Ben Garbacz/Daily Mining Gazette From left, Craig Waddell, Robert Megowen and Mike Needham listen to the explanation of the Byrne grant acceptance. The city will become fiduciary of the grant, and the police department, CCISD and Copper Shores will have funds go into active shooter and suicide prevention training and programs.

HOUGHTON — The Houghton City Council approved the fiscal year 2025-26 budget of nearly $17.3M at its regular meeting Wednesday. The city’s budget remains based on 15 mills and comes

in at $17,295,607. However, City Manager Eric Waara said when the equipment fund and employee benefit fund with interfund transfers are removed, the figure is $13,000,781.

The council approved the capital improvement plan and held a public hearing regarding Michigan Community Development Block Grant for water projects. “When you apply for financing assistance for water and sewer, you have to apply for water and you have to apply for sewer,” Waara said. “We were awarded last year financial assistance for sewer system improvements, but not water. We had met the threshold for sewer, but according to the state, we just didn’t meet the threshold for funding for water.”

The city held off on the sewer improvements because, according to Waara, it doesn’t make sense to do one and not the other. With the hearing conducted, the city will now apply for the grant. Waara said the city is looking to request about $2 million in financial assistance and pledge half a million dollars of utility money.

In his report to the council, Waara said a cruise ship will visit Wednesday and will dock at the city pier. Police Chief John Donnelly said security measures would be met during its stay with training already conducted in anticipation of the ship’s arrival. Donnelly also reported his department has undergone active shooter training, which he said the state has recently mandated.

The council accepted a bid for the Sharon Avenue paving project from Bacco Construction of Iron Mountain. Waara said the Bacco bid of $1,484,921 was the only one submitted and exceeded the amount put aside for the project. “So we did the base scope of work. We did have some additive alternates in there that we can take those out as a lump to get it within the money that we had allocated. This resolution is based on making that award with the additive alternate work on Sharon Avenue and Portage to Birch out of it, so that we can get it awarded,” Waara said.

This portion was cut back in order for work to begin according to Waara. He said the city has close to enough money to get all of the additive alternate paved, and wants the project awarded then see how things progress. He said the city will later determine where to place a paint line to stop as the project proceeds eastbound on Sharon Ave from Portage Street toward Birch Street. “We’ve already discussed this strategy with the contractor, and they’re fine with it as long as while they’re working there, we just tell them where to stop, so to speak. We certainly want to get that stretch paved to the joint up to where we paved in 2017. We want to see how things shake out in the field and where we’re at in order to do that. So this resolution is based on an award amount of $1,145,327 which is less than the amount of money we have in the project,” Waara said.

The council accepted the Bryne grant, which will go to a rural firearm safety, violence prevention and suicide awareness program. Seeking the grant was done in conjunction with the Houghton Police Department and Copper Country Intermediate School District. The grant is in the amount of $170,000 and needs council acceptance because the city will be the fiduciary of the grant.

“So when it’s time to pay a bill, we’re going to apply for money on behalf of Copper Shores who, through what used to be called Dial Help is going to work on suicide awareness and prevention and provide a lot of intervention training for people. Copper Country Intermediate School District is going to do a lot of work with the students and families that work with the ISD. What Chief Donnelly was speaking about, Houghton PD is going to provide training for active shooter response and work with school resource officers,” Waara said.