Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
The Iron Belle Trail is snow covered as it stretches behind Bessemer City Hall Friday morning. Bessemer city officials have applied for two grants with hopes of gaining money to build a trailhead behind city hall between the trail and Colby Street.
By CHARITY SMITH
Bessemer - The city of Bessemer will be applying for a Michigan Department of Natural Resources Trust Fund grant to help pay for a new Iron Belle Trailhead behind City Hall. The city council approved a resolution Monday night to permit city manager Charly Loper to apply for the grant.
The trailhead project is expected to cost $336,533. In just under a year, the city was able to raise the 26.3% required match of $88,433. The matching funds include monetary and in-kind donations from 17 residents, businesses and organizations, including a $15,000 donation from the Gogebic Range Health Foundation.
"The residents have been amazing and we have been able to pull together a match for the grant," Loper said.
Loper said the application process for the DNR grant is long. She said she doesn't anticipate finding out if the city is approved or not until January 2023. The city has also applied for a grant through the Economic Development Authority for the same project. Loper said she has no idea when she might hear back from the EDA, as this is the first time the EDA has offered this funding opportunity.
"We applied for both under the hope that we would get one and if we get really lucky somehow and get both of them, we'll have to decline one of them," said Loper. "We applied for a specific project and so we only need the one and we only have the match for one."
The city had looked into the possibility of using both grants together, but the timing of everything just didn't work out, Loper said. She said she does not know which grant the city will choose to take. She said that it depends on timing and other things.
The council accepted the resignations of two long-time members of the city's Downtown Development Authority - Kara Bucknell and Douglas Olsen. Loper said that both of them have been a "big asset" to the board and thanked them for their time on the DDA. She said they're taking applications to fill the two open seats.
Applications can be picked up at City Hall and are due April 6. Due to the resignations, the DDA meeting has been cancelled for this month as a result of lack of quorum.
The council heard a request from Krist Oil to gain street access to Peck Street behind their building for their trucks to access their property during the seasonal weight restrictions. Loper said the council is asking the oil company to work with the city to put together some sort of maintenance plan for Peck Street before they consider allowing trucks on the road.
