Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By CHARITY SMITH
Bessemer — Residents of the city of Bessemer will be asked to complete an in-depth survey in the next couple of months. The survey asks questions as to where and what the city should accomplish in the next five years to help the council formulate the city’s master plan.
The city council started the process of formulating a new master plan for the city during a special meeting on Tuesday.
“In the last three years there’s been a lot of getting things together for the city, whether it was ordinances, becoming redevelopment ready community certified, starting to update our charter those types of things,” said city manager Charly Loper. “We started our blight program and we tackled a lot of infrastructure, but we have to shift our focus a little bit and we need public feedback on where that focus should be shifted to.”
Loper told the Daily Globe that she feels people’s opinions might have shifted during this “year full of horror.” She said that she thinks people might have different priorities as a result of the pandemic.
“From what I have been seeing, I feel like there really is a desire to once COVID ends, to really focus on recreating our sense of community,” Loper said.
In looking over the city’s budget, Loper said, that she feels that all the city’s excess money need to go towards equipment and the employee retirement deficit.
“I think that we need to be creative in our next steps,” Loper said. “I’m not sure if there’s going to be as much grant funding as there has been, because it has been shifted in allocation. That may change over the next three four years, but for now I think we’re going to have to be real creative.”
Mayor Adam Zak said that since he got elected, one of his big focus points is to update the Department of Public Works.
“I think money needs to be set aside for updating very old equipment,” he said.
Councilman Terry Kryshak said the council needs to look at how the city can do things differently in order to raise more taxable value in the city. He suggested finding ways to bring in small businesses that would be interested in growing their business or starting up in the city.
Councilman Robert Coleman said he would like to see an incubator building, that could house offices on the main street to fill up some of the “dead space.”
“Being that people are working remotely now, more so than ever, I think it is more of a viable option,” he said.
Coleman also said he would like to see some focus on cleaning up the downtown, and fixing some “eyesores.”
The council agreed that the blight program is working and would like to continue the program throughout the next five years.
Councilwoman Linda Nelson said she would like to see a campground and an ice rink near Bluff View Park.
“I would like to see some of those things to bring our youth out, to bring the kids away from the screens all the time and get them doing something, and just to get people coming to our area,” she said.
The previous master plan is 137 pages including appendixes, according to Loper. Kryshak suggested the council use it as a template. He said they should all go through it and note additions and subtractions to suggest at the next meeting on the subject.
The council will be holding special meetings as need be over the next several months to allow for continued in-depth focus on the master plan, Loper said. She said there is no hard deadline for the survey to go out, but they will continue to move forward on it.
