The Viking Octantis launches its first voyage in May by traveling through the Weiland Canal, part of the St. Lawrence Seaway. Houghton is working with Viking Cruises to find ways to ensure Octantis can arrive for its scheduled cruise stops. Viking scrubbed the first two stops due to safety concerns over high winds, and in the case of Wednesday’s stop, fog. (Photo courtesy of Viking Cruises)

HOUGHTON — After the second cancellation of a Viking Octantis trip in the Keweenaw, city officials met with a marine logistics person working with the cruise to find ways to make sure the ship does not have complications in future visits.

Octantis had been scheduled to anchor in the Portage Canal Wednesday for a Houghton visit, but turned back at the South Entry due to wind and fog advisories.

The canal fog happens sometimes as a result of colder lake water entering the canal, said City Manager Eric Waara, who was involved in the meeting along with Police Chief John Donnelly.

“We were telling them on the phone it was going to burn off by 8:30 (a.m.),” he said at Wednesday’s City Council meeting. “Guess what it did — it burnt off about 8:30. But that did not meet their schedule.”

Waara said the city will continue working with Viking for a solution prior to Octantis’s next visit on July 27.

“It seems like however the planets line up on the day they’re supposed to come here, something happens, so how can we take as many of these variables out of the equation to get them here?” he said.

The other four visits are scheduled for Aug. 10, Aug. 24, Sept. 7 and Sept. 21. Three cruise stops have also been scheduled for 2023.

In other action, the council:

• Approved 3% pay raises for most non-union employees, with only two exceptions. The pay rate for a part-time parking officer rose from $13.74 per hour to $17 per hour, a 24% increase.

“That’s what it’s going to take to get someone to take a part-time position for parking enforcement,” Waara said.

The RV Park host’s annual salary is being raised from $7,500 to $12,500. Unlike past hosts, the current host does not stay on site.

“He actually lives in a house but he still manages the RV park and is doing a bang-up job of it, by the way,” Waara said.

• Approved introducing changes to the Downtown Development Authority plan. The changes include $1 million for enhancement of property after the removal of the Lakeshore Drive parking deck; $500,000 for building downtown gathering spaces, mobility enhancements and public restrooms; and $60,000 for economic development. The council will take up the changes at its July 13 meeting.

• Approved 2021-22 budget revisions. Items not originally budgeted for include the demolition of 915 College Ave., higher-than-expected major street costs after a long winter, and higher employee benefit costs after the unplanned departure of two long-term employees.

• Approved a balanced budget of $1.099 million for the Local Development Finance Authority, which funds the MTEC SmartZone. The budget is a 1.9% increase over the previous year. Local units of government represented on the LDFA board include Houghton, Hancock, Houghton County, K-12 districts and higher education.

• Heard from Councilor Craig Waddell on the history of the council-manager form of government, following Mayor Pro Tem Robert McGowan’s discussion last meeting of the history of the city council’s history of working with the city manager. The form was initiated by the Michigan Municipal League. Waddell discussed the separation of powers, with the city manager enacting the policies decided upon by the council.

• Had a discussion prompted by Waddell about hiring additional city staff to take on projects. Waara said the city is hiring an additional staff member as part of eventual succession planning, in addition to a downtown development position. Additional change would need to be done gradually due to the time involved in training staff, Waara said. The city’s staff size is roughly half of what it was at its peak; restoring that would be difficult due to the “broken” model for funding municipalities in Michigan, Waara said.

• Approved a change order of $90,333.60 for Phase 3 of the water/sewer project. It includes payments for work over the budgeted amount, as well as changing water services on all College Avenue homes bigger than single-family from two-inch to six-inch.

• Approved bids to sell four used transit buses, ranging from $302 to $679.42. All values were more than the city could have gotten by selling them for scrap metal, Waara said.

• Approved two payments to U.P. Engineers & Architects: $11,599.50 for work on water system improvements and $13,370.78 for work on sewer system improvements.