Page 2 — Thursday, April 22, 2021 — The Hastings Banner
Hastings DDA approves Seasonal Grille façade
grant application, sets informational meeting
Sophie Bates
Staff Writer
The Hastings Downtown Development
Authority Thursday night approved a façade
grant application for the Seasonal Grille
restaurant, which will receive a new metal
awning and illuminated sign.
The DDA’s façade improvement program
is designed to improve the physical appearance
of Hastings’ downtown and offers grants of up
to $5,000 to incentivize downtown property
owners.
Participating property owners must invest
in at least 50 percent of the total project cost
in order to receive a façade grant.
In the case of the Seasonal Grille, at 150
W. State St., the total project cost is $18,
as estimated by Affordable Metal Roofing
LLC.
The project will be completed in two
phases, which makes it eligible for two grants.
The first phase will be installation of new
metal awnings and signage, for which
Seasonal Grille owner Justin Straube will
receive a requested $4,950 grant from the
DDA.
The second phase will include installation
of electric and gas to the sign. In his
application, Straube indicated he will apply
for another grant during the second phase of
the project.
“He wants to put a new awning on his
building, and the awning itself is steel,” DDA
Chairperson Patty Woods said. “But there’s
really kind of a continuation project in this.
The awning would go in first and be in this
fiscal year. And then a second grant could be
allowed next year,” “[The second phase would
be] a movable sign underneath the Seasonal
Grille wording.“[The sign] literally would be a gas-driven
flickering flame. So the awning would go first
and then this gas [and] electric work would be
the second phase.”
During the brief meeting, the DDA also
set an informational hearing for its May 20
meeting, which will begin at 8 a.m.
Holding the informational hearing is
required by state because the DDA receives
Tax Increment Funding, which diverts tax
funds away from entities like the City of
Hastings to finance the DDA. The
informational meeting allows the public a
chance to learn about what their diverted tax
dollars are doing in the community.
“That’s part of the reporting that the stateis now starting to require. It never used to
happen — this happened just like in the last
year-and-a-half or so where the state is asking
all of our TIF entities to report what they’re
doing,” City Manager Jerry Czarnecki said.
The board also reviewed results of a
survey. The survey — which was sent to
members of the DDA, the Downtown
Business Team and the city council —
presented six logo options for Hastings’ 150th
anniversary of incorporation as a city.
The DDA formally recommended the
150th Anniversary Celebration Committee
choose the design that received the most votes
in the survey for the celebration.Main page 2
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer checks out progress at the US-131/M-179 interchange
Monday. Work on the project began March 1. (Photo provided)
Governor visits M-
interchange project
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer traveled to the
U.S. 131/M-179 interchange construction
project in Wayland Township Monday to
observe the partnership between the Gun
Lake Tribe and the Michigan Department of
Transportation.
During her visit, Whitmer discussed the
administration’s Rebuilding Michigan plan
and the $300 million Bridge Bundling
proposal to address bridges in need to repair
and invest in infrastructure across the state.
The U.S. 131/M-179 project will update the
interchange to a single-point urban interchange
and resurface several miles of U.S. 131 from
120th Avenue to 133rd Avenue in Allegan
County.
The cost of the project is approximately
$26 million, with the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-
Wish Band of Pottawatomi funding 80 percent
of the cost. The two-year project kicked off
March 1 and is scheduled to open to traffic in
November 2022.
In January 2020, the State Transportation
Commission authorized MDOT to issue $3.
billion in bonds over four years to finance
infrastructure improvements, under authority
granted by the Michigan Constitution and
Public Act 51 of 1951.
Funding raised through bond sales will
finance new projects throughout the state, and
free up funding already dedicated to this work
for other projects, expanding the scope of the
work or advancing project schedules. City council reviews budget,spending down fund balance
Sophie Bates
Staff Writer
The Hastings City Council met Monday
evening for a special budget workshop to
review a draft of the city’s 2021-22 budget.
City Manager Jerry Czarnecki said the
meeting provided an opportunity to catch any
errors and make changes to the budget, if nec-
essary, before the council votes to approve the
budget Monday, April 26.
