Ironwood awarded $220,000 blight grant

By RALPH ANSAMI

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Ironwood — City manager Scott Erickson told city commissioners Monday an additional $220,000 grant has been approved for Ironwood’s blight fight.

The funds will again come through the Michigan State Housing Development Authority.

Erickson said it’s hoped 10 to 12 houses will be demolished in 2019 in continuation of the Hardest Hit grant program that has resulted in dozens of eyesores being eliminated throughout the city.

Bids are sought for area firms to tear down the structures.

In other business, commissioners approved three payments totaling more than $30,000 related to the phase 4 infrastructure project. The change orders for construction and engineering are for restoration work that was completed late in the fall, according to Paul Anderson, of Coleman Engineering.

Anderson said the next step in the effort will be design work for next summer’s Granite and Lawrence streets project, probably around late-May.

In other new business, the commission once gain chose to opt out of Public Funded Health Insurance Contribution Act 152, which pertains to medical benefits offered by public employers.

According to the resolution adopted Monday, city commissioners believe they are “best positioned to determine what benefits (including medical benefits) ought to be offered to attract and retain the best qualified city employees at the lowest overall costs.”

The resolution also states pay rates for city employees are most properly the responsibility of the city’s elected representatives and not the state.

A two-thirds vote was needed to opt out and all five commissioners supported the resolution.

Under public comment, citizen Randal Kasich suggested hard copies of financial reports should be available to the public at commission meetings and commissioners should study the 97-page code of conduct.