Corey Davis of the Chelsea Water Department had some exciting and fun news for the Chelsea City Council at its meeting on March 20 – Chelsea’s drinking water was selected as the best tasting water in the state.
The city will receive a plaque at an upcoming water conference.
Also at the meeting, Sam Angus and George Merkel were unanimously reappointed to the Chelsea Parks and Recreation Commission by the Chelsea City Council on March 20.
Both terms run through March 31, 2026.
With spring in the air, the Wednesday Farmers Market location in the Chelsea State Bank parking lot at 1010 S. Main St. was adopted by resolution for another year. This market will take place each Wednesday from 1-5 p.m. from May 3-Oct. 25. The Saturday market will continue to take place in Palmer Commons each Saturday from May 6-Oct. 28 from 8 a.m.-1 p.m.
The City Council held a discussion about instituting a pilot program to pick up small amounts of compostable items during its monthly brush pickup operations starting next month.
Although more details will be issued by the city, the pilot program is scheduled to take place one time per month from April through November. Grass clippings, weeds, plants, and yard rakings (no sod and dirt) will be accepted and picked up by city staff if they are placed in brown compostable bags (available at hardware stores) at the curb.
Loads will be monitored for trash, construction materials and other contaminants.
The compostable materials will be transported to a licensed facility to ease the current permit capacity issues at the transfer station.
In addition, composting is available to city residents at the Solid Waste Department at the transfer station for leaves, weeds, plants, yard rakings and grass clippings at no charge. Non-residents will pay $1 per bag.
The Hayes Street water main replacement project is scheduled to be completed mid-week and the City Council approved a payment of the remaining balance of about $252,600 to HardRock HDD, who did the work. The total budget for the project was $500,000 and a previous payment of about $37,000 was already made.
During staff reports, City Manager Roy Atkinson revealed that Chelsea received a designation as a Pure Michigan Trail Town and will be recognized for this award next month.
In addition, he said, a new finance director has been hired and will begin on April 3.
