Approval of Agenda

Council Member Scheid made a motion to approve the agenda as presented, supported by Council Member Lallo.

Mayor Gunderson stated that under Guests, Maria Robertson, Chamber of Commerce Ambassador, would be speaking instead of Craig Crebessa.

The question on the motion with the change was called and the result of the voting is as follows:

            Ayes:               Council Members Feuerstein, Scheid, Lallo, Jones and Gunderson.

            Nays:               None.

Guest – Maria Robertson, Belding Chamber of Commerce Ambassador

Ms. Robertson invited all visitors to various upcoming activities as listed on a handout she presented. Those activities include the following:  Mercantile Bank, formerly known as First Bank, will have a ribbon cutting at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, August 6.  On Tuesday, August 12, the Chamber of Commerce will hold its Monthly Breakfast Referral Event at the Bridge Street Café, beginning at 7:45 a.m. It will be sponsored by the Belding Labor Day Committee. These are held every month and are a good way to network with businesses. There is a Chamber of Commerce website where everyone can view upcoming events. The City of Belding will also be hosting a ribbon cutting on Saturday, August 16 to celebrate the Meijer River Valley Rails to Trails. That will occur at 100 Depot St. at 9:00 am. Also, the Belding Chamber of Commerce holds their Board Meeting every 3^rd Thursday of each month from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. at the Belding Museum. The next meeting is scheduled for August 21 and is open to all Belding Chamber of Commerce Members. Their most recent ribbon cutting was with Flat River Medical Massage and she has some coupons for the asking.

Guest – Denny Craycraft, Veteran’s Park

Mr. Craycraft thanked the Council for letting him be here today. He said a lot has been happening since his last visit here. He said that on the August 27-28, the WWI monument will be here. He said it will be in place but probably covered until the 31^st, when there will be a dedication at 6:00 p.m. As well as that monument, there will be another one right beside it with a face engraved on it of Hugo Fales, who was killed in WW1. Both those dedications will happen at the same time. Ernie Cox, Commander at American Legion, was left a paper with the History of the Hugo Fales family. So he reached two great nephews in Oregon and they might possibly be here for the unveiling of the WW1 monument. Amy Garvey has replaced Patty’s position with the VFW, and he feels she will do a great job.  He then showed a model of the proposed Vietnam monument. It will set to the west of the pad, facing east. The sun will always rise on this and never set. It will be the wall of all 2, 654 veterans killed in Michigan. It will also have pillars of the local boys who were killed. Each face, etched by laser, will be on the face of the pillar and their story will go down in front of it. The pillars will be all black granite and will be six foot tall and twenty foot wide. Patton monument is excited to be involved with this and gave almost everything at cost. It is smaller than what Denny wanted in the beginning but reality set in and he’s excited about this. In May he received a phone call from an individual who wanted an honor guard to come over for the Moving Wall; a twenty-one gun salute and bugle. Denny told him that he had retired from the honor guard, after 45 years in it. He did go over there to see the Wall, but it wasn’t the Vietnam Moving Wall. It was similar to his model but it was privately owned and different in size. This isn’t going to go into play until after the WW1 monument dedication.  He was asked to be at Ionia Free Fair to represent the soldiers and sailors Relief Fund and he asked to bring this model with him. He was swamped with enthusiasm from people and he feels it will bring a lot of people to the City of Belding. Judy Emmons was there and was so impressed with it that she wants to have him, along with this model, on the Senate floor when it gets back into session. He pointed out that one wall itself will cost close to $40,000. He will need another $40,000 to $50,000 to complete the rest of it, bringing the total cost near $90,000. He has a possibility to raise some of it.  But in the middle of all the black pillars will be bronze helmet, boots, etc., and he would like to have the City Council consider paying for that which will cost $5,500. If there is anything in the City’s means to do that, he would appreciate it. He said that on the Vietnam pillars there are five boys from Belding and seven from Greenville and that makes up the twelve pillars. Four of the five from Belding are already covered by Belding businesses and he’ll be going into Greenville for the seven. Last week he was in Ionia with this model at the Legacy Ride and there were between 150 and 200 motorcycles and they were all Vietnam veterans. The gentleman who organizes that ride said that in two years, if we have this wall up, which Denny said he could almost guarantee him he could, they’d have the Legacy Ride in Belding. Denny also talked to the organizer of the Freedom Ride last month and they are interested in bringing that ride to Belding as well. He said we’d be the only City in Michigan with a monument like this. He wants to have all the Vietnam bricks, which will be placed in the middle, sold. He’s excited and believes it can happen. This Thursday he has a meeting with the American Legion in Greenville; they want to see this and be a part of the fundraising on this as well. The WW1 monument unveiling will be Labor Day weekend on August 31^st, at 6 p.m. before the fireworks on the pad. There will be a chicken barbeque all afternoon from 12 noon until 5pm and all proceeds will go to finish off the costs of the WW1 monument. Mayor Gunderson asked Denny who all is on the committee? Denny said that Amy Garvey, Joe Heather, Bob VanDyken, and Terry Hessler make up the committee. He said he will probably be putting a skeleton frame out in order to determine what will be acceptable. The panels will be configured alphabetically and at the bottom of each panel will have the year; the year determines which names go on each panel. It was suggested to him that the wall needs to have a touch pad to bring up the names but he has to do some checking into that.

