Utica Council Approves Contracts With MDOT, Clinton River Watershed Council

The took the following actions at its meeting on Tuesday:

• Council members renewed the city’s contract for the Clinton River Watershed Council to provide public education programs about storm water and watershed quality and pollution. The city is one of 42 municipalities that contracts the watershed council to provide these education services, which are required under federal law.
  The city will pay $500. On its own, however, providing the programs would cost Utica in the tens of thousands of dollars, said Mayor Jacqueline Noonan.

• The city approved a contract with the Michigan Department of Transportation for a rebuild project on Northpointe Boulevard. The project is scheduled for this spring. The cost of the rebuild is projected at $629,600, with federal funds covering about 80 percent of that cost. The city’s share will be $114,300.
  “When I explained that we only meet once a month, (MDOT) did give us (a one-month) extension,” Noonan said. “When you have an 80/20 split, and the feds have 80 percent, it’s really in our best interest to take advantage of the program.”

• Additionally, the council OK’d the demolition of two uninhabitable houses at 45155 and 45177 Brownell St. The demolitions were recommended by the city’s Downtown Development Authority and planning commission.
• The city appointed Janice Haines as a member of the Parks and Recreation Commission. The mayor encouraged more residents to volunteer for the commission.
• The council named John Sattmann, owner of , to fill a vacancy on the 11-member Utica Downtown Development Authority board.
• City Library Director Marsha Doege also announced that the library will begin checking out a Kindle—an electronic reading device—to Utica residents beginning Oct 1. The Kindle can hold up to 2,000 books at once, Doege said, “so it really is like carrying a little library around with you.” Library patrons will be able to place holds on the Kindle.
  "One of the true benefits of it is you can increase the type size,” she added. “If you don’t want it larger, you can make it smaller. It also is very lightweight.”