Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By IAN MINIELLY
Bessemer — The Bessemer city council, at city manager Charly Loper’s request, provided a public evaluation of her performance over the past six months at Monday’s meeting.
Using a scale between 1 and 5, with 1 being the low and 5 being the high, Loper came in overall at 3.96. Loper was evaluated on 9 different sets of over-arching criteria, with each criteria having multiple levels of sub-criteria.
Loper’s scores included:
—Organizational Management 4.25
—Fiscal management 3.6
—Intermediate and Long Range Planning 3.88
—Intergovernmental Relationships 3.76
— Relationships with the Public 4.05
—Professional Development 4.25
—Personal Characteristics 4.00
After the evaluation, the council discussed the fact that the city employees, not in anyone’s memory at least, have ever received evaluations. This was laid directly on Loper to rectify and begin the process of bringing the cities employees and staff online regarding evaluations. This also fits hand in glove with the scheduling of a workshop in late July to settle the employee handbook the city has been working on.
In other news, less glowing of Loper, the city did not make the cut on any of the proposed grants it submitted. The new water line up Tilden Hill and the new “Welcome to Bessemer” signage grants are both kiboshed for the time being. Loper did inform the council insight was gained on the scoring — of which Bessemer did well in — that may lead to future acceptance of grant requests.
Loper brought forward to the council one element of the Master Plan, which the city has been working on extensivly since Loper came on board, the fixing of the housing crisis and deterioration of structures in Bessemer. Loper brought forward to goals two rectify these issues, while acknowledging the Master Plan is only in its first draft so this is a good time to make suggestions.
Goal 1: Stop the decay of current buildings. The Master Plan recommends an eight step process to accomplish this.
1. Send thank you notes to people that fix their property 2. Use clear boards for broken windows instead of plywood 3. Create a vacant property registry to attract financiers looking for inexpensive investments 4. Establish an “Adopt A Lot” program where local citizens police area properties and keep them looking sharp and 5. Work with the Gogebic Ontonagon Community Action Agency to repair and replace dilapidated structures and homes 6. Encourage the utilization of USDA low-income grants 7. Seek Michigan Economic Development Corporation grant monies to improve local structures, and 8. Seek funds from out of state funding sources.
Goal 2: Address the housing shortage of Bessemer. Three issues were highlighted by Loper under this goal that would improve the area housing shortage. 1. Recruit investors to build homes in the area 2. Recruit house flippers to come to the area and invest their time and resources to turn dilapidated structures into nice homes, and 3. Recruit an investor willing to build a nursing home or assisted living facility in Bessemer so area residents do not have to leave town for the kind of care offered by these establishments.
In a similar vein, the Downtown Development Authority has identified multiple structures or vacant lots within the city that with development, could be leveraged against those goals within the Master Plan. Part of this involves the development of two story buildings with the bottom floor dedicated to commercial use while the second floor would be dedicated to apartments.