City Council Recap: Many Reports and No Votes

Monday’s meeting of Lowell City Council was relatively long: clocking in at nearly two hours. Most items on the agenda were informational in nature though, and no votes were taken. All councilmembers were present.

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Citizen Comments: Introductions, Growing Sinkhole

During the citizen comments portion of the meeting, two candidates for public office introduced themselves. The first was Michael Brown, who is running for the Republican nomination in the Governor’s race. The second was Lowell resident Dayne Hoffman, who is running for the Republican nomination for the 78th District in the Michigan House of Representatives.

Resident Annette Ritzema also addressed Lowell councilmembers. She spoke during the last council meeting regarding a sinkhole that appeared to be forming on her Hudson Street property. On Monday night, she said that Lowell Light & Power and Point Broadband had been ruled out as causes of the problem, and she believed it stemmed from borings done in 2018.

Becoming briefly emotional, she asked for help in addressing the matter. “All I know is I’m a taxpayer that worked 40-some years as an educator, that has a husband who is sick, and I’m here to talk to you tonight,” she said. “I didn’t ask for this problem to come to me.”

The section of the property involved apparently has an easement, and Ritzema said she would be meeting with representatives of AT&T to discuss the matter this week. Councilmembers thanked her for her comments.

Presentations and Reports

Representative Thomas Albert provides a legislative update.

After citizen comments, Lowell City Council heard from several individuals and organizations:

  • State Representative Thomas Albert: Lowell’s representative in the Michigan House was on-hand to provide a legislative update. He noted that it has been a budget-heavy year in terms of his activity. The state has unprecedented fund balances, in part because of federal relief dollars and increased consumer spending which has boosted tax revenues. Albert says he is focused on looking into tax relief.
  • Kent Conservation District: Representatives from the Kent Conservation District spoke about their program to eradicate invasive plant species which can destroy foundations, decrease property values and ruin the aesthetics of yards and natural areas. A free landowner training will be held from 1-4pm on February 27 at the Wittenbach Wege Center to help residents identify oriental bittersweet, which has been found in the area, and take action to prevent the spread of invasive species.
  • Lowell Area Historical Museum: Director Lisa Plank presented the annual report from the Lowell Area Historical Museum. During 2021, the museum had a total audience of 204,291 people, including 33,135 physical attendees, 3,342 website visitors and 155,359 people reached on Facebook.
  • LARA: Dave Austin, an engineer with Williams & Works, provided an update on a connector trail that will run through the City of Lowell. The project will be split into two phases, with the first phase scheduled for next year.

Waste Hauling Ordinance Exception Requested

Under new business, councilmembers considered a request for an exception to the waste hauling ordinance. With the sale of Larkin’s Restaurant, the company that provides waste hauling to the site is being changed. The new owner plans to use Red Creek while Grainger previously provided this service.

The property’s dumpster is located between the restaurant and The Old Theater and is only accessible from Main Street. Grainger’s trucks were able to back into the space to empty the dumpster, but Red Creek’s trucks have their collection equipment on the front, rather than the rear, of the vehicle. That means the truck needs to pull into the space and then back out onto Main Street in order to exit.

Lowell’s waste hauling ordinance limits trash pick-ups to between the hours of 7am and 9pm. Red Creek requested an exception to that rule so they could empty this dumpster earlier in the morning and back out of the site when there is minimal traffic. The exception request was only for the restaurant’s dumpster.

City Manager Mike Burns recommended approving the request, but councilmembers were concerned that daily pick-ups early in the morning could be disturbing if tenants eventually move into the upstairs apartments of adjacent buildings.

Councilmember Marty Chambers asked if the police could be on hand to allow the truck to safely reverse out of the site. Police Chief Chris Hurst said it would be hard to guarantee an officer would be available daily at a specific time.

Mayor Mike DeVore didn’t think there would be much difference if Red Creek did the collection at 6:30am or 7am. “I don’t think an exception is going to make a night or day difference,” he said.

Councilmembers declined to take action on the request, presumably leaving it to the property owner and Red Creek to determine the best way to safely empty the site’s dumpster.

Question of Sewer Line Maintenance

Greg Canfield (l) and Dan Czarnecki (r) discuss a sewer line serving properties on the Main Street bridge.

For the final piece of new business, Department of Public Works Director Dan Czarnecki explained that a question had arisen about maintenance of a sewer line under the M-21 bridge. It provides service to the properties at 96 through 106 W. Main Street.

At some point, the sewer lines to all these buildings were connected, and they share one pipe that runs from the south side of Main Street to the north side. Greg Canfield, owner of property connected to this line, contacted the city recently when it was believed the pipe had frozen.

Canfield, who was present at Monday’s meeting, argues that it is the city’s responsibility to maintain this line while Czarnecki says there is no record of the city ever maintaining it. He asserts it is the responsibility of the property owners.

The problem with the sewer line appears to be that it is too narrow, not insulated and not at a proper depth to prevent freezing. Canfield noted that when issues with sewer lines under buildings on the north side of the bridge were discovered several years ago, the city addressed the problem there.

While everyone seemed to agree there was a problem with the current pipe, councilmembers did not believe it fell to the city to take action. “The issue is whether it’s our problem or not, and I don’t see that it is,” DeVore said.

Canfield believes the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy would agree the pipe is the city’s responsibility. He said he would be doing additional research on the matter.

Citation Issued to River City Cannabis

In his city manager’s report, Burns shared that River City Cannabis was issued a citation for an odor violation. The marijuana microbusiness is located in the Lowell City Mall, and odor has been detected in Snap Fitness, Retro Electric Arcade and New Image Sun & Spa.

The citation was issued last Monday, and River City Cannabis has 10 days to resolve the problem. After that, if odor continues to permeate into neighboring businesses, the city will begin issuing $500 per day fines and start the process of revoking the company’s marijuana license, according to Burns.

The meeting adjourned at 8:52pm, and the next regular meeting of Lowell City Council will be on Monday, February 21 at 7pm.

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