Muskegon Heights City Council Meeting April 27th
By: Emily Guiles
Muskegon Heights city council meeting started out with the public hearing for the submission of the proposed 41st fiscal year annual consolidated action plan to the US department of housing and urban development (HUD), about which, the Grant Administrator for the city planning department, Carol Cook had to say she was satisfied with all regulations and funds received.
Another subject addressed was the recommendation by the Interim City Manager for the council to approve the sale of 3450 Hoyt Street (Holiday Inn) to Sam Shah, LLC. The amount of purchase would be 30 thousand dollars. The buyers are anxious for Mayor Paige to sign off on the agreement. However councilwoman McGlothin was concerned that the city would be giving then several dumpsters they would be using, after the city had already given them a dumpster for glass clean up.
Mayor Paige also added that the group who would be buying and renovating the property had already completed a successful project in Muskegon Heights, but did not specify where. Paige also stated that this project would take a building which would otherwise be an eyesore and turn it around for the betterment of the city. Overall the it was agreed to go through with the purchase.
Councilman Jenkins also took this time to say thank you to those who participated in the Stop The Violence Picnic, Jenkins says, “It’s good that we are trying to change the image and perception of the Heights,”.
Councilman McDonald them countered by stating he, “want(s) to see the city do more…”.
This years Festival in the Park will be June 18th through the 20th. They will only be selling two day passes to the event and are trying something new by honoring the small people in the community by giving out plaques on Friday at the Senior Picnic.
After community and council members had said their piece state representative Marsha Hovey-Wright chose to take some time to present a proposal to be voted on later. The proposal is regarding the road conditions in Michigan.
Hovey-Wright’s proposal was to get rid of the six percent sales tax on gas and change the 19 cent tax on regular gas to a percentage of the whole sale. This would hopefully produce approximately 1.2 million for the state. Out of the 1.2 million the state hopes to gain from this proposal 21 percent would be given to cities.
Normally 70 percent of sales tax goes to schools and 30 percent goes to the city, this proposal wants cut funding for the schools in order to give more back to the city in order to help with the roads. However it was not specified whether or not charter schools such as those in Muskegon Heights would be benefitted or effected by this change.
The raise in taxes would also go towards restoring the income tax credit. However this would only benefit those who get income tax credit. Those who do not get income tax credit would not get anything in return.
Regarding this proposal councilman Jenkins stated that he was more concerned with the pipelines and infrastructure than the road conditions.
Councilwoman McGlothin also had some concerns regarding the 21 percent that would come to cities from the expected 2.1 million, McGlothin brought up the fact that based on populationthe amount that the city would receive back to fix the roads would not help much.
The last announcement of the meeting came from the Chief of Police, who wanted to encourage everyone to attend their event on May 30th. He expressed his excitement that thanks to a grant from the Community Foundation the police department was able to have a petting zoo for the children this year.