Part 1 – 2025 Year in Review – Downriver

By Barb Pert Templeton

It was a busy year in the downriver area with both Algonac and Marine City seeing plenty of projects taking shape. There’s a major safe drinking water and sewer infrastructure project in Marine City and the old city pool was renovated and reopened in Algonac.

Here are some other highlights:

JANUARY

Brian Ross resigns from Marine City Commission

In January Marine City Commissioner Brian Ross resigned from his seat on the commission. The decision was a surprise and several fellow commissioners and the mayor tried to persuade him to stay including Mayor Pro Tem Lisa Hendrick.

An offer by MDOT to put a road diet in, at no cost to the city was something Ross thought would be a big plus for the city, but it was voted down by a majority of commissioners in a 5-2 vote. He had prepared a presentation but officials called for the vote without letting him give it. Ross and Commissioner Sean O’Brien voted in favor of the road diet. In a formal statement Ross said:

I would be remiss to say it was not in part due to what I feel was unequal treatment of commissioners, and not allowing the public to hear arguments that were not necessarily popular with others on the commission. For the public to hear and understand arguments surrounding issues and decisions before any democratic government is what makes it work. Hiding that from the public lacks both transparency and fairness. I had worked long and hard to prepare my arguments, and had done so in vain without being able to convey them to the citizens in a public forum.

FEBRUARY

Algonac Fire Department gets impressive rating

The Algonac Fire Department, operating for some 120 years in the city, not only meets the grade but ranks right up there with much larger departments across the country.

The national average for ISO (Insurance Services Office) scores is roughly 5.5. The Algona Fire Department has achieved an ISO Class 3 rating which is a rating held by less than four percent of the fire departments nationwide.

The ISO ratings are a classification system that measure a community’s fire protection capabilities. The rating is important because it affects the cost of homeowners and businesses insurance policies and can lead to lower insurance premiums.

In Feb. 2025 the Algonac Fire Department had a roster of 17 with four of those firefighters being female, according to Fire Chief Joseph Doan.

MARCH

Community bids farewell to their “PAC Man” David Simpson

Family and friends of longtime East China Performing Arts Center Manager David Simpson, 45, who passed away on Feb. 26, 2025 after a courageous battle with cholangiocarcinoma, gathered to honor him at services in early March.

Selfless, compassionate, humorous, giving, wise, present, and humble were the words used to describe Simpson in his obituary as posted on the website at Grace Memorial – Bower Rose Funeral Home in Marine City

After graduating from Oakland University with a degree in Theatre Production and Design Simpson began working for East China School District and was instrumental in the opening of the East China Performing Arts Center in 2004.

For over twenty-one years, Simpson, aka PAC Man, made thousands of students look and sound great with his impeccable attention to detail in sound, light, and stage design,

Simpson even won a pair of Grammy awards and toured with many internationally-known artists. He served on Marine City’s planning and city commission and chaired countless other boards for the community and the school district. He was one of the founding members of the Marine City Music Festival.

Trish May appointed to Marine City Commission

At a meeting in March the commission unanimously approved the appointment of Trish May to a seat on the board that was open due to the January resignation of Commissioner Brian Ross. In a letter to the city applying for the appointment May wrote that while she didn’t have experience in city government what she could offer the community is “effective leadership.” She stated that she’s been working in Emergency Medical Services since 1992 and has held leadership positions for 26 years.

The commission meets on the first and third Thursdays of the month at 7 p.m.

The compensation for commissioners and the mayor was increased in December 2024, something that hadn’t been addressed for decades. The mayor got a bump from $1,200 to $3,000 annually and the commissioners went from $800 to $2,000.

APRIL

Marine City introduces blight task force

Sprucing up neighborhoods in Marine City while helping one another is the premise for the new MC Task Force Team that hopes to curb blight around town.

City resident Dan Moore appeared at an April 17 city commission meeting to promote his idea to establish a task team of neighbors helping neighbors. In a memo in the packet for the April 17 meeting there was a document entitled MC Task Team – Neighbors Helping Neighbors. It read:

“The Marine City Task Force is established to help the citizens of our community by offering volunteer assistance for a variety of tasks. We understand that life is busy and sometimes you need an extra hand to get things done. Our goal is to provide our community with a volunteer resource to help tackle the tasks that may be a little overwhelming.”

A few of the task that the team plans to assist with includes: yard clean-up, debris removal, organization, small repairs and exterior cleaning.

In a phone interview following the meeting Moore said “some areas need to be tidied up and some people just get overwhelmed and may need an extra set of hands to help. We are inviting people to sign up and help out and we’ll see where it goes from there.”