Public Comments

Mike Henry, 806 Wildlife Trail. He stated that it seems the citizens got a surprise yesterday when they saw on the agenda that there’s the business with AGS.  He asked how long the Council Members have been thinking about this. Mayor Gunderson’s response was that this is not a question/answer period. It’s for you to speak your opinion and give feedback. Mr. Henry stated that this is new to him and imagines it’s new to everybody. He stated that he can’t imagine that the Council would be voting to approve the AGS item tonight. It is a pretty big deal and it seems that they would have to think about it. He added that he feels it would not be right for them to approve it tonight. He also feels the City needs to hire local people and local businesses and need to stop the outsourcing; that’s what this is. It’s outsourcing construction code inspections. It’s outsourcing ordinance enforcing. It’s outsourcing zoning administration. That was all he had to say.

Andrea Belding, 707 W.  Liberty Street.  She stated that she was surprised to see the AGS item. As many people know, Roger May did a lot of the inspections for the City and she thinks one of the disservices done to the community was when Roger’s position was eliminated. She then talked briefly about the number of responsibilities put upon Roger, as well as timing of requests and how he and the City Manager weren’t working cohesively together. She stated she read the proposal from AGS and is floored about it because it is outsourcing. For the business owner, if I’m going to invest money into the community I’d like to see it stay in the community. She stated that Belding is known as being against businesses. She then talked about her questions of the costs and that the second they get in their vehicle in their parking lot the $75 an hour fee begins. She stated she sees this as just racking up bills that will prevent growth. She feels their services are questionable in terms what they’ll provide. She stated that rather Roger was effective or not, she thinks that when we walk into City Hall wanting something simple we should be able to do that in our own town. This is getting us seriously away from that customer service aspect. It’s really disappointing seeing this on the agenda tonight, whether you guys have been talking about it for a long time and if you’ve looked at different ways to figure out how to fill Roger’s position. She gets that and knows that it’s been a struggle since he left and trying to have the Fire Dept. step in. But she believes there is one person in this community who is able to fulfill what you are looking for and keep it local with it being passed on to business owners and Belding will grow.

Roger Scheid, 10400 Fisk Road.  He stated that he is in agreement with Ms. Belding. He dealt with Roger May and maybe some people had a problem with him but he never had any problem with Roger. He feels Tim is doing a great job. If you don’t build you don’t understand what you go through. He helps if you need something laid out he understands. To have someone doing it from the outside and who isn’t from here it’s a big inconvenience. He thinks Tim is doing a great job.

