CITY GETS UPDATES ON ELECTRIC RATES, SILVER BIRCHES, AND COAL DOCK ACQUISITION The Mackinac Island City Council met today for its regularly scheduled meeting, in Council Chambers in City Hall on Market Street. The agenda was quite light, with few action items. The meeting was called to order by Mayor Doud at 4:02pm with roll call indicating all members present except Meyers. The Mayor asked for a moment of silence for Ron Dufina who passed away this morning. Mr. Dufina served on the Board of Public Works for many years, and was also the City Supervisor for many years. Mr. Dufina’s funeral will be Monday at noon at Ste. Anne’s Catholic Church. Minutes were approved and bills were paid without incident. The city received one piece of correspondence from the Planning Commission indicating they would like the Council to approve an amendment to the zoning ordinance that deals with non-motorized water craft rentals. The City was prepared to adopt the amendment however, a clean copy was not yet ready, therefor the Council tabled the measure until the next regular meeting. In old business, Councilwoman Hoppenrath asked to the progress of the appraisal on the Coal Dock. Mayor Doud informed Council that there was a delay in finalizing due to questions about the building at the head of the Dock (the former Marc’s Double Oven Building) and that the appraisal would be done by the November 24th meeting. Mayor Doud also informed Council that Attorney Waters of the Fraser Trebilcock Law Firm was headed to Washington on behalf of the City et al., to attend a settlement hearing in regard to the proposed 30% electric rate increase that will be shared by all residents of the Upper Peninsula. Mr. Waters informed the Mayor he was not optimistic of a favorable settlement. The Special Silver Birches Committee reported to Council that after several meetings the committee has now made the recommendation to Council that the 6th draft of the proposal now go to a vote. The committee, which was comprised of the Mayor and two council persons (St. Onge and Hoppenrath) and two planning commissioners (Dufina and Strauss) met 4 times and the following disposition was reported: St. Onge and Hoppenrath agree to proposal 6 which allows for conditional rezoning, however, the beach portion of the lot remains its current zoning (RS) and Ms. Ware would not be allowed to apply for a liquor license until January of 2016. Planning Commissioner Dufina did not agree, stating she still had reservations about the “guest of guest” language. Planning Commissioner Strauss also had reservations, stating he was opposed to the liquor license. The matter will now be taken up for a vote to send it back to Planning Commission. If the Council votes yes, the proposed change will be reviewed by the Planning Commission where it will then come back to the Council for a final vote on whether to approve the conditional zoning change. In new business the Council approved a temporary motor vehicle permit for Silver Birches to move furniture to the British Landing Dock with a Uhaul moving van, 5-1. Alderman St. Onge was the lone dissenter on the vote stating that neither he nor the City had ever voted in the affirm to move furniture with a motor vehicle. Council approved a motor vehicle permit for the Sunset Forest Homeowners Association for Belonga Excavating to do snow plowing for the sub-division. In a somewhat related matter, Council also intends to send letters to Sunset Forest, Stone Brooke, and Trillium Heights neighborhoods to assure that they have complied with the City’s ordinance to provide street signs. In looking at the matter, the City agreed that it should move forward on getting the proper street signs in the Annex Neighborhood as well. (The aforementioned neighborhoods are private and they own their own roads, as opposed to the Annex which is on City Streets, that is why the City will pay for those, but the private subs have to provide their own) Council approved 3 temporary motor vehicle permits for Michael Shulte to move a modular home to his lot in Woodbluff. Mr. Shulte was advised that he will have to hire an additional loader unit to accompany the move in case the one of the moving sections breaks down and needs to be moved immediately. (A few years back, a tractor-trailer carrying a sectional home broke down on the intersection of Annex and Stonecliffe Road completely blocking the intersection for several hours while a different truck had to be brought from the mainland to move it. During this time there was no way an ambulance or firetruck could have reached the neighborhoods on the other side of the blocked intersection. Because of this, the City now requires the movers to have a loader or spare truck on site in case of emergency) Several other Motor Vehicle permits were approved for Mission Pointe to bring in propane and for Andrew Doud and Bob Benser to dig a perk-test hole on the property on Huron Road. Benser and Doud were also granted a permit to encapsulate the front of the former Alford’s building while remodeling construction is going forward. The 4th Annual Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot 5k was approved. It will begin at Doud’s Corner on Thanksgiving Day at 9:30am. The event is brought to you by Mackinac Island News and Views, details to follow. A temporary business license for Christy Lucas to open a hair salon in the Ledtke Building on Market Street (formerly Webers Flowers) was approved. Mayor Doud announced that due to the Thanksgiving Holiday, the meeting that would have fallen on Wednesday, November 26, will instead be held on Monday November 24. City Engineer Dombroski informed the Council that right around 30 new light poles have been installed and that the old ones are selling quickly. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 4:32pm Sorry about no report last meeting as I was out of town and forgot to ask someone to cover the meeting for me. Well, I am not too sorry as I was in the Caribbean, so the City Council meeting was as far from my mind as it could have been. After finishing the meeting I headed home as I had some nice rib-eye steaks I had picked up and was wanting to grill. These things had perfect marbling in them and I had been thinking about grilling them all day. (Hell yes I run my grill in the winter, why not?) Anyway when I went out to my back deck, the entire thing, including the grill was covered in ice, so not wanting to slip and fall while grilling a steak, I headed inside and cooked it bachelor style. Bachelor style? That’s right, put in a frying pan with garlic, onion and mushroom and a little butter and let it rip. (Don’t forget the Montreal Steak Seasoning, we keep talking about this, it’s a must!) My whole house smelled of steak frying but after a pretty cold day outside, I didn’t care. For a side, I whipped up some mashers, and some asparagus and enjoyed it all immensely. And then I typed up this report, in which you got the news here fast!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -MINV
Posted on: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 00:11:52 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015