Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette From left, Calumet Village Manager Megan Haselden, Hancock City Manager Mary Babcock and Houghton City Manager Eric Waara talk during Wednesday’s Wake Up Keweenaw breakfast.

HOUGHTON — The managers for Calumet, Houghton and Hancock provided updates on progress in their cities and village at Wednesday’s Keweenaw Alliance Breakfast.

Calumet Village Manager Megan Haselden, Hancock City Manager Mary Babcock and Houghton City Manager Eric Waara each gave brief presentations and took questions from the crowd.

With Hancock, residents were curious about the sale of Finlandia University properties.

Representatives from the Finlandia Foundation, a Pasadena, California-based non-profit aiming to preserve Finnish-American culture, will visit Hancock next week to look at properties, Babcock said. After the university announced it would be closing, the foundation announced it would attempt to save some key sites and resources.  

“They have made some offers on the bookstore, the (Finnish American) Heritage Center and Old Main, and they’re going to work with the receiver to see what they’re really interested in, and I think those include the archives (at the center),” Babcock said. 

The court-appointed receiver, O’Keefe & Associates, is still preparing spec sheets on the properties, Babcock said. In response to an audience member interested in buying properties, Babcock said she would pass along contact information for O’Keefe CEO Patrick O’Keefe. He has been easy to talk to, and the firm is looking for buyers to approach them, she said.

“The email I received last Friday was ‘Just make an offer,'” she said. “They will not be setting prices at this point.”

There will be online and in-person auctions for smaller personal property items, such as gym equipment, Babcock said. 

Babcock also highlighted the new employees to join the city over the past few months. In the police department, the city added Tami Sleeman as chief, and added a school resource officer position. A grant also funded academy training for two additional officers. 

The city also brought on Todd Gast as Downtown Development Authority coordinator and Dave Dow as code enforcement officer, where his previous referee experience will come in handy, Babcock said.

Grant projects totaling about $5 million will be done throughout the city between now and October. Those include a new electric vehicle charger being installed Wednesday, a $500,000 Drinking Water Asset Management grant to inspect service lines, and an $800,000 Federal Emergency Management Agency upgrade to Maasto Hiihto that will conclude the city repairs from the Father’s Day Flood. 

New and expanded businesses are opening in the city. The DDA’s new Jump Start program is being used by two new businesses, Elo and Nisu Bakery.

“It’s great to see some of the things we’ve worked on in the past come to fruition and be used,” Babcock said. 

Construction is also underway for the $7.6 million relocation and expansion of Keweenaw Co-Op and Deli, which is moving to Quincy Street. The city’s new business and technology park is also hoped to be finished by October.

Summer events will include an expanded Key Ingredients, where Quincy Street will be closed for three hours, followed by live music on the parking deck at 400 Quincy St.

For Houghton, Waara was asked where things stand with the city’s dispute with Walmart. The big-box retailer is seeking to lower its property tax valuation by 60%, retroactive to 2018. A Michigan Tax Tribunal hearing is scheduled to start June 5.

After the city started a campaign to publicize Walmart’s efforts, the company’s vice president for government relations reached out.

Based on those conversations, Houghton approached Walmart with a settlement offer that included concessions, Waara said. 

The city also has a suit against Walmart in federal court, alleging the tax reduction request reneged on the terms of a development agreement made when Walmart expanded the store in the 2000s. More movement is expected in that case this fall or winter, Waara said. 

Another frequent question — the fate of the proposed Meijer store on M-26 — is still up in the air, Waara said. Meijer had a site plan approved for the store prior to the pandemic. 

Meijer and other retailers are rethinking their business plans after COVID, Waara said. The original plan had only four pickup spots for online orders. 

Waara’s last contact with Meijer was about a month and a half ago, he said.

“Nothing imminent, but it’s not off the table,” he said. 

Regarding cruise ships, the city will have two visits from the American Queen Ocean Navigator, which also stopped twice in Houghton last summer. Viking will not make a return trip this year, as its itinerary is skipping the United States aside from Mackinac Island. 

The city’s new pier is capable of docking ships up to 400 feet, which could create opportunities on short notice, Waara said. 

“They might call you on Thursday and say, ‘Hey, we’d like to stop in town on Saturday, since we’re in the neighborhood,'” he said. 

Construction season is about to begin. The final phase of the College Avenue will start Monday around Franklin Square. It will last about five weeks, Waara said. 

Construction has also started on the new KFC, while a new Dunkin’ Donuts at the former Hardee’s site is planned for this summer. 

Like Hancock, Houghton is partnering with the schools to add a full-time school resource officer. Two more officers are also going to the academy. 

The Lakeshore Drive parking deck will be coming down this spring. That project is being scaled back after initial bids came in more than $1 million over the $2.5 million budget. 

Walkability improvements will transform the area where the parking deck connected to the deck between the Print Shop and Joey’s will become a pedestrian plaza that connects Lakeshore to Shelden Avenue. 

The Lakeshore Drive project, which includes demolition of the deck and restoration and landscaping of the site, was designed with some “sprinkles on the cupcake” that could be reduced if necessary, Waara said.

Right now, the city is adjusting the scope to reduce costs and looking at cash balances within the funds that could be transferred.

“We’re going to redevelop that corridor pretty much from the Suomi restaurant to Surplus Outlet,” he said. “That street corridor down there is actually going to be a city street instead of a dark, pigeon-infested alley,” he said. 

Haselden, the newest of the three managers, started with Calumet in February. 

Calumet has been working towards revitalizing and stabilizing old buildings and redeveloping the community.

Last week, the village hosted a town hall where five local investors gave presentations on projects, including an ice cream shop and boutique hotel. 

One of the key areas for redevelopment is the 100 block of Fifth Street, where several buildings were destroyed by a fire in 2021. The village held a meeting Monday to get ideas for what kind of buildings the community wanted to see there. The village is taking input until April 30 at its website, villageofcalumet.com. 

Some great ideas came out of the meeting, Haselden said, including broadening the downtown retail district to include Fourth and Portland streets. 

“If that were to occur, and if other businesses fell in line and started opening up, where Fourth Street wasn’t just the back of a building with Agassiz Park right there, but maybe it’s going to have retail spaces, and maybe it’ll have offices, and maybe residential housing above … you can imagine if all of these things occur, Calumet is going to look like a wildly different place in the next three to five years,” Haselden said. 

In another development, the village obtained a grant to create a park area between Fifth and Sixth streets on the area near the village hall, where the village’s farmer’s market has historically been held. 

Haselden is working with the village’s boards and council to make a more user-friendly roadmap for prospective business owners and investors, with information about guidelines for historic and commercial districts.

This is the first time every seat on a village board is filled, Haselden said.

“They’re filled with great people that really want to put in the work to make Calumet better, so I think that you guys are going to see a lot of exciting things coming out of the village the next few years,” she said.