Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette The Houghton City Council conducted its first remote meeting Wednesday via Zoom. More than 30 people logged in to view the meeting, held electronically due to concerns over COVID-19.

HOUGHTON — The Houghton City Council dealt with a pared-back agenda in its first meeting to be conducted remotely due to COVID-19 concerns. 

More than 30 people logged onto Zoom to take part in the meeting. 

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued an executive order last week allowing governmental bodies to meet remotely for the duration of Michigan’s state of emergency. 

“This is a grand experiment, and we’ll get through this, and if we have to do this again, it’ll be that much easier the next time,” said City Manager Eric Waara. 

The council postponed a vote on recreational marijuana ordinances for a future meeting where people can attend in person. 

A modified bid for the second phase of the city’s wastewater and sewer upgrades was awarded to Danielson Contracting. The scope of the project was reduced by $287,150 to $3,170,895 to bring the project under budget. As a result, the project no longer includes sewer main replacement work on the Garnet Street alley, Agate Street alley, South Avenue and Sibley Avenue.

Waara said he hopes to restore the excised work through other funds. 

“There’s a little bit of a balancing act between water and sewer where water came in under (budget) and sewer came in over,” he said. 

The council also approved a quit claim deed transferring a section of vacated right-of-way to the adjoining property owner. The property is at the parking lot of the Franklin Square Inn, on Ripley Street between Shelden Avenue and east Lakeshore Drive. 

The city council had vacated the right-of-way in 1996, which typically splits the property between the two adjoining owners — at the time, M&M Realty and U.P. Hotel Group. 

The transaction was never formally recorded on the deed, which was discovered during the title search as part of the sale of the hotel. 

Much of the meeting was taken up with how COVID-19 had affected city operations. City offices are staffed and available by phone from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. However, in-person visits are by appointment only. Waara said the city is also shifting city staff into two shifts working different days of the week. 

“We’re going to do that for the foreseeable future here, just to try to keep everybody healthy because ultimately, we’ve got a job to do for everyone and we want to keep doing it,” he said. 

After consulting with the city attorney, Houghton put together a temporary COVID-19 policy for employees. More changes will come due to federal adjustments to the Family Medical Leave Act, Waara said. 

Waara also said that all city employees appear to be healthy so far. 

The restrictions on gatherings and Monday’s shelter-in-place order has meant a less busy time for the police department. There were 75 calls for service over the past two weeks, down from between 130 and 150 in a normal March, Chief John Donnelly said. Most of those are “paper complaints,” Donnelly said, many dealing with people wondering which businesses are still allowed to be open. 

There were seven misdemeanor arrests and 13 civil infractions. The latter will keep going down, Donnelly said. 

“We’re not encouraging a lot of traffic stops,” he said. “We will take action on anything that is blatantly bad.”

The city transit system is operating from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., with a limited number of people allowed on each bus. 

The federal government is also still working on how to handle the counting of college students for the U.S. census, Waara said. Students would normally have been included in their college town for the census count. By the time the census forms came out, many students had gone home after classes moved online. 

The city is indefinitely postponing Giv’s Day, which is to be held in honor of late Hancock City Manager Barry Givens. The event had been scheduled for March 30. In Givens’ honor, the city was to collect sports equipment for the public to borrow. Those would be arranged into three libraries, called “Barry’s Boxes.”

Department of Public Works crews have also been patching potholes, Waara said in his report. They found it easier than normal because of the decreased traffic. 

Wednesday’s City Council meeting will hopefully be the only one conducted electronically, Waara said. The city canceled its April 8 meeting. The next meeting is scheduled for April 22 — nine days after Michigan’s state of emergency is scheduled to end.