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ISHPEMING -- In the third annual Blood Fight between Ishpeming and Negaunee, the Ishpeming Hematites came out as victors.
At the regular Ishpeming City Council meeting on Wednesday, Ishpeming High School National Honor Society Vice President Jaylyn Willey and co-President Jaxon Foster announced that Ishpeming schools won the third annual Blood Fight against Negaunee schools.
"I think we collected around 57 pints of blood, which was really great," Willey said. "We had a whole bunch of community members come and donate, a lot of people that work for the city of Ishpeming came and it went really great."
Foster took time to thank everyone who donated.
"It was greatly appreciated," he said.
According to Ishpeming City Manager Craig Cugini, Ishpeming had 58 donations and Negaunee had 27. Ishpeming had nine rejected donations and Negaunee 10.
"So we more than doubled their count, which is great," he said. "We will be preparing a presentation of the trophy that passes to the trophy case, so we are still scheduling that."
Wednesday's meeting also included a public hearing for the Ishpeming Parks and Recreation Plan 2024-2028.
During public comment, Ishpeming resident and Park and Recreation Commission member Claudia Demarest questioned whether or not the plan should have been brought to the commission for approval before the city council.
"We haven't had the recreation plan and haven't voted on this," Demarest said.
Councilor Pat Scanlon said he'd like to table the public hearing and adopting the resolution "until the council has approval."
Cugini explained that the Parks and Recreation Commission had multiple meetings where they didn't have quorums present. At one meeting, the commission had to lower the number of board members required to get a quorum.
"(The plan) has been presented with what the public is looking for and the parks and recreation director has had a copy of the draft, provided comments," he said. "(My) understanding (is) it was shared with board members, it may or may not have."
Cugini said the requirement by the state is the elected body of the council is the approval.
"Failure to approve tonight, we will go through the year of 2023 and 2024 without the ability to apply for any recreation grants through the state," he said.
Currently, Ishpeming High School is working with the city to generate a recreation grant for replacing tennis courts.
"So we have met the stop points," Cugini said. "There's certainly a document called a plan that can be looked at and modified over time, but the requirement for the state is to have it submitted and reviewed for Feb. 1 approval by the state."
The city council, in the end, unanimously approved the resolution to adopt the Parks and Recreation Plan 2024-2028. To watch the full meeting, visit the city's Youtube channel at youtube.com/@cityofishpemingmi987.
Dreyma Beronja can be reached at 906-228-2500 ext. 548. Their email address is dberonj@miningjournal.net.