Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties

Blighted parcel clean-up cost pegged at $53,000

IRONWOOD — It will apparently cost $53,000 to clean up the blighted parcel the city of Ironwood condemned at 213 Bonnie St.

The city commission on Monday will consider awarding a bid for that amount to Jake’s Excavating, a local company, for the removal of the structure and clean-up of the site.

The former Peterson grocery store building in Bonnie Location was most recently owned by John Harteloo, who made no effort to clean up the site in the past few years, leading to the condemnation declaration because of health hazards.

The city received four bids to demolish and remove the structure, with the second lowest bid coming in at $73,997 from Cloverland Excavating.

In other business Monday, the commission will consider setting up a public hearing on four blighted properties.

Commissioners will act on a lengthy agenda, including setting up a Monday, Oct. 14, 5:15 p.m. public hearing on blighted parcels at 124 N. Lake St., 204 E. Oak St., 310 E. Oak St. and 319 Albany St.

Mike Rimkus, the public safety department lieutenant, will speak to the commission on blight enforcement.

Monday’s meeting begins at 5:25 p.m. with a public hearing on a requested variance for a garage at 907 Celia St. The property owners are requesting one more accessory building to a main garage than is permitted by ordinance. The accessory building would exceed the maximum requirement of 200 square feet and the maximum height limit of 18 feet.

The regular meeting begins at 5:30.

Among the items on the agenda are:

—An appearance by the two new part-time public safety department officers.

—A discussion of the fall city deer hunt.

—Authorization of the purchase of a new squad car for $25,610.

—A resolution on the regionalization of the revolving loan fund program.

—Consideration of approval of articles of incorporation for Michigan’s Western Gateway Trail Authority.

—The sale of numerous surplus items owned by the city, including at a 2000 Chevrolet truck that will be put up for a minimum bid of $3,500.

—Discussion of the downtown infrastructure grant.

—Consideration of the approval of restrictive covenants for the former gas plant site that was cleaned up near the Montreal River.

—Consideration of spending $70,000 to update the city’s comprehensive plan.

—Awarding a bid for televising sanitary and storm sewers.

—Discussion of seeking bids for street sand and road gravel.

 
 
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