The Negaunee City Council held its monthly meeting on Thursday with the next scheduled event being a special meeting on June 26. (Journal photo by Abby LaForest)

NEGAUNEE — The Negaunee City Council held its monthly meeting on Thursday, where several items including property rezoning and revisiting various agreements with private companies, were on the table.

As for the rezoning of Zoning Map Ordinance from R-2 to B-2 #52-53-020-004-00, the council voted to adopt the rezoning following a public hearing. The property value of the parcel is not expected to change by an amount of any significance.

“The owner of the property intends on going to some type of shop, I believe, or all about any place of some sort. Of course, that could always change. This is all simply to rezone the property,” Negaunee City Manager Nate Heffron explained during the vote. “Plans fall through all the time, so they could sell it. They could change their mind on (what’s) going there. They may not know anything. So the intent right now, as far as we understand from the Planning Commission meeting that I attended, was to go (with a) shop with some sort of vehicle repairs.”

A map for the rezoned area can be found online at cityofnegaunee.com/city-council/pages/council-packets.

Another meeting conversation regarded the city’s agreement with Electric Outdoors, LLC, which currently allows the company to place beta camping test facilities on grounds leased from the Iron Ore Heritage Trail Authority to the city. EO is requesting to enter into a three-year contract to facilitate more research into their products, including an expansion of their current site from one unit to three units.

In exchange for the use of the property for testing EO Canopy Camping, the company agrees to provide members of the city council with a tour of the campsite, provide local press a tour of the campsite, share revenues for site usage, improve the entryway off Marquette County Road 480 and develop five campsites using a city developed and approved design and site plan for city use.

The agreement between the city of Negaunee and EO was accepted by the council with a few amendments, brought to attention by Councilman Jon Becker. They included correcting the owner of the property from the incorrectly documented city of Negaunee to the correct owner being the Iron Ore Heritage Trail, the city not being allowed to sublease property because private entities cannot financially benefit from doing business on the property, and no longer indicating that EO would pay the city $25 per night for usage, as that violates the city’s agreement with the IOHT.

The agreement was reworked to indicate that the city would charge people to stay at the campgrounds and then pay EO as a service provider instead of EO directly benefiting. It will be taken by the city to the Iron Ore Heritage Trail Authority and the state of Michigan for final approval of the agreement.

“This agreement has kickers in here, so like circuit breakers. If they (EO) want to change the agreement, they have to bring that to us for any changes 90 days before anything could even be considered. In addition to that, if they want to extend this agreement past the previous, they have to bring that 90 days to us,” said Heffron. “That doesn’t mean they’re 100% bulletproof at that point, but we will continue to work with them as we work with any other business or property unit in the city of Negaunee looking to do business with us. This helps address some of those issues that were brought up in the last council meeting.”

“One other note, and it’s not necessarily germane to the motion, but a reminder that the city would pay the heritage trail portion of the proceeds. That’s the contract,” Becker included. “The city would need to pay (the IOHT) if they start to receive income from that property.”

The city would have total control over EO’s five sites following their construction, including operating and maintaining them. According to Heffron, EO also has to work through some programming that the city does not have capacity to do, while the city would be collecting the fee and distributing funds back to them. After accepting the proposed agreement amendments, the motion passed six votes to one.

Heffron has also previously received permission from the council to facilitate an agreement with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation for grant funding on behalf of a Redevelopment Ready Communities project. This would hire someone from Community Heart and Soul to facilitate a community project in the city that would help create an updated Public Participation Plan, make suggested updates to city planning documents and better understand what community development and services should be focused on. The council voted to enter a technical assistance grant agreement with MEDC and provide matching funds up to $3,750 to be paid from the city improvement fund.

The council also approved a bid with the company Halt Fire/Red Power back in October 2022 for the purchase of a fire department pumper costing $701,204, where the truck is still being built and a lease has been executed with PNC Bank where payments are being made.

The city was informed that Halt Fire/Red Power has sold their business to Reliant Fire Apparatus, which is one of the premier companies in the country for fire truck building.

“According to our original contract, if they want to assign their rights under the old contract, meaning a new party steps into their shoes, they have to get your permission to do it. I’m fine with the assignment if you guys are, but the two things I would suggest is first, confirm in writing with Reliant Fire Apparatus of Michigan that they have our down payment monies and two, that they’re going to continue to fulfill the contract for the fire truck,” recommended Negaunee City Attorney Jeremy Pickens. The motion passed unanimously.

May Craig Ilmonen also told those in attendance that there will be a special meeting at 6 p.m. June 26 to address water fluoridation, which will take place at the Negaunee Senior Citizens Center, located at 410 Jackson St.

Abby LaForest can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 548. Her email address is alaforest@miningjournal.net.