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June 2001 Status Report
It is my pleasure to submit my monthly status report for your review and consideration. If you have any questions about any of the items listed or I did not cover an item you would like additional information about, please do not hesitate to contact me.
1. Wastewater Treatment Plant
The project is progressing very well, and Duane Ellis indicates that he is pleased with the contractor on the project. I believe I have mentioned in the past that the contractor indicates the project will be done ahead of schedule and could be done as early as the end of this year or the very early part of 2002.
2. Fire Funding
In my last status report I indicated that both the Senate and the House have put $2 million in their respective budgets for fire funding. There was also some indication that if the $2 million remained in the budget, the Governor might veto the entire line item. As I was preparing this memo I received a call from Ted Staton, the City Manager of East Lansing. It would appear that the Governor is considering some sort of parliamentary procedure to have the fire funding line item budget moved to a newly-created cultural and arts commission so that he can veto the fire funding line item from the new budget. I must admit I don't understand the parliamentary procedures in this case. However, I immediately phoned Senator Emmons, who said she would check into this. She expressed her continuing support for the additional two million in funding.
3. State Legislation
I have received some fax alerts from the Michigan Municipal League regarding pending legislation that could negatively impact communities. The first deals with sewer back-ups.
A court of appeals ruled a few months ago that communities could be held liable for sewage back-ups, even if the homeowner could not prove negligence on the part of the City. There has been some talk in Lansing about developing legislation that would tend to protect cities in situations such as these. There is a task force that has been created to look at this issue in more detail; however, legislation has just been adopted which would, in effect, codify the recent court of appeals action, which would make us almost absolutely liable for any storm sewer or wastewater sewer back-ups into residences or businesses. Obviously we are opposed to this legislation, and I sent a letter on Wednesday to Representative Caul asking that she oppose any legislation dealing with sewer back-ups until a task force report can be completed and submitted to the House.
The second deals with telecommunications legislation and once again it erodes the City's control over its own rights-of-way. Again, I have sent a letter to Sandy Caul asking her to oppose any legislation in regard to this matter.
4. City-CMU Student Liaison Committee Report
I have attached the report from the work of the Committee for your information. If you should have any questions about the report, please do not hesitate to contact me.
5. Park Improvements
We continue to see construction in the parks, particularly Island Park and Nelson Park. It is my understanding that the second phase of the road improvements in Nelson Park should be finished within the next couple of weeks. It is nice to know that we have handled the construction so well that we have had absolutely no complaints about traffic flow or disruption of traffic in both Island Park and Nelson Park.
6. Project 2000
Again there is not much new to report on this project. Mike Hofer drew down a couple of more lots a couple of weeks ago and will be starting construction of a new house on one of the lots fairly quickly. There is nothing new to report on the Industrial Park.
7. Okaya Students
We will have three students coming from Okaya this summer during the last week of July and the first week of August. That number is a little smaller than we have seen in previous years, but it is my understanding that teenagers in Japan are facing the same time constraints that teenagers in America face with all of their outside activities and school, so it was difficult to get more than three students to come this year.
There will be a welcoming reception at City Hall on Tuesday, July 31st, at 9:00 a.m., and all are welcome to attend.
8. State Shared Revenue
We received a fax on Tuesday from the Michigan Municipal League indicating that the House and Senate had agreed to cut $50 million out of stated shared revenue to local units of government in this year's budget. At this point in time I do not know what that means for the City of Mt. Pleasant in the way of revenue reductions. As you recall, because of our increase in population we are entitled to somewhere around $700,000 more than we have received in the past. Obviously there will be some reduction, but I don't know how much that will be.
9. Meeting With Tribal Council
As you know, we attempted to hold a luncheon with the Tribal Council and the County Board earlier this month. Because of scheduling conflicts, many of the Tribal Council members were not able to attend. I spoke to Chris Petras on Wednesday, and he has invited me and the Mayor along with the County Board Chair to attend a Tribal Council meeting on July 2nd and extend a formal invitation to the Council for another luncheon. He believes there was some confusion as to what the luncheon was all about, so he thought this might help to schedule a new one.
10. Charter Communications
As you know, Charter Communications has realigned their channels and will be increasing their rates over the next month. We have had some calls about the cost and the realignment, and all we can say is that under the new Telecommunications Act we have no control over their alignment or the rates that they charge. If people have concerns or complaints they need to contact the cable company directly.