By KARA DECHALK
Contributing Writer
Monday’s city council meeting was held at the Ludington Center on Superior Street instead of in the council chambers on the second floor of city hall.
The reason for the move was discussed at the meeting in terms of a request for $120,000 to repair the elevator in the city hall building.
“The college was kind enough to allow us to utilize this space for free and we are grateful to them for that,” Interim City Manager Doug Terry said during the study session prior to the regular meeting. “Because our city hall council chambers are located on the second floor, we do have to accommodate according to the Americans with Disabilities act and that is why we’re meeting here at this location.”
The elevator has not been working properly for some time. Director of Public Works Jason Kern believes that the elevator was installed sometime in the 1970s with no major upgrades since then.
The control board has failed causing the door to get stuck partially open which in turn sets off an alarm. When this happens, the power needs to be turned off and back on again to get the alarms to stop and the elevator to start working again.
“They no longer make the board, nor does anyone have a board on hand to replace it to get the elevator back up and running,” said Kern.
Kern explained that the box itself, the rails, and the hydraulics that make it go up and down are in good shape. However, all the components on top of the elevator, the electronics and the hydraulic pumps, as well as the buttons and the display screens at each floor need to be replaced. The elevator is also not ADA compliant as it does not have Braille writing above all the buttons, etc.
“There’s also several codes that we’re not in compliance with currently, especially ADA codes because there’s no Braille,” Kern explained during the study session. ”There’s quite a bit of things that we’re not up to code on. In 2028 these codes are going to be absolutely mandatory so even if we didn’t do anything now, and the elevator was running, we would still have to redo all of this in 2028”.
Council also voted to approve several purchases and repairs to continue the maintenance and upgrades to the city’s vehicles. By unanimous vote council approved the purchase of a large dump/plow truck, three Ram 3500 pickup trucks to replace aging vehicles within the city’s fleet and repairs to the public works’ jet/vac truck. They also approved the purchase of a new pickup truck for use by the public services director so that the one he currently uses can go back to the Public Safety Department since it is outfitted with emergency lights and siren, a police radio and emergency equipment.
In reference to the city’s recent purchases, council member Jim Stuart pointed out that Director Kern has taken some time in explaining the need for each purchase.
“We have a lot of expenditures tonight and to a lot of people that’s going to seem like the city is spending money frivolously,” said Stuart. “…but your explanations were very good and I want to say thank you for explaining to us that a lot of this was budgeted. I also understand that we have some unexpected expenditures too. I want to say to the regular people that are listening in that this is not all just spending, this is stuff that’s been budgeted mostly and we’re putting it into practice.”
“The one thing that I want everyone to understand is that we have changed drastically how we are taking care of this stuff,” said Kern. “That’s what I want is the best resale value to put down on the next replacement. We have let our stuff go for so long, it has not been taken care of. We have little to no value in them and it’s not fair to our taxpayers and our fiduciary responsibilities. I want to take care of our stuff. I want us to have the best stuff out there at the cheapest price and take care of it to provide the best service possible for our citizens.”
In the city manager search, council has received eight applications. Terry suggested that council meet very soon to determine how to proceed. Stuart and council member Donivan Williams both voiced their satisfaction with the applicant pool. Council will try to set a special closed session meeting for next week to review the applicants and narrow the pool down to those they wish to interview.
In other actions, council approved the appointment of Stuart to the Recreation Advisory Commission, approved the changes to the City’s non-union benefits manual in regards to the new laws surrounding the Earned Sick Time Act and approved resolution 2025-04, which approves a congressional spending request for 2026 proposed projects.
The next meeting of the Albion City council will be held on Monday, March 17 at 7 p.m. The meetings will be held at the Ludington Center, 101 N. Superior St., Albion until further notice.
