The city of Hillsdale is on its way to becoming a “Redevelopment Ready Community” — a city equipped for economic growth and competition — after the Hillsdale City Council decided Monday to begin the redevelopment program soon. It also gave Mar-Vo Mineral CEO David Wheeler the go-ahead to apply for a $78,750 federal grant to renovate the F.W. Stocks & Sons Mill.
“We want all our cities to be certified,” RRC planner Joe Meyers told the council.
The program will assist Hillsdale as it develops a plan to improve the city environment for businesses and residents. According to Meyers, Hillsdale has to work on updating its Master Plan, inviting public participation, clarifying city job descriptions, and setting basic goals and objectives for economic development.
“All of these are definitely achievable,” Meyers said. “The city still needs to set expectations for commissions and boards to help them know what they’re getting into … You guys do a great job at training city employees, but the Department of Economic Development is lacking goals and objectives. City council needs to set some measurable goals.”
After listening to details for Mar-Vo Mineral’s renovation of the Stocks Mill in downtown Hillsdale, the council gave acting City Manager Doug Terry approval to sign the Michigan Economic Development Corporation letter of intent to provide a federal grant to the company, which will reduce the reconstruction costs of the old factory and silo buildings.
“This is something Hillsdale needs really badly,” Mayor Scott Sessions said.
As soon as Mar-Vo Mineral receives the grant, Wheeler will purchase the mill from Dr. Jeffrey Horton and begin phase one of renovations on the buildings.
“Dave is waiting to get in there,” Director of Economic Development Mary Wolfram said.
In other business, the council appointed Julie Beeker to assume the city treasurer position once treasurer Sue Arnold retires, per Terry’s recommendation.
“The administration recommended several weeks ago that we aggressively advertise the city treasurer position,” Terry said. “We received two qualified applicants and conducted interviews and have recommended Julie Beeker to fill the rest of Sue Arnold’s term.”
Beeker will train under Arnold through May.
The council also set the date to review the city of Hillsdale’s 2015-16 budget and the Board of Public Utilities’ 2015-16 budget at 7 p.m. on May 4.
The Borcks Outdoor Service from Hudson, Michigan, won the bid to conduct lawn maintenance in the city of Hillsdale. The council awarded Borcks Outdoor Service the contract at the meeting.
Councilperson Adam Stockford questioned why a local business was not chosen for the job.
“I’d rather keep the money in our county, if we could,” Stockford said.
Terry answered that Hillsdale is too big for a local business to manage.
“We’d have to have a staff, and if we hire our own staff, it would be very expensive for us,” Terry said. “Our city staff has so many other chores, it’s more practical to bid things out. It’s more effective in this case.”
The council also approved a $25,806 bid to purchase a 2016 Ford Police Interceptor Utility vehicle for the Hillsdale Police Department to replace a current vehicle that is broken.
Finally, Police Chief Scott Hephner awarded Life-Saving Awards to officers Shelby Rathbun and Ryan Tracy for saving the lives of two Hillsdale residents on Dec. 30 and Jan. 17.
“They are alive today because of their actions,” Hephner said.