“This is a draft, this is not what you’re
going to be voting on,” Czarnecki said. “You
are another set of eyes for us for things that
just don’t look like they did in the past or
you’re not sure why they’re there. This is kind
of a questions and answer going through this
so that we can make sure that we’re catching
everything.”
Czarnecki first reviewed city’s capital
improvement plan, which outlines projects
and equipment purchases formulated by refer-
encing various city plans, such as the parks
plan.
“We tried to hit things like parks and rec.
We tried to follow the parks plan. We put
things in there — we’ll see some restrooms
are in there. We see some redoing of our ten-
nis courts in there. Things like that,” he said.
“For water and sewer, we followed the rate
study; for those of you who were on the coun-
cil in 2018, we did a rate study and did a
20-year projection of what our projects are
going to be. So this is following that projec-
tion that was given then.”
The projects and purchases to be completed
as part of the capital improvement plan, as
well as accompanying costs, will not be offi-
cially determined and announced until the
council votes on the budget.
“Right now, it’s in the workings. Once they
— the council — approves the budget, at that
point, that’s when our projects and purchases
are set. So that’s why right now it’s a discus-
sion between us [city staff] and council,”
Czarnecki said in an interview Tuesday morn-
ing. “Once they approve that, that’s where
they set our course of what we’re going to do
for the upcoming year.”
Czarnecki reviewed the budget itself, which
includes wages, operating costs, capital outlay
and the fund balance. The fund balance was a
topic of contention during the meeting. A fund
balance is essentially revenue left over after
expenditures that acts as a reserve for the city.
City Clerk and Treasurer Jane Saurman
said a healthy fund balance is between 12 and
15 percent of the city’s yearly revenue. The
2020-21 fiscal year began with a fund balance
of more than $2.88 million — 59 percent of
the city’s yearly revenue, with unassigned
fund balance money at 44 percent of yearly
revenues.
“It is a safety net, in case something hap-
pens with funding,” Czarnecki said of the
fund balance. “But that needs to be in a good
reasonable range. As Jane mentioned yester-
day, 12 to 15 percent is a good fund balance.
We’re currently above that. ... there are some
projects that we can utilize that for. It’s not
good to go and spend it all away in one big
one-time spend or something like that; you
need to be purposeful about it. But we should
see that dwindling a little bit so that we can
put those [funds] towards some of our proj-
ects.”
Councilwoman Brenda McNabb-Stange
said she is concerned because the 2021-
budget calls for spending $641,000 of the
fund balance, even with an additional
$350,000 in revenue the city expects toreceive from the federal CARES Act.
McNabb-Stange said, if the city continues
spending in this manner, eventually the fund
balance will be depleted.
“We’re spending down our general fund
balance by $641,000. This is, to me, totally
unsustainable and totally inappropriate. First
of all, we haven’t decided what we’re going to
do with the $350,000. Second of all, if you
look out next year — the following year, I
should say — and then the year after that,
we’re going to be out of money spending this
way,” McNabb-Stange said. “We’re down
$641,000 this year, then a million next year
and we’ve only got $1.9 million left in our
fund. We can’t keep doing this. Something
has to come out of this budget.”
Saurman responded, saying she agreed that
if the city were to continue to spend in this
way, the fund balance would be depleted; but
said spending the fund balance is necessary to
make sure taxpayer dollars are going into the
city and do not sit stagnant in the fund bal-
ance.
Saurman also explained that the city can
continue to expend fund balance money of
this amount — half-a-million to a $1 million
a year — for four or five years and still have
a healthy fund balance, she said.
After those four to five years, the city
would need to become more fiscally conser-
vative and begin saving money.
“I agree that continuing this way — with
trying to finish these projects and get things
done and push all of this fund balance into the
city with projects that will improve our infra-
structure situation — will eventually whittle
away our fund balance. But even at the end of
2023, we’re projected to have a 30-plus per-
cent fund balance, which is more than
healthy,” Saurman said. “These dollars are
collected from taxpayers, including state and
federal dollars — those are part of your tax
dollars, too — and the point of these dollars is
to push them back into the city on a regular
basis. That’s why we’re being given it. We’re
not being given these dollars to grow a fund
balance to an unhealthy proportion, which we
have gotten to be.