Katharine Henry, 806 Wildlife Trail. She did some comparisons with some of the permits and other documents.  She agrees that we’re outsourcing a little too much. The question is who are writing checks to? More and more businesses are not from Belding. She named various services that we get from companies. She stated that AGS is over an hour away and every one of their clients is far away with the exception of Ionia County. She spoke with Ionia County Administration today and they said they only use them for building permits and inspection services. They don’t use them for anything else. But that three hour travel time at $75 an hour for each inspection, each trip to Belding the cost adds up. She has concerns about what it means for building administration in here. It does spell out things like site plan reviews. She wondered if Site Plan reviews would be taken away from the Planning Commission because that concerns her because that means no voice of the local people. There would be no local customer service, local people you can contact, time frames, things like that.  It’s important to have local people. Here it is $25 for a permit for a fence and it looks like for them it is $50. She went on to cite some of the other costs and stated that if you look at the costs it is on average about 2.6 times the current rate we charge. She stated she hopes the council members will take that time to really prepare before making their recommendation.

Consent Agenda

Reports by Council Liaisons

Council Member Feuerstein stated they had a long Planning Commission meeting last time over the Master Plan, which in his opinion they didn’t accomplish anything. They had a disruption at the meeting which you will see when you get the minutes.

Council Member Scheid didn’t have a report.

Council Member Lallo reported on the Museum Board. He talked about Margaret Markugeo will be at the Museum on August 20^th  at 2 p.m. to talk about Gone With The Wind as she is an authority on it. There will be a Civil War display with refreshments, and if anyone has questions to ask her she should be able to answer them. The book by Cindy Hughes that is coming out will be at the Museum for sale on Labor Day.

Council Member Jones reported on the Rec Board meeting held last night. He stated that it was a good meeting; it went well. We talked about the Skate Park and we’ve had excellent use of it. One of our officers was there doing a patrol and keeping an eye on things. He felt it was getting kind of messy down there and he told the kids to either pick it up or go home. All the kids started picking it up and cleaned it up real nice down there.  Ernie is going to get some trash dumpsters down there probably next week or ten days. City Manager Mullendore stated they aren’t down there yet and they don’t have actual date yet. Council Member Jones continued his report by saying that there will be trash containers down there. They will be posting some rule placards down there. Keven Krieger sent the preliminary list of rules out to the Rec Board Members today, and the tennis will have the rules as well. If you haven’t been down to see the tennis courts yet, they really look nice. They’ve really done a nice job getting those cleaned up. We’re going to get some new nets down there; once they come in we’ll get them up. He stated that the Smash Park will have the second nine ready to play any day now, so it will be 18 holes there. Saturday of Labor Day weekend there will be an amateur round if you want to try it. On Sunday that weekend they are going to have a Pro Am tournament; there will be a charge for that one. Both events are scheduled for 10 o’clock, both days. So if you just want to go out and see what it’s all about, go out anytime or Labor Day weekend and see what they’re doing. We should be starting on the dock down by Belhaven. Construction should start on that shortly. We’re just waiting on a couple of permits and getting final approval. He then complimented Jerry Lallo for his work on the Devon Memorial. That is tentatively scheduled for mid-September with notification coming later. They’re working very hard to get a stone, about 12 x 16, to have set by mid-September and there will be a ceremony to go along with that. The Silk City Trail extension from the Library to Ashfield Bridge has been set back quite a ways due to a misunderstanding with the architect/designer. What he designed was for a retaining wall, because of our road problems it wasn’t really addressed; it was mostly just the trail. So he, Meg and city staff are going back to square one and starting over again on that project. The next Rec Board meeting will be September 8 at City Hall at 6:30 pm.  Guests are welcome and if you have anything you want to bring up about recreation or trails in the town that would be an excellent time to bring it up and talk to people to see if we can put it on the program.

Mayor Gunderson stated that as Maria mentioned, we have the Rails to Trails ribbon cutting on the 16^th at 9 am. at the Depot. As far as the Library goes, we did find out there was one good thing about the fencing of the Electrolux property being over the sidewalk.  Now that the fence has been pushed back we have a lot of trees there and we also have a lot of kids that are on their bikes and we have runners and people with strollers, so the exit is actually being blocked. So if you put the front end of your vehicle out, because the sidewalk is no longer blocked and you didn’t have to worry about it before, so they are looking into possibly changing the directions of going into and out of the Library to open that area up. There have been issues of kids there and the trees blocking the transformer and a few maintenance issues.

