Ishpeming still paying winter water & sewer repair bills
ISHPEMING — We may be about to enter the fall season, but repair bills from winter storm damage earlier this year are still coming in. Some local governments have to free up some cash to pay those bills.
Ishpeming received some of the heaviest damage in the U.P., particularly to water and sewer lines. The city received another repair bill for about $38,000 recently. The City Council needed to hold a special meeting to amend the city engineering budget and pay the bill.
“We’ve had some delays for various reasons,” Ishpeming City Manager Mark Slown said. “Some of it’s the deteriorated condition of some of the actual infrastructure. Some of it was waiting for parts; some of it was various other issues related to the job, but we want to do the job right.”
Slown is disappointed they didn’t receive a federal disaster declaration. It would have allowed for FEMA to provide financial aid. However, the state has been very responsive.
“We are working on trying to get funding from the (Michigan Economic Development Corporation), through a $6 million grant program that they had announced,” Slown said. “We’re also looking at other sources.”
The Ishpeming City Council is also holding another special meeting at 4:00 this afternoon at City Hall. They’re discussing the former Lundin office building site near Lake Bancroft and the former Bell Hospital property next to Ishpeming High School.
ABC 10’s Danielle Davis will be there, and she’ll have more at 10 and 11 tonight about what went on.