By Barb Pert Templeton
At each Algonac City Council meeting, City Manager Artie Bryson has a spot on the agenda to report information to officials about grants, projects and other items of interest. These are some of the things he shared at the June 16 meeting.
Water Billing Issue Addressed
Bryson told the council that some automatic water bill payments were mixed up last week with the city being notified about it on Wednesday, June10.
“If customers were involved in the auto-pay, our third-party software provider initiated an email saying the autopay had failed and instructed them to do a manual payment,” Bryson said. “Then the transactions were processed as originally intended so anyone that did a manual payment that was in the auto-pay got dinged twice.”
Bryson said they tried to figure out who was affected by it and they got some calls and they either refunded the money or left a credit on the customers’ account for the next bill.
If anyone is still having an issue, they need to call the city and it will be addressed.
“It was something weird and we didn’t even know about it until after the fact,” Bryson said.
Water Plant Supervisor needed
The interim water plant supervisor arrangement ‘is not meeting long-term operational needs of the city as anticipated’ and the employee is returning to his previous post at the plant, Bryson wrote in his memo to officials. The city is actively searching for a supervisor, with an F2 license who can provide a long-term leadership solution for the water plant.
“I do have a couple candidates,” Bryson said.
Reviewing rules for the skate park
Bryson said the city’s looking at rules and regulations at the city’s skate park. “I’m seeing what works and doesn’t work in other communities, we need some signage there and some other things,” Bryson said.
Councilman Michael Bembas asked what the concerns might be.
“That skate park was not built to hold the weight of e-bikes,” Mayor Pro Tem Dawn Davey said. “There are kids who are there, who will hear boards snapping.”
This is a file photo of the Algonac Skate Park from 2022.
She said they can be at the top of the ramp getting ready to go down and there are kids on skate boards.
“So, what we’re looking at is no e-bikes?” Bembas asked.
“No e-bikes, no e-scooters for now,” Davey said.
Councilman Jake Skarbek said he’d like to see real cameras put in place at the skate park.
Bryson replied that he’s trying to get a grant to put wi-fi in the nearby activity center that would cover the skate park too.
Pool is up and running
At the pool grand opening on June 13 there were about 200 people in attendance throughout the afternoon, Bryson said. He said the pool does have some rules including no water wings, noodles or floats in the pool. He said the reason being those items can prevent the lifeguards from having a clear view of the bottom of the pool. “If someone needs a noodle to swim properly then they should have a life jacket on and we do have life jackets to borrow if someone needs them,” Bryson said.
Downtown Clock repairs
The clock at the city park is now telling the correct time but the repair firm brought the wrong size faceplate and bubble cover. So now the old components have to be returned and replaced with custom replacements. The clock is currently covered with a tarp and will remain that way for a couple weeks until the new parts arrive.
Boardwalk being updated
The city has ordered a lift of boardwalk planks and they have been delivered. Bryson said he’s also been looking at pricing options and obtaining quotes for lumber to see if they can save some money by buying in bulk to arrive at a decent cost savings.
Ordinance review including golf carts
The ordinance review committee is continuing to work on reviewing and updating the city’s ordinances. They are looking at the special events ordinance, the parks and recreation ordinance and the golf cart ordinance. As to the golf carts, Bryson said the committee is looking at allowing nighttime operation of gold carts when they are properly equipped with the required lighting.
Sip of Summer event a success
The event recently hosted in the city included about 1,350 registered guests and set a new attendance record. Bryson said the event was well organized, well attended and concluded without any significant issues.
