The Houghton City Council Wednesday approved moving $150,000 from the city's reserve fund toward street repairs sustained from the storms in June. Agate Street sustained the majority of the damages, especially from East Fifth Street to Jasper Avenue. (Houghton Daily Mining Gazette photo)

HOUGHTON — The city of Houghton continues to recover from an overnight storm last month that dumped around four inches of rain on Houghton County in a matter of hours, washing out street shoulders and closing roads. The Houghton City Council met Wednesday evening and among action taken, was the approval of funding for repairs for damage sustained from the June storm. The council also set a date for public hearings for changes in city ordinances.

While the June rainfall and subsequent damage was nowhere near the extent of the Father’s Day Flood of 2018, Waara said if the rain continued any longer than it did, similar damage may have occurred. The prime area of concern with recent storm damages was on Agate Street. The largest amount of damage sustained on Agate was from East Fifth Street to Jasper Avenue, an area in which mortar joints in the storm manholes were blown out and several catch basins failed.

Waara said MacInnes Drive also suffered surface damage. “Water got under the road and washed the lines out. We got to take the blacktop up and repave the road.”

Waara said the city did not budget for six figures worth of storm repairs. He estimates the repairs on Agate Street will cost $80,000 for the two blocks of concern. And then there is the cost of the storm and sewage work that will take place along with repaving the road. Waara pointed out the city has reserve funds due to FEMA reimbursements and the sale of the Hodge Building.

He requested the council task $150,000 from the reserve in the general fund for the repairs. The reserve funds were set aside from the FEMA reimbursements and the sale of the Hodge Building to partially offset debt service the city took from removing the 1978 Parking Deck. The reallocated $150,000 would result in there still being close to $600,000 reserved for bond payments.

“Right now we have about half of the value of the bond. Which again, for that reserve fund we were putting those funds away because post getting the bond and taking parking deck down (the 1978 Parking Deck), the plan was to sell some property and use that FEMA money so the taxpayers aren’t paying for it,” Waara said.

He said this way the repairs can be completed without having the street fund and sewer funds stretched for repairs, especially since this was not a planned incident. The council approved the request for the budget amendment to transfer $150,000 towards the repairs.

The council also approved to set the date for public hearings regarding changes to the Chapter 34 and 50 ordinances on August 13. Chapter 34 revolves around nuisances while Chapter 50 regards offenses and miscellaneous provisions of the code of ordinances.

Waara also welcomed a new business on Sheldon Avenue and a business that has recently relocated to the street. The Prickly Pine Cafe took the place of the old Cyberia Cafe and Keweenaw Gem and Gift moved to Sheldon Avenue from Razorback Drive.

The status of the old Kirkish Building on Sheldon Avenue was also brought up. Construction contracts have been signed and a recent meeting was held regarding the construction.

“Looking at everything that we want to do is keep as much of the construction activity off of Sheldon Avenue as we can. That’s a choke point down at the bridge. You’ve got the restaurants and the taverns down there, so working with the contractor, we’re going to basically shut off that exit that goes out to Montezuma, because most of the people that use it actually use it the wrong way when the police aren’t looking,” Waara said.

Houghton City Police will also soon post an opening for an officer position with the recent resigning of an officer who has moved on to work for Michigan Tech Public Safety.