Belleville Council approves Puerto Rico relief event on Nov. 4

Belleville resident Carlos Velez got permission from the Belleville City Council for his church to hold a special event from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 4, at the Fourth Street Square to gather donations to send for relief efforts in Puerto Rico.
At Monday’s regular meeting, Velez said they will put up a tent and have prayers and singing and gather non-perishable foods to send to Puerto Rico, where the need is great in the weeks following the hurricane.
Velez said they already have a donation of 40 cases of corn muffin mixes.
The event, “Belleville Cares/Relief for Puerto Rico,” is sponsored by Merriman Road Baptist Church. Velez said they are reaching out to other churches to help.
Another church may be able to assist in the transport of the items donated to the island in the Carribean, he said.
Velez was told by City Manager Diana Kollmeyer that she thought it would be all right for volunteers to pass out flyers during the Oct. 28 Zombie 5K Run-Walk to publicize the Puerto Rico relief event.
In other business at the 10-minute meeting on Monday, the council:
• Approved accounts payable of $88,200.02 and the following expenditures in excess of $500: to Town Web, $5,058 for new website; to Digital Ally, $2,615 for an in-car video camera for police; to McDowell & Assoc., $1,500 for seawall repair design; to Lonnie’s Auto Repair, $845.58 for repairs on police vehicle; to Fidlar Technologies, Inc., $692.49 for police citation ticket books; and to JW2 Fire Consultants, $750 for half payment for grant writing, with fire auxiliary paying the other half;
• Heard Councilman Tom Fielder report on the Substance Abuse Task Force meeting he attended. He said hospitalization for opioid drug overdoses is going down in Southeastern Michigan because more overdose victims are dying at the scene; and
• Heard Kollmeyer thank the police reserve unit for being at the Harvest Fest on Saturday to help people cross safely at the crosswalk. There was a farmers’ market on the Fourth Street Square and more events across busy Main Street at the museum and library and on Fourth Street, which was blocked off.
Absent from the meeting were Mayor Kerreen Conley and Councilman Jesse Marcotte.