April 23, 2010 FINANCE Excellence in Financial reporting continues.  The City has been notified that Julie Tetsworth will be receiving a plaque from the GFOA certifying that for the year ending June 30, 2009, Big Rapids will receive recognition for excellence in financial reporting. Congratulations to Julie and the finance staff for this important designation. BIDS FOR COMMUNITY HANGAR The drawings for the community hangar are complete in preliminary form. Eric Williams is working on...

    April 16, 2010 ROBEN HOOD AIRPORT The Community Hangar plans are nearing completion. A final review will take place next week with AeroMed and the power companies to complete` the drawings. The preliminary set of plans will be on hand at the Commission meeting on Monday. Eric Williams is putting together a template lease agreement, which we hope to finalize after the bidding when we will have actual data on the costs that need to be collected. We continue to be encouraged...

April 9, 2010 BUDGET Most of the week was spent reviewing the budget numbers.  It was a very humbling experience to express the major concern over the budget, which needed to be cut about $750,000 from the original requests submitted by the Departments, and to see employees at every level come forward with ideas for saving the City these significant funds.  Big Rapids is blessed to have caring employees, who understand the difficult economic times that we are experiencing.  The...

March 19, 2010 HEALTH CARE  It was an enormously fortunate decision to move the over 65 retirees off the City insurance plan.  These employees had Medicare as a primary carrier and the City coverage was secondary/supplementary in any case, so there was no real personal negativity to that decision.   However, health insurance in this volatile environment for the City coverage rose 49% this year.  The monthly premium for the umbrella coverage went up from $77.47 per...

February 26, 2010 AIRPORT  Much activity has taken place this week.  The Airport Advisory group met and discussed the various projects at the airport including the 18 Mile Road improvements, the Community Hangar and the AWOS landing system.  Support for the airport continues strong in the Community.  Mark you calendars for July 17,  the date of the summer Airfest this year.  Some lobbying with the FAA has resulted in tentative approval to apply some of the MDOT...

February 19, 2010 PRECINCT FOUR VOTING LOCATION  The schools have approached the Clerk stating they would like to remove the voting process from Eastwood School, due to the large number of students there.  They suggested opening Hillcrest up just for the voting process.  Once they discussed it further, they decided that they would not be able to turn the water back on at Hillcrest for the day, and therefore, have stated that Eastwood can be used for the May and August...

January 22, 2010 OPTOMETRY BUILDING Construction continues on schedule. This week the taps have been made to the City Utilities. Ferris reports that teaching in this building is expected one year from now. The construction of the East Campus apartments are a little ahead of schedule. A tour is planned for the next meeting of the City-Ferris Staff. The next big project at Ferris is the rebuilding of the Mechanical systems for the Star-Arts-Williams buildings. RIVER SAFETY PROJECT Gary...

January 8, 2010 CENSUS The City will be volunteering space for an employee of the Census Department at City Hall from mid-March to mid-April. We have purchased (thru a grant) some T-shirts and other advertising items to help with the Ferris Census. This employee should be valuable to the City and County as a resource for a proper census. COSTS As an item of interest related to the avigation easement costs, the City has incurred legal and engineering fees of $9,200 for survey, title and document...

December 11, 2009UNION NEGOTIATIONS The Supervisors Union at the Police Division is nearing completion. A fundamental ‘agreement’ has been reached on all non-financial issues, with language and positioning remaining to be finalized. Pay issues are also ready to receive Commission input. With the Supervisors unit coming together, we look forward to Police and Fire discussions slated for 2010. FUNDRAISING EVENTS With another successful luncheon for United Way, the City has...

November 20, 2009BRPOA Three very important topics were reviewed at the meeting.  First, Don Jones is attempting to raise several thousand dollars to purchase software and two laptops for the Inspection/Fire Division.  This program will record the internal rooms of structures, detail the access points for utilities, outline hazards on the site, and delineate parking, fire hydrants and other outside features.  It also connects with internet sites, which give firefighters...

NOVEMBER 3, 2009 ELECTIONS MAYOR – Vote for 1 Jared Crockett - 196Mark J. Warba - 479 COMMISSIONER – Vote for 2 Owen Bruce Everitt - 169Bob Hendrickson - 199Tom Hren - 97Lorraine James - 286Jim Nystrom - 145Dan A. Rothstein - 306 CHARTER REVISION COMMISSION – Vote for 9 Pamela Fleming - 322Thomas J. Hogenson - 438Robert Krueger - 366Luanne Rothstein - 374Mary Ryan - 344Alma M. Wortley - 322Ruth York - 273 CHARTER REVISION PROPOSAL Shall there be a general revision...

