Projects in the city left no-time for vacations in 2025
By Barb Pert Templeton
Major ongoing water and sewer projects in Marine City made it just about impossible for DPW Superintendent Aaron Atkinson to take any sick, holiday or personal days in 2025.
In a memo to the city commission in a packet from their recent meeting on Dec. 11 City Manager Michael Reaves asked to have several adjustments to DPW Superintendent Aaron Atkinson’s hours for 2025.
Adkins, who was hired in 2024, approached Reaves to ask for compensation for the Paid Time Off (PTO) hours in his contract that he was unable to use due to the numerous projects underway in the city.
Marine City Manager Michael Reaves addresses the commission at a recent meeting.
“The DPW Superintendent had vacations scheduled and then were cancelled due to project issues occurring that required his attention and presence in the city,” Reaves wrote. “Based up current policy and procedures and his contract language, much of this time is subject to being removed and forfeited from his accounts at the end of this calendar year – with no enumeration except as provided in limited terms.”
Pursuant to Atkinson’s employment contract he elected to receive up to a 50% payoff of his accumulated PTO and Reaves agreed to a roll-over of the remaining unused PTO time until July 1, 2026.
In addition, Reaves said he agreed to a one-time payout exception for administrative hours to avoid Adkinson forfeiting earned time and 56 hours under Holidays and Floating Holidays in his contract will also be paid out.
A carry-over of Atkinson’s unused holiday hours to be used by July 1, 12026 was also authorized by Reaves. Finally, he agreed to allow 40 hours in sick time to be paid out at year end, deducting the hours from Atkinson’s allotted sick bank.
“I have discussed the importance of taking PTO time with DPW Superintendent Atkinson over the next year,” Reaves wrote in his memo to officials. “We agreed to a plan to utilize his highest seniority personnel as stand-ins, while prioritizing the tasks and issues during his absence.”
Commissioner Sean O’Brien took a moment to state that he was glad the city is giving payouts for unused time.
Marine City Commissioner Sean O’Brien thanked the city staff for all their hard work this year.
“I know that we have had incredible amounts of city projects that are making it difficult to take unused time,” O’Brien said. “Can we have some sort of scheduled check-in over 2026 to see if we’re actually use this time, if our employees can use their time, or figure out if something’s going wrong or we have too many projects we can address it early on, so we’re having a better work/life balance and getting space built in for people to take time.”
Reaves said he would keep the commission advised as the process moves forward in 2026. He said in the case of Adkinson, with some of the projects going on he did have to cancel plans or send his family out of town on vacation without him.
“We’ve talked and communicated the importance of making sure he takes the time and I’ll give you guys an update in six months,” Reaves said.
“I do want to also state I really appreciate the dedication to city and city projects, to forgo family vacation time to really help us out in serious times of need,” O’Brien added.
Mayor Jennifer Vandenbossche said the city has had some extraordinary project circumstances this year and will likely have similar incidents next year.
