WHITEHALL — The Whitehall city council authorized the $286,000 purchase of a new leaf truck at its Tuesday, Nov. 25 meeting, with hopes that the new truck will not be in the repair shop as often as the three the city currently uses. The truck was set to be available for use one week after its purchase.
In 2024, the city purchased two used leaf trucks and teamed with North Muskegon on another. Two of those trucks are 1987 model years and one is a 1997, city manager Dan Tavernier said, and they "keep breaking." In fact, one of them currently has a hole in the engine. Tavernier said he felt putting more money into these trucks would not be the best idea, and the popularity of the city's leaf pickup program means that service isn't going anywhere any time soon. Additionally, he said he looked into how much renting vehicles like that would cost and found it would be in the neighborhood of $150 per hour, which would be far more expensive, given its usage rates, than purchasing one.
Don Bond of the Whitehall Department of Public Works said that North Muskegon is having similar issues to those Whitehall is having with their trucks and that purchasing a newer one will set the city up to get at least a couple of years of use without non-routine maintenance being necessary. Tavernier joked that Bond is a mechanic and if the truck needs maintenance, he plans on utilizing that skill set whenever necessary.
The council also gave unanimous approval to an ordinance change suggested by Whitehall police chief Brandon Mahoney that will create a new Municipal Ordinance Violation Bureau, which will change payment locations for traffic tickets to the city's police department rather than the circuit court. He viewed the change, which will take effect Jan. 1, as a win/win for the city and for drivers, as the city will now take in more money from citations issued while drivers also pay less. Additionally, by the removal of the court system from the process, drivers would not be charged points on their record for insurance purposes.
Mahoney said he got the idea from a recent chiefs' meeting in which Roosevelt Park chief Shawn Bride shared what he felt was a successful implementation of an MOVB in his city.
As an example, Mahoney cited a $140 citation for running a stop sign under the current system, of which the city receives $46.20, with the county taking the rest. The new fee schedule will charge drivers $80 for the same infraction, with the city's general fund receiving all of it. Officers still could refer citations to the court system in the case of repeated infractions, he added, and if a driver elected to contest a citation, they could still do so through the courts. Staff recommendations will be considered regarding the fee schedule in the future.
The council also continued its recent discussions about the planned West Colby Promenade and Goodrich Park, mostly about the latter's bathrooms, though no specific decisions were made. The original promenade plans called for additional bathrooms to be constructed, but the council voted Nov. 11 to remove those from the plan for cost reasons. However, all seemed eager to address the current Goodrich bathrooms, which mayor Tom Ziemer said were "creepy" due to their messy current state and the lack of lighting. Replacing the bathrooms, Tavernier said, would cost over $200,000, though that didn't deter council member Scott Brown from recommending the bathrooms be gutted and rebuilt as unisex facilities, a suggestion to which Tanya Cabala shared her agreement.
The promenade's stage was also addressed following the Nov. 11 removal of a "shade sail" from the project's plans. Bryan Mahan said he'd still like to see some sort of shade made available for the stage, and Tavernier replied that he's in the process of obtaining cost estimates on those items and would report back.
The lone public comment came from Pitkin owner Ryan Briegel, who shared his concerns about the state of the Lake Street road and asked the council to consider addressing it in the next fiscal year's budget.