October 30, 2009 RETIREMENT  Bruce Everitt announced his retirement this week and will  be leaving November 5.  Jack Fraser will be serving as interim plant manager.  Don, Roberta and Steve had a long discussion with Jack concerning the operation of the plant, his abilities, and the plant’s ability to maintain success through the remainder of the construction process.  Jack is extremely upbeat about the plant, the processes, and personnel that will be guiding...

October 23, 2009 WATER BOND RATING  The City periodically is updated for bond ratings for the water system.  Its A3 rating has been confirmed.  This is pretty amazing considering the state of the economy and the challenges to public financing.  Four reasons were cited for this success: 1) “constant customer base remaining the same”, 2) “our intention to implement water rate increases”, 3) “Ferris being a constant customer, which assists in...

October 16, 2009 LIBRARY DONATION  Pat Schnaffer, a board member of the Friends of the Library, worked with Rosalinde Parsons to make the Friends a part of her estate.  When Rosalinde passed away recently, she remembered the library in her will, which resulted in a donation of $25,233.07 to the Friends.  It is the expectation that this donation will be added to the Fremont Foundation account and be used for library programs, books and other needs of the Community...

October 9, 2009 WWTP MASTER PLAN MEETING All the Wastewater Treatment Plant staff, Don Greiner, and Prein, and Newhof met to review the next round of needs at the plant after the present construction is complete.  There was some division over the timing (now or after the present construction in complete), but all confirm the need for continuous quality improvement.  Probably a revisited will be done at this time, to be reviewed after the construction is complete unless there are...

Launch in external player Click on video to play. Dr. Frederick Guenther showed up at the Mecosta County Commission meeting to give an update of the "affiliation agreement" between Spectrum Health and the Mecosta County Medical Center.  On May 14, 2009, The Grand Rapids News reported that "the agreement is...

September 25, 2009 CHAMBER FORUM The Chamber will be scheduling a candidate forum for City offices, October 7, 2009 at 6 p.m. at City Hall. DAVE CAMP  Dave Camp visited Big Rapids to tour Wolverine World Wide to see the consolidation efforts at the plant and celebrate this success in his district.  Wolverine announced that 125 jobs had been added in the past several months and another 150 would be added by the end of the year.  This was certainly confirmed by the overflowing...

Launch in external player Monday 21, 2009,  Full Video Of Mark Gifford's Big Rapids Facade Update.

September 11, 2009 MUNICIPAL ELECTION  LAST CALL FOR RESIDENTS INTERESTED IN SERVING AS A CITY MAYOR, COMMISSIONER OR A CHARTER REVIEW COMMISSION COMMITTEE MEMBER TO FILE THEIR PETITIONS, BY 4:00 P.M., ON SEPTEMBER 15, 2009 DAVID EISLER MEMORANDUM TO FACULTY AND STAFF  Attached is a memorandum to the faculty and staff of Ferris. While it is a thank you to those individuals, it is also a very interesting analysis of the present direction and demography of the Ferris institution. It...

  September 4, 2009   MUNICIPAL ELECTION   LAST CALL FOR COMMISSIONERS AND CHARTER REVISION CANDIDATES. SEPTEMBER 15 IS THE FINAL DAY TO SUBMIT PETITIONS FOR OFFICE! 　 HOLIDAY   Be sure to participate in all the events of the holiday weekend. There is the festival, music, ball games, antique gatherings…and really good food!! The Public Safety Department personnel will be doing demonstrations for family day Saturday at the park, (seatbelt use, Officer Jesse...

August 28, 2009 REMINDER TO ALL…PETITIONS FOR CITY COMMISSION AND THE CHARTER REVISION COMMISSION ARE DUE SEPTEMBER 15.  PLEASE RECRUIT FOLKS OR WHATEVER IS NECESSARY TO HAVE AT LEAST 9 INDIVIDUALS FOR CHARTER REVISION COMMISSION.  THIS SEEMS TO BE AN ‘UNKNOWN’ OPPORTUNITY AT PRESENT!!! BOOK SALE  Friends of the Library have been working for more than a month to sort books and get ready for the annual book sale next week.  The sale begins next...