Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette The Copper Country Community Band plays a free concert at Houghton’s downtown pier Thursday. The pier, which the city debuted in 2022, is one of several recent developments the city plans to highlight in its presentation for the Michigan Municipal League Community Excellence Award.

HOUGHTON — Houghton could be in line for a statewide award.

The city made the cut for the final four contenders for the Michigan Municipal League Community Excellence Award, City Manager Eric Waara announced. The winner will be announced at the MML’s fall convention on Mackinac Island in September.

Each finalist will give a three- to four-minute presentation. They will then also market their cities at booths on the convention floor.

“We’ve been gathering some media internally, and then we’ll figure out how to compile a presentation because we have a really good story to tell about what the city has been able to accomplish in the last few years, especially on the waterfront,” Waara said.

Houghton is the only Upper Peninsula city on the list of finalists, which also includes Brighton, Grandville and Oak Park.

On a website for the award, the MML describes it as “an opportunity to highlight local success stories and best practices, and to share innovative community programs or projects on a statewide platform.”

It accepted submissions based on a concept of “building community wealth,” the MML said. The model factors in economic prosperity, sense of place, natural assets, cultural substance and residents’ safety, health, and well-being, among other criteria.

In other action Wednesday, the council:

• Heard from Police Chief John Donnelly the department had done a speed study of drivers on Shelden Avenue after receiving complaints about speeding drivers. Officers took two hours of radar readings between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. at different spots along Shelden. The findings: most cars were traveling below the 25-mph limit. The fastest car was going 34 mph: another two did 33, and four went 32.

“A lot of the cars were doing 20 miles an hour … Shelden Avenue was designed narrow,” Donnelly said. “The bricks that were put down, the bumpouts and all those things, it makes you feel downtown, and it makes people drive like they’re in a downtown area,” he said.

• Heard from Waara crews were finishing the replacement of three docks by Super 8 that had been damaged by spring ice. They also did repair work behind Dee Stadium on failures to the seawall.

• Approved the annexation of Lots 16 and 17 of Naumkeg Shores. The city has been a longtime owner of the property near the city’s RV Park; through its Geographic Information System, the state government found the two parcels had never been formally annexed into the city.

• Approved the appointment of Jim Fedie as city assessor. Former City Manager Scott MacInnes had been assessor of record, while Fedie had handled day-to-day assessing matters. MacInnes had indicated he would like to move further into retirement, Waara said. To accommodate the change, Fedie agreed to drop one of his smaller municipalities, which allowed him to stay under the total property value amount cap required by his assessor’s license.

• Added the replacement of Councilor Joan Suits on the Planning Commission as a future agenda item. Suits said at Wednesday’s council meeting she would like to step back from the Planning Commission role due to time constraints. She would be replaced by another council member.