WHITEHALL — The Whitehall city council voted 6-1 to restore new bathrooms and the performance stage's shade sail to the West Colby Promenade project during Tuesday's regular meeting.
Scott Brown dissented on both votes, saying he's not in favor of the project in general and wouldn't approve any additions to it. The council last month removed the two items from the project for cost-savings reasons but reconsidered after discussing it during the preceding work session.
The bathrooms were a topic of discussion during the work session, and the approving council members agreed the bathrooms' restoration made sense because the city's Department of Public Works felt the bathrooms were an important part of the project during its early stages of development, and because the original idea to redirect the money for those bathrooms to revamping the current ones at Goodrich Park was complicated by finding out that work would cost as much as the new bathrooms anyway.
The council unanimously approved a lot split at 1300 Delaney Drive, the first step, according to city manager Dan Tavernier, in selling a 28-acre parcel to Erickson's, a Muskegon engineering company, for the purpose of building a warehouse.
The city sold six acres of a 10-acre parcel to the White Lake Fire Authority for $1 some years back so the WLFA could build its fire station on Delaney, but for reasons Tavernier has been unable to uncover, the 10-acre parcel was combined again sometime in 2022 and is technically under the WLFA's ownership. The lot split will return the four acres originally intended for city use back to the city; those four acres are part of the 28 acres set to be sold to Erickson's, which Tavernier said will net the city about $140,000.
Two personnel changes were announced at the meeting as well. As the council discussed at previous meetings, DPW director Brian Armstrong is retiring this week, to be replaced by DPW foreman Don Bond. The council thanked Armstrong for his service to the city. In addition, deputy treasurer Brook Schiller, Tavernier said, has accepted a new position in Fruitport. Her duties will for the time being be consolidated within existing employees' responsibilities.
The council revisited a discussion broached by council member Jeff Holmstrom in October regarding the possibility of the city using the old Whitehall United Methodist Church Praise Center. He hoped to install a committee to consider the issue, though there has not to date been movement on the idea. Brown suggested the city use Tax Increment Finance Authority funds to purchase the building if possible.
Council member Tanya Cabala discussed her concerns with PFAS (microplastics), a topic for which she's been leading a task force with Dr. Rick Rediske, a professor emeritus at Grand Valley State University. The task force is developing a pilot project to provide screening test kits for free to homeowners not within state-defined areas at risk for PFAS (those not within those areas currently have to pay for such kits). She said conducting more tests would give the state more information on whether PFAS is spreading.
