City Commission OKs 911 payment

By LARRY HOLCOMBE

[email protected]

Ironwood — The Ironwood City Commission approved payment Monday for an invoice of $4,536 to Gogebic County 911 for cellphones provided to the Ironwood Public Safety Department.

IPSD Sgt. Brandon Snyder, who is also the IPSD fire marshal and on the county’s 911 Committee, told the commission how the state had determined the county’s 911 Committee was wrong when it bought the phones for the department. He said they appealed that decision, but lost at first by one vote and appealed again to the full board, where they lost as well.

Snyder said the people downstate don’t understand how radios don’t work everywhere in the Northwoods and the cellphones have much better coverage.

“In Oakland County, the radios work everywhere,” Snyder said. “The full board has mostly people from down there and they just don’t get it.”

Snyder said they were led to believe the purchase of the 11 cellphones for the department members was an allowable expense, and he still believes that is the case, but a state audit of the local 911 spending red flagged the expenditure.

Mayor Kim Corcoran asked if there were any other funds to pay for the cellphones.

“The 911 Committee is funded only by the 911 surcharge money, so there is no other general fund money that comes into the budget for the 911 Committee; so when they ruled we can’t use 911 money, that ultimately excluded our budget completely from being able to pay,” said Snyder.

Snyder also said he was not happy that the $4,536 was figured retroactively back to the purchase of the cellphones in the fall of 2022. “Why couldn’t we start paying from the time they determined it was wrong?” he wondered aloud, adding up until that point, it appeared they were right. “I’m still under the impression we’re right.”

Snyder told The Globe after the meeting that Oakland County couldn’t afford to buy everyone a cellphone, so the state said it wouldn’t be right for other places to do so. He also said each officer having a cellphone here has aided in communication among the officers and with the community.

City Treasurer Paul Linn said the money to pay the invoice will come from the city’s general fund. Snyder said IPSD is looking to work the cost of the phones into next year’s department budget.

The commission also approved an agreement with Domino’s worth $25,000, called a Plowing for Pizza Partnership. City Manager Paul Anderson said Ironwood had been selected for the honor after more than 400 people had made the case for Ironwood during Domino’s online promotion. He said the company plans an official announcement soon.

Anderson praised water plant operator Bill Tregembo for his tireless work after a transformer blew at the Spring Creek well field on Jan. 18. He said Tregembo did an excellent job coordinating service work by Xcel Energy and Jolma Electric of Ashland. “Bill worked through the night to ensure that city water supply was uninterrupted by using water from our second well field over at Big Springs.”

In other action, the commission:

—Approved a five-year Park and Recreation Plan. Community Development Director Tom Bergman said the plan was written in house by himself and Tim Erickson, and spearheaded by the Parks and Recreation Committee which held a public hearing on the plan.

—Approved the a revision of Nov. 13, 2023, sale of a lot in the Industrial Park to Enbridge. Upon further review, the lot turned out to be 10.525 acres instead of 8.6 acres; so at $2,000 an acre, the new price increased to $21,050.

—Approved a resolution to support InvestUP’s application for a Michigan Economic Development Corporation Strategic Site Readiness Program Grant. Bergman said InvestUP offered to include Ironwood in its application. Bergman said the city’s request is for $75,000 to fund an Industrial Park expansion feasibility study, in light of the fact they sold their last developable lot there.

—Approved a $1,821 change order and $141,475 payment to Jake’s Excavating for work on the ongoing lead service line replacement project. Anderson pointed out the project is fund 100% by a grant, and while the crew took last week off due to the extreme cold, they were back at it this week.

—Approved pay package No. 6 for $368,548 for ongoing work at the Water Treatment Plant Phase 1 project. Anderson said the activity continues at the site with large concrete pours, forming 16-foot walls of the structure.

—Approved a resolution recognizing Team Z as a non-profit organization operating in the community. A spokesperson for the 501c3 organization said the state told them they needed such recognition to gain a charitable gaming license in order to run a raffle.