“If I were a taxpayer and I knew your fund
balance, I would wonder why you’re still tak-
ing my tax dollars. This money is supposed to
go back into the organization, supposed to go
back into the city, because that’s why they
give us these tax dollars is to push it back into
the city to improve our parks, our roads, our
sidewalks, our infrastructure.”
Saurman also noted that, in the past three
years, the city has added $1.5 million to its
fund balance.
“We did not put any of that money back
into the infrastructure of the city,” Saurman
said.
McNabb-Stange said she feels any addi-
tional money should be spent wisely to pre-
vent raising taxes. She expressed support for
using additional funds to pay the city’s pen-
sion and other post-employee benefit debt.
“Jane talked about: we bring the money in,
so we’re supposed to spend it to run the city,
which, yes, we are supposed to. But, unless
you’re willing to raise taxes when you need
more money, you can’t spend everything that
you get, especially when you’re in debt for
your pension and OPEB [Other Post-
Employee Benefits],” McNabb-Stange said.
“Any additional money should be going to
[that].”
As of Dec. 31, 2019, the city’s pension lia-
bility was $9.3 million, and as of June 30,2020, OPEB liability was $10.2 million.
Pension and OPEB debt are common
among Michigan municipalities, Czarnecki
said, and, in compliance with expectations
from the state, the city is putting together a
plan to pay back the debt.
“A lot of municipalities are [in debt]. The
state has given us the expectation to work
towards getting that to where it is more man-
ageable. Because it’s healthcare, and the cost
of healthcare is increasing, that’s growing
very very fast. So the cities are required to put
something in place to show that they’re man-
aging that liability,” Czarnecki said. “We’ve
had some discussion about different options.
No trigger is ready to be pulled right now.
Right now we’re just in the discussion part.”
Councilperson Don Smith said he agrees
with McNabb-Stange that the city should
spend more money on pensions and OPEB,
but some money also should be spent on cap-
ital improvements. He also stressed the impor-
tance of sticking to a budget development
calendar.
“I would like Jane or Jerry to really go over
that [the budget development calendar] and
do like an after-action review to figure out
what we can do next year for the development
of the budget to be able to understand a way
to build a better plan or execute the plan bet-
ter,” Smith said.
During the meeting, council members
pointed out errors to be corrected and addi-
tions to make to the budget. City staff will
make those adjustments before presenting the
budget to the council again.
“I want to thank you for your input and
your questions because I think it’s important
that everybody understands how this docu-
ment is put together and the purpose of the
document. So I really appreciate it,” Saurman
said.
At the end of the meeting, Councilperson
Don Bowers called for the council and city
staff to work together more collaboratively
and without interruptions or confrontation.
“I really don’t think we need the conflict
that’s going on. We can talk to each other and
tell each other what we think about budgets or
anything else and in a way that is not confron-
tational. I can’t go along with that kind of a
situation and the interruptions of people are
just terrible. Somebody goes to talk and one
or two others try to talk over. So, I think, boys
and girls, we better start thinking about these
things and try to clean it up just a little bit
please,” Bowers said.
Mayor David Tossava agreed with Bowers
before adjourning the meeting.
“My sentiments exactly,” Tossava said.Rutland Township eyes decision
on recreational marijuana
Taylor Owens
Staff Writer
The Rutland Charter Township Board of
Trustees plans to decide whether to move
ahead with drafting ordinances allowing
recreational marijuana businesses at its
meeting at 7 p.m. May 12.
The board had meeting with the township
planning commission last week to receive
advice from planner Rebecca Harvey and
attorney Craig A. Rolfe about drafting the
ordinances.
Township Supervisor Larry Watson said it’s
time for the board to decide whether to
continue with the process or walk away.
If the township decides to allow recreational
marijuana businesses, its next decision should
be whether they want to limit the number of
licenses it grants, the advisors said.
Rolfe told the township and planning
commission members that limiting the number
of licenses opens the township to more legal
risk than simply allowing all businesses that
meet the licensing criteria. He said the risk
would be even greater if the township chose
to grant licenses through a competitive
selection process created by the township,
rather than on a first-come, first-served basis.
