Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By RICHARD JENKINS
Bessemer — The efforts to develop a non-motorized trail through Gogebic County took a step forward Tuesday night as the Bessemer City Council approved using city funds to purchase a portion of property owned by Pat Steiger that allows the trail route to continue east.
The council approved spending $8,125 to be used as local matching funds for a Michigan Department of Natural Resources grant intended to be used to purchase property between Bessemer and Wakefield — including approximately five acres of property owned by Pat Steiger on the east side of Bessemer, south of U.S. 2.
“I think it would behoove the city to purchase this piece of property. Not only is it going to affect us, and bring dollars into the town, but it’s also going to affect Ramsay and Wakefield — I mean they are all kind of dependent on what we do here,” Councilman Rob Coleman said. “I just think this is something Bessemer really needs and I think it’s something we should heavily consider.”
The $8,125 is a combination of $7,500 in city funds and a $625 donation made by Jim Maccani.
City Manager Charly Loper told the council she had dug into the city’s finances and found a $8,998 certificate of deposit from 2000. While Loper said she believes it may originally have been earmarked for basketball courts in Yale Location, she dug through past meeting minutes and was unable to find any motion restricting the usage to that purpose.
The funds approved Tuesday are just part of the amount needed to meet Steiger’s price of $3,000-per-acre for approximately five acres of land — the parcel is roughly 4,000-lineal-feet by 50-feet-wide.
There was some discussion during the meeting regarding Steiger’s price, as it was more expensive than some other property purchased for the trail in the city but it was also less expensive than land bought in Ironwood.
Several council members explained the targeted land bisects Steiger’s property — making it more expensive then some other properties, where the edge of a larger parcel was sold off.
If the purchase of the property is complete, it would allow the non-motorized Iron Belle Trail — which currently runs from the Montreal River in Ironwood to Moore Street in Bessemer — to continue to Ramsay, before ultimately running to Wakefield.
Paul Anderson — with Coleman Engineering and who has been involved in developing the trail — said that if the grant application is submitted prior to its April deadline and everything else goes according to plan, the earliest the segment to Ramsay could be completed would be 2019.
Anderson also said there was a possibility that if the purchase wasn’t completed, the trail authority could jump the segment and focus on moving west from Wakefield back toward Bessemer.
Later in the meeting, Council member Linda Nelson pointed out that if the trail begins work in Wakefield before the Bessemer to Ramsay section is completed, it is conceivable the focus would turn east before the Bessemer section is connected — in effect leaving the city cutoff from the larger trail system planned to run between Ironwood and Belle Isle in Detroit.
Several members of the council also praised Steiger for being willing to part with the land for the agreed price, saying he was initially resistant to selling at all and had shown a willingness to compromise.
In other action:
— The council adopted Ordinance No. 346, the city’s fair housing ordinance.
— The council also authorized Loper to act as street administrator, allowing her to sign necessary paperwork.
— A resolution agreeing to hold the Michigan Department of Transportation harmless for any city work done on U.S. 2 was also approved. The agreement also requires the city to put the road back to its current condition if repair work on water lines or other infrastructure require part of the road be torn up.
— The council approved pursuing a title search on the Keating Building to ensure there aren’t any unknown easements or other issues before the city continued with its planned demolition of the building.
