CITY TO HAVE COAL AND MAIN-DOCK APPRAISED, CHECKS INTO LEGAL COST The City of Mackinac Island’s City Council met in Council Chambers on Market Street today for a regularly scheduled meeting. The meeting was called to order by Mayor Doud at 5pm and roll-call indicated all members present. A relatively light agenda was presented, minutes were approved and bills were paid without incident, save for Alderman Redman stating he wanted to bring up Rentrop’s bill in new business. The City received several correspondence. Renu O’Connell wrote in regards to her opposition at Silver Birches. Year around resident Nancy May wrote a letter of support of the Silver Birches. Ms. May stated that the idea of going from R-1 (Residential) to “Conditional Zoning” should be approved. Council received a letter from Mr. Ed English, also stating his pro-position on allowing a Conditional Zoning of Silver Birches. Council received a letter from Hubbard’s Annex resident Cordie Puttkammer, asking that the Streets and Sidewalks committee convene a meeting to address the ongoing problem of dust from Park Avenue. Mrs. Puttkammer was present at the meeting and conveyed to Council that taxis, particularly empty taxis, and drays are still using the road too often causing the dust to continue to kick up. City Engineer Dombrowski briefed the Council on ways to help reduce the dust on the dirt road. Councilman St. Onge stated that the City could keep going through these steps every summer there is a dry spell but the easy solution would be to pave the 200 foot or so stretch of road. Mayor Doud, siting the last time paving the road was considered there being resistance, asked Mrs. Puttkammer and Mrs. Strauss if they still opposed paving the road, and they replied the neighborhood would have to take a vote on the matter. Some Council and audience members remarked that even a paved road would be dusty to which Mr. St. Onge said, “Cordie isn’t exaggerating, I ride by every morning, her green fence is grey, the cedars are grey from about 6 feet down, it is much dustier than any paved road, but I would rather pave it than keep throwing solutions at it every time we have a dry summer.” Mrs. Puttkammer did add that the Annex is in a historic district so the matter of paving would have to come under review. The matter was referred to committee to take up after the Annex neighborhood votes. The City approved a temporary motor vehicle permit for Lighthouse.net to repair a cable trunk line near Forest Way Drive for Friday, August 8th. It was approved 6-0. The Council was tied in a vote to approve a temporary vehicle permit for Belonga Plumbling to back-fill a garage under construction in Stonebrooke for August 7. Council woman Meyers said that she would not vote for a vehicle permit this late in August and voted no. Councilman St. Onge said that although he agreed with Meyers, it was kind of common sense to approve it since it is the exact same tractor being used by the same company, in the same neighborhood as the previous permit that was just approved. Bloswick and Hoppenrath voted no, Redman and Moskwa voted yes, tying the vote. The Mayor, who only votes in the event of a tie (and this rarely happens) voted “yes” and the permit was approved 4-3. Council approved a new business license for a garden shop in the Bicycle Street Inn mall. Council voted to amend the Zoning Ordinance to include Kayak Rentals as businesses that don’t need to have 400 square feet of commercial space. The current ordinance only included bike rentals, carriage rentals, and ferry docks. Council authorized Mayor Doud to execute a contract with the Mackinac Island Service Company for garbage pick-up. This year’s contract, originally set to be 5% higher, was reduced to only 2.5% higher by Service Company manager, Brad Chambers. The Council authorized to spend up to $50,000.00 to have the Coal Dock and Arnold Main Dock appraised for the purpose of potential purchase. Alderman St. Onge asked where the 50K was coming from and Mayor Doud stated they are working on it. The appraisals will include both docks and filled in bottomlands near the Hardware Store. Council approved a request by City Foreman Sid DeHann for materials to repair park benches. Councilman Redman brought up the bill by Gary Rentrop stating that the City cannot keep incurring legal bills from the HDC. The bill in question was for just under $11,000.00. Mr. Redman said, “When we authorized the HDC, we knew there would be some cost for set-up, and then we went through the fiasco on Main Street, and it was 20 to 30 grand every month, now that is behind us and the bills keep coming in. I think we should thank Mr. Rentrop for his work and call him when we need him, and let our City Attorney handle things from here on out.” Attorney Evashevski replied that he is not all together comfortable with taking on the role of HDC advisor as he is not as well versed in Historical District proceedings as much as Rentrop is. St. Onge said that if the latest Rentrop bill is for wrapping up the settlement agreement this spring, then fine, it is what it is, but if ten thousand a month is gonna be the price tag ongoing, something will have to give, as we are burying ourselves in legal fees. “I’m guessing we will spend half a million on legal fees this year, that’s more than we spend on the entire Police Department. I know Mr. Rentrop is great at what he does, and I’m not admonishing the importance of the HDC, but Dominic is right, 10K a month can’t go on in perpetuity.” The Mayor suggested getting the Council and HDC to perhaps set a monthly or yearly cap on legal expenses for the HDC. Attorney Evashevski seemed to somewhat agree that the City is spending a lot of money on legal fees siting an instance this winter when there were 6 attorneys on a conference call, all on the City’s dime. The agenda was completed and in public comment, East Bluff summer resident Susan Lenfesty raised her hand and asked, “Speaking of legal bills, are we still paying Dennis Cawthorne?” To which the answer was, no, his one and only bill this winter was for around $20k and was paid a few months ago. The meeting ended at 5:40, I had a few things to do in the firehouse, and then I went home, and typed up this report. Ok, ok, before typing this report, I browned up some burger, added some taco style seasoning, some green chillis, black beans and some shredded cheese. I then fried up some 7 inch corn tortillas in a pan and put some of the concoction in the tortilla, rolled them up and had some home-made taquitos, well, kind of. Added a side of Spanish rice and some Neapolitan ice-cream for desert. And you got the news here fast!!!!!!!! -MINV
Posted on: Thu, 07 Aug 2014 00:12:49 +0000