Grant helps city pay for winter damage repairs

MARQUETTE — Repairs and upgrades were on the agenda at Monday night’s Marquette City Commission meeting.

First up for discussion was the Michigan Community Development Block Grant. The city got the grant to help cover some of the costs of last year’s harsh winter.

“We’re very happy to get this grant, because everyone knows what a terrible winter this was. We sustained about two million dollars, over two million dollars worth of work that we had to do. So the State of Michigan gave us this grant which will be very helpful because we’re on the hook for about a million and a half dollars of unfunded repairs that we had to do, so we’re very grateful to have this,” said Mayor Mike Coyne.

The bill for running water from broken mains was over a million dollars. The grant will cover over $400,000 of the repair costs. The Commission also discussed the replacement of The Presque Isle Marina boat launch which will be complete by the end of summer.