City Council ponders using goats for Horizon Park shoreline

“I don’t want to be fishing goats out of the lake,” said Belleville City Manager / Police Chief Dave Robinson as his first response to Councilman Ken Voigt’s idea to look at goats to clean up the shoreline at Horizon Park.
Then, he agreed to reach out to the city of Ann Arbor, where goats are being used to trim parks, and to talk to the Downtown Development Authority and find out when the shoreline has last been trimmed and who’s responsible. If it’s in a contract with the DDA, he wants to look at it.
Councilman Voigt began his remarks at the beginning of the July 6 city council meeting, saying he would like to address the condition of Horizon Park.
He said the park is in really abysmal condition and during the recent Belleville Lake Fest, “I felt like I spent half my time apologizing for it… It’s in pretty bad condition… If you pulled up in a boat, it looks like the park is abandoned…”
Councilman Voigt said Randy Brown suggested using goats to clean up the shore. Ann Arbor does that, he said, and it would be less expensive than having to pay a crew. He asked the administration to look into this immediately and to determine who pays, the city or the DDA.
Voigt said Brown has one vendor and Voigt found one in Coldwater.
DPW Director Rick Rutherford said the last time the city got the steep shoreline trimmed, the vendor said he’s never doing it again. Director Rutherford said he loves the goat concept.
He said when you go over the 655 lake contour line it’s almost straight down. Last time he inquired the cost was quoted as $5,000, so if they go out for costs they will need sealed bids.
Councilman Tom Fielder said the city partnered with Van Buren Township on trimming at one time but he doesn’t know who paid.
Mayor Kerreen Conley said the DDA paid for it. She said besides getting a quote she would like to find out what kind of liability they have if they lose the goats. She said the DDA’s lawn-cutting vendor was supposed to be out there on Wednesday.
City Manager Robinson said they were out on Monday before the festival and said they will make an effort to cut the parks on Wednesdays. He said he talked with the vendor about the weed-whipping they are missing. He said a lawn can be perfectly short and without weed whipping it looks bad.
“I will be very interested tomorrow to see if it’s done right,” he said. “If it doesn’t get cut Wednesday, we’ll go down Thursday and cut it.”
He said the DDA is looking at its contract for grass-cutting and, “I don’t want to get their contractor mad at us … I’ll be interested to see their contract.”
“We’ll cross our fingers and hope,” Mayor Conley said.
In other business at the one-hour-and-42-minute July 6 meeting, the council:
• Heard City Manager Robinson announce that Clerk Verna Chapman had tendered her letter of resignation effective July 7 and “is no longer with us.” The council unanimously approved removing Chapman’s name from the list of official check signatories for city bank accounts and replacing it with the name of Deputy Administrator Tim McLean. Other current signatories are Mayor Conley and Councilman Tom Fielder;
• Discussed returning to in-person meetings, an item put on the agenda by Councilman Tom Fielder. Mayor Conley said before making such a change they have to let the people know in advance and they have to get things in place. This can be discussed and a decision made at the next meeting or the one after that, she said, and no motion was necessary now. Councilwoman Kelly Bates spoke strongly against in-person meetings, saying the Delta variant is heading their way and not everyone is vaccinated and the council has the option to be on zoom until the end of the year. Other council members said they don’t want to rush into anything, but agreed that it’s easier to build relationships with people in person. A hybrid procedure was discussed with some attending virtually;
• Approved accounts payable in the amount of $214,835.59 and the following departmental purchases in excess of $500: to Adica Fleet Services, $2,190.17 for sweeper repair; to Atchinson Ford, $519.04 to replace the fan assembly in police car #218; to Belle Tire, $866 to replace tire in police car #218 (vehicle 218 had two nails in one of the tires that required full replacement of the tire); to Huron River Watershed, $750 for storm water permit; to Livonia P.D., $1,500 as budgeted for membership in Western Wayne County Mobile Field Force Team (crowd control team for potential protests or demonstrations); to Osborne Concrete, $750 for cemetery footings; and to Tri-County Water & Sewer, $877 to repair bathrooms at Horizon, Village, and Victory parks;
• Heard Fire Chief Brian Loranger say the July 3 fireworks on the lake put on by the BYC were a great success and there were lots of boats on the lake watching it;
• Heard Robinson report that the “rather abrupt resignation” of the clerk puts a strain on administration, but police records clerk Briana Hootman will fill in and get the minutes to the council. Hootman also was filling in after the resignation of Carol Thompson from the DDA;
• Heard Robinson report that the clock is ticking for any charter amendment to be put on this year’s ballot;
• Heard Councilman Voigt report Lake Fest was an awesome event with a great turnout. It was a great hometown event and he has heard nothing but good comments about it, he said;
• Heard Councilwoman Bates say she has always said Belleville is like a Hallmark movie. Everyone cares about this town and wants to do the best for it and there’s beginning to be a buzz about the city. She said the free concerts in the park have people dancing in the street. “Hold onto your hat. Good things are happening in Belleville,” she said;
• Heard Councilman Fielder say during Lake Fest people were in the Kids Zone at Third and Main carrying BORA cups with alcoholic drinks in them. Fielder also complained that he tried to get through to DPW Director Rutherford on the phone and couldn’t. He said the city needs to reprogram its telephone prompts again because it causes frustration for people; and
• Heard Mayor Conley say the city team came in third in the dragon boat race and, “I think we were great.” She said new Deputy Administrator McLean joined the city’s dragon boat team and they should see about getting a dragon boat once a month to practice on. She said the city couldn’t have asked for a better event than the Lake Fest and it was really well done. She said the DORA cups are popular on Thursdays for Music Lakeside. She said she saw the best use of the Fourth Street Square during the festival. Mayor Conley said the electrical installed at Horizon Park was just a box and she thought it would be on a light post. She said it looks terrible, like an afterthought, and someone should paint it.