Algonac city manager’s report to council

By Barb Pert Templeton

There’s an agenda item at each bi-monthly Algonac City Council meeting entitled City Manager’s Report and these days, the person delivering that report is Artie Bryson.

So, at the recent March 17 meeting of the council, City Manager Bryson took the floor and reviewed 19 items on a two-page document.

Here are some highlights:

He began by providing a summary of all the grants he’s applied for or will apply for soon from both federal and state offices.

Congresswoman Lisa McClain’s office

· $3,250,00 for sewer infrastructure that includes replacing three siphon connectors that go under canals for $1,200,00.

“So, you beg and ask and so I asked if you can’t do the $3.2 million do the $1.2 so I can at least get these fixed,” Bryson said.

· $750,000 for the Activity Center that will help fund a Teen Room, Coffee House, Marine Technical Training Center that will produce around 30 to 40 career ready people annually, demo the north classrooms and install a parking lot.

“Those are high paying and good paying jobs,” Bryson added.

· Also applying for $2,850,000 on the behalf of the SMUA for the Wet Water Retention project.

Senator Gary Peters office

· Applying for $2,850,000 on the behalf of the SMUA for the Wet Water Retention project.

· I will be submitting $1,000,000 for Algonac sewer project replacing three siphon connections that go under canals, and $750,000 for the Activity Center/workforce training center.

Senator Elisa Slotkin’s office

· $1,000,000 for SMUA, $1,000,000 for Algonac sewer project replacing three siphon connectors that go up under canals, and $750,000 for the Activity Center/workforce training center.

Jay DeBoyer and Kevin Hertel

State Level LSDI critical infrastructure program with both Jay DeBoyer and Kevin Hertel

· $4,250,000 for Algonac Sewer collection system

· $500,000 additional for the Activity Center

“I am working on getting our original $500,000 released to us, it’s a challenge but we’ll get it done, just got to be a pest with them I guess,” Bryson said.

Meldrum asked if there’s a time frame for each of these official’s offices as to when the grants might or might now be approved. Bryson said several will be responded to by May from McClain’s office. The city manager said he spoke at length with a representative from McClain’s office and they were very complimentary of his work on applying for the grants. In fact, they asked him if he’d do a seminar on how to do it for others, but he declined. “I’ll do the happy dance if we get one but if we get two, we’ll have a party,” Bryson said.

Bad News: Bryson spent a day and a half in Lansing at a Tax Tribunal for property near the city’s mall area that the city had assessed at $1.9 million, and they said it was worth $580,000.

“I tried to play hard ball with them and get a little more – we got all we can and the county was definitely happy that we fought it and ended up where we’re at, I’m not but they are,” Bryson said.

Mayor Rocky Gillis said just so it’s clear, the city just lost money from this out-of-town investor, cost the city $700,000 in taxpayers money.

An out-of-town investor that was very hard to work with and we couldn’t get answers from, Councilman Jacob Skarbek said.

“I just want to make sure that people understand that we lost money from this out-of-town investor – someone that is not from here and they just cost us $700,000 in taxable value which comes off our general fund, which comes off everything else,” Gillis said. “It’s just stinks.”

Bryson replied that this investor is known for buying up property where Dollar Generals are located because they know those shops are going to leave that mall for their own stand-alone building.

“Soon as that happens, they go to the tax tribunal and they were actually hoping that we wouldn’t fight it,” Bryson said. “Most of the communities, especially our size and they won’t fight them, but we chose too otherwise the value of that mall would be $580,000. Try to buy it for that much.”

“Well hopefully now that the court case is settled, we’ll get some national chains in here and we can get a new ownership real soon,” Skarbek said.

Odds n Ends

Powwow

· The city will be hosting a Powwow in Algonac next spring, likely in May,

The Canadian government used to subsidize this, but they no longer do that so the city, parks and rec and private sponsors they have to come up with $6,000 to have it.

“It’s an awesome event and it brings a lot of people, it’s definitely worth it,” Bryson said.

Youths on motorbikes

· Bryson said there’s a lot of underage people on motorbikes driving unsafe on the roads in the city and he had a conversation with the sheriff about more enforcement on this.

“Hopefully that’ll happen it would be a shame if someone got hurt, God forbid,” Bryson said.

Councilwoman Wendy Meldrum asked if the city plans to be “a little stronger” on them, because they are out and about and she’s seen lots at the local parks. She also asked if there are ordinances that allow the kids to have the minibikes or dirt bikes on local roads? Bryson said yes, they can have them per the state ordinance too. Mayor Rocky Gillis said the ordinance states licensed drivers, and they can’t go more than 15 miles per hour. Meldrum said they are definitely going more than that. “I don’t want to be the fun police, but if they are going from point A to point B they need to do it safely,” Bryson said.

Driving on sidewalk

· There’s been a lot of people driving on the sidewalk at the dog park and parking on the lawn. Bryson they will be installing signs to prevent that in the near future.

Hired Cindy Babisz

· Bryson said he hired Babisz as a part-time coordinator to oversee the Activity Center, Pool, Riverfront Park and Lions Field. He said she’s got tons of ideas going forward.

Hiring some lifeguards

· The city’s looking to hire lifeguards for the pool this summer. Bryson said he’s having announcements about the openings at the local schools because you only have to be 15 years old to be a certified lifeguard.

“It’s a good decent job for a kid and teaches them responsibility,” Bryson said. “So, if you know any 15-year-olds or older, I might apply I don’t know, we’re looking for lifeguards.”

Councilman Michael Bembas asked if the city can help the young lifeguards pay for their certification course and Bryson yes, he’s working on getting that funded for them.