Impacts of the May flooding on Ely Street in Ishpeming are seen. The Ishpeming City Council discussed options for securing state and federal funding to deal with the estimated $1.8 million in damages sustained during the flooding. (Journal photo by Lisa Bowers)

ISHPEMING — The Ishpeming City Council has discussed options for funding repairs after severe flooding impacted the cities of Ishpeming and Negaunee in May.

Ishpeming is working toward receiving state funding to deal with the damage, which has reached an estimated $1.8 million.

Ishpeming filed its application for state emergency funding on Wednesday, and if approved, the city would receive roughly $250,000.

The council discussed trying to get Federal Emergency Management Agency funding to supplement the rest of the repairs to get closer to that $1.8 million number.

“We should be working into the next step of receiving our max award for disaster funds. The bad news that our disaster fund max award is $250,000 against $1.8 million of storm damage,” Ishpeming City Manager Craig Cugini said. “The next step will be to go after some additional funds through FEMA and other additional resources to help fill the gap from $250,000 to $1.8 million.”

The city council authorized city of Ishpeming finance manager Joe Erickson as the agent in charge of working with the state to process the funding.

During the May flooding, the road that leads to UP Health System-Bell in Ishpeming sustained heavy damage.

In August, the Negaunee City Council agreed to work with Ishpeming on working together to address the damage.

Repairs wouldn’t start until 2023 at the earliest.

Randy Crouch can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 242. His email address is rcrouch@miningjournal.net.