Potential business owners may sue if they
don’t feel the competitive selection process is
fair, Rolfe said.
“I think this competitive process is a
plaintiff lawyer’s ... dream,” he said. “First of
all, you have some legal peril in how you
define your standards for approval in the
licensing ordinance ... You have a whole lot
of legal peril in how you apply those legal
standards, if those legal standards are not
completely objective in their terminology.
You even have legal peril in the process by
which you pick winners and losers.”
Many of the recreational marijuana lawsuits
he sees reported involve the competitive
process, he said.
Market forces would likely keep the
number of businesses low, even if a limit was
not imposed, Rolfe added. Since larger cities
already have their own marijuana retailers,
any shops in Rutland Township would have to
be supported by the local population.
He asked board members how many
marijuana laboratories they thought would
open in the township. Several people said
“zero.”
Then why regulate how many, he asked.
“Even if four can make it here, sustained, then
do you care?”
Rolfe told the board members to ask
themselves if they believed recreational
marijuana should be treated differently than
any other business in the township.
“This is a highly regulated industry in
Michigan,” Rolfe said. “The level of regulation
on this industry, if I was on their side of this,
is daunting. It’s a staggering load of
regulations. The good thing about that is some
people in your shoes might see that takes a
little bit of the onus off you.”
Rolfe also answered questions from the
board and commission. Several people said
they heard the reason Baltimore Township
moved ahead so quickly with approving
recreational businesses was because the state
was about to take the decision out of the
township’s hands. Rolfe said that is not
something that could happen.
Watson said the township had not contacted
colleagues in Baltimore because that township
does not keep regular office hours, but Rutland
board members did visit other townships and
recreational businesses.
Watson added that the township is receiving
constant inquiries from potential business
representatives asking how far along the
township is in the ordinance process, but the
board has had little input from the public.
The only people in the audience of
Monday’s in-person meeting were Nancy and
Del Warner of Freeport, who said they were
considering opening a business in the area.CORRECTION
An article about Child Abuse Prevention
Month on Page 11 of the April 15 Hastings
Banner contained an error about last year’s
decrease in the number of cases being investi-
gated. The corrected quote follows: “We saw
a decrease of 37.7 percent,” Linda Maupin,
executive director of the Family Support
Center of Barry County, said. “Unfortunately,
this is not because abuse and neglect has gone
down; it’s because there is no visibility to
these children.”
Maupin said 37.7 percent represents 81
actual cases.“A right-in, right-out only [driveway] could
be feasible because you’re eliminating all the
left turns in and out. So that definitely helps,”
Cole said. “What I would ask for is ... did the
traffic study look at the operations of the site
and the other driveway – basically an option
without any driveway on M-43 and how that
works with the other driveway on Green
Street, the signal at Green, things like that.”
Barry County Planning Director and
Zoning Administrator Jim McManus referred
to the M-37 access management plan in
stating his concerns about adding the driveway
off the highway.
“Our recommendation back when we did
this years ago was that there should be no
access onto M-37, and everything should
come off of Green,” McManus said.
Currier said he had seen the access
management plan.
“That easement came up as part of our title
work. We knew it was there,” he said. “We
feel that with the change in use – I don’t think
when that was enacted 20 years ago that there
was a vision of where this could go with
commercial out this way – there certainly
wouldn’t have been a vision of a signalized
intersection 800 feet away [from Green]. We
feel with that signal there and with the traffic
study backing it up, this could be an
improvement for M-43 traffic and for Green,
in allowing this to happen.”
Cole and fellow MDOT engineer Kerwin
Keen will review the traffic study and make
recommendation to the corridor committee. A
special meeting has been scheduled for 11
a.m. Friday, April 30, via Zoom, to reconsider
the Culver’s request for the driveway off
M-37/M-43.DECISION, continued from page 1
“We do want Culver’s here,
don’t misunderstand me. But
we have to make this safe for
the people driving down that
road and exiting that road.”Rutland Charter Township
Supervisor Larry Watson