Unfinished Business

None

New Business

Public Comments

Roger Scheid, 10400 Fisk Rd. He offered the suggestion to hire someone to do permits only on a couple certain days and then people could come submit for the permits during that time. It might be a cost saving and simplify it.

Mike Henry, 806 Wildlife Trail. He stated that a couple of months ago he submitted his application for the ZBA. He asked if they would vote tonight to reinstate the ZBA.  Mayor Gunderson said they wouldn’t tonight because the agenda had already been approved.

Katharine Henry, 806 Wildlife Trail. She gave two thumbs up on the skate park. She stated she is looking forward to Phase Two of that. She hasn’t made it out to the tennis courts yet, but is excited to hear about that as a resident and is glad that we are investing in that. She talked about appreciating what is being done downtown during the bridge construction. She thanked Council Member Lallo for his work on the Devon Memorial. She talked about the community wide garage sale as seen in the previous minutes and she hopes we move ahead with that. She would ask to reinstate the ZBA on the next agenda. It was said that as soon as you have enough people step up to fill the seats it would be reinstated. Thank you for tabling the AGS outsourcing. She hopes the research will find ways to keep it local.

Sam Mason, 516 W. Main St. and the Belding Party Store. He asked if Council could email to local businesses or put something up that shows which roads will be closed during the Labor Day Weekend. He has concerns about proper flow and fire/emergencies from one end of town to the other. He’s heard rumors about which roads will be shut down, but it would be nice for local businesses to know exactly which roads will be shut down.

Andrea Belding, 707 W. Liberty. She thanked the Council for tabling that. She stated that she hopes he never comes back because I’m personally going to help out by telling people it’s not for Belding. There’s got to be a better way to figure it out in the years since Roger left. But we’re never going to see progress if we spend more money and it takes more time. We need someone who knows us and that comes from local.

City Manager’s Comments

None

Council Comments

Council Member Jones said he feels he maybe should have asked more questions about the Labor Day event. He sort of took something for granted about the Arts on the bridge; are they actually going to close Bridge Street for the whole weekend. It seems that last year they did it just along the side. There was discussion between several about what was before and what they’re doing this year. He asked for clarification on that. City Manager Mullendore will get clarification from the Labor Day Committee. He also thanked everyone in Belding for cooperation during all the construction, as well as for the turnout tonight.

Council Member Feuerstein had no comments.

Council Member Scheid also thanked the people for coming out and their comments were heard by the Council and it’s good to have people talk.

Council Member Lallo also thanked the people for attending tonight. He thanked Gus Macker and the sponsors and volunteers. He felt it was amazing to see all the people coming to this town and it was awesome. It’s good for Belding. Also thanked the Labor Day Committee for their efforts and continued support and dedication to our City. There are a lot of unsung heroes. He then thanked Denny Craycraft for his project. He said that if anyone wants to thank someone for the Devon Memorial they should call Jeff Wilterink. Mr. Lallo stated that he only made a call; it’s Jeff who needs the thanks.

Mayor Gunderson thanked those who did their homework on the consent agenda items and spoke their minds. He then thanked Maria for her presentation on behalf of the Chamber, and Denny for his work and sharing his project. He then thanked Macker for a wonderful weekend. He said he understands that the Labor Day Committee has a few surprises this year as far as amusement rides and things and he’s looking forward to that. Again the ribbon cutting is here at 9am on August 16^th.

Council Member Lallo also offered congratulations to Maggie and Tom Jones for 47 years of marriage.

Adjournment

Council Member Scheid moved to adjourn the meeting, supported by Council Member Lallo.

Ayes:               Council Members Feuerstein, Scheid, Lallo, Jones and Gunderson.

            Nays:               None.

The Mayor adjourned the meeting at 8:35 p.m.