Ironwood city commissioners discuss their 2022-2023 goals

By ZACHARY MARANO

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Ironwood - Members of the Ironwood City Commission had the opportunity to set the goals that the city will focus on for the next two years at a work session prior to their regular meeting on Monday.

City Treasurer and Financial Director Paul Linn said this work session marked the beginning of a very important part of the city's budget review process. He said that the goals that the city commission chooses to adopt in these sessions will be reflected in the budget.

Linn said that they already started the process, with city department heads entering their budget requests in their general ledger system. He said the city commission's goals will be implemented into these budget requests and balanced with the current revenue projections from the state of Michigan before they come back with a recommended budget and work through the details.

"How many work sessions we have depends on how the conversation goes, until we get to where we need to be with an adopted budget," Linn said.

City Commissioner Rick Semo noted that since setting their goals for 2021-2022, two new people - Mayor Pro Tem David Andresen and Nancy Korpela - have joined the commission. As a result, the commission started working on a new list that included goals from the previous two years as well as some new ideas.

As they went around the room, each city commissioner identified their highest priorities for the next two years.

"I'll start with one we talked about already, which is addressing the marijuana grow houses downtown and see if we can mitigate, in some way, the impact they have on our downtown, using our existing zoning ordinance or whatever tools we have," Semo said.

At previous work sessions with the city and planning commissions, Director of Community Development Tom Bergman said there were two concerns regarding medical marijuana caregivers in downtown Ironwood – odor and blight.

Bergman said that public nuisances in downtown Ironwood are unique because everyone in the community uses downtown, whereas nuisances in residential and industrial districts primarily affect the adjacent lots.

Semo also said he would like to focus on the housing shortage in the city of Ironwood. He said that there are many facets to this problem and the commission could easily spend the rest of the work session talking about it. He said that elements to consider would include housing and rural development, Airbnb's and hotels.

Semo said that the city has made progress on streets and blights because they are always at the top of their list of priorities and he wants them to stay at the top of the list.

"The number one amount of calls I get at home in the summer is to increase safety in the city parks on Iron Belle Trail. It was rated in the middle of priorities before, but I've been keeping track of what people have been telling me," Mildren said.

Mildren said that on the Iron Belle Trail in Bessemer and Ramsay, motor vehicles must yield to bicyclists at trail crossings, but there are no stop signs for people crossing in front of bikes in the city of Ironwood. He said that some people have called him to report near collisions.

Mildren identified the area behind Red's Auto Inc. as the location of several close calls. He said that because there is an extra lane, vehicles and bicyclists don't know which side of the road to stay on. He said that they need to find a way for vehicles to know to stay to the left.

Mildren also said that although he was proud of the "great strides" they have already made towards this goal, he would like to see the city commission continue to improve their sidewalk plan for both the summer and winter.

Lastly, Mildren noted that Copper Peak will be receiving $20 million in funding with the passage of Senate Bill 565 and would like the city of Ironwood to come up with some project connected to the ski flying hill.

Mayor Kim Corcoran said that she would like to introduce an SMS alert system that people can sign up for, similar to the Mackinac Bridge system that sends updates to users when the bridge is closed, that will let area residents know when and where there will be a hydrant flushing, a road closing or similar disruptions. This system would be an optional service, she said.

Corcoran also said that she would like the city commission to meet with other departments besides the planning commission. Bergman said that the Downtown Ironwood Development Authority, the Economic Development Corporation and parks and recreation committee have expressed interest in meeting with the city commission in the past.

Bergman suggested they could meet with one department per quarter for a 30-minute update before city commission meetings.

"I would like to develop an agricultural, economic plan that determines and develops agriculture products for our region that people can go after. Anything from cherry trees, apple trees, cider mill – tons of things that you can do," Korpela said. "They are really good products we can have agriculturally and so far, we haven't done a plan that looks at what our area would support."

Korpela also said that she wanted to follow through on recent discussions at the meetings about the return of a tax increment financing district to the city of Ironwood and the downtown development plan, to put them in place as quickly as possible.

Andresen said that he would like to see camping sites developed in Norrie Park and/or Miners Memorial Heritage Park. He also said he wants to develop a recreational authority to make sure that their parks are being managed efficiently. He said that he often hears that they are short-staffed or underfunded, so he wanted to make this a priority.

Elaborating on Andresen's idea, Semo said that he wants to see the "privacy factor" in Curry Park improved and to enhance camping in the city of Ironwood in general. Semo also said that he wants to see more work on neighborhood parks, including the one north of U.S. 2.

In discussing their progress on the 2021-2022 goals, Mildren noted that the city commission scored highly on the two-and-a-half-million-gallon water mixer storage tank on Mt. Zion. City Manager Scott Erickson said that the mixer prevents sediments from setting in the water.

Erickson added that once the new water treatment plant opens, they may not need the tank on Mt. Zion anymore, because the plant will filter out iron and manganese in the water. However, this is still to be determined. Erickson said that the tank is currently not part of the water treatment plant project but is on their capital improvement plan.

The workshop concluded after an hour of discussion for public hearings and the city commission's regular meeting. These workshops will continue as the commission continues to set their goals for 2022-2023.