Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
THE COUNCIL heard a presentation from current city attorney Mike Pope of the firm Dean and Pope, left. At the table, from left are Kay Wiita, Amy Tarro, Bob Blaskowski, Mayor Joe DelFavero, interim city manager John Siira and city clerk Jennifer Jacobson.
By KELSEY HANSEN
Wakefield - The Wakefield City Council approved to hire Tim Dean as the city attorney on Monday and continue with the law firm, Dean and Pope.
Michael Pope, who has been appointed as the 32nd Circuit Court Judge, will no longer be able to practice law once sworn in at the end of the month.
As a result, Pope recommended that Dean fill his position as the Wakefield city attorney.
"After talking with John, I'm recommending that my partner, Tim Dean, serve as city attorney," Pope said.
After a few questions and some discussion from the council it was approved.
"In my experience here, as a council member, I have been more than satisfied with the firm," Mayor Joe DelFavero said.
The council said "thank you" to Wakefield City Clerk Jennifer Jacobson for organizing the construction of the city's giant snowman.
Jacobson, along with fifty other volunteers including students from the school, spent approximately 21 hours over the weekend constructing the snowman.
The snowman stands at about 30-feet tall, with 5-gallon bucket tops for the mouth and buttons, hub caps for the eyes, a pipe made from a 5-gallon bucket and PVC pipe and a Mohawk made of brooms.
It took 1500 gallons of water to freeze it and so far it has made television coverage in both Marquette and Duluth and over 38,000 hits on the city's Facebook page.
In other action from the meeting:
-The council approved to complete the Castile property sale of lots 30 and 31 for a bid of $4,550. The only bid was from Bethany Anderson, secretary of Anderson Superior Tree Service, LLC.
-The council approved the purchase of a new photocopier in the Municipal Building offices. The current photocopier purchased back in 2007 has been having issues. The new copier will be a Sharp MX-M453N from Tri-State Business purchased for $1,995 with a $31.25 per month maintenance contract.
-The council also approved the collection of the summer taxes from the Wakefield-Marenisco School District, which is 1 percent of the city's tax levy.
-The council was informed that work for the Old US 2 project will resume this year now that the glitch with the Michigan Department of Transportation has finally been restored. The first half of the project was completed back in 2012 with the second half resuming this summer. The second phase will cost $201,000 with a $40,000 (20 percent) local share.
-The SAW proposals were tabled once again Monday night as the committee did not have time to meet due to the holidays and conflicting schedules. The SAW committee plans to meet before the next city council meeting on Jan. 25 and bring forward a recommendation for hiring a firm at that time.
