HOUGHTON — Houghton’s parking deck committee set officers and meeting times at its first meeting Tuesday.

The initial members are Planning Commission members Tom Merz, Eric Waara, Mike Needham and Dan Liebau.

Merz, the chairperson of the Planning Commission, will hold the same title on the committee. Liebau was named vice-chairperson and Needham secretary. Needham and Liebau will share duties reporting to the full commission.

Meetings will be held at noon on the first and third Tuesday of the month. As with the master plan committee, the parking deck committee will hold off on appointing any citizen members to the committee until the city council decides whether it will approve funding for precharrette work.

The parking deck committee will next meet on April 6.

The committee was one of two formed by the Planning Commission last month. The other, which is updating two chapters of the city’s master plan, had its first meeting March 9.

Both committees are an outgrowth of the city council’s charge to the planning commission in January to review the history of the parking deck, the development history with Veridea’s proposal and recommendations on how to proceed with issues going forward such as maintenance of the aging deck.

The full article will appear in Thursday’s Daily Mining Gazette.