HOUGHTON — The City of Houghton is completing its transition to winter readiness with fall cleanup and parks closed down. City Manager Eric Waara reported to the City Council during its Wednesday meeting patching potholes in the city are almost caught up, installed concrete collars around manholes in the city and Christmas lights and decorations are being put up along the waterfront.

There was a sewer service repair in West Houghton for a leak at Woodland Road and Machines Drive, and one of the city wells is in need of a pump replacement.

“We noticed a drop in the capacity of well number two when we brought well number three online but fortunately, it was the pump, not the well,” Waara explained. “So we might have to replace well pump number two, just the pump though, so that’s good. We drove well four as a replacement for it.”

The city also held an open house on Tuesday evening regarding the branding of Houghton. The open house was held for committees to receive public input regarding the three themes surveys discovered from Houghton residents and visitors.

“This isn’t a rebrand. This is who we think we are based on all the data we collect, and it really came down to home, views and progress. That’s what those three elements really came down to. So the next steps for the group is we’re going to need to take the input that we got from the open house, kind of bake that in with the work we’ve done so far, and we find out if we’re on the right track here,” Waara said. “Over the next few weeks, we’ll get that boiled down and keep moving forward on that. And then what we do with it after that [is] probably going to get a professional involved and discuss how do we leverage our brand for the betterment of the city or be better versions of who we are once we understand who we are.”

Houghton Police Chief John Donnelly reported winter parking is in full swing and the department will be conducting an exercise with Michigan Tech in the spring. The exercise will simulate some sort of disaster and the department will coordinate with the university as it sets up an incident command system.

“It’s one of those full size exercises that we all make sure we can work well together. We always find that communication fails, and we try to work on how to make that better,” Donnelly said.

Houghton Police Lieutenant Nick Roberts attended the child death review in coordination with local hospitals, which teaches law enforcement how to investigate situations in which a child dies such as in a car accident or in a bed.

“It’s very difficult when somebody’s infant is deceased, but we want to make sure it’s properly investigated,” Donnelly said.