Kali Katerberg/Daily Mining Gazette Seen here is the former site of a blighted building located across from the Ontonagon Village Council chambers.

ONTONAGON — Monday’s village council meeting featured several small changes and laid the groundwork for future developments.

In updates, the blighted building across from the village offices and council chambers was laid to rest earlier this month. Now an empty lot sits at the corner of Michigan and Quartz streets, where meeting attendees used it for parking.

“They made the view out of this window a lot better,” said Village President Ken Waldrop. “Across the street that building is gone and it is one way of making a principled statement that the village is, while being strapped… (for) funds, trying to make an effort on the war on blight.”

The council later unanimously voted to hold a public hearing for the construction code administration ordinance before the next village council meeting in November. The ordinance makes the enforcement of state building codes a local responsibility through an appointed building official.

Village Manager Joe Erickson also delivered a report from the water committee on water rate proposals, though no action was taken and there will be further discussion.

Potential changes include adjusting the fixed charge to go with meter size. Meaning households with a 5/8th meter would get the lower fixed rate while commercial and industrial meters of four inches would get a higher rate, Erickson reported.

The committee is also looking into adjusting the per 1000-gallon water rate as well as phasing rate adjustments or using a cost of living adjustment. For example, with every cost of living adjustment of five percent, the rates would be adjusted $.05 per 1000 gallons rather than yearly adjustment.

Noting that the discussions were still in preliminary stages, Erickson added that new state-level led and copper rules may also be a factor that could require an extra charge to aid the village in compliance.

“This is not a cheap fix. The amount of testing that needs to be done, the amount of work that needs to be done, it puts a lot on local (municipalities),” he explained.