The Chelsea City Council will meet at 7 p.m. tonight and discuss a number of action items including a mayor exchange with Frankenmuth, which would send a delegation of folks from Chelsea north to Frankenmuth and a group of Frankenmuth officials to Chelsea.
The City of Frankenmuth as most of you know, is a very popular visitor destination. But, did you also know that the city has a cooperative agreement with its neighboring township, Frankenmuth Township, which has led to urban growth limits? The plan “created growth boundaries and defined 15 prioritized residential development districts and two commercial development districts to guide growth for the next 40 years.”
According to the Urban Growth Bulletin, the city and township have a successful joint growth boundary program and the result “revolves around three issues.”
1. The people in the city and the township supported the project.
2. Both municipalities compromised.
3. There was an attitude of cooperation between the residents and the municipalities.
The City Council will also discuss a series of budget amendments to the 2014-15 city budget across a number of funds, set a date for a general fund budget work session, which is tentatively planned for April 20 from 6-7 p.m. before the regular City Council meeting.
Also on the agenda is a request by the Chelsea Area Historical Society (CAHS) for the city to become its fiduciary as the 40-year-old group applies for a $25,000 grant from the Chelsea Community Foundation. CAHS, which recently purchased a home across from The Depot for a museum and headquarters.
The CAHS would like to get going on the first phase of having a “professionally designed exhibit fabrication and interpretation of the Chelsea Area’s early inhabitants, founding and growth,” according to the request.
In addition, the 60-member group would like to add signs both inside and outside its new home with the grant funding.
Eventually, the group would like to establish two rooms with permanent, professional-quality exhibits, a room for revolving exhibits, a resource/research room for the community to look over the society’s archives, another room set during a historical period to education visitors and second-grade students about an era in American history and establish society offices.
The City Council is also expected to discuss a revised timeline for the city’s economic development discussions and plan as well as a request to apply for a $10,000 grant from Washtenaw County for a retail market analysis.
According to the agenda item, the cost of the professionally done analysis by consultant Gibbs Planning Group, would be $18,500 and the bill would be split evenly by the city and the Downtown Development Authority.
Following the action items, a number of staff reports are also expected including one by the city manager and two by Police Chief Ed Toth, who will present both the December monthly police report and the yearly crime totals.
The City Council meets in the council chambers in the new municipal building beginning at 7 p.m.
To me the main agenda item to be addressed here is the credit hack specific to the city of Chelsea and its residents. No… it’s not widespread.
What’s being done to address the problem?