do this. Um and I don't think this property in particular is a complicated application to look at. Um but after we approve it, we do have to send it off to the state. we have to put quite a bit of information together from the applicant, from the city, and then we want to leave a little bit of a buffer uh in case there's a request for information from the state. Um so waiting would make that buffer pretty pretty small and we wouldn't want to to lose the application at that point. Um, so knowing that this is an option and the properties are pretty simple, we probably would move them together in the future as well.

Okay. Um, I guess my other quick question, sorry, was the applicant who was looking into uh an OPRA application or obsolete property, was it last minute or what did he do this early enough to where we could have probably done this sooner? I just asking. Yeah, it was actually my recommendation to wait. Okay. There are several Opas that we have approved years ago that never got developed and we thought, well, let's not give a tax break for a property that isn't going to be developed. And a key piece of this puzzle was the MEEDC grant. So once that LOI came, then we moved on this.

So it's just a delay. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. I'll just make a motion to approve the scheduled public hearing for October 2nd, 2025. Support. Further discussion on this item. Mr. May, please call role. Councor Dubart. Yes. Council Moore. Yes. Council BA. Yes. Councor Flaw. Yes. Mayor Emma.

Yes. New business. Item number three, setting obsolete property rehabilitation exemption public hearing for October 2nd, 2023 for 1213 Lington Street. And this is part two. We established the district. This is the application. Um, one thing to point out, I guess, just as a difference, we have always approved an individual district for every single property. That's what we're doing here as well. Um, I think there are options to create larger districts and then receive applications for individual properties. Um, but doing it on a case-byase basis has worked out pretty well.

So, if hypothetically the business owner sells the business or no longer has the business, does the new owner fall under Opera? Yes, but there is a there is a transfer on the certificate that has to take place. Okay. Thank you. I'll just make a motion to set the public hearing uh for October 2nd, 2025. Order. Further discussion on this item. Mr. Deay, please call RO. Uh councelor Dart. Yes. Yes. Sorry. Uh councelor Moore. Yes. Councelor Bosch. Yes. Miam.

Yes. Moving on to appointments. We have one appointment scheduled. City manager makes this appointment with council consensus. Cheryl Omen wishes to be reappointed to the data board.

No objection. Miss McNeil, please make that appointment. And as always, if you find yourself with some extra time on your hands and a little ambition and you want to do a little bit more to make your community a better place, you could take one vacancy on the Historic Preservation Commission. You could take a vacancy on the Housing Commission. Or also, as always, you could take one vacancy or one of the two alternate vacancies on the zoning board of appeals. Moving on to board commission and committee reports. Mr. Bsha just the uh planning commission. You already had that update. There's more.

The harbor advisory met and most of the discussion was about um rates um and how they apply to the state. And then we also talked about different ways to attract people to the harbor events and things like that because we wanted to it's things are going really good down there and um there needs to we were trying to find ways to attract new revenue because we're the harbor is restricted by the um fees that the the voters pay for slips. So we were looking for ways to um attract more people and place to increase the revenue for the harbor.

Good. Uh I attended the housing commission on Tuesday. We did go through our fiscal year budget. Everything seemed to be in line and was approved.

And I have nothing to report this time. I also have nothing to report, but I will make a brief comment that there has been a little bit of damage to some of the wild flowers that were planted at the DDA in the marketplace. And just a reminder to the community as a whole that it is our responsibility to make sure that our fellow citizens, even our children are educated, encouraged to respect the beautiful things that we have and the work that's done by the rest of the citizens here to make this a nice place. And please do not damage properties. Moving on to general public comment. If you wish to make a comment, please approach the podiums. State your name and place of residence. Hearing none, we move on to announcements.

I was fortunate enough this week to have my lead service line replaced. And I sat on my front porch and watched the whole procedure and it was a lesson in efficiency. Pete Bradfield and his crew, there are six of them. I It was the most one of the most impressive things I've ever seen. They've done it so much. They just worked together as a machine. They were wonderful to work with and in a little over three hours it was all done. So, I just want to give that him and his crew kudos for what they're doing around the city because it's really impressive.

Nice to hear. Uh the other additional comment I want to add to our public's works department is I've received actually five phone calls from citizens wanting to let us know that the park has never looked so beautiful in many years and that our current parks that have put the new playgrounds in really enhanced it and they really enjoy what has been done this year and also the additional beautifification that took place from enhance uh Eanaba uh really added a touch to a lot of things and I've gotten five phone calls on the compliments of public works and the beautifification of our parks. Come on, Dad. No, we got them. I can't talk that.

And there's nothing on the schedule coming up that we know of because it's midepptember. Bonafice. The Bonafice fundraiser is on Friday. So, if you feel like supporting the arts, you can go down there. And I believe they have food vendors and entertainment. And I think there's some pie throwing going on. So, It's a way to support that. [Music] Taking a motion to adjurnn. Motion to adjurnn.