Dowagiac City Council Monday night adopted a “Certificate of Appreciation” welcoming the 58-piece Maasmechelen Concert Band from Belgium, which will be performing a free concert tonight at 7 at Dowagiac Middle School Performing Arts Center.
“I deem it an honor and a pleasure to extend this Certificate of Appreciation to the officers and members of the Maasmechelen Concert Band, calling upon the City Council and citizens of this community to join me in recognizing this great concert band,” said Mayor Donald D. Lyons, who will present the document with the City of Dowagiac seal at the concert.
The band, whose members are being hosted in community members’ homes, is wrapping up a U.S. visit that began in July and took them to Frankfort in northern Michigan and to Cleveland and Dayton, Ohio.
Maasmechelen Concert Band appears under the auspices of Blue Lake International Exchange Program’s mission of promoting peace, understanding, goodwill and friendship through the arts.
Blue Lake is located on a 1,300-acre campus in Michigan’s Manistee National Forest outside of Whitehall in the Muskegon area.
Second Ward Councilman Bob Schuur said his niece, Abby, was chosen best camper out of 1,300 at Blue Lake.
In other business, the full council confirmed the recommendation of the committee of Mayor Pro Tem Leon Laylin, Dr. Charles Burling and Schuur which Aug. 1 interviewed three candidates, including former councilman Jack Alexander and Robert Mortimore for appointment to the vacancy created by Junior Oliver’s July 12 resignation.
The appointment until November’s election went to Dowagiac Union Schools Technology Director Randy Gross, a 1975 Union High School graduate.
“We had a fourth (candidate, Howard Hall), who was absent from the interview itself, but provided the council with adequate information to make a ruling. Through that process, we went through the interviews physically, then went back through and collaborated over the information that was given,” Laylin reported. “We chose to recommend Randy Gross to fill that term.”
All four applicants indicated a desire to run for the office in November, for which the deadline to register is 4 p.m. Aug. 16 with City Clerk James Snow.
“All four candidates are very qualified. It was a pleasure to interview them,” Burling said. “The thing that impressed me the most is that they had the wherewithal to step forward and volunteer to serve in that position, which is great in this day and age.”
Second Ward Councilman James Dodd moved to accept the recommendation.
In other appointments, the council confirmed Mayor Lyons’ recommendations that Lametra Wray be reappointed to the Zoning Board of Appeals for a term expiring in October 2014 and that Rich Frantz be named to the Local Officers Compensation Commission, which reviews elected officials’ salaries, for a term expiring in December 2015.
Commenting on grass at Riverside Cemetery, Schuur said, “It’s long partially because we’ve had a lot of hot weather, which grass likes, and it’s rained often enough to keep it growing. The citizens have just got to understand that we can’t keep it like we used to, which breaks my heart.”
Burling said all the rain has “torn Golf Street up pretty bad again. There are some pretty deep holes in it. If that could be graded, the neighborhood would appreciate it.”
Schuur also noted there are five dead trees on Front Street “that need to be taken care of.”
“There are a number of dead trees around the community,” Lyons said, “and there are going to be a lot more due to emerald ash borer. There are a couple of big ash trees on Division that are dead and I noticed a few on Spruce. We need to make certain that, number one, we as a city are diligent in taking trees out of the tree lawns as they die. We’re trying to come up with some sort of arrangement whereby perhaps we could do a deal with Dan Williams (of Williams A-1 Expert Tree Service and chairman of the Arbor Day observance) where we say we’ll give you 10 trees, 12 trees, whatever it is and knock a couple of hundred bucks off the price. We’ve got money in the fund for rehabbing property and try to put together enough people who have an interest in taking them down on private property. (City Manager) Kevin (Anderson) suggested we could put it on taxes and pay it off a couple hundred bucks a year. I think putting all those opportunities together, we could come up with something pro-active to get the dead trees down.”
First Ward Councilwoman Lori Hunt asked Anderson for an update on Bev Nichols’ comments at the previous meeting.
“We met with her and a couple of days later I was out there and the shrubs had already been taken care of,” the city manager said.
“Also, I had a chance to talk to her about the paving project, which tore up a portion of the road in front of her. I assured her that over the next couple three weeks we’d have some folks coming back. Thickstun, that first level of patchwork is done, but it’s a long way from being done. We encouraged her to get ahold of us any time she’s got concerns and we’ll try to get them resolved. It’s good to have a set of eyes and ears looking at things.”
Hunt also asked Anderson to look into getting a sign recognizing the basketball team’s accomplishments last season.
Gross asked, “What’s the status of Lowe Street? It’s in pretty rough shape between Division and Prairie Ronde.”
“The good news is,” Anderson answered, “we have applied for and received state funding for that road. The bad news is the state funding cycle does not start until Oct. 1. With design, it is likely going to be a springtime project when it gets done. My real hope was to have that done this fall, but it doesn’t look like that will make it into the state’s bidding cycle.”
Under communications, the council approved American Legion Riders’ second annual 50-mile ride for the VFW National Home for Children leaving at 11 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 13, from the American Legion on U.S. 12 in Edwardsburg.
Riders will be eating lunch in Dowagiac at the Veterans of Foreign Wars hall on E. Division Street (M-62), according to the request by “road captain” Sam Butler.
Council also granted the Chamber of Commerce/Downtown Development Authority (DDA) permission to conduct the 21st annual Rod and Roll Classic Auto Show downtown on Saturday, Aug. 20.
“It’s good to see people working in the ICG building,” Dodd commented. “I talked to a lot of people from out of town who were at (Summer in the CIty). Saturday, I had Team Dodd for Steve’s Run with about 14 of us. My great-granddaughter, 8, first time ever, placed in her age group. Granddaughter took third. Couple of daughters took sixth and seventh and I took first in my age group, so now they’ve got me talked into Apple Festival. We had a great time and they did a great job with it.”
Council directed Treasurer Robin Coffey to pay out $353,378.04, including payroll of $194,382.45 and $158,995.59 for bills.