City Council sets special meeting to interview council candidates

The Belleville City Council will meet in special session at 5:45 p.m. Monday, Dec. 12, to interview the six people who have applied for the vacant city council position.
Mayor Kerreen Conley, at the Nov. 7 regular meeting, said the interviews are set for 20 minutes each and they hope to seat the new council person at the next meeting on Dec. 19.
Council members said they were happy to see that six people were stepping forward, when they had trouble getting two people to run for the last council election.
The new council person will fill the vacant seat of Amy Henry through her term, which ends Dec. 31, 2025. Henry has resigned.
At Monday’s meeting, the council also approved the mayor’s appointment of Ivan Ankwatsa to the Downtown Development Authority with a term to expire Dec. 31, 2022.
Mayor Conley said this was a good opportunity to have a DDA member from the new development at the bridge to get a new point of view. Ankwatsa is owner of Pryde Athletics and Physical Therapy. He said he started in Belleville nine years ago and had two different locations. He said he is a former college coach and he is glad to be back in Belleville.
He fills the vacancy left by Jim Chudzinski, who resigned.
In other business at Monday’s 26-minute meeting, the council:
• Approved accounts payable of $146,470.79 and the following departmental purchases in excess of $500: to B&R Janitorial, $630.84 for DDA maintenance supplies, DPW; to Barry’s HVAC Service, $11,906 for installation of heating/cooling in the fire hall; to Dominion Voting, $2,115 for the yearly warranty on tabulators, Clerk; to EGLE, $1,521.96, for water supply annual fee, DPW; to MI Cat, $597.69, for repair of backhoe, DPW; to Priority One Emergency, $1,020 for 300 shoulder patches for police officers (they ran out); to Robbie DeYoung, $3,558.82, instructor fee for MFR class, Fire Dept.; to Snider Electric, $1,394, to fix electricity in DPW barn; to Western Wayne County FD Mutual Aid Association, $3,638.56, annual dues; and to Western Wayne County FD Mutual Aid Association, $5,000, TRT Team Assessment, Fire Dept. (Fire Chief Brian Loranger said they don’t have someone on the team now, but will be able to have one shortly.);
• Heard DPW Director Rick Rutherford report that Phase I is completed and there is power to the existing cabinet on Fourth Street Place and now they are waiting for estimates from those who do the underground boring. It is a DDA project, he said. Mayor Conley said they would like it to be done by Winter Fest. Rutherford said there are not a lot of boring contractors;
• Heard Councilwoman Kelly Bates note that the brick has arrived for the side of the police department and Rutherford said the contractor over the whole project wouldn’t set a completion date for the brick until after it arrived. Rutherford estimated in would be done in from one to two-and-a-half weeks. He noted there are nice locks on all the park restrooms now for privacy;
• Heard Tom Fielder and Bill Wolters of the Central Business Community suggest a festival of holiday trees outside since they can’t be put up inside the museum. Fielder said it was Bob Stoner’s idea and they were asking the council for permission to put up trees outside on city property somewhere. The CBC would purchase the trees and put them on stands so they stay upright, Fielder said, and then invite people to decorate them. Mayor Conley said it is done in Plymouth and they are lit. “Some know how to do it,” she said. Fielder said the proposal will be taken to the CBC for next week’s meeting. Councilwoman Bates said if they were lit it would add more to her vision of Belleville as a “Hallmark Movie Town.” Mayor Conley asked councilmembers informally what they thought of this and then announced, “It’s OK with us”;
• Heard City Manager/Police Chief Dave Robinson announce the Wayne County Commission approved ARPA funding of $176,000 for upgrading Victory Station. He said he went to both the long Committee of the Whole meeting of Nov. 1 and the commission meeting on Nov. 3 to follow the item through the process. Mayor Conley thanked Robinson and County Commissioner Al Haidous for their work on the grant;
• Heard Councilman Steve Jones announce that the last home game of the season was at 1 p.m. Saturday for the Belleville High School football team as it progresses through the finals unbeaten. He also said the Belleville Fire Department was bringing the “Big Man” to town this year in the Winter Fest parade;
• Heard Councilman Ken Voigt report that COVID caught up with him and that’s why he missed the last council meeting. He welcomed Ankwatsa to the DDA and he said he was happy to have so many apply for the council seat;
• Heard Rutherford announce that the DPW would be taking down the scarecrows by the end of the week and anyone who had personal items on a scarecrow could come to the DPW yard after that to get their things between the hours of 8 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.; and
• Heard Fielder say that at last Friday’s game at BHS there were more people than they’ve ever had and the police kept order. Before the meeting Fire Chief Loranger said that his department had been called to the field at the end of the game when the BHS quarterback lost consciousness.