Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette The section along Sharon Avenue where a culvert will be replaced is one of the paving projects slated for this year in Houghton.

HOUGHTON — Paving, city beautification and lighting were among the priorities Houghton City Council members asked to see funded during a nontraditional first budget meeting for the year.

City Manager Eric Waara typically uses the first budget meeting to provide a high-level overview of the city’s projects for the year and noteworthy changes within the city’s general fund. With three new council members, and uncertainty about the conditions and amount of COVID-19 stimulus money, he instead turned the floor over to council members.

Councilor Mike Needham said the city should catch up on paving and sidewalks, echoed by several other council members.

“Paving, it’s the biggest thing people in the city use every day,” he said.

Waara said the city has a list of $1.105 million in paving projects for 2021. That list will probably be trimmed down, although the mild winter might free up some funding, he said.

The street repairs the city makes will be longer-lasting, Waara said. The longtime strategy of overlays allowed cracks to form underneath, Waara said. The city is moving towards crush and shape, where it crushes the old blacktop, regrades and compacts it and puts a new layer on top, he said. That also allows the city to drop the gutter pans to their original level, which helps with drainage, Waara said.

The city has been doing bigger paving projects to try to get an economy of scale, Waara said.

“If you’re going out there trying to spend $100,000 or $150,000 on small paving projects, you’re paying considerably more per ton of blacktop versus doing a larger project,” he said.

Waara said the city will use bigger projects as force multipliers, such as the culvert replacement planned for Sharon Avenue.

On pavement, Needham singled out some sections of sidewalk on Shelden Avenue that have fallen into disrepair since the city’s streetscape project. One section by Rhythm has already needed to be replaced twice, Waara said.

Waara said the city had used the same mix for consistency, but might have to use a traditional sidewalk mix.

In addition to streets, Councilor Joan Suits wanted to see paving fixed along some problem areas on the waterfront trail. Waara said he had gotten an estimate last summer to repave the trail from Bridgeview Park to the Isle Royale National Park headquarters. Realistically, the project might need to span Bridgeview Park to East Houghton Park, with some patches to the east and west.

“We wouldn’t need to do the whole thing, but this part here is getting pretty humble,” he said.

Suits also said she and other residents would like to see more streetlights in the newer residential areas in west Houghton.

Waara said the lack of streetlights there had been part of the original deed restrictions as homes were originally supposed to have their own gas light at the end of the driveway. The city had also retired some lights throughout the city as part of budget-cutting. With less expensive LED lights now on the market, the city has been bringing some of them back, Waara said.

Waara said he would get numbers from UPPCO on the cost of new lights.

“It really comes down to where the electricity is and how easy is it to get at, which dictates whether or not it’s affordable to put streetlights somewhere,” he said.

Suits also encouraged Waara to set aside funding towards the charrette process, which could result in a plan for the downtown. This week the Planning Commission recommended the council approve $7,000 for a precharrette workshop.

Mayor Pro Tem Robert Megowen was worried about how downtown businesses would fare in the coming year. He suggested more spending for “icing on the cake” to promote a more festive atmosphere in the downtown from November to February.

“I just think we could help all our downtown businesses by having more going on, where people walk down our streets … we don’t want to go backwards when we spent 15 years gaining,” he said.

Waara said the city is also looking at ways to beautify the waterfront trail. They could include curb islands with green space to break up the stretch of asphalt near the Kestner Waterfront park. The Verna Mize Park along M-26, with a display explaining the contributions of the Lake Superior activist.

Councilor Virginia Cole seconded Megowen, citing the umbrellas on downtown picnic tables as a great addition to the downtown. She also wanted the city’s marketing updated to reflect newer features, such as paddleboarding or the fire pits.

The city is looking at adopting a new marketing strategy to accompany its impending Redevelopment Ready Community certification, Waara said. Part of that could include a new logo, he said.

Cole and other council members also stressed the importance of funding the city’s volunteer Beautification Committee.

“I love when we’ve got materials to work with, and the city looks fabulous,” she said.

Council members also suggested reaching out to the high school for student groups in need of community service projects.

“We definitely want to keep the best-looking town up here, because we’ve got it right now, and we want to keep it,” Needham said.

Along with backing the Beautification Committee, Councilor Dan Salo noted it had been several years since Waara’s last raise. Waara declined to address the issue in Wednesday’s meeting.

Waara also alerted the council to a water-related infrastructure grant program announced Wednesday through the Michigan Economic Development Corp. He said the city will look through the capital improvement plan for projects where the city can leverage taxpayer dollnst the 75% grant.

Future budget meetings are scheduled to take place in the council chambers at 5:30 p.m. April 21, May 5 and May 19.

The state directive allowing boards to meet remotely expired at the end of March. Members will only be able to participate remotely under specific conditions, such as serving in the military or quarantining, said Clerk Ann Vollrath. Cities would only be able to meet remotely by declaring a local state of emergency, Waara said. “Yes, we’re in strange times, but a state of emergency is an entirely different animal than trying to get around having to meet together,” he said.

The city is trying to keep online access for the public while avoiding more Zoombombing incidents like one at the most recent council meeting, which was temporarily derailed by several viewers shouting obscenities.

Starting with this week’s Planning Commission meeting, members of the public were automatically muted when entering the Zoom meeting, Code Enforcement Officer Jeff Jepsen said Monday. The same people had tried to enter Monday’s meeting, but were blocked, he said.

A limited number of residents will be able to attend in-person. People who cannot attend will still be able to address the council over speakerphone, Waara said. The city did a beta test in the council chambers Wednesday with Facebook Live, Vollrath said.

Needham said with vaccinations underway, he was disappointed state legislators did not extend the remote meetings for another couple of months before going on vacation. With a daughter who is a college athlete, Needham has been trying to limit his contacts with people he doesn’t know.

“I’m very frustrated by this,” he said. “It’s so crazy to me that we couldn’t extend it by a couple of months. I’ve got people I’ve lived my life a certain way to protect, and now I’m potentially going to have to be around people who I don’t even know.”