Wakefield City Council affected by COVID

By CHARITY SMITH

[email protected]

Wakefield — The Wakefield City Council met quorum for its regular meeting on Monday night thanks to technological advances, after two members came down with COVID-19.

Kay Wiita was the only member to attend in person. It was her final meeting, as she is not running for re-election in the Nov. 2 election.

Mayor Dale White and councilor James Anderson attended the meeting virtually after having recently been diagnosed with COVID. Councilor Scott Heikkila was absent due to an undisclosed illness and councilor Amy Tarro was not able to attend due to her child’s sporting event.

After some debate, the council voted to purchase a 2021 GMC Sierra 1500 Regular Cab 4x4 pickup truck from Todd Wenzel Buick GMC of Westland. The vehicle will cost the city $33,196. The cost includes shipping expenses to bring the vehicle here from lower Michigan. The purchase is to replace a 2008 Chevy Silverado 1500 pickup that the city’s electric department uses for meter reading. The city’s mechanic estimated that repairs to the old truck would cost $4,470, plus labor. The truck has a broken exhaust system, failing transmission, broken driver’s side door, and the box is rusted “beyond repair.”

The council originally approved a vehicle purchase not to exceed $26,427 at its Aug. 23 meeting. However, since that meeting GM canceled production of many of its fleet vehicles. Because of this, the council voted to purchase the higher priced vehicle that is available now. The 2022 vehicles could be available for purchase possibly in December, but White said he was not sure he wanted to gamble on that as the old truck could break down any minute.

White appointed Mike Zeckovich to the planning commission. He will replace Marsha Vestich who retired last month. The council unanimously approved the appointment as Zeckovich was the only applicant. Zeckovich said he has lived in the city his entire life and graduated from Wakefield High. He lives his wife and three children. He has owned and operated a car repair, car dealership and U-Haul service in the city for 17 years. He also coaches Little League.

The council also approved hiring Upper Peninsula Concrete Pipe Co. of Escanaba to complete the last part of the campground upgrade for the lift-station for $4,629. This will be for the manhole to be casted, delivered and installed.

“We would like to expedite the order and get it here as soon as we can. Right now, their lead time is about a week and a half,” said city manager Rob Brown. “We still have the open ditch across the street from the campground. We’d like to have this installed and that ditch closed in before winter hits us.”

The purchase does not include the sump pumps themselves. Brown estimated that the sump pumps will cost an additional $3,000. He said that they will work on pump installation and sizing for installation in spring.

The city will also announced:

—City Clerk Sue Ahonen will be in her office on Saturday from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. for electors who wish to receive an absent voter ballot for the Nov. 2 election. The polls will open on Nov. 2 from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

—Residents are not allowed to park on city streets from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. from Nov. 1 to April 1.

—The next council meeting will be on Nov. 8 at 5:30 p.m.