HOUGHTON — Houghton will get a new wheel loader.

At Wednesday’s meeting, the City Council approved the purchase of a Case 721G wheel loader for $255,000. The money will come from the city’s equipment fund.

If the city receives a Rural Development grant, it will be reimbursed $124,300. It held a public hearing on the grant application at the start of Wednesday’s meeting.

“We were looking at doing one this year anyway, so this is really kind of serendipitous,” said City Manager Eric Waara.

Houghton purchased it through Miller Bradford under the MI Deal Contract, which enables municipalities to pay lower prices.

“We need another loader because we do use them really diligently all winter and all summer,” Waara said.

In other action, the council:

• Heard from Police Chief John Donnelly the police department’s accreditation request was forwarded on to the next step after a team from the State Association of Police Chiefs visited the department last week. They would receive the final accreditation award at the SAPC fall conference.

Donnelly said the team was happy with how the department is integrated with the community. They pointed out some issues that needed to be improved, such as recordkeeping and ways Donnelly can ensure the department is in compliance with policies.

Public comment from a two-hour call-in period was mostly positive, Donnelly said.

Donnelly also thanked officer Jeremy Tormala, who led the investigation into the killing of Caleb Lynum at Arbor Green last September. Luke Kreider was sentenced to 15 to 45 years in prison earlier this week.

“The whole department responded and chipped in, but for a rookie officer to take that on and stay on it, it’s really unbelievable how well he did,” Donnelly said.

• Heard from Waara the city has worked with Up and Running to set up a public wifi network at the downtown pier area. The network is named Houghton Pier.

• Heard from Waara all of the new signage has been ordered for parking downtown, including parking lot signage, wayfinding and two-hour parking for Shelden Avenue. Fifty-six parking spots opened this week on Lakeshore Drive between Huron Street and the Swift warehouse building.

• Thanked Mary Kamisnki for organizing the Verna Mize Triathlon. Forty-eight people competed on Saturday for the third annual triathlon, including the first para-athlete, Kaminski said.

• Named Waara as the official representative for the City of Houghton to cast the city’s vote of the city at the upcoming Michigan Municipal League conference. Councilor Craig Waddell was named alternate.

• Approved paying $9,313.50 in invoices to Michigan Department of Transportation and U.P. Engineers & Architects for work on phase 3 of water system improvements, and $3,972.30 to MDOT and UPEA for phase 3 of sewer system improvements. Both are drawdowns from Rural Development loans.

Went into closed session to discuss the purchase of real property. No action was taken when the council returned.