City joins Clay and Ira twps. to takeover operations
By Barb Pert Templeton
The Algonac City Council unanimously approved the creation of the Southwater Municipal Authority for the Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP) at an Oct. 3 meeting. It’s a join agreement between the City of Algonac plus Clay and Ira townships. City Councilman Corey Blair had to leave the meeting prior to the official vote on the new authority.
Mayor Rocky Gillis read a memo from City Manager Denice Gerstenberg into the record explaining the process that took place in forming the authority. It stated that in Feb. 2022 the St. Clair County Department of Public Works told Algonac, Clay and Ira that they needed to form an authority to take over the daily responsibilities and operations of the WWTP.
Then in April the city retained the law firm, Fahey, Schutz, Burzych and Rhodes to create the Authority with all three communities agreeing to share the cost of attorney fees. The documents to be reviewed and adopted included four things:
- The Agreement and articles of incorporation
- Transfer Agreement
- Employee Leasing Agreement
- Sewer Systems Service Agreement
The Algonac City Council meets on the first and third Tuesdays of the month.
In her memo Gerstenberg also stated that the city attorney had reviewed the agreement and that once all three municipalities approved it the estimated start date was Nov. 1, 2023.
Council member Dawn Davey then made the motion to approve the agreement to create the Authority and Council member Cathy Harris seconded the motion.
Davey said she read through the agreement four or five times and she didn’t find it to really be ‘anything new’, noting she brought the subject up to the council 18 months ago.
“We have some serious issues in the city that need to be addressed, these are good agreements and we are at a point where we have to do this – not like someone’s holding a gun to our head – but these are good agreements,” Davey said. “I have no issues approving these.”
She said her whole thing has been what’s next, because in Clay Township things look good but “we,” meaning Algonac it’s “not so much.”
“When all is said and done, we not only need to work on our infrastructure here but when it comes to the authority that’s going to be a whole other thing,” Davey said. “I know that we are going to make sure that our due diligence is done when we set up this authority because we have these agreements but it’s up to each one of the three to see how it’s going to go.”
She said it’s the council’s job to set up things like how much a board member will make and to make sure everyone knows what’s going on instead of having to look through DPW minutes at the county as was done in the past.
“If nothing else it’s going to be a whole lot easier to get information on how things are going,” Davey said.
Gillis then took a moment to thank Davey for putting the information about the new authority on her Facebook page in a manner that reflected ease in reading and transparency.
During the council comments section of the agenda Mayor Pro Tem Ray Martin said he read the agreement through, even if it did take him three steps to do it, laying it all out on his table.
“We’ve got a lot on our plate sharing with Clay and ourselves and the inflow, we’ve got business we have to take care of and it’s not going to be cheap and it’s not going to be easy,” Martin said.
