Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
IT IS standing room only in council chambers during the city council meeting Monday in Bessemer. The divisions in town are clear; with a vocal audience for each side. The council is going to consider live-streaming options in the future to accommodate the growth in attendance and for those who would rather watch from home.
By IAN MINIELLY
Bessemer - It did not take long Monday for the divisions on the city council to rear their head. It began with mayor Kathy Whitburn reading Star Kolesar's letter regarding the noxious fumes near her house. John Frello followed Whitburn by reading his own letter for addition to the Documents and Correspondence of the city regarding what he considered Ad Hominem attacks on his person at previous meetings.
Frello wished to address events from past council meetings and the public disagreement with Rob Coleman, while praising Charly Loper, city manager at the same time, for standing her ground as the pressure around her builds. The division within the council was on display and frequently echoed and erupted in the room, with supporters of both sides commenting throughout the meeting.
Even with the evident disagreements, the council still attended to other business, demonstrating their ability to put differences aside and work together. The claims were voted on for payment and three ordinances regarding blight were given their initial reading and scheduled for a public hearing at the May 15 meeting.
The six-month review for Loper was tabled till the next meeting so the council and Loper can all see the criteria and come to an agreement. The review is expected to happen on Jun. 5. The board also set a tentative budget workshop for Tuesday, May 9 as they need to have the tentative budget prepared by May 15.
The board agreed to pay Coleman Engineering $3,125 for survey work associated with trail expansion from the $10,000 DNR grant designed to buy land from the Steiger's, necessary to complete the trail to Ramsay.
The city recognized a need to request changes to the water and sewer project order after beginning the upgrades. The initial plan involved only tearing up half the road, but the city has found it a challenge to not wreck the whole road while replacing the sewer and water lines. The reworded language seeks more financial resources from big government to cover pulverizing the whole road, laying down 8 inches of gravel and adding three layers of pavement on top, remaking the roads for greater durability.
The council broke on the typical lines of disagreement regarding the social media policy. Coleman and Linda Nelson voted against the update ,while Whitburn, Frello, and Al Gaiss voted to support it. The disagreement fell into a Reductio Ad Absurdum argument about what could happen on the Facebook machine should the measure be adopted.
The division continued when Loper informed the council the city's attorney, Mike Korpela, advised the marijuana issue cannot be handled via vote, but must be done by the council. At the introduction of Korpela's name to the discussion, the division within the council and city was laid bare again. The board of electors also threw the lane reduction back on the councils lap also as a public vote cannot bind the MDOT, because MDOT decides what it is going to do.
The council agreed to fund Harju Septic installation of two porta johns at the Iron Belle Trail and agreed to hire 3 summer workers and an intern for Loper in the city manager's office. Frello and Coleman volunteered to join the negotiations with the union.
Under new business, the board agreed the live streaming option was worth pursuing and discussed multiple options available to them. Loper agreed to look further into live streaming. Nelson promoted a discussion on passage of city ordinances to begin the process of wrangling with marijuana in the community. Nelson said, "We need to look at these ordinances," as she highlighted some ordinances from other municipalities that are limiting the spread of marijuana in neighborhoods and requiring carbon filtration to eliminate odors.
Taking the issue further, Nelson said the council has been left in the dark and was never informed about the options available to pass ordinances regarding marijuana by Korpela. With the mention of Korpela's name again, the factions drew up sides, with Coleman and Nelson arguing for the need to begin passing ordinances to regulate marijuana under the 2008 original law.
Whitburn, Gaiss, and Frello voted against the recommendation to have the council begin looking at ordinances. Instead, Frello raised a fresh motion to give the planning commission the authority to look into ordinances, which Coleman and Nelson voted against.
As divided as the council is on the social media policy, city's attorney, and the assorted marijuana discussions. The residents in attendance mirrored the sentiment. A good majority of the crowd spoke during public comments and it is clear, Bessemer is a divided community on zoning, creation of a master plan to set the towns direction, the role and legitimacy of the current city council, and whether the city's attorney should be retained or not.
